Someone from back when I first started discovered I was still at it and gave me the same non-advice everyone always does.
DarkMoonZoroarkYou may have been trying to “help” him but that is his first story so cut him some slack Mr. Abandoned my first story. You definitely seem to know your grammar and proper writing but not everyone has to follow that to perfection. You went as far as to tell him to use tricks that would depend on writing style from what I’ve seen on this site so if you are trying to help him, give him suggestions rather than telling him how to write.
I don’t even know who you’re talking about. Whoever they are, they’re perfectly capable of talking to me themselves.That slightly mentioned it in their story in the author note of the next chapter but I felt I should tell you since if you do this a lot then maybe you should think about changing it to suggesting and not forcing “how you are supposed to write” on them.Don’t be so melodramatic. You make it sound like I’m demanding changes at gunpoint.
Allow me to let you in on a little secret: I have no power over authors. Absolutely none. Whether they follow my advice or not is totally, 100% up to them. I can’t do anything about this. You want to stick it to the mean reviewer? Ignore me. Don’t like, don’t read. If you block me you’ll never have to see me again. There are far too many fics out there for me to waste time harassing one person. But I’m not going to stop helping people just because a few people choose to take that option.
I know you are trying to help and I was saying I think it would get across better making it sound more like suggesting. They may not take some of the info due to it sounding forceful so if you changed the format a bit I think it would help people more. I myself was harsh earlier because I took the feeling of what reading your reply on a story I made would have felt like. Maybe it needs encouragement to make it positive to balance pointing out the errors. You know how to write great and I’m not nearly at the level so keep up the reviewing but consider balancing out the overall feel of the review[I think it would get across better making it sound more like suggesting.]
That is always what I do. Softballing it any further risks people thinking I’m not serious and nothing I say is a big deal so everyone can ignore me.
Look, if you have an opinion on how reviewing should be done, try it yourself and show me your results. Almost no one reviews anymore; more often than not mine is the only review on a story. Maybe if there was a healthier culture of criticism I wouldn’t have to be so negative.
Still at the game of harsh reviewing I see. You know not everyone is an expert writer with all the knowledge of the messed up English language. The reason there isn’t high levels of expert reviewing down to your perfectionist level is because THIS IS FANFICTION! No one is paying to read these so who cares if the grammar and spelling are 100% accurate. Do you really have nothing better to do than copying and pasting the exact same message from whatever text program you have? You don’t even take the time to write a new one each story, the same stuff over and over with a few things here and there. If you have the time to keep leaving these you have time to do the job right rather than half assing each one. In conclusion, hopefully that fire burns you one day as I’m sick of seeing it everywhere.Oh my bad, it seems you have learned to take the time to make it more for each story. At the same time the ones you do tend to come off completely hostile.I will change my reviews if you can prove your way works better, and I will stop reviewing entirely while you test it. Contact Farla if you would like to hash out details. If you aren’t willing to do this, shut up about how much you care about these poor authors, because you clearly aren’t willing to lift a finger for them.Did you know hardly any information gets through to them if it comes out as hostile? You aren’t even helping most of them in the end because of this, it’s a huge waste of your time on your part because you take this way too seriously for what it all is. They don’t need to be your level of perfect, again this isn’t for full authors where people buy their books. You corrected a guy for putting Arceus instead of God! That’s not a correction, that’s a choice they made for THEIR story, if that’s what they want you have no right to tell them it’s wrong. You need to find a way to dial it back a bit and make it friendlier, less demanding of every rule or just stop since anyone who really wants that information will find it pretty damn easily at this point. I don’t review often but honestly I’ve never seen your reviews on stories where they take writing seriously. Fanfiction is about writing what you want, the way you want because it’s your story. So stop being the damn police of creative writing and be an actual reviewer.
Now into how to fix it if you intend on doing this, first off learn who actually wants advice and who doesn’t. The stuff you send should probably be sent in a private message like this if they do want to learn.
Write a review about the story itself, the ideas and plot. Not how it’s written and all its grammatical inconsistentces. Put ONE example of something that might be better grammar/spelling wise before saying that if they want more tips to help them be a better writer, to contact you via PM.
That is how you come off as more friendly, help the people who really want it and actually review the story and not just it’s formatting
I’m not just someone hating on you, I really only want to make it better for everyone you included, people are really starting to hate you from what I can tell and that just makes it a bigger waste of time if the author takes it like it seems from everyone else. The way I mentioned is still formal but a bit gentler I would assume, with the added bonus of reviewing the actual story and helping those who want it rather than forcing it on them you know?I guess my message looked pretty hostile didn’t it? All I really did was state the facts and give my opinion, kind of like you do with reviews. Well I hope my ideas help a little bit and that you work more efficiently overall[Did you know hardly any information gets through to them if it comes out as hostile?]
