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::chuckles:: I promise not to pummel anyone. I'm going to speak strictly as an author here, and not as staff, so keep that in mind. I love reviews. I love the quick "That was great!" reviews, and I love when someone takes the time to leave a long and thoughtful review chock full of the kind of concrit that will make me improve as a writer. I like to know what works, and I like to know what doesn't, because I'm not suffering from the delusion that I'm awesome. I'm good, but I can be better. Lots better. Now, I don't care if you want to leave me a quick line, and then come chat on my review thread. That's wonderful, and I'd love to hear the concrit portion there. I'm fine with forum PMs, too. But the whole point is that I like to know I'm not just wanking here. I like to know people are reading, and I like to know how they reacted to what I wrote. I don't always have a lot of time to leave long reviews, but I'll try to at least say something if I take the time to read a story. If I get the feeling an author wants real dialogue, as opposed to just pats and squeals of delight, I'm happy to chat more. That's how I've met some marvelous people. I won't fanpoodle, though. That is just beneath me, and anyone over the age of twelve, actually. You want blind adoration, get a dog. I'm more of a dragon myself.

Hi all. Seems like a lot of folks get upset when it comes to reviews, or rather lacking in receiving them. I've done my best to give feed back to the other writers in the Initial D section I'm adding tales to, but due to having vision problems, I can't always read the stupid captcha to actively leave a review I have typed up. If I can't get something clear enough to make sense of, the review won't take. Could this be one of the biggest reasons for the lack of reviews everyone seems to have? Once I get frustrated enough I give up. I use the control + symbol a lot from my Firefox browser to increase the stories to an easier readable size. However, Captcha does not get bigger when I try that trick to leave a review. I know it has frustrated me personally. I wonder if other older people who love to read a lot are having a similar problem to me. Us granny types can't help having bad eyes. When possible I leave reviews qhen one of the kids are around to tell me the captcha so I can go back and leave a review whenever possible. My series of completed stories are going into a very small archive that only has two pages worth of stories which I am doing my level best to turn into 3 pages by loading a fully revised copy of all my completed stories from another site. I know I have had lots of trouble leaving reviews when I can't always get a captcha I can read and type in, so I don't actively expect many reviews. I look at the hit counts and use that to measure whether people are enjoying the story. All I can say is I wish there was some kind of chapter break down for the hit counts so I'd know whether the story is read through to the end or not. I think if I had a way to tell if a story gets read all the way through, it means people like it. IF it is not, then I know it has flaws. If it has flaws, I'll need to look for an editor of sorts. IS there something in the works that might address that kind of ego booster?

I think most of us are in the same boat here. We feel offended with opinions and we struggle to express opinions without offending. >_< We artists are such balanced people! But I must say that I don't agree whole-heartedly with everything that's been said. I rarely review- -Don't pummel me before I've finished-! -and when I do review I PM them. Well most of them if the option is there. And if I don't feel like I am annoying them. And they were recently online. And... oh whatever I PM them! Okay? My own opinion is, and please this is my opinion you may pummel me with apples should you feel the need, is that if you write an in depth review it is for the authors eyes only. The reason why I feel like this is because my own experience has had me cross paths with people who take GREAT satisfaction in telling you exactly what is wrong with your story, with an attitude that can't be called rude but definately 'Better than thou' This has thankfully not happened on AFF though but people are very sparse with reviews at the same time This 'better than thou' attitude has led me to believe that some reviewers review to get attention for themselves, and to show off how good they are. And awesome and smart and pretty and.... *sigh* it makes me feel inadquet for some reason. It also curbs that 'I need reviews to show how good my story is' bug. Because the person gets an indepth (well as deep as I can go with my choop wings) idea of his story and doesn't feel like the mistakes are being broadcasted all over the world. My opinion as I stated >_> So personally I don't mind if people don't review. Because I don't always review myself. I appreciate it whole-heartedly, like seriously I go nuts, and if they review my story I will review theirs. But... I would rather send a PM if I can rather than posting it on the story. And if they request I will happily post something on the story itself, which will still be honest but not glaringly pointing out the faults. AFF does not offer PM's and I'm not comfortable with sending it to the forums because not everyone is active on them, so they might miss it. Right. I get the idea alot of people are glaring at me and hankering to throw the very sharp objects they are holding O_o... *Puts on armor and helmet* Proceed to beat me into oblivion!