Disclaimer - Just my opinions, not meant to cause offense. Pure, unfiltered trash.
1. "Update please" clique :
These are the people who have nothing to write in chapters or messages other than "update please" often unaccompanied with a simple thank you after the author breaks their back to upload a chapter.
A stream of cry face emojis often are found along with this message as if the basic concept of showing appreciation towards someone who is doing this for FREE, mind you, is too much to bear.
2. "Ignorance is bliss" group :
The readers who refuse to read author notes, messages on the author profile and/or other comments and keep on asking the same damn questions. This is very common if an author suddenly changes their format or sets their story to private. This often leads to infinite questions asking what happened??
Also, the crying emojis come up again, of course.
3. The "second coming of Shakespeare" :
Is there anything wrong with giving constructive criticism and/or helpful suggestions to improve a writer's content? Certainly not. Most writers are very receptive to readers who try to improve the quality of their content.
What is not helpful, however, is nasty remarks about how the story is progressing. As an example, consider :
I find this story so boring, you should learn how to make interesting stories from xyz author
I'm off to read something interesting
Waited so long for the update, only to get this
And these are actual comments some of the authors on this platform have received.
When you look at the profiles of these experts however, it's riddled with bad grammar and inarticulate thoughts ... *shrug*
4. The "Unoriginal Grammar Nazis" :
An author makes a grammatical mistake, okay, we all do. They are informed of the same and most of the times the authors are happy to correct it, but some leave the mistake as is.
What follows is a barrage of people writing the exact same comment correcting the author. I mean an author who writes > 50K words is probably not dumb enough to not know that it's "Sally is a good person" and not "Sally are a good person"
When it's a small, isolated mistake, the decent thing to do is just ignore it and move on. That's just my opinion.
5. "Selective readers" :
This is more like a sub category of type 2. These are the type of people who don't read author warnings, notes etc and then throw a fit later on.
Now, as I read a lot of BL stories, the example I'll talk about is mpreg.
Do I like it as a theme? I'm neutral, most of the stories I've found on this platform are cringy AF and fetishize one of the partners as overly feminine, which is NOT okay, according to me. It's near impossible to find a well-written story with this theme. I've only read 2 stories which I've liked in 5+ years of reading.
Okay, so a lot of people hate the theme, which is perfectly reasonable. What is not okay, however is to bully a writer for writing mpreg especially when they've given a warning to the same. You don't like it, just move on. There's so much to read and enjoy, why waste time crushing someone?
6. "One-sided lover" :
This one makes me chuckle. Often seen in FF comments, where the relationship has already been alluded to in the book/TV show. Now, they picture the characters in some way in their head, we all do, nothing wrong there.
But, these people have prescribed one person in the relationship as the "top", often regarded as the more masculine, intelligent, successful one. And the other is the submissive, often timid and helpless "bottom". And boy do these people revolt if an author try to switch things up.
Personally, I love it when authors switch things up, even introduce crack pairs. That's the whole point of fanfiction btw.
7. "To smut or to not smut" :
Some readers love the mature content, others not so much. Perfectly okay on both ends. But, attacking an author for too much or lack of the same is not cool. I've seen some authors getting mobbed to write more mature content even when they have explicitly mentioned they don't enjoy writing about it. Also shaming someone for writing smut is equally shameful.
8. "The Best Kind" :
These are the gems, the needle in the haystack kind, who must be cherished at all costs. The kind of people who leave genuine, heartfelt messages for the author. The sort who are just as excited about the story as the author.
The problem? Most authors are so sick of dealing with the mud flung at them, they become increasingly quiet, to a point when even these gems are ignored. But, that would be such a shame.
I'd like to shamelessly promote my lovely JustCMe here for being the sweetest bean, who gives so much joy to so many authors on Wattpad :D
#######
Anyway, I just had to get all of that off my chest. I'd love to hear what you have to say, even if you disagree, lemme know what's up.
If there's something else you want to hear me rant about, comment here, I may be inspired to follow through!
Janine x
