I think everyone has learned their lesson here and I don't judge those involved harshly. However, ignorance can only be excused once and I hope this won't happen again now that the issue has been brought up. We don't want to steal more of the mod's time. Now, shall we join hands and sing Oh Canada?
QUOTE: "Once? No. Twice? No. We're talking numbers with two or three digits here. "I loved it!!!!" is not a big deal. Chats are. PAGES of reviews from a small number of people on one story is spam. The same review twenty times is most emphatically spam. There shouldn't NEED to be a rule. And yes, folks, I was reading those reviews as I deleted them. Don't try to claim they didn't say things they most emphatically said.
- Vindictus Viridian on 12/14/06 - 09:02PM" END QUOTE:
Alright, calm down. We have apologized numerous times. Let it go ... I love the post from above. To err is human to forgive divine ...
give it up already, we have apologized over and over, we do not have time turners we cannot go back now and undo what was done. So how about we all move on.
Doc
Let it go, Doc. Mods, we all apologize and hope that you forgive this incident. We didn't know that it was against the rules and would have never done so if we had. We are all sorry and never meant to cause trouble. And, I know it has been said, it is not Nuw's fault! Thank you for not deleting the story and having the kindness to forgive us. So sorry again,
Moony
It sounds to me like you have been - if not forgiven - then at least not punished. Given the fact that the reviews get deleted *with the story* - and the fact that the mods are *still deleting spam* - perhaps you can attempt to step back and let the mods assure other users that they aren't in danger of losing their accounts for smaller infractions, without feeling attacked? The incident can't be let go until the curious masses (me included) know where the line is drawn. That doesn't make it an attempt to personally humiliate anyone.
Although what the spammers did was bad...and those with mal-intentions should be scolded, I feel that they have apoligized enough for it...What I want to know is, if we have a mod who is good by all means but is overly rude, what do we do? I had a moderator recently who did a fantastic job, but was just plain mean. I would like to let that mod know...but how can I do that without being kicked off or punished somehow?
I smell sarcasm, Doc. ;)
OK, I'll admit I get very short reviews, but I love them as much as long reviews. It means someone is reading and liking my story. And I'll also admit, I love it when I get an accidental double post, because then I can make silly comments about deja vu, and wow you must've loved my story to say the same thing twice, etc.
Last Random Thought: I love being head of the Oblivious Squad (I'm in charge because I'm Captain Oblivious). And I'm still oblivious. I guess it's only because I've got two stories, and I'm not spammed; I've also not read any stories or reviews that were spammed....I think I need to get out more.... :P
I've only glanced over what has been said, but from what I can see no one has acted completely responsibly here. I think that what has been said has been said rashly and without much thinking being done before submission. Unless the defendents had received previous warnings, they probably should have been talked to privately. Afterwards, a message that wasn't as personal could have been posted for others to read. This isn't the mods fault though, because they didn't actually state the names of these members. I guess what I'm trying to say is that apologies have been made, warnings have been issued and it's probably time to move on. I think that too much emotion is involved at this point, and it would be best if questions were asked now and contemplation of the past left alone. That's all I'm going to say though, and because I wasn't involved none of have to take me seriously. Still, I hope you'll consider what I have to say.
Good night. :-)
Thanks for the clarifation on "spammage." (Plus, I admit I took a peak to see what was going on, but it did help me to understand.) I don't want to get involved with this, and I know appologies have been made, but I really think those comments would have been a bit more at home either in PMs, AIM, or LJ. Please do not take this negatively, as I honestly don't mean it that way, and I don't think anyone realized they were spamming. Hopefully everyone will learn from this, including those who have never spammed a story. Now I beleive all those involved should put it behind them, and simply move on.
Now that all 3,000+ surplus 'reviews' are gone, I'm perfectly happy to put it behind me. Some of them were, however, 'gone' into a Word file where they may be dredged up as evidence at the slightest provocation -- such as further claims that they did not contain what they very clearly did. There is a reason for my screen name and my favourite main character.
And since clarification is desired, here's one -- I'm deleting reviews on unvalidated chapters when I happen across such things. If you haven't read the fic, you can't critique it. At the moment, deletion is all I'm doing.
So, I've had this happen to me. For my story, "Lily and James : Their Story of Love" someone posted almost 1000 reviews alone on the same chapter. And I think it was to get the story to the 'Most Reviewed' position on the Top Tens. For some reason I can't delete or reply to reviews on that story, so I had no way of doing anything about it. If this is the absolute wrong place to put this, then disregard this comment completely. I'm just hoping that authors will not be penalized for the bad judgement of their reviewers.
Secret Lily, as the mod for J/L I'm the person to approach with this. It's fine that you've posted here with it. In future, if you have any of the same problems then my e-mail is Natalie@fanfiction.mugglenet.com. I'll visit your story this evening and take care of what I can. I'm happy to help out anyone who's having this kind of problem, whether they be from my category or not. The mods are not difficult to contact, we have a staff list, all you have to do is visit their individual profile page and press contact, that gets you through to us. We're always happy to hear from people who are trying to keep the site tidy because we simply can't be everwhere all the time.
