Wrecked Trains

Most of you probably know what this is about. To those who don't, my brony twow443 sums up my thoughts pretty well, so I'm not going to repeat his blog post here. Go read his.

Suffice to say the Train Wreck Explorers group is gone. I think knighty did a bad thing there, and I think he handled it very poorly. The worst part is that there was no warning, no "you guys had better shape up," no "I've been hearing a lot of complaints." He simply nuked us and that was that. There were some valuable and interesting forum posts in the old TWE forum, but they're gone now.

But he's the big guy and I'm just a humble writer/reviewer. What's done is done.

I think what the TWE did was valuable, and I mean to continue. I may no longer be a TWE member, but I'm a TWE alumnus, and many of the people whose fics I reviewed were honestly grateful. I'm not stopping. I will keep reviewing. I will bear my Approved Reviewer stamp with pride.

If you want a review, PM me. If you get a review and don't want to hear it, all I ask is that you react civilly. A simple "Thanks, not interested" will get me to leave you alone.

So. Yeah. That's what I have to say on the matter.

Deep Pond, Knight of a Fallen Kingdom

Comments

[Author-Man]

I've already posted on this elsewhere, but it bears repeating. When I first heard about the drama the group was already gone, so I can't exactly tell who was in the right and who was in the wrong because I can't see the actual reviews. The gist of my opinion is that writers need to learn that just because criticism is mean doesn't mean it's invalid and that critics need to learn that being mean makes insecure writers more likely to tune you out. But I'm more likely to side with the critics on this one because that kind of "if it's mean I don't have to listen to it" attitude causes creative stagnation and I've got no sympathy for the people who cop it i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/Author-Man/emot-colbert.gif

I'm good either way with my stuff getting reviewed. Criticism is always welcome - without it I'll never improve as a writer. But I'm already slow as ass when it comes to writing so I barely have anything to review.

[Deep Pond]

572230
Knighty's post speaks for itself. He disbanded us for being insulting, while insulting us in his post. I don't get how "Train Wreck Explorers" is offensive, while straight-up rapefics are A-OK; but that's just me.

As for reviews, I can only speak for myself, but I have all my reviews backed up on my computer, and I will gladly make them available to anyone who wants to see. I stand by all my comments.

[twow443]

Ahh, I didn't think that my blog was all that. I was pissed out of my mind when I wrote it.

But yeah. I meant it. I worked hard to be a part of TWE and am damn glad I did. Until we rebuild I will review and wear my name with pride.

[Deep Pond]

572307
Well, I was too, and it captured my thoughts pretty well.

denver.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw5093-brohoof.jpg
(^you're Rainbow Dash)

[twow443]

572315 All the way.

[Psycho Shy]

Ah, of course there are blogs about this...
Alas, it seems you guys--you fellow coworkers--never got to know me.
I'm not sure how many people were, but I know there were a few bad apples who weren't out to help people in our group--and, well, I guess Granny Smith was right when she said "one bad apple spoils the bunch."
Still, like you gents, I'll be wearing my badge with pride and doing what we were supposed to do. If I get banned...then we'll really have something to complain about.
i.imgur.com/3lZia.png?1
~ Psycho Shy, TWE's Kind Soul

[Author-Man]

572235

If you're going to put your foot down about people being jerks but refuse to put your foot down about stuff like rapefic and pedophilia and bestiality, you ain't gonna get my respect Better to allow everything that isn't actively hurting someone than to be a massive hypocrite, but that's just me.

I would love to read your reviews. I'm always looking to improve my own writing, and one of the best ways to do that is to read criticisms of both your work and other people's work.

[Deep Pond]

573394
Well, here are some recent reviews by me that are still up:

Comment #2
Comment #3 (description review only)
Comment #71 (yes, 71. There's a whole Pokemon conversation in the comments) I'm rather proud of this one.
Comment #12
Comment #3
Comment #2

Note that in a lot of those cases, the stories have been cleaned up and some of my comments no longer apply. Anyway, that's my reviewing style.

[Author-Man]

573494

Now, see, none of these seem all that mean; it's all constructive and all the authors take it fairly well. I'm guessing some of the other members must have gone overboard at some point because just from this sample I don't really see anything wrong with it

Maybe the name came across as too confrontational and Knighty pulled a Youtube and took the group down the instant someone complained without actually checking to see if they were legitimately complaining.

[Deep Pond]

574397
According to knighty

Anyone claiming that putting stuff in a group called THE TRAIN WRECK EXPLORERS isn't insulting is out of their mind though. By doing so you've directly called it a train-wreck which is actually insult, in case that was difficult to understand for some people.

I think he got a lot of complaints about the TWE, and I think he must not have investigated all that much.

Of course, I can only speak for myself in this.

[Author-Man]

574463

I don't know anything about the other reviewers, but I've got to say that even if the others were just using criticism as an excuse to troll authors I still have to side with the reviewers. One of the most important skills an author needs to develop is how to take criticism, and how to tell the useful stuff from the garbage spouted by people just looking for something to hate. Sometimes it can be really hard to tell the two apart, but the answer is never to just ignore the criticism, to retreat into your own personal hugbox of people who think you're awesome, to complain loudly until the critics go away. That's a perfect recipe for literary stagnation and is a terrible attitude for any writer to take, be they a professional or just some guy writing stories about ponies because it's fun.

For the record, I will always welcome any criticism, be it constructive or just some guy shouting "this story is bad and you should feel bad." I always strive to improve at everything I do; to do anything else would just be lazy.

[Csquared08]

There were some valuable and interesting forum posts in the old TWE forum, but they're gone now.

With some clever lucky URL manipulation, I found most of our threads and backed up the important ones on GDocs.