bookworm51485

I'm in a coding class now and I'm working on a final project, a faux fanfiction archive. I was hoping to get some advice on where to start and how to go about it and what you think should be included. It was suggested that I use php, take advantage of the bootstrap css file and to store files in a SQL database and I will admit, all of that together is... a lot and I'm not even sure where to start of what you include or whether or not storing 'stories' in a SQL database would even be the best option. I'm hoping that I might be able to get some advice on where to start or what I might need to make sure to not forget. Thanks

When someone whines about how people on government assistance are wasting her hard-earned taxes and then talks about how she has a desk job where she can sit and chat on gossip sites all day. When someone says that every hard-working person in the will be successful and that if you're not successful that means you're not hard-working. When I go to the mechanic and ask him to check my car because it stopped on the highway with me, and he keeps it overnight and then says that it's fine. Then it stops on the highway with me AGAIN.

Definitely, yeah. Yes. Yup. All the time. Today in fact :-) I'm of a mind that a writer doesn't improve unless they receive positive AND negative criticism. No story is perfect, no writer is perfect and if no one ever points out things that need to improve, how will you? I know that it's possible to self-critique, but often it just doesn't work well. Myself, for instance, I've been known to write a completely nonsensical sentence and when reading it back, consistently read it the way I intended to write it instead of the way it was actually written. This is something that someone else reading it back would spot in a second, but my eyes missed it. So negative criticism is to be embraced, I know I seek it out because I prefer for my final products to be as high quality as possible. And I agree, even after that final product has been put out and completed, there's no reason why you can't go back and change something. I will admit that frustrates me with some authors. They'll spell a character's name incorrectly, a location incorrectly, make a canon mistake or even a mistake within their own established universe, acknowledge it when you mention it (sometimes even say that someone else already mentioned it, in a snide tone), yet refuse to go back and fix it... I don't get that. But yeah, I've had some pretty negative responses to constructive criticism. I think one of the funniest was this one author who had maybe... 20 or so profiles. Yes, it was pretty clear that this was the same person. All from Canada, all using the same format for creating story summaries, and all stories the same basic variation of the others (even using identical phrasing at points). And when you'd send criticism, the response would consistently be NASTY and if you mention the other profiles, yeah... Somehow on one of the Yahoo fanfiction groups a couple of us came together and started collecting a list of all the profiles this one person had... It was pretty interesting and it makes you wonder what they do all day, that they have time to put up all these stories, even if they were all pretty identical. I had another author once sic her readership on me for pointing out that rape is not a plot device leading to neverending love. Got nasty emails for awhile until they quit. I had an author tell me that I had mental issues because I made a play on words joke about one of the characters that she, as an author within the fandom should have picked up on, and pointed out a few negatives. In this case, I actually included several positives before hand, but I guess those negatives were too much for her, and she went off. Tried to report it to the site (AO3) and the Abuse reporter was even more ridiculous (i.e. she essentially said that if you dare to leave negative critique for an author, constructive though it may be, you better bend over and take it if they decide to get nasty) And just today, I had an author take offense when I pointed out that her Mary Sue was a Mary Sue and defend her refusal to label her OC character on her story, even though her OC was the main character. Something she neglected to mention in the summary or the warnings and that a reader doesn't figure out until a few chapters in because of how she chose to write the character's introduction. As if fooling you into wasting your time reading a story about an OC when you know you have no interest in reading stories about OCs (I specifically filter against them on ff.net because I'm not interested) will make you a reader for life. So yeah, it happens. And often you can't do anything about it. It's frustrating as hell, but you just have to ignore it.... and post their story title and url on various forums so other like-minded individuals know to avoid like the plague.

I got my current laptop on the Black Friday just after they released Windows 8. It took me forever and I spent a bit more than I would have for an equivalent laptop with Windows 8, but I found a Windows 7 laptop at HHGregg. I'd thought about WIndows 8 but I went to Best Buy and test drove it and knew there was no way in hell I'd be willing to spend my money on that. I have a Windows Surface tablet and that's the closest you're going to get me to Windows 8.

