*FROTH* The main reason I hate ffnet: The users
Dear guy who posted to two chapters of mine now stating that I must shorten my author's notes, and then threatened to report me to ffnet if I post an author's note on my next chapter,

You, sir, are a bossy asshole. You have no control over what I post, and the fact that I'm posting absurdly-long author's notes will not shatter your tiny, self-centered world.

Yes, good author's don't need author's notes. Just because someone doesn't need something doesn't mean that the thing which is not needed is incapable of adding anything to an experience, or can't just be nice to have for its own sake. Many of my other readers have expressed delight at my author's notes, and claim they're funny. More than one has stated that they can't decided if they like the story or the author's notes more. ...Though this may not be saying much about the story...

I'm fully aware that having my author's notes longer than the chapter looks tacky, however, I deny completely that "three or four lines" needs to be the max. Especially when most of the author's notes are more about interacting publicly with my readers than about the story itself. If they would comment on my LiveJournal instead of on ffnet, most of these "author's notes" would be reply comments.

Why the hell did I taking the time to justify myself to you? It doesn't matter what you think of my author's notes. Who are you to tell me what a good author does or does not do? You're just some random ffnet user I don't know and hardly give two shits about. Who appointed you the ultimate sovereign of author's note length? Get back to me when you're Terry Pratchett or the ghost of Heinlein. I might listen to you then. Maybe. If I felt like it.

Inferiority issues? I "obviously have inferiority issues"? Man, not only are you an asshole, you're an arrogant asshole, to think you know about my mental state more than I or my therapist do. And before you get all superior going "Hah! A therapist, you do have issues!" Yes, with my family. Because at the time I saw her regularly, I was living with my mom, and we would have likely murdered each other without a mediator.

You have more brains and common sense than I? You who come into an author's story reviews, boss them around, and expect them to just roll over and obey your every word?

I'm pretentious? Me?
Hyperdictionary: "Pretentious: intended to attract notice and impress others"
Huh. I guess I am. Well, I'm not going to be ashamed of that, so you fail at insulting me there.

I wish I'd never promised myself not to reply to you after the first time, so I could call you an asshole to your face. But I keep promises to myself. So I'm going to vent where you can't see me. You insulting, condescending, grudge-reporting little shit.

I'm going to continue writing author's notes as long as I want them to be, and if you get my story removed, I'll put it back up, author's notes intact. If I get booted off ffnet, I'll rejoin and post it again. Until you go away. That's really all I want. For you to disappear. Or at least shut up. Because every time I see your posts, I want to kill something. Preferably you.

And Fandom Rant? Thank you for existing. I needed to rave about this guy to get it out of my system so I can try to forget about him.

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	nevadafighter 2007-05-28 06:49 pm UTC (link)
	This is fandom_rant, not hugs_and_bunnies_and_chocolate_for_ranters. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	cathowl 2007-05-28 06:55 pm UTC (link)
	See me crying about it? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	nevadafighter 2007-05-28 07:44 pm UTC (link)
	I never said you were. Reading comprehension = your friend. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	cathowl 2007-05-28 07:48 pm UTC (link)
	Here's how I saw our exchange: Me: Rant, rave, spleen vent You: Eyeroll STFU, fanbrat. Me: I can tell you don't like me. You: You shouldn't expect me to. Me: I didn't. Are we talking past each other? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

nevadafighter
2007-05-28 07:57 pm UTC (link)

No, only you still have it wrong. Here, let me spell it out for you.

You: *Rant, rave, spleen vent*
OTHER COMMENTER: *Eyeroll* STFU, fanbrat.
You: I can tell you don't like me.
Me: Well, if you expected hugs and puppies and rainbows and automatic acceptance of your words, instead of the honest truth that if you are knowingly breaking the rules and then WHINING about it, you should take your thumb out of your mouth and try being a grownup because we're not here to tell you what a special snowflake you are and how MEEN the outside world is.
You: *more whiny passive-aggressive nonsense*

Rant community =/= automatically being on your side

You have the right to rant, and we have the right to tell you you're being whiny and stupid. Goes both ways.

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cathowl
2007-05-28 08:06 pm UTC (link)

Oops on who I was talking to. >_< What an idiot am I, skipping past names when replying?

