Conflict of Interest: bad fanfiction

[lovelyladylooks]

So here's the thing: I love fandom and I am not talkig about a apecific one in particular BUT: if you read bad fanfiction, do you comment or not? Is it better to let that person live in denial about his/her so-called writing skills? Because when you are really really bad and ppl tell you your fic is awesome? That's not doing him/her any good.
And

Comments

[nightporters]

In my last fandom (Torchwood) it was so small when I joined we all knew everybody. It was easier to offer help and give concrit. That changed as it got larger and the volume of fic quadrupled. Of course then the quality was variable.

In SPN I just avoid making any comments where it is bad. It is cowardly but I just don't want to get involved in wank. If the author is on my flist I will make the occasional offer to beta if I have time.

How do you tell someone their fic needs (a lot of) work? I don't know that you can. I write; critical comments still hurt me. I have to suck it up to get better at my craft but it still damages my ego.

So, to answer your question, I just don't comment.

[lovelyladylooks]

Thanks for offering your point of view! I have been thinking about this for a while now but things sort of came to a head when I started to get into Grey's Anatomy yesterday (better late than never and it has mostly to do with Justin Chambers lol) and the fanfic I found on ff.net just left me... speechless and not in a good way

[nightporters]

Thank you, love. However both of those have come in for some serious criticism from friends recently.

I have readstarted some truly awful SPN fics, I think from non-native English speaking authors. They all needed a tough beta before they were posted.

At least SPN doesn't seem to attract the teeny girls that TW did.

[lovelyladylooks]

How come? I actually didn't read through the comments so I don't know anything specific. I just knoe that I particularly liked NEH because there wasn't some weird miracle solution in the end and no sugary fairy tale happy ending. I liked the way wou concluded the story! :)

Oh yes, the non-native speakers... I mean I have no right to point fingers because I'm not a native speaker either but I have native english speakers in my circle of friends and I am majoring in English so yeah...

Haha, you are so right there :) I think it's beause SPN is quite dark compared to other shows and therefore the audience is not as young. Cheesy fanfic when the manly male protagonists act like 14-year-old girls is the worst! ;)

[yellowvalley]

I hit the back button unless they specifically ask for constructive concrit in the header.

[lovelyladylooks]

sounds like a good idea... so far I refrained from commenting but I am so tempted to go 'All the people telling you you're a good writer? Are not your friends.' but well... I don't wanna get swamped by hate-mail, hate comments, etc... :)

[lillybette]

When I dont like a fic I just stop reading it
Im not gonna leave a "nasty" comment, because when you leave a "nasty" comment even if it wasnt meant to be rude or something EVERYBODY will jump at you and call you names, send you nasty pms etc.
there was one "artist" who still post her "arts" (drawings) and they are sooooooooooooooo ugly and bad...but i just try to avoid her art (and every comment is like "u r sooo talented" ...ugh!!!)

[lovelyladylooks]

I know exctly what you mean. I know that everybody has the right to express themselves artistically but I think there even is a beta community where you can find english speakers to correct your work if it's a foreign language for you... why does no one ever do that? Are people so full of themselves?

Yeah, ususally I can tell after the first line if it's sth I like or not... and so far I refrained from commenting but I am so tempted to go 'All the people telling you you're a good writer? Are not your friends.' but well... I don't really care for recieving hate-pms or hater-comments so I suppose I'll just keep doing what I always did :)