I don't know about you guys, but I'm tired of seeing authors and artists get flamed by some big babies who like to abuse the anonymous posting option. True, a lot of us aren't logged in right at the moment we want to review/comment, so we do so anonymously- that's awesome, we've all done it.

But really? Flaming, rude comments, uncalled for harsh words meant to hurt the creator's feelings- while the meanie hides behind his/her safe curtain of anonymity? Too much a chicken to even allow the creator a fair chance to respond or defend themselves.

If perhaps you have the time at some point, our gloriously awesome admins, do you think it's possible to implement such a thing? An option to disable anonymous reviews or comments from being left on your work(s).


Either way, thanks for reading. /bows

Fox wrote:
I don't know about you guys, but I'm tired of seeing authors and artists get flamed by some big babies who like to abuse the anonymous posting option. True, a lot of us aren't logged in right at the moment we want to review/comment, so we do so anonymously- that's awesome, we've all done it.

But really? Flaming, rude comments, uncalled for harsh words meant to hurt the creator's feelings- while the meanie hides behind his/her safe curtain of anonymity? Too much a chicken to even allow the creator a fair chance to respond or defend themselves.

If perhaps you have the time at some point, our gloriously awesome admins, do you think it's possible to implement such a thing? An option to disable anonymous reviews or comments from being left on your work(s).


Either way, thanks for reading. /bows

I understand that you're upset, but the forum isn't the place for griping about abusive reviewers. It's meant to be a fun and upbeat environment.

While I'm sure MissK has considered this feature, and that it may be implemented in the future, we admins do try to make sure any flames or harsh comments are dealt with quickly. Has anyone ever reported a flame, and not had it removed within a few hours? I seriously doubt any have lasted longer than a day or two after being reported.

The problem isn't about anonymous reviewing. They're truthfully not anonymous. Everyone's IP Address is available to us, whether you're anonymous or not. Make a rude comment, and we will find out who you are. Keep doing it, and we will ban you.

Why sacrifice some nice reviews from non-members over these occasional buttheads?

I apologize- I was posting a feature suggestion with the reason why I decided to ask for it. It's mostly gripes because there's not really anything good to say about flames. And it was just a suggestion. It's an innocent enough request- most of all the other fanfiction or art sites I visit have anonymous disabled. The point wasn't to stab at some insane idea that the admins weren't always on top of flames or every other problem, which they always are. The point was to prevent one more problem from occurring (nip in the bud, if you will) and a potential idea to help keep feelings from being hurt.

And unfortunately as with most things you'd have to sacrifice some good things to get rid of a lot of bad.

I understand that you weren't taking a stab at the admins or our ability to deal with inappropriate comments. I was merely presenting the case that a feature like that seems unnecessary to me, and that I don't see the benefit in sacrificing 10 or 15 positive reviews for a story on the off chance that I might get a negative one, especially when it can be easily removed. Why let some inconsiderate reader keep you from enjoying the praise from your non-member readers?

Some people are a lot more sensitive than others... and while it can be said if you're that sensitive just do not post on the interwebz at all- that might keep another epic fic from us. ;; And one of the reasons why I love Dokuga so much is the positive and supportive air that it carries. It feels like a safe place to post when you're new or just starting out and you can almost be assured of kind comments that can help you along. Constructive comments that can help you improve while not beating up your confidence. It feels like a family.

That's why I was just pointing to the optional portion. You can choose to accept anonymous or not. It doesn't have to be a default feature. :O)

Of course, it would be optional. I'm debating with you from a purely... philosophical standpoint.

I think dealing with harsh insensitive reviews is a part of the process of becoming a writer. You are right when you say that anyone who can't handle a groundless flame should think twice about posting on the internet. The internet is the wild west in a way, and if you want to have access to that many people reading your work, you're going to have to accept that not everyone is nice. The best thing to learn is how to not take it personal. You can't do that if you hide from them.

