Stupid Reviews

[SasUke PepSi aDvErTiZeMeNt]

OMFG it's so annoying when people don't leave actuall review on how they feel on the story not just:

"OMG IT'S SO GREAT PLEASE UPDATE!"

That's bull! Also I would like criticism once in a while and some intellectual tips since I am sort of a noob still! So I hate it when they don't actually say what they like, what they hate, or even how they felt on the begining or plot!Is it so hard to do that because if it is..... OMG.

[cu-kid9]

I don't mind the "OMG! I luuurv your story! Update soon!" reviews (they're only irritating when they're in ALL CAPS with multiple !!!!!!s). These have their place and at least someone took the time to hit the review button and let me know they're enjoying my story.

I really think the reason no one leaves anything constructive anymore is because of all the fan-brats out there who get pissy if anyone so much as hints at something wrong with their story. They take everything personally and ruin it for the rest of us who actually want people to take some time out and be critical. What a shame.

[SasUke PepSi aDvErTiZeMeNt]

True, True!

[Kanashii]

Cu-Kid9

I agree with you 100%...Ok, so if someone just leaves a "I love this story update soooooooon pleeze" I am still HONORED that reader took time to click the rate and also leave me a review!

It's better than NO review, ya know? Would we all like to get nice Concrits mixed with praise? Sure, yeah...But THIS author is more than thankful and appreciative of those who even leave the little "I luv it! Keep it going". It means they are READING and enjoying it.

JMHO

[Guest Rosemarius]

the most stupid review I got was a request for a sex scene between two charachters. No real comment about the plot of the story I was currently writing.

I do appreciate the fact that she (I'd assume it was a she) likes my way of describing sex, but I'd rather read what she actually thought about the storyline.

[cu-kid9]

Ok, so if someone just leaves a "I love this story update soooooooon pleeze" I am still HONORED that reader took time to click the rate and also leave me a review!

I had a reviewer once...every chapter all he/she left was, "GREAT STORY. PLEASE UPDATE SOON" or variations of this. While the ALL CAPS annoyed me slightly, at least the person took the time.

These, I don't think, constitute the stupid reviews. The stupid one I got (the loooong one) said something to the effect of how the reviewer didn't like reading lemons and usually skipped over those parts...and then proceeded to say that I wrote a fantasy-like version of what a girl's first time having sex was like.

Why was this stupid? Well, first of all, nowhere in my story did I mention that the girl in question was a virgin. And, secondly, why the sudden interest in my lemon when he/she doesn't like reading them in the first place?

Boggles the mind, it does.

[PretentiousArtWhore]

I can't say I've ever had a stupid review (touch wood), just a stupid request in a review. I had a person tell me that they liked a short,one shot Vampire Chronicles piece I did ages ago (under a different pen name and at a different fic page), and then requested that I write more...but include a fave teen actor of theirs in the story who had absolutely nothing to do with the genre or the fandom. ( And not as an OC who looked like them mind you, but as themselves!!!???)I mean I appreciate that they liked the story, but the request made no bloody sense to me whatsoever and was just so odd that it just seemed well...stupid. Still scratching my head over that one.

[Lost_Soul]

Have you ever got reviews that just bad mouth you and your story even though you try to do your best on a story??

Hmmm... not yet. o_o Hopefully ^^; Sorry that happened to you, people can be such assholes! D<

[Masamune]

all reviews have a point to them. Whether you assign any value to those points is a personal thing...

I've gotten some reviews that I thought were quite awful. I can take the criticism, but I can't stand when a reviewer can't even get a coherent message across in a review.

Types of "stupid reviews"

1. Poorly written Review (includes use of 1337 / too much AIM talk / emoticons): This is bad. I know some readers might not be good at the English language, and others are just "too busy" to bother checking their review for spelling or grammar, but, honestly, you look like an idiot when your entire review is freaking smiley faces and exclamation points. Even if it's a positive review, the writer might just wonder, "What kind of idiots are reading my stories? Does that mean I'm a bad writer?" But, well, this kind of stupidity is all over the internet...

