Feedback bashing

[docBlue]

Has anyone noticed an increase in 'bashing' on the Feedback the past year or so?

As Mellowgyrl has written, there are 2 types of feedback: bad feedback is flat out bashing, critique without suggestions, attacks on the author and not the story itself - and there is constructive criticism.

I have noticed for my own stories (docblue) that the bashing has increased dramatically over the constructive comments (which normally arrive via email).

If someone looks up a category for E&V or Loving wifes, are they seriously NOT expecting exaggerated sexual behavior in the stories? Perhaps these fundamentalists should create their own literature boards. They are always 'anonymous' and remind me of the brave people who flip the bird at you within the confines of their car, yet when approached will back off quicker than a crow from his roadkill.

 

[sr71plt]

No, I haven't received much bashing in comments in the past (other than a period of a gay basher zapping everything, including my straight stories for a month of so early last year)--and I haven't seen an increase above the existing nearly zero in negative commenting. Yesterday a couple of people did go through and low vote all eleven segments my latest series in less than an hour to knock it all off very hot--but I don't ascribe that to regular readers of my stories in the story section.

Most of my comments fall into a third category--compliments and encouragement--with just a few into a fourth, which is registering something they personally weren't completely pleased with in a story, but just that, not really criticism for what all readers wouldn't like in the story or a perceived failure of the writing techniqe or storytelling.

 

[smitty203]

New to posting in the forums.

I've been a member for a while now, but have only recently started to go beyond voting and offering, what I hope has been, anonymous constructive criticism. I am not a writer to date but I am considering submitting some things I've done after I've had a few other people take a look at what I have so far. One of the hurdles preventing me from doing this is, as docBlue said, the skyrocketing rate of bashing I see in the comments. In my opinion a good share of it seems to be little more than narrow minded individuals of the opinion that anything not to their personal taste is garbage and if you won't write what they want then you shouldn't write at all. Unfortunately there's no easy way to prevent such occurences short of banning all anonymous comments. This may seem somewhat hypocritical, but crap like that infuriates me. I know, I know, the guy not secure enough to submit his own work mouthing off like this. Oh well, that's the way it is.

 

[sr71plt]

I've been a member for a while now, but have only recently started to go beyond voting and offering, what I hope has been, anonymous constructive criticism. I am not a writer to date but I am considering submitting some things I've done after I've had a few other people take a look at what I have so far. One of the hurdles preventing me from doing this is, as docBlue said, the skyrocketing rate of bashing I see in the comments. In my opinion a good share of it seems to be little more than narrow minded individuals of the opinion that anything not to their personal taste is garbage and if you won't write what they want then you shouldn't write at all. Unfortunately there's no easy way to prevent such occurences short of banning all anonymous comments. This may seem somewhat hypocritical, but crap like that infuriates me. I know, I know, the guy not secure enough to submit his own work mouthing off like this. Oh well, that's the way it is.

If you get a comment you think is unfair, you can just delete it, can't you?

 

[Emerald_Dragon]

Nah, I left up the comments section. You do have a delete button should you choose to use it to delete any comments. I've only done that once. In hind sight I should have left it up. I had comments from readers about the negative comment all telling annony. to shut the fuck up and encouraging me to write more.

I figure the real fans are the ones that leave there name or send me emails. I write for me and for them, the rest are just shmucks.

 

[MagicaPractica]

I noticed that the more I wrote, the more unfortunate some of the comments were. Perhaps it is a percentage game. For myself, I leave up comments that relate directly to the story, even if they are negative. However, I recieved some advice a little while back that I follow. If it truly is not about the story, I delete the comment.

 

[sr71plt]

I noticed that the more I wrote, the more unfortunate some of the comments were. Perhaps it is a percentage game. For myself, I leave up comments that relate directly to the story, even if they are negative. However, I recieved some advice a little while back that I follow. If it truly is not about the story, I delete the comment.

That's what I do as well. I haven't deleted very many at all--and none for many months now. Going back to the original posting, I really haven't seen an upswing in story bashing. I may be seeing more votes but slightly lower ratings since the new star system was instituted--but that was quite recently, so I haven't decided yet that this is real pattern change.

 

[Iconoclast99]

I haven't gotten any bashing feedback yet, probably because you have to have something out there for the trolls to chew on.

Having said that, I am sort of expecting some ad hominem comments from some readers who chanced upon a story that I put up a while ago titled "The Magic Elixir - Part 01". The story itself is not of a sort to enrage the Moral Minority, but it was put in a category (Celebrities) where people I assume are looking for hot stories about the latest pop tarts. Imagine their disappointment when they find themselves reading a sci-fi story set in Edwardian England. Part 02 of the story, which was submitted a day later, was correctly classified in the Sci-Fi and Fantasy category.

I wrote to Laurel about this and she wrote a nice letter back informing me that all derivative works are put into the Celebrities category so that they can have the legal mumbo jumbo paragraphs put in at the start of the story. Fair enough, the story is derivative of a short story by H.G. Wells. (Doesn't copyright run out after more than one hundred years?)

