if I get a gift fic and it's coal, I'm going to slant my comment differently if it's a newb doing their best vs. someone's lazy sock. If I can tell

When I started writing fic and had exactly two fics to my name, I signed up for Yuletide and people assumed I was a sock. I wasn't; I just had no previous fandom presence. However, I've been writing since I was a kid and I'd been reading fic for a few years, so I didn't come off all wide-eyed. I don't think there's ever a good way of sussing this out. Coal is coal. Be mean or don't be mean. You don't really need to develop... tiers of response??