First time I've been back on my computer and on this website in while. But school is finally out, so I can finally relax and it's such a nice feeling. I'm definitely not suited for elementary schools, the little ones. They're exhausting. I don't think I'll ever stop reviewing completely, but I likely won't do it nearly as often. Every time one of these situations comes up, it usually ends up reducing my will to review just a little bit. I still try to keep it up, especially when I find an especially receptive author (there is one on AO3 who is pretty awesome in that no matter what you say, she takes it in stride and will sometimes even use it to shape how she directs her story: bluedemon92), but I'm feeling less and less inclined. I've gotten a few requests from people to beta and I have one author who saw one of my reviews and PMs me on ff.net periodically asking me to read and review her story. The problem is I read it and it's not horrible, but it has a lot of issues and I'm not sure I want to deal with the potential response I might get if I give constructive criticism (even though she is asking for it). Eh, it's a hard thing, made harder by sites that refuse to do anything about the really nasty authors out there. Someone suggested that instead of a petition that likely wouldn't make any difference, I should just take personal action against the author and post her information so people would know what kind of author she is, so since I posted one good author above, I post her link as well: InnercityIsis. What's sad is that the story isn't all bad, it's mainly just the end where she completely jumps the shark (and of course there's the fact that she's a raging bitch as well:-P).

I get the other word that rhymes with witch :-P Though sometimes I got a really nice note from an author thanking me for a well thought out review and then expressing frustration that all they get usually are ones that are frivolous and butt-kissy. That's the only reason I bother anymore, otherwise I would have quit reviewing a long time ago. But even now, I don't review nearly as often as I used to. My reply to the author did get deleted though. I responded with exactly why her overreaction made her look like an idiot and she deleted that one, though left the others. I guess she didn't want the reviewers already rushing to her defense to see that one.

Wow, I wrote this post 6 years ago :-) It's interesting to see where we are now. Last year, the tried to close almost all of our libraries and cut the hours and staff severely at the rest, as well as giving them a pretty much non-existent acquisitions budget. We barely managed to save it after a LOT of protest. And we're coming up on the new fiscal year where they will again be looking to close almost all of our libraries... Yay, wasn't that tax cut worth it. Most people are still losing their homes, our schools are in the toilet, but we saved $200 a year and the idiot who was the main backer of this idea is now looking the run for president. Oh, and I almost forgot, they also tried to close a number of fire stations as well. This went over just about as well as the idea of closing all but 7 libraries (down from over 40)

I'm reawakening old dead topics, sorry. I will admit, this is kind of the reason why I hate bottom Sasuke fics, mainly when paired with Naruto. He's got such issues with himself and other people and such a massive inferiority complex that I just can't see him being on the bottom, at least not with any regularity. I think a lot of it is knowing the characters you're writing for and not just how you'd view the issue or how it usually exists in gay relationships, but how they'd view it. For some, it's a non-issue, for others it's a big issue. My two cents.

I have it set to notify but I'm usually pretty good about doing it. I think I last updated it some time in this past week.

I will do that as soon as I get back on my computer. Thanks. Hopefully that will work, though I guess I won't know for a bit. It does it almost every week and a half, almost like clockwork. It's weird.

That's my attitude in life. When I did my Comps, I sent my paper to multiple people and told them to be brutal, to rip it to shreds and let me know every little thing that they saw that was wrong. I didn't agree with everything and some things I left as they were, but ultimately my final draft was a lot better than the one I initially sent out. Criticism is the life blood of improvement. I love it. I just don't understand when/why it became a bad thing.

Was reading this comment and thinking this would be the perfect place to post this: https://www.change.org/petitions/archiveofourown-org-recognize-the-importance-of-the-reader Not had issue with this site with this issue, but other archives aren't doing so well. I just wish more people posted here in the Fandoms I follow, then I wouldn't be stuck going elsewhere.

