Do you 'Accept Anonymous Feedback' on your stories?

[Kelliezgirl]

Pretty much. People are just vocal about their kinks and want to see them represented in your stories; doesn't mean you have to cater to them.

I mean, if I were to do what anon commenters want me to do, all me female characters would be getting pregnant while already being pregnant.

I do think that kind of thing shows the value of comments. I really had no idea that so many people were into that.

 

[Bazzle]

If we're being honest, I'll leave an anon comment when I want to point out a glaring mistake, but otherwise don't have anything to say about the story.

That's what I've mostly assumed. I probably 'know' anonymous but they don't want me to be upset by the comment!

 

[iwatchus]

I allow anonymous comments. Some have been inane or useless. But I have not had anything really nasty or offensive. But I write fairly vanilla stuff overall (only one in LW nothing even close to T/I, no significant gay male characters yet) so I may be seeing much less of it.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I have never blocked anonymous comments, and I don't think, in the entire time I have been here, that I have deleted more than a half dozen comments, and they were not all anonymous.

It's easy for me to say "Oh, now, you shouldn't block them because...", but I would be coming from a position of relative privilege, as my stories have pretty much all been posted in the more friendly categories, such as Romance and Novels & Novellas.

The bottom line is, they are your stories, it is your account, and you should curate it in the manner that seems appropriate to you. Just consider first, you may block more readers who felt compelled to post a positive comment than a negative one, and possibly alienate potential followers.

 

[AG31]

Every since I've been getting hit with 'Please no Gay Stuff.' in my ongoing Femdom story(That's definitely going to have beta on alpha gay stuff) I've been considering turning off anonymous feedback.

About 4 out of every 5 comments I get are anonymous, so it would drastically cut down the number of comments I get. But I suspect a lot of those comments that are making requests and trying to steer the story into a different direction are coming from the same person anyways. So it would be interesting to see if they stop commenting once they can't be anonymous, or if they continue marching forward with their 'No Gay' campaign.

I'm fairly sure I'm going to turn off anonymous feedback before I drop part 8, but I wanted to hear how other people felt about turning it off before I actually do it.

Did you turn of Anonymous Feedback? Or do you allow it?

And Why'd you go with whichever option you chose?

Sure. Most named feedback might as well be anonymous anyway. I don't know the people that comment.

 

[Djmac1031]

ALL are welcome to comment on my stories, Anon included.

Let me ask this: is there any difference between an Anon comment and a comment by someone using a screen name, really? It's not like i know the people with screen names personally.

And just because a reader makes a suggestion doesnt mean you're obligated to listen to it.

Only comments I would ever delete are any with personal threats or hate speech.

If you feel this particular Anon's "no gay stuff" qualifies then block it i suppose.

Otherwise just shrug and move on.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I sure do. IME the good vastly outweighs the bad.

When somebody leaves a wrong-headed comment (which is quite often from signed-in accounts), normally I'll just leave it there. Quite often other readers will challenge them on it without me having to lift a finger.

The main cases where I'd consider deleting a comment are comments that aren't actually about the story (e.g. people trying to carry out forum drama) or racism/homophobia/transphobia/etc. But these are rare.

 

[caleb35]

Anonymous, yes, so long as I feel that the comment has some value (i.e. is critical or clearly has some thought put into it). I delete anonymous comments that simply amount to "you suck."

 

[OddLove]

ALL are welcome to comment on my stories, Anon included.

Let me ask this: is there any difference between an Anon comment and a comment by someone using a screen name, really? It's not like i know the people with screen names personally.

And just because a reader makes a suggestion doesnt mean you're obligated to listen to it.

Only comments I would ever delete are any with personal threats or hate speech.

If you feel this particular Anon's "no gay stuff" qualifies then block it i suppose.

Otherwise just shrug and move on.

That's a great point. The challenge for me is identifying wear a line would be between, requesting I stop writing anything that's not strictly heterosexual material, and explicitly expression hatred or disgust towards homosexuality.

I suppose the simple 'no gay stuff' request would just be preference, but referring to the act of two men having sex as 'nasty' would probably qualify as hateful.

At first I was able to shrug it off like most people are saying they do, but after got anonymous comment on part five of my story said, "Also, I don’t like that Kim is pushing him into some gay shit, although if she assists Danny with the blow job of her bi sub, it takes much of the nastiness away."

