The Etiquette of Holiday fics

[geoviki]

Like all the rest of you, I'm delighting in the reams and reams of new stories and art (and this year's art is especially terrific!). There's the granddaddy, merry_smutmas, and then others like harry_holidays, hd_holidays, smutty_claus, lupin_snape.... an embarrassment of riches!

As we are encouraging each other as writers and artists, I'm trying to leave feedback as well. One thing that caught my notice, though, has left me feeling uneasy, and I wondered what your views are: In your opinion, is it uncouth to leave concrit that's negative on a fest fic? (Disclosure: this is not anything that's happened regarding my own fic, just other folk's.)

I don't see the author requesting any, for one thing. Personally, I won't do it, but then I never leave anything less than praise unless I'm asked specifically and privately. If I don't like something, I just pass it by. Which unfortunately is the same response to something I've not yet read, so the writer is never sure if I'm unhappy or just behind (if the writer even cares what I think), but there you go.

But IMHO, these stories are gifts. And I can't see criticising a gift. Am I over-sensitive? What do you authors and artists think?

Comments

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I leave only positive comments on fics I liked (even if I did have criticism as well) and don't comment at all on fics I didn't like. That's pretty much how I leave fb at other times as well, because I don't really want to deal with angry authors (even if they say they want concrit in their headers, I won't say anything unless I really know for sure they mean it). I write reviews of everything I read on my journal anyway, so I can talk about any criticism I had there. I do write reviews of gift fics as well, but as with all my reviews I am careful to distinguish between bad writing and things that are just not my thing, but which others might enjoy. But the reviews are mainly for me to write my thoughts on what I read, which is why they're on my journal.