#we are on the 'how dare you say we piss on the poor' website what more can we expect

[andthebeanstalk]

the average person doesn't expect you to be a perfect ethical consumer, that's not possible for the vast majority of us. but what youre saying is it's better to do nothing at all and choose the worst possible options (sweat shops, overseas shipping waste, idea/product theft, all wrapped up in SHEIN) than to put even the tiniest effort in where you can.

[they are referring to this post]

What I said was "some people are doing literally everything they can to survive and have no extra bandwidth to spend extra time and money on their purchases, and it is cruel and therefore un-punk to gatekeep punkness and add additional shame to these people's lives based on that fact."

I think it's still a good thing to try to ethically consume; I literally never said it wasn't. I had never even heard of SHEIN before. Rather, I am much more concerned about what I saw as arbitrary gatekeeping based on ability and income.

And frankly how dare you claim that I am supporting sweatshops and abuse by saying that this additional work you are demanding (in this case, presumably, vetting every clothing company you buy from) is not always possible for people. It is not a light accusation to accuse me of supporting abuse.

"How dare you say we piss on the poor", Etc. 🙄 this isn't Twitter. You are determined to enforce moral purity, but you are failing to see the nuance.

Because when I say "no extra bandwidth," I mean no extra bandwidth. This is not the "car shows it's on E but actually secretly it has a lot of gas left" situation that abled people constantly assume disabled people mean when they say they are at their limit.

This is "at a certain point, people will hit a wall in terms of money and time and energy, and any energy spent after that comes directly out of their life force."

So the argument "okay but just spend a little more time money and energy actually" is not a valid one.

And the argument "if you are not able to do this specific task, then it means you're not doing anything else to make the world a better place" doesn't exactly impress me either. You said yourself that it is impossible to be a perfectly ethical consumer for most people.

How do you know what else people are doing to resist oppression? How many hours per week until your standards are met?What if someone works 3 jobs? Does that mean it's harder to be a good person if you're poor?? Why do you get to decide what specific avenue of bettering the world is the most morally repugnant or acceptable? What kind of proof of goodness and effort would make you satisfied enough to lay off on the shame?? Who are you helping??

Clothing is a fundamental human need, and some of us have to buy cheap fucking clothes quickly. Billionaires are buying their seventh yacht this month. The people who own fast fashion companies are abusing their workers and putting local affordable clothing stores out of business - and this applies for basically every company with price points that low because governments are failing to regulate corporations to enforce basic human rights.

I have $300 to spend on a new wardrobe as my old clothes have fallen apart or become too small. Do you have a way for me to get a new winter coat, 3 flannels, 10 shirts, 3 dress shirts, new sandals, 10 pairs of pants, 5 bras, 12 pairs of socks, and 10 pairs of underwear within that budget and also definitely 100% ethically sourced, with free returns in case it doesn't fit? Or will I simply have to use the cheap stores?

I have about an hour to spend on this per week. Should I continue to wear small and tattered clothing until I have the time, money, and energy to meet your standards? Did you know there are more empty homes in this country than homeless people? If I decide to splurge on only 100% ethically-produced products, and I can't make rent, and I become homeless, are YOU going to be there for me?? Or are you busy litigating the endless tiny shames of poverty in your own community?

So I ask you again, are you sure this is where you want to direct your punk energy? Because energy and time, as it turns out, are limited resources. And I would never expect you to secretly have more than you claim to have.

#original #punk #hopepunk #cripplepunk #i swear to god #reading comprehension website #how dare you say we piss on the poor #jfc 'what you're saying is we should do nothing' - what I'm saying is YOU are doing nothing by enforcing this boundary #you have to give people more credit than this. i believe you want a better world too. and it would be cool if you used your energy to #instead ask 'how do i fight for the people in my community to be clothed and have the time and income to shop ethically?' #or 'how do i support activism that pushes for regulation that could control these companies?' #monitoring how poor people spend money is a supremely Republican thing to do. as is demanding clear moral purity from every scenario. #you want a better world too. you want to demand your peers do better. - fine. good. #but you need to be asking if you have remembered and included everyone's needs when making statements like this. #capitalism is all for forgetting about poor and disabled people and refusing to believe their limits. #shame is a necessary weapon in fighting greed but it IS a weapon. be so careful where you point that shit. enough shame can kill a person #and a lot of us are already defending from it from all sides. #shaming a person who is already at their limit for not doing more is an act of cruelty. think very carefully about what that means please. #i literally don't even know what SHEIN is lol i just know classism when i see it #but I've had friends whose clothes were visibly falling apart with no income and so much so shame so deep in their hearts they were dying #and if they had seen that post it would have made them even sicker and gotten them no closer to the dignity of being properly clothed #shame is a weapon and /you need to be careful!!!!/

