Leaderboard

I am not a politically correct person, so do not expect me to mince words in this rant. I have plenty to say about the frauds who plague this and other sites. :sarcasm: is now in session because I have already read all of the favorite nauseating, too often written, worn out excuses that have triggered this overwhelmed frustration induced rant. I do apologize in advance for this being such a tactless tirade. I really need to get this off my chest because I am so frustrated with things I continue to read every time I come here. What is the point of writing if the document is a thoughtless piece of slop without merit pounded out willy-dilly on a whim, and posted without revision? Why do some people insist upon placing such infantile things in the archives, and then get angry when someone with a basic grasp of English structure mentions a few of the problems that need addressing to create a better reading tale? Why do some individuals whine incessantly about contrit feedback, instead of considering that there might be a real problem which can be corrected with a little expended effort? If one does not understand the foundations of proper grammar and spelling, why insist upon being vile to those who seek to give actual valid aide? When did writing become a place for cop outs and egotists? Who ever said that everyone should be patted upon the head simply because they bothered to put something up at a free site like AFFnet, or FFnet? What have the lazy done to earn a touch of praise and accolades for the illiterate slop they insist upon posting? Absolutely nothing gets done when a poorly written piece is added to the archives is my response. Give feedback to such frauds, and they delete the reviews, or proclaim concrit reviews to be trolling! Such frauds are too infantile to accept that they can improve if they get off their lazy butts and do a little research! YE Gods Forbid that such individuals ever face the wrath of a genuine editor. I can see the suicide rate escalating fast if they ever had to remove the blinders from their eyes. Such people are the bane of the writing hobbiest, and professional alike. What is the point of giving reviews if the writer is unwilling to consider critical mistake portions of an honest review? Why do lazy, insecure asses bother to beg for reviews while remaining too immature to give such reviews any thought toward self improvement? How can people call themselves writers when they are so obstinately unwilling to learn how to take a fair reading story, and make it into a genuinely beautiful tale that is memorable? Why do such frauds feel so compelled to provide a plethora of meaningless excuses for their mistakes, instead of attempting to change for the better? The reason for my ranting questions: I am so sick and tired of the whining, lame excuses that the vast majority of writers like to pull out of their asses. People seem to love bellyaching, and giving excuses to avoid improving anything they slop together and post. To me, people are flat against learning the diverse aspects, and complex elements involved with writing style. I am also fed up with jerks who refuse to pull their heads out of the asses when it comes to a reasonable review meant to give genuine help. Nobody is attacking when they send a review that something was messed up when they mention grammar/spelling problems. Any idea why I might be so angry about the plethora of bull I read in forums, and in author's notes in the main archive? Reality Check: I had a massive stroke a few years ago. It took two years to get to the point I could use my right side again. Then, I had to reteach myself from the foundation up how to read and to write a second time. Everything that I know I should recall from my time as an employed editor in the 90's was locked behind a wall of damage that I struggle to break down every single day of my life. I also have Dyslexia problems complicated by fine motor skill nerve damage. Do I use these difficulties as a knee jerk excuse for instances of personal, poor writing? THE ANSWER IS HELL NO! To my way of thinking, real writers strive to overcome their disabilities, not use them as a crutch to languish within their flaws! I bought grammar based books and read them repeatedly to recover my lost knowledge. Due to a little thing called effort, I regained the vast majority of the information I once lost due to a life threatening medical crisis. Therefore, I do not give crackpot reviews whenever I take time to read over and consider the most glaring problems I see within a story's structures. I fine comb everything I write repeatedly to get rid of every flaw before I post anything. Yes, I do miss things, which I correct as I get a chance. A person who reads my work can return seven months later to find a lot of mistakes are corrected. I abuse my edit chapter button every few weeks, based upon the errors I get told about when someone reviews my stories. Whenever I give a review to someone, I always endeavor to point out the strengths, and the weaknesses of each story I have read. The reviews I give carry my hopes that the input will help complete strangers to revise their stories to add strength to plots and characters that were devised. It is a real insult to all reviewers who give thoughtful feedback when the reviews get deleted by such frauds who pretend to be writers. Very few writers I have personally reviewed have retained my concrit reviews. Those who have kept their reviews, I am grateful to you for doing so. Your strength in keeping my review prevents me from becoming completely sick and tired of the constant flow of disrespect given to those who take reviewing for others seriously. Put bluntly, I have seen the signs of a real epidemic of fraudulent whiners begging for reviews that are insincere. The ongoing blasphemy of it all has finally tweaked my last nerve. The majority of said frauds beg for reviews in every single chapter's author notes. My conclusion is that such begging for reviews is a form of blatant "stroke my ego or else" guilt tripping. "Please review because I live for reviews," is a blatant lie 9 times out of 10 in my personal experience with giving reviews. That type of bullshit line now reeks of the biggest attention seeking ploy in existence to me, as a reader. In the vast majority of cases I leave very tame comments compared to my actual reactions to such writer's stories. I refrain form taking every single line and pointing out the problems. If the writing is atrocious enough, I am reduced to perhaps you should use your spell/grammar checking features before posting in the future. Getting reduced to such a flippant response really hurts because I would not be writing a review at all if I did not see some kind of merit within the story. I would simply back click and be done with the author, and everything else they may have posted. I do keep a list of the unreadable slobs so I do not have to hurt my eyes by accidentally clicking on anything the royal stink writers have added. During the last three weeks, after seeing how often that line accompanies a deletion of my reviews, experience tells me to avoid such authors as if they have the Black Plague. To date, seven out of every ten concretely focused reviews were erased because my input was not a fanpoodle. My honor code from my previous career as a "shred the writing to get it corrected in time for the sales team to make a profit from it" variety editor experience does not condone "I love it so keep writing" variety pat upon heads. I do apologize for this being such a tactless tirade. I had to get this off my chest because I am so frustrated with "poor me syndrome" type commentaries.

