Written: 2002.01.03

Updated: 2004.07.26

Around the Internet, there are places such as fanfiction.net and Mediaminer.org where fan-fic authors and fan-artists can post their work in order to reach a larger audience than they would by simply displaying it on their own personal website. Sites such as these often include options for visitors to leave reviews of other people's work. This is helpful because it not only lets the author/artist know what other people think, but it also allows visitors to see what others have had to say about a particular piece of work. I think it's a helpful feature when used properly, as it allows people to comment on a piece without having to directly contact the author/artist. Unfortunately, there are times when people abuse the system. Many people don't seem to realize that a review is suppposed to tell the author/artist what you liked or disliked about their work, and it's your chance to give them constructive criticism to help them improve if you found problems with their work. However, some people use the review space to bash the pairing involved, or write comments that really should be sent directly to the author/artist. Some even leave bad reviews simply to spite the person, perhaps because they didn't review their own works too kindly. Below, you will find examples of reviews I have gotten that really should never have made their way onto the reviewer's keyboard.

The first example is a "review" I got on my Sailormoon fic Bishounen no Mori on Mediaminer.org. Read on and you'll see why I needed to put quotation marks around "review:"

Reviewed By: anonymous On: September 28, 2001 03:22 EDT
Comment/Review:

You really need to fix the formatting. All the side-scrolling needed to read this is downright annoying.
(end of review)

One problem with this is that it says absolutely nothing about the fic itself. I posted it in order to get feedback about the writing, not the formatting. This was something the reviewer should have e-mailed me about personally. This is because, although this person may have had problems when viewing the fic, I have tried looking at it on a couple of different computers using more than one type of browser and I have yet to find the formatting problem they're talking about. If they had e-mailed me and let me know what browser they were using, perhaps I would have been able to find a way to fix the problem. Since they reviewed anonymously and left no e-mail address, there's no way I can fix it for that person or anyone else who is having the same problem, so I guess unless someone can give me more information, the problem will remain indefinitely.

The next example is one that really got to me. It involves a review that I got on a piece of fan-art of Vash and Knives from Trigun that I posted in Mediaminer.org's fan-art page. This one takes advantage of (or, in this case, abuses) Mediaminer's rating system:

Title: ..........uhm..no
Reviewed By: Loozer Artist Joker [MediaMiner Member] On: January 02, 2002 17:10 EST

Rating(s):
Originality: 1 of 10
Artistic Skill: 1 of 10
Use of Media/Medium: 1 of 10
Overall Appearance: 1 of 10

Comment/Review:
...why?
(end of review)

Well, wasn't that nice...this person gave me the lowest rating possible in every category and then asked me "why?" I don't think this person realized just how hurtful it is to essentially ask why I even bothered to draw the picture. This irritated me so much that I felt the need to write the reviewer the following lengthy, irate e-mail. If I seem snotty or condescending at times, it's simply because I figured that if this person wasn't considerate enough to leave me a useful review, there's no reason for me to be worry about their feelings:

I am writing in reply to the "review" (if it can even be called that) that you left for my piece of fan-art entitled "Brotherly Love" on Mediaminer.org. In your review, you gave my work the lowest rating possible and simply wrote the word "why?" in the comments section. I can honestly say that this is one of the least useful reviews I have ever seen. Perhaps you are unclear as to what a review is supposed to consist of. Let me explain: in a review, you are supposed to tell the artist your likes and dislikes about their work. In other words, constructive criticism. Despite the fact that your rating tells me you think my picture is indistinguishable from the random scribblings of a three-year-old, you are unable to give me any reason why you feel this way. A review should consist of more than one word. Simply writing the word "why?" requires the same amount of brain power as saying "you suck," except it leaves things a bit more open-ended, hence my confusion as to your meaning. An artist should never feel the need to contact the reviewer to find out what they meant, as I am doing now. So, since I have no idea what you meant when you asked "why," I will now speculate as to what you could have been trying to tell me.

Perhaps you meant to say, "why did you draw this?" Well, I got an idea for a picture and I decided to draw it. Last time I checked, I had the right to do so.

Or maybe you meant, "why did you post this?" I posted it because I got some positive reactions to it on the Trigun Yaoi Mailing List, so I decided to give it a larger audience by posting it in a more public place.

