Comment from Patrick Bernardy

Excellent

Hello!

I think your entry was well written. While I am new to FanStory, I still think the following advice rings true no matter what online writing community you are apart of. It makes little sense, in my opinion, to cut you potential fanbase as a writer in half by including such devisive portrayals in the current political atmosphere. As writers, we want people to read what we have written. It seems to me counter-productive to your own purpose to abuse your reputation by alientating a full half of your potential audience. If, of course, you goal is not to gain fans of your art but is something altogether different, then feel free to disregard my advice.

Patrick

 Comment Written 24-Sep-2024

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reply by the author on 29-Sep-2024

Thanks for this very thoughtfully written comment and suggestion. Your caveat is where it's at -- I am a South Park equal opportunity terrorist. Something like 3-10% of my stuff is intended as serious, and the rest is for trolling across all demographics for fun. My master plan is to have more enemies who have blocked me read my material accidentally in blind contests, and secretly like [some of] it, than official fans who only get notified about a tiny fraction of my writing anyway. The only writing I take really seriously is reviewing, and music.

Marilyn asked me to dial down the politics in this group so I will try and oblige, even though just about everything written can be political, and the temptation to add to this 2 1/2 year running joke I started about Harris is sometimes a temptation too delicious to resist, now that she's some sort of media demigod, while her opponent is old news and boring to write about. Still, I'll have a think about it and thanks again.

🦍

reply by Patrick Bernardy on 29-Sep-2024

Hello Simian!

I have thought for a couple days about the sentiment presented to you concerning the fact that we want to shy away from politics in the club. My first inclination was to try to stamp that stuff down because, to be honest, I'm sick of politics, and that's one of the reasons why I like to spend my time here.

However, after careful consideration, I would like to rescind this impression that we gave you and ask for your apology. I am not a fan of censorship at all. Not only that, just because I do not want to read stories and poetry about the current political atmosphere and its characters, it doesn't mean that I should deny that to other members, espeically in forums like the club that I have some control over. The epiphany occurred when I turned it around in my mind and compared how some feel about my posting of my metafiction erotic fantasy novel "Fairy Dust." If others did to me what I proposed to do to you, then I wouldn't like it at all and would consider it unfair and unwarranted.

I respect your approach and have heard from others that you are a sharp reviewer and asset to the community. I also remember how you helped me fine-tune my ballad for the "Write A Song" contest, so I certainly don't need others to tell me that. 😊

So, going forward, you just be you. You submit what you wish to the club's prompts and contests with our blessing, and we will review you fairly based on the merit of the work.

Thank you for your patience while we discovered our mistake,
Patrick

reply by the author on 30-Sep-2024

Patrick -- I appreciate your note and humility very much. Yeah I hope that one positive consequence of my frequent battles on censorship in which Harambe takes the bullet is that pieces with more artistic merit but similar trigger points will thereafter be less vilified, and receive their due. Basically, "Free Barabbas". I couldn't write a fraction of what's on my profile under my real name without real consequences if it was more widely distributed -- hence, the nom de plume.

In the latest club prompt, you mentioned HTML. FYI, even without HTML, a double line break will get rendered as a double line break,

like here. (This message contains no HTML,
except for this
.) The line breaks do not happen natively, which you already knew, but the site appears to have a post-processor that renders the line breaks that way. (Unfortunately this post processor does not process various other characters like em-dashes and curved quotes, as you have probably already discovered.)

Check out w3schools.com for everything HTML. I'll direct message you on some other points, and look forward to reading Fairy Dust when time permits!

🦍

reply by Patrick Bernardy on 01-Oct-2024

Thanks Simian! Ima try to tackle the HTML with next week's prompt! I will refer to this when I do!

Comment from Marilyn Hamilton

Excellent

The story was well-written and the prompt was handled as required. If I am being honest I will admit that I don't like bringing politics into the club as I find it very difficult to review and I think we could all use a break from it, and I would like this club to be one place where we can get that break. I will leave it up to the individual but I am uncomfortable with it. Either way, the story was entertaining and written well. Thanks for sharing

 Comment Written 24-Sep-2024

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reply by the author on 05-Oct-2024

Thank you Marilyn for the feedback. I promise I will tone it down after the election. Unfortunately I can't resist the temptation at the moment, as my landlady has jacked my rent way up and has placed Kamala signs all over the house, and has told me she she'll never speak to me again if I vote for the other guy, not that I was even planning to. I gotta fight back somehow! My upcoming entires will be beyond the pale, but will hopefully do justice to the topic of horror. I'm so sorry. I will at least try to make them funny.
🦍

Comment from pome lover

Excellent

well, that was a surprise. You've almost left me speechless, as I don't know for sure where you stand, so, I will only say one thing: She probably teaches them to vote. Ha!
Katharine

 Comment Written 23-Sep-2024