"that´s called censorship" i am telling people not to act like egregious cunts on the internet (admittedly, in a slightly aggravated tone because at the time i wrote the original post, several fanfic authors i know were being harrassed by people for their writing choices et cetera which is simply rude and now that i recall it, i think my tone actually wasn't aggravated enough). i am urging people to recognise the difference between ao3 and goodreads, a point i will refer to again later, and to realise the direct impact their decision to be mean when they could use their time so more positively can and probably will have, and to act accordingly. to equate this to, broadly speaking, an active suppression or prohibition of forms of expression shows a concerning misunderstanding of what censorship is on your part because i am in no way infringing upon their ability to do and say whatever the fuck they want. i am simply appealing to them to interact sensibly with fandom and fanfic specifically.
"not 100% of the readers must love the fic" agreed. which is why i wrote "if you come across a fic that you don't enjoy, that's totally fine". however, ao3 and tumblr aren't goodreads (or fable or storygragh, you get the point, i hope). if we were talking about people who's job it is to write stories and be good at it, i would agree that positive and negative feedback alike are valid and should be considered by the author. but we aren't. this is about people who write fanfiction as a hobby, for the love of whatever it is they're writing about and for the joy of sharing it with fellow fans. this does not require a performance review because it is not their job but something they do for fun. i'm baffled by your insistence that shitting all over this, all over people's passions and labour of love, all over their hard work for the sheer delight of it, is appropriate and needed, even.
"there´s nothing wrong with saying you don´t like a fic and leaving a respectful comment saying it" but there is. there is because it is unsolicited. it is completely and utterly unnecessary and unhelpful to tell a fanfic author you didn't like their fic (even more so because people who do this tend to not do it in a "respectful" manner) and in the worst case, it will discourage them from writing and/or sharing their writing again in the future which is always a loss. especially in the context of fandom, there is an important difference between someone sharing their work and asking for criticism and someone sharing their work and just getting criticism they did not ask for. your failure to understand this nuance could be an honest mistake, the way you flaunt this ignorance so loudly and proudly is a conscious decision and an appalling one at that.
"maybe the writer should work on their own self-esteem" be so fucking for real. posting fanfiction takes courage. to brave the blank page and start writing, without formal training, maybe not even in your native language, but out of enjoyment and the urge to exercise your creativity, to craft something and then overcome any insecurities you might have about your work to put it on the internet for all to see and judge is a very vulnerable thing to do. it's a beautiful act of creativity, vulnerability and community. personally, i wish for this practice to be continued and cherished the way it deserves to be. the bare minimum us fanfic readers can do to ensure that is not be rude and adhere to generally accepted etiquette. we can leave kudos and nice comments if we liked a fic or simply not interact and keep any negative opinions to private conversations if we didn't like a fic (note how neither ao3 nor tumblr offer a dislike/downvote button or anything of that nature). i promise you, it's incredibly easy and quite rewarding.
the only instance in which i will not immediately judge and most likely block you for speaking negatively of a fic/a fic writer publically is if they in fact aren't one and have plagiarised or if they have used their fic as a means to perpetrate harmful stereotypes or language.
now frankly, i don't really care if any of this gets through to you specifically. but maybe it'll make it click for someone else. and if not that, at the very least, this might serve as a reminder. i'm not much of a writer myself, but i will not have this kind of ridiculousness being spewed under a post of mine, least of all this one.
tangentwithtanner
titsay
stormborns
ellievsbear
blakekathryn
