Another Question · 3:36pm Jul 6th, 2018
Okay, some of you may have noticed that you can now disable comments and upvotes/downvotes on your stories. Now, I have... decidedly mixed feelings on this.
Now, there are some plus sides. This would make the site friendlier to new users. One thing, negative comments, and downvotes can kill a promising writer right quick. I mean, you all know the type of person who just spams stories with nasty comments (Not naming names here) and throws them into downvote mills... Er sorry, groups devoted to stupid stories. While I acknowledge that these groups are a good thing, as you can find the really bad stories with them for whatever reason, maybe to go all Mystery Science Theatre on them, I dunno. However, it's too easy of a feature to abuse, really as a few of you might very well know.
One guy decides to throw your story in Overly Stupid Fanfiction and the like, watch what happens. You get downvotes by the tons. Granted, on occasion these stories deserve it, but...
However, another plus side is the way the feature box works. I have had this explained to me by friends of mine over Discord -so you'll have to excuse grammar at times-, and I quote:
But with the way popularity works on the site via views and upvotes (half the time, the Featured list is some meme story or a cheap clopfic)
Sad but true.
Also, to further this point:
The truth is, the box is weird and it's not explained well enough or in a way new writers can easily learn about
Box is actually split into two sections, top seven are new stories, and the bottem 3 are the features
Theres actually a metric to the longevity of a story in the box based on word count, upvote downvote ratios, favorites, and like, 3 or 4 other minor things
I self admit, a lot of my featured stories use cuteness as a major thing. Maybe there's good writing in there, I don't know because of what I'm about to move on to as my next point.
There is another massive downside to all of this though, and that is, without comments you can't get any feedback. Now, I live and thrive on critique, (Which I all too rarely get aside from maybe minor grammar corrections at times) and it's helping me improve as a writer. But, take this away from a story, and you can't get that little luxury. Mind you, this is your choice not to allow comments on a story, but still. Feedback, in my mind is the singular most important thing a writer could have, it's your best friend.
Because, let's face it, if you get keep praised over and over, you're liable to turn into A, an arrogant asshole who thinks he or she is the world's best writer, or B, someone like Nick Sparks, who just puts out the same old tired shit again and again without improving.
Your thoughts and comments on this are welcomed.
I maintain what I have said since I joined this site.
Downvotes should require 100 words, to explain why it was downvoted., This would eliminate the idiots that just downvote to do it. This would also push people to actually read a story and not just "omergod my wafiu, you get a downvote!"
4895931
Exactly, it's like the Art Critique on DA in some ways, you need exactly a certain amount of characters before you can post said Critique, and you're right, this would eliminate a lot of problems and put a lot of trolls on their asses.
4895931
I agree with you on stating why you gave it a down vote. I have only given three thumbs down and I have explained each time why to the author. It is the drive by disliking of an author and this story has too many likes so I must add a down vote to keep it to my liking. The ability to remain anonymous on the internet has lead many people to be completely dicks.
Really I would if I where to ever start writing would turn off the thumbs up/down at the beginning but leave the comments always on as how can I improve with out feedback? Also I fear anyone who does turn off the comments will be having their inbox full of people complaining.
4895931
I have actually seen the opposite of that happening when that approach was attempted. Aholes leaving terrible comments and arguing with people. What leads to regular people not commenting.
4895931
Agreed. Reasoning behind the decision is important. If a story is just badly written, perhaps helping the author out might cause them to write better.
4896096
There's a certain story by ObabScribbler that springs to mind, and that I ashamedly admit, took part in with the comment war that ensued with it.
4896096
Ah, but we writers have a tool to deal with such, delete comments, and block/ban.
4895931
Yes, yes, and yes. Absolutely.