Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[nicksgal]

Ugh, I remember those. I hated the stars so much! At least the thumbs are all positive? They're on every PBox chapter that had reviews, so I assumed it was a "this was reviewed" thing.

[RokofAges75]

I only have vague memories of the stars, but we sure had a lot of angst over them back in 2007!  http://absolutechaos.net/fictalk/index.php/topic,309.0.html  I haven't made it through this entire thread yet, but I think we succeeded in getting them turned off because none of my stories posted after 2007 have the thumb.  Every one posted before May 2007 has it.

[nicksgal]

Ugh, I remember those. I hated the stars so much! At least the thumbs are all positive? They're on every PBox chapter that had reviews, so I assumed it was a "this was reviewed" thing.

I see you also found the post where I originally complained about them.

 

I do that when any of you are on, but I for sure creep on the guests.

[nicksgal]

Hahaha, I posted that while you were typing.

[nicksgal]

I only have vague memories of the stars, but we sure had a lot of angst over them back in 2007!  http://absolutechaos.net/fictalk/index.php/topic,309.0.html  I haven't made it through this entire thread yet, but I think we succeeded in getting them turned off because none of my stories posted after 2007 have the thumb.  Every one posted before May 2007 has it.

Man, when we collectively set our minds to something, it happens. Taking down plagiarists? Removing star ratings? What next?

[RokofAges75]

LOL Stalker!

I'm glad they took off the stars.  It just sparked too much drama and competitivenes s.  Reviews are more meaningful.  I'm glad they did away with anonymous reviews too, which was the subject of another thread.

I like the kudos on AO3 as a quick way to say "Hey, I read this," like a "like" on social media, but I also think it makes some people feel like they don't need to leave a review.  I think that's one reason why readers as a whole seem to review less on that site than they did here.

[RokofAges75]

Who was the person who kept lowering everyone's stars?

[nicksgal]

LOL Stalker!

Hahaha. I was going to ask if it was stalking if you knew about it, but... It probably still is. I'll stop stalking you. And letting you know about it...

I'm glad they took off the stars.  It just sparked too much drama and competitivenes s.  Reviews are more meaningful.  I'm glad they did away with anonymous reviews too, which was the subject of another thread.

I like the kudos on AO3 as a quick way to say "Hey, I read this," like a "like" on social media, but I also think it makes some people feel like they don't need to leave a review.  I think that's one reason why readers as a whole seem to review less on that site than they did here.

I hated it on the stories, but I like to know for my restaurants and Amazon products. Does that make me hypocritical? I struggled on AO3 whether to allow anonymous reviews or not... They have so many settings.

I like the kudos as well for that same reason, but it's also kind of disappointing to see zero comments. Then again, it's an old story in chunks, so maybe that's part of it. Who knows!

Or, maybe everyone read all our feelings about reviews over the years and finally decided that if they had nothing more to say than "Update soon" it was better to be silent? I don't know which I would prefer.

Who was the person who kept lowering everyone's stars?

I don't even remember? Some Anonymous Aardvark probably?

[RokofAges75]

I hated it on the stories, but I like to know for my restaurants and Amazon products. Does that make me hypocritical? I struggled on AO3 whether to allow anonymous reviews or not... They have so many settings.

I like the kudos as well for that same reason, but it's also kind of disappointing to see zero comments. Then again, it's an old story in chunks, so maybe that's part of it. Who knows!

Or, maybe everyone read all our feelings about reviews over the years and finally decided that if they had nothing more to say than "Update soon" it was better to be silent? I don't know which I would prefer.

I don't even remember? Some Anonymous Aardvark probably?

I also appreciate star reviews for products, hotels, etc.  Maybe if we were charging money for our stories, it would make more sense.  But reading through that thread, I understand why we were all frustrated.  It wasn't that we all expected to get a perfect 5-star rating.  It was that we wanted to know why we were getting less than 5 stars - and that they were being lowered for a legitimate reason and not as a flame.

As for AO3, having posted both old stories and current stories there in the last 9 months or so, I can tell you I've gotten a lot more reviews on the new stories.  But most of those have come from people who have read my stories here or on my own site.  I haven't gotten many from AO3 users I don't know on any of my stories.  I'm not sure if it's because it just takes time to establish a reputation on a new site, or if what I write isn't popular there, or if the feedback culture is just different there (kudos instead of comments).  But it makes me appreciate the people here even more.

Personally, I would prefer a generic "Great chapter!" or "Update soon!" over nothing.  I at least like to know who's reading.

Mare knew then, but I'm not sure if she'll remember now LOL.  Mare?

[nicksgal]

I also appreciate star reviews for products, hotels, etc.  Maybe if we were charging money for our stories, it would make more sense.  But reading through that thread, I understand why we were all frustrated.  It wasn't that we all expected to get a perfect 5-star rating.  It was that we wanted to know why we were getting less than 5 stars - and that they were being lowered for a legitimate reason and not as a flame.

I think that was it. I also hate bad reviews for restaurants where they just write "Bad one star," but then the owner presses and it turns out that "my sister tripped in the bathroom and we couldn't get a bandaid soon enough to order a beer before happy hour ended, but I guess the food was tasty." And then I'm like, your sister deserves the one star review, not this restaurant! If someone wants to lower my star rating because I did something wrong, I'd rather know. I think part of it might have also been, "this new thing is different and I don't like it!" based anxiety.

