also this might be an unpopular opinion, but i think MOST people are actually completely able to “consume” a piece of a media without anaylzing it through a shipping lense, but i just think they than aren’t likely to be posting that analysis on archiveofourown. i think for the most people what’s happening is that people are like. going on fandom websites and communities and getting really annoyed they’re seeing too much yaoi or whatever, and it’s like there’s alot of fast food at mcdonalds too, i’m sure the people eating there don’t have anything else going on in there lives either
Update: laptop is done having its update tantrum and seems to be normal thank gods, I really didn’t want to go all the way to the village to find the computer shop again. What’s more my speakers are actually working now!?!
No word on the ducks but I have a hope that they’ll come back at some point. Just, augh
My personal opinion is that you should never offer unsolicited critical feedback to people, and you should only offer it publicly at all under specific circumstances. Why?
- Very few people actually know how to give ‘concrit’. They think it just means saying there were surface errors, or they didn’t like how someone was characterized. That’s not concrit. That’s not useful, at all. That’s an amateur review from someone with little to no relevant expertise.
- Especially where it regards fanfiction, you can’t know who you’re speaking to. You can’t moderate tone or intensity of criticism based on their experience and relative skill level. It’s possible that harsh or even moderate critique could make them stop writing forever. Why? What is the point of taking away someone’s joy in that manner? So that the commenter can feel satisfied that they corrected them? That’s cruel and childish.
- Usually fanfiction is published in only one place— maybe three or four, at most. Why should authors be expected to put up with negative criticism in the ONLY place their work is available? Are published authors expected to attach one star Goodreads reviews to their bookjackets?
- If you genuinely wish to help someone improve their writing, you can do so by speaking personally with them and offering your help. The assertion that criticism from a stranger whose opinion they don’t value and whose qualifications are unknown is going to make them better is disingenuous. If someone is sincere in their desire to assist an author in progressing on their writing journey, they should demonstrate that through investing appropriate time and effort. Otherwise, there are many places to complain away from the author’s sight. The only thing accomplished by doing so in front of them is making them feel bad— and if that is someone’s intent, that’s reprehensible.
Anyway. I’ve never gotten useful concrit in my comments or my bookmarks, and I expect I never will.
For something to truly be constructive criticism, you have to know what the creator’s intentions were with the piece (were they trying to have it be romantic? comedic? angsty in-depth character exploration?) and you have to know what their writing goals are (to eventually publish professionally? to get into a zine for the character they love? to just have fun and enjoy themselves?) and you have to know something about their background/experience with writing, as well as having a relationship where the person trusts you to give feedback to them that might be difficult for them to hear. Reading a stranger’s fanfic on the internet, you aren’t likely to know what their goals/background are, and you certainly don’t have a relationship of trust with them where they’re likely to listen to your feedback and internalize it and not find it rude or demoralizing.
I feel like we keep going round on this topic, and we never get anywhere, because the pro-leaving-concrit camp ultimately boils down to one argument that you can’t really fix with logic: “I believe I should be able to punish people who write in ways I don’t like.”
Exactly that. I’ve gotten stalkers, impersonators, hate-blogs, bash-fics, and literal threats against my physical health for refusing to write specifically for the tastes and wants of the “critiquer”. In a lot of ways, it boils down to “But I want you to write it for meeeeeee!”
There was a cockup with my laptop updating itself- namely, it didn’t restart when it usually does, I assumed it turned off so tried to turn it on, tried desperately to turn it on, switched the plug off and on… only got a screen saying ‘please don’t turn off the computer’ and then it went back to its black screen, doing nothing… and doing nothing… nothing….
What’s worse is my brother’s hand-reared ducks have gotten spooked and escaped from their coop, officially now missing. They could have gone anywhere. They’re just… gone
I haven’t been on tumblr for quite as long as a lot of people but over several years I’ve noticed this interesting gradual sorta,, shift in the general culture? that it went from this mostly depressed, nihilistic outlook where people would regularly joke about hating themselves and being hopeless and depressed, to a wave of vehemence of “STOP hating everything actually the world is Good and you deserve love!!!” type posts, to now, where those aggressive ‘PSAs’ have faded away and instead I regularly see people romanticizing simple things like stars and hot tea and rainy mornings, and waxing poetic about their friends, and just trying to put love out there. and I don’t know exactly what that means (someone who knows more than me could probably say something smart about generational expression and trauma or popular perception of mental health and whatnot), but I do know that it makes my heart very full to see people learn to love the world and themselves by extension, and a whole userbase adopting healthier coping mechanisms, and therefore teaching the younger users to do so as well. I might just be following different people, but I really do think we’ve grown. everyone has grown. five years ago it wasn’t unusual for the next post on my dash to be a scathing commentary on why nothing matters or an anon ripping into someone they barely knew or someone complaining about how pathetic their interests are. now I have mutuals who get excited and spam reblog art of cows and friends I see tagging each other in pictures of frogs and strangers writing paragraphs about how much I matter. it makes me happy. idk. just an observation I wanted to make. I think people are good and everyone’s just trying their best at the end of the day
not to sound like a christian facebook mom but some of yall need to have grace in your hearts for the people in your lives or the people you pass once on the road and never see again like you literally need to stop assuming the worst of everyone and their intentions it is poisoning your brain. you can be careful and responsible without being a miserable person. it is possible i promise
turning off reblogs on this post if one more person takes it to mean that marginalized people should not point out bigotry when they encounter it. if someone tells you that youve said or done something offensive they are not assuming anything about you or your intentions, they are doing you a favor by pointing it out so that IF it was an accident you can avoid doing it in the future. if you have to deflect and argue with them about it you are no longer acting out of ignorance you are being that way on purpose.
