*No, it isn't!*

(What is this, Kindergarten? Give actual arguments or don't argue at all.)

 

AlternateHistory.com ladies and gentlemen.

Pictured is the reason why I'm no longer posting in HP-related threads there.

 

I've been there a month or so and haven't seen a single HP-related story I thought was readable.

Also, no one criticizes anyone for shitty storytelling or just plain bad writing.

 

That website's better for history-related stuff (hence the name), with a whole lot of ASOIAF shit.

With that said, I will admit they aren't as big on constructive criticism as you guys. Although that's probably because they aren't writers so much as history nerds, more interested in minute details about the World-Building than the actual story.

Moving on: a mind-bogglingly long story. Sometimes, I see the word count of a story and immediately decide not to bother reading it.

 

I tried that.

Got a warning for being too harsh and I was also told "Don't like it? Don't read it!"

 

Rogue/Rouge.

I've had enough. I'll start sacrificing to the Dark Gods if this continues.

 

I actually like it when a story has a massive word count if it is atleast a decent story, it becomes a great time waster.

 

Why would you want to waste your time though?

Better to spend your time well with a good story rather than wasting it with a bad one

 

Thats why I wrote that the story had to be atleast decent(3/5 material), most of the good ones have already been found and I've lowered my standards.

 

Pet Peeve: Authors mentioning each and every pairing before the story regardless of relevance.

Seriously? Nobody cares who Dean Thomas and Terry Boot (I think?) are paired with. Like, at all. Why would you mention something like this?

 

The worst worst part is when you see these abbreviations and rack your brain like WTF who could this possibly be?
Abbreviations in the summary period are a peeve to me.

 

DD/SB?

Dumbledore/Scabior?
Dedalus Diggle/Sirius Black?

Oh - Dudley Dursley/Susan Bones!

Yeah- dat writer's a bit broken-brain.

 

Dedalus Diggle / SteelBadger?

 

:|

/tenchar

 

I'm not seeing a "no" here.

Is there something you wish to tell us, friend?

 

More likely to be DumbleDore/SteelBadger. It does make sense -- I always wondered why he wrote that Ron/Dumbledore fic. May be he was projecting into Ron?

Am I right, SteelBadger?

 

Epithet / Epitaph
This one is going right next to Tome / Tomb on my list of grave errors.

PP is a bad one for lack of clarity, what with Padma Patil, Parvati Patil, and Pansy Parkinson all sharing initials.

People who list every single pairing that may show up in their story are only muddying the waters for people who are looking for the pairing their story focuses on, without the other bullshit, while also being equally as confusing -not to mention disappointing- for people looking for the rare pairing the author just listed, only to discover (20 chapters in) that said pairing is just mentioned as existing in the background... and even then, only barely.

 

I see what you did there.

 

You mean there are people who well and truly care for the pairing of Terry Boot and Padma Patil?

 

Far too many authors on AO3 do that. They for some reason feel the need to list every relationship that has a passing mention in the tags.