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

[geniusartist.livejournal.com]

I made a misstatement above, so let me correct it. This person hasn't left negative reviews of all smutmas fics -- she's been blunt with both what she's liked and what she hasn't. From the last (and first) time I visited her LJ, it seemed that most of the fics were not to her taste.

That aside, I'm tempted to link you to her LJ, but this is why I won't: I don't want to be the origin of unnecessary wank. I get the feeling that this person wants to draw attention to herself by posting these reviews publicly and that she would enjoy having them fussed and raged over. (Frankly speaking, I think she'd enjoy a laugh over people being outraged over her reviews.) She doesn't deserve the attention. Also, if a number of people began flocking over to her LJ and lambasting her for her reviews, news would spread terribly fast in the fandom, I'm sure. And a lot of the spirit that's behind these fests -- the generosity in exchanging gifts of time and efforts -- will be lost in that. It momentarily ruined my experience with smutmas -- if only for an evening -- because I was so angry at this person's tactlessness and, just . . . inconsideration. I'm over it now, but I wouldn't want the fest experience to be ruined for anyone else because of the wank that could come out of this or even momentary exposure to these reviews.

I hope that makes sense. I'm sorry to leave you in the dark with the information.

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see what you mean. I actually hate wank. I avoid fandom wank, and I typically refuse to feed it. Ask anyone who knows me.

If I SWEAR not to say anything on her LJ, and that all I want to do is to see what's been said, will you e-mail me the ID of the person? I'm at jedi_mijan@yahoo.com. Please?
I swear, I won't say a word over there. I really just want to see what's been said.

[geniusartist.livejournal.com]

I sent you an email last night -- just wanted to let you know.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Uh...since I think you probably mean me (unless someone else is reviewing, in which case cool), no the point is not to get people flocking to my LJ, nor is it to cause wank. I review every single fic I read all year round and have been for quite some time; it's an essential part of reading for me.

I am always looking for new fic to read, and a fest like this (small enough that I can read everything) is the perfect way to do so. By making myself read everything, regardless of pairing or summary, I've found lots of really great fic I would otherwise have missed. So far I've found eight rec-worthy fics, and several others that were enjoyable. To me, that's worth reading through the ones I didn't enjoy.

If I wanted to start wank, I'd leave negative comments on the fics themselves, but you'll notice that I don't comment on fics I don't like, or even on fics I'm half-hearted on. I leave only positive comments and only on the fics I like. The reviews are for me to process my thoughts, and maybe someone else on my flist will get some use from them.

[geniusartist.livejournal.com]

I don't generally object to public reviews. In fact, I'm a big fan of oulangi's reviews, and there was a big kerfuffle over them.

I do, however, think it's in poor taste to leave negative reviews of fics written for a gift exchange fest, and particularly where it underscores the spirit of the fest in and of itself. I can see it being a different story once the fest was over, authors were revealed, and stories were being posted in comms or the authors' LJ.

Frankly speaking, I thought what you said about some of the stories were unfair, especially when you hadn't read some of them to completion.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I always note if I was unable to finish a story, and my comments are always based on what I have read of it. I don't think it's unfair to say "I couldn't finish reading this story and here's why."

I would agree that it's poor taste if I were actually "leaving" my reviews on the fic. But I'm not. I'm writing them in my own journal and leaving only positive feedback on fics I liked.

But I really don't think we're going to come to an agreement on that. I was only commenting because I resent the idea that I must be writing reviews specifically to cause harm or wank. I don't know how you even found my journal, but I've now unjoined the smutmas comm so that if anyone reads the comm's flist, my posts won't show up on there. (Still possible to come across them via friendsfriends or just random journal hopping, but there's nothing I can do about that other than flock and I don't want to do that because it means I have to friend everyone back who friends me, which I don't like to do.)

[geniusartist.livejournal.com]

It was easy to come across your LJ when you're also a participant in smutmas. I randomly go to people's LJs that I don't know if I think I might have something in common with that person, or they've written stories I like, or out of general curiousity.

Point taken regarding your purpose for posting your reviews.

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

*shrugs*

I think it's rude to leave direct negative feedback in one of the anon fests, but beyond that it's quite helpful to get fic reviews and recommendations in other people's journals. It might be a bit distasteful to some, but I find the idea of anon reviews at a distance quite interesting. But then I don't participate directly in Smutmas.

I do read the LJ you mention and I don't think it's negative (especially as the writer is frequently saying, 'this just isn't my thing'); if anything, it's pointing me to stories because I'm too lazy to read them all directly in the communities.

To be honest, I find the exchanges very contrived at times; a good reviewer will cut through all the artifice to point out that despite the fact that the fic featuring cross-dressing genderswap AU Bottom!Harry with six children, it's actually a groundbreaking story that deserves reading.

[geniusartist.livejournal.com]

As I said above, I don't generally object to public reviews (nor recs, for that matter). I support them more than I don't. I'm differentiating between reviewing fics being posted to a public comm and those being posted to a gift fest like smutmas -- in which case, I don't see much of a difference between leaving negative feedback directly or publicly posting an anti-rec in an LJ. And for the reasons that many have already stated here, included myself.

It's basically a difference of opinion between you and I as to whether or not the reviews are helpful or negative.