Good evening, class.

I come before you tonight as a hypocrite. A hypocrite guilty of betraying his own lesson in almost every aspect. For tonight, I wish to speak to you about proper etiquette.

No, this lecture doesn't necessarily apply to actually writing stories, but it does affect how your story is received. Your behavior around other members of this site dictates how they behave towards you. If your behavior is negative, recalcitrant, uppity, and making promises that it cannot keep, chances are that it will be reflected up in the like:dislike ratio.

Let's just make up a little scenario: You have just posted your first story, a scant little creature of barely 1k words that you poured your heart and soul into. Log off for a few hours and come back, lo and behold your notification box has a few new notifications! And (other than the obligatory Kurt Cobain related picture by Regidar) all the comments seem to be really negative, and the sudden realization hits you: People didn't like your story.

So you angrily reply to all the commenters, telling them that you'd like to see them do better! A scathing response to all the negativity. This is MLP! People are supposed to love and tolerate whatever you do, and your heart and soul went into that work!

Let's just stop the scenario. Our new author did almost everything wrong when he took in the reception to his story. First, he took the negative comments and downvotes as an attack on his person, rather than a reflection of the quality of his work. Let me tell you this, unless you turn into our writer from the scenario above, almost nobody makes personal attacks unless you provoke them first. The internet is bloated with people who like seeing others squirm in discomfort and turn red with anger from the safety of their computer chair, so try not to encourage those types by feeding them with your anger. Never, EVER respond to someone with foul words and rage.

Instead, we can take these negative comments as a sign that maybe we need to change things. Instead of telling people that they suck, actually try considering what they are saying as advice. If you get comments saying "No, just no." that is a decent indicator that you have probably picked out a story idea that is so overused as to almost be annoying if used. If a comment says something closer to, "Check your grammar and spelling." it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to invest some time in practicing your grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.

Second, don't ever actually reply to someone with "Love and Tolerate". It's an overused and mostly ignored thing from the early days on the boards of 4chan when those primitive bronies used it to respond to trolls. Sure, we may not live up to that long forgotten mantra, but suck it up, this is reality. If you actually puff out your chest and proudly proclaim "LOVE AND TOLERATE!", you'll probably be laughed at. We're all bronies here, we all know that ridiculous phrase. So don't embarrass yourself.

Finally, you have to think with some humility at all times. You are not a gift to the English language, you are not an artist with your words (Unless you actually are an artist, in which case you are. But you still aren't a blessing from Shakespeare to bronies.) So don't act like it.

We react to negativity by neutralizing it. We can neutralize a negative comment by responding in a positive and grateful manner. Remember, these people took time out of their day to sit down and read your story, so you must be grateful that someone even read your story at all.

Now, etiquette on this website can extend beyond responding to comments on your own stories. Say our new writer has decided to check out a few new stories from someone else. His eyes instantly fall on one with a dreadful ratio, and a growing heap of comments. He has spotted easy prey, and decides to swoop in to give his two bits on this person's work. His predatory gaze is soon filled with grammatical errors, missed punctuation, and the hated "wall of text". Going down to the comments, he begins his verbal assault. (I know, somehow this guy can't write to save his own life, but when looking at other people's work he suddenly gains a Masters in English.)

Let's stop right there. Let us consider how our writer felt when his work was scathingly criticized and beaten down with no real constructive criticism in sight. Probably felt like crap. I know I was excited the first time I submitted a story, and when I saw all the negative feedback, I wanted to curl up into a tiny ball and not leave my room in shame. So why would you want to do that to someone else?

The main rule here is the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If you don't like hurtful comments on your work, don't post hurtful comments on the work of others!

Kindness goes a long way in this fandom, and that applies to this site as well. If you think someone did a good job on their work and you legitimately enjoyed it, don't be afraid to give it an upvote and post an encouraging comment. Who knows, the writer may be so pleased that they will reciprocate that to you, giving you an upvote on your stories and giving you a reputation as a generally good person. Kindness begets kindness in turn.

Now if you really have nothing useful, constructive or encouraging to say, don't say anything at all. And if a story is nothing but poorly written teenage angst/wish fulfillment on a screen, just give it a downvote and move along. No need to kick the nest any more than you have.

But if an author actually is belligerent and uppity, I would just suggest that you sit back and just watch as the trolls tear him down from his lofty perch way up there in his inflated ego.

One last thing: spambots/plagiarizers. SHOW NO MERCY!!!

Pretty good lecture.

Got first reply, because it technically is.

Klondike is so very right! I endorse this manner very much so and hope many take the lesson to heart and not just for here. Treat others as you want to be treated but also expect to be thrown some curve balls from time to time. From there you just gotta learn to take a hit like a boss and stride it off calm and cool. It can be hard at times but it can be done. If you don't, even little things will crawl under your skin pretty quickly and will send you on the fast track to rage quitting.

That being said, the reverse also deserves an honest appraisal: blindly heaping on undeserved positive reviews. It's a phenomenon that I've been watching through most fanfics, especially ones from first-to-early writers who have friends on the site. Essentially, these reviewers will automatically thumbs-up and lavish praise upon a story, regardless of its true level of quality. Sometimes, it's not even clear whether they read a single chapter or not.

