Are abusive comments really that common here?

[casey_t]

I've only recently joined this forum and website, and as I usually do with new online communities, I spent a bit of time looking around, trying to get a feel for how the site works, what's allowed, what's not, etc.

My reason for coming here is that I am a writer and I have a number of stories I wanted to post to gain a little feedback.

Part of my 'looking around' led me to stories with lots of comments, and some of the comments directed at writers were not just abusive, but disgracefully abusive. I understand that on the subject of sex and sexuality, tempers run high, and tastes are about as varied as they could possibly be, but it was disheartening to me that comments like these were permitted:

"Sad little sick one - alone and typing one handed - without much humanity nor anyone who likes him."

"Disgusting crap. Please do us all a favor and do not write anymore."

"just another fag writer with dreams of being the next cuckold king"

"ANOTHER awful story from a TURD author"

"you are a sad and pathetic loser who hasn't fucked a real women in DECADES!"

"take that pencil that you write with and stick up your ass, your one dumb person your stories are terrible"

The above is just a sample I found on one story that I never even read. Maybe there's a history behind the author, maybe not, but I can't think of anything that would turn a writer off publishing on a site quicker than personally abusive comments. And I can't think of anything guaranteed to cause other writers to censor what they write or how they write it than the prospect of such public abuse if they veer off the 'established' paths.

Maybe I just happened to hit on the odd story that generated high passions, but to be honest, it's almost sent me running away. It's certainly made me question whether I should post stories here at all, as that sort of abuse is not something I find acceptable - ever.

Are abusive comments really that common here? Is there any moderation to combat such abuse, or are the comments on stories really 'anything goes'?

 

[Darkniciad]

It depends upon the category. I'm guessing those come from Loving Wives, a well known campground for the foulest of the foul.

Comments are uncensored by the website ( except in the case of spam )

However, the author has complete control over what comments appear on his or her comment board. At any time, you can delete any comment you don't want there. In addition, you can block anonymous feedback, or even all feedback, if you so choose.

Most categories don't receive that sort of abuse, though there are trolls everywhere. It's the internet, and Lit has a ( sometimes ill-considered ) policy of near absolute free speech.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Someone give this clown his trophy and show him to the door.

 

[sr71plt]

This is the Internet and Literotica is an open-comment, anonymous-posts-permitted website that has probably the highest readership of any of the erotica/porn story sites. So, yes there are a lot of abusive comments on stories here. There are a lot of gushing comments on how wonderful the stories are too.

 

[Darkniciad]

There are trolls everywhere. It's the internet, and Lit has a ( sometimes ill-considered ) policy of near absolute free speech.

Nice of one of them to drop in and provide an example of this directly below my first post

 

[casey_t]

I hadn't realised the author had control over which comments actually appeared - makes the visible negative comments seem more of a troll party.

So, give 'Loving Wives' a wide berth then?

 

[Bramblethorn]

I hadn't realised the author had control over which comments actually appeared - makes the visible negative comments seem more of a troll party.

So, give 'Loving Wives' a wide berth then?

Yep, it's notorious for that. Not my personal kink, but I've skimmed most categories in my time, and I get the impression there are one or two very dedicated guys who hang out on LW reading EVERY story just so they can comment about how much they hate those stories. Maybe they got burned IRL and never got over it, maybe it's just an unusual fetish (hey, there are arseholes out there whose kink is calling suicide crisis hotlines for sexytalk...)

If you do want to post LW stories, you might consider creating a separate account specifically for that purpose to limit the spillover to anything else you might post.

 

[bashfullyshameless]

Trolls Lurk Everywhere On the Internet

Casey,

Welcome to Literotica. Please don't let the trolls and the jackasses dissuade you. There are a LOT of polite, genuinely appreciative readers on this site.

Unfortunately Literotica also demonstrates further proof of the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19

There are a few dedicated trolls lurking on this site. Very few of them leave their names. It's hard to know whether it's five trolls or five hundred different jackasses. "The problem with this story is that it was written" is my all-time favorite shitty comment, almost certainly left by someone who doesn't write at all.

