Actingverse Followup · 4:52am Jul 5th, 2016
Well... that was a miserable experience. First, I want to send a quick message to the eight people who downvoted all the new Actingverse stories within sixty seconds of them going up.
You know who you are.
I've certainly had people say unkind things about my stories before. Nearly all my stories get one person who will strenuously express that they didn't like it, and even a few people who will stray out of level headed commentary and into attacking language. And while all of that is unfortunate, it's par for the course. Not everybody's criticism will be constructive, and you need to expect that.
But the thing about the criticism on most of my old stories? People say, "That was awful," and then stop reading my writing. Which makes sense! If they dislike my writing very strongly, they should stop reading it. Because they don't enjoy it. But that logic seems foreign to the little following Actingverse developed, where a few people went very out of their way to read every single installment as they came out so they could remind me, individually, how much they hated each one.
And PM me to remind me how much they hated each one. And ask that they be removed from groups. And complain to the moderators that they're not real stories until I get a warning that they need to be condensed as chapters.
You might say I haven't had a great evening.
Sadly, there's basically nothing to be done about it for Actingverse. So, time to take a deep breath, let it out, and move on. But I don't think I'll be touching this series again. Girls' Night Out has been outlined, but... eh.
I also think this marks the end of my policy of never censoring comments on my fics except in case of spam. While an author should never censor criticism, I suspect there is such a thing as feeding the trolls, and that if they aren't getting their rocks off hatefollowing my stories, they'll leave and go read something they may actually enjoy. So, we'll see how purging the comments section of any ad-hominim remarks pans out.
The reason I write fanfiction for MLP as opposed to any other fandom (or god forbid, original writing), is because of the community. It's normally so open and supportive and constructive. Actingverse, sadly, was my first really negative experience with the fandom, and with FiMFic more specifically. I'll admit to being more than a little off-put.
But, oh well. Bronycon awaits!
Well, I liked the Actingverse! I hope you continue it soon, because they were the first stories in a long time that had me literally turning away from a conversation to finish them.
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I'm glad you enjoyed! And I know that most of the readers and commentators on those stories were good people. But... no. I write for fun, and this was honestly a pretty awful experience.
In awhile maybe. I have other stories to get out first.
People are weird. Oh well, I like the Actingverse. It was an interesting look at the types of personalities that make art.
People will always hate, it's part of our nature.
And while everyone might not always upvote, or follow, or leave a glowing review take solace that if it WASN'T awesome folks would have let it die in the User Submitted section.
In writing I like to apply video game logic: If I'm meeting nothing but enemies and adversity with the occasional power up I'm going in the right bucking direction!
In an unrelated note, can I offer you this Fire Power Flower?
Hay, it's hot and featured. It might just be the case that it isn't everypony's cup of tea.
Hope you make it to the party Friday. :V
What about the people that downvote but never ever comment? Most of my stories have half up and down but not a single reason or attempt at criticism. I'd like to get people's opinions but with your experience I now am thinking otherwise. Maybe its best not to know?
Don't let the haters get you down, and don't let them try to bully you into changing the way you release your stories just because they don't think you deserve to be featured. Because you honestly do deserve to be featured. If a story about Sunset Shimmer fucking a horse can get featured, then by GOD these nice little character studies deserve to be featured.
Haven't read the latest one yet, haven't had time, but it's on my to do list, and the only one of these I've disliked at all was Pan Flash, for reasons I detailed in the comments section therein and in no way because of you or your writing.
Just keep being awesome, and let the haters go hate themselves up the butt.
4069074 If someone dislikes a story enough to downvote they're probably not going to have constructive criticism. That's more from the upvote or neutral range.
If it's any consolation at all, I don't think it's just you. I've been noticing a steady rise of really snotty, nitpicky commenters lately. I don't know why. They're a minority, sure, but unfortunately they're a very vocal, obnoxious one. For what it's worth, all the Actingverse stories have had solidly positive ratings. Most people seem to have liked them. I know it's easy to get bummed out about bad experiences like this, but don't let these people take that away from you.
