Comments That Make Your Day

[AwkwardlySet]

i prefer carpet licking, and i prefer licking a nice well-layed laminate floor even more...

I am also an enthusiast

Meanwhile, Roses for Erin got rodded from orbit. I'm impressed!

Welcome to the party.

 

[NoTalentHack]

i prefer carpet licking, and i prefer licking a nice well-layed laminate floor even more...

wait, what were we talking about?

Meanwhile, Roses for Erin got rodded from orbit. I'm impressed!

“We’ll show you, you meanies!” The super serious critic squeaks.

 

[onehitwanda]

I am also an enthusiast


Welcome to the party.

It's a shit party. The pub down the road is better

 

[Djmac1031]

i prefer carpet licking, and i prefer licking a nice well-layed laminate floor even more...

If you're gonna have a carpet, i prefer a nice, soft shag.

Never understood those short, bristley ones. I want something soft I can curl my toes up in.

Wait. what were we talking about again...?

 

[AwkwardlySet]

It's a shit party. The pub down the road is better

Come on, don't let this all get to you. We get free drinks here

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Has it occurred to you that the immediate suspect for this attack is someone competing with you for a spot on that list?

No. Top List sniping does happen sometimes, but it doesn't happen with a multitude of votes, but just one or two, and it is almost always just enough of a vote to push you slightly behind. Top List sniping is exactly like a sniper attack. This was heavy artillery shelling and more than that, it didn't happen on my highest-rated chapter only (4.93); it happened to my whole series and there was even one chapter that wasn't anywhere near being in the all-time Hall of Fame. Those scores were stable for months. No this is as clear a case as it can be, as I was the one who called out that commenter first in this thread.

 

[Voboy]

I'm a tart for compliments, and I greatly appreciated the comment you left on MI. But if it's okay with you, I'd prefer not to be invoked in this particular way. I'm sure it was intended as a compliment to the folk you've named here, but from my perspective it puts me in opposition to somebody who I don't have a beef with. And I expect some readers here are already assuming you're an alt of one of us four, which isn't a great feeling for me.

Same, PLEASE @Stacnash . I'm glad you enjoyed my story, but I have no wish to be set up as any kind of example. I've always said (and I fervently believe) that all of us should write what we'd want to read; I feel like nobody who does that can go too far wrong. So I'd hope other writers are doing just that: writing what they'd enjoy, not what anyone else here would enjoy. I feel like singling out specific writers hampers that.

 

[SimonDoom]

(Should that be "with whom I don't have a beef"? It's too early in the morning for these questions.)

It's "with whom I don't have a beef" or "whom I don't have a beef with." (the style guides I rely on don't have a beef with ending a word with a preposition) Either way, it's "whom" because it's the object not the subject. The place of the pronoun in the phrase makes no difference to its function, and it's the function that determines the case, which is objective. It's the object of the preposition "with."

If you write the whole thing out functionally, it's "I don't have a beef with whom." Moving the words around makes no difference to the function of each word in the phrase, so it makes no difference to whether you use "who" or "whom." "Whom" is correct.

 

[NoTalentHack]

On No Place to Go:

I'm sorry that I was only able to give 4 stars. The story was very well written and characters were well fleshed out. But I felt the rage the husband had and almost didn't finish reading .I should be more objective, but cheating wive stories set my teeth on edge. I apologise for the the lower score. You are a good writer.

“I’m too mad to give you a five” is a new one, but I’ll take it.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Sounds like you touched someone.

 

[Stacnash]

[No personal attacks or trolling - including creating accounts for this specific purpose. Heated discussions are fine, even welcome. However, personally attacking / kink-shaming a fellow author or reader is not allowed within the Author's Hangout. Threads which devolve into the exchanging of insults will be closed and repeat offenders will be given a timeout, per the AH rules.]

 

[Djmac1031]

On No Place to Go:


“I’m too mad to give you a five” is a new one, but I’ll take it.

Beats the "I didn't read it but the anal tag earned you a one."

 

[MediocreAuthor]

I got this comment from an author I particularly respect, and that's always something that makes my day:

joy_of_cooking 11 days ago
You're doing such a good job of showing how competent he is. She took what she wanted => now he'll make her beg explicitly . It's delicious how he makes the punishment ("punishment") fit the crime. Plus the bit about "just fix it now and we'll forget anything was ever wrong" is right out of a management textbook.

