Angry Comments

[ThatBoi21]

I think one of the funniest things in the world is that you can title a story with something that plainly describes what will happen in it and then give it a description that also describes exactly what will happen, and yet people will still read it, get angry at the content, and then leave angry comments about it.

For example, I recently posted the third addition to my series "Seduced by my Son's Bully", all three of which have had pretty clear descriptions about what happens in it.

It's about a mother being seduced by her son's bully.

Clearly both the mother and the bully are going to be bad people, and yet that just doesn't register for some people apparently lol.

Every chapter, I've had a decent number of people raging about how terrible the mom is or how they hate both the main characters, as if the cruelty of both of them isn't part of the point.

And don't get me wrong, I love getting any form of comment on my stories, hate or not. Being able to stir something inside of someone enough to leave feedback or their opinion is awesome, and I'm grateful for everyone's feedback.

I just think it's hilarious how they'll read something they know they'll hate and make themselves angry about it lol.

 

[Privates1stClass]

My take on your post is that you can't fight human nature. People buy coffee knowing it's hot, and then complain when they burn their lips or spill it between their legs. Drug labels tell users not to use the product with alcohol, and users do it anyway. Men have been advised to wear a condom when having sex with a partner they don't know--and they still get STDs.

One of the biggest problems manufacturers have is getting users to read the instructions. So, yeah, you're going to get readers who ignore the title and the description and then complain when your story isn't to their liking. RTFM!

 

[Lifestyle66]

The drug label thing is the best.

"Do not take this drug if you are allergic to this drug."

"Well, I know I almost died the last two times I tried it. But I think I'll try it again."
Then: "OH, my GOD! I HATE this drug!!!"

 

[StillStunned]

The complaints aren't about what they read. They're about what you wrote, the fact that you wrote it.

 

[Comshaw]

My take on your post is that you can't fight human nature. People buy coffee knowing it's hot, and then complain when they burn their lips or spill it between their legs. Drug labels tell users not to use the product with alcohol, and users do it anyway. Men have been advised to wear a condom when having sex with a partner they don't know--and they still get STDs.

One of the biggest problems manufacturers have is getting users to read the instructions. So, yeah, you're going to get readers who ignore the title and the description and then complain when your story isn't to their liking. RTFM!

I kind of figure you are referencing this case: Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants with that comment. However, if you will read the accompanying link you'll find that sometimes it isn't about people not knowing coffee is hot, but that it is in some cases criminally so. Third-degree burns you don't get from coffee at a normally served temperature.

Comshaw

 

[SimonDoom]

Oh Lord, yes. It's hilarious. I have a story entitled "Shaving My Mom"--the ultimate truth-in-advertising title. And of course I got comments complaining about the shaving and insisting that moms should have hair. One reader even said he gave me 1 star for this reason.

 

[ronde]

The complaints aren't about what they read. They're about what you wrote, the fact that you wrote it.

I tend to look at comments like that as two different things, neither of which has to do with what the writer wrote.

1. The reader started reading and the story wasn't developing as he or she wanted it to develop. Those comments usually take the form of, "Why didn't you..."
2. The reader read something into the story that the writer didn't write. That happens to me on occasion and I'm always left wondering how the reader got that from what I wrote.

I think is just the ability to be harshly critical that causes those readers to leave the comment instead of just backing out of the story and finding something the like.

I suppose there is a third category as well - the readers who can't or won't try to understand what the writer is trying to do with the story. They're readers who would criticize the ending of "Moby Dick" as a horrible let-down instead of understanding what Melville was trying to portray.

 

[MyBareTorso]

That happens fairly regularly here, in my experience.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I kind of figure you are referencing this case: Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants with that comment. However, if you will read the accompanying link you'll find that sometimes it isn't about people not knowing coffee is hot, but that it is in some cases criminally so. Third-degree burns you don't get from coffee at a normally served temperature.

Just last year I was on a long-haul plane flight when the guy next to me got served a hot coffee and immediately spilled the whole cup on my thigh. With my seatbelt on, no chance to dodge or shake it off, and my clothes held the coffee against my skin.

