I don't know if this counts for this thread, because it's mainly for A/N's in fan fiction.

But I really, really dislike it when author's threaten their readers for reviews.

For me, it's a major turn off for reading that story, and I usually drop the story as soon as I read the 'If I don't get *this* amount of reviews, I won't update or I'm dropping this story' in the A/N. Even if the story is good, it just gets on my nerves when I read something like that, or 'I'll update when I get a certain number of reviews'.

To me, it's like they are threatening their readers when personally, I think they should just appreciate that people are reading their stories. I personally would rather get reviews for my stories because the people wanted to review, not because I forced them to.

But, maybe that's just me? I mean, I like reviews to and they do motivate me sometimes(So I usually ask people, review please? at the end of a chapter, but if they don't it's fine) but forcing people to leave a review just seems wrong to me? I guess.

So maybe that should be a law, don't threaten your readers for reviews? XD I dunno.

Oh, yeah, speaking as a reader, that really annoys me, big time. I have stopped reading excellent stories because I was so disgusted when authors did this...

I have to agree with you PRVN and KnifeThrower. I have also stopped reading stories because the person demanded that people review. Some have also been quite nasty about the request for reviews. It might be me but if you are that demanding and/or nasty I really don't want to read anything by you. The story could be great but I don't do negativity.

It seems that the peeve of many is bad grammer/puncuation/spelling/etc and I agree wholeheartedly.
I think what annoyes me even more than that, and I'm a perfectionist when it comes to the written word so that's a feat in and of itself, is when you take the time to leave a kind and constructive review telling them what's wrong with it and how to correct it.
When the next chapter comes around you discover they have either not even bothered to read the reviews people have taken time to write or ignored your advice completely or, even worse, they've taken your advice the wrong way and have decided to either leave a harsh statement in the review section or in their next chapter.

Take the time to read your reviews and take constructive critisism as a way to make yourself grow as a writer not as an insult to your skills or lack thereof.

throwing my 2 cents in with you guys on the issue of authors holding updates hostage to a certain number of reviews. Personally I like to give my reviewers time to review before I update... thats just a preference, and I never dont update because I dont meet a certain "quota" or something. And really its never been a problem because usually my reviewers are on it and done in 3 or 4 days, and it usually takes me like 2 weeks to update! lol

Once, I got less than half the reviews on a chapter, than all my other chapters got. I was worried that perhaps I'd lost viewership and that I'd perhaps not kept interest or my flow was bad, etc. So in the next chapter I asked my readers to PLEASE review and let me know what I can do to improve, and expressed my concern. Everyone was AMAZING... and they all replied that I had done just fine, they were all still hooked, I learned a few things from them too like - perhaps the day I updated yielded less reivews, and to check my hits as opposed to the number of reviews. also that many of my reviewers are more like lurkers lol they only occasionally review.

It made me feel sooooo much better, learning all of this. I love love LOVE my reviewers. They are the best. Helpful, supportive, and always informative. Sometimes just getting a "great job. can't wait for more." is just as nice as those long reviews filled with praise and/or constructive critisism.

Dragoness wrote:
Hey guys. I am glad the rules were posted. Some I knew but others were new to me. I have been using google to research but I have a question. Is there a list of particular links that would have information on proceedures / traditions? Sometimes I can find what I am looking for but there have been many times that I could'nt. Of course, since this is all new to me I could just be doing something wrong. One example would be an apology. Where I am some flowers, a gift and saying sorry is fine, however in Japan maybe there is a different proceedure you have to follow to show you are sincere in your apology. Any tips for a lost person?

Now I'm no expert but from what I have seen, depending on how bad the offense, it usually ranges from a simple apology, sometimes accompanied by a bow at the waist for things like being late, if it's middle ground like your son/daughter left their fiance at the alter than it's usually accompanied by prostrating oneself (kneeling on the ground and bowing so low your face touches the ground), and if it's really bad like you spent all of your company's money and it went belly up resulting in 1,000s of people losing their jobs sometimes they will commit Seppuku which is a ceremonial suicide.

Japan is probably the most insistent country when it comes to apologies. They take wronging someone very seriously and will do whatever it takes to restore their honor. For other things, if you can't find them on google, you can always try posting a thread under off topic here on Dokuga, there are plenty of people that would no doubt know the answers. And worse case, read some manga. But pay more attention to their actions in the pictures rather than their words, as certain things can be lost in translation.

Hope this helps .