While it can be argued about an author's literary standards and preferences will ultimately dictate the rating they give, and NOT a certifiable gold-standard upon which to grade each fic equally, the end result is always clear: the author enters an echo chamber. In this echo chamber, they will focus solely on the blind praise that they feel they deserve, and continue to believe that their work is amazing and flawless even when it is not. Worse yet, any criticisms that appear that are not en-masse may be disregarded as trolls or, ironically, shallow-readers. The author, high on the belief that their work is perfect, will not seek to improve, and they will forever be pestered by the irrationally stubborn downvotes on their supposedly-perfect story. It creates a cycle of self-serving bias: the author writes something bad, the praisers blindly pile on praise, the critics are quietly pushed asside, the author is encouraged without feeling the need to improve, author continues to churn out poor-quality writing, repeat ad infinitum.

This cycle is currently leading to a thing I like to call Rating Inflation, where a story will receive so many up-votes out of no nowhere that it's difficult to determine the its true rating from the community.

The way I see it, both praise and criticism are essential to authors for gauging their own abilities and faults: praise acts as positive reinforcement, pointing good things out and saying, "keep doing that"; criticism acts as negative reinforcement, pointing bad things out and saying, "this needs fixing". But empty reviews rob the author of a chance to improve, whether positive or negative.

For authors in general: never use empty reviews as proof. If it doesn't give specifics or examples, it's an empty review. As bad as it may feel, you should be able to embrace in worthwhile criticisms. And as good as it may feel, you should ignore the empty praise to discover your strongest points. Always ask for reviews. Keep your head when they come in. And always, always, seek to improve.

And to us reviewers: don't give empty reviews either, because they don't help anyone. Even if something has been well-repeated in other comments, be sure to say it again. Be brutally honest, and keenly specific. And a little politeness goes a long way.

As much as I don't have a right to talk, Klondike, you've actually read a few of my stories;

Col. StaR Would be correct.

I've seen stories that I was legitimately shocked to see the "Up vote" to "Down vote" ratio. Typically, I praise this site as one of the most through and anal (For lack of a better term) critique Fic review sites on the web. Grammar, spelling, punctuation, character development, and so on; if you don't have it, you're typically called on it.

Maybe it was just the people online at the time, or maybe it was as StaR said; but it still had me nearly rip my raised eyebrow with how confused I was. Still good stories receive the appropriate praise, however, I've been seeing stories being featured that just don't make any sense being as well received as they were.

Maybe times are just changing and I've missed the memo.

543608 But there's no sense in being a complete and utter asshole about it. You can critique, you can point out flaws to your heart's desire, but there's no need to try and attack someone's emotions while you are at it.

543680 Oh, I'm not saying it's ok. Never done that to stories. As a writer, I can empathize with the pain that comes with that kind of "criticism". I hate it beyond belief and wouldn't do it to anyone else...

(Save Stephanie Meyer, but everyone knows Twilight SUCKS!)

This is MLP! People are supposed to love and tolerate whatever you do

AHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHHAHHAHAHHHAHAHHAHAHAAHHAHAHAH

It's an overused and mostly ignored thing from the early days on the /b/ board of 4chan when those primitive bronies used it to respond to trolls and hunt down woolly mammoths.

1. It's /co/, not /b/.

2. It meant ignorance, not being kind.

The main rule here is the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If you don't like hurtful comments on your work, don't post hurtful comments on the work of others!

If I like negative comments on my stories, would that make me liable to yell at idiots?

One last thing: spambots/plagiarizers. SHOW NO MERCY!!!

Aye.

I don't even know myself. I pretty much say nice things in the meanest way possible.

Brb, off to kill self

Hate and Persecute

I've learned to ignore the voting as much as possible. I "work" on my story every week. At the start my writing was weak and someone was nice enough to point out where my writing was flawed. Each week as I post a new chapter I got more criticism and I performed the research and adjusted accordingly. At some point I actually had improved enough that I needed to rewrite the first chapter because reading it I could see all the flaws that were invisible at the start. Comments and criticisms are these wonderful things that shine on the story and let me know how I can improve a skill that I love improving.

That said my constantly reworked, as of now 86K story, has 18 likes 3 dislikes.

There is a story I read on here. It was childish and poorly written. It's a love story about Octavia and Vinyl. There is nothing noteworthy or interesting about this work, and yet...With the exception of my comment people had nothing but good things to say about it. In fact people went out of their way to argue with me about the validity of my comment.

This story got to 3k and then went on hiatus and as of yet has not returned, it has 28 likes and 3 dislikes.

In order for me to believe that standards exist I have to believe that the like/dislike ratio is meaningless. I don't have a point with this, I suppose I'm just attesting to my belief that Col. StaR is correct with his assertion and that constructive comments are by far more useful than empty praise and upvoting.

You know? I actually had a "No, just no." moment when trying to express an idea I had. And despite it was kinda sad to hear it, the guy/gal was completely right. Just wanted to point that out.

Other than that, nice lecture, I learned a bunch from this!

Besides improving grammar, they could also always hire proofreaders and editors to help them look over their stuff.

Really good lecture. I like this!

Ooh, can I ask a bit of an etiquette question?
It's not exactly related to the topic, but since you mentioned plagiarizers, I have a question related to that.
Can you use other people's tangential ideas in passing? Like if Chengar Quordath has Winningverse and really randy Cloud Kicker, is it ok to mention that in your fic CK is also into banging? Or if, say, "Shummering magic" has OC who is Trixie's father, is it cool to steal the name of the guy, if you're only mentioning him once or twice?

543435 I think you forgot one, major, golden rule: Don't abuse the delete comment button. Believe me, I know it's a basic rule and idea of simple freedom of speech, but some fledgling authors silence criticism by removing the comments.