This is why even if I find things painfully bad or whatever the fuck I just stfu. It's a kid probably or someone just new at writing. I was there once myself. I look at my oldest poetry with shame and when I think about my earliest prose I am damn happy that no one knows my old usernames. But had someone been around making fun of my shit and I knew that I think I'd've been crushed and stop writing. Which...sucks. It sucks that that happens to kids. Young folks get report cards. Young folks also often have great anxiety about these things and some even suffer from like suicidal ideation in relation to the report cards. This is the most hilarious fucking thing coming from you, Mrs. I cry when people tell me I'm racist and happen to get bitchy after I show I'm incapable of literally not. Trolls definitely aren't extinct. They're just trash human beings as they've always been. And people are finally building communities that are less fucking open to their bullshit. We're actually developing things like, I dunno, basic human fucking decency online being a standard. And if you're wondering why I'm mean to you despite my harping on about that it's because you're a fuck and I'm sick of your bullshit. The fact that you have the motherfucking gall to go 'oh no why are kids so fragile' these days after your fucking screaming fit about people calling you racist is adding more to my perception of you as a fuck.
greallan, though i have a more favourable opinion of sporking than most of the people here do, you really aren't one to talk about anyone being too fragile to get criticized, after your reaction to people explaining how blatantly and obviously racist and anti-semitic you were being. and honestly, i don't think you're good at sporking and i don't think you have what it takes to mod a community, based on what i've seen of your writing and what you've said and your behaviour here and on the ppc.
this is prolly way outta line but I'm being good and sitting on my hands to avoid saying anything too extreme because I really don't want to waste the time and energy explaining things that I already have a very distinct feeling will go completely ignored or twisted around judging from how you operate and I just ain't that invested in this. Greallan, for that reply, you are cordially invited to bite the choicest part of my ass. Please feel free to print that out and keep it as an I.O.U to use at your convenience in the future.
Kids today are so emotionally fragile that they create several threads about being blocked off of a Internet forum a few odd years ago and then proceed to start a shitfest when asked to tone down on The Racisms
also, greallan, your sporking fic is basically Greallan's OC's Thoughts On Yaoi (Literally). and as a reader of that fic, who isn't in the legend of kain fandom, the impression i mostly get from that fic is "why should i care about their thoughts on yaoi?" like, you failed to convey anything compelling about your ocs and anything compelling about the legend of kain. i bet the legend of kain is a super fun fandom and a super fun canon, at least for the people interested in it, but your fic doesn't show any of it to me, as a reader of it. and like, your ocs - i bet you think they're super awesome characters and you love them but you haven't sold me on that, you haven't made me agree with you yet. (and this, unlike many of the other things you think, is something you have a chance of convincing me of.) and it's entirely possible that, one day, you'll be able to. but this fic just isn't capable of it. and greallan, i'll make you a deal, okay? here's my ao3 account. i can handle a sporking so if you want to see if i can walk the talk, you're free to tell me what i think of my fics. i might think what you're saying makes sense to me, i might not, but if i disagree, i'll just - provided that your opinion is not a blatantly bigoted one like a lot of your opinions are - be chill about it and just continue on with whatever i was doing there.
