When Does A Story Earn A Dislike? · 7:17pm Nov 16th, 2014
Hello again. Let's ramble for a bit because I feel like it.
While on this site I've read dozens of stories and have given around 15-20 percent of what I've read a thumbs up, and sometimes a fav. If it has a good scenario, dialogue, grammar, makes me chuckle or makes me extremely jealous of its cleverness (which is undoubtably my biggest sin: envy), it will earn my 'like'.
But when does something deserve a 'dislike' from you?
With all the 'likes' I've given, I've only given a single story a dislike. If the story's boring, I'll simply stop reading. If the grammar or spelling's off, I probably won't finish the chapter. I don't think stories like these deserve overwhelming negativity, just hopefully a nudge in the right direction for future writing projects.
I forget the name of the one story I disliked, but it had to do with skeletons and a pony. It was short and all that happened was they heard a spooky noise about four or five times and each time went, "What was that?" In the end it was skeletons. Why I gave it a dislike was because the author left a lot of mistakes in the text (and even commented that they hadn't edited yet), nothing of interest happened, and at the time it was even featured on the site with an odd amount of praise. It was enough for me.
My stories are far, far, far, far away from perfect and deserve each dislike they receive. It's people's opinion and just like mine, they're entitled to it. So I guess the question I'm throwing out is what exactly for you turns a story from a, "Meh, I'll pass" to a full "dislike"? Is there some criteria you follow? Or is it a gut reaction to something once you're reading?
I'd be interested to know. Thanks.
I don't dislike stories no matter how bad the are. I leave and tell myself it just isn't my style. I leave it at that. I find disliking a horrible thing especially when people don't leave an explanation. If you dislike a story purely on bias you give no place for repairs and you are pretty much saying 'this story is bad because I didn't like it.' If there are too many mistakes I comment that someone needs to do a run through and fix it, I refuse to dislike a story based on spelling, grammar, etc. If the plot isn't fully developed I simply comment that it needs some work but it has potential. I do not see a reason to dislike a story.
2598875 Thanks for the answer. Follow-up question: when does a story deserve a 'like' and how often would you say you give them out? I said 15-20 percent of stories I read. Is that too high or too stingy?
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I give a like to a story I enjoyed reading regardless of content or grammar. I usually followup a like with a favourite though if I liked but didn't love I leave the like.
English isn't my native language and i think it's a little hypocrite from me but mistakes in grammar and spelling, discourages me alittle to keep reading the story, though, if in the end, it has a good storyline, atmosphere and narrative, i'll leave my like. I am writing my first fanfic but i feel really unsure about post it or even keep writing it because i don't want to post a story full of mistakes and stuff like that.
If you look at my favourites you can see i kile Vinyl/Octavia shipping but i didn't like "My roomate is a vampire" there weren't a lot of mistakes, but i disliked it mainly because of the narrative; i am still not sure about why but i discouraged me a lot to keep reading it and when Octavia became a werewolf-thing or whatever, i stoped reading it and leaved my (probably) first and only dislike. Of course, i don't usually read fanfics with a lot of dislikes, and i really thought I would like it.
So, a bad atmosphere, narrative or rushing the story will make me dislike the fanfic unless, there is a very good storyline, in that case, i'll ask myself 'Should i leave a dislike or just let it pass?' and of course it'll be diferent for every fanfic, but those are the elements that make me doubt about ddisliking it.
2602587 Thanks for answering! I think I feel that way sometimes with films. That the budget might be so tight for some films that the sets or quality of the picture suffers, and yet the story is what pulls through. The reserve can also be said. That a film has great actors, effects, cinematography, etc., but the story falls flat.
The most recent story I disliked had the most glaringly awful characterization of an OC I've ever read, in which a character who is supposed to be a majestic several thousand year old king who was at one point given oversight over Celestia, Luna and Discord... talks like a mercenary grunt in Iraq. I'm from New York; my language is far from clean, and I've been known to drop a fair number of f-bombs, but I'm not supposed to be an ancient king of great power and gravitas, either. But the reason I disliked the story is that when I pointed this out to the author, he acted offended that I would demand that such a powerful character clean up his language... as if he'd always talked like that and becoming a king didn't change him, when the point I was making was that it was wholly unbelievable that such an ancient and powerful being would ever have talked that way in the first place. Also, the story didn't have nearly enough dislikes when you considered how truly unbelievable the OC was, and in an offensively stupid way, like the worst sort of Gary Stu. But I don't even usually dislike stories for being Gary Stus; it was the sense of entitlement and unwillingness to accept criticism of the author, combined with the unwarranted praise the story was getting.
Generally I rarely dislike stories; primarily if I find the premise not just bad but offensive, without being a trollfic. Such as a story that presents us with a character who does monstrous things for a selfish reason and then tries to tell us that this character is perfectly justified and does not deserve any punishment and everyone else in the plot is the bad guy.
2642408 Sometimes I find crossover stories get an odd amount of praise, even if they might not deserve it. I guess it's just the ability to have two sets of worlds mashed into one. Most stories where the author deletes a majority of negative comments usually end deep in the red. Since I have a very thin backbone, I accept criticism openly and usually comment in return. Since most of my stories aren't flamed to hell and back, I truly shouldn't be all that offended or worried. I just feel really bad for those 13-16 year old or even older novice writers that slap something out expecting instant praise. I know if I submitted something when I first started writing, my career here would have ended on the first story...
I know I'm 40+ weeks late to the party... But, this is something I've been interested in myself. Personally, it is nigh-impossible to earn my dislike. If I dislike a story, I just say it's not my thing. If other things are off, I'll just leave, just like you. The only time I ever dislike a story is when I truly want it burnt to the ground because I cannot believe anybody could gain any enjoyment from it whatsoever and I want to bury it before it ruins somebody else's day, or if I liked it and the story changes to something I dislike so much that I leave the story. I cannot in good conscience leave a like on a story I dislike, and unfortunately, there is no way to 'unlike' a story.
The 'Burn to the ground' thing has happened once or twice, same with the changing story.
Basically, I don't dislike things except in very rare circumstances.
As for likes, I hand one out to every story I even remotely enjoyed. What can I say, if I liked it, I leave a like. As a result, I like probably 99% of stories I've looked at, and 100% of the stories in my folders.