[casiavium]

#sorry to any recent ghira///link enjoyers #happens about once every 2-3 years #we are on the 'how dare you say we piss on the poor' website what more can we expect #i feel kinda bad that I'm wary of anyone who likes Ghirahim now tbh. guilty until proven innocent but the block button offers no second try #sometimes I see friends/mutuals reblog from blogs I know to be Fucking Weird about them but like. i don't say shit!! i don't fucking care #mind your own business and I'll mind mine #I do hate that blocking isn't like. completely block. i can still see if someone reblogs from someone I've blocked/they blocked me #it's funny to figure out though when I try to reblog and it goes oops! your connection doesn't work :( sorry! #ngl a couple of times I've been like. did i accidentally block my own side blog 😭 #tumblr stop being a coward and just straight up tell me. I'm from more cows than people county my connection never works 😭 #and with the whole bot seige I did accidentally block people who were real 💀 sorry lmao #vagueposting #yeah. this is pretty vague. iykyk don't hmu. real ones only (said like an emo teen on Snapchat) #ALSO I'm sure the people directly involved have dealt with this before I'm directing this to the unfortunate few who followed me #for something other than zelda and ended up sucked into this. sorry xoxo✌️

[firelordhotman]

friendly reminder that even if youre open about something on your blog, even if you think its so obviously right in your about/description/pinned/whatever, most of the people who will interact with you are not even looking that far at your blog. they dont know your name or your pronouns or your disabilities or your interests or your credentials or whatever you think is just *so obvious* that they *must* be intentionally ignoring it just to hurt you. ESPECIALLY not if theyre a random stranger who youve never interacted with once before, has never interacted with you once before either, and has absolutely zero reason to care about you. its not a personal attack, its just a fact. this is literally the internet

#i am TIRED. yes this is a vaguepost idc #utter stranger shows up in my notifs DEMANDING i explain a simple little joke tag about me and my loved ones experiences #as if i owe them the slightest ounce of attention in my day #and then when i do explain my & my loved ones lived experiences. they get mad & say im using THEIR personal experiences as a weapon #like. i dont have the slightest clue what your personal experiences are! i dont even know your name!! and i dont want to nor do i have to!! #i dont mean this rudely. but factually: you are not important enough to me to care even a little bit about your experiences #i dont bring up suicide or addiction or any shit like that because its Your experience. bc i have no fucking idea what your experience is #i talk about those things because its MY EXPERIENCE. that IM TALKING ABOUT. in the tags of a post that doesnt belong to either of us no les #this is probably the last thing im gonna post abt this bc i know youre still up my ass looking at everything i post rn #but to finish off. i was never even making a Point about anything in the tag. i wasnt starting discourse about anything. #it was just an Acknowledgement of a shared experience that me and many of my loved ones have. whether u like it or not #like literally i dngaf if YOU personally wouldnt describe your experience that way. We do describe it that way! We can be different #i just made a silly little tag for my friends to see. and YOU decided that you were entitled to both hear my life story and blatantly #misinterpret everything i say about it. like literal 'how dare you say we piss on the poor' type shit #like. saying 'x can cause y' does not mean im saying 'y is literally x' fucking OBVIOUSLY. god #i didnt fucking ask for this! YOU DID!! YOURE the one who DEMANDED it of me unprompted #& clearly must have just gone looking thru the tags of posts for ppl to beef with lollllll #i mean cmon. you didnt follow me i didnt follow you and that wasnt even your post. theres no other explanation lmao its p obvious #anyway i hope u find a better hobby or at least a more fun and fulfilling way to use this website. sincerely #at least get some better critical thinking skills before picking stupid arguments with random strangers online #but hey! play stupid games win stupid prizes<3 right?? #also one final note: to hear someone talking about the lived experiences of them and their real life loved ones and go 'hmm. sounds fake'. #its just giving Friendless. its giving 'how could anyone make fun art without doing crazy drugs!!'. #its giving 'Wait yall have friends irl? i thought it was just a joke'. its fucking hilarious and im gonna think about it forever #thank u for a lifetime supply of laughs godspeed

