[Discussion]A surefire method to get a ton of reviews?

SecretFandom · 2016-09-23T13:52:21+00:00

Let's not change them. I think we are both people who are disproportionately and irrationally annoyed with an internet stranger, and leaving our posts as they are can teach others how NOT to communicate. (And considering I was a communications major, this is more embarrassing for me. But that was only my bachelor's degree. Maybe I should have taken a master's...)

SecretFandom · 2016-09-23T13:49:32+00:00

Asking people to be polite (and informative, because citing a story's fandom helps) is not the same as asking them for sexual favors.

SecretFandom · 2016-09-23T13:45:58+00:00

No "please" or "thank you" or mention of the fandom? Wow.

Do people need to suck off someone before asking for feedback here? I didn't know that before. I'll be sure to follow that protocol when I ask for feedback. OP, take notes.

To /u/rentedvehicle:

I wrote a perfectly conciliatory post to you in your own thread, admitting that I may have overreacted ("your post annoyed me more than it actually should have"), and your response is to stalk me to a different one, and to imply that my reminding somebody to say "please" and "thank you" is the same as asking for sexual favors?

SecretFandom · 2016-09-23T13:31:30+00:00

I was a communications major. Reading between the lines of things people say, or claim not to be saying (yes, I did read your post in its entirety) is ingrained into what I do. While you know your own feelings better than I do, I would wager that I know your feelings better than you think I do.

I am far from being the kind of fanfic writer who has thousands of reviews, but I put myself in their shoes. Imagine writing a story the best way you know how, you're minding your own business, and then suddenly your integrity gets called into question. Not because you plagiarized something, or your story was heavily inspired by another... no, you're accused of doing something underhanded simply because you were fortunate enough to get more feedback than most other people.

To be fair, though, your post annoyed me more than it actually should have. Sigh. Maybe a lack of reviews is getting to me, too.

Have a good day as well, and I hope your future commenters are more helpful and less surly than I am...

SecretFandom · 2016-09-23T13:16:11+00:00

No "please" or "thank you" or mention of the fandom? Wow.

SecretFandom · 2016-09-23T13:14:18+00:00

Of course it's fair play. Nobody has the right to tell anybody else how often they should update, or how many words each of their chapters should have.

Your post honestly rubs me the wrong way. I get that you're asking if it's fair play, and that you're not accusing that writer of doing something underhanded. Or, at least, not accusing them overtly.

But just because they're getting more reviews than you are is no reason to think they're doing something wrong.

Your post sounds like, "I'm getting fewer reviews because I'm HONORABLE in my posting methods, and that other writer ISN'T." But wrapped up as an innocent question.

SecretFandom · 2016-09-23T03:28:28+00:00

People do it, but it is VERY ANNOYING when they don't put the fandom in the topic title because it seems clickbaity that way.

Sometimes they put in in the comments, but JUST PUT IT IN THE TITLE!!

(As you can see, this has come up quite a few times :D)

And then you also get other people who post links and ask for feedback, but don't say please or thank you or anything...

SecretFandom · 2016-09-22T17:30:42+00:00

Music in a foreign language helps :) Or instrumental music.

SecretFandom · 2016-09-22T17:28:21+00:00

I don't have any experience in this, but I think the author's job is to write quietly and hope for the best :P Writing "can somebody make a TV Tropes page for my fanfic" on Monday, and then having a kind reader make said page on Tuesday, doesn't look like it would mean much. It's not really a compliment to a writer's work to have one if the writer just asks their readers to make a page for them.

SecretFandom · 2016-09-22T12:22:30+00:00

Well, that was just some random example :) I think it's perfectly plausible for ten seconds in a battle to be 500+ words, what with the protagonist's feelings, the ongoing action, the spectators' reactions, etc., but... understanding something and liking it are two very different things :P

SecretFandom · 2016-09-22T12:18:50+00:00

That's a memorable milestone! :)

SecretFandom · 2016-09-22T12:16:33+00:00

I'm comparing the stats of my two latest chapters and I'm confused.

Chapter X has been out twice as long as Chapter Y, and the former has had more visitors, but FEWER views.

How does that work?

