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romaine2424 · 2 years

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HP and That Neg Comment...Why?

First of all, let me say that this is going to be a bit long.

All authors, artists, podcasters get the random negative comment. And the question of why someone would do this arises. I have some ideas and how to respond to them. And feel free to Neg Comment me on this post. I'll state up front, I'm a fan of engagement and passive-aggression.

1. The troll. The one who just comments on every fic that is slash or bdsm or whatever because they want to make you feel icky about yourself. These are kind of funny because it means the person read or looked at the medium with the tags in place to comment. Options are Ignore, Delete, or "Thank you for your comment."

2. The Why did you?: This comes in many flavors but the commenter usually disagrees with your ship, your treatment of a character, a situation they find not in line with their thinking or headcannon. I find these commenters interesting. Many have never read canon and are going by the movies or just having read HP fanfiction. I'll usually engage and mention what my thinking was and why. And mention that it looks like they have a different interpretation so they might want to move on. Disagreements on canon, fanon, whatever are okay. But, yes, it many times comes across as mean and vindictive.

But why are they so mean? Well.... have you looked at Twitter, Reddit, Comments on new articles, even FB? People are used used to arguing and being forthright about their opinions. And suddenly they come to AO3 or Tumblr or wherever and they're supposed to be kind on a subject matter that they are passionate about? They haven't learned the etiquette of interacting with fanfiction writers or artists. I engage.

3. Helpful but not helpful: This is when the commenter points out you might need a beta or that you've diverged from canon. And you roll your eyes because, yes, there are some grammar errors but couldn't they have just sent a message. Fix the errors! and then thank them but also mention that from now on they should message the author so as not to embarrass them publicly. Seriously- thank them. They read your story and obviously liked it enough to point errors out to you to improve your story... My first story back in the day....say 2006, I spelled Ginny's name as Ginerva instead of Ginevra in the first 2 chapters. A commenter mentioned it to me. I thanked them profusely because it saved me some major embarrassment. They replied back that they were shocked I was so kind to them for telling me. Ah, I made a fandom friend.

Now for canon divergence...Sigh... Some of these can be funny. I got a comment on why I had Albus Severus in Gryffindor in one of my stories. Um... well I wrote it before we knew what house he was sorted in... Also, many of us have our own idea of what is canon or not. Is it just the 7 books? Can the movies be canon, too? Cursed Child? JKR interviews? Pottermore? I see Hermione with Mudblood engraved on her arm from Bellatrix in so many stories. That is from the movies. In canon, she just has the scar on her neck. I engage and explain how I came to the decision to write what I wrote. And sometimes that can be saying I tossed canon out the window but tried to keep with core of the character. And that this may not be the story for you.

4. Interaction: I'm a big reader of fanfic and also write. Sometimes, many times, readers just want to engage. They want to participate. Many readers don't have anyone to discuss what they're thinking about when they read your story. They aren't on Discord or Tumblr. So they say something to the effect of Why did you do this? Oh no! I can't believe you had Charlie do that.... I can't see Lucius every behaving that way. I had a comment recently saying that they thought Harry was being a total jerk to Lucius in a scene. I replied that given the story I wrote that Harry was being a bit of a jerk but with cause. However, I also said I didn't agree with their statement that he was a total jerk. It was true. Harry was being a bit of jerk and we know that is something that Harry can be.

5. OMG you have Harry as a bottom! This discussion/argument about top/bottom has been around forever. I was hoping after taking a 10 year hiatus from fandom that it would have been settled that it doesn't matter. However, apparently it does to some folks. One of my best fandom friends from long ago, loved Top Draco. She read all kinds of H/D stories but I knew she had her preference. And when I had to write a story for her in a fest, you bet I wrote Top Draco. It used to be common to put in your tags, which way you were writing the story. Most of mine were switch and I tried to stay away from putting it in the tags. And we can say people that have a preference are misogynistic and some probably are. However, we have no problems saying that your kink may not be my kink but that's okay, however, if you like Top Draco only stories you have psychological problems. I usually respond to these comments with that in my thinking it doesn't matter who tops or not but if it matters to them for whatever reason to please move on from this story. Sometimes they'll try and explain why Harry should only be a top and then you get into the generalizations and crap. Cut them off and say that you won't engage further with them on the subject matter but what they are saying can be perceived as problematic to the LGBTQIA+ community.