[neroushalvaus]

Tumblr in the 60s

☮ monkeewholock follow

🎉🎉CONGRATULATIONS UNITED KINGDOM 🎊🎊🎉🎉🎉🎉BYE BYE GROSS INDECENCY!!!!🌈🌈🌈 62 countries have now legalized sexual activities between men🌈🌈🌈

🐞 homophilespock follow

SPIRK CAN FINALLY FUCK

🚀 starrfleet follow

They are American, not British... But I'm pretty sure spirk has always been able to fuck since the show is set in the future.

📻 lesbianbobdylan follow

Christ, this is not about your cutesy uwu yaoi otp, go outside and smoke some grass

10,8 t. notes

🌻 flowerpower follow

Politicians are not your friends but damn Kennedy is fine, I look at one (1) picture of him and my head literally explodes

🌻 flowerpower follow

...i just woke up, why is my askbox full

🌻 flowerpower follow

WHY IS HE TRENDING I'M SCARED

🌻 flowerpower follow

guys stop reblogging this it's been like five years i've changed

290,9 t. notes

🎹 nixonsafascist follow

do you think they call him little richard because he has a little. Richard

🎹 nixonsafascist follow

easy website

58,1 t. notes

🇻🇳 shirellesofficial follow

Being the only lesbian in your friend group sucks so bad. "beatles or stones??" i will kill you

🗣 lavendermenaceisreal-deactivated72537262

Disrespecting female social groups for male validation? Typical lesbian behaviour.

🇻🇳 shirellesofficial follow

Mike Jacker isnt gonna fuck you

🇻🇳 shirellesofficial follow

Oh no I think she couldn't handle that

77 notes

✌ draftdodgerdyke

DM me for the addresses of my Swedish and Canadian friends. Do not put your personal information in the reblogs.

🙍‍♀️ silvermilk follow

You should be ashamed of yourself.

✌ draftdodgerdyke

huh??

🙍‍♀️ silvermilk follow

I said, you should be ashamed of yourself. You disgust me. I assure you, when the commies attack us, you will not find your silly little post "groovy" anymore.

✌ draftdodgerdyke

Jesus, don't flip your wig

🙍‍♀️ silvermilk follow

My father fought in ww2 for you ungrateful degenerate.

✌ draftdodgerdyke

Don't see what your daddy's unsexiness has to do with me and my lads taking a sexy sexy trip to Sweden.

#anyway only hot guys dodge the draft

587 notes

🪕 prostitutesandlesbians follow

in every interview i watch of the beatles they are so DONE and trolling everybody, these fucking annoying BITCHES, i need them inside me so badly

🪕 prostitutesandlesbians follow

#this but not john lennon #i just can't forget the heinous things he said about jesus

idk I actually think it was very sexy of him, stop trying to cancel john in my post

✝️ jesusrevolution follow

The reading comprehension on this website is piss poor. John literally didn't mean he was greater than Jesus or better than Jesus, he was just trying to make a point about the world becoming more secular. Cancel culture has gone too far.

🚷 to-hell-with-the-beatles follow

How dare you say we piss on the poor?? Jesus died for Mr Lennon's sins and it's not "cancelling" to send him a few respectably worded death threats to remind him of that. He cancelled our Lord first!

✝️ jesusrevolution follow

Girl Jesus literally said it's cool, I dropped acid yesterday and saw Him and He told me.

🪕 prostitutesandlesbians follow

help the girls (christians) are fighting in my beatles thirst post

6,008 notes

🛼 donovandyke follow

I will be glued to the tv today. If you don't want to hear about it, just blacklist #moonlanding !!