If you look carefully, you'll see certain patterns consistently emerge among the trolls:

*Promiscuous male characters generally don't raise eyebrows, but some folks feel that promiscuous female characters are generally horrible, horrible whores who should be shot/impaled/mutilated/fed to squirrels, and they absolutely positively HAVE to let you know it or the world will cease to exist. This will hold even when you have a male and female character in the same story who are knowingly and openly playing by the same rules.

*Loving Wives, which is plainly all about infidelity, draws a huge amount of rage from anonymous lurkers. I'm pretty sure this boils down to awful cases of self-hatred, but there you go.

*Any male/male homoeroticism AT ALL will set people off unless it's specifically in the Gay Male category. (I couldn't tell you what sort of heat that one draws, as I don't read it.) If you've got, say, a Group Sex story that involves guys doing more than high-fiving while they go after the same gal, I'd advise you to put a big warning at the beginning of the story. Even then, you'll probably catch some trolls.

*Note that lesbian or bisexual women are generally not an issue. Clearly, all women are bi, because porn has taught us so.

*There are some individuals who have multiple user IDs, and they vote multiple times on the same story. These can be both high votes and low. This is particularly common with stories entered in any of Literotica's regular contests. Eventually these get stripped & swept away by the site operators, but they have not explained the mechanics of this and will likely not do so in the future. (I can't blame them, really.)

*Also, the fights on this message board are generally the same three or four guys making comment after comment. Try not to pay it much mind. The "ignore" function is your friend.

Again, there's a LOT of good stuff to be found on this site. There are great stories, and appreciative readers to be found if you post some of your own stuff. Please don't let the trolls put you off. Just ignore 'em.

 

[DirtyDoc]

I hadn't realised the author had control over which comments actually appeared - makes the visible negative comments seem more of a troll party.

So, give 'Loving Wives' a wide berth then?

Actually, I'd read everything, ignore the comments, and decide for yourself.

You have to take several things into account. First, this is the internet, where even the quietest, mousiest, most unassuming person can be as brash, as loud, and as obnoxious as they want as long as they can hide behind an anonymous keyboard.

Second, many people tend to use boards like this as a cry for attention... a "Listen to me! I matter!" forum.

Third, the ability to post a comment does not equate to experience writing erotica. Take a look at who posted comments, and see just what they've actually done.

Combine them all together, and what do you get? Somebody who has (for example) written a 700,000 page magnum opus of Twilight slash fiction when not busy at their job as assistant manager of produce at a midwest grocery store, of which they have actually had 35 pages published by Literotica, passing judgement on someone writing a story of lesbian romance in a sorority during the tumultuous 1960s. They don't like it ("Where's Edward? Where's Jacob?") so, instead of moving on, they feel the need to write a scintillating comment such as I hope you get anally raped you ass spelunker! Never write again!!! Still, they give the story three stars. This accomplishes the three things: 1) They get to post something, 2) they get to be obnoxious, and 3) They get to get rid of competition for their style of fiction.

My suggestion... find out who the board leaders in your genre field are, pay attention to THOSE comments, and ignore all the others.

Except mine. My comments are always perfect.

 

[DirtyDoc]

Casey,
Again, there's a LOT of good stuff to be found on this site. There are great stories, and appreciative readers to be found if you post some of your own stuff. Please don't let the trolls put you off. Just ignore 'em.

I agree with everything bashfullyshameless said. Although their comments were much more eloquent than mine... which obviously means anything they wrote is crap, and should be flamed as much as possible.

Seriously, just hang loose, have fun here, and ignore the trolls. Haters gonna hate and all that. Just find the people you can love, ignore the rest, and live a life.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Nice of one of them to drop in and provide an example of this directly below my first post

Some of you need to be reminded that you dont shit marble, and youre not the 2 Coming we hope for. The OP just wants his ass kissed.

Casey? Find something to make yourself useful, and stop blubbering.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

I think that gay male is pretty much troll-free.

The worst comment I got on one of my gay male stories was a spambot.

