SPEW Babble #44

[jenny b]

I was a triplet too--we were the J triplets--but Julia and Joanna haven't been around for years now. And the very fact that I've been part of SPEW for years makes me feel like such an oldie.

And yeah, there's been a few male members over the years but none for a while now. Then again, the male population on MNFF itself is sorely lacking. I wouldn't have thought Harry Potter would mostly attract females...

I'm super excited to have you guys here, though--we've been needing some newbies for a while!

[ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor]

I understand your point. For me, though, the "problems" I point out rarely take a lot away from the story. I prefer responses that say things like "You pointed out my favourite line/part" or "I'm so glad you saw what I did there--I wasn't sure if any one would catch it" etc. I spend most of my review writing praise and I guess I'd just appreciate equal acknowledgment of that.

You see, I think people follow that principle until something sticks in their craw. I'll use myself for an example: I've had good reviews, not so good reviews, and some bad reviews. And, by these, I'm not referring to how the reader liked the stories; instead, I judge this by how well the reviewer did in pointing out things they didn't like about it or maybe canon boo boos that I hadn't thought of. A story could receive ten squee-filled reviews or even a SPEW review full of praise and adoration, but getting one with poorly put concrit can ruin all of that. To this day, for a fic of mine I particularly love, I have one review out of 15 or so that makes me look back at that story and not think it's half as good as I thought it was when I submitted it. I don't even know if I like the story anymore, which is strange, since I'm not what you'd call a delicate flower. It just rankles. And to your point, it's really hard to focus on niceness when one isn't feeling particularly friendly with the reviewer.

Which, to your point, is why I basically only review my f-list. I know how each of them will react, and I know they're all extremely capable of writing gorgeous stories that I don't have to dole out crit for more than maybe a typo, a missing word, or improper capitalisation of a canon word. Not having to worry about that makes reviewing a lot more fun.

Oh, and still super stoked for the triplets!

[babewithbrains]

To this day, for a fic of mine I particularly love, I have one review out of 15 or so that makes me look back at that story and not think it's half as good as I thought it was when I submitted it. I don't even know if I like the story anymore, which is strange, since I'm not what you'd call a delicate flower. It just rankles. And to your point, it's really hard to focus on niceness when one isn't feeling particularly friendly with the reviewer.

I know exactly what you mean, Jess. I was just reading one of your stories again and I had a look to see if I reviewed it (I was thinking that if I hadn't, I'd better slap myself -- and then review it) and I think I know which review(s) you're referring to. I got that a bit in Checkmate, too. I didn't make James Potter I Head Boy straight away and there was a bit of swearing in my story too, and for one reviewer, those were the only two things they pointed out. I mean, I'm not saying she should've praised me or something, but it made me feel a bit insecure about it, even though it's my baby. It's not nice when people do that -- and I think the reviewer stopped reading, thank God.

Question: are we allowed to delete reviews on our own stories? Often I feel like I want to, but then I don't because it makes me seem like I only like positive reception to stories, when I know that well-put constructive criticism is very useful and almost always improves my writing in some way.

~Soraya~

Oh, by the way, what on earth is an f-list?? Does the f stand for friend?

[ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor]

Question: Are we allowed to delete reviews on our own stories?
Often I feel like I want to, but then I don't because it makes me seem like I only like positive reception to stories, when I know that well-put constructive criticism is very useful and almost always improves my writing in some way.

You don't have the capability of deleting reviews you've received. If there is a review that is the reviewer being offensive (name-calling, obscene language, or anything that makes you feel uncomfortable), you can PM a mod or post in the Ask a Mod thread, asking the next available one to PM you so you can discuss the matter privately. Generally, you'll never have a problem with this, as most MNFFers are amicable, but I've seen it happen before.

If you have accidental duplicate reviews, the best you can do is reply to the duplicate reviews and politely ask the reviewer to delete them (the only non-mod who can delete reviews is the person who left them), as they're double reviews. Most people are good about that.

Oh, by the way, what on earth is an f-list?? Does the f stand for friend?

You are correct in your assumption that 'f-list' stands for 'friends list'. Usually, one's f-list is the group of people with whom they commonly associate with on various networking sites, like LiveJournal, AIM (in the Lifestream), Facebook, Twitter, etc.

/long-windedness

[MerryD]

It just rankles. And to your point, it's really hard to focus on niceness when one isn't feeling particularly friendly with the reviewer.

Honestly, I've never been in that position. I'm not a particularly popular author on the site, so I don't get a lot of random reviews. About 90% (or more) of the reviews I've received are from my friends and I can take their concrit and they know how to word it politely/nicely.

So, from a person who's never had to be particularly defensive, I prefer author's responses that focus on the praise.

I hope my reviews aren't the type that rankle . . .

Ahhh, speaking of flists, I totally forgot to mention this yesterday. *facepalm* But if any of the newbies (or oldies) have an lj, I'd love to be friends with you! I'm xaxredxrosex over there, if you'd like to add me.