0 notes

🗣 claudeberger4ever-deactivated98975287

Hi I'm new to the Hair musical fandom so I'm not super invested in the whole discourse, but I just felt like this needed to be said: Friendly reminder that not being against the war in Vietnam does not make you a bad person!

🥁 ringoforpresident follow

it literally does tho

✌ draftdodgerdyke

Another win for us hot guys

17,2 t. notes

#how do i TAG THIS #can i just tag this ''funny'' or is that patting myself on the back too much #memes #dashboard meme #dash meme #1960s #my friend tirlittan came up with ''draftdodgerdyke'' #i want that fictional blogger carnally #funny #tumblr in the 60s

[taylorranhome]

tumblr users learn the difference between profit and income challenge

#sorry gang but I'm seeing a lot of how dare you say we piss on the poor takes #my goal for any company I enjoy is to break even + a little to reinvest in improving the company #I don't want to rely on volunteer or underpaid labour #yeah girl we know there's no ethical consumption under capitalism #but things are not as simple as website = billionaires #local artisans can scam you too #there's nuance #I don't know what the accounts actually say #but I do know that if something is losing money their choices are to change their product to make it more profitable or to shut it down #unless a parent company is keeping it alive while it loses money because it provides some other non-financial benefit to them #just use your fucking critical thinking skills #if you don't want to give a company your money then don't #but don't pretend people are bootlickers for buying ad free browsing for a website they use every day #I was under the impression we didn't want companies beholden to corporate advertisers

[beeseverywhen]

God grant me the strength to ignore that bad post on the internet and the wisdom to walk the fuck away

#it's haunting me. haunting me #there are people on this website with reading comprehension that is SO POOR. who are leaving replies that are SO STUPID #but I'm being so brave about it #i desperately want to leave a reply to their 'i didn't read what you wrote so now I'm going to reply to an imaginary version of the post' #with 'how dare you say we piss on the poor' #but do you know what? i really don't need to start arguments with people on the internet. i don't need to. I'm not gonna. I'm not.

[faustandfurious]

#feanor speaks

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

This is for the followers (admin, ty for your dedication): please abstain from voting/giving advice when you haven't read the whole post. It's clear that some people don't know what they're talking about. I don't say this because I don't agree with the takes, but because they literally contradict the information/important context submitted. I'm just worried that OPs will take bad advice/self-judgement based on that. Not that this is a therapist's office, no once holds that responsibility etc. But if you really wanna help, then don't half-ass it?

I agree but tbf we are on the "how dare you say we piss on the poor" website

[stardivinefinale-moved]

I know this is the "how dare you say we piss on the poor" website but it's so fucking infuriating to see people go ballistic when someone makes a post about how hobies laces mean copkiller because "oh the code is regional >:((( stop spreading misinformation" like damn I wonder what regional code the British character uses. and what the blue stands for in Britain. what a stretch to think that the punk character would have copkiller shoelaces.

#you are all SO fucking stupid #atsv spoilers #across the spiderverse #hobie brown #spiderverse #jessie.pdf

[genderkoolaid]

Hey this feels like kinda a dumb question but when you criticize someone for bad reading comprehension is that what you mean literally? I see that a lot on tumblr and I can't really tell if it's a knee jerk reaction, if it means they're not listening or trying to understand, or if you genuinely think they can't understand what you meant and that's the dig.

I think generally "bad reading comprehension" refers to when someone reads a post that is generally well-explained and makes its point clear, and they wildly misinterpret its point in a way that is extremely detached from anything the post itself was trying to say.

The classic example is the post where someone said "the reading comprehension on this site is piss poor" and someone jokingly responded, "how dare you say we piss on the poor?" Obviously this is a joke, but it still sums up the general idea: someone makes a post that is very clear in what it is trying to say, and someone has a wild misinterpretation, often based in bad-faith readings and knee-jerk reactions that lack critical thinking. in this case, the point would be "people on this website are really bad at accurately interpreting discussion posts and make a lot of sweeping claims", and the misinterpretation would be "you are literally accusing tumblr users of pissing on the poor because you used a very common phrase and are criticizing us". It both doesn't engage with the original point being made at all, and comes to a wild conclusion about that point that no one would reasonably draw from the original post.

