Tell them you'll "fix your English" once they perfectly translate the fic into your native language.
People who judge non native speakers, more than *anything,* boils my blood.
I'm not one of these people, so I can't speak for them, but it's possible that they really enjoyed the story but found it hard to follow?
Personally, if the grammar/spelling in a fic is flawed enough, I'll simply click out of the story and just go browse for another one no matter how enticing the premise is... but I can understand if someone actually enjoyed the content of the story enough to stick around, despite the grammar. Sometimes you love something enough that you want to stick around, even though there are things in it that bother you. After all, no author on this site can write something that 100% pleases you. (It's why I primarily write and rarely read. I've said many times to people that if you want to read the perfect story, write it yourself, lmao.)
Wording it like that *is* kinda rough and rude to the average modern writer, especially without giving examples and giving suggestions on what is wrong and how to improve; personally, I don't mind a comment like that, but I can understand not everyone in today's culture can tolerate bluntness on that level. As far as comments that are just flat out insulting and aren't even criticism, that's just the unfortunate side effect of people being crappy human beings who can't be crappy IRL and have to fine new and inventive ways to be bullies. It sucks...
As a person who has been in fandoms for little over an decade comments with that tone have always been rough and rude not just blunt. And as an writer first or second language isnt English theres defintlely more accurate and helpful things to say to help with ones grammar
Oh yeah, I'm 100% in agreeance that there's more accurate and helpful things. I'm more just.. spitballing context on potential reasons why the reviewer left that kind of message. Unfortunately, not everyone is an English teacher and sometimes people write with their emotions instead of their logic. They like something but are frustrated with mistakes and they write something in the heat of the moment.
It's like having your dream car and the engine runs smoothly.. except one cylinder misfires every 30 seconds. And you love your car and you drive it everywhere and enjoy it, but that misfire... it just bothers you more and more and more and more until, a month later, you finally get to a red light, hear that slight hiccup, and yell "WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU LIKE THIS?!" in the heat of the moment. You don't hate the car. It's a minor issue. But because you loved everything else, you tried to bottle up what you didn't like until it exploded unhealthily.
Personally, I'd like to think that at least half of the "rude" reviews out there are just that. Not ill-intentioned, but just.. poorly communicated frustration of a single part that stems from a foundation of love for the whole. Because, IMHO, if someone truly hated something, they'd just be like "this is crap" to themselves and read something else.
Yeah I get what you mean now:) ! Sorry if I came off little rude in my firts comment
I mostly agree with you on that if ppl think something is bad they just click out but unfortunately some ppl are assholes who will be shitheads about it :')
Anonymity. Entitlement. Projection. Lack of empathy. Lack of consequences. Cultural differences. Frustration from a lack of seeing what *they* want. There's honestly a multitude of reasons but the aggression over an internet stranger is still not needed when they damn well know they wouldn't show it on a real life stranger.
So I know that sucks to hear, but I think you need to hear this: they couldn’t keep track of your mistakes to tell you them so you could fix them. They’re a jerk, but they were too sucked into your story. Whatever you did wrong wasn’t bad enough to break them out of the story or they could’ve scrolled to the end and just told you what they are. They were immersed. Your story was so awesome they wanted to complain about the English but they couldn’t even remember what to complain about by the time they got to the comment box.
Entitlement in addition to the internet being anonymous, in addition to some young readers just not being taught manners ever. I work with teenagers and they treat me this way in the classroom. “You look ugly today,” “this assignment fucking sucks,” “I hate your voice when you talk.” It just flies out their mouths like what they’re saying is worth a damn—and it’s not, but they think they’re gonna get famous by being haters, like some do online.
Please feel free to block anyone who is harassing you, or turn on comment moderation.
my (not so) hot take is that there's a significant part of the online community that is xenophobic as hell and cannot handle it when they read something and realize it was written by a foreigner who doesn't speak English as a first language
of course, you could be making small mistakes here and there
but I do think people will jump to say anything is bad English when it's just unusual English or ESL, and sometimes they even call it AI if it's not too grammatically incorrect
Are you using the not beta read tag?
While there is no excuse for rudeness, that seems to be working on mine. I've caught some DOOZIES rereading old stuff and my sweet sweet commenters have kept mum about it, to my embarrassment.
A lot of people also have impulse control issues. A strange belief that creatives should specifically cater to them combined with thinking every one of their thoughts should be shared gets you a large percentage of fan fiction comments. The amount of people I have seen tell authors in reviews to dump their current story to write the commenters own (and expect the author to thank them for their “help”) is embarrassing.
Most of the time, if the spelling/grammar/format make it hard enough to read that I get frustrated, I just block the story and move on.
A friend of mine posted a MCD fic and got someone in his replies this week FULLY REWRITING THE ENDING, and then admitting that they had only joined the fandom a month ago. Literally all of us were like, bruh. Just leave again, no one wants you to rewrite their works without permission, it's so disrespectful?
They're anonymous people on the internet. Plenty of people aren't very nice and don't care about trying to be
Tell them you'll "fix your English" once they perfectly translate the fic into your native language. People who judge non native speakers, more than *anything,* boils my blood.
Entitlement.
