Thoughts on Anonymous Comments!!!

[Agent0069]

Every opinion is a blessing. Even if it's a troll - that means you are cool enough to have trolls chase after you.

 

[enbiji]

I have them turned off, because I like people to be polite. Call me a snowflake.

Go on, call me a snowflake.

❄❄❄❄

 

[enbiji]

As a writer, any feedback is essential. None of us can get enough. The writer is in a blind spot. When you read back your own stuff, it's extremely easy to miss what's not there, since your brain inherently knows all of the motives and the behind-the-scenes and will tend to automatically fill in what is not there. If there is some element that you did not establish well enough, often the only way to know is for a reader to criticize by telling you it didn't make sense or add up, or didn't draw them in enough. This is invaluable.

Remember, writing is not about what you wrote. That process is over before you even publish. Writing is about the reading experience. Your readers are telling you about their reading experience and you don't want to hear about it? It's pretty foolish.

"I just don't understand why your character would do that."

and ...

"Why the fuck would your character do that? This is stupid."

... are telling you the exact same thing. If you dismiss the second one, it's your ego telling you to get butthurt and ignore it. When you do this you do not grow nor improve as a writer because you are throwing away valuable feedback. It also shows that you are not here to write the best stories that you can. You're here just to hear people tell you how awesome you are.

Just ignore the rudeness, pick out the facts and get better at writing. Write fearless. You won't regret it.

Yeah, this is pretty close to my view on it. There ARE people who are just abusive and insulting without really adding any value or even really commenting on the work (most commonly in Loving Wives category), and I think it's reasonable to consider deleting some of these from the public comments.

But I'd rather see them, and then decide if they should be deleted, than try to prevent them from happening.

 

[TheLobster]

I have them turned off, because I like people to be polite. Call me a snowflake.

Go on, call me a snowflake.

That’s weird. Why would anyone need an on-demand snowflake? Here, you can only call a cab.

 

[enbiji]

That’s weird. Why would anyone need an on-demand snowflake? Here, you can only call a cab.

 

[Bamagan]

That’s weird. Why would anyone need an on-demand snowflake? Here, you can only call a cab.

I imagine ski resorts would be regular customers.

 

[nice90sguy]

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Fuck: I can't see any difference, but no two are supposed to be alike. This needs to be written up in "Nature"

 

[Duleigh]

Some of my nicest comments have been Anonymous, but that's very frustrating because I like to open a dialogue with my readers. I've met some wonderful people by responding to comments. However 100% of the dumbest comments I've received were anonymous. I have no problem deleting a dumb, ignorant, or annoying anonymous comment, a comment left by a named individual earns more respect

 

[Duleigh]

Fuck: I can't see any difference, but no two are supposed to be alike. This needs to be written up in "Nature"

 

[TheArsonist]

I sometimes wonder whether disallowing anonymous comments means that anon readers would downvote a story instead of just posting a critical commment. Do you think that allowing/disallowing anonymous comments affects story score?

For me, at least (rarely bothering to log in), it amounts to a minor insult at the end of the story, so if I'm hesitating between two grades it will probably mean I go with the lower one.