Anonymous comments

[AwkwardMD]

My Sioux name is She Who Pokes Bears

I would not say that I have a great reputation, and that’s well earned. I have a lot of trouble not speaking up when I see things wrong. Just today, I got into a fight at work because budgeting problems at the company that owns the company I work for are causing us to delay paying a vendor for repair work. I get frustrated easily, and because of some personal stuff I am more or less incapable of keeping my mouth shut around stuff like this.

Today I woke up to find two anonymous comments on my story Violet, one on each chapter.

Seriously
I was so in love with this story as I read it immediately sucked me in and pulled me along. Everything about it(aside from a few grammatical errors)painted this non-stop effortless in imagine picture in my brain. Easily evoked emotion in me that every author should strive to be able to pull from their readers. THEN you fucked it up by adding in the Spanish parts at the end that completely ruined the perfect flow you crafted before hand. Why add the Spanish bits without adding in some kind of translation. You obviously know the majority of your readers are probably going to be English speakers so it seems completely counterproductive to do that. God that pissed me off so much. I hadn't even made a quarter of the way through the first page and I was already wishing that this story would be a super long read. That Spanish section pissed me off so much I skipped the last part of the second page and haven't even started reading any of the third page yet. SERIOUSLY what the fuck man.

Thank you
You just can't stop yourself from ruining the flow of your story. If you are going to add Spanish then add some translation as well cause I can promise you most of the people reading you story can't read it. Honestly it's the shit is so irritating because your writing is so good then you go and purposefully alienate what is most likely a big segment of the people who would enjoy your story. Couldn't even finish the story because of it. I love to read and to me it felt like someone purposefully taking away something I love.

Now, I wrote Violet to explore themes of isolation. The main character has been estranged from some of her family members for nearly all of her life. Upon meeting her sister for the first time, the main character finally starts to find a place where she feels like she belongs. When the mother and sister are alone, they speak Spanish. They return to their primary language when it’s just the two of them, as non-primary English speakers often do. When Violet, the POV protagonist, witnesses this, I left the Spanish untranslated because Violet doesn’t know Spanish. She’s immediately on the outside looking in again, even with her newfound family. This culminates in a moment at the end of the story when the little sister starts teaching Violet Spanish.

These moments of isolation are important stylistic choices I made. I wrote this story for me. I wanted my story to look like this, and I have caught a lot of flak from readers about it over the last few years, but these comments today are on a new level. This person is not just insulted by the presence of another language or culture, they’re threatened by it. I have a hard time with that kind of mindset. It is not in my nature to stand idle when stuff like this comes up. I almost always respond. I had half of a rant written in my head while I drove this morning. One friend jokingly suggested I write a cheery response entirely in Spanish.

I didn’t write this for support. I don’t need anyone to chime in on it. I’m just literally incapable of not saying something, so I am saying it here to get that out of my system. Hopefully, now, I can get back to writing material that is bigger and more inclusive than his world

 

[SimonDoom]

I have never left an anonymous comment since I registered for this site. If I didn’t want to leave a comment on the actual story but wanted the writer to know and tell them who I was I would message them.

If I haven’t liked the story I’ve always made sure that any comment I make has been constructive and positive. If I’ve begun reading but given up I never leave a comment or a vote.

It’s a pity that there isn’t a 10 point voting system. It would make it a lot easier when deciding what to do and a more accurate figure. I wonder how easy it would be to change to such a system and, more importantly, would it be possible to convert the existing votes. I’m too computer illiterate to know whether it could be done or whether I’m just being completely stupid. Probably the latter.

I have given a 5 to a story that I would have liked to have given a 4.5 but it’s not possible. So I think it’s more than a 4 but I can’t vote as I want to and the same applies as you go downwards. In some ways the scoring system is absolutely useless and bears no comparison with reality.

I’ve read stories at 4.75 that are absolutely crap and 3.75 that are really good. How is that right? That’s one of the reason why I go by the title, the description and then read the first hundred words.

I completely agree with your suggestion about a 10 point system. The Red H could be set at 9. It wouldn't be that hard to convert from the present system; you'd just have to multiply by 2. And readers could discriminate between stories good enough to have red Hs and stories they think are truly top notch. As it stands the difference between 4 and 5 is too great and it incentivizes readers/voters to engage in tactical thinking when voting.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I didn’t write this for support. I don’t need anyone to chime in on it. I’m just literally incapable of not saying something, so I am saying it here to get that out of my system. Hopefully, now, I can get back to writing material that is bigger and more inclusive than his world

If only there was somewhere on the internet that these poor readers could paste those sentences and get an English translation. Somebody ought to make a page that does that.