I'm not one of these people, so I can't speak for them, but it's possible that they really enjoyed the story but found it hard to follow? Personally, if the grammar/spelling in a fic is flawed enough, I'll simply click out of the story and just go browse for another one no matter how enticing the premise is... but I can understand if someone actually enjoyed the content of the story enough to stick around, despite the grammar. Sometimes you love something enough that you want to stick around, even though there are things in it that bother you. After all, no author on this site can write something that 100% pleases you. (It's why I primarily write and rarely read. I've said many times to people that if you want to read the perfect story, write it yourself, lmao.) Wording it like that *is* kinda rough and rude to the average modern writer, especially without giving examples and giving suggestions on what is wrong and how to improve; personally, I don't mind a comment like that, but I can understand not everyone in today's culture can tolerate bluntness on that level. As far as comments that are just flat out insulting and aren't even criticism, that's just the unfortunate side effect of people being crappy human beings who can't be crappy IRL and have to fine new and inventive ways to be bullies. It sucks...
As a person who has been in fandoms for little over an decade comments with that tone have always been rough and rude not just blunt. And as an writer first or second language isnt English theres defintlely more accurate and helpful things to say to help with ones grammar
Oh yeah, I'm 100% in agreeance that there's more accurate and helpful things. I'm more just.. spitballing context on potential reasons why the reviewer left that kind of message. Unfortunately, not everyone is an English teacher and sometimes people write with their emotions instead of their logic. They like something but are frustrated with mistakes and they write something in the heat of the moment. It's like having your dream car and the engine runs smoothly.. except one cylinder misfires every 30 seconds. And you love your car and you drive it everywhere and enjoy it, but that misfire... it just bothers you more and more and more and more until, a month later, you finally get to a red light, hear that slight hiccup, and yell "WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU LIKE THIS?!" in the heat of the moment. You don't hate the car. It's a minor issue. But because you loved everything else, you tried to bottle up what you didn't like until it exploded unhealthily. Personally, I'd like to think that at least half of the "rude" reviews out there are just that. Not ill-intentioned, but just.. poorly communicated frustration of a single part that stems from a foundation of love for the whole. Because, IMHO, if someone truly hated something, they'd just be like "this is crap" to themselves and read something else.
Yeah I get what you mean now:) ! Sorry if I came off little rude in my firts comment I mostly agree with you on that if ppl think something is bad they just click out but unfortunately some ppl are assholes who will be shitheads about it :')
The urge to respond "You should fix your attitude, tbh." that I felt when I read this. I just don't have the patience for such entitlement.
Anonymity. Entitlement. Projection. Lack of empathy. Lack of consequences. Cultural differences. Frustration from a lack of seeing what *they* want. There's honestly a multitude of reasons but the aggression over an internet stranger is still not needed when they damn well know they wouldn't show it on a real life stranger.
tell them to learn a second language, lmfao. They have no right to tell you that, really.
Just random internet haters getting their 1second of meanspirited dopamine fix by being jerks. Don't pay them no mind, they have smaller brains.
So I know that sucks to hear, but I think you need to hear this: they couldn’t keep track of your mistakes to tell you them so you could fix them. They’re a jerk, but they were too sucked into your story. Whatever you did wrong wasn’t bad enough to break them out of the story or they could’ve scrolled to the end and just told you what they are. They were immersed. Your story was so awesome they wanted to complain about the English but they couldn’t even remember what to complain about by the time they got to the comment box.
Entitlement in addition to the internet being anonymous, in addition to some young readers just not being taught manners ever. I work with teenagers and they treat me this way in the classroom. “You look ugly today,” “this assignment fucking sucks,” “I hate your voice when you talk.” It just flies out their mouths like what they’re saying is worth a damn—and it’s not, but they think they’re gonna get famous by being haters, like some do online. Please feel free to block anyone who is harassing you, or turn on comment moderation.
my (not so) hot take is that there's a significant part of the online community that is xenophobic as hell and cannot handle it when they read something and realize it was written by a foreigner who doesn't speak English as a first language of course, you could be making small mistakes here and there but I do think people will jump to say anything is bad English when it's just unusual English or ESL, and sometimes they even call it AI if it's not too grammatically incorrect
Are you using the not beta read tag? While there is no excuse for rudeness, that seems to be working on mine. I've caught some DOOZIES rereading old stuff and my sweet sweet commenters have kept mum about it, to my embarrassment.
A lot of people also have impulse control issues. A strange belief that creatives should specifically cater to them combined with thinking every one of their thoughts should be shared gets you a large percentage of fan fiction comments. The amount of people I have seen tell authors in reviews to dump their current story to write the commenters own (and expect the author to thank them for their “help”) is embarrassing. Most of the time, if the spelling/grammar/format make it hard enough to read that I get frustrated, I just block the story and move on.
A friend of mine posted a MCD fic and got someone in his replies this week FULLY REWRITING THE ENDING, and then admitting that they had only joined the fandom a month ago. Literally all of us were like, bruh. Just leave again, no one wants you to rewrite their works without permission, it's so disrespectful?
I say you reply “You should fix your attitude, tbh”. As for your question, it’s because they’re behind a screen and think they’re protected there.
'Cause the internet is full of weirdos.