--Mere

[jenny b]

I don't really get many bad reviews - they're either nice long critical ones from SPEWers, which I love, or the usual 'I LOVE IT!!!! UPDATE SOON!!!!111!!!1" But even the bad ones, I don't delete. I can only remember getting one really terrible review on an Albus/Scorpius fic, saying it was "wrong" for me to make Albus gay. I sent them a nastily worded email and they deleted their review and I never heard from them again. Good riddance.

Newbies, feel free to add me on LJ as well. I'm jenny_b09, and you'll find me as the moderator of spewbusiness. But if you want me on your flist, I should warn you that all I do is complain about uni and talk about my boyfriend. I live a rather dull life. >.>

I just spent half my evening redoing our banner thread - no more missing links! It was great fun to look back at all the really old ones. If any of you have hidden bannering skills, then feel free to break them out and make some new SPEW banners!

The story update thread has been refreshed, too. The old one is still in the archives for anyone who wants it, but I thought it would be nice to start afresh with all our new members lately.

There are a couple of other things I will be changing/updating in the next month, so don't worry when the whole SPEW forum is turned upside down for some cleaning! I'll post the monthly activities in the next few days, and Hannah is hopefully getting to SPEW Buddies (>.>) but for now I really need to do some homework.

*squishes her SPEWlings*

[welshdevondragon]

Joining in the babble....

I've noticed that some authors on MNFF only respond to some reviews, while others respond to all, and some don't reply to any of them. What do you think of that? Do you reply to all your reviews? Why or why not?

I now respond to every review- I'm just so grateful to get them that even if it is a single line I feel like thanking the person for bothering to write. If I've been away for ages and have a lot of reviews by people who review each chapter then I'll just respond to the most recent one, like I did with Bryter Later, but that hasn't happened since.

Re: Bad reviews. I don't reviews stories which I don't like/ find dull. I mean I've reviewed a couple of stories which I didn't particularly like but I thought I knew what the author was trying to do. The one story where I got reviews I disagreed with was a student/ teacher one-shot and they either disagreed that the canon character would behave in that way, or thought it was weird that it was trying to be "hot" which it DEFINITELY wasn't- I was consciously not making it, so I was annoyed that they didn't get that but at least could respond to the review to say that they'd kind of missed the point/ defend my characterisation (which, looking back on it, wasn't great but still).

I find it annoying that I can't edit my author's response. Like, Soraya, there was something I intended to say about your review to Chapter 13 of Thin Red Lines, and keep on meaning to add it in next time you review, but forgot, and I want it to be on archives, rather than just e-mail it to you, because then if other people are wondering it they can also get it answered.

One of the main reasons I started writing fanfiction was a) I'd invested so much in the novel I was writing that I was getting really precious about my writing, and writing about someone else's characters sort of liberated me from that and got me going again. Has that happened to anyone else? Also for the reviews. My writing has improved so much since I joined and yes, better reviews make better writers, so I'm glad I've joined SPEW which will force me to leave good reviews rather than my usual incoherent ramblings.

That's a long babble. I'm in a good mood but my friends are in exam revision so I'm kind of talking to the internet instead. Sorry.

Also- with the story archive do we just put all our stories, or just the ones we're working on/ writing at the moment? I can't find the old archive so cannot check.

Jen: Just put your stories in there when you get new ones through the queue, dear

[MissMeg]

I've noticed that some authors on MNFF only respond to some reviews, while others respond to all, and some don't reply to any of them. What do you think of that? Do you reply to all your reviews? Why or why not?

I really appreciate when people respond to my reviews, even if it's just a one-word answer. It makes me feel like they actually read my review and appreciated it. I actually really like it when authors, for lack of a better word, defend their story. In a review, I’m just giving my opinion, as most of the stuff I point out is stylistic or on characterization. Since style is a matter of personal preference, and characterization is often somewhat interpretation, much of it may be done by the author intentionally. I view a reviewing as me giving a writer my opinion on their story. When the author explains what they did, it usually makes me think about the story differently, and that’s usually quite interesting.

Feel free to add me on LJ also (even though I really don’t update). My username’s megga_doodle.

-Meg

[welshdevondragon]

I just joined LiveJournal the other night and they are rather patronisingly telling me that "I've only made one friend" so I'm going to stalk MNFF for names I recognise and add you- hope you don't mind. My name is greyofthiscity. I wanted Alphashallows (as if I'm not obsessed with Laura Marling enough already) but apparently that name had been deleted and only the original user could change it or some such rubbish.

So yes.

[Simply Being]

I've noticed that some authors on MNFF only respond to some reviews, while others respond to all, and some don't reply to any of them. What do you think of that? Do you reply to all your reviews? Why or why not?

Authors have a right to respond to reviews or not. Personally, I respond to all of my reviews. I make exceptions if it's a one word review or someone accidentally reviewed twice. I feel that if someone took the time to review, I should take the time to respond. Of course, I don't have a ton of reviews. I understand authors who have 100 + reviews and whose reviews are of little substance (such as OMG or Cool!) not replying. Personally, it's up to the author and I don't look down on anyone who doesn't respond. For all I know, they aren't even active anymore.