Apr
5th
2012
Well then... · 5:03am Apr 5th, 2012
There is an important lesson here today.
Don't be a dick. Treat other people's stories with respect, no matter how bad they are, and always be polite. I think it is sometimes too easy to forget there are real people behind the words you see. Real people who try, and no matter how God-awful their stories may be, put a little of themselves into their writing. Criticism is fine... just don't be mean. Think your comments through; walk away for an hour before you post it if necessary. Hurt feelings helps no one.
Well. There's my moralising done for the day! Back to writing!
Stay awesome!
Dare I ask how?
58334 Haha. Do you follow device heretic by any chance? That debacle that went on earlier today. I should have followed my own advice and not have gotten involved in something I really didn't care about.
Ah well. Story of my life, right there!
58336
Oh, dear... I've just read his blog. No, I don't follow him; though I suppose I should say that I "didn't," now. Terrible news. I didn't care for his stories, but his was quality work. The fandom has lost something great.
From what I've seen from the blog's comments, he got pretty nasty. Shame; but he's human, yeah? Strikes me as a tad melodramatic to simply up and leave.
I can't claim to know what "thing with "Letters"" he'd referred to was. Would you care to satisfy my morbid curiosity?
I hadn't realized the amount of criticism the Ponyfall group had fallen under; read a couple of the fics, decided they weren't my cup of tea, then got news of some of their number ganging up on an author for writing a Ponyfall without being one of the group. Got a bit angry.
58354 Well the Letters thing went as follows (as best as I could gather): the fic was posted, and became featured. Considering its subject matter, it was quickly compared to device heretic's Eternal, something that (lets face it, the fic had some issues) he was not happy with. He commented as such, calling out its mistakes, and a few people jumped on with him. Of course, the person who posted the story immediately changed the story's description saying 'haters gonna hate', and that he only wanted 'well written criticism'. (That was the point I jumped in. People confuse 'well written' with 'here are a few bad things that I am coating with adoration to make the medicine go down sweeter'. Anyway, not important.) I left soon after, and I assume it got worse, because when I got home, the story had been deleted, and device had posted those blogs. Everyone got hurt feelings, no one learned anything, and it was a disaster, haha.
And yeah, it is a real shame. He was definitely one of the more technically talented authors in the fandom.
58360
Horrible shame. I've heard this story before, through different fandoms. Never a pretty sight. Everyone just comes out looking petty.
Finding that one reviewer who doesn't play the yes-man part is a blessing, but not one most fanfic authors seem to recognize as such, or wish to receive. Should one such author become upset, the water is chummed for those who hope to see them further so. Even if the reviewer lacks tact, the snowball relies on the push of the author.
I'd hoped better for us, but am used to this fandom disappointing me.
I hope the author gains a thicker skin from the experience, if anything good should come of it.
But, as you've said: better not to be a jerk in the first place.
I've never done well in giving proper criticism, tend to lean towards what you mentioned in sugar-coating. Colder, clinical style tended to upset more people than help, so I gave up on it. Never felt comfortable with it anyway; can barely write, not my place to criticize beyond the most glaring technical flaws.
58366 Yeah, it's a real shame.
Proper criticism is really hard to get right. The best way to do it is to be honest, and only talk about the writing itself. Being as technical as possible helps keeps things less personal as well, haha.
But the important thing is to always be polite. Even if you hate a story, always show respect. I wish people could understand that.
The most difficult thing for a constructively critical reviewer is to find a balance of harsh criticism and deserving praise. I tend to lean more towards the more vicious end of the spectrum, but I understand the importance of playing nice, especially in this little fandom.
Being too nice results in an author that knows they have mistakes, but won't really try that hard to fix them, or your review is simply tacked up as another "awsome stor ekeep on riting moar!!!11!". Too harsh, and you drive the author to anger, which can often result in very amusing (albeit vicious and insulting) conversations, or they leave. I'm not entirely shameful of the fact that I tend to cause the insult-athons, but I've driven my fair share of decent authors off the 'net, of which I am somewhat ashamed.