I'm still on Windows 7 (I plan to avoid Windows 8 for as long as humanly possible). I'm only moderately tech savvy, better than your average person but definitely not knowledgeable enough to be called a techie. I've had my virus scan check the computer and I've backed it all up, just in case, but wasn't really sure where to go from there. To check the driver, would I be uninstalling/reinstalling?

And that's the best policy to have. It makes sense, it doesn't act like one side of the puzzle shall always remain blameless. Sometimes I'm a little blunt, but I just don't think I deserved to be called an odious human being or a pedophile. I do try to make it habit of either logging in or leaving my username with whatever reviews I give so a person can be free to respond (in a mature manner hopefully, I've had more than a few authors who've disagreed with my criticism and let me know, no name calling involved, and I'm okay with it), though I'm not in the habit of flaming (I don't see the point of wasting my time). Nothing I hate more than someone who's perfectly willing to spew all kinds of crap but doesn't have the guts enough to get the response.

I'm mostly lucky with Word. It doesn't give me too much trouble most of the time. But then, I rarely use it these days (thank God for graduation). I actually use WordPad most often. I'm actually having more issues with Windows itself than Word. Computer keeps blue screening at completely random points and I can't figure out why :'(

Never heard of LibreOffice. Have to check that one out. Might need it whenever the school decides to stop offering Office to their alumni for free.

I think, for me, the site's response bothered me almost more than the author. They saw absolutely nothing wrong with her response because ultimately it was my own fault for commenting negatively. For her, she'd been getting her ego stroked since this story started. Looking at her reviews, she could do no wrong in the eyes of her readers and she clearly got off on that. So my review would have been a tux awakening. But that the site wasn't even willing to say, "Hey, that was kind of rude. Let's not do that again" was amazing to me. And then that they had the nerve to blame me for the issue on top of that..? Wow. It's looking like AO3 is clearly not what they're being touted to be.

First, I can not tell you how much I agree with you. Second, I will admit to still having Word but I have a very good excuse. My alma mater offers it free. So... why the hell not. If I had to pay for it, especially as much as they're demanding these days? Not even a chance.