I totally agree, dealing with harsh responses is part of being a writer. There are certain times, however, I think it's suitable to not want to hear it at all. Such as writing extremely sensitive or ideological materials that may or may not offend someone. All you can really do is either not post it at all- or if you do post include that it's not meant to offend anyone, but that's certainly not guaranteed to keep the meanies out. And as we all know- warnings don't mean a thing.

Even when it's clearly written that if you, for example, believe that yaoi is totally against your religion or whatnot and you come across a story that comes with a warning label with "yaoi" and you read it anyway and then feel the need to bash the author. It's common sense: you don't think you'll like the content, don't read it.

It's the same case with underage viewers cheating the system to view materials that are not appropriate for them, and then have something to say about posting such things for minors to see makes you a bad person.

One of my favorite sayings: "If you don't have anything nice or constructive to say, don't say anything at all."

Dokuga is definitely a wonderful, beautiful, magnificent website. Compared to other sites, flames here are relatively not existent and controlled very well. I just think it's most important to have the option to have anonymous comments/reviews disabled because of that. Because this place is so amazing and family-oriented. A few of my friends here have children, after all. And many other of my friends are wee-bitty YIMs who have a safe place in Dokuga to post their fledgling stories and drawings. Having the option allows them to be brave and slowly get used to the harsh world of the internet and all of its occupants- but there are times when you just need a break, and the option would let you take that breather.

/shrug

I think we both make very excellent points, and it can go either way. It's so hard to make a call like this one. On one hand I'd really love to see this implemented; on the other I'd hate to make the mods work so hard and to have it abused and shield yourself completely from a world that you can't really defend yourself from... other than mentally. You need that emotional immunity.

I think the happy medium might be a feature that allows you to delete individual anonymous reviews. Then you can retain a sense of control which its lack seems to be the problem here.

This way the community stays open, and writers can toughen up through their own power.

I think your last comment Lady B would probably be the best way to go as well. Though anon reviews annoy me since I can't just go directly to their profile to reply to their reviews, I think being able to delete a bad one ourselves would save Wiccan quite a bit of hassle.

Especially when a troll rears its ugly head. Anyways just wanted to add my two cents .

Ah, thank you, my dears, for wanting to save me some time, but it's really no trouble!! Besides, if *I* am the one to remove the review, I also have access to the IP address. That way, we are able to ban the offender from the site altogether, thus ending the necessity for anyone else to deal with it either.

Trolls and disgruntled readers with no "filters on the fingers" are a fact of life in fan fiction and fan art. The fewer of them that our members are forced to deal with, the happier *I* am, that's for sure. I know, though, that Miss K has been working on a solution to the problem for some time, I just don't know how long it will take to implement.

In the meantime, rest assured that, when informed of such transgressions, I am all over them like flies on you-know-what. Anonymous cranks do NOT sit well with me, and there's very little I love more than to REMOVE them - as "nicely" as possible, of course!!

~~Wiccan~~

WiccanMethuselah wrote:
Ah, thank you, my dears, for wanting to save me some time, but it's really no trouble!! Besides, if *I* am the one to remove the review, I also have access to the IP address. That way, we are able to ban the offender from the site altogether, thus ending the necessity for anyone else to deal with it either.

Trolls and disgruntled readers with no "filters on the fingers" are a fact of life in fan fiction and fan art. The fewer of them that our members are forced to deal with, the happier *I* am, that's for sure. I know, though, that Miss K has been working on a solution to the problem for some time, I just don't know how long it will take to implement.

In the meantime, rest assured that, when informed of such transgressions, I am all over them like flies on you-know-what. Anonymous cranks do NOT sit well with me, and there's very little I love more than to REMOVE them - as "nicely" as possible, of course!!

~~Wiccan~~

My general sentiment. Thank you, Wiccan

Thank you, Wiccan!

