Am I just too sensitive?

[elizaloo]

Not new here, been a member since 2006 and posted several stories many years ago. Just uploaded two with a 3rd pending and one of the stories has two really, really ridiculously awful comments. As in, "I hope all your characters get VD and die etc blah blah". Totally weird. I mean, ok, you didn't like it, but is this the norm now? Bots or just grumpy old farts/kids with nothing better to do than make annon comments on Lit?

I reported the one and I seriously hope it's taken down. I used to get good feedback/comments with a random, "it would read better if you did this..." which were welcome. This vitriol, not so much.

 

[oggbashan]

You can delete comments yourself.

I have become more sensitive since writing a story became physically difficult. Some people who comment have no idea how much effort goes into a story, just to receive abuse.

Delete them.

 

[KeithD]

Stories are subject to whatever set of readers out of at least hundreds of thousands choose to show up and click in at any moment of time, so, yes, authors have to be prepared for a crap shoot in terms of response.

 

[stickygirl]

You can delete comments through your author controls = Works option, then click on the 'speech bubble' to the right side of the story list panel. The comments are listed on a separate page with a trash can option to delete them. The option isn't very intuitive and you have to try different page links - but the speech bubbles are where you can find them.

No, you're not too sensitive and yes, there are a lot of trolls - more in some categories than others. Loving Wives is apparently thick with haters.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

What stickygirl said. Here’s a hint however - did the knuckledragger making that particular comment leave its name? Didn’t think so, which suggests how much attention you should pay to them. Delete, rinse, repeat.

Perhaps you could post a link to the story, please?

 

[elizaloo]

Thanks - just deleted them! It's been a minute - three OG stories were published in '06...then long dry spell. Glad THAT'S over with!

Link to the story with the DIE YOU NASTY WHORE comment LOL

https://www.literotica.com/s/you-116

 

[BiscuitHammer]

You can, if you like, turn off Anonymous comments, so that cowards like that have to expose themselves in order to spread their venom around. I've done it, because of incels and Nazis leaving comments on my story walls.

Don't let it bother you, though. They don't know you, they're just dying inside and expressing their terror and caustic hate.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Thanks - just deleted them! It's been a minute - three OG stories were published in '06...then long dry spell. Glad THAT'S over with!

Link to the story with the DIE YOU NASTY WHORE comment LOL

https://www.literotica.com/s/you-116

You'd remove a dog turd from your lawn.

Deleting turd comments is no different. Don't be afraid to do it.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Not new here, been a member since 2006 and posted several stories many years ago. Just uploaded two with a 3rd pending and one of the stories has two really, really ridiculously awful comments. As in, "I hope all your characters get VD and die etc blah blah". Totally weird. I mean, ok, you didn't like it, but is this the norm now? Bots or just grumpy old farts/kids with nothing better to do than make annon comments on Lit?

I reported the one and I seriously hope it's taken down. I used to get good feedback/comments with a random, "it would read better if you did this..." which were welcome. This vitriol, not so much.

Apparently, years ago, the Literotica readers were far more tolerant.

But as with the changing times in general, we're seeing an online intolerance to anything which the individual reads, hears, or sees. Many feel a need to immediately lash out with their intolerance.

You would find this particularly in the "Loving Wives" category of stories, where the trolls immediately hit every story about swingers with disparaging comments (even though that's the category definition). But, if your stories in other categories are tagged with "swinger", "sharing", etc, you can expect those same intolerant trolls to hit you.

Welcome to the new progressive world! These are people who are educated and are determined to educate you to believe EXACTLY as they do!

 

[BigMadStork]

I find it's best to ignore them. I love the haters that complain about a misspelling, and their rant has a dozen grammatical errors. When I started writing, I figured half would love me, and half would hate me. I'm far ahead of my expectations. It's incredible the filth they spill after someone says how awesome you are. Name a great writer, and some people hate them. It's the nature of the beast. I pay attention to only the friendly people and skip anyone annoying.