Sure. I also know that most authors don’t see my messages as hostile and do take away valuable lessons from them. I know this because I am the one actually getting the responses. Stop acting like you’re an expert on this. Do your own reviews so you can point to some actual evidence or stop lecturing me.
You’re joking me right? Sure the ones who WANT the help will get stuff from it. As I said I’m only trying to help make things more efficient and less of a waste of time, you clearly aren’t “reviewing” the story as you are reviewing the authors writing skills so if anything send them a PM rather than putting stuff for the authors in where you should be reviewing their stories. I have all the evidence I need to see that you could definitely do better so don’t shoot me down as if I’m nothing because I do know what I’m talking about. Sorry for the “lecture” I just figured since you do long reviews with a lot of detail you would want that just as much. Instead I got the response of someone who can’t take criticism and “help” as much as he dished it out. Case and point review the story and not just the writing abilities shown in it if you are going to review.[I have all the evidence I need to see that you could definitely do better]
Where is it, then?
Seriously, if you have an archived list of reviews and responses I can look at, as I do, I would be more than willing to take them into consideration. Do you have this?Once again… are you serious? The evidence is your reviews, while I probably haven’t seen all of them I’ve seen quite a lot of them and I haven’t seen you review the story itself in any one of them. So there’s a good start to make it better, review the story itself as well. And also I don’t see how mine could show any evidence of being better than yours because we review different ways overall, I look at plot the emotional side with the ideas of the plot and how it progresses (how most reviews are) and you look at the logical aspects of how it’s structured and written. But I do know a bit about doing what you do as well, and while it does have more purpose here than for big time authors it still doesn’t have reason to be the only thing reviewed on a story of any kind. I’m not telling you to change what you do, I am suggesting ways to improve it. You said that making it sound any kinder makes it seem like you aren’t serious, where do you get that from? By the knowledge you have in there it should come off as more serious then the rest since, as you also said not many people really review. You still seem pretty damn hostile right now. I’m not trying to say I’m better in any way, everyone has strengths and weaknesses in different areas.[I probably haven’t seen all of them I’ve seen quite a lot of them and I haven’t seen you review the story itself in any one of them.]
Then you haven’t seen “quite a lot of them”, you’ve seen almost none. I review story all the time, and people yell at me even more for it. Go to our blog Dragon Quill, where I have both reviews and corresponding responses archived, and comment on those if you think you’ve seen any trends that could be changed.
[You still seem pretty damn hostile right now.]
I don’t know, maybe it’s because you decided to contact me out of the blue to patronize me with useless advice that’s the first thing I already thought of and disproved already? These vague suggestions are useless to me. I need clear examples of what phrasing and content I should do differently and evidence that they get a better result. Get back to me when you have that.
You honestly act like you are an expert as well. And the reason I messaged after two years was because it didn’t seem like there was really much change in the reviews I had been seeing now compared to then and figured I would try to help. You don’t need to act like you are better than me and be so rude about saying it’s useless information. While it’s not useless if you already had to think about that stuff, just irrelevant at this point since you dealt with it.
You didn’t say you had already tried it, you basically challenged my knowledge right off the bat.
I don’t know where you were reviewing but if you being slightly more laidback in reviews is making the people not take you seriously honestly makes me think that you are in the wrong place and those people don’t want help.
You seemed to give “tough love” in the sense of what is just slammed down facts about the writing format. I will take a look at that archive and let you know what I think. Honestly I just don’t like people who are harsh without reason and I do want to see them improved. You know a lot but always keep in mind a different set of eyes can spot different options you may not have seen.
I guess I can’t look at them as the website seems to be down, but honestly from what I have seen and learned all I can suggest is to just add a section talking about the story but not as completely factual like the wording. I would guess (by how you seem to be) that when you talked about the stories you were very factual and might nod of put as much emotional detail in along side it. In a logical sense if you were to get the balance right it would definitely improve your reviews as it would be an ideal review for sites like this. Both grammar and story elements being reviewed and probably less people hating on your reviews. Definitely hard to find that balance I know but I think that would make it better, don’t you?[You honestly act like you are an expert as well.]
Because I am, yes. I’ve reviewed more than 2000 stories over 2 years. What have you done?
Site’s back up if you want to look, but I reiterate that the best way to test your theories is to write reviews yourself. Seriously, the category is starved. Even if you’re not interested in proving me wrong, it’d be nice of you to throw these authors a bone.
