wherein the pit of voles remains unchanged, as always

[edenfalling]

A comment received on ff.net:

From: Alexandra (Guest)
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Alexandra: Quite good. A very few factual errors, but for the most part, good.

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Why is it that people who don't leave any contact information seem to feel a need to say things to the general effect of, "There are problems with this story, but I won't tell you what they are"? If they don't tell me what the problems are, how can I be expected to fix them? (Either in this story or in future ones.) And if they don't leave me any contact info, how am I supposed to ask for clarification? In short, how on earth do they expect this to be useful to me, and if providing actual useful feedback is not their intent, what are they trying to do?

I have long since concluded that this tactic is designed solely to produce a sense of superiority in the "reviewers," and (so they hope) to induce shame and paranoia in the writers they address. Because obviously, they know what the errors are -- they're so obvious they don't need to be specified, naturally! -- and if you, the lowly writer, can't see where you went wrong... well then obviously you're not the right sort, are you? You're not a real fan.

In other words, this is middle school clique posturing, plain and simple. It's annoying, sure. It's also sad and hilarious, and I hope for their own sake that these people eventually grow out of that phase.

Comments

[branchandroot]

Not to mention that most "factual errors" I've had people try to point out to me were, not to put to fine a point on it, /their/ errors. Usually out of that particular stage of half-knowledge where they think that the single example of X they've seen encompasses the whole of X and its history and usage. Which is usually when I go ragingly ballistic on them, because, well, personal trigger. You're being much more mature about this. (It's one of the reasons I don't post on ff.n, though; people can leave me feedback that I can't respond to.)

[edenfalling]

God dammit, I hate touch screens. Who thought a laptop needed a touch screen anyway? I squished a bug that was wandering over my screen, but my thumb was too close to your icon so I got clicked over to your icon page, and when I came back my mostly-finished comment was gone. Blargh.

To summarize: I have had people point out genuine errors (though all those people were either signed in or otherwise left contact info, come to think of it), but yeah, a lot of "gotcha" error-finders have either confused fanon for canon or fact for opinion/interpretation, or only have a soundbite understanding of the topic they're pontificating on and thus come to completely ridiculous and false conclusions. But I was a bit of an insufferable know-it-all myself as a teen (and this despite my dad doing his best to teach me critical thinking), so after my initial grr-argh-STOMP-YOU reaction, I can at least try to move on to "You'll learn better eventually... and if you're lucky, the process won't even be TOO painful. It will be embarrassing as fuck, though. You can't get out of that part."

Obviously that doesn't preclude making annoyed posts on my journal, but then, I have never claimed I was above pettiness. *wry*

[branchandroot]

Considering that I have, on occasion, threatened to "explicate someone's pansy ass through the floor" for one of those comments, I think you're showing great restraint, really. *wry*

[edenfalling]

Well, and I did spend years training myself to disconnect irritation from anger and also to let go of anger as quickly as possible, because I cannot channel anger in a constructive fashion. There's a lot of hard work behind my indifference!

[rthstewart]

I am the WRONG person to even say anything about this at all, because Reasons. The fact is, there are, or used to be, a lot of lovely people who really didn't want to leave signed reviews who found me on FF. Without my liberal commenting policy, I never would have met them. I've had my share of horrors though. Which fandom was this? I have received a fair bit of the "you're wrong about" blah blah -- so often, as Branch says, they just don't read carefully enough. Anyway, you're reaction to this is perfect and far better than mine is.

[edenfalling]

There is nothing wrong with anonymous reviews, in theory; obviously I have my ff.net profile set to allow them or I wouldn't get any. *wry* It's just that in practice this particular form is maddening, because it's useless without clarification and there is no way to ask for that clarification. (And I confess that while anonymous or otherwise uncontactable compliments are lovely, I wouldn't say that I have properly met someone unless there is a way to initiate reciprocal contact. Then again, I also wouldn't class a bunch of people I know as friends; I reserve that word for only two people and consider everyone else friendly acquaintances. It's very likely that my definitions for interpersonal relationships are idiosyncratic and overly stringent. *sigh*)

This was in response to "The Courting Dance," actually. Which I should get back to. Sometime. As soon as I figure out how to write Peridan. *deeper sigh*

[rthstewart]

Oh gosh. In the case of Courting Dance, I wonder if your reader even bother to understand that it was set in a future state where we know nothing of what happened other than that the Four are gone and Aravis and Cor eventually marry and become King and Queen of Archenland.

YES. You should get back to it sometime. <3

[edenfalling]

I do wonder sometimes about people's reading comprehension. Or maybe there is fanon speculation on the Narnia wiki that the reader took as gospel, and which I happen to be contradicting.

I will finish it eventually! I do finish things. It's just that "eventually" is a very flexible time limit... as you can tell by the eleven years it took me to finish "Secrets," for example. *wry* But I will get there one of these days.

[redwolf]

I don't know if it's better to get the haughty "you're wrong" comment or the one's who explain that you're wrong because they're an idiot.

However, I do enjoy that you share the public flailings of the terminally stupid. And now I shall sigh and continue in my belief that the Pit of Voles is infested with stupid teenage girls (regardless of age or gender). Maybe it has a forcefield that turns of higher level brain activity.

[edenfalling]

The population of ff.net does tend to skew young. I am not sure if that was a cause or an effect of the decision, back around 2002/2003, to ban explicit sex scenes from the site.
Additionally, the lack of clarity in the rules and effective moderation in the forums often leads to extremely poisonous subcultures in various fandoms that use ff.net as a central fic repository and conversation site. But I think people do grow out of the worst of that sniping, cliquish behavior as they leave their teens (...this takes longer for some than for others, obviously), and as I said, I was fairly insufferable myself at that age. I think most people are. *wry*

[redwolf]

The weird thing is that on the few occasions I've bothered to check further, stupid teenage girls turned out to be males in 20s and females in 30s and 40s. I may have conincidentally investigated the only outliers, or people are strange.

[jedibuttercup]

On the bright side: if they don't leave contact information? Then they can't stop you from deleting the review. I nuke that sort of commentary just on principle; it makes me feel better after the initial 'ugh' of the email notification. :)

[edenfalling]

This is true. I don't personally feel strongly enough to bother (and also, I get a little kick of schadenfreude in leaving other people's idiocy clearly on display forever, muahahaha), but whatever works!

[akatsuki210.livejournal.com]

What annoys me is when people point out "errors" that weren't errors at the time the fic was written (e.g. stories I wrote a long time ago where I was speculating on some aspect of canon that was unknown at the time but has since been specified by the author). Especially if the author's note says something like, "This is based on a theory I have about..." or "Some people on the forum were speculating about..."

[edenfalling]

Yes, people who expect stories written five years ago to have somehow foreseen and incorporated canon revelations from, say, one month ago, baffle me. Do they not read publication dates? Do they not read summaries and notes? Do they expect writers to constantly be going back to adjust old stories to fit current canon, instead of, you know, writing new stories?

It is a mystery!

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

In other words, this is middle school clique posturing, plain and simple.

Well, there you have it.

[edenfalling]

Yeah, pretty much. :-/