 

[lovecraft68]

Gm and Non human seem the "friendliest"

Romance does not seem to get too much nastiness either.

Loving wives is obviously the most vicious and after that Incest and Non consent get their share of abuse, mostly I think because those categories definitely fall under love it or hate it, doesn't seem to be much middle ground there.

 

[bashfullyshameless]

Sci-fi/Fantasy is generally pretty friendly and constructive; they want a consistent setting and plot, and they'll let you know if they find fault with yours, but it's generally not hugely abrasive. The few negative comments I've ever gotten were, again, geared toward the double-standard of promiscuity for men vs. women.

Even that comes down to personal tastes. I'm not so much turned on by women sleeping with lots of different men myself, and wouldn't find that to be a particular draw for a story, but the double standard drives me nuts. It's one thing to say, "This isn't my kink." It's another thing to say, "I hope you and the next seven generations of your family burn in hell for ever having thought up this horrible tripe."


...though I grant I'm probably spelling that latter comment much better than the average troll would.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

Newbie to Newbie (I've only been posting on Lit since September 2011) - I've come to take the abusive comments as part of the humor of the site. It's shocking at first and I think I started a similar thread after being shocked by comments I received from a Loving Wives submission.

I've deleted a few comments that weren't story related. I think we're all sluts for the glowing praise comments, instructive or informative comments. Doing a fast and dirty total of for the page views for my 25 stories, I'm well over the 500,000 mark. That's damn rewarding, regardless of the comment count or vote count.

Whether they finished a story of mine or not, to think someone clicked on one over half a million times feels darn good. I'm sure the other authors have substantially higher numbers.

Prior to Lit, I maintained a livejournal account where I wrote. I didn't reach anywhere near the audience. Sure, the comments were nicer, but I think I'll trade reach for comments.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I hadn't realised the author had control over which comments actually appeared - makes the visible negative comments seem more of a troll party.

So, give 'Loving Wives' a wide berth then?

I don't. I actually receive amusement from some of the comments, and go out of my way to cultivate rancor. For instance, I write a LW story and describe a white woman having an affair with a black man. The race has nothing to do with the story, I just like to rattle cages.

I have gotten some nasty comments on incest stories too, especially the one where a man and his 20 year old daughter were role-playing that she was about eight years old. That kind of thing is no longer permitted, possibly because of complaints about that story.

BTW, welcome to Literotica and the Authors' Hangout. This is a nice place to hang out.

 

[Darkniciad]

I have gotten some nasty comments on incest stories too, especially the one where a man and his 20 year old daughter were role-playing that she was about eight years old. That kind of thing is no longer permitted, possibly because of complaints about that story.

Again, this is not correct.

Age roleplay is allowed, so long as the sex scenes or large parts of them cannot be pulled out of the story and read as underage sex without the context of the surrounding story.

 

[lance gt]

I look at comments, as armchair coaches look at sports. They'll hurl abuse at the player on the screen for not making a play, yet he couldn't do it in his life to save himself. It's easy to criticize someone's work when you've never put any effort in to try writing a story. Those that have tried, or at least understand the work involved, tend to be less critical, or nasty in their comments.

No matter what category you write in, some people will like it, some will hate it. The reasons are their own, so you have to sift through and see what pertains to you and what pertains to your story. Even negative comments can be helpful in some ways, as long as they're directed at faults in your writing and not you.

By and by, comments don't get made very much, unless you make a note to the readers at the end to vote and give comments/feedback.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I look at comments, as armchair coaches look at sports. They'll hurl abuse at the player on the screen for not making a play, yet he couldn't do it in his life to save himself. It's easy to criticize someone's work when you've never put any effort in to try writing a story. Those that have tried, or at least understand the work involved, tend to be less critical, or nasty in their comments.

No matter what category you write in, some people will like it, some will hate it. The reasons are their own, so you have to sift through and see what pertains to you and what pertains to your story. Even negative comments can be helpful in some ways, as long as they're directed at faults in your writing and not you.

By and by, comments don't get made very much, unless you make a note to the readers at the end to vote and give comments/feedback.

