Comments That Make Your Day

[Actingup]

"What makes me sad is that those on the platform who’ve acted as your mentors, peers and volunteer editors have led you down the garden path. They wasted your time, just like you wasted mine. I don’t think you’ve got the first clue what you’re doing."

There was a sort of backhanded compliment before this ending that alluded to the fact that I had obviously put a lot of effort into it.

Case in point. It's very clear from the number of "Hot" tags on your story page that you can write. If that particular story didn't work for her, that's fine. It's also okay to say why. But to generalise from that to this last blanket statement is both unfair and unsustainable from the evidence. I would go as far as to say that it's bullying behaviour, because it's an unreasoned attack on you and those who have supported you. Sorry that you had that experience.

 

[dmallord]

Case in point. It's very clear from the number of "Hot" tags on your story page that you can write. If that particular story didn't work for her, that's fine. It's also okay to say why. But to generalise from that to this last blanket statement is both unfair and unsustainable from the evidence. I would go as far as to say that it's bullying behaviour, because it's an unreasoned attack on you and those who have supported you. Sorry that you had that experience.

I appreciate your 'rescue' of my ID. I feel better already recalling those red H designations. Thanks for your kindness and remarks.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

I appreciate your 'rescue' of my ID. I feel better already recalling those red H designations. Thanks for your kindness and remarks.

I agree, you've got an awful lot of red H's and some pretty high scores, for someone who can't write. And yet your critic, has never written anything - at least that they're willing to share.

If I were you, I'd just ignore them.

 

[StillStunned]

The comment is just one person's opinion, no more, no less. But at least she took the time to express her opinion. Given the views-to-votes ratios, and views-to-comments ratios, that has to mean something. It's quite possible that all those people who clicked on your story but didn't vote, didn't comment, quite possibly didn't even finish the story felt the same way. It's impossible to say.

I'm not suggesting you get worked up about a single comment, obviously. But maybe give it a while, then read through it again when you can judge it objectively. Consider her points, and see whether you agree - again, objectively. Writing can be a lonely endeavour, and often the feedback we get is an echo chamber of positive cheers. Constructive comments are rarer than a bushless mother in I/T, so to speak. If you can glean anything useful from it, even if you don't want to hear it, you'd be daft to dismiss it out of hand.

 

[AlexFourways]

I agree, you've got an awful lot of red H's and some pretty high scores, for someone who can't write. And yet your critic, has never written anything - at least that they're willing to share.

If I were you, I'd just ignore them.

Sounds like I am fortunate not to have come across Stacnash who from all accounts is 'just in it for the kill'. I am terrible with names* but there is another one out there 'something critic something' who writes multi paragraph critiques, but more balanced - in the hard but fair school. I have never attracted his gaze but as 19 of my 47 stories have either 1 or no comments, despite 30 [ H ]s (not a boast). I can't be doing much wrong - can I?

Oh, and here is a rare one - so I maintain the purpose of the thread.
Dogdaes on 10/14/2024 The-Devil-Does-Care About Attitude
This is incredibly HOT. take the time to read it. It's worth a thorough reading.. it will turn you on!
But less rare for 1973 Adult Movie Becomes 3D Reality (8 in total one by me)
by 26thNC on 10/12/2024
Our husbands watched porn, so wives say “ let’s become whores and make our own porno film!” I did appreciate the English/American translation though. That will come in handy. (That made me smile)
by OldGuy1946 on 10/13/2024
Got this Old Guy's motor running. Also wishing he had friends like that back in the 70s. 5 little gold pointy things awarded. Thank you for sharing with us. (I'm not sure he didn't think it was biography not fiction)
by Norway_1705 on 10/11/2024
Vintage operation, admirably accomplished! The vocabulary, the situations, even the job descriptions! Bravo.
You could have collaborated on an Elton John or Freddie Mercury biopic!
And I have never seen so many ‘Explanatory Appendices’ since Tolkien's 1995 novel.
.... (edited but they may have inspired me to write a bit more? I've not done Lesbian Sex. (I don't stick to a category!)

I'll get off your screen now!
*hence my naming of characters often being ABCD, but certainly never (OK Quiet Man, but there was a reason for Natalie and daughter Nadine - I had to get Mike confused) Karen and Katie

 

[shakna]

Lol. I got stacnash'd on "Hannah's Night".
I reckon this has reached a badge of honour.