I might otherwise have been bothered by [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS] , but you've laid the groundwork well enough that I can believe he came in, saw her, checked the time, and made a plan on the spot.

 

[dasgoodshit]

Again, thank you for taking a chance, even though the category isn’t something you tend to indulge in. I can be a merciless creator but I felt the same when writing the romance scene, that moment of happiness was well deserved and earned.

Link please. I don't care about the score or the category; if anyone says something like that, it's worth reading.

 

[SeraphNocturne]

Link please. I don't care about the score or the category; if anyone says something like that, it's worth reading.

Thank you kindly, I've sent you a message.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Aaaand it is happening again, this time on all of my stories. I hope you are having a good time at least, the kind of good time only internet can provide.

Editing just to provide context: I have never been targeted by bombing in my one year or so of having an account on Lit. Never. I have been sniped several times when I was in the top three of the all-time Hall of Fame list, but I understand that comes with the territory and I never really requested a sweep or anything like that. Now this happens two days in a row and the only, only argument I had was the one all of you have witnessed here. I haven't written any provocative posts, I haven't left a bad comment on anyone's story, I haven't sent an inflaming pm to anyone, NOTHING.
Many of you know we had some fiery discussions and heated arguments here, arguments that sometimes ended up in someone being offended and so on, but it was always something between the usual AH crowd and it had never resulted in someone's stories being targeted, as far as I know. I can say my stories were never targeted, at least. I leave the conclusions to you, but to me they are pretty obvious.

 

[BobbyandtheCabin]

My account is over a year old, or so, but I've only started using it more regularly.

I've been a reader on this site for a long time, but a lurker on the forum for far less time than that. My earliest forum memory was the nasty episode where 8letters stole content from JCMcNeilly and published it under his own name. Maybe a year ago? Whenever that was. In the main, I use the forums for story recommendations and to scout promising writers to read.

I've always preferred to leave comments anonymously, but a month or so ago, a user called @BobbyandtheCabin objected to some detailed feedback which I'd left anonymously on his story, Asleep in the Log Cabin.

His objection was aired in a forum thread where he attempted to incite a dog-pile against me and my views, which my friend and I saw immediately as lurkers. At that point, I lit him up and didn't do it anonymously.

After Bobby was criticised for attempting the dog-pile by others on the forum, he eventually apologised to me after seeing the error of his ways. We're cool and we put it behind us.

However, now that I've kept commenting with my profile, as opposed to doing so anonymously, other users have also attempted the same dog-pile tactics on the forums. Not many, but NoTalentHack, Oneagainst and someone called Onehitwanda all used my reviews to do the same as Bobby. Wanda's was bizarre because she outright stated herself that she wished she was half the writer that Jackie.O.Hikaru and JC McNeilly are, and my score aligns with that. She said so herself. I don't know her, I'm sure she's lovely. It's not personal.

I don't mind people dismissing my views because that's an author's right. Just as it's my right to leave the review because I took the time to read the piece. Some of the authors I review only get comments once per month, on average, or even less. If someone does a good job, I like giving them a well-earned pat on the back. Some of the messages I've had from those I've reviewed have been so lovely. But if the work is average, or terrible, I'll say so in a nice clear voice and, again, it's not personal.

That said, I just don't want people to lie.

Don't do what NoTalentHack did and act like a deranged child and delete comments, then lie about what was in them in the first place. Don't lie and say that there were multiple "obvious insults", that the feedback was offered in bad faith or that I'm a fraud, or a sock puppet, or an alt, or a frustrated middling writer or some of the things he claimed during his meltdown over the last 24 hours. Neither Bobby or Wanda or Oneagainst or that other guy did that.



That's your mistake though, there is no "we". There's no barrier to entry for leaving feedback here besides the Comments Policy and no one needs a "qualification" to leave a review. If you think the opposite, then that's lunacy. Do I also need a special qualification to vote in an election? Stop and think before defending your friend makes you look like a moron. You're anything but a moron.

The facts of the matter are clear. The only ones upset are those who didn't get the glowing review they demanded. If you don't like the review, just delete it and move on with your life. That's definitely what the three-star general should be doing.