Perhaps a more likely interpretation of your question is "why did you draw these two characters in this way?" You would ask this if you were not a fan of the pairing I portrayed, and if that's the case, I must return your question back to you and say, why did you even look at the picture if the pairing offends you? Hey, here's a novel idea: Don't look at pictures of pairings you don't like! It's a very simple concept, but apparently one you have failed to grasp (if this is indeed the reason for your negative rating. I really have no idea since your comments were so ambiguous).

So, in closing, I guess my final reply to your question of "why?" is "why not?" If you give no reason for your feelings, I have to make assumptions such as the ones shown above, and I have no reason not to continue drawing more pictures like the one you saw. A review is supposed to clearly inform the artist of your feelings, not leave them scratching their heads in confusion. If someone left you a review like the one you left me, wouldn't you want to find out what they meant? I'm not sure why I bothered with this lenghty e-mail to you, since you only had one word to say to me, but I guess I'm just hoping that this might get you to think before you review, and make sure you actually have something useful to say when you comment on someone else's work.
(end of e-mail)

I wasn't sure if I would get a reply to that monster of a message, but later that day, it came:

I know how to review....the only reson I gave those bad reviews was cuz I disliked the picture and thought it was nasty and wasn't drawn very well, you need not explain anything, just realize a trigun fan doesn't like your work. thank you have a nice day.
(end of e-mail)

Ahhh, and at the word "nasty," the red flags go up indicating that the negative review had to do with the portrayal of twincest. Considering that the picture isn't graphic in any way, that's the only reason I can think of for her using such a word. The comment about it not being drawn very well doesn't bother me, as I will never claim to be a great artist, but the fact that the rating for artistic skill was one out of ten doesn't really fit with that. "Not drawn very well" should be about a five; to me, a one means "indistinguishable scribble." And the originality rating is ridiculous. A one would mean that it was completetly copied from an already existing picture. As I haven't seen any other pictures that look like the one I drew, I would say the originality rating should be at least somewhere in the middle. From the beginning I had the suspision that this person was rating according to the pairing, which is a huge pet-peeve of mine. I will never understand why people purposely go out looking for fan-fics or fan-art of couples they don't agree with and then write bad reviews or just plain flame the person based on that. There's a thing called "audience," people, and if you know you're not part of the audience a piece is directed at, don't bother reviewing it. You're not going to change anyone's mind with your ranting; the only thing you're going to achieve is to cause people like me to scratch our heads and ask, as Loozer Artist Joker so eloquently put it, "why?"

Well, I assumed that since I let her have the last word in our e-mail exchange, Loozer wouldn't feel the need to bother me again. Apparently, I was wrong...Here is her review of another picture I did of Vash and Knives. From this review, it seems this is no longer about the pairing, but rather just a way to annoy me. It's sad, really...

Reviewed By: Loozer Artist Joker [MediaMiner Member] On: January 08, 2002 04:50 EST

Rating(s):
Artistic Skill: 1 of 10
Use of Media/Medium: 1 of 10
Overall Appearance: 1 of 10

Comment/Review:
artstic skill:..bites
use of media/medium:...like a 3 yr old.
overall:...nope...it' sucks.

]:}
(end of review)

Well, at least I know she at least read part of my first e-mail, as she decided to use some of my own words against me. It's funny how uses the part about the picture looking like it was done by a three-year-old, yet she misspells "artistic," doesn't properly punctuate, and, from looking at everything she's written to me so far, apparently has no shift key on her keyboard. By looking at the little evil grinning face at the end, I realized that she thinks that writing me these ridiculous reviews is some kind of joke. However, even knowing she was just trying to provoke me, I couldn't help but e-mail her again (yeah, it probably would have been better just to let it go, but I have problems doing that...). This one is not as long as the first one, and I don't know why I bothered trying to be nice (as in not resorting to swearing or direct insults), but I guess I was just hoping I could get her to realize how stupid and immature she was being through simple logic:

