An Open Letter to Stacnash (feel free to ignore this)

[MediocreAuthor]

Dear SN,

I've heard a lot of accusations about you over the last few weeks, and I don't know how much (if any of it) is true. And I'm certain I'll never know for sure.

I appreciate the feedback you sent me through the Anon-feedback system, and this is the only way I know how to respond, so here it is.

The first I ever heard of you came from people in the forums deriding your reviews. You left a some of reviews that I agreed with, and some that I disagreed with. Some of your reviews seemed unnecessarily negative, to me personally; although mostly you kept the whole thing pretty professional. Within the forums, you seemed a bit snarky, although there were some pretty negative accusations thrown your way... so I feel it would be hard to ignore those and be the bigger girl.

Most endearing to me, personally, was your review of Eldritch Pact. I love that story to death, and you loved it too, so we're cool on that account. I'm biased, I suppose, but what can I say? I was also shocked that you decided to alter your review after I replied to your comment. That surprised and delighted the heck out of me, honestly.

Now everyone knows that I consider NTH a friend of mine, so of course I am going to stick up for him, but I'm only going to tell the truth.

I'm not lying to cover for anyone. In your feedback to me, you said that NTH lied and told the mod that you were an alt of Tilan. I only believe that is half true. NTH did tell the mod that you were Tilan, but I don't believe he was lying. If you're not Tilan, then he clearly made a mistake... but he believed it. That makes it a fuck-up... and a false accusation, sure. But not a lie (unless he claimed to have some evidence he didn't have -- but I don't buy that.)

You were accused of score-bombing. I never fully bought that, although I don't have proof either way... and none of us will never know for sure. Anyway, I guess, I'll never get to talk to you again, which makes me sad, but what can I do?

Although, I will say this again. WHOEVER was bombing the stories... any stories... I think that is despicable and shitty. Down voting a story for any reason other than an honest opinion about the quality of the work is incredibly juvenile and petty, and I hope you quit that and be better (whoever the-fuck you are). If this opinion earns me a bunch of uno-bombs myself, then so be it, but I will never budge on that stance.

Anyway, SN you seemed like a very passionate and intense woman, and I really appreciate all the nice things you said about me, even if you were sharp with some of my other friends...

You said in your feedback that we aren't friends, and I suppose that's true... but I'd be willing to be an online friend to you, or basically anyone else I meet on these forums... my discord info is listed in my bio. (if you reach out to me there, we can discuss the other stuff that you talked about in your feedback message)

Best wishes,
M.

---

NOW FOR THE REST OF MY AH FRIENDS

I know a lot of you didn't like SN. Some of your are convinced she was an alt; some are convinced she was the uno-bomber. I have no evidence to either prove or disprove any of that, and as far as I know, no one else does either.

You are welcome to say what you want in this thread, but please be polite. I have never insulted any of you, (as far as I can recall) so please don't start a flame war here.

Any mean comments I see, I will come down upon swiftly and mercilessly!
(By that I mean, I will give you the dreaded SAD reaction! I wonder if you will be able to sleep at night, knowing that you wounded me so! )

 

[Euphony]

And here
We
Go.

 

[Altissimus]

I'm reminded of watching Gladiator and saying 'wow, cool film' and then someone pointing out that Russell Crowe is a violent asshole off set.

Ok. But Gladiator is still a cool film, isn't it?

I mean, I don't know Russell Crowe. Never met him. Don't really care what he does in his personal life, unless and until he buys the house next to mine and brings a bottle around to my BBQ.

I've watched Gladiator quite a few times.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

I'm reminded of watching Gladiator and saying 'wow, cool film' and then someone pointing out that Russell Crowe is a violent asshole off set.

Ok. But Gladiator is still a cool film, isn't it?

I mean, I don't know Russell Crowe. Never met him. Don't really care what he does in his personal life, unless and until he buys the house next to mine and brings a bottle around to my BBQ.

I've watched Gladiator quite a few times.

Whenever I bring up Buffy the Vampire Slayer, everyone always reminds me how bad Joss Whedon was/is.

So suddenly all of Sarah Michelle Gellar's hard work is for nothing? No, I'll still enjoy the good things that I like, regardless of the actions of one other person on set, thanks.

 

[Altissimus]

Whenever I bring up Buffy the Vampire Slayer, everyone always reminds me how bad Joss Whedon was/is.

So suddenly all of Sarah Michelle Gellar's hard work is for nothing? No, I'll still enjoy the good things that I like, regardless of the actions of one other person on set, thanks.

Also, Spike.

Jus' sayin'

 

[Euphony]

Whenever I bring up Buffy the Vampire Slayer, everyone always reminds me how bad Joss Whedon was/is.

