Deleting Reviews

[Guest Alien Pirate Pixagi]

I came across an author I can't stand earlier today that I had come across a little over a year ago. Her stories are... well... a crime against fandom. When looking at her reviews, I noticed that even though her stories are ABSOLUTELY atrocious she has over 40 GLOWING reviews going on and on about how they love her works without a single negative review at all. Hell, there aren't any constructive reviews either, good or bad.

She's not the only time I've seen this either. Indeed, many stories have been tossed around here on the forums of shitty writers who refuse to listen to reviews that are aimed at helping them grow as authors, writing all such reviews as flames.

This is not to say that all review deleting is bad. I've deleted reviews (mostly in the Rants/Journal section, since most people can't READ for some reason... argh...), but never concrit, whether it be positive of negative unless it was a hasty, "I only read the first paragraph and got mad" deal.

So, where's the line? When does it stop being clean up and start being a case of ONLY wanting glowing reviews?

[teeta]

Hmmm ...

I never delete the reviews, why do that when someone went to lengths to leave one for me? Every review is preciousss ...

But seriously ... if I post something, I must be ready to accept both good and bad reviews. Even the flames say something about my story (not that I received many, maybe two? Still they are there, among the reviews, not touched).

What I WOULD clean up ... I saw a person who was leaving junk reviews, literally. They were pointless, filled with dumb blabbering. The person who left them, made a lot of 'noise' demanding the story to be updated now or else ... and here a string of stupidity ensued ... and this person tended to leave 20 of such reviews in a row! THIS I would erase immediately!

[Nanaea]

I don't, mostly because my reviewers have all been nice. If I got a flame (not concrit, but a true flame) I would delete it.

I've been tempted to delete the mutiple Megan reviews on a couple of my stories just because they all say the same exact thing, but meh, I'm lazy.

[Guest Alien Pirate Pixagi]

Hmmm ...

I never delete the reviews, why do that when someone went to lengths to leave one for me? Every review is preciousss ...

-stares at your page. Dies of hate-

...I dunno, I think you can stand to loose... oh... say... 800...

I hate you.

Not really... but damn... I need to get around to actually finishing Chaptered fics so I can get over 100 reviews.

Glowing, I might add....

-staps Teeta and ganks her reviews- MUAHAHAHA!

[Iggy_lovechild]

Though I picked the 'no' option in the poll, I must admit that I delete flames. I mean the ignorant, fucked up flames, not just someone who didn't like my story and told me why. So far, I've only done that once...and it was on a different site.

[teeta]

I have a friend who received a few ugly flames, really ugly ones, with swearing and accusations of racism (unjustly so!). She did have a problem what to do with them. She asked me what I would do if I ever received a flame. After a while she just left the flames as they were, not deleting them, because she said what doesn't destroy her, it will make her stronger.

[Guest Adara]

I delete flames. Unless of course I find that they are rather accurate, just rude in speaking their mind.

[Leonhart29]

I've never gotten a flame (unless you count that one on LFLS that called into question if I even knew the characters) and I thrive on concrit. But I've never really gotten a bad review either. I've never deleted one - so I voted no.

[madlodger]

No

I haven't deleted a single review yet. So far there was only one soft-core flame on Forever Fandom (same story as on AFF). I kept it; here it is:

No, so instead of pansy-bashing you made her a stunningly beautiful girl... you mayaswell be 12-yr-old girl putting yourself into your favourite character and making some 'improvements'...

It was pretty funny, actually, I replied with:

Author's Response: 12 years old? You flatter me so:) He, He. Pansy is beautiful because she is an Elf, as well as Draco, Crabbe and Goyle. They all are tall, blond and gorgeous. They all changed their looks to go to school. Pansy is not my favorite character but I can't imagine Draco as having only idiots for friends. He is pretty smart and good looking himself (snobby and conflicted too, ha). In most fiction I've read Pansy is all the same, boring. She was made a prefect so she is not ordinary. This fic is AU so I have freedom to play with characters a bit. Does that help?

Overall I would most likely keep real Flames which might occur in the future (considering all the kink and a future non-con bit)

There is one kind of reviews which would be deleted:

The kind which stretches the page sideways. Like, when people post a continuous row of hearts 3 pages wide, without breaking the line.

teeta -

she just left the flames as they were, not deleting them

I did like it when she left them on the board. It's a very mature approach. There weren't any flames since

Most flamers are not sighned on, so they loose control of their post as soon as pushing the 'send' button. They can't remove it now and it becomes an embarassment.