Well, I'm sure you know what this is about. I see you have reviewed my other piece of fan-art now, and have "oh-so-cleverly" used my own words against me. I'm just wondering, if you hated my other piece so much, why you even bothered to look at the second one? Wouldn't it be wiser to assume that you won't like it and just refrain looking at it, instead of feeling the need to view it and give me a second bad review? I already realize that you don't like my work, and that's fine with me; I don't need to be reminded of it everytime I put up a new piece. That being said, I would appreciate it if you don't review my future pieces if you're just going to do what you've done twice already and leave me low ratings with no constructive criticism. No one is forcing you to look at my pictures, and if you and I both know that you're, for whatever reason, automatically not going to like what I draw, I don't need to be reminded again. Once was enough, and to do it a second time shows that you either didn't realize how angry I was the first time, or that you think it's some big joke to try to provoke me. If that's the case, the humor has only reached your end, because I am not amused. I posted my work in order to get serious feedback, not to hear the same thing over and over again from the same person. I hope you will heed my simple request to stop reviewing my works when we both know you won't like them, or, if you can't stop yourself from reviewing, perhaps you could come up with some actual constructive criticism instead of just flaming me. To continue doing what you've done twice before after I have asked you to stop would be petty and childish, and I hope you will respect my feelings as an artist in the future.
(end of e-mail)

And her reply:

*giggles* I did it to waste your time knowing full well you'd go and type out a long e-mail....that and I had forgotten to last time.....and just felt the need to share my vast amounts of live....^___^...if you want serious feedback, here's your serious feedback, draw better. Lean how to shape heads, and body forms and learn how to draw anime , hell if you have to...trace because you royally can't draw Knives or Vash.

Also..I never flamed you, flaming you would've been alot worse.

and you anger amuses me...so very much...if you don't like the reviews sweety....get them taken off...instead of writing a long and highly pointless e-mail which I don't fully read..

oh...once more.......you can't draw.
(end of e-mail)

Well, looks like she finally found the shift key, at least. And, it took four exchanges, but she finally actually told me what she thought was wrong with the pictures. Not that her advice is all that helpful, anyway: "Learn how to draw anime"? There are so many different styles of anime that there isn't one standard drawing style. Also, I thought the point of fan-art was to show off your own style of drawing the characters, not just show off how well you can copy the artist. Well, anyway, that's just her problem, and, even if her advice was totally useless, if she were a good reviewer, she should have given it to me...hmm, oh yeah, the first time she reviewed! After so many exchanges, I, of course, have absolutely no reason to take anything she says seriously. Hell, parts of this e-mail don't even make sense..."I had forgotten to last time..." Forgotten to do what? Forgot to waste my time? Forgot to be an immature bitch? I'm not really sure...and what exactly does "vast amounts of live" mean? I'll assume that "live" means "life," and in that case, I guess I'm just one of those poor saps who hasn't truly lived because I don't go around intentionally pissing off complete strangers. Oh, woe is me. And I do consider what she did to be flaming because it was insulting, immature, and done purely to irritate me. If that's not a flame, I don't know what is. And it's spelled "sweetie," sweetie. Spell checker is your friend. Also, I don't plan on taking the reviews down, as they really only reflect badly on her and not me, and her looking bad doesn't bother me in the least. And about my "long and highly pointless" e-mails, well, writing out my thoughts helps me to cool my anger, and since I was pretty pissed off, I had a lot to say. Also, I like to write, and writing long letters is better practice than just writing one line flames (which I could have easily done). She said that she didn't fully read them, which I guess is why she thought they were pointless. Well, if she can't read and understand a full length letter, I guess I just should have said "You're a bad reviewer and you have nothing useful to say" in the first e-mail, and "You're being stupid and immature, so knock it off, bitch" in the second one. If that sounds harsh, well, the cheap shot at the end of her e-mail only proves that she deserves it. If she needs to have the last word that badly, fine. I'm done corresponding with her. If she continues writing me stupid, pointless reviews, I will post them here, but I won't e-mail her about them any more. She's had her fun, and she'll get tired of this game eventually. I was tired of it from her first review.

Well, it's been awhile, but I have another addition to this page (Gee, lucky me). This one was for my Trigun twincest fic Compromise. I was actually expecting flames on this one from the beginning, and I'm frankly quite surprised that it took this long for someone to flame it (The fic was first posted in May 2002 and was finished March 2003). Anyway, this flame is yet another gem from Mediaminer.org (it seems that's where all the flamers hang out). When I first saw that this review (read: flame) came from someone named story police, I thought perhaps the site admins at Mediaminer had found the story and thought I had given it the wrong rating (I rated it an "R," but there are a few sex scenes that could make it an NC-17). But then I read the review and realized it was just some jackass who can't read warnings properly:

Title: compromise
Reviewed By: story police On: July 25, 2003 10:12 EDT

Rating(s):
Style of Writing: 7 of 10
Spelling & Grammar: 8 of 10
Originality/Creativity: 5 of 10
Enjoyment Factor: 1 of 10
Overall Rating: 4 of 10