Obviously its not necessarily someone's fault when they misinterpret a post, but there are a lot of cases where the misinterpretation is 1. extremely far from the actual intention of the post, to the point where its an annoying derailment, and 2. extremely emotional/provocative, taking the misinterpretation not just from confusion but to "how DARE you say [x thing that has nothing to do with your point]", so its not just an unintentional derailment but one that is often rude or inflammatory when you were never making the point they are getting upset about. I think generally it speaks to how a lot of people do not put a lot of critical thought into things they see or write, and that a lot of people are very unexperienced/unwilling to learn how to critically engage with things yet continue to engage and be reactionary and inflammatory.

#m. #ask box

[comicaurora]

I really dislike the posts that are like "IF YOU DON'T RB UR A BAD PERSON AND HATE ME" or whatever THAT'S manipulation. But for the posts that are like "hey if you like my art/other ppl's art it's good to reblog!!!" Those are like. Imagine if it's an irl small little business that relies entirely on people coming in and knowing about you, and someone comes to your shop and likes your stuff, maybe buys from you maybe doesn't whatever whatever; you'd probably encourage them to come back again or subscribe for updates if they really liked it, and you would ALSO probably ask them to tell their friends about you, because that's a part of their livelihood. Obviously phrasing is important and again the guilt tripping is shitty, but most people aren't ACTUALLY demanding anything from people coming by, and with the twitter exodus, a lot of the twitter artists DO have art as their livelihood and NEED discoverability/popularity. They don't have a platform that's self-sufficient yet. It's not guilt tripping to ask for validation and shareability, and maybe I'M being a little presumptuous on your intent here but I'm actually mildly shocked you as a creator dependent on views would be critical of that sentiment and not acknowledge the nuance.

You know, I knew tumblr did this, and I still chose to post a short and snappy opinion on the "how dare you say we piss on the poor" website.

Not everything I say is caveated for every possible read on the subject. "Likes are worthless and if you don't reblog everyone will think you're a dick" is a take I find frustrating and weirdly entitled. My statement says nothing about the actual value of reblogs or the softer-touch takes about how a reblog can help out an artist. It says exactly what it says: I am baffled by people who are given praise and validation for their work and dismiss it as worthless unless accompanied by active advertisement. We are in agreement about which posts are a problem and which ones aren't.

As an online creator I understand the value of attention. I am very lucky to have built up a sizeable audience across various platforms over the last ten years, and for the first three of those years my audience was quite small and cozy. I never, ever expected so many people to like my work, and I am still shocked and grateful when people tell me they enjoy it. I've never even done "like-comment-subscribe it helps the algorithm" calls to action, and I have never pressured or guilted my audience into giving me attention, because I think an audience acquired through guilt and pressure and weird manipulation tactics is not an audience that's actually getting something out of my art.

So when I see these "welcome newcomers, reminder that if you only like without reblogging you're personally killing artists" it makes me feel like I'm seeing someone open a birthday present and immediately throw it in the trash because they wanted the more expensive model.

Reblog if you want, like what you like, don't do anything you don't want to do. I'm done talking about this.

#asks #not aurora

[the-real-rain-world-confessions]

i can’t believe the “how dare you say we piss on the poor” website constantly takes shit in the worst faith possible. like some of the confessions on here are just people straight up not understanding what the fuck “fanon” and “headcanons” mean. why do people defend artists’ rights to draw slugcats with fur/iterators not like muppets, but then turn around and whine about “fanon arti” and shit. makes no damn sense, just follow better blogs if you don’t like the headcanons you’re seeing right now!

personally i love everyone’s different takes. they’re your blorbos, fuck anyone else who seethes over how you portray them. you’re having fun and they’re making themselves miserable by focusing on stuff they hate. keep creating your fanon content please!!! i’m cheering you on!!!

.

