Malicious Intent · 7:06pm Jan 30th, 2017
I noticed something that made me just a bit sad today.
Sometime on January 27th, another Fimfiction user has gone through and downvoted all of my published stories. I counted that at least 7 of these stories were not viewed at all on that day (and in some cases, neither the day before nor after). I checked all the comments that I had made in the last few days (fortunately, not hard, given how few I make), and to my knowledge, there's nothing to have sparked a targeted, negative response. I mean, none of my comments were downvoted.
I am disappointed that most – if not all – of my stories bear a worthless downvote now, but I am more disappointed that someone was willing to mass downvote without reading them, or even communicating with me in any way/shape/form beforehand (or after). It seems the kind of thing that falls under the rule "No personal attacks, in public or otherwise." I don't know if this is worth bothering the mods over, because it's such a small action with small consequences, but on the other hand, if there's someone out there being butt-hurt and specifically trying to negatively affect others' public story ratings, I can uniquely identify their actions, even if not their identity. The mods, however, would almost certainly have no such limitations.
I never really understood such behavior. If you have a beef with somebody, why not let them know? Or at least act in some way that's not just confusingly vague...
It could've been someone who read your stories before they had an account. When I first joined the site, I spent days on massive upvote sprees, searching for everything I'd read and liked during my pre-account days (which was about 3 years), and putting them into my Favorites Folder. Of course, I also read fanfics that I disliked to various degrees, and a few of them probably deserve a downvoted. The main reason I haven't done that is because it would take a lot of energy for stories I didn't really care about, and I'd have to reread them to make sure they're actually bad.
To sum up what I've wasted 2 hours trying to say, it might not be someone whose being an asshole, it could just be someone who didn't like what they read.
P.S. Just to make this clear, for whatever reason you got those downvotes, I don't agree with them. I haven't read all of your stories, but the ones I have (Unhinged, PoSiE: A Typical Displaced Fic, Rarity versus Cancer Pagurus) tell me that you're a writer who knows how to have fun with their characters. I know this isn't a happy occasion, but I'm glad it gave me the chance to tell you that.
4403042 That is a good point. Even if it's true, though, I doubt that they would have legitimately disliked every single story enough to downvote it. Wouldn't it make more sense not to even read other works of an author if you didn't like the first one or two? At least if they are truly malicious, I won't be surprised if they find themselves a ban, at which point I think the votes should be dropped off.
I'm right there with you.
Even though I was disappointed, I've already stopped caring about the downvotes, but geez – why don't you just suffocate me with those warm fluffy feelings while I'm down?
Regrettable and bizarre, but there's not much you can do beyond move past it. In my experience, most downvotes go unexplained. You just got a passel of them all at once.
I know this feel.