[Guest Serenanna]

I only ever deleted one review before. It was because said reviewer accused me of writing garbage that made another author who was friend of mine stop writing. I did it because it was an utter lie. She didn't quit because of me. She just dropped off the face of the earth. 7 months later she came back after a death in her family. When I told her about it, she agreed with me on deleting it.

That pretty much sums up my stance on deleting and not deleting any reviews. A reviewer can say what ever they like about my fics, disappointment, too much smut, whatever. If it goes for the personal hurt though, then it stops being a review to me and becomes a personal attack.

Sere

[NightScribe]

I don't get many reviews at all and the ones I've gotten have been positive, for the most part. I do recall after updating one story, I got some negative reviews on a specific chapter. One in particular, from a regular reviewer, accused me of a "cheap trick." Was I upset? Yes and no. They ended up deleting it before I could respond, feeling it was too harsh. Had they not deleted it, I would have left it. If it's not a flame or an illiterate "u r sucky" review, it can stay. Sometimes, I'll respond to concrit, thanking them for their opinion, (even if I'm privately thinking "the story's not finished yet," "you missed the damn point," or "it's all there, read it again,") although I have genuinely agreed with some criticisms and responded so.

Obnoxious flames can and probably should disappear into the ether; nobody wants them, and they serve no real purpose other than to stir up shit, but authors who delete helpful reviews and keep only the glowing, even though their stories suck...

[EveKnight75]

As a general rule, I don't delete reviews unless they're flames that have nothing to do with the fic itself. I remember deleting one from Wel-Zen (but I'm sure plenty of us have heard of him - he's a famous troll). There were also a few brats who tried to start a flame war with me while I was running an experiment for the concrit article. They down-rated one of my fics from a 5 to a 1, but I simply deleted their reviews, deleted my own flame after concluding the experiment, and rated the fic 5 just once to fix some of the damage (that's the only time I've ever rated one of my own fics).

So much for their little flame war. It amounted to nothing. Other people have brought the rating for my fic back up to a 4.

If a flame is actually relevant to the fic, then I'll keep it because it show that the person actually bothered to read the fic before flaming. They're good for a laugh.

There's also one brief string of reviews that I had deleted off the board, but I've discussed that string right here on the forums and posted it to LJ.

[dazzledfirestar]

I've never gotten a truly horrible flame, but the one review I did delete was simply someone commenting on how much they hate a canon character. If they had commented on hating one of the original characters, or something like that, I'd have left it up, but I didn't see the point of leaving up someone's rant on a character that really didn't even have that much to do in the story. *shrug* Other than that, I don't touch my reviews.

[redsliver]

Daz: Canon, double the N for more phallic-ness. (Just a pet peeve of mine)

Anyways, on topic: I deleted one review. I was writing Naruto one shots and the reviewer had exploded on me for not being inspired to write the pairing she liked. Other than that, I've left them all.

[Keith Inc.]

When does it stop being clean up and start being a case of ONLY wanting glowing reviews?

Why bother with the distinction?

I'm not getting paid for my stories, but i do profit from them. I get hits, i get reviews, i get feedback. I'm an absolute review whore, so i never delete any, but that's because any feedback is a credit, in my mind.

If you dislike a review, if it doesn't make you enjoy the process of writing and posting stories, why NOT delete it? Unless you think you owe something to the reviewers...?

And actually,I tend to read the reviews before i read the story. If it's something stupid like 'i hate (the pairing)' or 'i read the first paragraph and you suck' then deleting them would be a service to other readers, so they don't have to shuffle through such dross to find a real review that might help them decide whether or not to read the story.

[prairiefire]

I've only deleted three reviews. They were all from the same person, and while they were "kinda" praising my stories, they were flaming others in the section I write in. The reviewer had been banned before for flaming and caused a lot of drama, so I wasn't about to allow him/her to start shit up again. It is best they just disappear off the face of the Earth.

[DodgeSuperBee]

Reviews I would delete:

Those *@( chain letters ("Post this to xx stories or you'll die.")

Text-wrapping nonsense

Ads for another fic or site that don't even prove they read mine. (I.e. "Great story. Be sure to visit...")

Anything else, even a personal attack or an "Eww, I ignored all your warnings and now I'm squicked, poor me," I'd leave, if for no other reason than to give others a good chuckle.

