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Coal All The Way

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THREE have "thank you for writing for me" and nothing else from the recip? Literally just those words?

I haven't seen any of those comments in the wild this year, would be interested to see why they've done that.

You want to gawk at what, exactly?

Dc

If three out of four fics they've written have hugely disappointed the recips to the point where they leave an "I'm offended by this but am trying to be polite" comment then maybe ~ just maybe ~ there's an issue with the writer.

DC My guess is at least a couple are not literally "thank you for writing for me" but one of the shorter comments recips who aren't deep in the Yuletide scene can leave. "Thanks, this is cute!" or whatever.

And you what, want the author to unanon so you can diagnose it?

Yeah that's *exactly* what they said. They asked for links to each fic and the author's name and everything. Oh wait, no they didn't at all, so calm down.

Uh huh, and how do you think they're going to say it's an issue with the writer if they don't have the fics there? Duh.

Re: Your Yuletide So Far

(Anonymous) - 2019-12-29 17:50 (UTC) - Expand

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Re: Your Yuletide So Far

(Anonymous) - 2019-12-30 02:13 (UTC) - Expand

Some people do "thank you for writing for me" because they're not plugged into the exchange scene and don't realize it's taken as passive-aggressive. It's not always a slam.

+1

I'm not an effusive commenter and used that for literal years before I stumbled on this place and found out there were people who were supremely passive-aggressive with their commenting and poisoned the well for everyone.

NC:

https://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2019/works/21719728
(The Binding, Lucian/Emmett, for yujacheong)

It's not literally "thank you for writing for me" but the recipient's comment is distinctly lukewarm - their comments on past gifts are still short but notably more enthusiastic. I honestly can't see what's wrong with the fic itself, which follows both prompts the recipient left, namely smut and what happens post-canon. I enjoyed it, and at least one other reader left a detailed and enthused comment. So it's probably not what OP wrote, but if you were just interested in underwhelmed recips, here's an example.

Really obvious too since the recip didn’t kudos the gifts they don’t like, eek, at least make your favouritism less blatant.

Why? To make things less clear to the authors who did it right?

Encouraging authors that don’t work for you doesn’t really help you. They still commented and didn’t wank in namespace/obviously in anon, they have done everything right and followed coals advice on how to handle a fic you didn’t like.

Lying and false equivalency helps no one.

It would just feel terrible to be on the receiving end of this, that’s all.

Sure, but it sucks to get something you don’t like and then have to twist yourself into knots to find things you like that aren’t there.

So many people angst over not trusting 300+ word comments as being sincere. If you want to know that your recip honestly liked their fic, this is someone to engage with. If the thought of a recip not treating all of their gifts the same regardless of their content would hurt your feelings, seek out people who write 300 words on 10k masterpieces and 1k DNW fic.

You can control who you write for (defaulting exists!) but no recip can guarantee a fic they will be happy with. This recip did nothing wrong and neither did the author. It was a bad match. At least the author had other people that liked it. I’m too lazy to check but if that is the only gift the recip got, they’re the one that “lost” this round.

Re: Your Yuletide So Far

(Anonymous) - 2019-12-29 22:24 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Your Yuletide So Far

(Anonymous) - 2019-12-29 22:39 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Your Yuletide So Far

(Anonymous) - 2019-12-29 22:44 (UTC) - Expand

They were still polite and said something nice about the fic, kind of... Maybe the lack of kudos was accidental.

I mean, sometimes I just forget. I didn't bother kudosing at all if I commented until a big wank on coal 3-4 years ago made me realize that my authors assumed I hated the fic if I didn't kudos it, too. /exaggeration

sa

I'm not the recip of the fic in question, to be clear. Just offering my perspective.

Cyrt

Thanks! You're right, I only skimmed the fic but can't see any obvious problems when compared with the letter. I don't know the fandom though so it's possible it's hugely OOC and I just can't tell!

It's got a bit more to the comment than TFWFM and given that they only use short comments anyway it could be that they were just feeling down when they commented. It's hard to be 100% sure but I certainly wouldn't be thrilled to get this comment. I'm happy for the writer that they got a really great comment underneath though!

NC I have the book in my to-read pile and I just flipped through it for voice. I’m not detecting any problems whatsoever? Idk the recipient’s other comments are barely more tepid than this one.

CYRT - I do know the fandom, and I would have been happy to get this! The characters are IC, the smut is brief but nice, and there are touches of worldbuilding (an item from both the recip's likes and mine.) That's part of why I linked it - it's a well-meant, perfectly good fic with a recip who clearly wasn't feeling it for whatever reason.

I mean, for a much more gracious response to a much worse fic:
https://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2019/works/21810610

neither recip had to comment at all. policing who went above and beyond on a subjective thing like fic quality is very CoN.

we have had two wanks this year over technically perfect but not what you want = coal vs technically mediocre/bad but has the soul of everything you love = coal. just because you think one is better than the other doesn’t mean the recips did.

besides they said thanks. take people at their word and move on.

Re: Your Yuletide So Far

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Re: Your Yuletide So Far

(Anonymous) - 2019-12-30 17:24 (UTC) - Expand

Yujacheong goes here, just fyi.

ncyrt

Then a) they already know that a lot of people like longer comments or more enthusiastic so shouldn't be surprised and b) can feel free to say it's a perfectly acceptable comment (which it is!), or whatever else they want to in response

You (and they) should know that coals de-facto advice for gifts you dislike is “mention whatever few things you do like, say thank you AND DO NOT FAKE EFFUSIVE PRAISE”.

People like long comments, yes. People want their work to land, yes. I don’t see why you think anycoalie expects a long comment on a fic that didn’t land. The recip isn’t even a long commenter on their fav fics so I don’t get what else you would expect any short commenters lukewarm comments to look like.

/good egg long commenter who genuinely sees nothing wrong with their actions. As an author it would make me feel bad but I’d rather know than treat them again if my best effort fic isn’t their cuppa.

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