Respect the Authors, Respect the Readers: the blog?

So, I’ve been having a rant recently: but it’s come to my attention that people don’t feel they can give honest reviews for fear of other people’s readers, friends or personal wrath.

This is why I want to start a tumblr called Respect the Authors, Respect the Readers. This is where you can come to give criticism (constructively) or praise if you’re worried about the backlash from a review on FF. This is not a hate blog, this is a Post Secret-esque idea for polite critique and praise for the under-appreciated, whose names people don’t know.

The Gossip Girl fandom should be a democracy of free speech and thought.

What do you think?

Addendum to ‘Here’s a thing’:

• Writing a critical review is not disrespecting the author, so
• Telling said reviewer to get lost is the first gambit of disrespect, so
• The author becomes the impolite, cossetted, impossible one, so
• You’ve just undone your argument.

Saying, ‘if you don’t like it, read something else’ should only occur if someone irrationally dislikes your story over things you can’t change. ‘If you don’t like it, write something else’ is downright rude.

Here’s a thing:

I’m sick to death of fic writing being a dictatorship where you can’t say anything to the writer for fear of genocide or suicide. Here are some things to consider:

• If a reviewer says they’re trying to be constructive, they probably are
• A reviewer is not wrong just because they’re not a fan
  
• A reviewer should not be sworn at, insulted or belittled for not being a fan
  
• Trying to garner sympathy is immature and unhelpful
  
• Things come across harsher on the internet, and you’re going to have to deal with that
  
• Would you rather be lied to about a reader’s opinion?
  

Fic writers are not untouchable. We are not holy. We deserve your praise and censure as much as real authors do, those real authors who are too far away to express their feelings, to be made happy or sad.

Be constructive.

Be polite.

And if you get criticised, see it as something positive to build on or just ignore it. You don’t know who’s on the other end of that criticism, and you could end up hurting them far more than they hurt you by calling down a jihad of readers on their heads. You put your work into the public domain, and that’s a symbiotic relationship: respect to you, respect to them.

Chapter fourteen of King Of The Hill, New York Nymphomaniac:

“Did my invitation get lost in the mail?”

Here is where a witch saw how I love you. It is written upon my hand.

How could she ever compare to me, I who have always known where it is that makes you happy and where it is that makes you hurt.

Let me taste your forbidden fruit. Let us create a new kind of brother and sisterhood.