And you have actually tried my suggestions? from the recent post you have put up there it looks like quite a few people have brought up the points I mentioned and if they aren’t new points to you why are people still complaining about these issues? To be honest I’m someone who likes to learn, so tell me. Why do you seem to act like you can’t improve and that my suggestions are useless information? Have you really tried what I have brought up? I honestly hate people who think they are above everyone else, just because you try to help people doesn’t mean you are higher than them. You may review stories and help some writers but you definitely bug some who want to write for fun. Point me to your trials of both suggestions that I’ve had so you can prove it’s something you haven’t tried. I’m not stupid not in the slightest, I may not be an expert in reviewing but I do know quite a bit about how people think and react to stuff. My suggestions are based off of how humans think and I’m using that to find what could be improved next.. You have positive effects I can see that much but the next step is to reduce the negative responses. There will always be people who won’t like how you do stuff and as I’ve seen quite a few authors don’t like your reviews. So stop saying my information isn’t useful seeing as you can still improve on the things I mentioned. You should never stop trying to improve and while I don’t have the time in my life to actually review every story like you do (I help people in different ways of my own accord in my time like I’m trying to do here) and that is why I am suggesting the ideas I am to help you improve further.Holy sweet fucking hell! You say you try to help people but you are not bending to help at all. You are making people do shit your way and calling out people who are different then big time writers! I read your whole string of reviews in your recent post on dragon quest and they made me want to slap you. Are you for real with this shit. One of the biggest things you need to keep in the front of your one tracked mind is that this is fanfiction and not even close to everyone takes it as seriously as you seem to think it needs to be. It’s meant to be creative writing so honestly stop challenging these people when you think you are higher than them. Improve how you treat people and REMEMBER HOW TO DEAL WITH THE REST OF HUMANITY INSTEAD OF TELLING PEOPLE HOW TO DO SHIT LIKE A ROBOT!!! 2000?!??! YOU MAY BE AN EXPERT ON ROBOTIC REVIEWS BUT CERTAINLY NOT ON HOW TO TREAT PEOPLE WHO WRITE FANFICTION. I truly hope you try to adapt to fanfiction otherwise take your reviews to a higher level of stories where they will actually be welcomed[And you have actually tried my suggestions?]
As you’d know if you actually read past the first post, yes. Many of the “special spotlight” posts are about the arguments I got when I did.
[this is fanfiction and not even close to everyone takes it as seriously]
Then why do they care? Why do you care? If I’m stupid for wasting my time on this then so are you. Either fanfiction reviews matter or they don’t, pick one.
And now, for the last time: if you want to stop me, do some reviewing yourself. If you can show hard evidence that you’re right, not “suggestions based off of how humans think”, I will incorporate that into the reviews. Even if you can’t find such evidence, I will have to suspend my reviews to create a clean environment for yours. This is the fifth time I have handed you the magic sword that will slay the mighty dragon on a silver platter. Use it or shut up.
Now, contrary to popular belief, I’m a busy man, so I’m not going to respond any further. Farla is the expert on this, so contact her if you want to discuss the terms of your counter-reviews. For anything else, contact us on the forums or Dragon Quill.
Hrm. I’m still too fixated on getting the last word. I need to train myself to disengage earlier.
They still haven’t blocked me, just gone silent. I’m thinking we should make a thread for the reviewing challenge that I can point people to, to avoid getting into these arguments.
[Fanfiction is about writing what you want, the way you want because it’s your story.]
If we were allowed to write like that, there would be an even larger slew of bad stories on the site then there already is. There are already lots of bad Pokemon stories alone because many people seem to think that the rules of basic writing don’t apply to Fanfiction – even though this was the minimum asked of us when we sighed up for this site. It’s like this guy’s using Fanfiction to justify that a story with massive flaws is void of improvement.
Honestly, it’s sad that some authors have such low expectations.
[YOU MAY BE AN EXPERT ON ROBOTIC REVIEWS BUT CERTAINLY NOT ON HOW TO TREAT PEOPLE WHO WRITE FANFICTION.]
I don’t get what he means by that. Is he saying there’s some universal law on how to treat fanfiction writers?
PS: I checked this guy’s profile out and, at this point in time, it’s completely empty. Hmm…
The most frustrating thing is that, on its face, I don’t disagree. I think more authors should be encouraged to stick to their guns and write what they believe in. But that doesn’t seem to be what this argument is actually about — in effect, they seem to be saying instead that no one should ever so much as imply an author could be doing something wrong.
My theory is that a lot of this comes down to insecurity. So many people read things into my reviews that aren’t even there. They’re the ones telling themselves that their story is garbage and they should give up writing forever, and they project that onto the responses they get. I really don’t know how to help those people, other than getting them away from the Pit of Voles until they’ve matured. Every attempt I make to get through and insist that no really I don’t think you’re the scum of the earth seems to have completely random success.
Not for the first time, I have to wonder what these kids are being taught in English class. Enough complain about their teachers and classes that I do wonder if it’s contributing to this.