#bad comment

If you don't like what I write just fucking block me. No need to be a dick to a stranger online.

I blocked the person's account name out of decency.

But just a PSA, act like this and you'll get blocked immediately.

Listen. This is a hobby. People do this for fun. A reader is a peer, not someone who is above them--they are not an editor or an agent. You know how you critique as a peer? You make ‘I’ statements and offer explanation. If you find a huge problem, your fix is a specific suggestion. You make it clear that it is you, the viewer, having the problem, not the author, and you offer reasons so that they can apply it next time. And, above all, YOU ARE RESPECTFUL ABOUT IT.

Examples:

“You made [Character] so out of character!” strikes much differently than “I found [character] to be out of character because of x, y, and z.”

“Your writing style is blocky and hard to read.” strikes much differently than “I struggled with the large blocks of text in this. I think it could stand a couple more paragraph breaks.”

“You tried to do something new and it sucks.” strikes much differently than “I see you’ve tried something new and am glad to witness you trying to branch out. I’m not entirely sure it was successful, but it was a pleasure to see you taking the chance to grow your skills.”

I have kept this ‘I statements’ technique in mind all of my thirty years and it has never once steered me wrong. One of my writing teachers in college even mentioned how diplomatic I was and how receptive the other students were to my suggestions.

If your comment on one of my fics ever looks like this I’m going to go full Samara and come crawling through your computer screen to murder you.

I’ve asked them not to do something, and instead of respecting my wishes and me as a person, they do it anyway, because that’s what they want. They think their feelings and wishes are more important than mine, even though that’s clearly not the case, because the content they’re commenting on wouldn’t exist without me. What they are showing me, whether they mean to or not, is that I am not worthy of their respect as a person.

Jeez, now that review was just straight up freaking rude. Seriously if they got offended by any author's note they can always click unfollow.

I even went back to read my author’s note to see if it was rude and! It wasn’t! Like I basically said “Hey, it really bothers me when this happens. Real life is kicking my ass and when this happens it makes it worse, so stop doing that.” Sure, a little pointed, but not unwarranted I felt.

  charie-caphine  Why shouldn’t...

I don’t understand why people are having such a hard time with this concept… you keep giving analogies but they sail right over every head. I don’t envy your position, bro, but fucking kudos for continuously sticking up for yourself

Thanks

  Why shouldn't anyone leave any kind of comments...

@reioka​ Every reader cannot be happy with every aspect of a story, but if they are moved enough to comment on particular sections of a story, not necessarily always in cheerful tones, I feel that that is inadvertently a mark in favour of the artwork as it evidently inspires divisive thoughts and strong emotions.

“Hey I don’t like the stitches you used here but the rest of the shawl is great!” Don’t fucking comment on my shawl at all then.

“Hey I don’t like what happened here but the rest of the story is great!” Don’t fucking comment on my story at all then.