I was reading a story the other day, an Avengers semi-AU where Loki is a hermaphrodite (as are all jotuns) and he's paired with Steve. It had over 20 chapters when I started, so every so often on my way through the story, I'd stop and make a random comment in response to a question asked by the author or something she said within the chapter. Then when I got to the final chapter, I left a bit of criticism. Loosely stated, but it was legitimate criticism. Then I received this response: "okay, I was reading over your rantings and was all set to come up with a response to the constructive criticism part...what little there was...when I began to read further. You sound fucking insane. Ranting to me about wanting to see women's faces smashed on the floor and walls and going on about your dislike of women and the charm of little boys....Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you? I mean, I get it...fans can get a little manic...but c'mon, was all this necessary? Seriously...seek help, Bookworm. You obviously have some serious issues. As for the story...meh...you can leave it where it is and go find something more suitable for your women destroying, little boy loving tastes. Seriously...I think we can both survive you not bothering with me and my little work of humble fanfiction. In fact...I'd prefer it. This is so not about the writing as it is about you being an odious human being, and I dont even know you." My offensive reviews: "Or instead of girl, it could be a jotun and be both :-P Personally, I don't think women are that interesting, I think women are frickin' nuts most of the time. I much prefer boys. I think there's an appeal to little boys that girls just don't have. A lot of it having to do with this pressure to be masculine that we put on men and that preciousness of that brief time when they're young when they don't worry about it and they're sweet and affectionate and cuddly. That, I think, is far more interesting, but that's me. I still vote for both :-/ That would be a first. As for Thor, can someone smack him?" *This was in response to the author asking about gender in the ANs and a monologue from one of her characters in which she expressed how fascinating she finds women. I, personally, find the psychology of boys and men more interesting because of the pressure to be masculine and how it affects their transition from boyhood to toddlerhood to childhood to adolescence and then adulthood. If you don't agree, that's fine but I don't think that really warranted the implication that I'm a pedophile. And the comment about women being fricking nuts most of the time was a joke. I usually figure when I say something really out there that people would realize that it's obviously a joke, but I guess some people need it blatantly pointed out to them* "I think it would be quite enjoyable to see Hulk Smash their faces all over the floor and walls. And considering how handily he took down Loki in Avengers, I can't imagine he'd have too much trouble with them, especially with backup." *In response to some very nasty characters within her story and for anyone who knows this universe, a blatantly obvious play on words based on Hulk's catchphrase (which I attempted to make even more obvious by capitalizing the word 'smash'. I guess she still missed it).* No, the Hulk can't be knocked out that easily. Booo, the Hulk is like the ultimate in badasses. That was just a sad showing. Sad, sad, sad. *In response to her directly asking the readers if it was that easy to knock the Hulk unconscious. And you want to know how she did it? By throwing him through a wall. A regular wall. Not a wall made of Adamantium lined with Adamantium with a core of Adamantium braced with Adamantium with an extra layer of a substance created one the core of a dying star. Just a normal wall. I can't see how anyone who is even remotely a fan of the series wouldn't have responded similarly to a direct question.* "Oy. I was enjoying this story up until you did that thing that too many authors are guilty of. You have some seriously powerful players in your story, but you want the plot to go a certain way. So your powerful players all of a sudden become inexplicably weak and stupid and disorganized. It's frustrating. Frigga, Queen of Asgard? Won't take more than 2 minutes to take her down. The Hulk? Oh, all I have to do is throw him into a simple wall and he'll be out to the way. BUT we'll get taken down by Captain America, who subsequently won't be able to break out of the cell he was put in because it was built for the Hulk. The same Hulk that we took down by throwing him into a wall... Oy vey" *I think this one is self-explanatory* Now while I didn't expect that she'd be thrilled with the criticism, I didn't expect the degree of nasty I got in response. So I reported her to the site, which honestly has absolutely nothing in their TOS to address this situation. The closest category they had was harassment and this doesn't quite fit. But I figured since I wasn't asking for anything serious to be done in response, just a warning that that kind of response to criticism (that is not a flame) is not okay, I figured they might be receptive. Well, no. I got this response: " Thank you for your report. However, we have determined that the comments in question do not constitute harassment. As per our TOS: When judging whether a specific incident constitutes harassment, the abuse team will consider factors such as whether the behavior was repeated, whether it was repeated after the offender was asked to stop, whether the behavior was targeted at a specific person, whether that target could have easily avoided encountering the behavior, whether the behavior would be considered unacceptable according to normal community standards, etc. Your comments were repeated, but the authors were not. In addition, you could have easily avoided encountering the behavior. When you comment negatively on a work (especially by criticizing an entire gender as uninteresting and frickin nuts most of the time), you should be prepared to receive a negative reaction. If you are not prepared to receive that reaction, then it may be easier not to comment." So essentially, don't ever give constructive criticism because then an author can react any which way they want and we won't do a thing. Oh, and this behavior is perfectly acceptable according to normal community standards. And it's my own fault for having the nerve to comment on a story once for every few chapters I read and to include something negative in those reviews. No wonder people are afraid to review anymore. Because you can be abused in response and no one is willing to do anything, not even a simple warning. This was AO3 btw, the site which is supposed to 'save' us from ff.net, but as far as I can see, they have the potential to be just as bad. Just with porn not being against the rules. I started a petition on the matter, asking AO3 to recognize their importance of their readers/reviewers and include protection for them against abusive authors who don't want/can't take Constructive criticism in the TOS, so if anyone might be interested in signing it, I'll post the link. Even if you don't think this applies, I know we've all encountered authors whose behavior easily qualifies.