It gave me a moment's fright, but there was no harm done because they were serving at a sensible temperature. I gave poor Ms. Liebeck more than a passing thought.

 

[Devinter]

The complaints aren't about what they read. They're about what you wrote, the fact that you wrote it.

There is an element of this, for certain. However, I went to investigate OP's "Seduced by my son's bully" serious to check the category and tags, as well as the short snippet of information provided in the description field, and I have to say that @ThatBoi21 has not hit the mark as clearly as he believes that he has. He says:

Clearly both the mother and the bully are going to be bad people, and yet that just doesn't register for some people apparently lol.

Every chapter, I've had a decent number of people raging about how terrible the mom is or how they hate both the main characters, as if the cruelty of both of them isn't part of the point.

And this is not at all the only potential way the story could go. Firstly, it's in the Mature category even though the tags seem to imply that the focus is on cheating, bullying/mistreatment, and mind breaking. I'd argue it's in the wrong category, for a start.

Secondly, his descriptions doesn't in any way imply that there's going to be some unnecessary cruelty. All it says is that the mom and the son's bully get together, essentially. Does the mom know he's her son's bully? Maybe. It's not immediately obvious from the description. Is the son going to seek revenge by - for example - fucking the bully's DAD? Maybe. It's not clear from the description.

So what is happening is; ThatBoi21 is putting a fetish / loving wives story in Mature, then is quite vague on how the story will unfold, and then he's surprised that not everyone is into the emotional torture that the stories seem to contain. This is just plain illogical. When dealing with any extreme fetish - cheating, cuckold, rape fantasies, extreme things like scat, and so and so forth - a writer must understand that, by default, you're only going to appeal to maybe 10-20% of readers at best, and just as many (if not more) will have the opposite reaction to the story, and find it off-putting. Heck, even when dealing with something as normal as Gay Male, you are only appealing to a similar percentage, and you will have people that are unhappy if this is sprung upon them with little to no warning.

Simply put, the descriptions are far too vague. People click it because they have a thing for ages differences - which is what Mature is all about - and then gets presented with something rather extreme, and get a negative reaction.

Disclaimer; I am not moralizing. Look at my own stories. Some are them are really messed up. I even made the same mistake once. I put a story about ORGASM DENIAL - a niche fetish - into the Mature category. It was a bad idea. Everyone that just randomly clicked on the story from the "new" list didn't particularly care for it, and my title and description was 100 times more clear, because I did list the primary fetish in both. The rating recovered once people started finding it with the tags instead, since then I reached the intended audience, but if I would have just put it in Fetish where it belongs it likely would have done significantly better.

So yes - some people are just angry when they see a story about something that they dislike, and react in a childish way. Many others however click on the story expecting one thing, and then get disappointed, and lash out (which is still childish) as a direct result of this. As an author, you can minimize this by perfecting your category choice, tags, titles, descriptions, and author's disclaimers/warnings/notes at the start of the story. (Which Seduced by my son's bully lacks.)

 

[Lumiere_Amie]

I received a comment on my last Interracial story that I had to laugh at. The commenter told me to “Please pack your pens and get out of the Top Writer library.” The story is currently #5 on the Most Popular of stories submitted in the last 30 days list for the category. I wanted to ask him(?) how to do that since I have no control over readers voting up my story. What a maroon, as Bugs Bunny would say.

 

[Devinter]

I received a comment on my last Interracial story that I had to laugh at. The commenter told me to “Please pack your pens and get out of the Top Writer library.” The story is currently #5 on the Most Popular of stories submitted in the last 30 days list for the category. I wanted to ask him(?) how to do that since I have no control over readers voting up my story. What a maroon, as Bugs Bunny would say.

I am sorry that happened. One or two twats is unfortunately to be expected. However, @ThatBoi21 wrote that in "Every chapter, I've had a decent number of people raging". I'd argue that's a bit different. The percentage of people that are upset seems to be quite significant. At what point do you take a step back and put at least some of the blame on yourself in such a scenario, and admit that maybe you as the author were a bit too vague? Never? Personally, I do not think that's wise, but of course everyone's allowed to make the choices they feel is best for them.