Everything about the dynamic shared between Hannah and Lisa was off. At first, I thought you were just going to touch on the two friends busting each other’s balls to show their personalities, but it’s like you got stuck in that mindset and I shook my head as there was no reason why they would be friends.

 

[oneagainst]

Just to add, @dmallord ... I write for myself and I've got 3M views. By which I mean I'm not big-noting myself: I'm saying that each niche has its afficionados. SN's tragedy was never embracing that.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

The comment is just one person's opinion, no more, no less. But at least she took the time to express her opinion. Given the views-to-votes ratios, and views-to-comments ratios, that has to mean something. It's quite possible that all those people who clicked on your story but didn't vote, didn't comment, quite possibly didn't even finish the story felt the same way. It's impossible to say.

I'm not suggesting you get worked up about a single comment, obviously. But maybe give it a while, then read through it again when you can judge it objectively. Consider her points, and see whether you agree - again, objectively. Writing can be a lonely endeavour, and often the feedback we get is an echo chamber of positive cheers. Constructive comments are rarer than a bushless mother in I/T, so to speak. If you can glean anything useful from it, even if you don't want to hear it, you'd be daft to dismiss it out of hand.

Did you even bother to read the said comment?

Is there genuine insight in her comments? Probably. But her feedback as a whole is deeply flawed in concept, tone, and content. You are defending the indefensible here.

 

[StillStunned]

Did you even bother to read the said comment?

I read the bits quoted in this thread. The bits that @dmallord chose to present here, which clearly do not include the points that lead up the her conclusion.

Is there genuine insight in her comments? Probably. But her feedback as a whole is deeply flawed in concept, tone, and content. You are defending the indefensible here.

I'm not defending her tone. But if you publish a story, and a reader takes the trouble to read it and point out whatever flaws they find, you put on your big boy trousers and at least consider whether their comments have any merit.

Nobody here is perfect, no matter how many red Hs they have - which, let's face it, are rarely a reflection of quality. If an opportunity comes along to improve any aspect of our writing, we'd be stupid to dismiss it out of hand just because we don't like the person expressing the comments.

If Stacnash's criticisms don't have any objective merit, then fine, dismiss them. Her opinion is only that, after all: one reader's opinion. But writers here are forever complaining about the lack of detailed feedback from readers. If you get it, at least step out of your comfort zone and see whether it's valid, regardless of how it's presented.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

If you get it, at least step out of your comfort zone and see whether it's valid, regardless of how it's presented.

I agree with you about this part. One should try to extract all the feedback that seems genuine and insightful regardless of the commenter's intention or tone. But it is very hard to do so when comments are presented in this way. I'll try to point out a few things.

1. Her tone is belligerent and condescending in every story she ends up rating 2 stars or less. She often directly insults the author.

2. The concept of her reviews is deeply flawed. Regardless of her opinion about a particular story, this idea that it reflects the author as a whole is simply ludicrous. She takes one story from an author who usually has dozens, sometimes hundreds of stories, and bases her whole opinion of that author on that one story, regardless of its length, type of story, DATE of publishing, and so on. There are stories where authors just have fun or troll; there are those where they really invest themselves; there are those they wrote when they first delved into writing and their stories reflect the level of skill they used to have.
Realistically speaking, even if she possessed the skill to evaluate authors in such a way, which I seriously doubt, she would need to read either all the author's stories, or take a representative sample of those stories. As far as I have seen, she just picks one story at random. I believe I don't need to repeat the fact that she put the same author, just under a different pen name, both in the five star and in the one star group. This approach is totally working, eh?

3. If you read more of her comments, you will inevitably see how subjective and opinionated she is. Her beliefs in what are the only right ways to write and what aren't, seem to be set in stone.

When you take all of this into account, if you are still able to go through her comment and take the useful insight, then yeah, you are not an average author that's for sure. It's definitely useful if you are able to do that though, so in that sense, you are absolutely right.

Let's face it, there are authors who are much more easily "hurt" by such comments, who might start doubting themselves or even stop writing when faced with such hostile feedback. We always say "Grow a thicker skin" but not everyone is able to do that, so in my opinion, we shouldn't in any way promote feedback such as this one, regardless of how much some here seem to be over the moon for getting all the praise and being ranked so highly in her list. No, I am not talking about you here.

