Fanfic Pet Peeves

[jz9]

Loved these - "OMG! Yor so gr8t!!" or 'OMG, that's the Best Fic Evah!!!' I am going to try them in my reviews

I agree with JasminaGo, that the problem is mostly in the writers, not the site. The better the writer, the better s/he would take the negative comments, constructive criticism or not.

Sometimes ff.net does break, just like every other site. Once I read a fic seriously lacking scene dividers, I dismissed it as poor writing until I found out later it was ff.net's doing. Good it was fixed otherwise a lot of fics would have been unreadable. Also yesterday I was disappointed when I did not receive a new chapter notification for sbz's "The Way" series since she was pretty good at regular updates. When I went to her site to check out an explanation, I found she did indeed post her new chapter, but somehow I did not receive a notification. However in spite of occasional frustrations, I do like ffnet best for reading and reviewing fics.

[hedwig]

I've been reading stories on fanfiction.net for a long time, but only recently realized that I can send a review by private mail (on fanfiction.net) to the author, so it won't be on view to everybody who looks at reviews for a story. I have used this method a few times if I have something I want to describe to the author about their story (and since I tend to get long winded ). It's interesting that any time I've used this method, I've gotten no reply from any of the authors.

I have left reviews on samandjackalwaysandforever.net, LJ and helipolis as well. But with those, if I want to see if an author has replied, I have to go back to the story later to see if there has been a reply. I only just found out recently if a person registers on some of these fanfiction websites, they might get a reply by e-mail, but not always.

[Skydiver]

ff.net frakked up a LOT of fic when they took out page dividers. Actually, what they did was strip every single symbol out of fics except for those necessary for punctuation.

I had over 300 fic there, and they messed them all up. I deleted all my fic because of it.

What was the most frustrating about the whole thing, they made no attempt at all to contact authors and say 'we're gonna do this, fix your fic', they just did it and only put up a notice when people wrote in and complained.

To some extent, i think they are chasing away the 'better' writers. Someone spends years writing hundreds of fic, generating thousands and thousands of page and ad views, and they mess their stuff up????

rude.

I do try to respond to reviews, sometimes not as timely as i would like. I think the only time i don't worry about doing it is the 'good fic, send more'

yeah, what is there to say to that beyond, 'thanks'

However, if someone takes the time to type out a nice review and criticism, even going 'wow, wouldn't have done that' or 'umm, how did that happen', i'll be more likely to respond to those that have taken time vs those that just bang out a 'thx'

even though, all feedback is appreciated. It sincerely is. It's the only 'payment' i get from my fic

[sbz]

I'm not sure about the whole, "reviews on ff.net are public and therefore authors get defensive" thing. For one, the review is out there and getting defensive/hostile doesn't negate that fact so what's the point? And secondly, do that many people actually read the reviews? For some reason I have the feeling that people don't. I think it's far more likely that those are simply the people who can't deal with, as others have said, anyhthing less than "OMG, this is awesome, more please."

As for the PMs through ff.net not getting a response, maybe it's a simple matter of them getting filtered by the writer's e-mail program? If the review alerts get filtered it's no big deal because they can be seen and responded to from the actual review page. But if a PM gets filtered it isn't stored anywhere - that I know of, anyway. Or maybe the people you've PM'd just aren't the type who respond.

[Alipeeps]

None of my fic on ffnet got affected by their revamp as I'd always used their dividers when I uploaded fic onto there.

But yeah, the site certainly has its issues from time to time. Right now, for example, the review alert function doesn't seem to be working. My latest fic on there has 11 reviews yet I've received no email alerts...

[hedwig]

As for the PMs through ff.net not getting a response, maybe it's a simple matter of them getting filtered by the writer's e-mail program? If the review alerts get filtered it's no big deal because they can be seen and responded to from the actual review page. But if a PM gets filtered it isn't stored anywhere - that I know of, anyway. Or maybe the people you've PM'd just aren't the type who respond.

Never thought about PM getting filtered. I don't know how that works. If I (or anyone else) send a PM to an author, does ff.net send the author a notice that someone has sent a PM and the reviewer's e-mail address? Or does the review go directly to the author? I have no idea how that works, so now I'm confused ... a rather regular state of mind, so ... nothing new there.

[ShimmeringStar]

Sometimes ff.net does break, just like every other site. Once I read a fic seriously lacking scene dividers, I dismissed it as poor writing until I found out later it was ff.net's doing. Good it was fixed otherwise a lot of fics would have been unreadable. Also yesterday I was disappointed when I did not receive a new chapter notification for sbz's "The Way" series since she was pretty good at regular updates. When I went to her site to check out an explanation, I found she did indeed post her new chapter, but somehow I did not receive a notification. However in spite of occasional frustrations, I do like ffnet best for reading and reviewing fics.