I think I speak for most of your readers when I say I hope to see the final (?) story at some point, but it's your call, of course. And if policing comments is what it takes, I'll stand behind you. You have a right to monitor the comments sections of your stories, and if people want to be part of the discourse, then they can offer something constructive.
I look forward to reading whatever you come up with next: you havent yet written a story that I didnt like!
That's fucked up. And sad. I was hoping for more.
I really enjoyed it too, and thought that the last two were especially poignant. Would've taken the time to comment, but I've been swamped, and the comment section was already Troll City. Sorry. Still, I'm looking forward to your upcoming works, both in the verse, and otherwise. And honestly, some of my favorite stories on here are the ones that draw the most controversy, earned or unearned.
Well, I like the Actingverse, and my opinion is clearly more valuable than theirs, so fuck those overlubricated doucheplugs.
This does sound awful, quite possibly passing into harassment territory with the comments, PMs, and moderator contact, depending on the content and quantity we're talking here. I'm sorry to hear that, that it's turned out that way.
That said, I disagree on the automatic, instant downvote part. While I haven't personally given an up-or-down on an Actingverse installment without reading it first (checking...3 up, 2 down, 1 no vote), I get it, or at least one path to that result. Because they really don't seem like separate stories to me, and it's not like downvotes go away on new chapters just because someone who's downvoted (or upvoted) a story hasn't read the newest chapter. None of which is to say that you as the author don't get to choose how they're published.
It's the case of the few-but-loud assholes. Either they can't deal with their own work never meriting other people's attention, and/or they feel somehow empowered by bitching to and downvoting others. People do it for random reasons that are valid only to themselves in their vapid little worlds of self-aggrandizement and butthurt over whatever angers them this week.
For what it's worth, I'm fond of the Actinverse AU. At least they're not freaking out about a ton of folks wanting to write in it, and so on.
While I think an HIE in the setting could be fun, after a fashion, I wouldn't want to write it myself: it would end up very ALF or E.T. very quickly...
But yeah, I, at least, appreciate the effort you went through for these. Nice to see a G1.5-based fic, y'know? (It may not be your inspiration, but I can see parallels to the setting.)
Da fuck
Well for me, i have been greatly enjoying this verse.
I dont know what to say anymore. People just need to die.
I'm not ruling out some form of scripted auto-downvoting robot for some of these. The time frame between published and downvoted on some stories has been *awfully* suspicious. I'd just go ahead and work out Friendship is Group Therapy until it is the way you want and polished to a fine gloss before publishing it. Then leave as your first comment a warning that any purely ad-hominem (ad-equininum?) attacks will be deleted without response, as well as anybody who whines about "These stories need to all be lumped together into one" and "You're a big meanie."
After all, there's a lot of us who like the stories, and we have no problem with the loudmouth crybullies being nuked in the comments. No problem at all. Bomb 'em until they glow and then nuke 'em in the dark.
"Well... that was a miserable experience. First, I want to send a quick message to the eight people who downvoted all the new Actingverse stories within sixty seconds of them going up."
Good grief; I'm sorry about that.
"And PM me to remind me how much they hated each one. And ask that they be removed from groups. And complain to the moderators that they're not real stories until I get a warning that they need to be condensed as chapters."
...
"You might say I haven't had a great evening."
Yeah, a bit, I imagine...
"Sadly, there's basically nothing to be done about it for Actingverse. So, time to take a deep breath, let it out, and move on. But I don't think I'll be touching this series again. Girls' Night Out has been outlined, but... eh."
Sorry about that, too. Don't blame you, though.
edit: Oh, and just in case it needed to be said explicitly, I've been enjoying these stories. :)
Really? Quitting because of a few people bitching?
Dude...fuck the haters. These stories have been a rare treat, and this little..."miniverse" deserves some closure.
Do what you wanna do, but seriously.
I might bitch about tags and all that, but I never take it upon myself to downvote a story that is functionally and objectively sound.
