Rude comments on DDs aren't always about the actual feature.
There's no question that the worst thing you can do on a DD is go on and on about how it didn't deserve it, blah blah blah et cetera. The artist had nothing to do with the decision so go to the FAQs and stop being a little bitch. If you can take the time to whine, you can take a little extra to do it properly.
FAQ #873: What do I do when I disapprove of a Daily Deviation feature?I welcome all concerns addressed directly to me. I expect it, rather.
But anyway, this isn't a rant about that. It's a rant about something more insidious: the attitude that DDs are the only thing worth looking at in the whole fucking category.
I'm not directly quoting anyone, but the following is a sample of stuff I've seen. (This is vaguer and a bit nicer than most of it, I'm not that good at being all down with the pointless hating. But the 'I don't read' comments don't give me warm fuzzies either, y'know?)
I don't normally read lit because it bores me, but this was actually decent.
Wow, something that deserves a feature.
I read this to the end, and I never read lit on dA!
I hope you're noticing a pattern here. All of these people aren't so much complimenting the author as they are putting down the rest of the community and listing the author as an exception to the rule that 'lit sucks.'
I can't speak for how other authors feel about it when they get a comment like that, but my own reaction is something like 'thanks but no thanks.' Like if the only way you can say something nice about my work is to qualify it by pointing out that everything else is extremely bad, I'd rather you faved and ran because agreeing with you makes me sound like a douche, too, and I don't want to say 'thank you' so much as 'maybe you should
read more.'
When you say '
I don't like lit, but
I didn't hate this' you are turning the author's accomplishment into your own. Regardless of what went through your head when you read it, there is no good reason to phrase your comment like the author has done
you a huge favour by posting something that was something you could stand to read, you poor delicate flower.
There are many more appropriate ways to say you liked something. Above all, focus on the art. It's always about the art. 'Awesome work bringing out xxxx and yyyy': just because it's a compliment doesn't mean you have to waver between mindless or derogatory. Say what you specifically liked about it, maybe the dialogue or the concept or the overall execution.
Or, again, don't say anything. Or look at what other people are saying and how the author is responding and adjust your response based on that.
Anyway, as far as I can tell this is a problem unique to literature: the attitude that taking ten minutes out of your day to read something good means you're entitled to bitch about all the stuff you haven't even looked at (no, the front page doesn't count).
This isn't your goddamn castle, and you're not a princess. If you have such a problem with the onsite literature, start a) reading the DDs, b) posting your own work, and c) joining groups where the admins do quality checks before allowing literature submissions to go through (you know what, just watch #
ScreamPrompts, it's good for you...also #
CRLiterature because seriously do it now).
Also, I have a pretty swank
favourites folder, which probably has a more general appeal than the
DD'd folder, but what the fuck. There are no excuses for you to only ever have found one piece of literature on the entire site that you enjoyed.
None.
skin by `
Infinite705
#CRLiterature
`ChewedKandi has certainly gone out of her way to keep the vector community on the right path. Always making sure that her talents are infinitely scalable, Sharon has put her bezier curves to excellent use, and firmly anchored herself as an inspirational leader. We're absolutely delighted to bestow the Deviousness Award for June 2013 to `ChewedKandi. Congratulations, Sharon! Read More
Sta.sh
:thumb30757511
We had a surplus of participants, words, and even prizes. Participants completely annihilated the word count record, previously held by #CRLiterature, for a Chat Tour stop by over 18,000 words! I counted over 40 participants, and we wrote a collective total of 64,098 words.
You will have 5 days to locate the deviations, starting on Jan 7 12:00 AM EST and ending on Jan 11 11:59 PM EST.
by ~angeljunkie
Solution? Direct people to DLD. DLD consistently gathers excellent Lit on dA in one easy place, and for obvious reasons can feature more than just the CV's can do with lit DDs.
Yeah, when I get those I'm like 'you know there's a lit DD EVERY SINGLE DAY passive aggressive smiley'.
I'm still like WHY AREN'T YOU READING MORE, so of course the safe option is not admitting you don't