I understand that there is a lot of crap on Fanfiction. No, I really do. I might be a subpar writer, but I spend hours and hours reading, and I like to think I have a good eye for quality. Probably.

But these stupid children that randomly post their awful crap is just bad! I clicked a random piece of fanfiction whose summary at least had almost decent grammar - I mean, most of the freaking summaries out there have writing errors in it - I read the first chapter, god knows how I got that far, skimmed the second and third chapters, and articulated a completely deserved response:

CodeGeassAddict 6/20/13 . chapter 1
...Disgusting.

The author, probably an idiot with no life, immediately sent me a PM asking why. I'm honestly embarrassed, but I put a bit of effort into making a more solid response:


Your story is sub-par. Now, let me put a premise:
5/5: This story is either an entirely new, interesting creative premise, or a premise that has been repeated, but far more well-executed than its peers.
-That story is neither.

4/5: This story is a good example of an already well-done fiction, giving more good stuff to read, usually with a non-standard plot twist, or the like.
-Yeah, no.

3/5: This story is pretty standard fare, as of a fairly well-used premise, and decently done.
-Hmmm, maybe.

2/5: These are often obnoxious stories in foolish places, with excessive bashing, terrible plots, the main character effortlessly humiliating everything and generally boring.
-Maybe.

1/5: No. No, just don't touch me with this.
-Your story isn't THIS bad.

Now, then we put variables into this state:
Plus One to Score: Excellent grammar, with well-fleshed out characters. The words sink you in, and you can't get enough of it.
-Not your story.

Minus One to Score: The premise/character is one that this particular reader does not enjoy.
-I really don't like this premise; I mean, Naruto has been just about everywhere and I'm sick of it.

Minus One to Score: A startlingly high amount of typos and misspellings; perhaps a bit annoying, but surpassable if the story is overwhelmingly good.
-To me, a picky reader like I, this would probably be a deal-breaker, but, well.

Minus Two to Score: OMFG WHAT IS THIS I CAN'T READ IT SO MANY MISPELLINGS
-Your story goes around this level.

SO at total, if I were to rate your story, it would be a 2/5 or 3/5 base, with -1 from a plot that I dislike, a -2 from terrible grammar, and a few other variables that I can't be bothered to list for this trash. If you really want to go on with this, please go and at least fix some of the grammar mistakes. I mean, as it is, it seems like an eight-year-old wrote this crap, which is impossible seeing as an eight-year-old wouldn't have the patience to type up so much of it, though if it were older the writing material produced would be eye-searing...


---yeah, pretty much.
This is what I usually use to rate stories on sites that let me rate them, and 4/5-5/5 usually ends up with me liking it and keeping an eye on it. Do you guys do something similar?

Anyway! The point of the matter is that why do so many idiots post their crap on fanfiction? I like it, I really do, and occasionally I find little gems that are a joy to read, and hell, I can even understand the yaoi and yuri, because even though I hate it there are just people like that. But why, oh why, do random brats put up absolute trash on fanfiction when they can't even spell 'thier' right?

 

Dude, I'm going to save you now before you go further.

1) You're not the first with this complaint, not even the 100th.
2) This thread was unnecessary by-and-large because we have at least two others similar to this as well as a "questions that don't deserve a thread" thread which you could have easily posted this too.
3) It's FF.net.

That aside, I will answer your question with a question of my own: What do you expect from a site that is free to register and post to, with low age restrictions and a large population of pre-teens to young adults? Obviously you figured out how to maneuver the internet, instead of bitching about FFN, perhaps become more active and helpful on a better site for fanfiction (Like say DLP).

Edit: Also, the use of the internet slang "srsly" does not help your case in anyway.

 

/me looks at your nick. Looks at your post. Looks at your nick again.
Yeah.

So, you just discovered fanfiction? Congratulations.

ff.net has always hosted garbage from day one. This isn't a surprise to the fanfiction community; we loathed it from the beginning. Thanks for raising this exciting issue with such admirable knowledge, insight, and clarity of thought, Flame2754.

Try harder next time.

 

... Disgusting.

 

How about try searching for stories with MATURE ratings. While I'm sure 90% are slash, there are plenty to pick from. Not the be all to end all, but you'll get the kids out.

Your rating system needs bonuses. Interesting character: +1, Hot Fleur +3... you get what I'm saying, mayan?

 

What do the Maya have to do with this.

 

OP, you could at least have attempted to give this bloke some constructive criticism. If you're going to spend the time writing a good few paragraphs on why his story sucked, you could at least tell him why his story sucked. It's absolutely no bloody use to anybody if you just point at his story, which you are not being forced to read, and insult it. You're just wasting your time.

And then you proceed to the nearest 'hardline' forum, for some reason expecting the populace to be so new to fanfiction that they had never read a bad fic before. This takes a certain level of stupidity. What, you think this is a new thing? There are millions of fics on FF alone - if there were no bad ones I think the Internet would explode.

If you dislike crap on the Internet, keep an eye on the shit you produce yourself, yeah?

EDIT: Hell, you've been a member here for over a year now. Learn to pay attention.

 

My bookmark to FF.net is set to show stories updated during last week, ranked by the number of favorites. I've never had problems with genuinely awful shit, and it's easy enough to filter slash out.

Besides, 90% of everything is shit. Getting outraged every time you encounter it will never get you anywhere.

 

I haven't gone to FFN to actually look for stories in years. Everything I read now is recommended to me from somewhere -- mostly here.

 

How dare the proletariat sully my eyes with anything less than perfection! How dare people with suboptimal grammar skills put something out in public where I might inadvertently encounter it! HOW DARE THEY SUBJECT ME TO ANYTHING LESS THAN PERFECTION!

Yes, there's terrible stories out there, whoop de fucking do. When you encounter one, move on to the next story. Don't spend a huge chunk of your life writing a condescending little lecture about your *super special personal rating system* just to throw out a few weak-ass insults at the end. Instead, just move on.

Because you know what? These are people who are not only reading books but going on to write their own twists on those books. This is something that absolutely should be encouraged. They created something and are sharing it with the world, free of charge, and sometimes today's terrible writers are tomorrow's bad writers are next year's okay writers are good writers beyond that.

There absolutely is a hell of a lot of room to criticize the vast majority of stories out there. Sturgeon's Law grossly underestimates the crap levels in fanfiction. But the leap from 'this is so bad' to 'this should not exist' is one that makes me want to pin you down and slap the stupid out of you.

 

Most people on ff.net are not receptive to criticism. There's little point in giving it to them.

There is no reason to leave a negative review for a story unless the author is receptive to criticism. You aren't going to do anything more than upset a person by telling him his story is bad.

You shouldn't let it bother you, honestly. You can usually tell a story is crap in the first sentence, if not the summary/title of the work (I basically don't even try read stories that have a misspelling in the summary/title, don't properly capitalize the title, or use atrocious writing techniques in the summary).

The best way to improve fanfiction is to write better fanfiction yourself and to help others in communities like DLP that try to improve and raise awareness of standards.

 

Why does everyone care so much about some noob posting a thread? It has been covered before, but everyone raging at it being covered before has also been covered before, and people pointing this out has been covered before, and ad nauseum.

 

Ah, right.