What do you do with negative feedback posts

[HuckPilgrim]

I have always made it a point not to delete them, thinking that all opinions are valuable, and even if someone doesn't like the story, I want them to express themselves. I suppose this is a holdover from trying to be open in writing workshops, listening to the criticism, accepting the feedback. But here it's not always productive, I think. I deleted my first comment last night because it was 1) posted anonymously and 2) they called me a fuck up or a fuck wad or fuck something or other. It actually included some valid criticisms of the story, which I appreciate, but not enough to let the comment stand on the story. Fuck it I say.

Anyhow, it's done and the comment is gone, but I was wondering how other folks deal with it? I had turned off anonymous feedback for a bit, but then I turned it back on. This wasn't the first negative thing that was posted on one of my stories, but it's the first one I deleted. Maybe I am just turning into a curmudgeon.

 

[sr71plt]

We have this discussion once a month. If they bother you enough to really, really want them to go away, delete them. The system gives you that power, and if you don't delete them under that circumstance you are letting yourself be guilted. And the argument that this will make the poster post again is specious. You can delete that one too and it will be the harasser, not you, who eventually will be frustrated.

 

[HuckPilgrim]

We have this discussion once a month. If they bother you enough to really, really want them to go away, delete them. The system gives you that power, and if you don't delete them under that circumstance you are letting yourself be guilted. And the argument that this will make the poster post again is specious. You can delete that one too and it will be the harasser, not you, who eventually will be frustrated.

Ah, I hate to give anyone the power to guilt my ass. Thank you, pilot, for putting it in those terms. I have the power, so I'm going to use the power. Fuck it.

 

[YDB95]

I always leave them up. To me, they just tend to highlight how positive my other reviews are. Besides, they're nearly always anonymous, and I figure the cowardliness of mouthing off at another writer while not even giving your name speaks for itself.

 

[desertslave]

If it's a reasonable criticism, I leave it. If it's just insulting crap, it gets gone!

 

[HeyAll]

Question: What do you do with negative feedback posts?

Answer: What do you do when a bird shits on your new car?

 

[jsragmanus]

I've Deleted One

Some yahoo complained about a story in the Lesbian Sex category that it was a shame that two hot women were lesbians. Didn't think anyone really need to read such an adolescent comment.

 

[DreamCloud]

If it is constructive - leave it.

If it is corrosive - delete it.

 

[Carnal_Flower]

I got a trolling comment on my last one and it was fun to see every comment since take him/her down. Ive only deleted one because the guy went on about underage sex. Uh, no. Otherwise I do not care.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

It all depends on the category...

Loving Wives - leave all of them up and have a good laugh*.

Everything else, delete the idiots, keep the rest.

* I have actually turned off voting and comments on my LW stories, I found that half of the readers loved them and the other half hated them. Didn't matter what I wrote, it was always a 50/50 split...so why bother.

 

[shutterpsb]

I mostly ignore them unless they're constructive in some way.

 

[CharleyH]

We have this discussion once a month. If they bother you enough to really, really want them to go away, delete them. The system gives you that power, and if you don't delete them under that circumstance you are letting yourself be guilted. And the argument that this will make the poster post again is specious. You can delete that one too and it will be the harasser, not you, who eventually will be frustrated.

Agreed, for once.

 

[MatthewVett]

If it's actually about the merits of the story, I leave it. If it's speculation as to my sexual orientation or something else unrelated to the matter at hand, I'm under no obligation to let people spew shit wherever they want. I delete it.

 

[tw_holt]

<sarcasm>
I delete anything that could remotely make Anonymous look bad. Trolling, immature, hate-filled comments and the like. We can't have Anon looking bad. You know? </sarcasm>

I left all hateful comments on this one story of mine, mainly b/c I collaborated with another person on the story. She gave me some of her real life encounters and we jazzed it up with some of her fantasies. I suppose I wanted her to see what readers felt about what we came up with. Why the comments were so hateful? That's another topic/thread discussion.

http://www.literotica.com/s/torries-year

 

[HuckPilgrim]

Hahah, gotta watch Anon doesn't shoot itself in the foot! I like how you think tw_holt!

I do tend to weight comments from characters a little differently (although, really, as easy as it is to get an alt, a character is only half a step away from anonymous anyhow).

 

[FantasyXY]

I've said this before - In one of the other monthly threads on this topic.

I leave all of the comments I get. Of course I like the positive and constructive comments and I've received a few negative yet constructive comments. These comments help me improve my writing skills.

As for the hateful negative comments, they are generally hilarious and I want to keep them. The ones I think are the funniest are the ones that go something like this:

x/zz/yy Anonymous:
this story is sh it. You need to kill the bich and move and You can't right fucktard my advise is get an editer

Okay, that's not a word for word comment, but it's close to the kind that makes me laugh the hardest.