And it's irritating that the site won't alert readers to the scene divider issue. Because they failed to alert members what they'd done in March (assuming we go there every day?), many authors don't realize the site stripped all fics of 'homemade' ones and many may not have the time to go back and fix the fics when they do find out through friends or finally revisiting the site.

I have 8 fics there and was disgusted when I heard from other sources what they'd done. Disgusted because I normally write longer fics and post them at ff.net as one chapter with my own scene and internal chapter breaks (sorry, never was a fan of the chapter thing at ff.net, but that's just my own personal preference) and because they did it just before the busiest time of year for me RL-wise, meaning the fics were going to sit there in their now-screwed up state for a long while. Hated that anyone reading them for the next few months after March would see what looked like one loooooong run-on story and would think it was intended to look like that. But for me, RL had to win and the fics had to take a backseat this time.

Now that I'm finishing up the performance plan and evaluation process for the year (a whole 'nother type of writing!), I'll probably have the time this coming 3-day holiday weekend to get the scene breaks reinserted. And definitely will be archiving them on my LJ, since you never know what ff.net will pull next. ('Course LJ has an entry character-limit, so that site presents its own problems for 20 to 40K-word fics...)

I agree with Sky, any feedback is appreciated, if only to know that it kept a reader entertained (or irritated!) for a little while. If they liked the characterization or certain scenes, all the better. I know, like Sky, it takes me a little while to get back to responding to the comments (or PM's) when I get them, but IMOHO it's nice, especially if the readers took the time and initiative to actually comment, to let them know they've been heard and their feedback appreciated too.

With the lack of time I haven't done much fic-reading lately, and I'm probably very guilty of not leaving much, if any, feedback at all when I do, but when I have, I've tried to leave positive feedback, focusing on and admiring the things that they did well, hoping to encourage them to keep it up.

*sighs* Okay, play time's over. Back to putting the final touches on the new fiscal year's performance plans.... woo. hoo.

[ShimmeringStar]

Never thought about PM getting filtered. I don't know how that works. If I (or anyone else) send a PM to an author, does ff.net send the author a notice that someone has sent a PM and the reviewer's e-mail address? Or does the review go directly to the author? I have no idea how that works, so now I'm confused ... a rather regular state of mind, so ... nothing new there.

Nah, you're okay.

Yes, ff.net will send to the author's e-mail address an e-mail notifying them of the PM or review. (It does the same when readers mark the author's story as a favorite or if they put an 'alert' on them.)

The author does have to log back in to the site to respond to the PM or reveiw. But as others have said - the site gets a bit 'wonky' at times and authors never get their notifications, or they get them very belatedly.

ETA: Spamblocking on e-mail sites can be another issue too. I think it was a year or so ago with ff.net and yahoo.

[jz9]

ff.net frakked up a LOT of fic when they took out page dividers. Actually, what they did was strip every single symbol out of fics except for those necessary for punctuation.

I had over 300 fic there, and they messed them all up. I deleted all my fic because of it.

As much as I could feel your frustration with ffnet, I still wished you had not deleted your fics. It is much more difficult to find your stories now

None of my fic on ffnet got affected by their revamp as I'd always used their dividers when I uploaded fic onto there.

But yeah, the site certainly has its issues from time to time. Right now, for example, the review alert function doesn't seem to be working. My latest fic on there has 11 reviews yet I've received no email alerts...

The notification is working for me now.

I'll probably have the time this coming 3-day holiday weekend to get the scene breaks reinserted.

This problem was fixed several months ago.

[sbz]

Never thought about PM getting filtered. I don't know how that works. If I (or anyone else) send a PM to an author, does ff.net send the author a notice that someone has sent a PM and the reviewer's e-mail address? Or does the review go directly to the author? I have no idea how that works, so now I'm confused ... a rather regular state of mind, so ... nothing new there.

When someone sends a PM the ff.net bot sends an e-mail with the subject "[FF PM] from: pename" to the recipient. That e-mail contains the PM, just as a review alert contains the review, but unlike the reviews it isn't possible to sign into your account and see the PMs that have been sent to you. Also, there's no reply link, just a link to their profile. So to reply to a PM you have to go to go to the person's profile page, sign in, and click on send message - another reason you may have not gotten replies, since it's not quite as easy as clicking a link, typing, and hitting send. Additionally, if you have private messaging turned off someone obviously can't reply via that method.

All of which is why I vastly prefer e-mail to PMs if someone's going to contact me outside of a review. A fact quite a few people have caught on to.

[ShimmeringStar]

This problem was fixed several months ago.

Mmmmm... Interesting. 3/22 was when they changed their formatting. I didn't get in to check it out 'til mid-April, 'bout a month and a half ago, just before I went on my first trip and the formatting was messed up at that time and yes, some special characters had been stripped like Sky mentioned. Guess they fixed it sometime later?

