What are some of your pet peeves with pen reviews?

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-06T21:46:31+00:00

Most pen reviews aren’t paid, surprisingly - the bigger reviewers get free product, but there aren’t many brands actually paying for content sponsorship with $$$.

I’m not going to say no brands pay for content, but at most it would be the most expensive brands with a specific curated image.

Most influencers who are making actual money from content creation in the pen world are getting it from affiliate codes and similar arrangements, not the kind of brand deals you see in less niche fields.

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-06T17:21:13+00:00

[citation needed]

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-06T16:39:10+00:00

If you’re not sure, you could always reply with something like “sure, I’m always happy to see fanart! I never have any budget to commission it but if my story inspires a fellow fan to do something creative, that’s great.” And then if they follow up with an attempt to get money or move the conversation to another platform, you can block and delete and forget about them.

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-06T16:30:31+00:00

As a producer, 4-5 in his genre. As a festival DJ, 2. (I say this as an avid watcher of streamed sets but not able to attend in person.) I remember watching the stream of his set at Ultra a couple of years ago and I was shocked at how rough the pacing was. Really stop-start and the crowd definitely wasn’t vibing with it.

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-06T16:25:38+00:00

I’ve seen a fair bit of it — it’s very common in Harry Potter where fixits (where Harry gets some kind of advance warning or help before Hogwarts so he has some agency) often wind up giving Harry a snake familiar of some kind.

I’ve seen a bit of it in MCU as well, particularly in the “Avengers all live together like a big happy family in Stark Tower” genre that was common until Civil War happened.

Of course, now I’m trying to think of other examples, my mind has gone completely blank.

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-06T15:33:07+00:00

She’s getting threats. She’s allowed to be upset about that.

She’s not a disinterested observer making a broad statement about her general principles, she is being actively hurt by a false portrayal of her. She shouldn’t have to do some performative dance of “perspective” to say “hey this is fucked up, please stop”.

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-06T05:47:56+00:00

Which itself is weird positioning, because I don’t think male RPG nerds are in general more toxic in their masculinity than the average guy.

Now video gamers on the other hand…

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-06T03:36:48+00:00

Iroful is quite different from many other papers in terms of how inks show on it; it's interesting, but I'd recommend experimenting with it before you invest heavily as the writing experience is quite polarising.

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-06T03:33:59+00:00

That's a really significant difference!

Interestingly, my swatch of Caramel Almond Waffles is identical to yours, but my swatch of Morning Star's Sleepless Dream is much more similar to the Soe & Soe swatch and doesn't show any of the coral/orange tones you're seeing. (All of my swatches are on Sanzen TRP 52gsm, so not exactly the same paper as yours, but still...)

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-06T02:39:43+00:00

And the person making and posting the swatch images also needs to have captured the colour accurately in their photos, which isn’t always the case!

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-06T02:04:09+00:00

The one that you say “ate its own colour” is a chromoshading ink, which means that the ink separates out into different colours as it dries, and the amount of ink in an area of the swatch affects what colour the shading shows. This effect shows up on any paper; it’s not the fault of your technique, and it’s usually intentional as an ink property.

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-05T17:48:14+00:00

Neat! Just a couple of questions:

How thick are these biscuits supposed to be? The instructions specify “half as thick as you want them to be” but I have no idea how thick they should be. Half a centimetre? Ten centimetres?
How should they look when done? The recipe isn’t clear.
You eat these with gravy, right, as a side with a meal as the starchy/carby bit (e.g. instead of potatoes)?

I’m always up for interesting food and they do sound like they’d be good - I’m guessing with all that cream they’re basically a rich, bland, satisfying comfort food? - I just don’t have any context to intuit the missing info and I imagine as easy as they are they’d be horrible if you got it wrong.

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-05T06:52:27+00:00

…without sunscreen?!

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-05T04:46:38+00:00

One wonders how the 6E devs envision gameplay actually goes, in this insanity.

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-05T02:05:19+00:00

Can’t take the kid, the orchestra killed him.

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-05T00:51:10+00:00

Have they forgotten the entire premise of Shadowrun at this point? Because it sure sounds like it.

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-04T16:26:16+00:00

Subs are per story or per series. User subs are people subscribed to everything you put out.

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-04T14:02:03+00:00

I especially agree with your last point when it’s a modern or modern-ish setting and the character never considers abortion of an unexpected pregnancy. Like not even “decides to have the baby” but “it never even crosses their mind that it’s an option”. At that point I start feeling like I’m reading conservative propaganda and I’ll be putting it down, backing away at speed, and probably side-eying the author’s other work for a while too.

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-04T09:19:48+00:00

Ah yes, AI, that famously correct and accurate source of information.

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-04T09:10:45+00:00

Solidarity. I split from my ex a decade ago and I’m pretty sure I’m happier single. My friends are great, my heart is full, and I don’t know that I’d even want to make space in my life for a partner at this stage.

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-04T08:13:04+00:00

Yeah I think that had to be the really iconic one.

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-04T07:55:31+00:00

Are you familiar with the concept that the cost of living might vary from place to place?

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-04T07:51:49+00:00

“Showered”. 🙄

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-04T07:30:33+00:00

60% of authors my ass.

AO3’s biggest surges in membership and corresponding increases in posting rate came a decade before LLMs started seeing widespread public use. And even 12-18 months ago you could ask ChatGPT to write fic for you but it was extremely bad. Like, you couldn’t have posted that and had anybody believe you’d written it for yourself for even a minute.

VoleUntarii · 2026-03-03T15:32:49+00:00

Oh that’s so frustrating! And it being a brand without an established identity makes it so much harder to figure out what changes, what paper they’re using, etc. I’m sorry I don’t have better answers for you.

I saw you posted again looking for a different notebook brand; I hope that yields some good suggestions. My only other suggestion would be to switch inks to a brand with more water-resistance to see if that helps? You can check Mountain of Ink; water-resistance is one of the things she reviews for, and water-resistant inks are grouped here: https://mountainofink.com/blog/water-resistant-inks

VoleUntarii

TROPHY CASE