So suddenly all of Sarah Michelle Gellar's hard work is for nothing? No, I'll still enjoy the good things that I like, regardless of the actions of one other person on set, thanks.

#MeToo issues. Before that, representation issues. Before that, working conditions issues. Before that, animal cruelty issues. Before that...

Doesn't absolve of us doing better moving forward but to bang a loud drum over an individual, specific piece of media has always seemed somewhat disingenuous to me.

 

[Winter_Fare]

please don't start a flame war here.

 

[Euphony]

Yeah.
This place has young SPECIFICALLY to eat them.

Peace, love, and understanding? My money's for sure on the under.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

I'm waiting for the show to start too, honestly. But I really don't have any other way to reach SN, (this may not work either).

But I'm not going back to other threads, which are already filled with posts, and a million people.

(Btw, pass the popcorn shrimp, please)

 

[Winter_Fare]

I'm waiting for the show to start too, honestly. But I really don't have any other way to reach SN, (this may not work either).

You're better than this.

 

[SimonDoom]

I don't have any opinion about whether SN is Tilan. I don't know. I don't care.

I have nothing personal against SN. She wrote a negative review of one of my stories, but it wasn't a trollish sort of review. I didn't agree with all the points made, but it didn't bother me much. She made some good points in criticizing my story. Everything she wrote about my story was within the realm of acceptable criticism.

But this bothered me: SN wrote a review of one of Chloe Tzang's stories, and in her comment said something to the effect of "You don't have a crumb of talent."

If you say something like that to a fellow author, even if you genuinely believe it, you are a f@#$ing A-hole. Period. There is no cause, ever, to talk that way to your fellow authors, and if you DO talk that way, then as far as I'm concerned if you get banned you get what you deserve. I have no sympathy whatsoever.

It's not a matter of free speech. You have almost unlimited ability in this forum to express your views about stories and other issues without being personally nasty to other authors. As far as I'm concerned, once you cross the line of getting personally nasty with people, you get what you deserve. Good riddance. This was Tilan's problem. He couldn't help himself, because he WANTED to be nasty to people, to impugn their motives and to insult them. He got banned for a while for doing it, then he came back, and then he kept doing it, because deep down it's what he wants to do. I see no reason for the site to put up with that. Good bye, and don't come back.

This isn't a cause worth fighting for or even wasting time thinking about. All of us have the freedom in this forum to express our views about writing without getting personal and vicious. It's not that difficult a line to avoid crossing.

 

[Winter_Fare]

There are quite a few weird rabbit hole possibilities as to the ID of either or each of them.

1. SN and or Tilan is a full on Socktopus with genuine personality issues/mental health issues.

2. SN is what they claim to be, a professional slumming it here with us amateurs.

I find option 2 more interesting to explore. Two obvious bloopers. Choletzang undoubtedly has talent and mainstream appeal, so does Onehitwanda, yet both get unduly castigated, not just their stories but their quality as writers. Why?

 

[djrip]

I thought pretty much the same stuff about SN as you say here; I didn't really want to argue with anyone about it, since we have no proof either way, and as NTH complimented my story while complaining about SN's reviews, which I appreciate so much especially from someone of his talent, I didn't want to repay that with evidence-free assertions of the opposite of what he was saying. But I never felt that SN sounded like Tilan, and apart from her complaining about forum stuff in a comment on my story, I enjoyed her reviews for their depth and detailed commentary. Except for mine, which was short and dismissive, SN! But anyway I didn't understand what there was to ban her for; Tilan, sure. But SN didn't seem abusive to me, just unsparing in her criticism.

I kind of think this whole episode was a missed chance to have a thoughtfully analytical reader join the forum community. I'll admit that my comment from her, with its accusation that I subject people on the forum to angry lectures, did have me wondering who this anon was, thinking it could be one of the forum people, which made me feel weird, like someone I was talking to on the forum regularly secretly thought I suck but wasn't saying so to my face... Well none of that seems to have been the case and once SN started posting here and having an identity to attach to her comments I no longer felt weird about the comment I received or had any problems with her reviews/posts.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

But this bothered me: SN wrote a review of one of Chloe Tzang's stories, and in her comment said something to the effect of "You don't have a crumb of talent."

Choletzang undoubtedly has talent and mainstream appeal, so does Onehitwanda, yet both get unduly castigated, not just their stories but their quality as writers. Why?

I agree with both of these points.

As I said in the letter, I feel that she was "unnecessarily negative".

