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<  The Ministry of Magic  ~  Strange question

bookworm51485
Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 7:58 am Reply with quote
Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Posts: 5 Location: Florida
Hi

I was wondering if I could post 4 chapters of a story on here to get Completely Honest constructive criticism. The reason I ask, is because I read a story by an author and tried to leave criticism and because I was the only one she refuses to believe that there is anything about her story that needs improving. Someone recommended this site to me as one that gives good and Honest (the most important part) criticism and the author basically told me she won't even attempt to fix any "mistakes" (because she doesn't believe there are any) unless there are other people who will point out those same mistakes. And so that leads to my question. The reason I ask is because it's not my story and I wanted to make that that would not be a problem before I did anything.

PJ
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celisnebula
Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 11:46 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Dec 2004 Posts: 312 Location: USA
Hey Bookworm,

The easiest thing to do is go down the the seeking a beta forum and ask a couple of people down there if they would be willing to look it over. Livejournal is also a great place to get beginner feedback. If you'd like, I'd be more than happy to take a look at what you have and give you my thoughts on your piece. I don't know how constructive I'd be, but I can tell you if I liked it or not, and what I thought worked well.

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bookworm51485
Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 11:53 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Posts: 5 Location: Florida
celisnebula wrote:
Hey Bookworm,

The easiest thing to do is go down the the seeking a beta forum and ask a couple of people down there if they would be willing to look it over. Livejournal is also a great place to get beginner feedback. If you'd like, I'd be more than happy to take a look at what you have and give you my thoughts on your piece. I don't know how constructive I'd be, but I can tell you if I liked it or not, and what I thought worked well.


Hey

It's not actually my story. It belongs to another person. I gave them constructive criticism and because they'd never gotten any before they refused to believe that there was anything wrong with their story. They basically ended up by calling me stupid and saying that she refused to believe there was anything wrong unless she heard it from someone else. And so that leads to my question. I asked before posting it because I was not sure if there were any rules about posting a story that's not your own.

PJ
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celisnebula
Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 11:56 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Dec 2004 Posts: 312 Location: USA
Ah...

Yes, you can't post anything that belongs to someone else without their explicit permission. You can, however, post a link to the story if it is online, and then people can read it if they chose to... but most of the time, if it is badly written, a reader will hit the back button rather than leave critism with someone they do not know.

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bookworm51485
Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 12:13 am Reply with quote
Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Posts: 5 Location: Florida
Ok well I can post a link to the story:D

I think she needs to hear honest criticism because most of it consists of reviews along the lines of "I love it" or "You're so great, please continue" and so on and so forth. I didn't see one person who tried to give honest criticism of the story. I guess that can be attributed to people taking one look at a bad story and turning back, not bothering to give any criticism. But I figure those are the people who need it the most. If people only give criticism to the better stories then the ones that aren't so good will never improve. So that's what I try to do though it's not always well received. But enough of that. Here's the link to the story and I hope that you will leave criticism for the author because she needs to hear it from someone else.

[link removed]

Now that I think about it, there might be a problem. You have to have an account now to view the stories on Forever Fandom. Oh well, if your willing to go through that then I think any criticism you can give is much needed.
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mouseII
Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 3:01 am Reply with quote
Joined: 05 May 2005 Posts: 76
Hi bookworm,

I recognise that it can be very frustrating when a writer refuses, on the basis of their ego, to accept constructive criticism, but it's not your responsibility to lance that ego, even if the author made you angry. Going to a completely separate website to try to drum up some negative reviews for another person's story seems like marginally trollish behaviour to me. Perhaps the author is a conceited nitwit, but please don't let your irritation over that fact cause you to act just as badly as she did.

If she can't take constructive criticism, it means she'll never grow as a writer, and that means she'll never go any further with her writing than what she's doing right now. A lacklustre future is its own punishment. You don't need to try to punish her any further.

The healthiest thing for you is to let go of your irritation with her, and walk away from the whole thing. There are other fics to read, and other writers who will behave as they should - by thanking you for your constructive criticisms. Don't get hung up on this nitwit; she isn't worth your time.

And if you can't let the matter go, may I suggest sporking as an excellent way to let off steam? Laughing

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bookworm51485
Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 4:18 am Reply with quote
Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Posts: 5 Location: Florida
First of all, what is sporking? Is that like stabbing somebody with a spork? I've never heard that term before.

