See, I'm of two minds about this. I don't usually leave concrit on anon exchanges, because I do think it's poor taste. But it also depends on what people consider concrit as opposed to opinionated criticism, and also how a commenter goes about it.
I mean, I wrote a story for a gift exchange where my recipient requested "Top!Sirius". If someone had left me a comment along the lines of saying "Sorry, but Sirius is a bottom and writing him as a top is just dumb", I wouldn't be offended at all - rather, I'd be inclined to think that that commenter was a complete idiot, because - hello! It's a gift fic and it's right there in the prompt in the header! See, that kind of crit, to me, is just moronic, because while a gift fic is absolutely out there for the public, it's for the specific recipient. That kind of crit will never make me think badly of an author. Ever. And, it's not constructive at all in the first place.
But, in reversathon, where all the participants have alias journals and reply to comments promptly under these pseudonyms, I don't look at it the same way as, say, Smutmas, where the mods post the fics. I left concrit for one author. I started off by gushing and telling them how much I enjoyed the story - and I really did. And then, I added this:
If there's one small bit of concrit I could offer, and I hope you don't mind, because it was the only thing that made me pause a few times during the story -- but I should add that I'm really anal about dialogue, so it might just be a peeve of mine. But it's to do with the dialogue, and it's having the parties speaking address each other by name frequently. Bill says "Dad" a lot to his father while they're speaking to each other. (Kingsley and Bill addressed each other by name when they spoke a couple of times where it felt a little off, (and I'm not speaking of when they first met) but not nearly as often.) Especially when there are only two people in the conversation, it's just a bit jarring to "hear". And normally I wouldn't make such a fuss, but I really adored this story, and that's the only bit that... poked at me.
To me, that was constructive. I really did like the story quite a lot, and yes, I was a bit divided as to whether I should say anything, but my comments had nothing to do with the request itself. It was because this is a point that I'd want to be told myself, that I decided to post it, so... I should say that the author seemed to be very gracious about it.
For me, when someone points something out like the above in one of my stories, I wonder several things. One, did other people read that and agree and not leave a comment because it annoyed them? Did other people want to say the same thing but were afraid to hurt my feelings? Were the other commenters just trying to be nice or make me feel better, or did they really not care/not notice?
I just think that there's a way to say things - and a lot of confusion around the definition of concrit vs. crit in the first place - and most of the time it seems that it's the delivery that causes more issues than the actual bit being singled out. There's a differece, I think, between being outright rude, being completely idiotic, and being tactful.
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I mean, I wrote a story for a gift exchange where my recipient requested "Top!Sirius". If someone had left me a comment along the lines of saying "Sorry, but Sirius is a bottom and writing him as a top is just dumb", I wouldn't be offended at all - rather, I'd be inclined to think that that commenter was a complete idiot, because - hello! It's a gift fic and it's right there in the prompt in the header! See, that kind of crit, to me, is just moronic, because while a gift fic is absolutely out there for the public, it's for the specific recipient. That kind of crit will never make me think badly of an author. Ever. And, it's not constructive at all in the first place.
But, in reversathon, where all the participants have alias journals and reply to comments promptly under these pseudonyms, I don't look at it the same way as, say, Smutmas, where the mods post the fics. I left concrit for one author. I started off by gushing and telling them how much I enjoyed the story - and I really did. And then, I added this:
If there's one small bit of concrit I could offer, and I hope you don't mind, because it was the only thing that made me pause a few times during the story -- but I should add that I'm really anal about dialogue, so it might just be a peeve of mine. But it's to do with the dialogue, and it's having the parties speaking address each other by name frequently. Bill says "Dad" a lot to his father while they're speaking to each other. (Kingsley and Bill addressed each other by name when they spoke a couple of times where it felt a little off, (and I'm not speaking of when they first met) but not nearly as often.) Especially when there are only two people in the conversation, it's just a bit jarring to "hear". And normally I wouldn't make such a fuss, but I really adored this story, and that's the only bit that... poked at me.
To me, that was constructive. I really did like the story quite a lot, and yes, I was a bit divided as to whether I should say anything, but my comments had nothing to do with the request itself. It was because this is a point that I'd want to be told myself, that I decided to post it, so... I should say that the author seemed to be very gracious about it.
For me, when someone points something out like the above in one of my stories, I wonder several things. One, did other people read that and agree and not leave a comment because it annoyed them? Did other people want to say the same thing but were afraid to hurt my feelings? Were the other commenters just trying to be nice or make me feel better, or did they really not care/not notice?
I just think that there's a way to say things - and a lot of confusion around the definition of concrit vs. crit in the first place - and most of the time it seems that it's the delivery that causes more issues than the actual bit being singled out. There's a differece, I think, between being outright rude, being completely idiotic, and being tactful.