I think every writer's efforts are valuable, whether I've said you were brilliant or not.

I'm going back to lurking and reading my stories. Just, for the love of God, stop bullying new people. Not everyone's like me and has the skills to make you look stupid for trying it.

Just responding to this as I was tagged. Sorry to bring us back to it .

Yes @Stacnash commented on my story anonymously and I shared it as an example in a comment on my thread, which I've since removed. My thread was about why it's gutting when people give low votes and don't leave any feedback to say why.

Stacnash, you left a comment on my story after seeing my forum thread. I reacted badly to your comment and failed to recognise that, regardless of my opinion, you were only doing what I asked. You could quite easily have been just another instance of someone leaving a low score and me having no idea why. That is why I apologised.

That being said, seeing more of your reviews along with your comments in here after tagging me, there's some feedback I feel I should make known. It may also be of benefit to you if it's in your blindspot, seeing as you're having multiple instances where people are reacting negatively in ways it seems you feel are uncalled for.

I find your comments and reviews come across consistently insulting, as opposed to just constructive as you put to me in the past. Rather than tell someone their story wasn't for you, you'd more likely say it induced vomit. If someone used a word or technique in a way you don't agree with, you'd more likely refer to it as their 'moronic use of' X. It feels like pent up spite and anger drips out of your comments and reviews as if it doesn't have a healthy outlet. I'd be interested to see your passion channeled into fiction rather than directed negatively at other people's work. Used for good, not evil!

Taking your comment on my story completely out of the equation, I feel like everything wilts and greys around me as I read what you write to people. Of course at the same time I can't stop reading it. It's juicy as a bystander, but I find it exhaustingly attacking, negative, and encouraging of a fight. I can only imagine it must be tiring for you too to have this negativity swelling inside you.

Whether or not this is intended, I feel you're likely to repeatedly antagonise people, and it appears intentionally attacking. You may get some people who choose to ignore those elements and take on the functional aspects of your feedback. More likely I reckon, they'll either ignore it, be hurt, or lash out back at you. In the latter case, I think you'd be best to come to recognise your part in that, and that their reaction is often justifiable.

All I've seen so far is bewilderment from you as to people's retaliation. Why is this person whose story I've said resembles a troll's soggy toe, and that I pointed out that it could have been written better by an aborted foetus, trying to start a dogpile against me on the forums??? Hopefully this resonates.

I'm truly sorry if this is as a result of being at the brunt of this sort of talk for a long time. It may not seem like it, and there will be people who defy this, but warmth begets warmth. Carrying on in this vain will only encourage more and more negativity back at you. The world will only feel more bitter, cold and against you unless you actively challenge that instinct.

Maybe you could trial trying to focus on the good and the positive in people's work for a little while. Maybe leave the one-two star ratings alone for a little bit. See how things go. Remember these are often amateur writers doing so for fun, or an outlet for themselves.

This of course is my opinion, though I imagine many of your other victims (lol, joke!) would agree. Regardless you I've offered what I think is clear insight as to how and why people respond to you how they do.

 

[Stacnash]

Stacnash, you left a comment on my story after seeing my forum thread. I reacted badly to your comment and failed to recognise that, regardless of my opinion, you were only doing what I asked. You could quite easily have been just another instance of someone leaving a low score and me having no idea why. That is why I apologised.

Yeah, we're cool. It was big of you to do that after your initial reaction, I was impressed by your maturity.

Don't look too much into the content of the review. If someone like me takes issue with the length of your work, the lack of character development, your choice of descriptive language in your sexual content, potential boredom and a failure to arouse then that's up to the reader, but it's not a personal attack or an attempt to wallow in negativity.

It's just a critique. You're free to delete it if you wish.

However, as for this guy;

Aaaand it is happening again, this time on all of my stories. I hope you are having a good time at least, the kind of good time only internet can provide.

You owe me an apology for your disgraceful tantrum yesterday. I showed you, with evidence, that I haven't read your story and you're not on my reading list.

But let me make something clear to you, right here and right now. I've got no sympathy for whatever's going on at your end. The barrage of aggressive and harrassing posts you made about me were one thing, but to make serious false accusations, without a shred of evidence, should see you ostracised from this community.

But then again, seeing as you've spent time boasting and crying about a lost membership of a "Hall of Fame" says more about your ego than your disgraceful behaviour ever could.

