Got my first thumbs down on Near Death. · 4:10pm Mar 12th, 2012
Not sure if legitimately did not like or if just trolling because I had no thumbs down.
Not that I'm complaining, of course. After all, people are absolutely allowed to have their opinions!
But at the same time, I find it kind of weird that a person clicked thumbs down and didn't comment on why. I'm definitely cool with criticism. And I understand that some people just don't like my story. That's fine. But if you're gonna thumbs-down, I'd really love to know why. Especially if it's something I can improve.
This is why I don't really like ratings systems. Just saying "I like it" or "I don't like it" is not very helpful for a writer. It's helpful to hear what's working and what isn't.
Anyway, yeah. I guess it boils down to this: if you're going to negatively rate my fic, please tell me why. That's not too much to ask, is it? I'm not fishing for comments -- I just want to know.
Compare how many people actually read the story to how many rate. It's usually some small fraction. Then from there how many actually comment? Even fics with huge amounts of comments usually come from a small number of dedicated fans. So if you can actually get someone to comment, positive or negative be pleasantly surprised but really the odds of
Being brutally honest about things, FIMFiction is a pretty hug-y softball only type place. The reason they took away the actual rating system in the first place is because everyone was just giving out 1's and 5's. If you are looking for honest criticism and to improve your writing skills, FIMFiction is not the place for you. As you've gotten in EqD already though I imagine you know this already, but asking for people to explain their feelings is probably a lost cause. I immediately think of "Vote 1 and move on," as an appropriate catchphrase to describe the general attitude of people. Though as of late there are some people who try to give feedback good luck trying to get answers out of readers.
P.S Your fic isn't bad. Not amazing but not bad.
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I know why FiMfiction changed the ratings system, but that doesn't mean I necessarily agree with it. My professors in my writing classes have always taught me that the worst thing you can do for a writer is say "I like it/I don't like it" and not tell them why. Even a comment as simple as "I don't like your writing style" or "your characters are boring to me" would be helpful. Even if it's something I can't change, it's something I can keep in mind for my next story. And since commenting is so easy, I don't think it's too much to ask for a person to give five seconds of their time to tell me what they didn't like.
I understand that most people won't do that, but I still think it's a valid request. I mean, I've seen fics on this site with a bunch of thumbs down and no comments. It makes me pity that writer. They're left staring at all those thumbs down and not realizing what's wrong. I know that sometimes people have a hard time identifying what might be wrong with an otherwise good fic, but a few words can be extremely helpful.
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While it might be a valid request it's fairly unrealistic. I'm part of marketing/sales in my company and the total sales we get on a website vs. ratings (which is just a single mouse click) vs. comments is pretty stark. The only time you really seem to get feedback is if you wow someone, or piss them off. The vast majority of readers (and I believe even authors) don't see the self improvement side of things and as such don't bother giving feedback or caring about it all that much
I feel for you, but I wouldn't hold my breath.