The teachers definitely have a lot to do with how they work out. I had another online class where we were forced to work in groups. By the time the class ended, I had to switch groups, and the teacher chose to be an ass about it because I guess I ruined his 'bird course'. But there's only so much I can take of a group leader who 'volunteers' (more like demands) the lead role, just so he can tell people what to do and feel like he gets to make all the final decisions, but doesn't want to bother with any of the difficult parts of being a leader. We were setting up powerpoints on various topics, and there were certain steps we had to take to get it done. Initial draft, review by the other group members, editing and corrections, putting the final product together and standardizing it, then again review by the group members. I was the only one who actually bothered to review anything or make corrections. And then when I did, they were completely ignored. Mr. Group Leader would just turn in our powerpoints as is, filled with grammatical errors, jibberish, slides that were formatted incorrectly, slides with words that were missing, etc. And we kept getting penalized grade-wise. And then I got constant attitude from said same ass and one of the other groups members. You know those men who think they're so much smarter than everyone else, especially when that someone else is female. So every topic I suggested was shot down in the most condescending, insulting way they could manage. That was it for me. I went to the professor, but he got an attitude. I think he just wanted to float by in the class, not actually have to do his job as professor and facilitate the process. So when I switched to another group, he penalized me and my group and rewarded the morons I left behind by giving them a higher grade than us, despite our project being FAAAAAAR superior, and grammatically sound. Oh and making a comment insulting the topic I suggested, "Well, this topic is actually quite boring, but I guess you did an okay job". That was the last straw for me. My experiences prior were never great (group members disappearing, people not completing their work on time, people not taking things seriously, etc), but I can't deal with that level of incompetence.

Why do teachers insist on including this as a part of the learning process? And even worse, when the classes are online. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy? Damn it I'm working in a group right now, that I'll be working with this entire semester, and it is so bloody frustrating. I wanted to meet in person, everybody's too busy. So we chat online, but how much can you really get done on a fricken chat that only lasts about an hour. And we only just started discussing what to do, about a week before the damn project it due. But my group members want to leave days in between chat sessions with only a vague idea of what each person will be doing. And then, of course, I love it when you have one person who volunteers themselves to do the easiest part, while volunteering you to do the hardest part. Shoot me, shoot me now. Please

It's sad that so many people don't know the difference anymore. I'm pretty blunt as well, I don't really see the point in trying to sugar coat it either. If a person's going to get offended, they're going to get offended whether you state your criticism nicely or not. I have a hard time sugar coating what I write, so I figure why expend the effort if they're going to get pissed either way I do agree, some people really can be overly sensitive. You mention that they need a beta and respond by cussing you out, stating that English isn't their first language. You tell people that they need to put more effort into correctly spelling character names and locations within the fandom they're writing and they get an attitude, telling you that it doesn't matter because everybody knew what they were talking about anyways. You tell an author that rape is not a good plot device and that having a person fall in love with their rapist is insulting to rape victims and they get pissed and tell you that if you'd REALLY read between the lines, you'd have seen that the victim really did want it, they just didn't know how to say (which if, of course, a widely accepted defense for rape ). And then, of course, there are the complete and total psychos that you get every so often. Like that one author on ff.net who has like 20 different accounts and refuses to admit that she's the same person, despite the fact that she is essentially writing the same story over and over again, with very slight variations. My main issue against them mentioning my name is that some readers take it upon themselves to defend their favorite authors by sending me hate mail. I can just delete it and it doesn't hurt my feelings, but when they get overzealous, it can be really annoying. I had one case that was pretty bad where 5-10 reviewers of one author I'd reviewed sent me multiple messages apiece to tell me what a b*tch I was. Fine, okay, I know I can be a b*tch, but can you please not fill up my inbox telling me something I already know. I did give her some ideas on other ways to get reviews, things I've seen other authors do that tends to work well for them: polls, extra incentives (if you have to time to write short side stories or omakes or something along those lines), trivia and even one author who kept a running log of points of her reviewers (she was writing a HP fanfiction, and each reviewer would self-identify themselves as members of a certain house, so poitns would be attribute to that house) to see who would win at the end of her story. That last one worked pretty well, last I remember she had over a thousand reviews, if not more, on her story.

