...They forgot?

[Guest Alien Pirate Pixagi]

Have you ever had someone review on our story, then review it again some time later as if they had never reviewed the story in the first place?

This managed to happen TWICE in the last couple of days. TWICE!

The first was on my story "Sheepin Wolf's Clothing"

thrnbrooke  2005-06-07  id # 2035274365

Wow! If you end this here I may cry! Please say there is a chapter 2!

Then recently:

thrnbrooke  2006-12-13  id # 3000060714

Oh my! Draco's in love and he doubts their relationship. Does he have a reason to?

Is it just me or did he/she forget they read this story already?

The same thing happned with a differant reviewer on "Harry's Silver Hammer"

Briar (not signed in)  2006-01-27  id # 2035623042

I love that song and am glad that someone has a sense of humor about it everbody freaks out because it's about a killing spree*sigh* some people have no joy in life.lol thanks.

~Briar~

Then, recently:

Briar  2006-12-14 &nsbp; &nsbp;id # 3000061139

LMAO XD I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's one of my favorite songs. I love this. It's by far the best parody I've read on AFF. Hell it's probably my favorite parody ever. You're awesome. lol. You really made me laugh.

>_>

Did they seriously forget? For SiWC, it sorta makes sense because it was a whole 18 months later. And, true, HSH also had a considrable distance in time between reviews, but damn. You'd think they'd at least RECOGNIZE the story after they started reading it...

[Guest echtrae]

Were these stories that were WIP when the first review was done? Perhaps they were commenting on particular chapters? Who knows. I haven't had that happen to me.

[EveKnight75]

You think that's annoying? What about the serial reviewer? You know, the one who reads a fic, then posts an individual review for each chapter back-to-back within the same day. Every single review is exactly the same, or nearly so, and none have any relevance.

I had a reviewer like that over at FF, and I PMed him asking him not to do that. He stopped. Really, it's annoying, clutters up the review board, and serves no good purpose.

I do have reviewers who post multiple reviews for one fic, but they're significantly spaced apart time-wise, and each one says something constructive or useful. Usually, the second review is given after at least one new chapter had been posted since the last review. Even then, the review is specifically about the later chapter(s).

The former type of reviewer pisses me off more than a flamer ever could, even if each and every review is a squee. The latter is one of my favorite types of reviewer. It means that the reviewer is a big fan of the fic, has stuck with it no matter how slow I am, and reviews each time to give me honest feedback and encouragement to keep going. Honestly, how can one not like that type of reviewer?

Looking at your examples, I'd have to say that Briar had forgotten that s/he not only read the fic, but reviewed it already. Both reviews say pretty much the same generic thing. It's one thing to forget a previous review you've left if it was left a long time ago, but quite another if you read the exact same fic a second time around and don't recognize the beginning. Exception: the second time you're reading a heavily-beta'd version.

I can't say I see a problem with thrnbrooke. The reviews aren't exactly the greatest, but the second one reflects that s/he has at least actually read the chapters and paid some attention. Maybe if I go through your review boards I'd get a better idea of what you mean. Unless... there was no update on SiWC within those 18 months. In which case, there's also a remote possibility that thrnbrooke did read his/her former review, felt it wasn't good enough, and decided to add a better review (not much better, but I encourage attempts at improvement).

[Guest Alien Pirate Pixagi]

These are ONESHOTS!

Now, this is not to say that I haven't postd multiple reviews to a oneshot before, but I usually give it some time, and I make it clear that I have read the story several times and am only posting the second review because I wanted to leave something more constructive then the previous review.

[EveKnight75]

OK, now that cleared a lot of confusion. I'm even more convinced that Briar has a scrambled memory when it comes to fanfics. As for thrnbrooke, the only positive thing I'm going to hold on to is my remote theory about an attempt at improving reviewing skills.

[Nanaea]

Only our dear Megan. She's reviewed my one-shot at least four times, always asking for a sequel, even after the sequel was posted. And yeah, it sounds like they forgot. I don't understand that. I usually catch myself before I even make it half way through a fic I've read before. Weird. It's not like SiWC was forgettable.

[NightScribe]

You think that's annoying? What about the serial reviewer? You know, the one who reads a fic, then posts an individual review for each chapter back-to-back within the same day. Every single review is exactly the same, or nearly so, and none have any relevance.

ARGH!!!! Three words, EveKnight....BlackRosePhantom (or BRP) in the PotO fandom!!! Guilty of exactly what you're talking about, yeesh. Some of those reviews were just her fantasies and it's like WTF???

[Guest DarkAvenger]

My first fanfic ever has been the one that bated the most "repeat reviewers", lol. For some reason everyone keeps coming back to it and reviewing it again after months and months and acting like they've never seen the thing before. So odd, lol.

[StoryJunkie]

why do you get all the odd ones?

well never mind, prolly just has ads or adh whatever ...yeah...so

[Guest DarkAvenger]

why do you get all the odd ones?

I'm like a magnet, I attract everything and that generally includes the proverbial retards of the internet as well, lol.

EDIT - Somehow that seems to imply I'm the center of the universe, which is NOT what I mean to imply, ROFL.

Edited December 16, 2006 by DarkAvenger

[EveKnight75]

"Ladies and Gentleman, we now return you to Short Attention Span Theatre!"

What's the point? It's not like they remember what happened before the commercial break.

[Guest Alien Pirate Pixagi]

But that just means that everything is always new and fresh for them, Eve.

That little plastic castle is a surprise every time!