As for AO3, having posted both old stories and current stories there in the last 9 months or so, I can tell you I've gotten a lot more reviews on the new stories.  But most of those have come from people who have read my stories here or on my own site.  I haven't gotten many from AO3 users I don't know on any of my stories.  I'm not sure if it's because it just takes time to establish a reputation on a new site, or if what I write isn't popular there, or if the feedback culture is just different there (kudos instead of comments).  But it makes me appreciate the people here even more.

Personally, I would prefer a generic "Great chapter!" or "Update soon!" over nothing.  I at least like to know who's reading.

I'm curious how many of the people there are from AC or elsewhere? I'm guessing no one just started posting BSB fanfic on AO3 when they started writing since it's not that old... I don't think anyway. I would like to know who's reading too. Right now I'm just assuming it's all spam bots. If someone is enjoying it, I think I do want to know even though feedback isn't necessarily the main reason I'm posting.

[mare]

I also appreciate star reviews for products, hotels, etc.  Maybe if we were charging money for our stories, it would make more sense.  But reading through that thread, I understand why we were all frustrated.  It wasn't that we all expected to get a perfect 5-star rating.  It was that we wanted to know why we were getting less than 5 stars - and that they were being lowered for a legitimate reason and not as a flame.

As for AO3, having posted both old stories and current stories there in the last 9 months or so, I can tell you I've gotten a lot more reviews on the new stories.  But most of those have come from people who have read my stories here or on my own site.  I haven't gotten many from AO3 users I don't know on any of my stories.  I'm not sure if it's because it just takes time to establish a reputation on a new site, or if what I write isn't popular there, or if the feedback culture is just different there (kudos instead of comments).  But it makes me appreciate the people here even more.

Personally, I would prefer a generic "Great chapter!" or "Update soon!" over nothing.  I at least like to know who's reading.

Mare knew then, but I'm not sure if she'll remember now LOL.  Mare?

Big surprise, but no. I don’t remember. Although I think it was someone we had to ban for it and other things like writing bad reviews of things with an alternate username because she wanted to seem like she had more stars than anyone else? I vaguely remember someone doing that. Lol back I’m the day there used to be so much drama here

[mare]

The stuff I chose to post over on AO3 have very few reviews but a few kudos. I think there’s so much being posted on that site and so many fandoms, unless you already have a loyal following there you kind of get lost in the shuffle. I think at this point, we are considered the oldies so most have read them or the newer people might just skip right past because our pen names aren’t as familiar. At least mine. I had been nice getting a few random reviews for things out of the blue.

[RokofAges75]

Big surprise, but no. I don’t remember. Although I think it was someone we had to ban for it and other things like writing bad reviews of things with an alternate username because she wanted to seem like she had more stars than anyone else? I vaguely remember someone doing that. Lol back I’m the day there used to be so much drama here

Surfing through old threads has reminded me of all the drama there used to be around here!  So many conversations about Nick romance vs. everything else.  I do miss the debates though; a little drama can be entertaining, especially when it's frivolous fanfic drama, not the "Brian is a racist"/"Nick is a rapist" drama we've been dealing with for the last few years.  A part of me would love for Tanja to pop back up and start plagiarizing people again.  That kind of stuff always worked to unite the fandom.

As for AO3, I know I've said this before, but I think the culture there is just different from here.  It seems like the most popular genre is angsty slash, so if that's not what you write, you're probably not going to get as much attention.  I've had trouble finding the kind of stories I really like to read there.  But that's exactly why we should keep posting ours there, so there's more variety.

[nicksgal]

Big surprise, but no. I don’t remember. Although I think it was someone we had to ban for it and other things like writing bad reviews of things with an alternate username because she wanted to seem like she had more stars than anyone else? I vaguely remember someone doing that. Lol back I’m the day there used to be so much drama here

*slips Mare some ginko biloba* Does that help?

See that's a perfect reason to remove the stars. People can't just go around creating fake usernames to make themselves look better. What a crazy thing to do for something we all do out of the love of fandom and the joy of writing!

[nicksgal]

back I’m the day there used to be so much drama here

Surfing through old threads has reminded me of all the drama there used to be around here!  So many conversations about Nick romance vs. everything else.  I do miss the debates though; a little drama can be entertaining, especially when it's frivolous fanfic drama, not the "Brian is a racist"/"Nick is a rapist" drama we've been dealing with for the last few years.  A part of me would love for Tanja to pop back up and start plagiarizing people again.  That kind of stuff always worked to unite the fandom.

I think part of it had to do with the fact that we finally had a forum to speak our piece (pun absolutely intended) and know that the people who had registered accounts here were generally well written, thoughtful people who could have a discussion with us without it devolving into hate shouting.

There was also drama within the Nick romance department. I always enjoyed when authors who mainly wrote Nick romances had grievances because I always felt like it brought us all together in the "everyone has problems" sector. I would take frivolous fanfic drama any day, because it started some good debates and we were still all talking about something we loved: writing and reading.

Drama about the Boys is hard because it's something that connects us, but I think our opinions on the matters vary a lot more based on outside factors. That and this is a fanfic forum. In the right atmosphere, it should mostly be conversations about writing and reading.

It seems like Tanja realized that we fight back and will do so dirtily if needed. We're dangerous collectively, haha.