A diary is not the same as someone's story. Online journals are a thing too, and the issue of how hidden/open those are and what the polite way is to interact with them is a very separate issue from fanfic. Writing fiction is a creative pursuit. It's a work of craftsmanship, where everyone has to start somewhere, skill-wise, and where even little nothing stories that are dashed off super quick still take a significant amount of time and effort. Some writing of stories can be done for yourself, but the people who are posting stories online? Odds are that they find writing without sharing to be a high-effort hobby for almost no reward. Fiction is typically written to be shared. If someone's writing in a locked diary, and USING the lock, odds are that they're not really planning on other folks reading it. If someone's posting a story on a fic site, the GOAL is to share it. The goal is to reach an audience. And as an author, tapping into emotions is far and away the most rewarding part for me. I've written lots of Weird Porn, but I've put plenty of very sincere emotions into the Weird Porn and into more standard stories. The goal isn't to write the story as a diary, the goal is to articulate my emotions in some way that connects with other people's emotions, hopefully in a very sensitive spot, or one that they weren't expecting to be touched. Writing my feelings out for just myself feels more lonely and more isolated than I already am. Reaching out to try to make that kind of connection feels much better, but if someone responded to that by pointing and laughing? Feels bad, man. I'm resilient enough to write past a significant amount of that kind of slap in the face, but just because I can ignore it doesn't mean that I should still support folks who want to slap people in the face for fun. And I'm saying this as someone who did some serious sporking and even some fic rewriting on this site. Not for ages, and I've got some mixed feelings about having done it in the first place. But I stopped when I realized that I was taking potshots at people who were trying to find a comfortable place as writers, and I was... driving them away from a hobby I claim to love. I like writing, I encourage people to write, I..... shit on people for trying to write? I didn't like where that was taking me. I still love nitpicking stories and whining about how people write, but I don't like who I am when I make a hobby of the nitpicking specifically. There's no rule against complaining or against sporking, but like other people have already said, this site isn't very into cringe culture, and I don't think trying to collect a group from here to spork is going to get much traction. Also This is super dismissive. How about, you try to skateboard and a neighborhood kid pushes you off and you eat pavement. That kid is still lurking around every time you think of taking out the skateboard. But if you don't try skateboarding again, I guess you just don't love skateboarding enough. Nothing about the other human participating in the scenario who actually has free will and chose to be mean once and may choose to be mean again. The force that caused pain the first time is a human with agency who made the decision to get involved, and in this scenario, you're that person.
'It's not really a passion if you give up right away at criticism'. you know what we've been finding via studies on like people sticking with exercise programs making fun of people and not enough positive reinforcement kills people's likelihood to stay with a thing it kills the chance for something to become a passion
please spork my fic as well - i can stand up to the criticism. my AO3 is https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReLessThan1/works enjoy :3
Real talk. I've gotten my art posted on like bad art blogs, and then told I should be happy for the mocking "constructive criticism" from an internet stranger. Sporking can go fuck itself as like, a concept.
yeah like i don't agree with the concept at all, but my fics all go thru extensive beta reading and i'm a much better writer now. i wouldn't post something here if i didn't feel like i could deal with the fallout
This reminds me of that shit where people intentionally try and trigger with phobias because "exposure therapy is the best way to deal with a phobia!" and it's like motherfucker did I ask for you to be my therapist? Same shit here. You ain't getting paid to be their editor, so keep it to yourself.
(I lied, I'm getting off my hands for one more thing because I'm a dumbass and the world is a sunshiny place after that nice bath I took) I already put my work out, written quick or slow and very rarely beta'd, and edited As I Go because it's a fun hobby I'm improving at in my own pace and my own way for fun. Is it perfect? Fuck no lmfao, I already know it ain't gonna be and I already have ideas on what's wrong with it to keep in mind. Do I want it to be perfect? No, actually. There'd be no satisfaction in seeing or feeling growth between projects. Would I stop if I get sporked? Nah. Not really. I've been going long enough there's no doubt been sporking already somewhere and the fun part is I never have to read it bc blocking/ignoring and the back button exists lmfao. I write for the people who love the stories I tell and want to see more of it and are excited and invested when things I put out appear in their tags. I could care less about people who spend all their time sporking people in a salt circle bc that sounds like a pretty circle jerky opinion I'd be getting even if I listened tbh. Much better results in my experience from people who are invested and interested in what I personally do who know what feels Not Quite There or otherwise off so I can fine tune easier.