Nobody here is perfect, no matter how many red Hs they have - which, let's face it, are rarely a reflection of quality.

You are right of course. I am one of those who say this quite often.

 

[NoTalentHack]

I agree with you about this part. One should try to extract all the feedback that seems genuine and insightful regardless of the commenter's intention or tone. But it is very hard to do so when comments are presented in this way. I'll try to point out a few things.

1. Her tone is belligerent and condescending in every story she ends up rating 2 stars or less. She often directly insults the author.

2. The concept of her reviews is deeply flawed. Regardless of her opinion about a particular story, this idea that it reflects the author as a whole is simply ludicrous. She takes one story from an author who usually has dozens, sometimes hundreds of stories, and bases her whole opinion of that author on that one story, regardless of its length, type of story, DATE of publishing, and so on. There are stories where authors just have fun or troll; there are those where they really invest themselves; there are those they wrote when they first delved into writing and their stories reflect the level of skill they used to have.
Realistically speaking, even if she possessed the skill to evaluate authors in such a way, which I seriously doubt, she would need to read either all the author's stories, or take a representative sample of those stories. As far as I have seen, she just picks one story at random. I believe I don't need to repeat the fact that she put the same author, just under a different pen name, both in the five star and in the one star group. This approach is totally working, eh?

3. If you read more of her comments, you will inevitably see how subjective and opinionated she is. Her beliefs in what are the only right ways to write and what aren't, seem to be set in stone.

When you take all of this into account, if you are still able to go through her comment and take the useful insight, then yeah, you are not an average author that's for sure. It's definitely useful if you are able to do that though, so in that sense, you are absolutely right.

Let's face it, there are authors who are much more easily "hurt" by such comments, who might start doubting themselves or even stop writing when faced with such hostile feedback. We always say "Grow a thicker skin" but not everyone is able to do that, so in my opinion, we shouldn't in any way promote feedback such as this one, regardless of how much some here seem to be over the moon for getting all the praise and being ranked so highly in her list. No, I am not talking about you here.


You are right of course. I am one of those who say this quite often.

Additional point: she claims to be objective, but then, at least in my case, changed the rating on my story after I helped get her banned from the board. I don't particularly give a shit about this, because... well, it's Stacnash. I'm still not entirely convinced they aren't a very dedicated troll. Regardless, she'd been on my radar before she reviewed my story due to her absolutely insane reviews of some really great stories, so I deleted the one on mine out of hand. I do remember, though, because she brought it up in the bitchfest that led to her banning, that it was somewhere in the 50%-ish range. And yet, amusingly, I seem to be down in the two-star list. So, unless she's as bad at math as she is at reviewing, her "objective" opinion clearly is not.

TL;DR: She's a troll, whether by intent or nature.

What do we do with trolls? Starve them of attention. Hopefully, this will be the last I speak of her. Even more hopefully, it'll be the last any of us do.

 

[Winter_Fare]

I'm not suggesting you get worked up about a single comment, obviously. But maybe give it a while, then read through it again when you can judge it objectively. Consider her points, and see whether you agree - again, objectively.

See, I did that when I was blessed by the aforementioned self appointed critic. Thought about the points she made. Slept on it for a bit. Then I thought, nah, delete the fucker So I did, and felt much better never having to read that tripe again.

@dmallord
If it makes you feel better, delete that self important narcissistic shit, all nine whiny paragraphs. It's like taking a very satisfying dump, you'll feel better after.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

See, I did that when I was blessed by the aforementioned self appointed critic. Thought about the points she made. Slept on it for a bit. Then I thought, nah, delete the fucker So I did, and felt much better never having to read that tripe again.

@dmallord
If it makes you feel better, delete that self important narcissistic shit, all nine whiny paragraphs. It's like taking a very satisfying dump, you'll feel better after.

That made me laugh

It's good to see you are still here, by the way.

 

[tswanabrit]

Isn't it the curse of writing stories on this site that someone will always find some reason to criticise you.
I got this anonymous comment the other day.

I hate scotch!!!

