[ SECRET POST #2147 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2147 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 100 secrets from Secret Submission Post #307.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 2 - vader trolls and probably more later ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

15. http://i.imgur.com/R8V2f.jpg

[wldcatsprstr_14]

I know how you feel, OP. I did a holiday exchange a few years back. Slaved to make this fic awesome for my person. Never got a single comment or acknowledgment that I'd written it. And I never got anything from the person who had my name.

If you're gonna sign onto something like that, properly commit. Or at least let it be known that you can't do it for whatever reason. Leaving people hanging is not cool.

I think it's worse in your case cuz the person had committed to doing something for charity.

[terabient]

Wow, that's awful. I don't think you're acting entitled at all--this person made a promise to create something for you and you donated your own money in the understanding that you'd get something in return. The person you donated for is being a dick.

Can you bring this up with the auction mods? Maybe they can find someone else to fulfill your request, or at least get the person who failed to deliver banned from future events.

[(Anonymous)]

Ugh, why's everyone bashing just because she spelled "closed" as "clothed"? It's an easy mistake, and it doesn't make her argument any less valid. Popular things are *always* right.

[(Anonymous)]

I know how you feel OP. I'm still waiting for the fic I won in one of these charity auctions from three years ago. The writer has since left the fandom so I'm guessing I'm probably not getting that fic anytime soon.lol. Ah well at least the money went to a good cause, but I get how disappointing it can be so I don't think you're bad for feeling disappointed.

[agentcthulhu]

This is why I only bid on offers coming from two types of people:
1) friends I'm close to who I know take a long time to turn out fics and who I won't mind waiting on fics for, and
2) people who are reputed to deliver within the time period they promise

[(Anonymous)]

Call that person out and get them banned. They don't deserve future opportunities to participate in fandom auctions and maybe some exchanges would ban their flop ass too.

[(Anonymous)]

I totally get where you're coming from, OP. I've been waiting 2 years for a fic that I know is never coming, and it still manages to disappoint me when I think about it. I followed-up with the author once, early on and got a teeny bit of dialogue about what I wanted to see. Then my next follow-up went ignored. The author has migrated fandoms and hasn't even acknowledged that they still owe people for their charity offers. I think I'd feel better about it if they just acknowledged that they're not going to get around to it.

Like you said, it was for charity and I shouldn't be 'owed' something for donating, but why bother offering if you're not going to follow through. And because this person was somewhat of a BNF and because I really do like this person's writing, I ended up 'bidding' more than I'd originally budgeted for.

Just wanted you to know that you're not alone in feeling this way, OP.

[(Anonymous)]

I think I've won... four? charity auctions over the years but haven't received anything. I'm not really angry or anything, but I think my optimism has run out now. I'll stick with traditional RL donating in the future. :)

[insanenoodlyguy]

No way entitled. If they said they'd do something as part of a charity, it's on them to fucking deliver. Pieces of shit like that are the worst.

[silverr]

Grr, not cool of them.

If they've lost interest/inspiration, at the very least they should just crawl out of the Guilt Cave (if they're there instead of Don't Give a Fuck Island) suck it up and admit so to you. Really, though, they ought to see if there's something else in a newer, shinier fandom you'd like.

[nynaeve_sedai]

This makes me sad. I wish there was a place for people to post "unfinished" auction wins (maybe contact the people running it?). I've completed the two or three that I've done (I try to get them done in a few months and keep the winner apprised of my progress). I did offer to write a fic for this one faithful bidder who won me in two auctions when she mentioned someone hadn't ever written her the promised story. Thankfully it seems the other person eventually came through.

If it was in my fandom, I'd totally be willing to take on someone else's abandoned offer now and again :(

[nyxelestia]

One of my fandom experiences that haunts me: I signed up for a couple of gift exchanges and charity auctions once a while back, and then a little later lost all the information related to them. I recovered most of it, but somewhere out there are two people who I owe fic to, but I don't know who they are, and by now I don't even remember which fandoms and charities they were for. I still feel guilty about this. :(

[(Anonymous)]

You're supposed to feel entitled to things you paid for. That's not "entitlement" (in the Fox News sense of the word), it's basic morality.

...But yeah, I doubt they're ripping you off on purpose. My guess would be writer's block. Maybe you should talk to them and see if you can pick a different prompt or something?

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, that happened to me a few years ago. I 'bought' a $10 fic from someone I was vaguely friends with whose writing I really liked and made the mistake of telling that person they could take their time with my fic. Well, that was about 2 years ago and after two or three initial conversations, they've never mentioned it again. And I didn't say anything because I like this person and the money went to a good cause but still...it soured me on the whole fandom auction thing.

[(Anonymous)]

I won an auction from a writer/artist, who said she would do at least 1,500 words plus three illos for said fic, and it was a big deal to me. And then, she wrote me and said, "I'm moving, I'll get on it after I'm in my new home in my new country." And then I got an email, "I'm traveling with a band for part of my job, but I remember I owe you!" And then I got, "Can I send you all sorts of food from where I am instead? With some drawings?" And then, when I hadn't heard from her in another year, I emailed her and asked her to donate the equivalent amount to an animal rescue group in her country, and we'd call it even. She was so thrilled, and promptly sent me back a receipt. Still, I was very disappointed.

