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Originally posted by Mordsith:
I actually don't mind the missing comments. Yeah there was some shiny feedback by some people to lazy to log on *cough*maantreandreenie*cough*. But I think it will keep flaming down, which is shiny too. A lot of people abused being able to log off and comment.

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Originally posted by Leiasky:

I've had some pretty nasty comments on some of my fics. But I most definitely would not trade those few for all of the great ones that were there.

If I didn't want comments - of any kind - I wouldn't post on a public forum.

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Originally posted by VeryFavoriteGun:

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Originally posted by Leiasky:

I've had some pretty nasty comments on some of my fics. But I most definitely would not trade those few for all of the great ones that were there.

If I didn't want comments - of any kind - I wouldn't post on a public forum.

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Then why do you and yours seem to get so tetchy when someone gives you a negative comment?

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Originally posted by mal4prez:
So... Did veryfavoritegun register for a new name just to leave this post?

Weird.

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Originally posted by VeryFavoriteGun:

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Originally posted by mal4prez:
So... Did veryfavoritegun register for a new name just to leave this post?

Weird.

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Yep, he did! And I agree it was weird, which is why anon commenting should be done away with.

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Originally posted by VeryFavoriteGun:
And, of course, it means the loss of ratings from some individuals who have taken it upon themselves to rate a chapter very low multiple times in a row just to reduce a fic's overall rating. I think that's something we can do without. (Several of my author friends have said that this has happened, they can tell when they are online and get 10 messages in a row that their fic has been rated and suddenly the rating is down to a 4! Isn't that petty?!)

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Originally posted by Mordsith:
But I think too many people have taken it upon themselves to flame others.

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Originally posted by tkid:

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Originally posted by Mordsith:
But I think too many people have taken it upon themselves to flame others.

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I think you're mistaking someone criticizing a fic with actual flames. Flames are extreme - I can criticize a fic, I can't overcriticize the fic or call the author nasty names.

Ie/ I don't like how Early is portrayed in this work; he'd never do that.

Versus

Oh my gawd you *insert favourite slanderous adjective*, did you have your *insert another favourite slanderous adjective* when you wrote that?

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Originally posted by tkid:

I think you're mistaking someone criticizing a fic with actual flames. Flames are extreme - I can criticize a fic, I can't overcriticize the fic or call the author nasty names.

Ie/ I don't like how Early is portrayed in this work; he'd never do that.

Versus

Oh my gawd you *insert favourite slanderous adjective*, did you have your *insert another favourite slanderous adjective* when you wrote that?

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Originally posted by tkid:
I was an anonymous reviewer, and liked reviewing anonymously here as one could leave a 'liked' or 'disagreed' or 'what does character X think they're doing' comment or two without the risk of someone jumping down your throat.

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Originally posted by Reenie:
Therefore, if EVER in doubt of crossing a line in which even innocent remarks could be misunderstood...then, don't cross the line.

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Originally posted by Reenie:
I completely understand the distinction the last few posts have tried to make between constructive criticism and flaming. I'm not disagreeing with this.

The point I was trying to make, and may not have done so that well, is that how much criticism an author can take before he/she feels attacked is variable. Therefore, if EVER in doubt of crossing a line in which even innocent remarks could be misunderstood...then, don't cross the line. Said another way, it isn't what you say so much as how it's said.

I was simply trying to offer that it's the responsiblity of those leaving comments to uphold a minimum standard of kindness and tact. If you ever, even once, leave a comment that gets YOU a negative reaction in return...perhaps take that a sign to not comment like that again. It may be something you as an author would find acceptable, but clearly not everyone does.

Call it flaming or cronstructive reviewing or anything in between...if it hurts or offends someone, stop. If it even might, don't do it. Find another way to express yourself.

That's all I'm sayin'.

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Originally posted by tkid:

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Originally posted by Reenie:
Therefore, if EVER in doubt of crossing a line in which even innocent remarks could be misunderstood...then, don't cross the line.

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I have to disagree again. Nothing would be said to anyone if ones remarks even remotely may be misunderstood.

And sometimes, once the initial hurt wears off, a dialogue ensues that is enlightening, and even fun to have/read.

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Originally posted by Mordsith:

Lieasky will probably never love my writing (at least not my Jaylee, lol ;D), which is fine, she doesn't has to.

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If you have something you think could TRULY help the writer, let them know. But also let them know what you did enjoy, put them at ease so they feel comfortable talking with you. That is what is really going to help them, otherwise they are going to be standoffish to you and your comments will just be recieved negatively and will serve no purpose but to upset someone. And then what was the point in commenting in the first place?