 

[elizaloo]

Thanks! Y'all have been very helpful - I've never had to delete a comment before and did not realize it was an option. It is very true that everyone under the sun now believes that they can comment to their heart's content about anything and everything, however wrong they might be! I will check out the the Loving Wives category, but it sounds disastrous, and unfortunately overrun with trolls. Yep, my story is tagged with 'swinger' etc so I've obviously drawn a target on my back/story. C'est la vie - I shall keep the delete key active, if necessary!

 

[SimonDoom]

I have had comments like that! Vicious, mean-spirited, obscene, scatalogical comments. I left them up but they were so bad Laurel deleted some of them.

I had another comment telling me I was so bad I should stop writing completely and never try again. It was so incoherent and badly worded that it made me laugh.

I believe a thick skin is an indispensable part of being a writer.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I have had comments like that! Vicious, mean-spirited, obscene, scatalogical comments. I left them up but they were so bad Laurel deleted some of them.

I had another comment telling me I was so bad I should stop writing completely and never try again. It was so incoherent and badly worded that it made me laugh.

I believe a thick skin is an indispensable part of being a writer.

I think writers should work in a customer service area for a while to start developing that thick skin. It certainly helped me.

 

[SimonDoom]

I think writers should work in a customer service area for a while to start developing that thick skin. It certainly helped me.

I've spent 30+ years working in an extremely stressful profession full of aggressive assholes. So when Literotica authors say their feelings are hurt because of something an anonymous person said on a social media forum about a dirty story they wrote and published under a pseudonym, I try to be sympathetic, but it's not easy. It's part of the business. It's the way it is and you cannot control it. Focus on what you can control. Serenity prayer, and all that.

 

[KeithD]

Try to be an American diplomat in a country where all of the citizens want to tell you what you're doing wrong--principally that you aren't giving them enough. (Which is sort of the Ukraine situation now. The U.S. is giving a whole hell of a lot of support, but of course it's not enough.)

 

[xelliebabex]

Not new here, been a member since 2006 and posted several stories many years ago. Just uploaded two with a 3rd pending and one of the stories has two really, really ridiculously awful comments. As in, "I hope all your characters get VD and die etc blah blah". Totally weird. I mean, ok, you didn't like it, but is this the norm now? Bots or just grumpy old farts/kids with nothing better to do than make annon comments on Lit?

I reported the one and I seriously hope it's taken down. I used to get good feedback/comments with a random, "it would read better if you did this..." which were welcome. This vitriol, not so much.

Firstly welcome back!
I too had a long hiatus though not quite as long as yours and came back to a whole new world even though some faces were familiar.
I think that people forget that we, the authors and the owners of this site, give our hard work without exacting a fee. They don't understand how attached we get to our creations, and much like Dr Frankenstien we are protective of our little monsters and while we can understand the pitchforks and fire criticisms, we are bamboozled by people who lob irrelevant bombs just to say something nasty.
I don't think there is any easy or quick fix for the Anon trolls but my go-to is to imagine they are in some private hell of their own and this is how they manage their anger and/or grief rather than murdering their nemesis. I feel sorry for them that they feel it is their right to ruin someone else's day just because they are having a shitty life.

 

[oggbashan]

As a contrast I received this from anonymous a few hours ago, on my 2017 story 'Which Witch':

This is one of the reasons I enjoy reading submissions from people just a little outside the norm. It is amazing how many new concepts a reader can gain reading other's work and using the computer to learn. This seems to be a basic introduction to some facets of Witchcraft that I would never search for on my own.

I'm not sure he will have learned the 'right' things. My story is fiction...

 

[Zeb_Carter]

And you can get rid of all those anonymous comments by turning them off.

