Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Editorial: Well...Well, Clarification is obviously needed.

I wanted to share a review that I recieved from my first fanfiction that was unbeta'd. Normally, I would brush these bits off, but as this anonymous reviewer has attacked this blog, I figured it couldn't hurt to clarify a few things.


smellyia,

The following review has been submitted to: Congratulations Chapter: 12

From: extremely discerning ficster ()
-------------------

i love that you write that blog to establish the "good fic" from the "bad
fic" as though you're so clean of grammar abuse, when you constantly misuse
"your" and "you're".

this is not a hard concept:

you're: contraction of you are.

your: possessive pronoun.

"Your not Bella. We are just..."

my not Bella what?

Come on now, smellyia


First and foremost, I don't singularly write this blog. This is a collaborative effort between myself, AngstGoddess003, emibella, angel and Guest Bloggers.

Second, the intent of this blog is NOT to establish the "good" from the "bad" fic. This blog's purpose is to highlight under-appreciated fanfiction stories, hidden jewels, if you will. NOWHERE IN THIS BLOG'S MISSION STATEMENT DOES IT SAY ANYTHING ABOUT ABOUT ANY OF US BEING GRAMMATICAL GURUS OR CLAIMING THAT IF A FIC IS NOT HIGHLIGHTED HERE IT IS CONSIDERED "BAD" BY US. That's just ridiculous.

Third, no administrators' personal fics are highlighted here as a rule instituted in this blog's creation. We do not consider ourselves better or more knowledgeful than any other reader. The purpose here is just to share what we and other authors of this fandom personally enjoy.

This type of negative response is exactly what we have been trying to counter here. I suspect this review is more of a personal attack rather than being displeased with the blog in general, but we thought it important to highlight the purpose we serve here for the followers in general.

I will not discuss my grammatical ineptitude here in depth because you are right about my mistakes there. I am human and it was my first attempt at writing. I apologize profusely for the misstep and wonder why you put yourself through 12 chapters of such offensive material.

Unfortunately, I had to highlight you, EXTREMELY DISCERNING FICSTER, here because of your misconceptions regarding this blog. If you had done a proper review or PM with your true identity, you would have gotten a proper response from me...privately. However, you did not. So I am forced to point out here that semantics are important. This blog is not about grammatical genius or assigning a "bad" label to any fic. It's about authors giving back to their readers and the people who are trying to make a name for themselves in this fandom. Grammatical error has little to do with this concept. If there is further confusion in this matter, I suggest revisiting the first post (mission statement) of this blog for clarification or cease reading TLYDF altogether if the purpose is still unclear to you. Thank You.

Regards,
Smellyia

10 comments:

  1. so rude.

    rude reviewers chafe my ass cheeks, man.

    i feel like someone should like, write something about how to review.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Grrrr. People like this annoy me. But you cleared it up perfectly.

    Right on.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dude, fuck this person. I enjoyed Congratulations so much, and like you pointed out, why the fuck would you read through TWELVE chapters and then decide to flame? Umm...

    Thankfully, I've only ever received one anonymous flame, and it was so off base that I probably shouldn't have glorified it with a response (but did anyway, lol, and posted it as another review, hah!). Good on you for calling them out!

    Unlike Jesus of You're/Your there, I'm enjoying this blog immensely and am constantly looking forward to new updates, especially of COMPLETED fics (because you guys have me addicted to like, 3 incompletes right now and it KILLS ME to not know how it ends...coughWideAwakecough ;)

    Found this from a post from AG003 over on MyGirlsUnicorn...please post a new rec soon!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Smellyia puts down the smack!

    Is it so very wrong that I enjoyed reading that?

    Seriously, though, I loved this blog - in fact most of the stories have gone onto my favorites. So you guys rule and all of that...

    Don't let 'em bring you down.

    ReplyDelete
  5. wtvoc-is brilliant idea, we should explore this.

    AG-Lurves and I know you get it soooo much worse than I ever have.

    Fame-I KNOW...I will endeavor to find some completeds with you in mind ;). If you know of any, please feel free to pass them on and we'd cite our source of course ;)
    Cngratulations was my first fic and it was a rookie hot mess. I never had a beta until the middle of Disaffected and bc I am naturally shite at editing, I would never suffer my own beta'ing on someone else. Ask siDEADde...she puts up with a lot of shit to do Disaffected ;).

    Pastiche-besides your awesome name, I thank you profusely for the support. We are all here for good reads and you guys who have embraced this tiny venture makes all the hard work worthwhile.

    ReplyDelete
  6. In my profession I find myself constantly making mistakes. *gasp*

    What I hate more than anything is grammar police. People who feel the need to point out every little mistake instead of commenting on content.

    A constructive criticism is one thing, but berating on a specific error is uncalled for. I had a woman read my fic (all 17 chapters, mind you) and submit a review that there was a typo in chapter 5 and that I should "know better".

    Furthermore, I find grammatical errors in published works all of the time. While some are subjective, others are glaring.

    It happens.

    Don't sweat it. We are human and we don't pick what we read because we ourselves think we are perfect, it's that we appreciate the best.

    As for wtvoc, I LOVE this idea. LOVE. xoxo.

    One last thing, I am not checking this comment for grammatical errors in protest of said "crazy comment"...it is my hippy sit-in.

    ReplyDelete
  7. HIPPIE SIT IN

    CAN I BE THE YOKO TO YER JOHN?

    i love being the hated interloper.

    ReplyDelete
  8. hmmmm...i am feeling this idea of an article on proper review etiquitte.

    I know poor grammar sucks. Dude I'm the worst. I'm pretty sure I almost failed english at least once. Really. But that doesn't mean i don't have solid ideas and yes, I'm lucky to have awesome betas that have the ability to fix my mistakes. But that doesn't mean we are flawless.

    AND YES! I'm all about completed fics...!!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. first and most importantly wtvoc....your interloping skills are what make me kinda adore you. Never hate on the crafty skills.

    I am all down for hippie sit-iin. Am having one right now with African Rooibos Red Tea. Does it count as a sit in if I'm solo? One voice o make a change. Ever the optimist I am.

    As for grammar, I suck. Well, wait. I'm not horrible. I've definitely seen much worse. As I'm writing and reading, sometimes I just don't catch the obvious. But, I lso believe that the beta/writer relationship should suit. I'll write more in depthly on this later.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Girl, you know you're in the public eye when the haters come out. They sure had to dig to get something to zing you on, didn't they? Kinda flattering, in a creepy need-a-restraining-order sort of way, that they would comb through an entire story to do so. I love how these types of comments are nearly always anonymous as well. Don't take it to heart. A lot of people have great grammar and never mess up a contraction. Very, very few can write like you do.

    ReplyDelete

Spread The Word