We want you guys to get to know each other, to communicate and support one another in your endeavours. However, there is a time and a place for it. We have our own forums here at MNFF, with the facility to send Private Messages to other users. Or there is, as was previously pointed out, the oft used AIM, MSN, and YIM. There is no need, or excuse for carrying on a conversation in a person's reviews. If anyone isn't signed up at the forums then there's a link in the navigation bar to the left of your screen, click it, go sign up, and have fun getting to know each other.
For anyone not clear on what spam is, it's something that is irrelevant to the topic at hand and completely pointless. Like a review on an un-validated chapter. That's a waste of your time and ours, so please don't do it.
I'm deleting reviews on unvalidated chapters when I happen across such things. If you haven't read the fic, you can't critique it. At the moment, deletion is all I'm doing. Vindictus
Speaking of chapters that haven't been validated yet, I get email telling me that the next chapter in my favorite story has been updated, only to find it hasn't been validated yet. This happens about 1 out out of 20 notices, but the last 4 were for the same story (whose chapter has yet to be validated), I wonder if there is a corelation between the erroneous emails and the number of reviews on an unvalidated chapter.
I'm a writer for MNFF and I recieved a spam review. I didn't know where exactly to turn to, so when I saw this post, I decided to leave a comment asking if someone could please check it out. Thanks. The spam review is below.
Reviewer: LovelyxLena
Date: 12/13/06 - 05:34PM
Chapter: A Letter Never Read
That. I'm crying so hard i Can't even find words! I know this review isn't porperly writen. Thi s was so beautiful! The words were heart felt, and love shined thourgh. I felt lmy heart breaking as I read that letter. Oh my! This is going on my favorite list.
Regarding beauty and brains 'spam'- Um, I don't think that's spam. Spam is when someone is abusing their reviewers privileges to start a chat room at your story, leave MANY pointless reviews such as, "What's your favorite color? I have a dog named Sparx! What's your stand on global warming etc. etc. Spam is when the review is pointless and unrelated to the story that is posted. What you have there is a lovely review that was heart felt review where your reader was affected by your story. I've recieved/read some reviews by LovelyxLena and they aren't spam, just thoughts on the story. Now if there were several reviews with a similar message, that may be considered as spam. But that's just my opinion.
Dragonswings is right, beauty and brains. A spam is when the review is completely unrelevant at the topic at hand (if on the forums), or to the story.
The review which you got is a quite good review actually: the reviewer expresses her thoughts of the story and how it affected her.
Hopes that helped. :)
To join the apologizing team(and yes I'm apologizing because I feel it's the right thing to do) , I'm sorry for all the spam I caused. I know I did and I'm deeply sorry. I never knew that when I sometimes reviewed that I was "spaming" up the reviewing page. I will in the future quit spamming the reveiwing page. But that doesn't mean that I ALWAYS did it.
I wasn't aware the reviewing an Unvalidated chapter wasn't allowed. Of course, I know you can't critique it, but for me (and, so I'm told, other authors) receiving a review makes me want to write more. So if one did review on an unvalidated chapter and it said, "This chapter isn't up, but I love your story anyway! I hope this one comes out soon!" is that a problem? Most of the ones I - and other people - have posted aren't exactly like that, but I'm just curious - and I will be sure not to review unvalidated chapters anymore. Again, I wasn't aware that was against the rules. I apologize.
You know, reviews on an unvalidated chapter is one of those things where once wouldn't be a big deal, but when it's three pages of complaints that the mods aren't validating faster, it's spam. Rules happen when common sense and politeness fail. We're validating as fast as we can; are you proofreading as well as you might? If you keep getting alerts on a story's update, sans chapter, on the same chapter, that means it's been rejected more than once. We don't do that out of meanness; we're just the quality control. Berate the author, if you like, or the beta reader, just for a little variety in our online diet. When someone misspells his/her own main character (no, I'm not making that up,) that's really not the mods' fault. Three pages of nonreviews add up, especially when they happen on every chapter of twenty or so. Who needs to poke through all that to see whether the story is really getting GOOD reviews or not?
All right. Thanks for clearing that up. I'll keep that in mind, and I'll let the mods know if I do see that happening. Oh, and do the spammy reviews have anything to do with how in a few chapters of previously written fics are having chapters re-posted?
Once? No. Twice? No. We're talking numbers with two or three digits here. "I loved it!!!!" is not a big deal. Chats are. PAGES of reviews from a small number of people on one story is spam. The same review twenty times is most emphatically spam. There shouldn't NEED to be a rule. And yes, folks, I was reading those reviews as I deleted them. Don't try to claim they didn't say things they most emphatically said.