I might not like the direction some of your stories are going, but you have talent, and I like seeing what do with words.
People need to chill.
Dislikes:
Dressing Room - 33
Deep Cover - 27
Butter Up - 34
Barnstormer - 37
Pan Flash - 37
First Take - 34
Assuming completely random distribution of readership from set of Fimfiction registered users... actually that's probably an extremely problematic assumption so I'll just skip to the conclusion.
You have a very steady group of fans. And you've just showed them how to silence you.
Maybe they'll stop after this 'victory'. Or maybe they are just getting started...
4069080 Well, I would say that it depends on the story; shitty grammar, shittier spelling, and utterly abysmally shitty punctuation? Downed AND constructive criticism.
I've never disliked one of Gap's stories, even if I disagree with the philosophy, a lá "Would It Matter If I Was?" (Hint: Yes, It Does). The mechanics are always excellent, and the stories are very engaging.
My suggestion is to look at every comment as a way to improve yourself and your writing. Instead of getting angry or put-out by negative comments, see what you can take away from them, even if it's an affirmation that you believe you're doing things correctly. The reason people keep reading your stories and commenting is because they feel very strongly about what they want to say. I don't think a blog post complaining about such people is going to do anything other than encourage their behavior.
The same goes for auto-downvotes. If you acknowledge them, then the people who knee-jerk downvoted your stories have gotten what they wanted. It's far better—and what's more, far classier—to simply not even mention the problem. Of course I can't expect it to not bother you, because it would bother anyone, but do your best. You know that the problem exists; doing anything besides privately coping will only exacerbate it.
In essence, I think you'd be more comfortable with yourself if you maintained a positive, stick-to-your-guns attitude where you recognize that people are giving you criticism and apply the bits you agree with to your work. People might not agree with you, but if you think you're doing things right and display it confidently, you'll at least be respected for integrity, and that's really the most important thing.
Also I want to add that anybody who uses the word "hater" outside of ironic context has the IQ of a peanut.
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People who downvote are less likely to comment than people who upvote because negative comments are much more likely to engender arguments. Also, a lot of people struggle to articulate just what was wrong with a story, or don't want to have to go into it if they felt like there was a long list.
Also, comments are pretty rare; you probably get about 1 person commenting per ten votes or so. If a story has only 20-30 votes, you're going to get like 2-3 people commenting.
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I don't find people's votes have much to do with how helpful they are, honestly; it is much more heavily based on the individual person.
Honestly, a lot of people who don't like stories can actually give you good feedback; I've gotten useful feedback from people who didn't much care for my stuff. Some of the people who commented on the Actingverse stories were trying to be helpful. -TGM- left a nice long comment talking about what they didn't like, for instance.
Other people were complaining about inane things, like "Why are these all separate stories?"
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The most useful feedback usually comes from people who disliked your stuff. You already know what you did well: everything no one complained about. You want to know what you did wrong, so you can improve on it the next time.
At least, that's what you want if you actually care about the quality of your writing. Some people here very much don't. I tend to be unpopular with that sort.
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The real issue is people looking to pick fights moreso than anything else, I think. They sort of feel validated by hurting people; its a sort of sadism. Some of it stems from a certain sense of entitlement.
I can kinda relate to haters. One day I got on to find that the three stories I have and the three comments on one of my stories (which was just someone saying it seemed intriguing, me saying the set up would take a couple chapters, and the other person saying they expected as much) all had an extra down vote. Why? I don't know. This individual (whom I don't know and likely did nothing to as I don't go out of my way to be a jerk to anyone) just decided to down vote whatever they could relating to my stories. It kinda bugged me, and I know that one of my stories is going to be flooding with hate because I explicitly stated that I didn't like the first Equestria Girls movie (I'd give it like a five outta ten).
But this, THIS. This is harassment, especially if it was the same individuals. It's one thing to post a comment on one story, a troll to post on multiple, but PMing and contacting Mods? No. That is not okay. I feel for you and I really hope you continue this series. I honestly love it and I would love to see at least a final installment. And just remember:
Most people actually like your stuff. You get what, 10 downvotes for every 100-200 upvotes?