A valid personal point, but it doesn't fit the dynamic of my MC having a drink with his dad while receiving advice on making his relationship work.
I haven't received a review from Stacnash. I guess that's because most of my work lives in Romance and occasionally LW.
I'm not sure if I could ever bring myself to delete a comment, if I have the right to post the random avenues my brain leads me down in the form of a story, whether the reader likes it or not, or they're a troll they have an equal right to comment.

 

[Winter_Fare]

I'm not sure if I could ever bring myself to delete a comment, if I have the right to post the random avenues my brain leads me down in the form of a story, whether the reader likes it or not, or they're a troll they have an equal right to comment.

Fair enough, go ahead and keep all the comments on your stories, many here will agree with you.

I can honestly say I won't lose any sleep over deleting that careless throwaway review because the site has given me the prerogative to decide what to bin and what to keep.

In the true spirit of this thread, I have had some lovely feedback that's made me smile over the years, but Stacnash is the only one who actually made me laugh out loud. Here's her follow up comment after I deleted her review:

I think the fact that you're averaging less than two followers per story, after 76 stories, shows that the quality of your writing is really poor. Not only that, but this is really dark and pushes the rules of the website

For the record, I have published a mixture of poetry and prose, none of it written with mass appeal in mind, but I love the idea that I'm somehow pushing the boundaries by daring to write stories and characters to my own tastes x .

 

[Rob_Royale]

This was a nice one today, from my Aunt Tina series.

sit2long about 10 hours ago
OMG, what a wonderful story!!! Back story scattered throughout, just as it was needed and not just as clump. The split first person was super effective. Beautiful flow and awakening.

 

[Actingup]

I woke up to a lovely comment from author @theMasterBaiter on my Halloween entry, 'Semi-detached'.
"Well done. Sweet but deals with the worst. This is what I aspire to as well. Life contains horrors, replace them with joy."

Thanks mate. That's exactly what I was going for, and although I've had (and really appreciate) a fair few other comments, this was the first to pick up on that aspect of it.

 

[dmallord]

I read the bits quoted in this thread. The bits that @dmallord chose to present here, which clearly do not include the points that lead up the her conclusion.

I'm not defending her tone. But if you publish a story, and a reader takes the trouble to read it and point out whatever flaws they find, you put on your big boy trousers and at least consider whether their comments have any merit.

Nobody here is perfect, no matter how many red Hs they have - which, let's face it, are rarely a reflection of quality. If an opportunity comes along to improve any aspect of our writing, we'd be stupid to dismiss it out of hand just because we don't like the person expressing the comments.

If Stacnash's criticisms don't have any objective merit, then fine, dismiss them. Her opinion is only that, after all: one reader's opinion. But writers here are forever complaining about the lack of detailed feedback from readers. If you get it, at least step out of your comfort zone and see whether it's valid, regardless of how it's presented.

Your points and response to Awkard are valid in most circumstances. Perhaps others have found something useful in what she wrote about their works. However, after rereading her critique tonight, I found it unhelpful.

She mentioned that by the halfway point, she felt agony and despair over my apparent lack of writing skills. Perhaps because I didn't start writing here until a couple of years ago at age 85, then with no prior writing experiences, most readers would have bailed, but she doggedly continued looking for retribution, I suppose. At that point, it felt like an all-out attack. When I read the following paragraph, I understood her perspective. It was not the story that others seemed to appreciate, but the importance of her being able to ridicule someone with a sense of impunity.

"I don’t have a problem with stories that are simplified, I’ve given high marks to many of them. However, this just felt like an exercise where you wanted to appear more of an intellectual than you actually are, and the overall quality of the story was awful. On reflection, the only positive that stood out was the effort that you put into it. I would believe that you spent hours upon hours crafting this, which speaks to you already having reached whatever limited potential you have as a writer. My view is that you don’t respect the readers or the time they’ve invested to read your work. If you did, you’d cater to their requirements rather than your own."

At that point, my bone-weary sleep-deprived body sat slumped in my new home hospital bed and sighed, "Well, fuck you too bitch."

I realize you probably haven't read any of my works to see that I actually do care about what others have said about my work and have gone back to correct some of that, including rewriting some stories to address their concerns. One cannot appease everyone. I've gone so far as to write a personalized story requested by a reader who commented on another story. They wrote a nice comment and asked if I would tailor a fantasy story for them. But, clearly, I didn't make any effort to meet Stacnash's standards. But then again, I'm not an intellectual and have limited potential as a writer, so a reader couldn't expect me to do so.