And I'm surprised that a story in Group would get a comment like that. Than anon must have wandered over there from the Loving Wives category by mistake.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Well, I've said it before, but will stand by it. I think many trolls are like toddlers - too uncoordinated to build a tower of toy bricks, so taking their delight in knocking down what other people have built for them.

 

[elizaloo]

My thread title was meant to be a bit 'tongue in cheek' - I wanted to call myself a Karen, but that's rather an offense to all the nice Karens floating around. I didn't remember trolls being SO evil back in the day and when I popped open the story to read the comment, I do admit to being a bit verklempt....and taken aback at someone wishing my characters death by VD (like, whut?)

Stories ARE like babies and whilst I do have a thick skin (customer service and then hospital ICU background), I was taken aback by TWO unkind souls. I agree with everyone, it's best to think of them as stunted, mom's basement living sub 100 IQ trolls with nothing better to do than be keyboard warriors against porn; while at the same time getting off on what they are 'forced' to read in this pursuit.

 

[KeithD]

it's best to think of them as stunted, mom's basement living sub 100 IQ trolls with nothing better to do than be keyboard warriors against porn; while at the same time getting off on what they are 'forced' to read in this pursuit.

This it's best not to think of them at all--just to delete the comment.

One fallacy in any "they read it" supposition, is that they quite possibility didn't read it at all-or very far into it.

 

[JakBird]

You can delete comments yourself.

I have become more sensitive since writing a story became physically difficult. Some people who comment have no idea how much effort goes into a story, just to receive abuse.

Delete them.

I disagree about deleting comments. I prefer reading them all, good, bad, or illiterate. Rather than make martyrs I believe the ones who post the *expletive deleted* comments should be celebrated in all their glory for the succinct wit and clever effort embodied in their words of wisdom.

As for myself, I have to borrow some immortal words from Bugs Bunny to best express my reaction on encountering such pearls of pithy erudition.

"What a maroon..."

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I disagree about deleting comments. I prefer reading them all, good, bad, or illiterate. Rather than make martyrs I believe the ones who post the *expletive deleted* comments should be celebrated in all their glory for the succinct wit and clever effort embodied in their words of wisdom.

I understand your point, but no. I’m prepared to leave critical, even hostile comments up, provided there’s a point to them. Aggressive, profane, threatening, scatalogical rants from anonymous mediocrities? Not so much.

Like EB66, I clean up my lawn when somebody’s dog has littered it and I paint over obscene graffiti on my fences.

 

[njlauren]

Apparently, years ago, the Literotica readers were far more tolerant.

But as with the changing times in general, we're seeing an online intolerance to anything which the individual reads, hears, or sees. Many feel a need to immediately lash out with their intolerance.

You would find this particularly in the "Loving Wives" category of stories, where the trolls immediately hit every story about swingers with disparaging comments (even though that's the category definition). But, if your stories in other categories are tagged with "swinger", "sharing", etc, you can expect those same intolerant trolls to hit you.

Welcome to the new progressive world! These are people who are educated and are determined to educate you to believe EXACTLY as they do!

I doubt very much the trolls are progressive, I can guarantee you they are more likely MAGA, the level of writing,the language and the emotional immaturity says otherwise.

 

[njlauren]

Sadly it is what we deal with, it has gotten bad enough that some authors have left here and the comments have become truly vile, like threatening to rape and kill a woman author in front of their husband and kids and the like, bc they didn't like the story.

And it is much worse than when I first started reading here. Lot of angry men with issues I would guess, plus the general society where violence and threats of it are considered okay.

I just fell victim to it,wrote a satire ( that was clearly satire) about a story that just won't die over on LW, and bc the author of the original story faced all.kinds of threats, some really vile, they were afraid my dark humor would be taken as advocating violence so rejected it even w edits.

I think one thing was telling, on another story I chastised a particularly vile comment someone left ( anon of course,),said among other things it was easy to criticize what they couldn't do. Got an email response, saying they were an author but commented anon so others wouldn't do to their story what they did ...