#rain world confession

[bloggingboutburgers]

Different anon but, to be fair, as wonderful a comic artist as you can get it's pretty much impossible to make sure that NO ONE misinterprets your art. People just see what they want to see a lot of the time, and even the most straightforward, clear as day message can get misinterpreted. You can't account for everyone's experiences, biases, way of thinking and interpreting, etc. and any change you make is just going to open up the doors for a DIFFERENT misinterpretation. So while I do agree that part of being an artist is looking for an effective way to convey your message, and if the vast majority of people reading didn't get the message then yeah it's probably useful to try and think about how you could have conveyed it better, as a general rule the fact that a bunch of people misinterpreted doesn't necessarily mean that there was any fault on your part. People read the same thing and take away different messages, it's normal, not to mention that we are literally on the "how dare you say we piss on the poor" website lol Anyway, I love your art, thank you for all your hard work ❤

Haha yeah that's a fair point TwT I've definitely misinterpreted comics that had a clear-as-day message I still couldn't see for what it was in the past, because I was in a place of hurt and my gut reaction kept being "yeah this is bullshit"... So I'd be hypocritical if I said I don't get it 🙈 Thnak you so much for the kind words tho <

#i'll keep doing my best 🤞 #anon

[cosmignon]

tumblr staff really fucking with the "how dare you say we piss on the poor" website by obsfucating whatever dumb changes they wanna make behind their shareholder meeting text post so not only are they actually doing shit we need to be vocally against but theyve also made it hard for ppl to rally bc everyones confused about what they actually mean

#era of sara #posts made bc i keep seeing posts that are fear mongering about half truthes re; changes

[fimproda]

Author talks: (Negative) Opinions and reviews

(Grab some snacks and a drink. This is a chunky boi.)

This post was a long time coming.

I wrote a version of what you're about to read back in, like, 2019, on my Italian Wattpad profile, after years spent dealing with ungrateful authors and being called rude, wrong, and whatever negative adjective you can and cannot think of.

It's time to address this topic yet again, in English, here on Tumblr, hoping to reach as many people as possible and, the writing gods willing, change a mind or two.

The straw that broke the camel's back (or rather, my back) was a series of TikTok videos, made by a bunch of Italian booktokers, either in support or in opposition to another booktoker who had dared to review a pretty popular book that had made its rounds on Wattpad before being self-published on Amazon.

It so happened that I, for one, knew the author from our shared time on Wattpad, and I also knew the book, which wasn't good back then and is not any better now; moreover, I saw the video review and I agreed with the booktoker's every word, especially with the way this girl kept an even, calm, almost professional tone and justified every critique.

So you can imagine my surprise when a veritable swarm of detractors began stitching this booktoker's video, saying that her opinions were wrong, that she was bullying the author, and yadda yadda yadda; thankfully, some other booktokers were on her side, but this also meant that this back-and-forth shitstorm went on for days, and maybe it hasn't even ended yet.

I need to add that the author blocked this poor girl on every social media, and the book's most passionate readers (the ones that the author brought over from Wattpad and the author's friends/family, I assume) flocked to the booktoker's other accounts to keep blaming and disgracing her.

All this over a negative, yes, but overall objective and respectful review.

And it doesn't end here.

Many other straws continued to destroy the camel's back.

For instance, some accounts I follow for fandom content on Instagram or even here on Tumblr, who for the most part are not authors themselves, make a point to regularly remind people not to tag authors in their negative reviews of those authors' books.

On the other side of the coin, I've seen some authors, especially on TikTok, flip their shit over a "negative" review (and I should add even more quotes around the word negative, to be honest). Some even stated that a 3 out of 5 stars rating is a negative one, saying, "What would you think if a person called you 3/5 cute?!"

I don't know about them, or about you, but I would preen like a peacock if someone called me 3/5 cute.

(It'd be different if they said I was 3/10 cute, of course, but we can't really expect basic maths from some people, can we?)

Back in my Wattpad days, I've even stumbled upon someone who said that, seeing as all content on Wattpad is free (which is not even true nowadays, but whatever), no one has any right to leave a negative review. @zoyalannister can vouch for this; in fact, I believe it was her who sent me a screenshot of that comment, and we're still shocked about it years later.

I'm sure that some authors among you will understand how utterly pissed I get when I read, hear about, or get otherwise involved with such things.

So, with all this in mind, let's clear up a few things, shall we?

None of us is writing because we've got a gun to our head. We're writing, posting, interacting with readers, and everything related to this, because we want to.

In wanting this, we make our works public.

