Tumblr backup: Fic comments vs bookmarks
Dec. 16th, 2016 07:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
minutia_rOkay but here’s the thing:
Reviews are not for writers. They are for other readers. This is true of profic and it is true of fanfic too.
Comments? Those are for writers. Don’t leave rude comments on people’s stories, guys.
But tags on AO3 bookmarks are not comments. That shit doesn’t get mailed to your inbox. If you don’t want to see it, don’t go looking.
Yeah, you can make your bookmarks private, and that’s something that people should be aware of if they aren’t, because some people just want to use their bookmarks to keep track of what they’ve read or whatever and that’s fine. But some people want to share their recommendations and reactions with other readers, and that’s not only also a legitimate use of bookmarks, it contributes to a community of active and engaged readers which is the kind of community that I as a writer would like to be writing in.
And yeah, a lot of reviews are dumb. Guess what, so is a lot of fic! But the great thing about fanfic is that there are no barriers to entry. You don’t have to be a great writer to post your fic, and you don’t have to be a great literary critic to be allowed to share your opinions about fic either.
In conclusion, one time back when delicious was still a thing, I searched myself on it. (Of course I did. But I wasn’t about to go blaming the bookmarkers for what I found there.) And one person had a bookmark of my livejournal (because in those days I still archived all my fic on livejournal) with a note that said “not all are great but all are readable.”
My first reaction was, “HDU all my works are pure distilled genius.” But my second reaction, and the one I’ve decided to stick with, was, “That’s RIGHT, every goddamn word I write is READABLE, bitches.”
So, uh, yeah. Take that as you will.
Reviews are not for writers. They are for other readers. This is true of profic and it is true of fanfic too.
Comments? Those are for writers. Don’t leave rude comments on people’s stories, guys.
But tags on AO3 bookmarks are not comments. That shit doesn’t get mailed to your inbox. If you don’t want to see it, don’t go looking.
Yeah, you can make your bookmarks private, and that’s something that people should be aware of if they aren’t, because some people just want to use their bookmarks to keep track of what they’ve read or whatever and that’s fine. But some people want to share their recommendations and reactions with other readers, and that’s not only also a legitimate use of bookmarks, it contributes to a community of active and engaged readers which is the kind of community that I as a writer would like to be writing in.
And yeah, a lot of reviews are dumb. Guess what, so is a lot of fic! But the great thing about fanfic is that there are no barriers to entry. You don’t have to be a great writer to post your fic, and you don’t have to be a great literary critic to be allowed to share your opinions about fic either.
In conclusion, one time back when delicious was still a thing, I searched myself on it. (Of course I did. But I wasn’t about to go blaming the bookmarkers for what I found there.) And one person had a bookmark of my livejournal (because in those days I still archived all my fic on livejournal) with a note that said “not all are great but all are readable.”
My first reaction was, “HDU all my works are pure distilled genius.” But my second reaction, and the one I’ve decided to stick with, was, “That’s RIGHT, every goddamn word I write is READABLE, bitches.”
So, uh, yeah. Take that as you will.
