Have you seen the idiocy?

[lovecraft68]

Wow, there could be no end to this. 3.5 to 3.99 could be "Tropical Sun" and 3.0 to 3.49 could be "Summer Breeze" or some such thing.

Summer Breeze would be a great name for a song. Oh wait, there already is one.

I think feminine hygiene commercials have forever tainted the phrase Summer Breeze...course there could be a fetish story lurking there.

 

[Wilson Spalding]

Starring... You

So, uh... has paladin1954 ever circled back around to explain the connection to capital punishment for Lit authors, or diagrammed proper venting procedures for a posted narrative?

 

[Emirus]

In the end it all comes down to every author handles their comments differently, with no general right or wrong, just what's right/wrong for them.

My personal opinion is deleting a comment-especially a nasty one-makes the troll think they got under my skin, which they don't. I also like to leave them there because sometimes other readers will troll the troll.

And as we see from this OP there is an air of thin skinned about it. That's just my take on it. But whenever the topic comes up I express the opinion.

Plus let's face it, sometimes it depends who we're talking about, if for example someone posts on the boards and is kind of a jerk and slings a lot of shit, then you see they delete comments because they can't take the same abuse they give out, that's a thin skin quantifier.

It had happened to me that leaving in a bad comment has resulted in other readers coming out fighting on my behalf.

One instance was when they didn’t read the prologue and commented accordingly. The next person sprang to my defence and made scathing remarks about them.

Relating to something Nyx mentioned earlier about getting the name wrong. After completing a story I decided I didn’t, after all, like the name I’d given the lead character so I went back and changed it. I missed one on my edit. A reader, in a very nice comment, brought this to my attention. I was very grateful and subsequently sent in an edit.

The good readers are worth their weight in gold. It is a good idea to leave the crap because if the troll does check back and sees their comment still there it will annoy them. Yippee!

 

[Enchantment_of_Nyx]

It had happened to me that leaving in a bad comment has resulted in other readers coming out fighting on my behalf.

One instance was when they didn’t read the prologue and commented accordingly. The next person sprang to my defence and made scathing remarks about them.

Relating to something Nyx mentioned earlier about getting the name wrong. After completing a story I decided I didn’t, after all, like the name I’d given the lead character so I went back and changed it. I missed one on my edit. A reader, in a very nice comment, brought this to my attention. I was very grateful and subsequently sent in an edit.

The good readers are worth their weight in gold. It is a good idea to leave the crap because if the troll does check back and sees their comment still there it will annoy them. Yippee!

I had named a minor villain using the first name of someone I don't like and the last name of a politician I don't like. In the subsequent chapter, I accidentally called the villain by the full name of the politician. Ooops! I won't be naming characters that way again!

 

[gunhilltrain]

2.50 to 3.0 could be "Summer Doldrums"? And 2.0 to 2.5 "The Dregs"? Anything under that could be the "Bermuda Triangle."

The point was to give everyone a prize for participation and make everybody happy because there are no losers. So 2.50 to 3.00 could be "A Rare Day in June" and 2.00 to 2.50 could be "A Soothing Warm Bath."

 

[davion2308]

Man

Titling something "Have you seen the idiocy" automatically gears the conversation toward a combative nature and I was not at all disappointed to see the responses and conversation unfold here.

My lord!

The original issue is scoring, right? And the complaint is that one person might really like a story and score it a 5 and another might hate it and score it a 1. So we have a story with a 2.5.

And?

I look at all my stories and the difference between the ones with the little "H" and the ones that are in the 3s and low 4s not not because random unwashed masses (or whatever) are fucking around with scores. My best stuff has the highest scores. Enough votes are going to wash out the low scores and even things up.

And if anyone is really that sensitive that the public's opinion ... we're talking random strangers here ... actually matters to them, well, email me your story, I'll read it and give you a 5, and we'll move on.

I take scores personally to a degree. I take the comments more seriously.

 

[JayGElan]

Perhaps I was too subtle. I'll try for the directness you value. If all you do is go through and gripe about mistakes, and you do it in a non-constructive fashion, you're only stroking your own ego. You'll accomplish nothing that way. You're not the author's writing teacher. You're the reader. The comments section is for you to provide feedback, not grade their paper.

While I appreciate it if a reader points out a mistake, it doesn't really have potential to improve my writing to learn that I made a typo somewhere, or used the word "cock" one too many times for the reader's taste. Once, I even used the wrong first name for a character introduced five chapters previously. That was a significant error, and I did appreciate hearing about it because I personally like to correct it on my copy, but it had no potential to improve my writing in the long term because it wasn't a mistake that would have repeated itself.

If you really think you can help someone improve by getting out your red pen, you I'd suggest sending anonymous feedback through the author portal, which is an option given right there beside the comments and scoring. It doesn't give you an audience for your critique, of course. That brings me to your pique about your comments being deleted. Why do you care? If it was only for the author's benefit, does it really matter if they deleted it? Or was it because you wanted your comment to be viewed by other people. If the latter is the case, I suggest writing your own story. Then you'll have the stage all to yourself.