I was incredibly poor during the Help Japan auction, but I still donated money to get three stories written...and am still waiting on anything on any of those stories. One of the authors has vanished from the internet, one tells me she's working on the story, and I'm not sure what the other one is doing.

The Superstorm Sandy auction, I've made two requests, that no one has taken. I may bid on someone, but we'll see. I know one of the authors and believe she would finish the story.

Now, all that being said, two of my stories were won for Help Japan, and it took me nearly a year to write one of them, because the prompt was sticky for me - I couldn't see the vision my auction winner had given me. I wound up doing the story my way, and even found someone to illustrate it. The other story, I was unaware someone had even won it until the person contacted me directly, and the prompt I was given for that story completely disturbed me, so I wrote it very, very quickly, so I didn't have to think about it any longer.

[sondheimmcgeek]

That's not entitled at all. If you actually made a donation for a story, you should get the story.

[(Anonymous)]

OP, if you're still here, tell me the fandom, pairing, and scenario you were looking for. Let's fix this, yes?

I hope no one recognizes my writing "style". I'm not supposed to be on F!S hahahah.

[(Anonymous)]

sorry this happened to you, OP but your tale, as well as those jerks in this thread that 'zomg forgot so sooooorrry' who have admitted they dropped the ball (but apparently never fessed up to the person/people/organizers who needed to know), but this is precisely why I have NEVER done anything like this and NEVER plan to.

[(Anonymous)]

I feel ya. I donated after Haiti for a scarf. I emailed the maker over and over and was told it was going out in the mail then there was snow, then she was going the next week and then she didn't get a chance to go and finally I just gave up. I hate that it made me not want to give anymore, but I just donated right to the charity rather than doing an auction where I might just be disappointed. If you can't deliver, don't commit.

[citrinesunset]

I don't think you're entitled at all. While it was charity, and you may have been happy to donate the money without getting something in return, you did sorta pay for a fic.

I'm a little surprised/disappointed to hear how common it is for people not to get what they bid for. Shit happens sometimes, but I feel like offering something in an auction is pretty a big commitment. I wrote fic for help_haiti, and I'm definitely glad I did it, but being tied to that sort of commitment, where money was involved, was stressful for me. But a promise was a promise, and I worked really hard to give my bidder what they wanted. But I also don't sign up to do charity auctions anymore. I don't want to risk a situation where I have a hard time delivering.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think it's entitled at all, especially since I've been on the other side of the fence where real life obligations were piling up, time was running short, and I didn't think I would be able to accomplish it -- but I did. Sure, it was stressful and made me resolve to not do it again unless I was absolutely certain nothing would get in the way, but the people I did it for and with really appreciated it and that made it worth it in the end.

I guess what I'm saying is -- barring something out of the person's hands -- it's shitty that people don't follow through and I hope that you get the fic that you wanted, even if it isn't from the person you wanted it from.

[nomorefrostbite.livejournal.com]

IKR, OP :(

When the Japanese Tsunami disaster happened, I donated a rather hefty sum of money (like $85+) to Help Japan over at LJ and in return 'bought' a 30,000 word minimum darkfic of a mutually chosen fandom and OT3. It was James/Helen/John Victorian historical darkfic from Sanctuary.

I was chatting to the writer for months, she was updating me on how it was going and what was happening in the chapters , we were becoming friends I thought and shared all the same ideas, and were in contact regularly on livejournal. I even made a massive three part fanmix for her about the fic as it was being written.

Suddenly she stopped replying to me, even though she's still on LJ and posts occasionally and writes OTHER fic.

I've messaged her a bunch of times and she just ignores me.

Like... I don't care about the money, because I was going to donate anyway without anything in return, so it's not like I wasn't already putting that money to proper use.

I don't even care at this point so long after the fact about the fic.

All I want is for her to reply to my damn messages and just say hi or something and admit she's never going to finish and it and won't anymore and she's sorry, so I can stop being pissed off about it.

[shinysylver]

I bid on one fic and received it rather quickly, so I guess I'm lucky.

When it comes to writing, I participated as an author in one charity thing and I was so paranoid about giving the person what they paid for (they paid a lot) that I didn't do anything else until I had a fic for them. I still feel bad that it was a short fic even though I know that they enjoy short fic and it was what they bid on. It's just that they paid so much and I felt I wasn't worth that. It was rarepair though and they seemed happy and I'm sure the charity was.

Anyway, long story short, the paranoia I felt about making my fic worth the money is why I haven't offered myself since then. I don't want to let someone down.

When it comes to exchanges I love doing them and have never dropped or not received a fic in return. Of course all of the exchanges I've participated in have dedicated mods determined to find pinch hitters if necessary.

[(Anonymous)]

I have one friend who won a bid and requested a slightly angsty kidnapping story and got a 50k graphic rape fic in return. She was horrified and couldn't even read it, but couldn't say anything to the author without feeling guilty because it was for charity.