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Just published my first game! If you’d like to check it out, please do. Also, please don’t leave any men’s comments. Of you don’t like it, leave constructive criticism.

This should go in the Parlor Room, but I'm confused! Why don't you want men to comment?

Obviously because men are uncultured vile scum that have no tastes in the freeform art of literature.

Sorry *mean

Shows how much I paid attention to the first post and immediately homed in on Mizal's question about men's comments.

I excitedly rushed off to read the story thinking that ISABD actually put that on her front page and perhaps a man hating message somewhere in the story. Imagine my disappointment.

It's CYS, disappointment is a time honored tradition.

I wish there here was a way to disable comments. Is there? Because sometimes I just want to put my art out there without feedback. Honestly, if you like it, cool. If you don’t, that’s cool too. But I like it, and that’s why I chose to share it. Don’t tell me that you hate it and I have to change it or else everyone will hate it. Because you’re wrong.

Annnd....above comment on disappointment has never been so apt. But okay. It's called leaving it in sneak peek in your profile. Or alternately, realizing that maybe a writing site is not for you if your skin is so thin you'll bleed to death over a papercut.

Comments are for the author's benefit, it's the reader taking time out of their day to read words you typed and Notice You. You can try to take something useful from them or choose to ignore them, but at the end of the day hobbyist internet writers need readers, not the other way around. There are very, very few stories here anyone would miss if they were taken down, and your 'art' is a nice way to spend thirty seconds and all but it's far from being one of them.

You can't give yourself anymore perfect 8/8 ratings if you don't publish though so consider carefully.

How does one go from telling people they can leave constructive criticism in the opening post to wanting to disable comments completely? 

This just completely boggles the mind. I'm just going to assume here that you never wanted feedback in the first place :c 

Oh well, I'm guessing you're going to be leaving this site again since you left three times by now apparently.  

Funny, I don't think I've noticed those departures. 

Please, at least take a gift basket before you go. 

End listed some of the alts in her newbie thread. She didn't publish or post anything with them so I really didn't understand what that comment was about.

This sure is a perplexing case.  

I’m starting to remember why I left this site the first three times...

I feel for you my friend. 'People read, comprehend, think about and respond to my words' being a dealbreaker must make a lot of the internet difficult for you. I can't even imagine what face to face human interaction must be like.

Minimum Site Standards for Storygames

"We're not expecting perfection."

Just make sure your stuff meets this and don't worry about people's comments. Usually comments that point out mistakes and what not (criticism) is supposed to help the writer improve. With that said there is always room to improve, or at least that is what I think, and as such if you don't want to try and improve because you feel you are good enough/happy with yourself, then you don't need to worry about it.

Don't misinterpret comments left by people trying to be helpful as insults. Most people won't go around trying to be mean for no good reason. There are some who's writing tends to come of that way, but they are probably going for the 'tough love' approach (although thinking about it there is a whole number of reasons it might appear this way).

Obviously if you can't be bothered and just hate the idea of people criticising your work, and you can't find the power to not care, it can suck. Don't let it demotivate you. Pretty sure that even if you ignore criticism and just write you will end up improving, although it might be at a slower pace.

Do note that this site has a... rather open approach to handling what people can and can't say. You can say almost anything, even more depending on context (from what I gather). As such it might feel a bit different to sites that control what is deemed appropriate more heavily.
You can always try looking for a site that doesn't allow criticism and what not if that is more your cup of tea (or one that lets you disable comments, or just doesn't have them).

Then again I might have completely misunderstood this post and all I wrote here is irrelevant. If so, whoops.

TL;DR
People are given the power to comment, usually readers who leave comments have good intentions, there is always room to improve, try not to worry about it if you don't want to, and there might be a better site for you out there.

EDIT P.S.
Pretty sure super long storygames by people who aren't 'famous' tend to get very few comments. If you want to avoid comments write something super long, then publish just before a bunch of contest enteries come out. This will push your storygame into the void where few people will read it, and fewer still will comment (oh and don't enter the contest).

Thank you for your comment. It made me feel a lot better actually, unlike someone else of this forum...but again, thank you.

It was a very nice post and I guess if anyone else realized the existence and purpose of comments and feedback needed to be explained we'd have gone with something like that as well.

Oh well, live and learn. I'll add that to my list of things we apparently need articles for.

/Then again I might have completely misunderstood this post and all I wrote here is irrelevant. If so, whoops./

Dini didn't seem to 'get' her beautiful artistic vision and it broke her in half. It's the newest story right now if you want the context.

I don't even know what to say in a situation like this while trying to use restraint except just to note that I really feel a writing site is no place for the emotionally frail.

I never said it was perfect, I just said it came out how I wanted it to. It’s okay if you don’t like it.

Ah geez, I don't think she's really going to like my comment on her story then.  