fanpoodles are not so much empty reviews, although that's what they tend to leave, is meaningless reviews, but the clique of reviewers who "squee" for no apparent reason, and review and make popular some absolutely DREADFUL writing. Yet, because it's (the story) for a popular pair, for example, it'll get reviewed and highly rated whether or not it actually deserves it. What's even worse, is that often, the writers who HAVE all the fanpoodle following tend to be rather divaish in behavior. To me, they don't so much seem to be writing for the craft of it, but more for the ego boost. I suppose as someone who cut their reading teeth on the likes of Homer, Asimov, and Tolkien, I tend to be a tad picky...

Not to mention it's not even FINISHED yet.

I completely agree. And as a writer who really does live for reviews, these liars give me a bad name. I love reviews, honestly and sincerely. I may not have dyslexia (thank whatever deity was responsible for that), but I do have chronic depression and intense agoraphobia. These may not seem like they'd be pertinent to my writing, but the truth is, I write to alleviate the depression, and sometimes my readers are the grand total of my social interaction for weeks at a time. Knowing that people read my work, enough that they will write a review, helps me stay even keeled. I don't care if the response is "You switched tenses for no reason here, renamed a supporting character (yes, i did that, this is why we don't type under the influence, kids) and then later a guy who hadn't been introduced showed up out of nowhere and I don't know who he is, etc." I actually like complaint reviews, because they help me grow. Of course, I also love it when a reviewer says "I like the way you did this scene, and your OC has a dynamic personality, etc." Who dislikes praise for their work? My only pet peeve as far as reviews go is what I call anti-flamers, or as Kurahieiritr puts it, fanpoodles. The people who say "Great job, nice work, keep it up!" Ok, so you like it, great, but for the love of the Muses, can you at least tell me why?!? Is my descriptive work the 'great job', or is it my dialogue 'nice work', or should i stay with the pov format I was using, or was something else? I spend more time agonizing over vague compliments than over flaming trolls. Unless I'm writing a fantasy involving the spontaneous-combustibility of troll-kind. Then the logistics of burning underpass dwellers takes top pick.

Back when I wrote non-erotic fanfic in a very popular fandom, there were several other authors (all met through FFN, where we reviewed each other's stuff) for whom I betaed and who betaed for me. Now, though, I'm writing erotic PHINEAS AND FERB stories, and other authors who do that (and do it well enough that I would WANT to beta for them or to ask them to beta for me) are extremely rare. Even my wife won't read my stuff--the very idea of P&F erotica freaks her out. That said, I'm a much more skilled writer than I was years ago, so I feel like I can make do without a beta somewhat better than I could have back then. However, I still find that I don't really have any sense of the pace of my own stories; to me, scenes that are a page or two long often seem far longer, because I've reread them or replayed them in my head time and time again in an effort to get them right. I think I've completely lost sight of whatever point I was trying to make in the post. Maybe someone could beta it for me.

This is a good rant, I to am dyslexic, and like you I work hard checking and re-checking my stories before I post them. By the time I post, I have likely read it 6 to 10 times, and still I end up missing a lot of stuff that I get told about in reviews. Whenever I am informed of mistakes I make a mental note to re-read the story and fix the problems. Lastly I have never deleted a review, even if I didn't agree with what was said.