Some websites like AO3 allow us to choose if we'd like to "protect" our stories by keeping them out of reach of the unregistered users, but for the most part, everyone can search for our works, read them, and comment on them.

These are the terms and conditions. And yes, nobody really reads the terms and conditions before accepting them, but this doesn't give us a right to bitch about the consequences when they come a' knockin' at our door, does it?

Fuck around and find out, am I right?

Granted, there's comment and comment. If I, reader, come to you, author, and start insulting you, your family, your cow, and the interior designer who remodeled your kitchen, you have every right to call me all kinds of names (I wouldn't do that if I were the author, as it would mean debasing myself to the reader's level, but anyway) and slam-dunk my opinion into the trash.

(Yes, this happened to me. I've been insulted. One girl went as far as offering to, and I quote, "shit on your head, so that you close that sewer of a mouth". Context: I had commented on a story—not this girl's story: she was another reader, the author actually agreed with me—saying that I thought something was cacophonic; in Italian, this word sounds very similar to the verb cagare, which, indeed, means "to shit".)

Same thing if I, reader, come to you, author, and correct your grammar when there's absolutely no reason for me to do so, because your grammar is already correct.

(This happened to me, too. Many, many times. I know I've got an impeccable grammar in Italian; I even scored third in my age category at the nationwide Italian language Olympics when I wasn't even sixteen years old. I've been reading since I was, like, three or four, and "seriously" writing since I was thirteen. But people didn't like when I corrected their grammar, so they felt the need to come and correct mine. One memorable occasion was when a girl declared, in all seriousness, that the second singular person of the imperative of the verb fare must be always written as fa', with the apostrophe, and that my writing it as fai was wrong, because that was the second singular person of the indicative of fare. She ignored both that 1. the indicative and the imperative are the same exact thing in most cases, and 2. fa' and fai are the exact same thing as well, with the apostrophe representing the elision of the final i.)

Or, same as above, but exchanging grammar for, I don't know, a historical event, or a certain piece of information, or that kind of stuff in general, when you author were in the right and it's my sources that were wrong.

(An author, who was in university at the time, told me that she didn't know what inflation and spending power were, and so she hadn't accounted for them in her story. This happened after I mentioned those things when I pointed to her that you wouldn't hire an assassin in the 1960s with the same amount of money you would use nowadays. If I recall correctly, that author was majoring in a STEM field.)

(As a counterpoint, I was positive, for a long-ass time, that the hip bones were in fact a hip bone—meaning, that I should use the singular word, cresta iliaca, instead of the plural version, creste iliache. A reader corrected me on this, and I'm still thanking her today.)

You understand what I mean, right? Don't let me insult your intelligence by spoon-feeding you the meaning of my words.

But.

But.

If I, reader, come to you, author, and either correct your grammar when it's wrong, or a certain piece of information you chose to include in your story that is wrong, or whatever I decide to comment that could be perceived as negative—

—but I justify my point, cite my sources, maybe even linking them if possible, and keep my opinion contextualized and objective, you must at the very least lend me an ear and listen to what I have to say.

Never, in my nine years of roaming the fandom part of the Internet, have I ever written a comment on a fic saying something that I just pulled out of my ass, without checking first if there was any merit to my words. Never.

@zoyalannister can also vouch for this, as she's known me for eight of those nine years and witnessed many, if not all, of my altercations with my fellow Wattpad authors over my opinion of their story (which, allow me to clarify, they had literally asked me for—but again, even if they hadn't, their works were public and open for anyone to comment on, and I still would've been in the right).

Alas, it appears that many authors lack the self-awareness and self-criticism I believe are needed if you want to try your hand at writing, especially if you want to do it professionally.

And, good God, so do many readers.

Why, oh, why do some readers (some non-authors) go around proselitizing that people shouldn't tag authors in their negative reviews?!

Are they close personal friends with an author who doesn't like to be tagged in negative reviews of their books? Are they being paid to push this agenda? Do they have such a terrible relationship with criticism in every way, shape, or form that they feel like it's okay to get mad on someone else's behalf and dictate other people's actions?

These people like to say—parrot, is more like it—that negative reviews either don't benefit anyone, which is such an enormous pile of bullshit that I don't even know where to start dismembering it, or could only benefit the reader, essentially working as a way to help someone decide whether or not to read and/or buy that particular book.