Comment/Review:
what type of sick punk write about two brothers having sex with each other. and that story's horrible how you going have him thanking that its wrong and still doing it. fadget story writer
(end of review)

*Sigh* OK, here's the thing. I understood from the beginning that most people would probably be offended by the pairing of this story. Therefore, I put the following warning in the first chapter of the fic to let people know what they were getting in to:

"Prerequisite: Before reading the fic, you must pass this simple test. First, look at this word: Yaoi. Done? OK, now look at this word: Twincest. Now, if you were able to look at these two words and not feel offended by them, you have passed the test and may read the fic. If, however, one or both of these words disgusted you or sent you into "Instant Flamer Mode," I implore you to not read any further. Flames are a stupid waste of time, so prove that you actually have a life by not resorting to them. If you still feel the need to flame, you will simply be added to my page of Review System Abuse, because if you flame after reading a warning like this, you are an idiot who deserves to be mocked."

So here's a person who obviously did not meet with the prerequisite yet decided to read the fic anyway. Fucker. I don't see what they were trying to accomplish with this flame. What, do they think they're going to change the mind of anyone who already likes this pairing with their stupid insults? Did they feel I would be enlightened by being called a "fadget story writer" and would realize the error of my ways and beg god for forgiveness? I don't know, I really can't figure out what goes through the heads of these flamers. I've said it before and I'll unfortunately probably have to say it again: If you don't like the pairing in a story THEN DON'T READ THE FUCKING STORY!!! Nobody gives a shit that you don't like it, and you're not going to change anyone's mind with your flames, so stop wasting other people's (and your own) time.

As for this person in particular, well, I can at least say they sort of attempted to give an actual review with the numbers they gave (as opposed to Loozer who gave me a "1" in every category). It seems they didn't just look at the pairing and automatically write a flame. Still, they ended up writing a flame anyway (complete with horrible spelling and punctuation) and felt the need to resort to insults...I'll assume that "fadget" means "faggot," in which case this person must not know anything about the nature of yaoi, as it's mostly written by heterosexual females for heterosexual females. *Sigh* It's really too bad that people are still using insults like this. Calling an author by offensive names (that sometimes don't even apply to them) is not going to make them agree with your already flawed logic.

Here we go again. I actually got this one quite a few months ago, but, as longtime viewers of my pages (do they exist?) know, it takes me awile to get around to things. Anyway, this next one didn`t come from a website, but it was an email (email is a review system, right? Oh, hell, I just love bashing flamers :P) It`s another one regarding "Compromise" (surprise, surprise). Here it is:

From: Mangagoddess17@aol.com
Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 17:12:28 EST
Subject: dear pervert
To: sailorspazz@yahoo.com

I am a part of Trigun and I really don't appreciate what you have done to me. I am never the kind to reduce myself to something as low and crass as incest or "twincest" as you called it. I think you are just a simpleton who knows that you could never get a man like me so you think its right to make me gay so no one can have me. I must say i was thoroughly grossed out at your story and I think that anyone else would be as well. Whatever happened to love and peace? Did you miss the memo or something? I think that you deserve to have your computer smashed in if all you can think about writing is pure garbage that only the sickest mind could have written. It says a lot about you if you put down something that comes from your own perverse mind and expect others to swoon at it. You are disgracing a show that is supposed to promote kindness in the world and clean issues. I want you to know that I have informed others about what you have done and you can be sure that they and everyone else will never visit your site.0^0^

Unsincerely- the REAL Vash The Stampede

(end of email)

OK, so this one was more funny than irritating. Always remember, you always sound infinitely more credible when you claim to be a character from a TV series....after all, it`s obvious that if Vash went online, he would think of himself as a "manga goddess," right? I know this person probably didn`t even read the story, but what in it doesn`t promote love and peace? Knives gets sex (love) and doesn`t kill things anymore (peace). Ha! Boo yah, I showed that flamer (if they ever find this page and read it, that is). And when in the fic did I say that I expected others to swoon over it? If anything, I always berate myself within my own fics, and people decide to "swoon" on their own, as shown by the approximately 70 positive reviews I`ve gotten so far on ff.net and mm.org. And, unless you manage to erase it from the web, I highly doubt you can keep everyone from coming to my website....some people are bound to stumble accross it accidently, after all ^_-