Yeah, ff.net trolls again. This time it's a person going by the name explodinghead (http://www.fanfiction.net/u/4223091/), who I will give credit for being more thorough than hir compatriots -- either ze went back through the comments in my own previous posts about this stupid, stupid pissing match they are trying to have with me and noted all the fics that I myself identified as being in second person (...except "Seasons of Cloud and Shadow (Like the Deserts Miss the Rain)", for some reason), or ze actually opened every single fic I have posted on ff.net and commented on the ones in second person. Both those options are signs that these people have way too much time on their hands, no sense of proportion, and a continuing inability to recognize that second person =/= interactivity, but whatever.
All the "reviews" are basically form letters. The only difference from one to the next is a slight variation in the first line, which baffles me -- if you have a form letter, why not just paste the form letter? Why try to make it seem "personalized" for each fic? It does not in any way disguise the fact that you are spamming me and have not actually read the stories in question nor paid any attention to the fact that a bunch of them are already "upload[ed] on a different site."
The reviews (all received on 1/3/13) read as follows:
Please note that you-based fics are in violation. I suggest that you delete this, and upload on a different site.
Thank you for your time.
Entries not allowed:
5. Any form of interactive entry: choose your adventure, second person/you based, Q&As, and etc.
explodinghead
Member of Eliminator
That particular one is for Ring the Changes, which is a Homestuck fic about Rose and Roxy bonding over their shared love of wizard slash, and Roxy asking Rose to beta-read her fanfic of Rose's as-yet-unfinished-in-the-beta-timeline epic series The Complacency of the Learned.
The first line variations are as follows:
Ring the Changes (2012): Please note that you-based fics are in violation.
Prayers to Broken Stone (2009): Please note that this you-based fic is in violation.
Parseltongue (2003): Please note that you-based fics are in violation.
Along the Way (2007): Please note that your you-based fics are in violation.
Knives (2005): Please note that all you-based fics are in violation.
Wherein Two Moirails Make the Best of a Stolen Afternoon (2012): Please note that you-based fics are in violation for interactive behavior.
Stories are listed in order of "reviews" received. Note that the last one FINALLY states outright their objection to me, which is their false conflation of second person with interactivity. As I have said before (and apparently will be saying until I am dead, for fuck's sake), second person is not inherently interactive. It can easily be used in the service of interactivity, but it is not, in and of itself, any more interactive than first or third person -- which are, of course, interactive in the sense that they require a person to read them and imagine the story to life in her or his own mind. In that sense, ALL fiction is interactive.
In the sense which I believe ff.net means, however -- wherein a writer solicits reader feedback to direct the story -- none of my work on ff.net is interactive in the slightest. Which you can easily tell by the way that all the stories above are complete and, in fact, explicitly say that they are complete in the metadata ff.net itself attaches to each file. But apparently logical thought is too hard when there is a badly phrased rule that can be used to bludgeon writers and make trolls feel self-righteous.
*sigh*
I am still feeling tired and fed-up with the general futility of the universe, but I dunno, maybe I should ask ff.net for a rule clarification again. Hell, maybe I should update "The Guardian in Spite of Herself" and ask the readers of that fic to also petition ff.net for a rule clarification...
No, that's a bad idea. That would inevitably derail into flame wars.
I will maintain my moral high ground, such as it is, and let the trolls continue to illustrate their own pettiness and inability to understand the definition of interactivity without my help.
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ETA, 1/31/13: Aha! I have discovered the reason for the slight wording variations in the form letter. Apparently ff.net has a primitive anti-spam measure in place that flags copypasted private messages (and presumably also copypasted reviews) sent within five minutes of each other. I assume explodinghead was going down a pre-chosen list of my stories and reviewing them as fast as possible, which would logically require a non-form letter to avoid tripping the anti-spam alert.
Which is funny since the "reviews" in question are actually spam. :-/
All the "reviews" are basically form letters. The only difference from one to the next is a slight variation in the first line, which baffles me -- if you have a form letter, why not just paste the form letter? Why try to make it seem "personalized" for each fic? It does not in any way disguise the fact that you are spamming me and have not actually read the stories in question nor paid any attention to the fact that a bunch of them are already "upload[ed] on a different site."
The reviews (all received on 1/3/13) read as follows:
Please note that you-based fics are in violation. I suggest that you delete this, and upload on a different site.
Thank you for your time.
Entries not allowed:
5. Any form of interactive entry: choose your adventure, second person/you based, Q&As, and etc.
explodinghead
Member of Eliminator
That particular one is for Ring the Changes, which is a Homestuck fic about Rose and Roxy bonding over their shared love of wizard slash, and Roxy asking Rose to beta-read her fanfic of Rose's as-yet-unfinished-in-the-beta-timeline epic series The Complacency of the Learned.
The first line variations are as follows:
Ring the Changes (2012): Please note that you-based fics are in violation.
Prayers to Broken Stone (2009): Please note that this you-based fic is in violation.
Parseltongue (2003): Please note that you-based fics are in violation.
Along the Way (2007): Please note that your you-based fics are in violation.
Knives (2005): Please note that all you-based fics are in violation.
Wherein Two Moirails Make the Best of a Stolen Afternoon (2012): Please note that you-based fics are in violation for interactive behavior.
Stories are listed in order of "reviews" received. Note that the last one FINALLY states outright their objection to me, which is their false conflation of second person with interactivity. As I have said before (and apparently will be saying until I am dead, for fuck's sake), second person is not inherently interactive. It can easily be used in the service of interactivity, but it is not, in and of itself, any more interactive than first or third person -- which are, of course, interactive in the sense that they require a person to read them and imagine the story to life in her or his own mind. In that sense, ALL fiction is interactive.
In the sense which I believe ff.net means, however -- wherein a writer solicits reader feedback to direct the story -- none of my work on ff.net is interactive in the slightest. Which you can easily tell by the way that all the stories above are complete and, in fact, explicitly say that they are complete in the metadata ff.net itself attaches to each file. But apparently logical thought is too hard when there is a badly phrased rule that can be used to bludgeon writers and make trolls feel self-righteous.
*sigh*
I am still feeling tired and fed-up with the general futility of the universe, but I dunno, maybe I should ask ff.net for a rule clarification again. Hell, maybe I should update "The Guardian in Spite of Herself" and ask the readers of that fic to also petition ff.net for a rule clarification...
No, that's a bad idea. That would inevitably derail into flame wars.
I will maintain my moral high ground, such as it is, and let the trolls continue to illustrate their own pettiness and inability to understand the definition of interactivity without my help.
-----
ETA, 1/31/13: Aha! I have discovered the reason for the slight wording variations in the form letter. Apparently ff.net has a primitive anti-spam measure in place that flags copypasted private messages (and presumably also copypasted reviews) sent within five minutes of each other. I assume explodinghead was going down a pre-chosen list of my stories and reviewing them as fast as possible, which would logically require a non-form letter to avoid tripping the anti-spam alert.
Which is funny since the "reviews" in question are actually spam. :-/