In my time posting stories on Lit I've only deleted three comments. One comment was obviously someone trying to get people to come view her webcam, and contained a link (which is forbidden by Lit).

The other two I deleted were comments where two readers started insulting each other using the comments, and weren't related to the story. When I did that I also added a comment asking that readers refrain from this... and they did.

One more thing I like to do is add a comment with my own notes about the story. I also address a comment or two in this "notes from the author". I generally get only positive comments in my author's notes comment.

 

[HuckPilgrim]

I also address a comment or two in this "notes from the author". I generally get only positive comments in my author's notes comment.

What is "notes from the author"?

At first I was thinking it's the little note some authors include with their story at the start or end, sometimes set of with a row of asterisks and the phrase "Author's note." But something like that is done at the time of publishing, so wouldn't be useful to address published comments, which come after the story posts, so I need clarification.

 

[FantasyXY]

Author's Notes in Comments is Cheating - Sort of...

What is "notes from the author"?

At first I was thinking it's the little note some authors include with their story at the start or end, sometimes set of with a row of asterisks and the phrase "Author's note." But something like that is done at the time of publishing, so wouldn't be useful to address published comments, which come after the story posts, so I need clarification.

I used the term "Notes from the Author" loosely as these aren't exactly the same as those you would see on the back cover or jacket of a book. Those sorts of notes are part of marketing the author and his work. Being a free site, Lit doesn't really support any sort of marketing tools. So I've been putting what might have been on the book's jacket in a comment.

What I usually add is a comment that contains some description of how or why the story was created, and what my intent was in developing or ending the story the way I did. I almost always remind people that authors here are amateurs and we make lots of mistakes. I find that posting these calms down the level of the comments after I post it.

I could just as well put these notes at the beginning or end of the story like some do, but creating it after I've seen many of the comments gives me a chance to see if my writing already conveyed something or not. Doing them post publish allows me to zero in and tell about things that seem to be in question about the story.

 

[sr71plt]

But, as Huck noted, you worded this as if it was a response to comments on the story. You can't comment on comments until the comments have been made (although some authors here lead with the chin by anticipating comments in defensive notes in the text of the story), so this would have to be an author responding to a story comment after the fact of publishing.

 

[GoldenCojones]

comments

I have only deleted two comments. One was an attack on another commenter that specifically called her an abusive name, and the other stated up front "I'll never read anything by this author."

The first one is a no-brainer. I'm not gonna allow that in my comments.

The second as well. If you're not going to read any of my stories, why should I allow you to comment on me as a person? Even though this was an anonymous comment, I believe I know who left it. If he isn't man enough to talk to me face to face, why should I care about his comments.

 

[robertreams]

Sometimes I respond, especially when they are anonymous and full of shit. One commenter on one of my stories said he was a loyal reader but would read no more because I had a "rape" scene, trhren signed anonymous. But in the story the "bottom" shifted his hips to allow better access to theh "top' so it was clearly not rape. If the commenter has misread the story, I will correct, but so far I have never deleted a commet

 

[HuckPilgrim]

Yeah, I was going to leave one negative comment because it mentioned two very good points about the story. Then the story got blocked, presumably as a result of being reported by the same person who left the comment. So I had to fix the story by addressing the points, but I would have fixed it anyhow.

I deleted the post because the person called me a fuck up or a fuck wad or something. Originally I was going to leave it, but then I thought: fuck it. I can certainly be a fuck up at times, no foul there, but it's my goddamn story and if I don't want your pissy ass comment on it, I will exercise my power to delete it.

 

[HuckPilgrim]

But, as Huck noted, you worded this as if it was a response to comments on the story. You can't comment on comments until the comments have been made (although some authors here lead with the chin by anticipating comments in defensive notes in the text of the story), so this would have to be an author responding to a story comment after the fact of publishing.

Yeah, it's tempting to put in big disclaimers, especially if I think the story might rankle people, but I try to always resist that urge. What is the point? If a dude is going to get offended, a disclaimer isn't going to sway them.

 

[GoldenCojones]

disclaimer

I got a comment that criticized my disclaimer

your statement at the beginning is as ridiculous as the story.
"This is a work of fiction. If you don't like it, don't read it."

How, pray tell, can you know "If you don't like it,"
before you read it?

I guess this particular commenter didn't understand they were in the LW category

At least he had the balls to sign his name and wasn't anonymous.

 

[WifeWatchman]

It depends on the nature of the comment. A comment that is constructive criticism with the clear intent to (attempt to) help me write a better story is welcome and is left up. Chronic attackers who just post "this sucks!" with no constructive criticism get their posts removed. One time someone kept re-posting attacks to the point I had to contact the board owners to get the abuse stopped, but that was (hopefully) just a one-time thing.