I kind of just hit a boiling point where I don't want them commenting on any my stuff anymore, even if it's positive. So my idea behind taking the extra layer of anonymity away was so that I could remove their comments or block them.

And like others have mentioned, turning off comments or even just anonymous feedback can rob some people of offering feedback. Though, I don't think it prevents people without accounts from reading my story like some have implied, but I could be misunderstanding things. But it's enough of a good point to have me second guessing now.

To summarize and directly answer 'is there any difference between an Anon comment and a comment by someone using a screen name, really?'

Yes, but it's not a big difference. It just let's me see the usernames so if the person comes back and describes male on male sex as 'nastiness', I can actively watch for them in the future remove all there comments from anything I ever publish moving forward.

 

[Djmac1031]

That's a great point. The challenge for me is identifying wear a line would be between, requesting I stop writing anything that's not strictly heterosexual material, and explicitly expression hatred or disgust towards homosexuality.

I suppose the simple 'no gay stuff' request would just be preference, but referring to the act of two men having sex as 'nasty' would probably qualify as hateful.

At first I was able to shrug it off like most people are saying they do, but after got anonymous comment on part five of my story said, "Also, I don’t like that Kim is pushing him into some gay shit, although if she assists Danny with the blow job of her bi sub, it takes much of the nastiness away."

I kind of just hit a boiling point where I don't want them commenting on any my stuff anymore, even if it's positive. So my idea behind taking the extra layer of anonymity away was so that I could remove their comments or block them.

And like others have mentioned, turning off comments or even just anonymous feedback can rob some people of offering feedback. Though, I don't think it prevents people without accounts from reading my story like some have implied, but I could be misunderstanding things. But it's enough of a good point to have me second guessing now.

To summarize and directly answer 'is there any difference between an Anon comment and a comment by someone using a screen name, really?'

Yes, but it's not a big difference. It just let's me see the usernames so if the person comes back and describes male on male sex as 'nastiness', I can actively watch for them in the future remove all there comments from anything I ever publish moving forward.

you can just delete those particular comments.

your call. Just pointing out options

 

[Bramblethorn]

That's a great point. The challenge for me is identifying wear a line would be between, requesting I stop writing anything that's not strictly heterosexual material, and explicitly expression hatred or disgust towards homosexuality.

For the former, you might consider something like this: "Hi, if you would like me to write a story to your personal tastes I'd be willing to consider a paid story-writing commission. If this is something you'd like to explore, please get in touch so we can discuss rates." (If they actually bite, set those rates high enough that you'd be happy to do the job for that money, and be sure you get paid up front.)

In my experience this can be a very effective way of getting entitled people to fuck off, because these people don't like having to say "I can't afford that" but very few of them want to pay the actual value of one's time.

I suppose the simple 'no gay stuff' request would just be preference, but referring to the act of two men having sex as 'nasty' would probably qualify as hateful.

You're being more charitable than I would be. There are already PLENTY of stories out there with "no gay stuff", they're welcome to go read those ones instead of acting like every single story on the site ought to be written to their preferences. Some people need to be reminded that the world doesn't revolve around them personally.

I kind of just hit a boiling point where I don't want them commenting on any my stuff anymore, even if it's positive. So my idea behind taking the extra layer of anonymity away was so that I could remove their comments or block them.

And like others have mentioned, turning off comments or even just anonymous feedback can rob some people of offering feedback. Though, I don't think it prevents people without accounts from reading my story like some have implied, but I could be misunderstanding things. But it's enough of a good point to have me second guessing now.

It does not prevent people from reading your stories, no. I will say that especially if you're getting into male-bi content, you might find that a lot of the readers who really appreciate that kind of story may be folk who are wary about being outed and therefore reluctant to register.

Even without a user ID, you may find that the "ew gay" commenter/s get pretty recognisable if they hang around. Everybody has their own writing style and especially the ones who are maladjusted enough to be doing things like reading a story with bi content just to complain about the bi content.

 

[Bamagan]

You're being more charitable than I would be. There are already PLENTY of stories out there with "no gay stuff", they're welcome to go read those ones instead of acting like every single story on the site ought to be written to their preferences. Some people need to be reminded that the world doesn't revolve around them personally.

Or, if they insist on the world revolving around them, they can be launched into the sun as a compromise.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Or, if they insist on the world revolving around them, they can be launched into the sun as a compromise.