And of all the things I am, I am not passive-aggressive. Everyone who knows me closely knows that even when I seem passive-aggressive, I'm not acutally being so. It's accidental. *Shrug* You don't know me, you couldn't have known that. It's not a big deal I guess, what opinion strangers on the internet have of me.

And I did not expect you to coddle me over my rant, I just expected you to understand that it was anger-venting. I'm not trying to get sympathy, I'm taking advantage of a ranting community to rant and lance my boiling anger before I respond to the guy I'm mad at, which I promised both myself and him that I wouldn't do.

Whatever. I shouldn't get all huffy at you. You just look at me and see whiny fanbrat, and I won't be able to convince you otherwise. I shouldn't let myself get all worked up again.

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nevadafighter
2007-05-28 08:28 pm UTC (link)

Venting is one thing. But if you vent about something that's ultimately your fault, you have to expect that someone is going to tell you the unpleasant truth. Saying "I know it's breaking the rules but I don't care FIGHT THE POWER MAN" is really ridiculous, and God forbid we break the "safe space" of a ranting environment to tell you so. /sarcasm

I won't deny that the guy is being a dick, but the fact remains that you're breaking the rules, and a less-dickly person who's annoyed by your overly long author's notes might report you just the same, with less fanfare. It's a shame that you ran into the loudmouth asshole one, but there it is. Would you still be complaining if your story was deleted without warning as opposed to having it announced to you?

Besides, coming to a fen-populated forum (whether or not it's a rant forum is irrelevant) and complaining because you're OMG being asked to abide by the rules is classic fanbrat behavior. Not saying you ARE one, because, as you said, I don't know you, but you're sure doing a wonderful impression of one.

If I were you I'd either change the way you do your author's notes or take one or two of the suggestions people here have given you. Because if you keep breaking rules and come back to complain when it bites you in the ass, you'll get even less sympathy.

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cathowl
2007-05-28 08:35 pm UTC (link)

Yeah, okay. I still feel kind of annoyed at your bluntness, but can't deny most of your points. It rankles to change because of one annoying person threatening grudge-reporting, though. It feels like I'm giving in to a bully if I change my habits because of some jerk online...

But I guess it doesn't really serve a purpose to hold my ground, there. If my story got deleted and I reposted again and again, it would only be a hassle, not a fix for anything.

I guess I'll post my author's notes to my LJ from now on and give a link in my story instead of posting them directly on the chapter.

It just burns me though. I feel like I'm giving up...

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nevadafighter
2007-05-28 08:55 pm UTC (link)

Go ahead and feel annoyed. I don't mind. I'm blunt because I'm so sick and tired of candy-coating things for oversensitive ~~speshul snowflakes~~ people. Taking a bit of honesty in blunt form is not a bad thing.

Anyway, I do understand that it feels like you're being bullied, that someone's trying to tell you how to do things the way they think they should be done. But the fact is although it's being said through a thick veil of offensive obsequiousness, you ARE breaking one of ff.net's rules, and by being a member of that site and posting fic there, you are agreeing to abide by the rules and the TOS, and therefore you really can't complain when those rules are enforced. I stopped posting there when they took down the music category because I didn't agree with the move. I didn't stay on the site, post my Monkees and Who fic, and then turn around and complain when those fics were (rightfully) deleted. And, like others have said, if you don't like the rules, then either go somewhere else or post on your own website. It might not be fair to you, but websites and forums are not democracies, and like it not, the people who make the rules call the shots. That's life sometimes.

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cathowl
2007-05-28 09:01 pm UTC (link)

I like to think I'm not oversensitive. I did blow up over Mr. Bossy, but you'll notice I was much calmer talking with you, and eventually conceded to your points.

As for moving off of ffnet... I'm working on it. It's so hard to find a good fanfic archive... When I can afford it, I'm definitely going to buy myself a little domain of my own and host my writing there. Alas, at the soonest, that's a few months away. I suppose I should just duck down, lay low, and keep my nose clean until I leave the Pit.

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nevadafighter
2007-05-28 09:07 pm UTC (link)

Finding good fic IS hard. I wish it weren't, but it's so hard with sites that have no editing or quality control of any kind.

