fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2529 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2529 ⌋

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

01.

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02.

[Babylon 5, Art by A-gnosis]

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03.

[HGTV]

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04.

[Boy Meets World]

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05.

[Doctor Who, "Day of the Doctor"]

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06.

[Battlestar Galactica]

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07.

[Brian Cox, Jim Al-Khalili]

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08.

[Doctor Who]

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09.

[Top Gun]

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10.

[Once Upon a Time in Wonderland]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 017 secrets from Secret Submission Post #361.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 2 - posted twice ], [ 1 - ships it ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Is it rude to leave comments notifying the author of mistakes within the fic? Like "you said can when you meant can't in this sentence" and other little editing tidbits. I'd be leaving it along with a positive review of the fic as a whole. They thank their beta for the hard work and never mention anything on if they want constructive feedback or mistakes pointed out or anything like that.

I do it all the time myself, always packaged with what I loved about the fic because I only review things I enjoyed. When I get corrections, I appreciate them. Grammatical errors and the like are just facts, they aren't the same as opinions like "I hated the way you portrayed this character, dishonor on you and your cow!"

Thank you. I went ahead and left the review - it was mostly missing words or simple grammatical errors and I agree, those are just facts of writing. And I figured if it were my fic I'd appreciate someone pointing it out.

I did leave a lot about what I loved about the fic too, so hopefully even if they get upset over the corrections they appreciate the positive feedback.

It really depends. If you're looking at a fic that's riddled with grammar errors and trying to point them all out, it's probably not going to be taken well. If you're looking at a work that would otherwise be good enough to send to a publishing company, then authors will generally want to know about their errata so they can edit it. Things get left out in proofreading all the time, and some people don't have betas so that sort of thing can definitely be appreciated.

It was mostly missing words or simple grammatical errors and only a handful of them. Other than those it was a really well written fic, which is why I thought to point out the errors so they could be fixed. Because I agree, if it's riddled with the errors then it gets to a point where it's a lost cause.

If you're worried, why not leave the positive review first, and add a line along the lines of "I really enjoyed this, but there were a few grammatical errors I noticed. I was wondering if you wanted me to point them out? Since you didn't say if you wanted concrit or not, I wanted to check first."

Then if they say it's fine, you can go ahead and point out whatever you spotted. If they say no, respond with something like sure, they were very minor errors and you still really enjoyed the fic. Or something of the sort.

That is a good idea! I've already left the review but I think I'll go with your idea for next time the situation comes up.

I decided I had no other choice when I ran across an author talking about Phallus Athena -- worse, a plaster bust of Phallus...

Tee hee!

I appreciate it, since I tend to be my own beta, with my girlfriend usually giving it a once-over before I post public too. If we both managed to miss something, or if it was just me for a change and I got so deep into what I meant that I didn't notice that what I wrote was wrong, I'd like to be able to fix it. =)

As an author, I don't find that rude, especially if you're also commenting on the positive parts of the fic. Sometimes it's best to mention at the end of the review that you spotted some errors and are happy to expand on them in PMs or some such, but I've never minded reviewers just saying "hey, just so you know, you wrote x when you probably meant y".

Two ways to deal with this to cause as little hurt as possible:
1. Give the positive review on the public board and the typos etc. in a PM.
2. Send them a kind critique sandwich in a PM: praise/critique/praise.

Usually people react better to corrections given privately. This also goes for RL critique. And as others here mention, sometimes you just need to tell, especially if the fic is very good overall.

[ SECRET POST #2529 ]

fanfic comment etiquette question

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