Glowing reviews for very bad fiction?

[BronxWench]

Oh, well, yes. It doesn't have to be nasty. Constructive criticism was what I was refering to, but some people take a helpful review as a mean one. Bringing someone down doesn't do anything, but rewarding them instead of helping them is just as unproductive.

::nods:: I adore concrit, I really do, and it has made my writing stronger. And even if you really want to write a review praising a story, having no concrit to offer, tell the author what you liked about the story or even the chapter. Directed praise can be as useful as concrit.

[naturechild02]

I agree with Jaded Star. I think people just don't want to step on other people's toes on here. Honestly, I'd like more constructive criticism with my stories.

(I have a lot of story between sex scenes.) Some people don't hesitate to comment on spelling or grammatical errors, which they should, but you rarely see comments about the plot of the story. As others mentioned before, there are different types of stories for different types of fans up here. The 'quick fix' fans don't care about story or grammar, they just want sex so if those scenes were good, they're going to give it a great review, regardless of the fact that the actual writing was pure crap.

To each his own, I suppose. I actually like a bit of both types of stories: pure sex and good story. It just depends on my mood. But crappy grammar and spelling completely turns me off to a story. I'll try to muddle through but usually just leave. Don't bother to review at all.

[Ajwf]

Reviews are kinda hard to come by for some people... I've always wondered how in the hell some people on FF would sit with 500+ reviews for a mediocre story. It, as you might imagine, disappointed me a bit. For 56,000 words that I put into my story, which probably would've ranked up in the top grammatically correct and most readable stories on FF at that time, I ended with 25 reviews. 2 were flames. Those two, by the same person, pissed me off to no end because he did it anonymously. Not only that, I was trolled because of a minor pairing in an adventure story. So, yeah... Reviews are very important to some people... Kinda like precious metals; they become more valuable the less you have.

I don't quite understand the system of how some stories flourished... Some people said that the author simply interacted with the community more. Or the people who initially reviewed. I don't know, I never did read an OC created story... Too little detail in those for the most part, review whoring. At the end of the day, though, one negative review from a well written author can completely shut a story down... As a reviewer, even if you are giving criticism, you can't go and crush someone's story, but to tell them that they aren't very good?

I will say this, I've expressed my issues with being unable to stand bad grammar... This is what always makes me nervous about reviewing. I care a lot about perfect grammar; for some reason, I have developed a slightly English writing style, opposed to our common American style of writing. I don't like it much myself, I cannot express my opinions well through my own writing anymore. That's the main reason I can't review. I come off like a major asshole 90% of the time. I feel that my review would be unwelcome. I would wonder if this is the same for some other people who feel like reviewing.

[Shinju]

I do not ever, on principal of the matter, give glowing reviews to stories that suck. I can be tactful and cryptic, and give points that could be improved upon without telling someone their story sucks however.

I care a lot about perfect grammar; for some reason, I have developed a slightly English writing style, opposed to our common American style of writing.

I actually find that concept very intriguing, as I love English Literature. Could you elaberate?

Edited June 15, 2012 by Shinju

[Ajwf]

I actually find that concept very intriguing, as I love English Literature. Could you elaberate?

On what, specifically? The idea that I developed a certain style of writing more towards an English origin than that of an American's writing? I feel the only reason I started to write in such an elongated style is simply because there seems to be a more formal etiquette behind it. An Indian professor, whom I had classes with, stated that English is a more circular language than American. American is said and taken at 'face value', whereas English will seemingly disguise its own meaning, or reveal the main point later in an article or sentence.

[reves_damour]

It's hard to find a good balance. It's abusable both ways, as bad reviewers can leave malicious or nasty reviews and bad authors can remove reviews inappropriately.

Personally, I think the author should come first, since they've invested a lot into it and reviews are mainly a tool to communicate with the author, and just secondarily with the public. The best way to let the public know if you liked or didn't like a story is to vote it up or down. Ratings are anonymous, not deletable, and visible in the listings.

[RogueMudblood]

But ratings are also spammable because of that anonymity. I don't even know if the ratings system is going to survive into the new code, to be honest. There have been many instances where authors are trolled because they write an unfavored pairing, and their story is consistently rated negatively - we refer to it as a "ratings-bomb". See this thread for examples of what I'm talking about.

Additionally, the ratings don't tell the author anything, to be honest. They could be trolled, they could be writing something poorly...without the review, there's no way for them to determine. They could be doing something extremely well - but again, unable to know what is liked about their story without the review.