Heavy Mist

I guess I should be ashamed of myself. I always appreciate the reviews I get and I always ask for them, but I hardly ever review myself (which partly has to do with the fact that I don't read many stories and that only finish about one out of five). But I'm not.
Sure, I love my reviews and it's great that someone took the trouble to write something for me, but, as several others already pointed out, one-liners with capital-lettered words and typos are nice and all, but other than telling you that someone is out there reading the story, they aren't really helpful.
But that's most likely what my reviews would be like and I don't feel the need to add something like that when there already were people before me who wrote more or less the same thing. I would review if a story didn't have any feedback yet and I also review when someone asks me to or if I have a question or something like that, but then I will make a point to write more than "good chatper update SOON", because you can only hear something so often before it gets boring.
I'm also a bit cautious about writing negative reviews. Firstly, because English is not my mother tongue and even though I sometimes notice spelling or grammar mistakes, they don't really bother me and I know that I make a lot of mistakes myself (which my beta is kind enough to correct). And secondly, because I don't think that I'm in any way a tactful person and I know from experience that such criticm often sounds harsher than was intended and I really don't want to be the cause for anyone to take down their story.
I can understand that it must be hard if you don't get any reviews, but I doubt that you would really appreciate it if someone said that your story sucks or something like that. That's something that would compel me to think about taking down my story... It's okay if someone really knows how to give constructive criticm, but no one likes flames. (Well, okay, I mostly find them amusing, but that's another story...)
Like I said, it's not quite fair on my part, but I think it's better that way- for both me and the stories I don't review...
Dinkel

I definately can understand someone maybe not reviewing, but gosh, there is the RATE button, I mean it doesn't get any more easier than clicking the RATE button if you really don't have any review to write. At least the author can get an idea of how you 'rate' their story that way.
Even I have had days I cannot leave a personal LONG review in an authors review section, but I at least click the rate and give them their 5 stars... I mean c'mon, it takes what... less than one 30th of a second to click that rate button?

I don't have a beta myself, largely because my fandom pieces are not in wildly popular fandoms and I do want someone who gets the 'verse in which I dabble. My original works, well, I have no excuse there other than not really knowing anyone I'd pester to beta for me. But I do also welcome concrit and delight in having someone point out where I can improve.
I have an inner Grammar Bitch who is relentless in terms of pointing out errors in punctuation, and who has made me twitch for years when I write dialogue that is not grammatically impeccable. Honestly, we aren't all known for flawless exposition all the time, and dialogue can sound stilted if you force the issue. I have manuscripts that will never get out of first draft if I don't reign in my tyrannical inner editor. I'm overly critical of myself, and the fact that I hit the publish button at all is amazing.
There should be a fine line between my obsessive self criticism and the blithe disregard for convention that triggered this thread. It would be refreshing, anyway, given that a great many of the people who can't be bothered to try and clean up grammar and punctuation errors are the same people who are upset by the lack of reviews on their stories.