I can definitely see that. Some authors really are quite proficient at the emotional blackmail and I think they get a bit of a high off their readers jumping up to defend their 'honor' like that. I had one author actually point me out by name specifically to get her readers to start sending me 'hate mail'. And when I take the time to write out truly constructive criticism, that just pisses me off. It's feels like, why am I wasting my time? I'm busy as hell. I'm in grad school taking a full load of courses. My brother's fiance recently died after they had a baby and he couldn't afford to keep their apartment after that, so he was evicted and things have been really hard for the entire family, trying to keep him and the baby afloat. If I actually take the time to write you a review in the midst of all that crap, and I don't write those skimpy, "It was awesome. Update soon." reviews, then I want it to be appreciated, or at least not attacked. What's funny about this case was the author didn't take offense to my review at all. She outright said that she didn't realize that it was something that was that bad and apologized, then thanked me for letting her know. So that after the fact review, attempting to discredit my initial statement had no real purpose. The author showed that her skin was plenty thick and she wasn't likely to just quit writing because her feelings were hurt. I think the reviewer was just really bothered because she felt that I was attempting to speak for everyone about something that just offended me. Given the number of sites at which 'review whoring' is against the rules, here included (I thought I'd remembered that being the case, but I wasn't sure) I don't think I am just speaking for myself *shrugs* And I definitely agree with the sentiment that what some authors do to get reviews and in response to some reviews hurts other authors as well. I know that based on a lot of the nasty responses I've gotten in the past, I don't make nearly as much effort to review, unless I recognize the author as one who truly is interested in constructive criticism. Like I said, I don't have much free time, haven't for awhile, so I feel like if I review it better be worth it. And so I often just won't bother if I know that something I say might offend or if I see the author mentioning not wanting flames. For some reason, a lot of authors seem to be under the misconception that a flame is a review with negative constructive criticism. If I'm going to be accused of flaming someone, I want it to be for actually flaming them, not taking the time to write a review so the story I'm actually interested in seeing continue could be improved.

I don't understand why some readers feel the need to do this. I'm big on trying to give authors constructive criticism. I don't review as often as I used to because I'm low on time, especially since I started grad school and then recently became an aunt under some pretty ridiculous circumstances, but when I do take the time to write out a review, it irritates me when people try to insult or discount what I say just because they don't agree Most recently, I was reading a story where an author asked for a certain number of reviews before they're post the next chapter. I'm sure that many here have feelings about authors holding chapters hostage for reviews, so they understand how I feel. So I wrote a review telling the author that that was a bit of an ass hole-y thing to do and that she lose readers and respect for that. So she responded and apologize, she didn't realize that it would bother some of her readers. She posted a review to apologize for it, mentioning me by name. I will admit hate it when authors do this, I will admit. I'm not ashamed of what I say, I take full ownership of my bitchiness, but some readers will take it as an invitation to send you 'hate mail' and I don't feel like dealing with that crap flooding my inbox (depending on the popularity of the author). So I skimmed the reviews for that chapter, when I noticed my name, just to get a general idea of what people were thinking and if I should expect crap, and saw this review: "I don't think you have a thing to be sorry for. You have given so much of yourself into this story for the enjoyment of the many readers following it. You have every right to want and to expect people to respond to what you write. I am sure as a writer it helps with the process of seeing how people respond to different parts of the story. To often, for many reasons, people do not take the time to stop and review. You have every right to offer an incentive to help encourage people to stop and take the time to express their views. Bookworm51485 should keep to only expressing what he/she feels and not to judge or attempt to express what other people might think or feel. I am sure they are able to let you know without the help of Bookworm51485. I love this story and look forward to the next update whenever you decide to post it." I know people want to encourage their favorite authors, make them feel good, but why do people feel the need to try to discount what other people say. It really irritates me when people do that. Like when I write to a person about them misspelling things and someone says "It's fine, I can still read it. Just ignore that person". Why are people so against constructive criticism.

Me too. Just not sugar-coated.