[ SECRET POST #2452 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2452 ⌋

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

01.


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02.
[Giles Coren and Sue Perkins, The Supersizers Eat… The Eighties]


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03.
[Jeff Davis/Teen Wolf]


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04.
[Django Unchained]


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05.
[Valiant Hearts: The Great War]


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06.
[Child of Light]

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07.
[Jurassic Park]


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08.
[Hate Plus]


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09.
[The Three Investigators]


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10.
[Charlie Hunnam]


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 011 secrets from Secret Submission Post #350.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

01. http://i.imgur.com/EQPXEWI.jpg

Secret 1 - Fanfiction

[transcriptanon]

[Picture is black text over yellow background.]

I would classify readers pleading for updates as a "Big Name Fan problem".

No one likes to be told "do this or else", so of course authors don't want to hear threats about what you'll do if they don't update.

"Pleeeeease update" adds pressure to an author's life, and many people don't need that.

But "You finally updated!" or "So glad this story isn't abandoned!" just expresses: commenter is reading your story; commenter is enjoying your story; commenter did not lose interest and wander off to do something else during the (possibly quite lengthy) hiatus. So cool your jets! What's next, you'll get made if someone says "Yay! Update!"? I guess I just won't say anything at all if I don't have something substantial to say. But then I guess you won't mind, because you have eight hundred million comments already.

[bringreligiontothewamwams]

What the fuck are you gibbering about OP?

[habilelapin]

I'm guessing anon can't write/draw for shit and is bitter over people who actually can getting a bit aggravated by the (sometimes downright rude) comments inquiring about when an update will happen. Because they get nothing, they assume you should be overly grateful for getting anything.

Or a BNF they annoy made a comment about how constantly asking for an update was not going to make an update happen any faster.

[(Anonymous)]

What are you doing on FS if you don't know?

[(Anonymous)]

I assume there's a point here somewhere. Or is it just...don't complain if you have a lot of reviews?

[(Anonymous)]

It's kind of disappointing if you only get like 3 comments and they're all like that (short, demanding, sometimes even rude), though. It's kind of thankless and thoughtless.

On the other hand, three (or however many - the points is it doesn't have to be a lot) really nice comments can really brighten a writer's day, and does much more to encourage them.

[forgottenjester]

I feel like this OP is responding to a very specific person.

Dude, make passive-aggressive secrets all you want but it's best just to confront this person.

Also this whole topic seems kind of silly.

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

Then again, they may be wanting to avoid being dogpiled by the BNF's followers.

[elaminator]

Someone got pissed off when you commented on their fic saying you were glad they updated? Huh, I've never seen that happen.

[(Anonymous)]

I think I can see why you're not a big name BNF o_O Not the most coherent secret ever

[(Anonymous)]

My friend wrote (well, IS writing) the most popular fic in a subset of fandom. She's a BNF at least in that portion of the fandom. Everyone knows of her fic, or has read it. She updates veeeerry slowly. Like, twice a year kind of slow. She gets shit for this constantly on tumblr; people guilt-tripping her, making her feel terrible about it. It's shitty.

[(Anonymous)]

yeah i can see why this is irritating. if people don't want to see comments like 'glad this is back' then they shouldn't post WIP. And if they do post WIP that is, maybe just accept that every comments isn't going to a long details analysis and sometimes just a throwaway nice to see it's still around.

[(Anonymous)]

So the secret is that you have a lot of feelings about comments?

[(Anonymous)]

I got comments like "when is the next update???" a lot even when I updated on a regular schedule, but now that I'm months behind on my fics they've gotten kind of rude. But it doesn't matter, those comments just make me feel GUILTY now, because not only do I not have time to write... I have no inspiration at all. I got a lot of fans because I was going through a period full of inspiration, and when it dried up I now have all this guilt because I can't give those fans anything :(

[(Anonymous)]

Then fucking have your story written before you release it. Chapter it to make cliffhangers people will like instead of chaptering it because you don't know what the hell you are doing with the story.


Release it in chapters on a set schedule. Like TV. Like the TV show you are writing about. It's just fucking rude to update once a year or whatever because you just HAD to release a chapter before you knew where the story was going.