Put me on ignore. Do it now.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

Here it is. I think it's an odd review. But I know it upset her. Despite her claiming she doesn't pay attention to reviews, sometimes they get under her skin. She said her best response is not to respond at all. She doesn't believe in defending her work.

Stacnash
For such a short story, I ended up making so many notes. There were parts of this which I found to be incredibly impressive.



There’s a depth to your writing which simply doesn’t get seen at this level too often. I thought the way you set the scene was majestic and it helped build a world for me to get lost in. You come across as a deeply intelligent writer and I appreciate the effort that’s went into this.



However, that’s not always a positive. Your work is needlessly verbose to the point of it becoming a nuisance. It’s clear to me that you haven’t given much thought to your target audience, a great deal of whom may find that verbosity to be impenetrable. What’s more important to you when writing erotic content? That people get blown away by your intelligence or that you arouse them to the point of climax? That’s completely up to you.



Otherwise, as amazing as your world-building skills are, your dialogue needs a lot of work. When the characters first speak, the priest’s greeting to Maranda is incongruous in its lack of realism and credibility. Immediately, I concluded that he’s an idiot. It gets better from there, but Maranda’s delivery is stiff throughout and it’s by-the-numbers succubus fare. There was scope for her to play with her food in a manner that’s arousing to the reader, but they’d barely touched before you told us of her multiple orgasms.



The biggest disconnect was your idea of what enthralled the priest. For a succubus, it’s not beauty that makes their prey succumb, it’s soul-consuming heat and passion. There was a point where it became clear that you realised that, when you wrote “…a gorgeous woman who exuded sensuality stood before him”.



But you’d spent the time beforehand telling us about her beauty, not her sensuality. As a result, and as someone who deeply enjoys succubus-themed content, I didn’t believe that Maranda was anywhere near sensual enough to carry the priest out into deep waters.



That said, you’ve got so much ability that it’s remarkable. If I were you, I’d take a half step to the side and get out of your own way. Seduce the reader and make that your priority.



63/100.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Aaaand it is happening again, this time on all of my stories. I hope you are having a good time at least, the kind of good time only internet can provide.

Editing just to provide context: I have never been targeted by bombing in my one year or so of having an account on Lit. Never. I have been sniped several times when I was in the top three of the all-time Hall of Fame list, but I understand that comes with the territory and I never really requested a sweep or anything like that. Now this happens two days in a row and the only, only argument I had was the one all of you have witnessed here. I haven't written any provocative posts, I haven't left a bad comment on anyone's story, I haven't sent an inflaming pm to anyone, NOTHING.
Many of you know we had some fiery discussions and heated arguments here, arguments that sometimes ended up in someone being offended and so on, but it was always something between the usual AH crowd and it had never resulted in someone's stories being targeted, as far as I know. I can say my stories were never targeted, at least. I leave the conclusions to you, but to me they are pretty obvious.

I've got no dog in this fight. Hell, I don't even think I made the cut as one of the 100 prominent AH authors. But seriously, you ought to step back on the accusations. I don't know anything about Stacnash, and maybe you are right, and they are having a grand old time trashing your scores. But it's just as likely that some opportunist asshole is trying to stir shit and laughing at both of you right now. You've got nothing to lose by chilling out.

And, generally, it sure would be nice to see this once very cool, mostly positive thread go back to what it was intended to be, instead of just another mudfight.

 

[PrincessArianrhod]

And on that note...

37 thousand words. I only need 2. Simply Outstanding.

Anonymous comment on Nature vs Nurture

I also received an unexpectedly glowing review from @Stacnash but it's too long to post. It hit me in my soft parts though, I can tell you.

 

[Stacnash]

Hell, I don't even think I made the cut as one of the 100 prominent AH authors.

And, generally, it sure would be nice to see this once very cool, mostly positive thread go back to what it was intended to be, instead of just another mudfight.

Agreed, but I have no control over whether others use this thread to discuss reviews I've left on their work. Positive or negative. A separate thread would be ideal.

Interestingly, this is a thread for comments that made your day, but the first users to mention my name, and quote my reviews, did so looking to incite a dog-pile, which is clearly derailing the thread. As you've accurately noted, this also isn't the place for meltdowns from those unhappy with my views. Clearly, the dream that more readers with critical views will comment using a Lit profile has been set back as a result.