2. "Post moar / faster!" This is stupid because, unless the writer was waiting for reader feedback before deciding whether to continue, a comment like this only puts more pressure on the writer that they don't need or want. Most have their own pace of writing, and it's border line insulting (i believe) to even suggest that they should consider some reader's eagerness over whatever real world restrictions that may dictate the writer's pace. I'm not saying that expressing eagerness to read more is a bad thing. But when it's the only thing in a review, it really begs the question: are you reviewing their fiction, or are you just making a selfish demand on them without giving anything in return?

And, this isn't to say anything about any of my reviewers who do this.  I appreciate the reviewer taking the time out of their day to read my story and encourage me on.  I just might not think your review was a review.

3. Clearly didn't understand the story. It's happened to me. It's happened in reviews I've gotten. Some people will read all through your story, post a review, and leave the writer scratching his/her head and wondering, "Is this review supposed to be on my story???" So, yeah, just make sure you read carefully before reviewing...

4. Pure Flame / Request. Reviews that are simply the reviewers pent up feelings on a given topic are not actual reviews. Ditto for "reviews" that are actually requests for something from the author (Hi! I loved your story and was wondering if you could maybe beta read mine. It's called...) (Hi! I loved your story and hoped maybe I could send you my story for your website!")

Yeah, can't think of any more...

Edited February 6, 2008 by Masamune

[shinigamiinochi]

i get dumb reviews all the time. Sometimes I get dumb questions in review like: you say that these two characters are twins, but they don't look alike and you haven't explained why. However, mostly, I get reviews, not about improving my writing or grammar or anything useful, but on content like: so and so is going to hell for so and so. Yeah, I write a lot of smut, but it's not like I'm forcing it down my reader's throats, yet I get the same people whining about it for a bunch of my fics. Mostly, I try to ignore these, but sometimes I just need to vent. However, I refuse to remove a review for two reasons: 1. I believe in free speech and everyone deserves an opinion, no matter how stupid I see it and 2. Reviews like these depress me, so it's very uplifting when other people will review saying that those dumb people are idiots and that I shouldn't listen to them. It really is hurtful when people flame you for something you believe or just content matter. If you're going to bash me, do it because my grammar sucks or my plot doesn't make sense, not because I write yaoi or that my characters like sex.

[Guest Rosemarius]

just gotten another stupid review:

um...... wtf?!

I don't understand. Can this even be considered a review?

[Orionshadow]

just gotten another stupid review:

I don't understand. Can this even be considered a review?

It doesn't seem like a review. It seems strange that anyone would bother even writing that.

At least it fits the category of stupid reviews.

[greenwizard]

I think no matter what, reviews that are just plain negative sting a little. I got a reviewer who first posted that she was enjoying the story. Then later on she posted that it was starting to suck, and she was only reading it still to see what happens.....

Ok, telling me my writing sucks hurt a little. And she didn't even tell me where I was starting to go wrong. But it did leave me to come to the conclusion that the quality of my writting was indeed going downhill. I was trying to update too fast to please the readers that liked it, and therefore I was forcing stuff to come out. So I took a little break and moved on.

When I leave a review I try to be helpful. I'll say something like 'I really enjoyed your story', or 'Your story lines are interesting and you show a lot of promise as a writer'. But after that I'll point out what they need to improve on. The only flat out negative review I've ever left was on a story where I really liked the plot, but the spelling and grammar was so bad I couldn't read it.

[lunaticfringe13]

I've been lucky, I haven't gotten stupid reviews or flames on the stories I've posted to AFF. I did have a story on another site and even though I clearly labeled it as a parody, A/U, humor story, and mentioned in the author's note it was a just-for-fun crack!fic, some moron said it was OOC. Well, duh.

[greenwizard]

I just got one that I thought was interesting. It said 'you should update this is really good.' Well, I'm glad the person liked it, but I just added a chapter like 2 days ago. I've been adding chapters about once a week. *scratches head* I don't get it....