Tonight, after writing this, I'm going to follow @Wintar_fare's advice regarding negative vibes in this thread: delete her comment with a smirk and take my night meds. The two-star vote she gave me isn't a concern at all. After all, that's what limited potential elders deserve.

 

[Actingup]

"Well, fuck you too bitch."

Nothing more need be said about Stacnash here IMHO. But if you would like to celebrate some of the nice comments from your readers in this thread, that might help rinse the bad taste out of the mouth?

As a start, I note some of the comments on your 'Red String of Fate', which clearly divided readers due to your ending choices, but included some strongly positive responses amongst that.

"A beautiful and original tale. So sad that there will not be a sequel."

"...the one thing that this writing does not show is arrogance. It was carefully constructed and it seems the ending was chosen with care."

" There are many possible endings to dmallord's wonderful story. The beauty of the story at this point is that it leaves each of us the opportunity to write our own sequel of events hereafter to suit our own desire and fantasy."

 

[shakna]

Your points and response to Awkard are valid in most circumstances. Perhaps others have found something useful in what she wrote about their works. However, after rereading her critique tonight, I found it unhelpful.

She mentioned that by the halfway point, she felt agony and despair over my apparent lack of writing skills. Perhaps because I didn't start writing here until a couple of years ago at age 85, then with no prior writing experiences, most readers would have bailed, but she doggedly continued looking for retribution, I suppose. At that point, it felt like an all-out attack. When I read the following paragraph, I understood her perspective. It was not the story that others seemed to appreciate, but the importance of her being able to ridicule someone with a sense of impunity.

"I don’t have a problem with stories that are simplified, I’ve given high marks to many of them. However, this just felt like an exercise where you wanted to appear more of an intellectual than you actually are, and the overall quality of the story was awful. On reflection, the only positive that stood out was the effort that you put into it. I would believe that you spent hours upon hours crafting this, which speaks to you already having reached whatever limited potential you have as a writer. My view is that you don’t respect the readers or the time they’ve invested to read your work. If you did, you’d cater to their requirements rather than your own."

At that point, my bone-weary sleep-deprived body sat slumped in my new home hospital bed and sighed, "Well, fuck you too bitch."

I realize you probably haven't read any of my works to see that I actually do care about what others have said about my work and have gone back to correct some of that, including rewriting some stories to address their concerns. One cannot appease everyone. I've gone so far as to write a personalized story requested by a reader who commented on another story. They wrote a nice comment and asked if I would tailor a fantasy story for them. But, clearly, I didn't make any effort to meet Stacnash's standards. But then again, I'm not an intellectual and have limited potential as a writer, so a reader couldn't expect me to do so.

Tonight, after writing this, I'm going to follow @Wintar_fare's advice regarding negative vibes in this thread: delete her comment with a smirk and take my night meds. The two-star vote she gave me isn't a concern at all. After all, that's what limited potential elders deserve.

Huh. She also word-for-word said I was catering to my own requirements rather my audience's.

So... They reckon that they're the target audience? Someone has a touch of narcissism there. Unless they've got a contract... Most writers are writing for themselves.

Sounds like you're doing everything right.

 

[gordo12]

A nice comment on Wheelchair Girl from a reader not like Stacnash

Djeez, why does this feel like something that needs to be made into a movie? Or get a part 2?

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Got this just a few minutes ago from Anonymous.

Thank you for another wonderful story. I enjoy your tales of romantic love and self discovery seasoned with just enough sex more than anything else I have read on this site. How I wish I lived in your world!

It warms my heart to have a reader validate I've created a space where girls like me can feel safe and loved.

 

[gordo12]

A new comment on Fido:

Fantasic. I almost stopped reading but I am happy I did not. Hilarious.

 

[MelissaBaby]

If Only in My Dreams



4.87 rating.

Over 100,000 views.

#53 on the 12 Month Romance Top List.

First Place Winner of the 2023 Winter Holidays Contest.


But doesn't belong here...

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

A new comment on Fido:

Fido is awesome. What a wonderfully creative concept, and you absolutely nailed it. I laugh just thinking about it.