[DuranDuranfan]

Types of reviews I delete:

Out and out flames"You're Teh suXX0rZ!!!), and one's where someone is bitching about what is going to happen or who is in my stories, even after giving CLEAR warnings about what to expect. Frack, now those one's I hate the most. Plus, I also hate it when people stil continue to spam my box with the same shit, after I've deleted it.

[Kyouryoku Senshi]

I never delete reviews unless it was a flame or something that directly insulted me or my work.

[ladydeathfaerie]

i've only ever deleted a review once. it was a flame. out of over 800 remaining reviews (i lost some in the DB crash a while back), i've only had one person flame me. she told me my original character was a Mary Sue and to stop writing the story immediately.

the character was not, at least to my mind, a Mary Sue. she had her flaws and i made sure that they were pointed out. i have 11 stories posted in the HP section, plus another 6 in Originals. every single one of them has been rated with 5 +s. and i had one person tell me that i'd written a Mary Sue.

so yes, i deleted the review. the funny thing is, in the next chapter of that story that i posted, i copied the review into it and answered it. so i guess technically, its not quite been deleted. i merely took it off my review board.

in all honesty, as stingy as some people seem to be about leaving a review for something they've written (i'm just as guilty as the rest), i tend to cherish the reviews i get. i've got some concrit and i leave it because it at least means someone took the time to read, possibly enjoy, and then click the review button to point out a small mistake or give advice. i'm not a review whore, per se, but i do like to get them. so i answer every one of them. and i continue to write, despite one person's declaration that i had a Mary Sue.

oh, i also have no plot, apparently. i was told that once, too. said woman is an author on the main site and hasn't updated in quite some time, if i'm not mistaken. i know i've got a damn sight more reviews and hits on my works than she does. so... i let that drive me. that, in and of itself, speaks the truth more loudly than anything else.

[Squallfan]

I've only deleted two flames that insulted me personally, otherwise no.

[StoryJunkie]

No.

Maybe I ought to let Orochimaru write something.

I'll try the rant section one day. (I"m just to chicken to really speak my mind.)

No, no that's not it. In reality, I deeply believe that being angry is a waste of time. I think I got all sarcastic and cold in the abortion thread, that's about my limit. I'm a pretty passionless person, I guess. Or maybe just not unleashed. Anyway, anger leads to anger. There's no spiraling down, just bitterness. An aftertaste of something you never recover from.

I can get annoyed.

I can understand PMS.

I can understand pain.

I don't understand revenge.

I don't understand violence.

er...did my mind wander off into some philosophical thing?...oops

[Guest DarkAvenger]

I've deleted reviews before... both on the FAQ pages and on my personal account.

Why on FAQ pages?

Because it's usually questions that people are obviously too (stupid?) to ask via some form of normal communication (i.e. email or a yahoo group or the forums). *puffs* Basically it's so I know what I've answered and what I haven't each time I go to see the FAQ pages, which is about once every 2 weeks or so.

Why on my personal account?

Numerous reasons...

1. If they threaten to kill me or something, byebye to that. It's hurtful and pointless, not to mention against the TOS. But, because I allow Anon reviews, then they always leave them that way. It's okay though, I can just delete and go on with life.

2. If it's a repeat review. For example, one member (we all know her I think, lol) left the same "please update" type review on my clearly labeled oneshot fic... get this... wait for it.... 5 times within a 3 month timespan. Once... I was willing to leave up cause she was making an ass of herself. Four more times? You're wasting my space, dear.

Other than that, I leave it. I even left one that said "You're fucked up." and even one that was certainly inflammatory, something alone the lines of "fuck you, you stupid bitch. Boys don't fuck other boys, this is disgusting and against god!" I found it more amusing than hurtful actually. Why? Because it showed what a bigoted moron they are. Not my problem if they look like an ass in front of half the world. Good, then everyone can see their true colors. *snort*

... and there's my two cents worth... or maybe it's up to 5 or 10, who knows.

[Listener]

I would only delete a review if it wasn't germane to the story being reviewed.

I wish more people on AFF would review with constructive criticism. In all the reviews I've gotten, I think I've gotten maybe 5% with constructive criticism.

[Guest Monsterking]

the only reason i would EVER Delete an review if it was trully something stupid i.e "my balls itch" or if its an flame

Peace Out brothers and sisters and "DO YOU SMELL WHAT DEMONGODDESS IS COOKING?!" god bless her soul