That said, she has every right to hold those opinions. Critics often use hyperbole in reviews, and I assumed she was doing it there. Maybe not. I don't know. But just because she was impolite, doesn't mean that I didn't appreciate her feedback to me. And if she indeed was not Tilan (which I assume she was not) then I'm sad she got banned.

 

[Winter_Fare]

I agree with both of these points.

As I said in the letter, I feel that she was "unnecessarily negative".

That said, she has every right to hold those opinions. Critics often use hyperbole in reviews, and I assumed she was doing it there. Maybe not. I don't know. But just because she was impolite, doesn't mean that I didn't appreciate her feedback to me. And if she indeed was not Tilan (which I assume she was not) then I'm sad she got banned.

Having checked out a few of these thorough and thoughtful reviews I found them fairly light on useful criticism. Worse they came across as lazy and formulaic at times.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

Having checked out a few of these thorough and thoughtful reviews I found them fairly light on useful criticism. Worse they came across as lazy and formulaic at times.

That's a perfectly valid opinion to have.

I'm not sure I agree, but I don't hold it against you.

So I counted it up, and I've read 8 of the stories that SN reviewed.
Out of those, I agreed with 4 of her reviews almost completely, and 1 of them about halfway.
The other 3 I disagreed with, (some vehemently).

But I was interested to read all the reviews, even if I disagreed.

 

[MelissaBaby]

That said, she has every right to hold those opinions.

It seems like she has the right to hold them, but not to express them.

I did not see her say anything in the forum that justified her banning. If I missed something, I'd like to know what it was. Otherwise, I'm left with no other conclusion to draw than that she was targeted for banning because she gave some author's negative reviews.

 

[Winter_Fare]

It seems like she has the right to hold them, but not to express them.

I did not see her say anything in the forum that justified her banning. If I missed something, I'd like to know what it was. Otherwise, I'm left with no other conclusion to draw than that she was targeted for banning because she gave some author's negative reviews.

She's not banned at all, she left.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

She's not banned at all, she left.

She said in her anonymous feedback that she was banned.

It seems like she has the right to hold them, but not to express them.

I did not see her say anything in the forum that justified her banning. If I missed something, I'd like to know what it was. Otherwise, I'm left with no other conclusion to draw than that she was targeted for banning because she gave some author's negative reviews.

She was banned because NTH reported that she was an alt that Tilan was using to troll (or at least that what both she and NTH believe).

She denied that she was Tilan to me, but NTH remains unconvinced, I'm pretty sure.

 

[AwkwardMD]

There are quite a few weird rabbit hole possibilities as to the ID of either or each of them.

1. SN and or Tilan is a full on Socktopus with genuine personality issues/mental health issues.

2. SN is what they claim to be, a professional slumming it here with us amateurs.

I find option 2 more interesting to explore. Two obvious bloopers. Choletzang undoubtedly has talent and mainstream appeal, so does Onehitwanda, yet both get unduly castigated, not just their stories but their quality as writers. Why?

Chloe was not unduly castigated. She is a fascist who does not deserve the polite treatment others give her simply because she's nice to them in public.

 

[MelissaBaby]

She's not banned at all, she left.

So, this is inaccurate?

 

[MediocreAuthor]

Chloe was not unduly castigated. She is a fascist who does not deserve the polite treatment others give her simply because she's nice to them in public.

Please, no name calling. I don't know what type of person ChloeTzang is, but please do not use this forum to insult her.

 

[Winter_Fare]

Chloe was not unduly castigated. She is a fascist who does not deserve the polite treatment others give her simply because she's nice to them in public.

But she is a talented fascist. Call a spade a spade x

 

[MelissaBaby]

She said in her anonymous feedback that she was banned.

She was banned because NTH reported that she was an alt that Tilan was using to troll (or at least that what both she and NTH believe).

She denied that she was Tilan to me, but NTH remains unconvinced, I'm pretty sure.

Alt hunters do more damage to online communities than any troll ever could.

 

[SeraphNocturne]

She's not banned at all, she left.

From what I've seen and read as this whole situation has developed, she IS banned permanently from the forum and I'm guessing it's because of accusations of her being a troll/alt account and ad hominem/hostile interactions with other forum users. From what I saw how she interacted with AwkwardlySet and NoTalentHack could be considered personal attacks. To what extent we as users can't know, if she was trolling/bombing/intensely insulting them I think that's grounds for dismissal but we won't know a lot of that because we can't view IP addresses and things like that to make those assumptions.

Her profile still exists and she can still access the reader and author side of the website. I believe she did a review of one of our AH regulars a few days ago, they mentioned it in the Comments that Made My Day thread. To my understanding, she can still read the forum, but can't comment or react anymore, I guess?