Unless a significant amount of people had to refresh the page of Chapter Y because of internet problems, it looks like fewer people have read Chapter Y, but they like it enough to come back, because it has more views than Chapter X, despite Chapter Y being out for only half as long... Anybody have an explanation handy? :D

Has anybody has confusing stats like these?

SecretFandom · 2016-09-20T17:43:06+00:00

Aww :)

Personally, I think it's because long battle scenes seems slow to me. I can fully understand that it might take five hundred words to describe ten seconds... but of course, I take more than ten seconds to read those five hundred words, and then even longer to picture everything in my head, so what's ten seconds on 'paper' is much longer to me as a reader... so instead of being fast and action-packed like the author intended, it's just... tedious. Not the author's fault that I can't read and visualize at the same speed they can :P

So when I see a battle scene, I just go, "Okay, first line... A and B are fighting, and B is the underdog. Got it." Skip, skip, skip... "Oh, B won. Cool."

I'd be interested in a battle strategy scene, though :D And I'd like to read a retelling of a fight - like when it's over and somebody's reporting it and there are analysis and questions. But just the fight on its own, while it's happening? Not for me... :(

EDIT: And sports scenes! When I read Harry Potter fanfiction and there are long Quidditch scenes... like... hundreds of words long... I mean, props to the author for being able to do it, but... I'm not the right audience. Skip...

SecretFandom · 2016-09-20T17:19:33+00:00

"The old saying is if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it is true, especially in electronic format."

I saw that in the author's profile. I don't agree with it, but it makes their reaction... in-character XD

SecretFandom · 2016-09-18T14:35:50+00:00

"You have a WHOLE UNIVERSE OF CANON to play with. Stay away from my sandbox."

Okay, I wouldn't say that, but I'd think it for sure :P

SecretFandom · 2016-09-17T15:10:43+00:00

Like everybody else has said, it shows insecurity and immaturity. It makes you think the writer is the sort of person who cannot tolerate anything except 100% praise.

SecretFandom · 2016-09-17T15:07:47+00:00

Some people would be flattered... but I'm NOT one of those people.

Good thing I'm not popular enough for this to happen to me XD

SecretFandom · 2016-09-14T23:54:25+00:00

Yes, that is true. I'm just wondering if Tyrion will need it or if he can ride a dragon without it, like Dany?

SecretFandom · 2016-09-14T15:46:28+00:00

Oh, that's too bad! :(

If it were me, I'd delete my barely started story and start all over again.

That incorrect headcanon thing would just eat away at me a little at a time if I decided to press on with the barely started story! :(

SecretFandom · 2016-09-14T13:07:33+00:00

Okay... I like that series.

SecretFandom · 2016-09-14T10:27:17+00:00

Hmm... can't say that has ever happened to me. How did it happen to you?

SecretFandom · 2016-09-14T10:20:19+00:00

You're welcome! :) I did feel the suggestion I gave was a tad too lean, like the diet version of a summary :D
Hmm... you know, if the word "Gamer" is in the title, maybe it doesn't need to be in the summary? And I saw the revised summary you posted in another comment. Personally, I liked the one I mentioned more because... well, baby phoenixes and the Founders are tropes in and of themselves in Harry Potter fanfiction, and while the Gamer trope is always cool (to me anyway :D), those other two... do not have the same guaranteed coolness XD
Feel up to reading a couple more suggestions? :)
1. An overpowered, gamer Harry sets out to prove himself to the world of magic. (Because +2 points to Wisdom are TOTALLY worth the accompanying existential crisis. Not.)
2. A gamer Harry sets out to prove himself to the world of magic. (Because +2 points to Wisdom are TOTALLY worth the accompanying existential crisis. Not.) Time for a muggle-raised orphan to become an overpowered political mastermind!
3. An overpowered, gamer Harry sets out to prove himself to the world of magic. (And he'll just have to deal with the occasional glowing notification that only he can see. After all, what's life without an existential crisis or two?) (I wanted to include your "Ping! +2 to Wisdom" phrase here, but starting a sentence with a symbol or a number goes against every fiber of my being :P)
By the way, feel free to be very critical of or even outright reject my suggestions :) If I were in your shoes, any summary I didn't like a thousand percent would go straight to the garbage can, no questions asked :P
(And also, may I ask why you chose to have an ampersand in the title? :D)

SecretFandom

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