I almost forgot that we're obligated to coddle people here and such. Darn. 

I only disliked it because it wasn’t constructive. It just said that you disliked it. I mean...okay...you don’t like it...how does that help me improve it?

You obviously don't like feedback, you stated as such. I was simply adhering to those wishes of yours. I don't want to force anything unwanted on you by giving you any dreaded and traumatizing criticism of your work. 

Are you telling us you're open to criticism now, is that it? 

I wouldn't mind dreaded and traumatizing criticism of the stories of mine she gave 1/8s to at all, but that's a whole nother topic.

Oh no, really?! Lol, what an adorable person this is. 

I may just have give your stories an 8 to counter the irreversible damage she has done. You can rest easy that it's only been two of your works that she apparently gave that rating to, because anymore and you may have to be worried. 

Well, not really actually but, meh. 

The weight of her 38 points wounded me deep.

But no actually I don't want to derail this, it actually is a discussion for another topic. As in, next time I get ten minutes in front of a grownup-sized screen and keyboard, I've been thinking of a thread on this general subject. I do not understand the psychology behind the 1 and run, like, at all. I've never in my time here disliked a story that strongly without wanting to let the author know about it once I'm done.

I know it's not ever going to happen but I almost think it'd be useful to force a comment on a 1 rating, if only because I want to see 504 heartfelt explanations of why Eternal is the worst story on the site.

But people gave opinions on how they'd improve it and that's what started this whole thing with you being upset and wanting to protect yourself from the possibility of comments etc.

I thought your writing was pretty good actually and you obviously think very highly of it yourself, but other people are entitled to their own views too, and sometimes you'll find useful advice in there if you can read it objectiveky...and sometimes you won't. So what. The #1 bit of advice I can give you right now is to drop this idea that anyone leaving feedback owes you a justification for a 'wrong' opinion. Your ideas of the whole reader / writer relationship might be a bit backwards tbh. Readers are generally the ones doing /us/ a favor, just by reading and acknowledging that they did so. They don't owe us that or anything else, but it's really, really fucking nice when it happens.

A detailed critique would put most writers here over the moon. Doesn't matter how much of it is negative, it's still the best way to tell who's paying attention.

Sigh

At least it's not WC.

I’m so glad to be a part of such a kind and supportive community.

And for those in this thread who clearly don’t understand how to talk to others over the internet, that was sarcasm.

Well alrighty then. I don’t post that often, and when I do I’m not ever here to insult people.

Congrats. You’ve changed my mind on things.

Look here. If you wrote that story and published it because you like it, and NOT because you wanted feedback...your existence on this site is virtually pointless. There is pretty much zero reason to post any story on this site unless you want feedback, and if you REALLY didn’t want feedback, then why’d you post it in the first place. Obviously people are going to comment on it. That’s something fairly unavoidable. ESPECIALLY SINCE YOU POSTED IT IN THE FORUMS. I really cannot hope to understand the idiocy that exudes from you in this forum alone.

It’s like giving  extra credit to a teacher and expecting them not to comment or give a grade on it. Either way, you played yourself. Now everyone who’s read this thread knows you, and will associate you with a kid that cries at the slightest provocation. 

And for the comment I’m actually responding to, who cares? If you don’t want to be a part of a community that actively gives comments and feedback, then leave. I mean, you should feel grateful. You’ve probably gotten more comments on your story game in one day, than I have on mine in the couple of months that it’s been up. 

Go. No one is keeping you here.

I like the new Ebon.

'Your existence on the site is virtually pointless' sums it up nicely. I mean I realize a large number of users never do anything with their accounts and whatever, that's fine, at least they don't slop their crippling personality flaws all over our nice forum.

This thread has been fun but it's a ridiculous amount of drama over a 300 word story that probably took about twenty minutes to write. If a person can't handle feedback, then n don't publish a story; that automatically requests it. Asking for comments in the description is also a request, and making a thread for even more attention triples down on that.

Like jeez, when people get this attitude about their work I want to tell them to just print it out, pin it on their mom's fridge and be done with it. It another good point that most authors would LOVE to have this amount of attention given to anything they wrote. Most of the detailed comments were pretty positive, too. Thanks for wasting the time of all those reviewers.

At the very least, don't make a thread asking for feedback and then immediately demand that the feedback stop in an increasingly whiny and passive aggressive manner. I'm not sure how else anyone could have expected this to go.

Sweet. mizal’s approval. Now I just need the rest of the council’s approval and I can join in as an apprentice. 

I was gonna continue to blast her for a little bit, but I was typing on a phone and that takes a lot of the fun out of insulting people. Well it appears she fled, so it worked out either way.

No, I just didn’t feel like fighting with dumb people on the internet.

careful. if you get too violent you might break the mirror.

I "laughed out loud", as the kids say.