[shinigamiinochi]

lol. I get that all the time. A fic will be sitting for about a month and no one will review, but as soon as I update, about two hours later I have a bunch of people begging me to update. But I just did... I'm not a machine!

[Guest Savaial]

Jumping into this topic with both feet...

Everyone loves reviews but a review that only has UPDATE SOON!!! in it makes me feel like they're slapping quarters in my back in the hopes I'll burp up a chapter.

My only pet peeve is people not reading your codes (or maybe not understanding them) and then complaining about your content. How can one do this anyway? Don't you read the codes and descriptions in order to figure out if you want to read? What, the bad reviewer is just hitting on a fic randomly, like throwing a dart at a map to see where to go on holiday?

"Damn, the dart landed in a war zone in Iraq. I guess I'll have to pack light."

[Guest MortiferLascivio]

I guess it depends on what you mean by "stupid review" because I've had flamers, and they were all rather rude and couple were just plain stupid. However, I also get reviews from people who aren't exactly malicious but post pointless reviews. I get a couple readers for every story who write the same gosh darn review for every chapter. I mean, there are so many times I can read "Great chapter" before it loses all meaning. I appreciate anyone who gets themselves to review, but if you're going there, why not add a little? I don't consider reviews such as those actual reviews because they don't touch on the story in any way. Now, any of my reviewers who happen to read this, don't think I'm calling you stupid! I'm just saying some of your reviews are a little plain. I have a lot of reviewers who give real in depth reviews as well.

However, I also do get the occasional reviewer who says the stupidest/oddest thing ever and I do a double-take. Some are not flames, but are just so completely weeird that you just gotta wonder what was going through their mind while they were reading your story.

[Gnome]

...feel like they're slapping quarters in my back in the hopes I'll burp up a chapter.

That's a wonderful analogy!

On a more relevant note, in my opinion all reviews are precious. They are so hard to come by (when you take into account hits compared to reviews) they have to be. Some reviews, however, are more precious than others.

[shinigamiinochi]

Just got this review for Solstice:

please stop editing to keep your story at the top. It's very annoying and it even made me stop reading your story. If you don't stop I will report you. -sky

my response: if you let something that tiny stop you from reading a story, I don't think I'd want you reading it anyway, I prefer readers that read for the joy of a story. Go ahead and tell the admin, the way my week has been going, I need a good laugh. If this 'reader' had bothered to read my author's notes, they would know I'm not doing things this way to get attention, there is a method to my madness, but no, they'd rather whine about it. And I'm not editing, as another reviewer stuck up for me, I'm posting a few pages at a time since the structure of the story is this: there is supposed to be five chapter, three character back story chapters and two plot chapters, therefore, the chapters are very long and I wanted to stay true to the oringinal structure. At first, I was just going to post the chapters once I was done with them, but since they are so long, this would mean I would be posting a chapter every four months or so. However, I got quite a few e-mails saying that readers wanted me to update quicker, so I did it at a four page average. I understand that this can be annoying, but it's not like my story is replacing another by constantly updating it. If you don't like the fact that it's always at the top, just scroll down, it's not THAT difficult. *rolls eyes* I wouldn't be annoyed except this reviewer was the first and only person to complain about this process and if he/she had just said to please not do that anymore, that would have been fine, but they instead threatened me and that just pisses me off. Am I over reacting about this or does this person have a legitimate reason to report me?

[Guest Monsterking]

Though i dont like people whom just like to flame other authors i do admit it is sometimes helpful

"WOOOOOO!!"

[shinigamiinochi]

So, Solstice has been updated in the same fashion as always and guess what? The reviewer hasn't reported me! Gee, I wonder why... I hate people who try to bully you into what they want. Besides, this person didn't use a real signature. This tells me they are either a lurker who does not have any stories on this site or is too much of wimp to put their real name down. But, I'm not going to disable anonymous reviews because of one jerk.