 

[Lumiere_Amie]

I am sorry that happened. One or two twats is unfortunately to be expected. However, @ThatBoi21 wrote that in "Every chapter, I've had a decent number of people raging". I'd argue that's a bit different. The percentage of people that are upset seems to be quite significant. At what point do you take a step back and put at least some of the blame on yourself in such a scenario, and admit that maybe you as the author were a bit too vague? Never? Personally, I do not think that's wise, but of course everyone's allowed to make the choices they feel is best for them.

I'm not concerned about randos going off on my stories. I've published 43, and 38 have the red H. I'd say I'm doing something that people like. You can't satisfy everyone.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Oh Lord, yes. It's hilarious. I have a story entitled "Shaving My Mom"--the ultimate truth-in-advertising title. And of course I got comments complaining about the shaving and insisting that moms should have hair. One reader even said he gave me 1 star for this reason.

Well obviously Simon. Every fictional mom you shave is one less fictional hirsute mom for the rest of us to enjoy. Imagine how cross my main character will be when he finally gets his mom's panties off only to discover you've already been there with your soap and razor. It's not on, I tell you.

 

[OverconfidentSarcasm]

I just think it's hilarious how they'll read something they know they'll hate and make themselves angry about it lol.

In my experience, that's not what's happening.

As I see it, people start reading stories like that hoping for a certain development. In LW, people click on Cuckolding stories hoping to find a plot twist where the cuck "develops some backbone" or something, and shows the evil wife/bull how wrong they were. And they click on stories like yours, that deal with abusive parents, hoping to find a karmic response to how badly the child was treated.

It's pure speculation, but I still believe that these are just power fantasies of people who lived through something like that. Not exactly what you wrote about, of course, but something similar. And neither your title, description, or tags, ever tells readers what kind of DEVELOPMENT your characters will go through. Readers have every right to hope for a story where the seduction is just set up for later "justice".

A prime example of that would be a story that was called something along the lines of "My Bully Takes My Mom" (or something similar) that I read a few years ago. It was a multi-chapter story that the author wrote twice: Once from the son's POV, basically telling the story of the son's demise and betrayal, and once from the Mother's POV, basically telling the story of a woman abandoning everything, including her child's wellbeing, for her own sexual gratification (EDIT: Found it). Guess what the best-rated chapter in both series was. It was the chapter in the son's POV, where he packs up his shit and leaves her.

It's less obvious, but complaining about it is essentially the same as writing a rape story, where everyone but the victim gets a happily ever after, and then come to the forum to complain about commenters not agreeing with a story like that. Consequently... there's nothing "hilarious" about it, if you look at it from this angle. You kinda just have to accept that, if you write about child abuse in a way that glorifies child abuse, there will be people taking offense to it, develop REALLY negative responses, and tell you to stop.

 

[onehitwanda]

Oh Lord, yes. It's hilarious. I have a story entitled "Shaving My Mom"--the ultimate truth-in-advertising title. And of course I got comments complaining about the shaving and insisting that moms should have hair. One reader even said he gave me 1 star for this reason.

I hope you're sorry.

 

[RetroFan]

I had a complaint about my story series 'My Best Friend's Crazy Fat Sister' that the characters weren't very nice people. Seriously, you're in the Fetish section of an adult erotic literature website and you see a story called 'My Best Friend's Crazy Fat Sister'. Does it sound from title alone that it's going to be a nice, wholesome story full of likable characters? I just couldn't stop laughing.

Incest/Taboo readers can be like this too. For example complaints about cousin/uncle/aunt/niece/nephew stories that they are pale imitations of brother/sister/mother/father/son/daughter stories or that step-family stories aren't real incest stories, even though the titles and descriptions clearly state what the story is about.

 

[lc69hunter]

Well obviously Simon. Every fictional mom you shave is one less fictional hirsute mom for the rest of us to enjoy. Imagine how cross my main character will be when he finally gets his mom's panties off only to discover you've already been there with your soap and razor. It's not on, I tell you.

Now that is some funny shit

 

[PapaRomantic]

Had a comment on a story that said, "Ewwww, incest..."

In the incest thread. Not sure what he expected.