public space is not an excuse to lose self-consorship
I've been back for less than a day, and I already have a rant.
I do not understand people who throw up all over other people's creative efforts and then claim that if it's in a public space, it's a free target. That people shouldn't take it personally, that they aren't their fics, and so on. (And no, this rant isn't due to anyone saying that to me. It's been years since anyone but flamers threw up over my creative efforts, and no one cares what a flamer thinks.)
Let's look at it this way: Say that you're in the mall, and a woman is walking by wearing a really ass-ugly dress. Do you walk up to her and say, "That dress is ass-ugly, what the hell were you thinking when you bought it?"
You don't? Why not? It's in a public space - the woman is effectively forcing you to look at her ugly dress. And she shouldn't take it personally; it's not like you called her ass-ugly. She isn't her dress.
Still, nobody says that. Not out loud. Possibly to a friend, where the woman actually wearing the dress wouldn't hear.
Why is fanfic any different? Because ways of sending feedback are attached to the stories? Okay, say that the woman was trying on the dress, and asked the opinion of people standing around her. Would you then say that the dress was ass-ugly? Or would you wrinkle your nose and say, "Yeah... uhm... I don't think it's really your colour. Why don't you try this one?"
Constructive criticism is vital to making a good story. But there's nothing constructive about insults, or public humiliation.
Just so I won't sound like I'm on a high horse (which I probably will anyway): I'm as guily as the next guy of ridiculing stories. I should stop doing that. Or, more realistically, I should at the very least keep my ridicule where the author can't hear it.
I do not understand people who throw up all over other people's creative efforts and then claim that if it's in a public space, it's a free target. That people shouldn't take it personally, that they aren't their fics, and so on. (And no, this rant isn't due to anyone saying that to me. It's been years since anyone but flamers threw up over my creative efforts, and no one cares what a flamer thinks.)
Let's look at it this way: Say that you're in the mall, and a woman is walking by wearing a really ass-ugly dress. Do you walk up to her and say, "That dress is ass-ugly, what the hell were you thinking when you bought it?"
You don't? Why not? It's in a public space - the woman is effectively forcing you to look at her ugly dress. And she shouldn't take it personally; it's not like you called her ass-ugly. She isn't her dress.
Still, nobody says that. Not out loud. Possibly to a friend, where the woman actually wearing the dress wouldn't hear.
Why is fanfic any different? Because ways of sending feedback are attached to the stories? Okay, say that the woman was trying on the dress, and asked the opinion of people standing around her. Would you then say that the dress was ass-ugly? Or would you wrinkle your nose and say, "Yeah... uhm... I don't think it's really your colour. Why don't you try this one?"
Constructive criticism is vital to making a good story. But there's nothing constructive about insults, or public humiliation.
Just so I won't sound like I'm on a high horse (which I probably will anyway): I'm as guily as the next guy of ridiculing stories. I should stop doing that. Or, more realistically, I should at the very least keep my ridicule where the author can't hear it.