6. I want more... or can you write my idea? These to me are not a negative comments. These are Fans!!! For the More: This is someone who loves my story and wants more. I usually don't have more and can feel like Damn I thought i wrapped up the ending pretty well. But OMG they loved my story and are fully engaged in the universe I created... I feel thrilled when I see these comments. Can you write my idea? OMG not only did they love this story, they like me as an author and trust me to write something they want to see. Sadly, I say No because my muse doesn't work that way. And I'm not really into redeeming Voldemort. However, thank you for asking. I'm honored you would do so.

7. The stalker: They comment on all of your stories, sometimes every chapter with neg crap. Delete (block if you can depending on the site).

In summary: Take some deep breaths. It hurts our artistic soul to get a negative comment or sometimes what we perceive as a negative comment. Unless it's a stalker or troll, I will usually engage. If they bite me back, I write them off. But, more often than not, they don't know the etiquette of interacting with an artist or author. They are new or they're used to engagement that is rewarded on other types of Social media. It is always your option to Delete, tell them to fuck off, Ignore, or engage.

My preference is not to let them know they got to me. And certainly not to let them hinder my future writings. Giving the power to one person's negative comment not only hurts you but those other dozen (or even 100s) of readers who loved your story and commented also. Their opinions should be weighed more heavily than the one negative comment.

#negative comments #long post #TLDR #responding to negative comments #social media interactions #etiquette

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wlwhoa · 3 years

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Idk if y'all care about what happened earlier with harmlessrat aka my sibling but I'll do a quick run down I guess. If I was on desktop I'd put this under a read more but I'm not so sorry about that. Just scroll if you don't care lmao.

Basically we didn't get along growing up bc they would gang up on me with my brother to isolate and belittle me growing up. It really fucked me up, still does. I thought we were cool now bc we're adults and they kinda apologized but apparently not. A month ago I asked them to hang out and maybe go to mcdonald's bc I was depressed. This was around the time my crowdfund post for rent was going around so they called me out on that. They then said I was scamming people for money, was being super manipulative, was tired of me making "horrible choices," and then told me they needed a break from me. Then a day later they sent me a friend request on fb lmao. When jojo siwa came out as gay I texted a gc that had me them and my mom in it to tell them and they said it was fucked up of me to message it bc they wanted a break from me. Even though they just sent me a friend request on facebook. Whatever. I texted them "what the fuck is your problem" (which in hindsight might've been a bit harsh) and they then said I was abusive for saying that. After that I blocked them and decided to cut them from my life. They like to guilt me over little things to make me feel like shit and I got sick of it. One time they were screaming to music in the car so I asked them to quiet down bc it was overstimulating and they said it was fucked up of me to say that bc they had to deal with me talking to them for 10 minutes??? I don't get them. Anyways here's proof of me blocking them way back then since apparently I'm lying about that too (ignore the chris spam I have no idea what's up with that).

So for the past month we haven't talked and it's been great! Then my college charged me for books I already returned and I made the post. Even though I soft blocked them a month ago they somehow found my post?? And said I was scamming people for money and me ignoring them (aka not seeing them in my notifs) was proof of me being guilty. I only know of them replying to me bc my friend messaged me on discord.

It even took me two hours to respond to them I'm just now noticing lmao guess I'm guilty of that too. And then y'all saw my response to them saying that.

Okay so to "debunk" or whatever the fuck some of their claims. In the screenshot of the bank statements they said I had $800 in my account.

While that was true at the time of the screenshot, that's not longer true. Like I said I already budgeted my tax return for the month, meaning I had bills and shit that were processing when I was charged for these books. Here's a.screenshots of those. Anything from paypal or venmo is money I owed people for like groceries and bills and shit. Plus chipotle lmao.

And this is a screenshot of my current bank balance after all that shit. $120 of this is going towards rent on the 28th.

So yes I'm a lil fucked! Esp since I'm not getting a paycheck next week! So that's why I made a crowdfunding post! Bc I'm sick of being poor and I have no where else to turn to! And I don't care if people don't donate! Bc I understand that we're all struggling rn and I don't expect everyone to dish out their pockets for me and only me! I understand there's people who have it worse than me and I'd rather people donate to them! But if people want to donate to me they can! That's literally it!

Anyways if anyone has questions I guess message me??? Or not it's just family drama at this point so I don't care lmao

#honestly wasn't gonna say anything but they're talking shit about me on their tumblr so bokay #i only know that bc my friend wanted screenshots bc they dont have a tumblr #and i had to go to their blog to do that bc their replies disappeared from my post after i blocked them #but after this im done!#bc holy shit i cant handle them anymore!!#they wanna be a therapist lmao i feel so bad for their future patients #ask to tag #long post

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