 

[ElectricBlue]

If only there was somewhere on the internet that these poor readers could paste those sentences and get an English translation. Somebody ought to make a page that does that.

Are you being sarcastic, Bramble?

https://translate.google.com


MD - I admire your tenacity and reasoning for doing what you did with the Spanish, and sticking to your guns. Your logic makes perfect sense to me. Those comments though, are way over the top.


Must we spoon-feed every reader? Sometimes it seems we must. I had this bizarre interchange on my Arthurian story cycle:

mistake already?
by Anonymous user on 09/25/2018
Its a bit of a downer to find you cannot even spell dragon correctly. What chance will the rest of your story have. You may have heard of this incredible program its called a spell checker.Perhaps you could spend a few seconds using it .As we had in school D- see the teacher

by You on 09/25/2018
Sigh. Look up archaic language in your dictionary.

by challengeme on 09/25/2018
damnit I only did it because nobody else had bothered to comment I hoped to get some responses going to get the readers to sit up and take notice while looking for other errors [analitis as it were] you could have called your creature a dorgon and someone would have had a moan good luck with the story I dont go in for destructive critisim its counter productive its a great way to lose the better writers from our story sites just as an example Jryter on sol got sick of the trolls berating him after all the only payment you guys [and girls of course] get is our thanks regards Andy

What I thought odd was the anon poster outing himself, with a most peculiar "explanation" of his first post. I think he thought he was doing me some kind of weird favour, but it was a scratch-my-head moment. Given his own fabulous spelling and punctuation, I left the comment for lols.

Two more people also felt they had to comment on my spelling of "dragen." In a novel length thing set in the Dark Ages, I get pulled up on one obviously deliberate archaic spelling of one word? They obviously didn't get as far as magick, in the next chapter. But seriously, they didn't even have dictionaries back then, what was I to do?

 

[Bramblethorn]

Are you being sarcastic, Bramble?

I am shocked that you would suggest such a thing.

What I thought odd was the anon poster outing himself, with a most peculiar "explanation" of his first post. I think he thought he was doing me some kind of weird favour, but it was a scratch-my-head moment. Given his own fabulous spelling and punctuation, I left the comment for lols.

That's... weird. And I'm not sure I buy his explanation.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Nay, you only have to solve a trivial ancient capcha (and yes, I just tested it). Probably part of the problem why they had to introduce "moderation" of comments (but whatever cerberus bot they employed is a real good shit, actually).

Thus you only need to register in order to submit a story? Anybody on the Internet can read, comment and vote.

As that expression goes, "Hello World!"

Perhaps that's a good thing: let a million readers bloom. Yet one could argue that requiring registeration in order to comment and vote is, well, worthy of consideration? The trade-off is that the audience is then about 150,000 individuals.

I'm not sure.

P.S.: Maybe the existing system is best. There are some annoyances from rogue readers but the site seems to function well enough for the writers.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Thus you only need to register in order to submit a story? Anybody on the Internet can read, comment and vote.

Correct.

But you can turn Anon comments off, either globally or story by story. You can turning voting off, too.

There are also the Feedback and Private Message loops, but folk have to be registered and use their account name to use those.

Some of the best comments I've received have been from Anons. I can't see myself ever turning them off.

 

[Hypoxia]

I welcome comments by anyone, named or not, of any degree of sobriety and sanity. I have deleted only one comment in six years and I'm sorry I did. (I have no say over LIT-deleted comments.) A comment means my words have driven someone to respond. I see death threats as badges of honor. I regret readers who do NOT respond -- but it's my fault for not provoking them. If readers neither love nor hate me then I've been too lazy.

 

[Misshotndeep]

So It didn't rain today. That is a plus.

 

[MG40]

You don't have to input anything in the email line on the feedback form. It's nice that the emailer chose to entertain you by making something up!

On another note let me welcome you to the forum. For anyone who hasn't read J267 his stories are fkn awesome. Well written and well thought out.

Definitely one of the top authors on the site.

The only problem I have j267's stories is that there aren't more of them.

 

[Lombardi66]

So far I have two positive comments and two negative comments, which isn't that shabby, especially since I sort-of enjoy the negative comments.

 

[MohanSingh]

Anonymous comments let a person vent. We all need that unhindered view of our stories. If it is terrible, really dif in and tell us.