Greetings folks,

I’m not as prolific on site as I used to be. There are many reasons for this but when I have popped in, I’ve observed a few things which I’d like to comment on.

Reviews VS Critiques – this is a big bone of contention. A critique is not a personal criticism. This seems to have caused some confusion. If you’re going to put a piece up for reviewing, you’re inviting other people’s perspectives, opinions, and judgement upon what you write. The reviewer has the right to express these in their reviews. You as the writer do not have the right to choose how another person / writer views your work. Providing the reviewer doesn’t cross the line, it’s their right. If they cross a line, there’s a process for dealing with that.

The Rating System – The site has a ratings system. If you’re not familiar with it, read it! Don’t get all arsey with a reviewer when they employ it – that’s what they’re supposed to do! When you start berating the reviewer for a lower rating when they’ve followed the guidelines, you’re the one in the wrong! When you use excuses such as ‘I’m only here for fun’, etc, it sounds ridiculous. If that’s the case, why does the lower rating bother you?

Here's the other thing about ratings – no one deducts stars. To suggest stars have been deducted means you think you have an entitlement to five stars. Most folk don’t think they’ve had something deducted because they didn’t get a six. That’s seen as being awarded a six star. The principle is the same. Change your perspective and read the content without having your defences up straight away.

A review that mentioned nothing about your story / book / poem isn’t a review. It’s a money grab. That’s it, pure and simple. If you’re really interested in writing, find the real reviews. The ones which tell you something about your writing, not just generic, non-specific platitudes.

Storytelling VS Writing – This one annoys the hell out of me. There’s a suggestion here that because someone spends the time learning the craft, they’re writers not storytellers. This is absolute nonsense. Here’s the thing about being a storyteller over being a writer – it’s nonsense, too. It doesn’t matter how good a storyteller you think you are if you can’t write it down on a written platform. Yes, you can teach writing, but storytelling is much more of an organic thing. But this site is a writing site. Learn the basics at least. There are loads of great folk on here with a lot of experience and knowledge but what happens to a lot of them? Well, many get muted by the folk who need their help the most.

The Committees – Or, as some members would have you believe, the evil cabal of anonymous bastards whose sole purpose is to ridicule your work and sit in a darkened room laughing manically planning on whose day they can ruin next.

In my opinion, those people, who generally are old enough to know better, should grow up a little. I’m pretty sure that the committees are made up of differing members and not the same few people. They may well even be some of the people you look up to most on the site, and yet you sit and degrade them and their efforts.

Take, for example, the seal of approval committee. I’ve had more dealings with this group than any other, I think – both good and bad! I have 11 feathers (even one for a book of poetry – shock!) but I thought I should have had many more. There’s handful of folk on there who plough through everything sent to them no matter how glorious or soul-destroying with no recognition. I hate to say it people but one of these categories probably vastly outweighs the other.

Getting lots of reviews on site, even six-star reviews, does not mean a piece is of the highest quality. Early on, I was very guilty of ‘believing my own press’ when I really shouldn’t have been! People get hooked up on the anonymity aspect of the committees. I think it’s a good thing. Some folk get quite vitriolic about the committees as it is, could you imagine what it would be like for those members if others knew they were on the committees? There’d be abuse, muting, goodness only knows what… Think about that.

A thought struck me as I was writing the last section. I wonder what would happen if a writer sent in a piece to the committee for a seal but none of them could vote on it because they’d all been muted? Or worse still, they couldn’t read it but could still vote? I’m pretty sure they’d be more gracious than those bad-mouthing them in the forums and posts though…

The other aspect to consider is that by degrading the committees, you are in essence diminishing the accomplishments of your fellow writers who have been successful...

Competitions VS Posting – Years ago, there used to be a lot more posts in general, not centred around competitions. It’s something I’d love to see the return of. If you’ve written a story, just post it. Why does it need to be entered into a competition? This leads to competitions being created around a piece someone has already written. Whilst it isn’t cheating it does provide an unfair advantage. However, why the need to have the competition at all?

Feel free to share your perspectives and thoughts in your reviews. They fascinate me!