I respectfully disagree on one point

[(Anonymous)]

a BNF only problem hardly

I'm pretty much a nobody imo but I've gotten people pleading and PMing me over a story so hard I lost inspiration for it. (I still feel really guilty for it but the PM came at a time when I was stressing over college+ working+ a demanding mod at an RP board I play in.)

[habilelapin]

Dude. Come on. I know you didn't seriously make a fandom secret over something so stupid.

...then again, fandom.

[(Anonymous)]

On the one hand, you're right when you say "update moar pleez" doesn't happen to every author.

On the other hand, if you work hard on an update and get a stream of comments that have nothing to do with the actual content, just people asking for more, more, more, I think you're justified in being annoyed about that one.

[(Anonymous)]

Calm down OP.

...and you don't get those kinds of comments because it took several re-reads to even work out what you were saying.

Please don't update later

[kelincihutan]

A "BNF problem?" Now I'm envisioning a subset of SJWs exclusively devoted to "fandom justice" telling you not to be appropriative of smaller fandoms by using them in crossovers and claiming anyone who complains about tumblr-style tags is just displaying their "AO3 privilege" because "not everyone is able to get an invite!"

You're right that whining that someone's review wasn't exactly the way you wanted it to be is a bit egotistical. But whining that people whine about this is also kind of ridiculous. If the comments themselves aren't that big a deal, then neither is the author's reaction unless they are deliberately hassling the commenters. The way you phrased it is...melodramatic, to say the least.

[(Anonymous)]

But you know, people mindlessly submitting "Yay update!" is the very reason those fics have like 800 million comments and yet the authors still don't feel motivated to write more. Since no one is actually happy with this situation, maybe you should start putting some thought into your reviews.

[(Anonymous)]

The issue with the "glad this finally updated" is the "finally" part. When you get enough of them eventually it comes across as a backhanded "WELL YOU SURE TOOK YOUR TIME ABOUT IT" or at best a "SEE I DIDNT HASSLE YOU WHEN YOU WERENT POSTING BUT I WAS THINKING IT GOOD ON YOU FOR EVENTUALLY PROVING ME WRONG LOL."

"Glad to see more of this" is good even if it's short. You like the fic, there is more fic, yay. "Glad this finally updated", especially when you also have gotten a lot of more open fan entitlement, can ping as "oh good it's not dead i was starting to think you'd reneged on your duty to provide more." It's not necessarily the reviewer's intention, probably not even often, but it's the nuance. I wouldn't see anything wrong with it if I hadn't gotten a shit-ton of entitlement in the +ten years I've been in fandom, so probably my tolerance meter is super low.

Am I the only who thinks this secret is being misread?

[(Anonymous)]

If i'm reading correctly, the OP seems to agree that "UPDATE NOW ROWR!!" comments are tasteless and annoying, whether it be of the "do it or else" nature or the seemingly less offensive (but still just as, to some) "PLEEEEEEEEASE!" nature. S/he/it seems to understand why any author would be upset about those kinds of comments and the pressures they may put on an author.

The thing the OP is complaining about is when BNfanfiction authors get upset at people who comment "Yeah! You updated!" when posting a new chapter after a longish amount of time (weeks, months, years?).

Which I kind of get. Like the person is celebrating. No assumed pressure in that comment. Just, "I'm happy you aren't dead the story isn't dead and you found time to write and update" but every body interprets things differently.

I guess it boils down to: Fic readers have no right to demand more fic from those who write it, and fic writers have no right to demand certain types of comments from those who read it. Agreed?

[anonlulz]

BNFs want readers to be fucking experts of grammar and spelling, and pinpoint their fucking mistakes. But if you do that, you have to endure their bitching, because you're supposed to do it PRIVATELY. As if being seen as anything other than FUCKING PERFECT is a fatal flaw for them.

And GOD FORBID if you're liking the story and happily ask them to update it. They become bitchy assholes, and rage about you "pressuring" them. Get off the fucking planet if you can't handle a random person being enthusiastic by your fucking shit.

BNFs are just attention seekers with paranoid minds. They are *always* the victims, and readers are horrible monsters who demand stuff.