Are the Trolls Back?

[cloudy]

I do have a question of someone else, because I have received varying opinions. Small point but it has come up often. I always put the period inside double quotations, but outside a single one. My editor says it should always be inside. ?

I gave feedback on four stories yesterday and only received response from author on SOL. Goes to my point.

I appreciate this dialogue.

thank you

scott

A period should always go inside quotation marks, single or double (says the English major )

As far as feedback goes, I try very hard to respond to any feedback I receive. I'm not always successful, but I try.

To be honest, though, if I received an email feedback with nothing to say about a story I'd written but a correction for a minor nitpicky item, I might not be real inclined to reply.

I don't mind honest, heartfelt criticism - truly, I don't. I've spent too much time in school and in jobs with huge responsibilities to let critique bother me. However, if all someone wanted to tell me was something like a minor detail was off, and they had absolutely nothing else, positive or negative, to say, it almost implies that they looked very hard to find something to complain about.

On the other hand, if I received feedback that said something along the lines of "I enjoyed your story. It was well-paced, flowed nicely, and kept me interested. One minor detail jumped out at me, though, and that was.....," then I would be glad it was pointed out to me.

Much of the response will depend on how the information is offered. If it's offered in a sincerely helpful way, I'm glad for it.

 

[Guest]

I do have a question of someone else, because I have received varying opinions. Small point but it has come up often. I always put the period inside double quotations, but outside a single one. My editor says it should always be inside. ?

I gave feedback on four stories yesterday and only received response from author on SOL. Goes to my point.

I appreciate this dialogue.

thank you

scott

Had to go check, because I knew there were references. Strunk and White always put the period inside quotes, but all their examples are of quoted dialog and have no cases of other uses of quotations. They also don't address other kinds of punctuation.

When I checked Diana Hacker's "A Writer's Reference", she notes the MLA (Modern Language Association) makes a single exception for citations, in which case the period comes after the citation note, which also comes after the quotation mark. (Any rule you want to hand down for English useage will have an exception somewhere). Of course, when dialog is followed by an attribution, the quoted text ends with a comma (or question or exclamation mark) and the period comes after the attribution.

Also, except in dialog, exclamations and question marks go outside the quotation if the mark does not apply to the sentence as a whole (if the whole sentence is a question that just uses some quoted text, the question mark goes outside the quote. When the quote is the question, the mark goes inside the quotes.)

Confusing enough? It can get worse when using quotations to set off words and phrases that might also be set off with italics. I just avoid putting those at the end of sentences. It only causes heartache.

I'm still researching that comma quote, but I found one I like about periods.

There's not much to be said about the period except that most writers don't reach it soon enough. -- William Zinsser

 

[george55]

thanks

HA

thanks

 

[Ken Nitsua]

Wow...

I got into a discussion with a reader on another story because I had used the American spelling of a word and he'd "corrected" me to the British spelling. I cited the Merriam-Webster I used, he cited the OED as a superior reference (that didn't include the American spelling, according to him. I couldn't check the OED for myself because the online version requires a subscription.) At some point, I had to shrug and let it go because, technically, we were both "right" and neither of us were going to make the other change. As the reader, his choice was not to read my stories. As author, mine was to write to the best of my knowledge and ability. As much as I might want to please readers, I will never please everyone. I can't possibly own every reference, or even the best references.

You get feedback that intelligent? I get stuff like "DIE, YOU POOF." LOL. Seriously, not always--in fact, I've received many long and intelligently written comments, but enough like the first thing quoted to keep me on my toes.

By the way I agree that authors should ALWAYS respond if someone takes the trouble to write, even if it's a simple "thank you."

Best,

Ken in TX

 

[pantyrehab]

"trolls"

I'm a new author of 2months and new to this discussion board. I came looking for some info about these suspicious numbers to my newly posted story and came across your thread which answered all my questions. . .Trolls.

My last story got slammed with UNUSUAL heavy traffic of viewers and took a fat nose dive in ratings. Within 48hrs of it being posted to the public, its been viewed over 20,000 times with 89 voted. From 4.75 dropped to 4.11 within 24hrs. which is odd because i had email reviews saying the story was good. my previous stories have 3 times less than these numbers. I also received cowardly anonymous emails slamming my stories that didn't even relate to the stories. These "trolls" are also illiterate and quoting from his email. . ."redicculous". They're deliberately sabotaging fellow writers' stories to boost their own rating for the contest.

I don't care about the prize money for the monthly story contests. But as a new writer, I look at these numbers to gauge reader's reaction. Anyway, it's not going to stop me from continuing to post my stories. In fact, it only encouraged me to piss them off with more story postings. The easiest solution is to disable the voting but I won't give these cowardly hacks the satisfaction.

 

[Guest]

I'm a new author of 2months and new to this discussion board. I came looking for some info about these suspicious numbers to my newly posted story and came across your thread which answered all my questions. . .Trolls.

My last story got slammed with UNUSUAL heavy traffic of viewers and took a fat nose dive in ratings. Within 48hrs of it being posted to the public, its been viewed over 20,000 times with 89 voted. From 4.75 dropped to 4.11 within 24hrs. which is odd because i had email reviews saying the story was good. my previous stories have 3 times less than these numbers. I also received cowardly anonymous emails slamming my stories that didn't even relate to the stories. These "trolls" are also illiterate and quoting from his email. . ."redicculous". They're deliberately sabotaging fellow writers' stories to boost their own rating for the contest.

I don't care about the prize money for the monthly story contests. But as a new writer, I look at these numbers to gauge reader's reaction. Anyway, it's not going to stop me from continuing to post my stories. In fact, it only encouraged me to piss them off with more story postings. The easiest solution is to disable the voting but I won't give these cowardly hacks the satisfaction.

The two other writers I've mentioned that I know here have gotten "trolled" in the 2-3 years they've been posting stories, even though both of them have taken prizes in their catagories before. While it's entirely possible for someone to dislike a story other people love, and it's not out of the realm of reason for people to send a negative comment to a story they don't like, , a sudden batch of low scores where other scores (and comments) are high to excellent does look suspicious. I really do think it's just a thing some do because it makes them feel powerful. Others do it to "help" their favorite authors or friends (although I suspect most authors here would prefer not have that kind of help).

You are right, though. Post anyway. Post excellent stories that other people will enjoy and don't let the senseless stuff bother you. While an honest negative opinion can be helpful, some of these trolls just have penis/breast issues.