So, if I write another derivative story I won't put in a preamble about where the ideas and characters originally came from, which is how Part 02 came through as intended. A word to the wise, if you're going to have Elizabeth Bennet and Mister Darcy in a Loving Wives story don't reveal your source.

Iconoclast

 

[sr71plt]

I haven't gotten any bashing feedback yet, probably because you have to have something out there for the trolls to chew on.

Having said that, I am sort of expecting some ad hominem comments from some readers who chanced upon a story that I put up a while ago titled "The Magic Elixir - Part 01". The story itself is not of a sort to enrage the Moral Minority, but it was put in a category (Celebrities) where people I assume are looking for hot stories about the latest pop tarts. Imagine their disappointment when they find themselves reading a sci-fi story set in Edwardian England. Part 02 of the story, which was submitted a day later, was correctly classified in the Sci-Fi and Fantasy category.

I wrote to Laurel about this and she wrote a nice letter back informing me that all derivative works are put into the Celebrities category so that they can have the legal mumbo jumbo paragraphs put in at the start of the story. Fair enough, the story is derivative of a short story by H.G. Wells. (Doesn't copyright run out after more than one hundred years?)

So, if I write another derivative story I won't put in a preamble about where the ideas and characters originally came from, which is how Part 02 came through as intended. A word to the wise, if you're going to have Elizabeth Bennet and Mister Darcy in a Loving Wives story don't reveal your source.

Iconoclast

Yep, this is a little strange. You don't have to do anything special for new treatments/parodies in fiction for most previously written works--and copyright doesn't have anything to do with those that you have to be careful of. Such blockbuster fiction worlds as Star Wars and Harry Potter protect themselves from others living off their stuff commercially by taking out lots of trademarks on their characters and original concepts. H.G. Wells and the classic novelists have no such trademarks--and, after the works have gone into the public domain, couldn't get trademark protection even if they wanted it.

This is just a Web site misunderstanding of copyright/trademark law. (But they can set their own rules for where they will post anything--or why). This is more of a case where they either don't have an entertainment industries lawyer--or haven't consulted him/her on this issue.

 

[smitty203]

That's what I do as well. I haven't deleted very many at all--and none for many months now. Going back to the original posting, I really haven't seen an upswing in story bashing. I may be seeing more votes but slightly lower ratings since the new star system was instituted--but that was quite recently, so I haven't decided yet that this is real pattern change.

Maybe it's timing. I went back and checked up on some of the stories that stuck out in my memory as having had some unjustified bad comments. (Don't ask me why I remember, my brain holds on to crap I don't need, but do you think I could remember my grandmother's birthday??) Anyway, several of them didn't seem to have the number of "bashers" as I seemed to recall. So perhaps MagicaPractica isn't the only one dumping irrelevant trash from her comments. If I do choose to begin submitting I'd most likely follow her example.

Well, off to figure out who I should have preview my work.

 

[Iconoclast99]

This is just a Web site misunderstanding of copyright/trademark law. (But they can set their own rules for where they will post anything--or why). This is more of a case where they either don't have an entertainment industries lawyer--or haven't consulted him/her on this issue.

Yeah, I thought this was a misreading of the law, but I am not a lawyer and I'm not prepared to put my time and money on the line to prove my point. Even consulting a lawyer costs big bucks, and no lawyer can guarantee a verdict. I feel for Manu and Laurel in the present situation in the US and that's why I put up a cautionary note for other writers about the classification of derivative works on this site, rather than harassing Laurel about it.

Interesting point about trademark law. I'll have to remember that.

Iconoclast

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

The Bash-Level of feedback depends a lot on the Catagory and how well you are known.

Stay clear of Rape stories (I did that once and got death threats) and Loving Wives. Any other catagory and you will get negative feedback from the various hell-bound trolls, but fewer, I think.

Lately, I do believe the trolls have been breeding, however.

 

[docBlue]

Category trolls seem a little rigid and narrow?

Thanks for the feedback. I posted in Loving Wives a few years back with much less fanfare. Now it seems like I'm posting to the Fundamentalist Daily News. They should read what the category suggests, 'adventurous wives'. All I get there now is that I should be arrested. So my next story is about how my wife and I get arrested ! My followup was going to be about extending exhibitionism then onto coerced sex with a police officer, but I think that would get me on the cover of the Fundamentalist Daily News :-O

 

[fieryjen]

I haven't gotten any bashing feedback yet, probably because you have to have something out there for the trolls to chew on.

Having said that, I am sort of expecting some ad hominem comments from some readers who chanced upon a story that I put up a while ago titled "The Magic Elixir - Part 01". The story itself is not of a sort to enrage the Moral Minority, but it was put in a category (Celebrities) where people I assume are looking for hot stories about the latest pop tarts. Imagine their disappointment when they find themselves reading a sci-fi story set in Edwardian England. Part 02 of the story, which was submitted a day later, was correctly classified in the Sci-Fi and Fantasy category.