And in response to your comment, I do find it annoying when people respond nastily to constructive criticism. My upset comes for two main reasons, 1) the author outright called me stupid and that is THE biggest thing you can do to upset me, and 2) she is threatening to report me because I left criticism for her. That's another thing that upsets me due to a problem I had with another author. They got offended because I corrected a fact in their story, started a huge argument, then reported me to the moderator of the site. In the end I talked to the moderator and got unbanned, but it was a huge problem just because someone couldn't take being corrected. But in the end, I reported her to the moderator of the site for unneccessarily rude responses to my reviews and I think I'm going to leave it at that. If anyone does want to go and review the story you can. If you genuinely love the story and want to let the author know so, feel free. If you find problems and want to review, I'd say definitely go ahead because she needs it. But if you want to just completely diseregard this, go ahead and do that also. I was on a bit of a rampage before, but I've decided I have more important things to worry about at the moment.

But back to my original question, what is sporking? That actually sounds kind of interesting.

PJ
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mouseII
Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 3:44 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 05 May 2005 Posts: 76
Hi PJ,

Glad to hear you've calmed down, and yeah - it sure sounds like that author is a complete cow. If she posts something in a public forum, she's got to accept that other people can post their opinions of it publicly also. Reporting her and leaving it at that is probably the wisest thing to do.

Sporking! Very Happy Yes, it is a little like stabbing someone with a spork.

Sporking is when you take a few excerpts of someone's (bad) story, and then mock it by adding sarcastic comments to it. There are various sites where you can then post your sporked version of the story, for the amusement of others. Generally, the sporked version of the story should be funny. It's also considered very bad form for anyone to let an author know that they've been sporked. Yes, we're laughing at them, but there's no need for the badfic writer to find out about it.

Here's a LiveJournal community that does sporkings of "Mary Sue" characters (overly perfect/powerful characters) for various fandoms.
[link removed]

Here's one that does the same thing, but which is only for the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings fandoms.
[link removed]

There has to be a lot more, but I don't personally know of any. Perhaps someone else on Sycophant Hex could suggest some other sporking sites to you.

In either case for the two I've listed, if you want to post a story to the community, you would first need to get a LiveJournal account, and then you would need to join the community. Anyone can read, however.

Smile,
mouse

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bookworm51485
Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 2:29 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Posts: 5 Location: Florida
You know I don't even think the sporking would be necessary. Just reading the story as is is enough to make a person want to cringe. I have one question though, do you spork all bad writers or just the bad writers who are jerks?

PJ
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liquidscissors
Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:18 am Reply with quote
Moderator Joined: 27 Dec 2004 Posts: 164
Just a gentle reminder that Sycophant Hex does not officially endorse or condone sporking, nor does SH encourage antagonistic behaviour towards authors and artists.
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Diana
Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:24 am Reply with quote
Head Moderator Joined: 04 Jan 2005 Posts: 116
Hi!

The short answer to your question, bookworm51485, is yes. If the story belongs to you. In this circumstance -- as the story does not belong to you -- absolutely not. These boards are not here for you to vent your frustrations over whatever little tifts you may find yourself involved in while online. I'm sorry if I sound harsh, but this is a pretty offensive subject for a lot of people.

For future reference, if you offer an author con crit (and, by the by, I've read your reviews of the story in question -- they were borderline wank/flame, borderline con crit) and they tell you that they refuse to believe you without another review in the same vein as yours, and if you choose to not let the matter drop, then email someone privately. Actually, I don't really care if you do take it public, post it all over the internet as far as I'm concerned, but this little corner of the internet (these boards and all sites housed under the name Sycophant Hex) will not be one of those places.

As for all the other issues addressed here within this topic, I'm not going to respond except on the sporking issue. Do not spork another persons fiction on this site. There are plenty of other websites for you to visit that allow you to do so. These forums are set up for both our authors and readers to come and have a nice place to ask questions, chat and not have to worry about dodging attacks or having their work criticised when they haven't asked for it. Now, if you ask for criticism of you own work, that is different, and you get what you ask for. If you simply cannot contain yourself and wish to leave a review for a certain fic, do so on the review board within the archives. If the story is not housed here...then take the matter up with the site it is housed on. We are not getting in the middle of disputes involving either authors, readers or any other users of another site that is not Sycophant Hex. No exceptions.

With all of this said, I'm removing the link to the site that the fic in question is posted on and I'm locking this thread. If anymore topics are started in this vein, there will be no warnings -- they will simply be deleted. If you have any questions, you are free to send me (or any forum mod) a personal message; however, as of now, this thread is closed.

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