Ah well, good thing. Now I can just fool with getting them archived at LJ.

[Skydiver]

my fic are all on emerald city, and the link is in my sig.

At least i can control what happens there.

There's even stuff there that isn't on ff.net, namely the smut fic that ff.net won't allow

Deleting my fic wasn't really what i wanted to do, but i was looking at weeks and weeks of work to re-edit all my fic to meet ff.net's new standards. Citing issues like SS's, i hated to have it up there in a near unreadable state for the months it would have taken me to fix them all. And, even if i fixed them, i had no idea what they'd change in the future to mess up all that work.

You just can't trust them to treat your work with respect, and that's how i see them stripping out the chapter markers with no warning or notice, a total lack of respect for those whose works were up there

[Mousie]

I don't think anyone has mentioned my pet peeve and that is the number of stories started on Fanfiction.net and never finished. That's one of the reasons I just don't start reading stories anymore until they are actually completed. I mean some have been really good, leaving you with a cliffhanger, one that you're waiting on edge of your seat for and then - nothing.

Which is why I copy everything to Word and wait until it's finished before reading. It's easy enought to just let them sit there and check back every now and then to see if it's been updated. I've actually just been through my list of fics and cast off all the ones that haven't been updated in the last 18 months.

[Mousie]

Hopefully this doesn't annoy authors out there - if so, sorry. However, I've left reviews on many stories, and the reviews have always been positive, even if I've commented on a flaw or two in the story or misuse of a word here or there (in one, an author used "mortally wounded" when it should have been "seriously injured", since the character was in no danger of dying; that wasn't the only "flaw"), and the author wrote back and attacked me for attacking her story and thereby attacking her, and criticized me for being so "hostile" to her story. I was rather surprised at how incensed she was over having one little phrase pointed out to her. I thought reviews were supposed to be honest, even if they aren't all out praise for the author's creativity. I left another review for an author where I said what I liked and pointed out where a few things "might" have been better and got a really long e-mail back from the author debating every single point where I suggested something might have been better. I realize people feel very strongly about their creations, but a little constructive criticism(?) doesn't seem out of place to me.

I had a similar situation recently. I emailed an author on ff.net, and I might have been a little harsher that I intended, but I wasn't rude. I pointed out that she was spelling O'Neill as O'neil and that I wasn't going to read any more if she couldn't even get the main characters name right. (amoungst other things)

I got a flame back that went into a lot of things (that sounded like an 8 year olds rant) but basically told me my opinion was irrelivant because she had checked my profile and seen I hadn't posted any fics.

Now I appreciate it must be difficult for anyone to take that first step and publish a story publicly but it's not that hard to use a spell check at the very least. I know I don't have the ability or desire to write a story, but I'm an intelligent reasoning person who knows how to spell the main characers name on a show that has been around for...... oooh how long could it be?......11 YEARS! Sheesh.

[Mousie]

This, sadly, is why I rarely offer concrit anymore - especially on ffnet - unless I know the author and know they accept it. There's an awful lot of writers on ffnet who only want the "OMG! Yor so gr8t!!" reviews and take anything else - anything not 100% positive - as a flame. Jeesh. These people have no idea what a flame is - flaming is unhelpful malicious nastiness for the sake of it. Pointing out a mistake or a percieved issue, whilst technically negative, is not malicious - it's intended to be helpful!

I'm always grateful if someone takes the time to let me know if I got something wrong in one of my fics - though it is a tad annoying when the criticism in incorrect (I once had someone rather snottily tell me "for god's sake, get a beta!" because they felt the tenses were incorrect in a fic written in present tense. Firstly, although it's not common, writing in present tense is perfectly grammatically correct so their criticism was mistaken and in fact they are the ones who need a better understanding of grammar and secondly, the way they phrased their comment is certainly bordering on flaming as it's not really a polite of helpful way of making their point. )

But if people politely make a criticism I don't agree with, I'll happily engage them in discussion over it. I won't take offense and accuse them of attacking me or being hostile! I think ffnet in particular is a breeding ground for this sense of self-entitlement in fic writers, "My work is sacrosant and you can't tell me anything I did is wrong (even if I can't spell for toffee) cos I have the right to write and publish whatever I want and if you try and tell me anything that's not 100% positive you're attacking me."

One thing I've picked up on over the years is that I think tenses are a subtle test of an authors quality. Spelling and grammar are easy to sort out and see when they are wrong but I think poor authors also find tenses hard, probably because they don't even think about them.

It's perfectly fine to write in present tense but a poor author will find it hard. I've seen many who just can't get it right because they keep going between past and present, although I know it's hard to remember to write everything as happening now.