So there are trolls out there, people still like your stuff. You'll probably get trolls if you do anything else that get's popular, but you'll also have fans, so I'd say keep going unless you really are sick of the actinverse
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Have an up-vote purely for creative name calling. That's a new one on me.
I found the stories to be pretty interesting, mostly for the litt!e flashes of how Equestria really is in this universe. if there's a story that ties these six introductions together, I'd really like to see it.
That's a damn shame, I really enjoyed the actingverse series and was looking forward to the final installment. I always find it baffling that people can claim to be part of a community that values friendship and being nice to one another, yet themselves are toxic beyond belief within said community.
Just remember that the majority of us here enjoyed your work, and that this petty yet very vocal minority do NOT speak for anyone but themselves
Well that sucks, and I'm sorry you had to go through it.
i like the Acting verse it was a neat idea. As per people who try to bring you down, two thoughts. One fuckum... end of thought they are irrelevant ignore block delist and forget them. Two judge... what have they done better than you, odds are nothing. People who criticize like that as a rule of thumb don't create ergo there opinions are with little to no merit. Compare to the average, last i looked your story's have near a 10:1 like ratio so don't be stupid and listen to the smallest group who yells the loudest. (this applys to EVERY THING).
Side note I am getting upset that people out there are trying to hurt our authors, I am less upset that our authors are letting trolls eat them.
TLDR forget trolls, you are better than them. also thicken your skin.
Sorry you've been having a rough time, Jax.
I'm really sorry to hear that... For what it's worth, I think you're a pretty darned good writer.
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Comments like that are troll-bait. It is like telling little kids not to stick beans up their nose - a lot of them wouldn't think of doing it until you told them not to. Plus, you know, some people will do stuff you tell them not to do just out of spite.
The best thing to do is just to delete trolling comments and block users as necessary.
Aww, no more actingverse? I was really looking forward to seeing its conclusion
I do understand why you wouldn't want to keep writing, though. The amount of negativity in your comments section was astounding. I tend to not comment on stories very often, especially if I see a heated argument erupting because I don't want to be caught in the crossfire, but wow it's so weird how people who hate this series would continue to read story after story. Like, this reminds of this guy I saw on Twitter once, he's like 25 or so and he hates this one show on Disney Channel. Yeah, Disney Channel, and he hates it so much that he stalks the younger fans who likes it and harasses them. He found me and started harassing me too and I find out that he's seen every episode of the series. Okay. Why would he watch a children's tv show that he hated? I don't know. Why would people read your series if they hate it? Who knows. People are weird.
I think I probably should've commented more on your stories, to show that, hey, it's not all negative thoughts here, but I didn't. That's on me. But I really did enjoy your series, every installment of it really. And I think it was kind of dumb someone called a mod in because I guess they were tired of seeing each new installment in the featured box. I just finished a different series where it had like fifteen side stories that could've been neatly condensed into two or three separate stories and no one yelled at that guy for what he did.
Just...yeah. I really enjoyed reading the series and I totally wanna see the last installment but I also totally get why you wouldn't want to write it. Frankly I'm surprised you managed to make it so far because I don't think I would've been able to. I know you were kind of goaded into making the series so the fact that Dressing Room was supposed to be a standalone is amazing. Like, every little tidbit from that one-shot was expanded into a way that created six fleshed-out and interesting characters! I really want to be able to write that well one day(English major who doesn't see herself as actually that creative of a writer, here). I really hope to one day see what was supposed to be Girls' Night Out!
About the people who hated in the stories for the sake of hating them, I say this: SCREW THEM.
If the harass you, report/block them.
Like you said, not all criticism is going to be positive or constructive, but when someone is doing it just to be hurtful, you sure as shit don't have to take it.
Nor do you have to listen to it.
You're the writer, the artist. Write for yourself first. Do what gives you fulfilment. Everything else will fall into place.
This series is one of the most original pieces of prose I've read since I joined. I hesitated to read it at first but I was hooked after the first chapter. You have me as follower because of that.