yo your characters have no actual, you know, character neither of them have any sort of distinctive voice, they both sound exactly the same both of them are doing the exact same thing and so i have no way to determine their characters from their actions either the clever banter is not actually terribly clever and conveys nothing to the reader i tried to consider more points but my eyes kind of glazed over reading it and i absorbed nothing because it just wasn't engaging at all and all this is terribly mean, ain't it. almost like... criticism is not always good....... see the thing about complaining about bad fic is it doesn't actually do much to improve your style, and in fact dwelling on inexperienced fic is a great way to trap yourself in your own fiction foibles Actual Serious Writers don't actually spend that much time on a 15 year old's slashfic, they do things like 'studying people who are good writers, and deconstructing the methods those good writers use' and - here's the kicker - they write their own stories so that they gain experience with those methods and develop ones of their own if you're not feeling inspired by your original fiction that's what fanfic of your own is for my dude. why do you feel compelled to write fanfiction of fanfiction designed entirely to make people feel bad. like i mean it's a free country, whatever, but it's a lot more juvenile than inexperienced enthusiastic fanfiction is
It was an oblique way. I had tried to get my writing improved when I was just writing fanfiction, but no one commented because they didn't care. The PPC were saying things about caring about good writing, so that's why I got into what they were doing. The problem was when they had me work with a character that wasn't coming together and never would, having to write the characters interacting in a scenario that one of them wouldn't be willing to get into, and just not letting me switch when I told them what the problem was. A few nights ago, I was actually going to post in the writing thread about whether I should ask for the help I need on rewriting an old fanfiction, or jump directly into trying completely original fiction. I just got distracted because I was too tired to do it right the moment that I thought about doing it. Those stories might not have been the best examples, but I do need to work on better stuff. Someone recommended one of my stories as good fanfiction, though I'm wondering what they saw in it because it's not that great.
Yeah, I'm not the best at writing yet, which makes it really frustrating when I was getting either nothing or praise. Sporking might not be my thing. I'm already leaning towards only publishing it to piss off the PPC. I was just thinking about building a world and letting the back-end take care of itself. Basically anyone could write a story in that world and put it up, but it would be taken down if it didn't really meet the standards and the author refused to edit it. Alright, how do I take criticism properly, then?
Yeah, I did pick some fics at random instead of trying to find the best one. It's possible that Samantha still doesn't work as a character. Here's my other team. https://www.fanfiction.net/~newtalesfromthedespatch With Don't Pee in the Sugarbowl, someone said I was author-bashing without telling me where it was, so if you read it can you point it out? Thanks for the sporking invitation... Red vs Blue and Fairly Oddparents? I'll see what I can do without spending hours trying to learn those fandoms. It's going to take a number of months.
We do not pick on children for our own personal amusement. I am not interested in whatever justification you have for this attitude - writers get better with constructive criticism from knowledgeable people, not assholes pointing and laughing and pretending they're doing the target a favor. That is not adult behavior. It is not professional behavior. It's certainly not behavior that demonstrates any skill at writing; god knows the few self-important ninnies I've had come try to tell me my business didn't know their asses from their elbows when it came to writing. If you want to snark privately to friends that is your business, but knock it off with the arrogance of thinking you're doing anyone a favor by picking on them. If you actually want to be helpful, work on your own ability to take criticism, work on your own writing skills, and when you can participate civilly, join an online writer's workshop.
You are not anyone's teacher. If you were, you would know that report cards are not even in the same goddamn universe as sporking. I have a general policy of not engaging with trolls but honestly? As someone who wrote and drew professionally in my late teens and early twenties and that now that I've decided to change careers receive about five report cards on my writing a week - sporking doesnt help anyone improve their writing because sporking is mean spirited, unsolicited, and does not address any actual issues in the writing in an effective manner. None of my teachers were writing my report cards for their own personal amusement. My advertising clients didn't send me their revision on my text because they were entertained by it. Also, there is a world of difference between writing done for grades or for a job and writing fan iction for fun and you might not be understanding that. I would never write an ad using fanfic tropes, and I would never use the same standards I used for my ads to write fanfic. When my clients criticized my writing or my art, they were criticizing my ability to materialize their vision and their intentions. When I'm writing an ad for a client, I'm trying to be as general as possible to appeal to as many variations of their target demographic as possible. When I'm writing fanfic -even if it's bad fanfic - I'm writing for fun. I'm writing things that interest me and that I find entertaining, and the only standards I have to meet are my own. The issue with sporking is that you're holding someone else's fun writing to your standards without giving them any particular reason to bother caring about your standards. You are not giving them any actionable advice that isn' wrapped on layers and layers of your own bullshit. You'e putting yourself above them with your writing without, you know, necessarily being justified.