A part of the entire problem is the fact that writers get used to positive reviews. If you look at any fic on this site, let alone other fanfic sites, around nine out of every ten reviews are positive, and largely lacking in anything but praise. Too much positive feedback, and you get a toxic buildup of positive reviews that lead to an inflated ego. By the way, those things make a marvelous raspberry sound when popped.
Oh, my little vices~
Politeness works in varying degrees, just as intelligent wording and objective reviewing does. I've found that being polite is less effective when using a relatively large (that is, regarded as pretentious) vocabulary and clinical objectivity, but more effective when speaking informally and honestly. To be perfectly straight with you, I find myself viewing politeness, speech patterns, and subjectivity vs objectivity as little more than tools to garner a desired response: That is, to urge a writer to edit their work to a better standard, and work towards higher tiers. Of course, I am more than slightly jaded when it comes to reviewing, so.... Eh.
Regardless, there are some fics/authors that are too far gone to be salvageable. They are either too convinced of their own superiority, or too unwilling to see their own faults, or simply too inhibited by the biases and opinions formed from toxic positive feedback. I see little point in wasting time with the ones that fall under this category, as they've failed time and again to do anything other than spout their own praises and continue writing nonsense. Though, they are quite amusing when prodded. I apologize if I come off as insensitive, but.... *shrugs*
To conclude my rambling, let me just say that concritting is a pain in the ass. Rewarding, when it has the desired effect and causes others to discover their drive to improve further, but a pain in the ass nonetheless.
66974 You're very right. Getting the balance right is really hard. To make matters worse, some people are just infuriating. Whether that be through stubborn arrogance or just plain indifference, it's incredibly frustrating to see people reject criticism. I think that they best way to go about things is start polite. That way you have at least tried to be respectful, etc. If a person reacts poorly to constructive and well meant criticism, well, to each their own (aka, all bets are off
)
68402
Starting out polite.... You certainly have a fair point there. Infuriating writers? God, you will never be so correct as that. Sometimes, when I'm going after a fic that doesn't have technical errors (punctuation, spelling, grammar, etc) so much as concept errors (Gary Stu, lack of detail, so on), the author will simply not understand what's wrong with their fic. When I try to say, "Your human is overpowered," they respond with, "No, he isn't; he almost died when he fought that Ursa Minor and fifty Timber Wolves at the same!"
Ugh. Frustrating is the mild way of saying it. :P Saddening, too.
...And utterly delightful if you can goad them into a large-scale troll concritter vs fanbrat battle to make up for wasted time. ^_^
Anyways, politeness works when you aren't dealing with stubborn eight year olds. Adults/mature teens are much more receptive, though they take a while to warm to concrit if all they've recieved is praise from day one.
What I truly love is when an author goes out and asks for concrit. One fellow I ran into recently, Rust (author of The Ballad of Echo the Diamond Dog), did so, and I highly recommend that you read his work as a result. It has its problems, but they are by no means great enough to ruin the fic for sharper readers. I just have to respect authors like that, especially the ones that recognize that there are vicious concritters out there.
In any event, I'll likely be reading All Paths Lead Home at some point, and I'll be sure to leave you a decently sized review.
68425 Oh yes. Concept errors. You're right when you say people, especially more amateur authors, cannot see any flaws that may exist. That's one of the reasons I don't read anywhere near as much these days. I really only stick to authors that I know or through EqD. That way I know what I am getting is going to be an ok quality at worst, and then I am less likely to have to point out errors.
Also, I know what you mean; I always love an author who welcomes feedback. Because even if criticism isn't even necessary, calling for it shows a level of humility that I really respect.
Anyway, if you do read APLH, you will probably be the first person to leave an in-depth review, so thank you! I love getting feedback, and I would really appreciate it. I hope you enjoy!