I wrote to Laurel about this and she wrote a nice letter back informing me that all derivative works are put into the Celebrities category so that they can have the legal mumbo jumbo paragraphs put in at the start of the story. Fair enough, the story is derivative of a short story by H.G. Wells. (Doesn't copyright run out after more than one hundred years?)

So, if I write another derivative story I won't put in a preamble about where the ideas and characters originally came from, which is how Part 02 came through as intended. A word to the wise, if you're going to have Elizabeth Bennet and Mister Darcy in a Loving Wives story don't reveal your source.

Iconoclast

Just a note - this won't make the issue go away, but it may help if anyone else has trouble with a story being put in the celebrity category when it should be elsewhere. You can simply copy and paste the paragraph that they put above all stories in the celebrity category and insert it at the beginning of your own story. I remember having to do this for the Virtual Reality Chain Story, since we were writing about existing video and computer games, yet wanted to place our chapters under the chain stories category. Then just put a note in the comment field explaining what you did.

 

[smitty203]

The one thing I think everyone should remember is this: based on what I read in the postings from a lot of the anonymous online bashers, most of them, if brains were dynamite, wouldn't have enough to jar their hats loose.

 

[Guest]

I haven't posted that many stories, but I've only gotten one bashing comment, much akin to many comments in Loving Wives. The reader--I assume he or she can actually read--thought my protagonist (a male submissive) should grow a backbone. Well, it wasn't put quite that nicely.

Of course, my protagonist WAS a submissive, so what the hell did he/she expect?

"The good Lord must have loved idiots... He made so many of them."

And you can quote me.

 

[Iconoclast99]

Just a note - this won't make the issue go away, but it may help if anyone else has trouble with a story being put in the celebrity category when it should be elsewhere. You can simply copy and paste the paragraph that they put above all stories in the celebrity category and insert it at the beginning of your own story. I remember having to do this for the Virtual Reality Chain Story, since we were writing about existing video and computer games, yet wanted to place our chapters under the chain stories category. Then just put a note in the comment field explaining what you did.

Thanks. Laurel kindly explained that procedure to me, but due partly to laziness and partly to sheer cussedness I chose to leave things as is. I didn't want anyone to get the impression, by adding my own warning, that I actually agreed with all the US legal and fundamentalist bullshit. I had hoped to post all my stories with a Creative Commons free use copyright license but was persuaded that that might screw up the site.

Back to the land of the slightly freer. (SP?)

Iconoclast

 

[JADED_ONE1969]

.......

......

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Come one, Guys. Learn to :hearr:LOVE your trolls. They are your best advertising.

 

[docBlue]

agree'd

For the most part I like getting criticism about plot, credibility, grammer because it's made the writings better. Like or dislike is fine.

The ones that are getting to me (and seem to be increasing) are the personal insults and the trolls who LOOK in LIT ?!? to complain about what they consider abnormal sexual behavior (I don't scan the religious boards to ask if the Virgin Mary's dream was really a dream and not some loving wives theme by Joseph?!). I think some trolls consider 'loving wives' to be only for tender romance; there is a category for that. God forbid a woman has sex with another man in that category (cuckhold, 3 inch homo, wimp-freak, slut, disease spreading whores - are among the 'nice' replies to those).

The other is the English Major who found the ONE mispelling in the entire story and decided to comment only on that. Just send me an email, dude.

GW, I found no issue with your comment, that's your opinion and I struggle with making all situations in every story credible, even when they actually happen and seem incredible.

 

[caprine]

Trolls and...

their trashing comments are, for better or worse, really up in numbers in my experience. I just posted a Valentine Day Story Contest 08 story. By changing the location or something else, they also vote more than once with their zeros. Perhaps the comments are deserved, but they really hit this story. See below.

http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=348157

 

[Omerikon]

Come one, Guys. Learn to :hearr:LOVE your trolls. They are your best advertising.

Until they vote-bomb your story with 1's and it slips into the fifth page of your category's toplist, which basically ensures it'll rarely get read.

 

[bbw4youngercocks1]

Some people seriously need to get lives......then again, more than likely these are idiots that wouldn't know good writing if it slapped them in the face.

 

[caprine]

I really...

I haven't posted that many stories, but I've only gotten one bashing comment, much akin to many comments in Loving Wives. The reader--I assume he or she can actually read--thought my protagonist (a male submissive) should grow a backbone. Well, it wasn't put quite that nicely.

Of course, my protagonist WAS a submissive, so what the hell did he/she expect?

"The good Lord must have loved idiots... He made so many of them."

And you can quote me.

love this one. Most of the troll comments about me don't read the "This is a fantasy" header. I really, really like the idiot comment. caprine

 

[caprine]

Yes...

The Bash-Level of feedback depends a lot on the Catagory and how well you are known.

Stay clear of Rape stories (I did that once and got death threats) and Loving Wives. Any other catagory and you will get negative feedback from the various hell-bound trolls, but fewer, I think.

Lately, I do believe the trolls have been breeding, however.

I must agree--the Trolls are definitely breeding. I've been hit really hard by them in my Valentine entry for this year. caprine