Hey all,

just soliciting your thoughts on a couple of issues that have recently piqued my attention:

I just received a review which was fairly complimentary and also contained a constructive point or maybe two, BUT ...

it was brief at best, and okay, whatever ...

but it ended with the reviewer acknowledging that he/she had fallen way short of the 100 word limit and so he/she made it up with a hollow insincere wish of best luck etc etc ... just to make the limit.

Now I'm not going to name names, but isn't this just taking the piss out of a system that aims to guarantee a minimum input?

Or am I being harsh?

And then ...

I requested a reading assignment. And aren't we asked to submit a maximum of 10,000 words?

So what would you do if you received a story of close to 13.000 words? Isn't that just taking the piss?

Or am I being grumpy?

I deleted the assignment because mine, and every other story I've critiqued has made the effort to abide by the rules. And why should we indulge people who can't be fucked to play the game.

I would genuinely like to hear your thoughts.

It used to be 50 words.

The only thing you ought to take from YWO is anything that helps improve how you write. By your own admission, the 'brief' review had 'a constructive point or two'. That's a nugget of gold.

Focus on your work and not on 'the system' and you'll benefit from the site. If you stop caring about how others use the site (or abuse, if you so feel) and instead focus in on the most important thing - your work - then YWO is a great tool for advancement.

Negative energy is available everywhere and kicking some up when frustrated or annoyed with how someone in cyber space acts is not helping you write or that other person give a damn.

and other Zen thoughts


On a side note, there is no word limit, but to be eligible for the charts, then an extract must be under 10,000 words. "Suck it up, say thank you and move on."

I hear what you're saying Ben. And I do appreciate the useful elements of any critique. I guess I'd just like to see people enter more fairly into the spirit of things, rather than simply banging out the minimum in order to get their credit. And, I'd also like people not to have annoying car alarms, not to queue jump, and not to pay for their groceries with small change. It's a small thing I know, and I feel rather petty about it now. I doubt I'd have commented on the short crit or the long sample on their own, but hot on the heels of each other, and it was raining and I was in a foul mood, yadda yadda yadda.

I stand by my point about entering into the spirit of things, but yeah, let's worry about more important stuff.

Here endeth the rant

You reviewed one of mine, once. Now deleted. You seem to have revised your critting "rules" since.

If I ever get one of yours, it will have to be a work of genius to get any more than 2s from me. "...the likes of NickP can rant on if they like"

I occasionally rant on at http://amonsterinthemirror.blogspot.com/

Obviously what I would really do is dump it.

Unless it was brilliant. There's always that chance. "...the likes of NickP can rant on if they like"

I occasionally rant on at http://amonsterinthemirror.blogspot.com/