[Guest kirameki]

Well, I was going to say maybe they were re-reading the fic, and decided to tell you again how much they loved it, but especially the second one makes it sound like they really are just forgetting. Which can happen. I read so many fics, I don't really remember every single one, much less which one's I've reviewed.

[Guest Admkraken]

I read so many stories on AFF that it's kind of hard to forget which is which. It just depends on how much I like the story as to whether or not I forget about it. Also depends on how often it gets updated.

[Iggy_lovechild]

I read a lot of fanfiction too but I'm also very picky. I don't think I've ever forgotten reading a story, but then again, when it comes to writing I have a fairly good memory with stories. Especially if I liked the story, a certain scene will stand out in my memory even months after I've read it.

[bitBlackmage]

Sometimes I review even if no one else had. Like with this one story I really liked, there was nothing to really concrit so I commented on the events. Later, another chapter written just as well arrived. No one reviewed. I held off reviewing for a couple of days and then I said screw it. I reviewed again on the new chapter.

[Zimarah]

Sometimes I forget if I've reviewed something. I've gone back and re-read several fics that I loved, but then I go to review and I have to think, and then search through the review to see if I already have.

Perhaps they just forgot that they already reviewed.

In any case, they loved the story enough to read it at least twice. That's always awesome.

[Guest Monsterking]

Here is my view on this subject

i belive that all reviews with the exception of flames and really pointless annoying babbeling are an good thing and should be cherished. also the so called serial reviewers are also good as they show that there is somebody out there that really likes YOUR story and as an result that is clearly an good thing.

Peace Out brother dudes and may the furs be with you "WOOOOOO!"

[greenwizard]

Wait... In several threads you've shamelessly asked for reviews in threads that have nothing to do with reviews. Then here you say they're annoying babbling, but they're good. Dude, what are you smoking, and can I have some?

[Guest Monsterking]

What do you mean?

[shinigamiinochi]

ummm, actually, you totally just read Monsterking's post wrong. It said that Monsterking thinks that ALL reviews are good EXCEPT for those that are useless babbling or flames, not that all reviews are useless babbling.

[Guest Monsterking]

shinigamiinochi is right about that

[hanyou-elf]

in my opinion, just about any review is a good review. and i am one of those people who will review for each chapter of a story i read, or for a group of chapters. it's always a wonderful feeling to get reviews on the stories that i've put out there, and i can't imagine getting better praise on my stories than to have somebody react enough to it to leave me a comment, no matter how short, long, or how many times they've reviewed the same story. reviews make a person feel good.

and i'm even guilty of repeat reviewing, just because i can. because sometimes, you read a story and you react one way. and then you come back to that story, because for some reason it's stuck in your head, and you review it again because you react a different way. it's about reactions to a story that make you review (be they a good reaction or a bad reaction, you can not deny that you review a story because of it).

just because somebody's forgotten a story, and repeat reviewed is nothing bad. i know a couple of people who review a story once on this site and then they find the story again and review again. it doesn't necessarily mean they forgot the story since the first time they read it, it just means they reacted to the story again. and they want you to know it.

also, a lot of repeat reviewers are going to be people who read a ton of stories. it's not always easy to remember which story you've read, especially when you read a lot of stories. i have a reviewer that reads a ton of stories and even repeat reviews (i know because sometimes i get links from my repeat reviewer to stories that are similar or i would like based on my genre of writing *shrugs*).

while it can be a tad annoying (you're forced to think: is my story not good enough to be readily recognizable in a reader's mind?), it's also complimentary. at least they've come back for a round two.

[Guest Zanthious]

I have to admit, I’m a review junkie. I check for them several times a day, like some people check their MySpace page. It’s just fun. As to flamers, they are indeed a major pain in the ass. I’ve not had any on this site yet, but have seen it with others. And while I feel constructive criticism is a good thing, I feel that it is probably best given to the Author in an E-Mail, or PM, and not in a review on His/Her story. That takes away from the objective opinion of other readers, and tends to kind of lead their thoughts in a manner leaning towards the criticism just from having read it. It’s just natural, you just read it, so it’s in you mind while you read the story now. But, I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, just be nice about it.

As a matter of fact, when I post the next chapter to the story I have up now, I’m going to start a forum topic just for people to give me constructive criticism and what not. If nothing else, I think it will make for a good set of conversations.

[Guest MortiferLascivio]

This actually happened to me recently, I got a review from someone on the last chapter of my multi-chap fic, and then a few days later I got a review from that same person on the same chapter. I was like...wait, what? I mean, did they forget or did they just want to add to their last review? A little clarification such as "Sorry, I just wanted to add this on top of my last review..." or "I re-read this chapter and just HAD to review again..." Anything along those lines would've helped.

Also, I've had the repeat reviews, by thrnbrooke actually. He/She reviewed every chapter of my story with pretty much the same review. It wasn't annoying but it seemed pointless. The only thing different in the reviews was the chapter number: "Sooo need chapter 'x'".

If there's one thing in a review that irks me is when the reviewer starts writing about things that don't have anything to do with the story in SOME way...such as talking about WHY they didn't review the last chapter, going into detail about their personal life, telling me that they're sick today and all that. I don't mind people coming to me with this stuff, but perhaps an IM or an email would be better suited than my review page. I've gotten reviews that are extremely long (I love long reviews, but only when they pertain to my story) but they're only about some pointless stuff and then maybe a "good story, update soon" tagged at the end.

Oh and the reviews that are "I haven't read this chapter/story yet but I will later". And they never come back. O.o....