Lastly, I say write the next part as a giant fuck you to those Bastards.
Its what I would do, but I'm spiteful that way....
I see some things never change on this site. I still remember what Device Heretic went through before he finally said fuck it i'm done writing for this fandom. Best thing to do is completely ignore them not not validate them in any form, cause that's exactly what fuels them. That said, It's easier said than done. But remember, there will always be more people who enjoy and like your stories than there will be people who want to get a rise out of you. It's just a shame the latter is so vocal and dedicated to do so
I'll keep my comment short,
I started to read your actingverse after Deep Cover came out and loved every single one of them. They are psychological sound, nicely written and, on top of that, fun.
I see how some people might dislike it because of it contradicting with their idea how mlp should be, but those simply don't understand what Friendship is Magic is all about.
Be nice to others.
Be honest to yourself and those around you.
Help those who need it.
Stay true to those you hold dear.
Try to make people happy.
If all those elements are present, friendship will spark.
Funny that such easy things are so hard to do for most people.
Anyway, you are a good author and I personally enjoy your actingverse. Don't give up.
By the way, I just saw that I forgot to fav your stories, but that's dealt with now. ^^
I'm looking forward to reading First Take, I hadn't enough time to do so already.
Have a great day.
Okay this is something I will NEVER understand about fandoms.
If the theory, or picture, or audio, or video, or written piece of work does not agree with you MOVE ON.
Or at the very least leave an angry comment on ONE or THREE of the works and leave the person alone.
But no, you have to make it a vendetta to have EVERYONE see what you see.
Well guess what La de DA. I LOVE the Acting Verse. Who cares if you hate it...Well i still kinda do mostly to know why, BUT if it is just to Hate on the Author then you can just go to your rage cage, or whatever.
THIS site like SO MANY others is a place to Express ideas and emotions.
We run the gambit of having something like My Little Dashie, or Cupcakes.
Both have had BIG impact on this site BOTH good and bad.
THIS is no different.
What is SO wrong? Nothing.
Look dude (author) Whatever you make next I'll happily read it.
But what ever someone else say, OR what I say Seriously mess with you .
I want to see what you got.
And YOU bring out emotion. I want to see where else you go.
Incidentally, if folks are harassing you via PM, you should report it to the admins.
The comment sections on these last ones are a mess, yeah. Good call on deleting comments. Keep in mind that the haters are a vocal, but very small, minority. Most of us like your stories, even if we don't always let you know.
I like the Actingverse, and I sincerely hope you do decide to write Girls' Night Out.
Also as I type this, First Take has 265 upvotes (and probably more by the time you read this) and 9 downvotes, 6 of which you believe are trolls.
So isn't having a near hundred to one ratio likes to dislikes proof a lot of people actually like the acting verse?
Not to mention how each continuously reached the Feature Box and Popular Stories tab.
Your other stories are well regarded, but don't pull in anywhere near those ratings
Not all comments are worthwhile, and while freedom of speech is a nice thing to have, you are not obliged to let people shit all over the comment threads of your stories. Very sorry to hear you've gotten harassment because of the Actingverse stories. Some people are, as Rarity would put it, entitled toxic assholes.
It's a shame that you won't be continuing the Actingverse. I honestly liked the series (And secretly hoping that you'd make one for Amazon as well, but....
) I turned down at least 5 conversations in school to read this (at lunch time)
All I have to say is that, most of the best writers and artists have been ridiculed by those who don't appreciate the masterpieces. After all, many people will hate you for being brilliant the way you are. But their works won't go unappreciated. Because a lot of people won't be as close minded as those hating idiots.
I'm still hoping you'll change your mind, but if no, well, thanks for the wonderful series
Are you shitting me?! You are one of the few people still around that still DO amazing dark-toned stuff!! There's not enough people that can cater to my love of an honest, brutal, REAL world, Actingverse is one of the gems of that genre
I love ya' man, thats why you were one of the first few people I followed a millenia ago!