Color me curious

[gabrielleabelle]

I've been having an interesting time going through fail_fandomanon. I don't usually look at anon memes, but there's some thought-provoking discussion on that one. Also, some cringe-inducing and icky discussion. However, I'm largely intrigued by it in that nerdy, sociological way of mine.

I came across one thread recently about reviewing fanfic in one's own

Comments

[eowyn_315]

But I've never actually reviewed a fic. I've thought about it, but I decided against it in case somebody took issue with it.

Though the poll shows a pretty clear majority so far...

I find that interesting, because despite a clear majority in your poll who are theoretically in favor of reviews, in practice I very rarely see reviews on my flist. I see plenty of recs, some discussion (in which the question posed is neutral, even if there are positive and negative responses), and the occasional positive review, but I've never seen a critical review of a fic in BtVS fandom. I have seen criticism of fic in other fandoms (via metafandom), but that's less a review and more part of a broader *ism-fail discussion.

Which makes me wonder - if everyone's so supportive of reviews, how come hardly anyone seems to write them? I suspect it may be about the politeness issue, and people following the "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything" rule. I'd guess most people probably don't want to offend authors by panning their fic, or to be seen as someone who slags off authors in their own LJ.

It would have been interesting, though, to see a poll of how many people have actually written reviews or prompted discussions, and whether they were positive or negative.

[gabrielleabelle]

Which makes me wonder - if everyone's so supportive of reviews, how come hardly anyone seems to write them?

I imagine it's the same reason everyone's supportive of concrit yet most people don't write it. They're afraid of the author's reaction. That's enough of an obstacle for them to just not bother.

It would have been interesting, though, to see a poll of how many people have actually written reviews or prompted discussions, and whether they were positive or negative.

Well...I suppose some poll-type person could do such a poll... ;)