I think negative reviews benefit both the author and the reader.

As an author, particularly as a Wattpad/AO3 author (but, if I understand correctly, self-published authors on Amazon can edit the digital version of their book with more or less the same ease), I cherish each and every correction comes my way, precisely because I can edit my text right away and, by doing that, make it better.

Aside from "small" corrections with regard to grammar or some other objective aspect of my fics, good, chunky, lenghty, justified, contextualized negative reviews in general help me rework my stories and make them better, both retroactively and for the future.

What I just said also applies to the flip side of the coin, when it's me, as a reader, writing the negative review.

Instead, with regards to reading negative reviews, even though I myself never look at reviews when deciding whether or not to add something to my already gargantuan TBR list, I can see why some people would rather read the reviews and survey the ratings before making that choice.

I should warn you, though, if you're one of these people, that very few reviews, be they positive or negative, can be taken at face value.

(In what follows, I will be talking almost exclusively about negative reviews, but everything I say can be applied to positive ones, as well.)

In my twenty-two years of age, I've come to the unfortunate conclusion that not everyone can truly read, and even fewer people can truly write, so the first problem you could run into is this: the person behind the review either understood fuck-all about the book they just read, or they did understand something but cannot put their opinion into words, or they didn't understand the book and cannot put their opinion into words.

The second problem is that some negative reviews are written with a specific purpose in mind, which is entertainment in some cases, clout in some others. Yet again, @zoyalannister knows how many times I barged into our Whatsapp chat to tell her that a SJM detractor on TikTok straight-up invented some stuff to rant about, subsequently getting views and likes and comments and general activity on their account.

Moral of the story: don't believe everything you see or hear about on the Internet, and always, always form your own opinion based on facts, not hearsay.

(Funnily enough, this is how I got hooked on SJM: I wanted to form my own opinion about her books. The rest is history.)

And, moral of the whole story:

Readers: as long as your opinion is not a personal insult to the author or even threatens to spill into that territory, and as long as the author didn't explicitly say that they don't want to be tagged in a negative review, don't ever restrain yourself from writing one and/or tagging the author, whatever other people might tell you.

Readers: stop speaking on authors' behalf. Not every single one of us will lose their mind if confronted with a negative review. Some of us are searching for just that. Let it be, as it should, an individual decision.

Readers: contrary to popular belief, you do not need to suggest an alternative route for all the things you comment negatively on. You do not need to sweeten the pill for the author with the proverbial spoonful of sugar. You do, however, need to explain the reasoning behind everything you say (or at least that's my opinion).

Readers: I will never block, slander, or insult you if you write me a negative review, even if you don't use the same courtesy towards me and your opinion is not justified in any way. In that case, I will only get mad and refute your every point, as I believe is my right to do.

Authors: don't be a bitch and listen to your readers, if they're making sense. Don't try to convince yourself that they're not making sense when they are.

Authors: look at your works with a judging eye. Be your first critic, be your own critic.

Authors: when facing a negative review, don't hide behind half-assed explanations or apologies or, God forbid, suspension of disbelief. If you fucked up, you fucked up. Cherish the reader who told you that, who maybe even told you how to fix it.

Authors: some reviews have to be destructive before they can be constructive. If there's mold on your bathroom ceiling, you don't just paint over it: you remove the mold first, and then paint over it.

Readers and authors: conduct yourself with dignity. Keep your cool, be level-headed, turn on your brain. And always, always, tell the truth.

Aaand I'm done.

A huge thank you (and congratulations) to everyone who got this far. Unfortunately, I'm everything but laconic.

I'd like to hear your thoughs about all this!

#author talks #authors #review #book review #ao3 #ao3 fanfic #ao3 writer #read on ao3 #writeblr #fanfic #fanfiction #wattpad

[suchaflurryflurry]

i think it’s clear that staff needs some kind of like…idk what the word is…just like someone to look at their statements regarding site changes and go: “hey! this is the “how dare you say we piss on the poor” website! people will misunderstand this and get mad! please clarify in simple terms within the announcement what you are and aren’t doing!”