What would be helpful is knowing what the reader liked and didn't like about the story. We can get help from copy editors if we need or want it. What is valuable to learn from readers has more to do with storytelling. What did you think of the characters? Were their motivations believable? Did you like/dislike the plot structure? Etc. Those aren't simple "gotchas," but if you genuinely want to help someone improve, that's the way to do it.

You've approached this from the standpoint that when people don't respond well to your criticism, it's because they are overly fragile. Instead of insisting that the problem is with everyone else, it might be helpful to recognize that rightly or wrongly, people don't take your criticism well, and that if you expect to accomplish anything with it, you need to find a way to deliver it in a manner that allows it to be effective.

My apologies if I state it before... It was for a recent contest, so, given that the story was submitted specifically to be judged, I thought of my comment as an explanation for my vote. I mean the spirit of a contest is inherently open to criticism. And criticism can be unfavorable at times. I think people can agree that if you are putting something in a contest to be judged, not everyone will like it. And they may even tell you why, and that is perfectly fair.


And I said fragile because while my perfectly valid, albeit negative; criticism was deleted, all the positive remarks remained. It just struck me as reflexively defensive. How many other valid yet negative comments were deleted for a public entry in a writing contest? Why can't I just assume that the sort of person who submits a story for a writing contest then deletes a negative comment has some issues in regards to esteem? It was almost like the story was submitted not for readers to judge, or for the writer to get feedback to improve, but to feed one's ego, thus criticism is removed.


You seem to assume to the flaw here is in my manner, and perhaps that is true. I do know that in other types of fiction, criticism is welcome in writing contests. Maybe its something about Erotica itself as a genre that encourages the delicate types. I'll defer to people with more experience here with that.

 

[Enchantment_of_Nyx]

My apologies if I state it before... It was for a recent contest, so, given that the story was submitted specifically to be judged, I thought of my comment as an explanation for my vote. I mean the spirit of a contest is inherently open to criticism. And criticism can be unfavorable at times. I think people can agree that if you are putting something in a contest to be judged, not everyone will like it. And they may even tell you why, and that is perfectly fair.


And I said fragile because while my perfectly valid, albeit negative; criticism was deleted, all the positive remarks remained. It just struck me as reflexively defensive. How many other valid yet negative comments were deleted for a public entry in a writing contest? Why can't I just assume that the sort of person who submits a story for a writing contest then deletes a negative comment has some issues in regards to esteem? It was almost like the story was submitted not for readers to judge, or for the writer to get feedback to improve, but to feed one's ego, thus criticism is removed.


You seem to assume to the flaw here is in my manner, and perhaps that is true. I do know that in other types of fiction, criticism is welcome in writing contests. Maybe its something about Erotica itself as a genre that encourages the delicate types. I'll defer to people with more experience here with that.

I think it does matter how you state your criticism, but I agree that it is helpful for someone to explain why they rated something the way they did, whether it's positive or negative. I would much rather know than not know. Negative criticism has the potential to help someone improve. I guess what I'm saying is that if you want it to have that effect, the person being critiqued has to accept it. For good or ill, that acceptance is generally conditioned to some extent on how the criticism is offered.

I guess the thing I really don't understand is why it matters to you if they deleted your comment. You offered criticism. The author chose not to leave it up, whether that's because they rejected it or because they just didn't want to leave something negative up, it isn't your problem. The author saw your criticism. Why is it important to you that other people see it?

If the answer to that is related to the story contest, I think the concern is misplaced. I'm fairly certain that nobody bases the score they give a story on other people's comments.

 

[gunhilltrain]

My apologies if I state it before... It was for a recent contest, so, given that the story was submitted specifically to be judged, I thought of my comment as an explanation for my vote. I mean the spirit of a contest is inherently open to criticism. And criticism can be unfavorable at times. I think people can agree that if you are putting something in a contest to be judged, not everyone will like it. And they may even tell you why, and that is perfectly fair.


And I said fragile because while my perfectly valid, albeit negative; criticism was deleted, all the positive remarks remained. It just struck me as reflexively defensive. How many other valid yet negative comments were deleted for a public entry in a writing contest? Why can't I just assume that the sort of person who submits a story for a writing contest then deletes a negative comment has some issues in regards to esteem? It was almost like the story was submitted not for readers to judge, or for the writer to get feedback to improve, but to feed one's ego, thus criticism is removed.


You seem to assume to the flaw here is in my manner, and perhaps that is true. I do know that in other types of fiction, criticism is welcome in writing contests. Maybe its something about Erotica itself as a genre that encourages the delicate types. I'll defer to people with more experience here with that.

I think I get what you are driving at. "Human beings are capable of anything," as George Carlin said. It's not surprising that some comments get deleted and the more positive ones remain. This other writer doesn't know you and you don't know them. It's a bit cold, but neither one of you owes the other one anything. Being polite would be nice, but the world is not always nice.

I and other people I know, in many areas of life, often think that the way we "roll" is the way everyone else will or should do things. That usually results in disappointment.