Personally I think a link to a LJ post is the best compromise. On LJ you can make the notes as long as you want and have the option of commenting there, and that way you can reduce the notes on your chapters and not have to worry about an overenthused hall monitor reporting you.

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	cathowl 2007-05-28 09:10 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, you're right. I will do that then, from now on. I don't know exactly what for, cause it certainly isn't your earlier tone with me, but thanks. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	cathowl 2007-05-28 09:14 pm UTC (link)
	Oh! Figured it out. Thank you for talking me out of a foolish course of action that only would have brought me unnecessary hassle and annoyance. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	nevadafighter 2007-05-28 09:15 pm UTC (link)
	Long years of dealing with less-than-mature people, my son. I start off bitchy and get more reasonable if I'm dealing with a person half-interested in looking beyond their own noses and maybe considering the points others are trying to make. Like you've done. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

cathowl
2007-05-28 09:29 pm UTC (link)

Yeah, I tend to react a little different. I try to start neutral, but I always drift very sharply towards (and often past) the politeness level of the person addressing me. I had to fight that hard to not just explode on you. It helped that this is a JF community. Puts the fear of being Wanked in me. I do not want to be publicly mocked, so I curbed my initial response impulses as best I could.

Now that we're on more agreeable terms, I just want to mention I have Asperger's. I tend to over or underreact because of it, since I have trouble understanding nuances that would put me on the same page as the people around me. That's another reason I had to curb my feelings very hard to have a rational conversation with you. I understand it would sound like an excuse if I'd said it earlier, like I almost wanted to when you called me passive-aggressive. My therapist told me that people with Asperger's often seem passive-aggressive when they're not being so. I got accused of acting passive-aggressive all the time by many of my teachers, and when I complained that I wasn't, people would just say that if so many people were seeing it, obviously it was true. It was such a relief when my therapist explained that I had been right, and they were misreading me.

I didn't say it earlier because I didn't want to be seen as one of those people who lies about or exaggerates their mental disorders in order to try to get allowances for their behavior. But, I just wanted to get that out, now that it can be seen as something more than an excuse. That's why I said people who know me well know I'm not a passive-aggressive person; they know I have Asperger's.

Now you know more about me then you probably wanted to... Heh. I'd say sorry, but I'm not unless I actually annoyed you with my oversharing.

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	nevadafighter 2007-05-28 10:06 pm UTC (link)
	Well, it certainly helps to understand. I can imagine that Asberger's probably makes it harder to cope sometimes (especially in an all-text medium), but it is to your credit that you didn't trot that out as an excuse. This is the kind of argument I like the most; where the parties come to agreement and there are (hopefully) no hard feelings. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

cathowl
2007-05-28 10:17 pm UTC (link)

It makes it very hard to cope, but I muddle through. It helps that I'm intelligent, and I don't intend that as bragging. Being smart makes it somewhat easier to interact with normal humans. The text-based medium makes it harder in the sense that I can't see clues other than words that would help me understand people... But it makes it easier, especially on forums and journal sites like this, that I can take time to respond, and edit before posting, allowing me to more frequently not do that thing that I do all too often:

Person I'm talking to: Thing.
Me: Exactly the wrong thing to say! .o0(Oh, shit.)

As for hard feelings... Well, there's still a trace of annoyance coloring my emotions right now, but I would call it a hard feeling, really. It's whispy and passive annoyance, and fading.

I'm actually kind of proud of myself in my conversation with you. I get angry really, really easily. And very strongly. It's like a brushfire, over quickly, but very intense while it's burning. I was constantly stamping out my internal sparks all over while replying to you and the other people here. >_<

Thanks again for talking me down, and realizing I was just anger-blinded, not a moron.

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	pyratejenni 2007-05-28 09:01 pm UTC (link)
	It just burns me though. I feel like I'm giving up.. FF.net is not going to change its rules for you. You cannot win. You are not fighting the good fight. You're just whining. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	cathowl 2007-05-28 09:05 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, I know that. But knowing something and feeling it are two different things. I suppose I just have to strangle down my pride and stop trying to shift the immovable object. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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