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I know that we ALL have seen this one... you open a fiction because you see it had a score of 5 out of 5 and glowing reviews only to find that it is so poorly written and has such bad grammar that it's all but unreadable. Then you begin to wonder just how it got those reviews and the rating it has. My question is this... are people who do such a thing doing an author a bad turn by only giving praise and not pointing out serious issues? Does it help them in any way other than to feed their ego? Should people really make those reviews and ratings count by giving the story just what it deserves rather than artificially elevating it? What do you think?

Prompt: Tradition Please remember to follow the rules as outlined here: Rules Happy Writing!

Pen Name: Fairy Slayer Story link: A Slick Tradition Type of fic: FlashFic (only one word to spare) Rating: Adult+ Fandom: Misc Cartoons > General: Phineas and Ferb Pairing: Gretchen/Adyson+Ginger+Holly+Katie Warnings: Bond, ChallengeFic, COMPLETE, f/f+ moresome, Finger, loli, Minor2, Oral

Pen Name: Asexual Biped Story link: Tradition made me do it Type of fic: Twitfic Rating: Adult Fandom: Original Pairing: N/A Warnings: None really, NoSex

Name: ZipFlopOhMyGod Link: Hegemony Pairings: None Fandom: Original! Warnings: No Sex Type: Flash fiction, WC 972

Pen name: Pittwitch Link to story: Tradition http://original.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600102842 Pairing: None Fandom: Original Warnings: No sex, easily follows Harvest or stands alone. Drabble: 100 words, no more, no less.

Okay, did some tinkering. It should now work without having to dig through the skins or rewriting a subroutine

When I review, I try to make a point of saying at least one good thing the author has done right and at least one bad thing the author could improve on. Once that's done, I write my general impressions and let my judgment tell me if I need to add more praise or point out more stuff that could be fixed. Above all, I try to be fair and polite, because I've come across as a troll/flamer before, since I have a hard time "cushioning" criticism. If I think a character is a dick, I'll tell you he's a dick. If I think that the sex scene lacked realism, that's what you'll be hearing from me. But lately I've been trying to sound more humane. It's a selfish thing, really, because if the author is offended by my review, they'll disregard it, making me waste the time I spent writing the review in the first place. When I receive reviews, I am oh so very wary of praise. It's not that I don't like it (on the contrary!), I just don't fully believe it. When I see someone saying "Oh, you're such a great writer!" or "This story is awesome!" I just narrow my eyes and go "...okay. Thank you!" and wonder if they really meant it. Of course, longer reviews like the kind I write are actually heavenly, because I can get a better idea of what the reader actually thinks. Those are the reviews that make me keep on writing. But on a broader scope, I think that you can't improve without criticism. A single review that points out your flaws is much, much better than 100 reviews that praise how awesome you are. If you can have both, great, if not, tough shit, life ain't perfect. I do think that people should give more feedback, of ANY kind, but that's probably what 99% of all authors around here believe.

I've seen this more than I care to have seen in my lifetime as a writer. Personally, even if I like the setting, the pairing, even if everything all kind of lines up perfectly.. I still critique it. I point out what I felt the story's weakest points were. That's just me, of course. For the most part, however, I generally disregard glowing, positive reviews for a bad story as the person's closest friends, group members or even themselves. For all the critique a bad story deserves, equal praise should be offered simply for the effort and bravery of putting their story in the line of fire, so to speak.