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Originally posted by slowbrowncoat:
Okay, so Anon is gone and I had to de-lurk and get a user-ID to get in on this! I hope that no one flames me for what I’m about to say, lol, especially since this is my first post as an online-person. So, I’m an avid reader of fanfic (but not a writer) who has commented anonymously a number of times and has about as big an obsession in reading the comments as the fic (hmm, what does that say about me?). I wonder if it helps to understand that there are nuances to comments and characterizations that should be considered here. For example, I might read a fic that I think has wonderful characterizations and yet someone else thinks they are off (maybe even way off). It is true that writers/fanfics differ in terms of the characterizations, but it is also true that commenters differ in how they see the characters. I have sometimes wondered if the commenter has considered whether or not they actually see the characters accurately (assuming there is some objective criteria to view the characters, which I don’t believe there is, but I digress). As TKID indicated above (don’t know how to do the quote thingy!), the statement “I don’t think Early would act that way” is not inflammatory and is an appropriate way to respond. However, saying “This is not how Early would act” indicates that the commenter is the sole judge of how Early would act and there are no other ways for him to be interpreted. Or again, it lacks an acknowledgement that the commenter may actually be incorrect on the characterization. Perhaps it isn’t inflammatory, but it indicates a bit of a lack of self-realization, and if the commenter keeps doing that, (and I’ve actually begun to notice commenters who routinely do that in fics) I could see how an author would get defensive about it.

I’ve noticed that certain types of fics tend to get negative comments whether or not they were “good” fics with what I considered good characterizations. Sometimes those negative comments were constructive, sometimes not, occasionally they were very negative and I wondered if someone was just having a bad day or had a stick up their pi gu (my first use of Chinese!). Often these fics are those that simply do something the reader didn’t agree with (slash, non-canon pairings, character death) and I have to consider that their evaluation of the fic was clouded by their dislike of the topic/plot/pairing. Sometimes I think we are taking this WAY too seriously. I mean it is meant to be fun and entertaining. I’m not sure how it has ended up such a grudge match. As a somewhat new person to the verse, I’m sad to say it’s kinda turning me off it.

And in response to Mordsith, I remember the comment about someone wanting to spit on you simply for writing a pairing that they didn’t like! I was appalled at that, I never considered that Browncoats would be that way. I just went back to look for it, so I wouldn’t say anything out of turn, and I noticed that it wasn’t an Anon comment (so maybe that doesn’t support the notion that getting rid of anon commenting will cut down on flaming, but…). I also saw that you replyed to it, as did others and you certainly had the right to defend yourself there (I thought your response was kinda funny as well as insightful!). I guess I can see how a commenter would feel like they were being flamed for getting a response to their comment (kinda in response to Leiasky’s post above, but since I don’t really know the circumstances there it might not be appropriate). However, if fanfic is fair game for any type of comments, then so are the comments fair game to responses.

Okay, I’ve been way too long-winded, especially for a first post. I think I’ll go back to lurking for a while. *please don’t hurt me too badly, I can’t take negative comments, LOL*

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Originally posted by SameErtia:
Thanks for delurking SlowBrownCoat!

I agree that we need to leave the fanfiction reviews open for anyone to post in, but it would be nice if authors had control over being able to delete flaming reviews, or if we had a moderator who we could contact.

I've been very fortunate not to have been the recipient of negative reviews on this site, even on my Simon/Mal story. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, non-slashers!

And usually, I can take the flames, toast marshmallows over them, and make lovely s'mores for all of my happy readers.

However, it can really tear a person down to recieve viscious replies, and sometimes I've seen it escalate into personal attacks on the authors.
Some samples that I've revieved from other boards= (keep in mind that I write LOTR based erotica)
- "Get a life, Nobody wants to read this crap."
-"If you want to bastardize something maybe you should start with your own offspring." (I actually liked that one. I quote it often!)
-"This was stupid. Why do you bother?"


I LOVE a constructive criticism review! "I thought these parts were good, but this part wasn't so good. Maybe you could... *make suggestions here*". But nastiness can really tear down an author, make them lose faith in their story-telling.

I don't mind anonymous reviewers, Often that means we have shiny visitors from other sites on the web come to visit li'l old us. I'd hate to see them have to go through the mess of registering just to leave a review.

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Originally posted by slowbrowncoat:
So, I’m an avid reader of fanfic (but not a writer) who has commented anonymously a number of times and has about as big an obsession in reading the comments as the fic (hmm, what does that say about me?).

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Originally posted by Mordsith:
I guess my biggest beef with annon postings is a person can be attacked, either by flaming or by just rating their fic low over and over again to drop their ratings (I've had this happen to a fellow writer).

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Originally posted by tkid:

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Originally posted by slowbrowncoat:
So, I’m an avid reader of fanfic (but not a writer) who has commented anonymously a number of times and has about as big an obsession in reading the comments as the fic (hmm, what does that say about me?).

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Me too! I love reading the comments. I particularly like comment threads where someone disagrees/dislikes something and a thread starts up where everyone weighs in with their varying opinions.

As to what you had to say about the type of comments, I think it goes without question that any one comment is just one person's point of view, and others may disagree. Just because I might think my point of view is gospel does not make my point of view the absolute truth.

And if the author replies back and says 'I believe you simply don't like seeing Early in a dress,' this is also cool. Even better is the author saying why they want Early in a dress, and what they were hoping this would do to/for the story.

If, instead of disagreeing with a comment in private via email, folks stated their differing opinion in another comment, most of the reasons for allowing anonymous comments would disappear.

Mod deletion of flames I have no problem with.

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