Filing this away for future use.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I welcome any comments anyone may have. I don't delete bad ones; I sometimes answer ones directed at me. I have deleted a few personal attacks. But I like comments. Hate, like love, is an emotion (of things, like stories), and my goal is to elicit emotions from the readers. So, even those who tell me how much they hate it feed my ego.

 

[AG31]

Let me ask this: is there any difference between an Anon comment and a comment by someone using a screen name, really? It's not like i know the people with screen names personally.

Precisely.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I had no idea you can just delete individual comments until I saw people on here mention that today. So that kind of seems like a good option too. It's the 'still have cake after eating it' cliche, right? Delete all backseat-writing comments that are making 'do this' and 'stop that' request, but it's also not restricting anyone from offering valuable feedback or critiques or just saying 'cool story bro' or 'this sucks' type stuff.

Still on the fence about it.

Keep in mind that you are not the only one to see comments on your stories.

I accept all feedback and never delete any comments. It's more fun to see what other readers have to say when they encounter a comment that is obviously out of left field, or purposely disrespectful to the author or the story.

You can be followed by trolls and/or loyal readers. I have discovered that those who are loyal to me are quick to have my back.

 

[TheLobster]

It just let's me see the usernames so if the person comes back and describes male on male sex as 'nastiness', I can actively watch for them in the future remove all there comments from anything I ever publish moving forward.

You cannot block specific accounts from commenting on your stories. Even if you could, it’s a trivial effort to create another one, so watching for one username is not going to be enough. You’ll have to watch for multiple, and probably also for new commenters, and it won’t be long before you realize the username alone is not a reliable indicator of comment quality.

In the end, you’ll simply be back to square one, where you individually scrutinize every comment for its content and not the name attached to it. And since you would have to do this anyway, just like you do with anonymous comments now, why would you disable anon comments in the first place?

 

[MillieDynamite]

Anyon giveth and Anyon taketh away! Long live the Anyon!!!

 

[ElectricBlue]

Even without a user ID, you may find that the "ew gay" commenter/s get pretty recognisable if they hang around. Everybody has their own writing style and especially the ones who are maladjusted enough to be doing things like reading a story with bi content just to complain about the bi content.

I find the gay male sex chapters in my longer pieces have a slight up-kick in views but a slightly lower score than the chapters before and after, which I always put down to the Real Men of Lit saying, "I don't like that GM content, but I'll read it twice to make sure."

 

[PennyThompson]

I find the gay male sex chapters in my longer pieces have a slight up-kick in views but a slightly lower score than the chapters before and after, which I always put down to the Real Men of Lit saying, "I don't like that GM content, but I'll read it twice to make sure."

sometimes you just need to take a second sip to make sure you hate a craft beer

 

[Djmac1031]

sometimes you just need to take a second sip to make sure you hate a craft beer

Or it might just be Post Nut Guilt.

 

[PennyThompson]

Or it might just be Post Nut Guilt.

Is that like a hangover? Because I've had regrets, but it hasn't stopped me from drinking again in the future

(I do hate the taste of beer, but I'll still ask for a sip off someone else's just in case...) ((I think I may have lost the metaphor))

 

[iwatchus]

Is that like a hangover? Because I've had regrets, but it hasn't stopped me from drinking again in the future

You just haven't drunk enough, I guess. About fifty years ago, I was on a three day binge, mostly drinking vodka. I spent a few days in the hospital with alcohol poisoning and gave up drinking altogether. It took me a few tries (and about a decade) to be able to safely drink beer and wine. It is only in the last few years I have started drinking any stronger spirits, still limited to a short of ouzo at a restaurant in greece and a few other special occasions. I still salivate if I think about vodka, even though I have not tasted it for half a century.

Sorry to be posting a kind of downer.

 

[NuclearFairy]

sometimes you just need to take a second sip to make sure you hate a craft beer

Ya know what Sesame Street says, if you don't like it on the first try, try two more times.

Jokes on them though! Cause I only give each new alcohol one sip before deciding if I hate it or not. Spoiler, mostly it's hate. On the upside, my hilarious, "Oh god no! What the actual hell did I just put in my mouth?" faces are a hit at parties.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Of course. We get few enough comments as it is. But then I don't often write stories that inflame the torches and pitchforks crowd.