My attitude is, IF I SULKED OVER EVERY INSULT AND UNKINDNESS I'D NEVER SMILE AGAIN. People need to tone down their narcissism a notch or two. I mean, you didnt hear Jesus blubbering about HATERS and TROLLS during his ordeal.

Most stories on LIT are awful and worse. Really good stories are like finding the next prime number. Invest more energy in learning how to write, and less in whining.

 

[lance gt]

My attitude is, IF I SULKED OVER EVERY INSULT AND UNKINDNESS I'D NEVER SMILE AGAIN. People need to tone down their narcissism a notch or two. I mean, you didnt hear Jesus blubbering about HATERS and TROLLS during his ordeal.

Most stories on LIT are awful and worse. Really good stories are like finding the next prime number. Invest more energy in learning how to write, and less in whining.

My thoughts exactly. Whining gets you no where. Too many writers think their stories are hot shit and then whine when no little red H's are beside it, then blame trolls. No, the story sucked, write better. The little flags are great to get, but it still doesn't mean you're a great writer, just lots of people liked to stroke to it, if that's what it's meant to be.

People will tell you, you're a good writer, if you truly are one.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

My thoughts exactly. Whining gets you no where. Too many writers think their stories are hot shit and then whine when no little red H's are beside it, then blame trolls. No, the story sucked, write better. The little flags are great to get, but it still doesn't mean you're a great writer, just lots of people liked to stroke to it, if that's what it's meant to be.

People will tell you, you're a good writer, if you truly are one.

My experiences with most endeavors is, IF MY STUFF IS GOOD THE WORLD FINDS IT SOON ENOUGH. No one advertizes goldmines. Its impossible to keep goldmines secret.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I look at comments, as armchair coaches look at sports. They'll hurl abuse at the player on the screen for not making a play, yet he couldn't do it in his life to save himself. It's easy to criticize someone's work when you've never put any effort in to try writing a story. Those that have tried, or at least understand the work involved, tend to be less critical, or nasty in their comments.

No matter what category you write in, some people will like it, some will hate it. The reasons are their own, so you have to sift through and see what pertains to you and what pertains to your story. Even negative comments can be helpful in some ways, as long as they're directed at faults in your writing and not you.

By and by, comments don't get made very much, unless you make a note to the readers at the end to vote and give comments/feedback.

The comments I refer to are not over the quality of the writing; they are about the subject matter. People comment about what a terrible person I am for writing about certain subjects, without saying anything about the writing itself. I consider such comments to be praise, because they have yanked somebody's chain.

 

[lance gt]

The comments I refer to are not over the quality of the writing; they are about the subject matter. People comment about what a terrible person I am for writing about certain subjects, without saying anything about the writing itself. I consider such comments to be praise, because they have yanked somebody's chain.

I get slammed all the time for being a straight white male writing lesbian porn/romance. I enjoy the genre and write some half decent stories, same as BDSM. I never get BDSM readers slamming me, because I don't actually do what I write, interesting.

 

[estragon]

Casey, this thread is a microcosm of the AH BB.

As for the stories, you'll find comments and votes from helpful people and hurtful people, the "turbid ebb and flow of human misery", sages, trolls and everything in between.

Relax and enjoy. Tell your story your way.

And welcome to the insane asylum, where the inmates have taken over.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I get slammed all the time for being a straight white male writing lesbian porn/romance. I enjoy the genre and write some half decent stories, same as BDSM. I never get BDSM readers slamming me, because I don't actually do what I write, interesting.

I haven't been slammed for my lesbian porn or when I a female POV.... yet. I think it would be a cheap shot. Sometimes, I wish I had chosen a more gender neutral pseudonym for the reader's sake, to make it easier for them to suspend disbelief. I used to bristle when I would see a call for submissions from women only, until it occurred to me, "Why NOT encourage more women to write more porn?"

I read recently that more women buy gay erotic romances than men. I found that interesting, just as I find it interesting when I stumble across a female writer who writes gay guy erotica.

But if writers can't think outside their experiences, we'd never have sci/fi, would we?

(editted to fix a missed contraction in the first line)