Just so you know, my reading list isn't exclusively filled with forum users. But some of the forum users are amongst the most popular on the website. I can see that you're incredibly popular too.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I have struggled with myself if I should reply at all and in that way give significance to a trolling alt belonging to someone on AH, but since many here are falling all over themselves in an attempt to get on your good side and "earn" a good review, I suppose I'll delve into it.

In the first post where I wrote about you, I wasn't talking to you at all. You had no presence here whatsoever, nor did I have any notion that you might read it, - the post you wrote in reply was your first post ever (on that account, at least) You were just some random commenter, one of many many out there. I was actually criticizing @MediocreAuthor, for giving importance to some random person who took it upon herself to review and rank us. MediocreAuthor is someone who has repeatedly shown herself as a nice person and someone who has become a cherished member of the community and that is why my post was a critique aimed at her for letting herself be swayed by praise and flattery from a completely random person and show such excitement for this review and ranking "project". It was a somewhat angry post from me, but it was directed to her, not to you as, once again, you had zero presence and importance here.

Why did it irk me so much? Because in the stuff she linked, you came off as incredibly arrogant and later even disdainful, putting yourself obviously above the authors you wanted to review. The way you replied here with much more disdain than I actually showed, the way you argued with NTH, and especially the way you disdainfully commented on Wanda's story and the way you keep mocking people like 8letters in that other thread, told me all I needed to know. And you wanted to review our stories and rank us, all without having any presence or credibility here, without writing a single story or doing anything that would give you at least an ounce of credibility. Now, commenters have colorful attitudes all the time, they write comments with plenty of attitude and disdain just as often as they comment in a polite and constructive way, and that is certainly nothing new. I have never deleted a comment and I usually ignore the ones with attitude, so I WAS only trying to berate MediocreAuthor for putting herself in that position, while you were just some random nickname I have never seen before. She maybe had a reason to be cross with me, even if I criticized her for a good reason, but still, she was the one who could have done it.

On to the bombing. You can keep pretending you have nothing to do with it all you want. The bombing occurred hours after the heated discussion in that thread. Whether it is you, someone who follows you, some friends, or people you are influencing, I really don't care. Physical proof is impossible to everyone except Laurel and Manu perhaps, so talking about proof in this case feels silly. Yet logic and common sense tell me it is you or someone linked to you, the same way it tells me you are someone's alt. The style of writing in the posts you wrote has made it easier to narrow it down to several AH members but I won't go any further than this general speculation because they DO deserve some actual proof before I dare to name someone.

I might be wrong about the alt thing, even though there are reasons to believe that, and I have already named a few in some previous posts. But still, I might be wrong there. I am not wrong about other things I wrote, about your disdainful, mocking, and self-important attitude, about your absolute lack of credibility, and about you in some way, direct or indirect, being behind the bombing of my stories. There it is, so bomb away as much as you want.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I've got no dog in this fight. Hell, I don't even think I made the cut as one of the 100 prominent AH authors. But seriously, you ought to step back on the accusations. I don't know anything about Stacnash, and maybe you are right, and they are having a grand old time trashing your scores. But it's just as likely that some opportunist asshole is trying to stir shit and laughing at both of you right now. You've got nothing to lose by chilling out.

And, generally, it sure would be nice to see this once very cool, mostly positive thread go back to what it was intended to be, instead of just another mudfight.

In a way, you are most certainly right, although you can see some reasons in the long post I have just made. I have been in heated discussions so, so many times here and it never happened before, so you can understand my reasoning.
You are right about derailing this thread, though, and for that, I apologize to other participants of this thread. I won't comment on this anymore.

 

[Stacnash]

and the way you keep mocking people like 8letters in that other thread, told me all I needed to know.

8letters is a thief and a plagiarist, to see someone with your lack of character defend him doesn't surprise me. The theft of another writer's work is as low as you can sink. I've sacked junior writers on the spot for it because, if I didn't, I'd have lost my job for being spineless. My mockery is the very least that a thief like that deserves.

You are right about derailing this thread, though, and for that, I apologize to other participants of this thread. I won't comment on this anymore.

Good. Have a nice life. Put me on ignore.