I'm sorry but I really DO feel strongly myself that we should be able to disable annonymous reviews. I personally do not read any of my reviews, because I find annonymous reviews extremely aggrivating and pointless. Especially when the reviewer asks a question, and I am unable to respond.

But I digress, the point I'm trying to make here is that if we CHOOSE to have annonymous reviews then that should be fine. However if we would prefer NOT to have annonymous reviews that should be acceptable as well. This way we have a choice, and everyone is happy. There is no need to force us to allow anyone and everyone to review when we do not want it.

Also someone noted above that most other fanfiction sites allow you to choose whether you will accept annonymous reviews or not, though that doesn't mean this site has to, it certainly shows that the option is a bonus to some people. If not they wouldn't give the option now would they?

In case you hadn't noticed, this site is set up quite differently from others. To enable the option for the authors to disable/delete anonymous reviews would entail a great deal of coding changes for our esteemed webmistress, Miss Kagura. As she is currently dealing with other issues in RL, this is not going to become a reality on this site at any point in the near future.

Hopefully all our members will be as patient as they've always been with our Administrative staff, since ALL of us work on the site without compensation, and Miss Kagura pays the bills (you'll notice we haven't had a fundraiser in over a year?). I know that Miss K has been considering the option, and trying to find ways to provide it, but I can't tell you when that might happen.

Thank you for your understanding,
~~Wiccan~~
PS - As stated above, I encourage any author who has issues with reviewers to approach me and we will do our best to assist!!

Kara wrote:
I'm sorry but I really DO feel strongly myself that we should be able to disable annonymous reviews. I personally do not read any of my reviews, because I find annonymous reviews extremely aggrivating and pointless. Especially when the reviewer asks a question, and I am unable to respond.

But I digress, the point I'm trying to make here is that if we CHOOSE to have annonymous reviews then that should be fine. However if we would prefer NOT to have annonymous reviews that should be acceptable as well. This way we have a choice, and everyone is happy. There is no need to force us to allow anyone and everyone to review when we do not want it.

Also someone noted above that most other fanfiction sites allow you to choose whether you will accept annonymous reviews or not, though that doesn't mean this site has to, it certainly shows that the option is a bonus to some people. If not they wouldn't give the option now would they?

It seems moot that you should want to argue about anonymous reviews when you choose not to read any of your reviews.

On the off chance that you've misspoken and meant that you only read member reviews, then how do a few extra reviews hurt you? They bump up your count, and entice more people to read your story.

And finally, you've ignored all of the reasoning done on my part, and on the part of Wiccan. I don't feel that you're bringing up any more validity to this request.

Forgive my impertinence but the way you phrased that seemed very condescending, you have this area posted and allow us to make suggestions, I was under the impression that we were encouraged to give suggestions, what I gave was no more than that with valid reasoning behind it. I'm sure you don't like to be told by others that they feel they have a better idea, no one does, but if you all (as a whole) do not want suggestions I recommend removing this part of the forum.

Now note that I even said "That does not mean you all have to," which means that I clearly understood that this site was different from others and completely seperate. Again you really needn't have been so condescending in your reply.

Perhaps my remark could have been construed as being condescending, and for that I apologize, but the request was acknowledged a while ago, and I don't understand why you're bringing it up again.

I have to say that I totally agree with WiccanMethuselah and ladybattousai. Yes many other sites have that option but this is not one of them. Maybe it will in the future but we need to deal with the present. I also have thought about several things that could be done because I worry over the amount of time and work put into checking reviews, stories, etc.. However, maybe this a the way it is better controlled and monitered to make sure everyone is comfortable. Someone mentioned that we do have the choice to not read those anon. reviews and I think that is great. I started out not reading anon. reviews but then I realized that(and this is for me personally not trying to say anything about anyone else) that by reading them I toughened up a bit. I also learned quite a lot. Some people had very valid points even if they could have worded it better or not been so mean. Well that's all. I just felt the need to add my two cents.

I was bringing it up again because it was the seventh topic on the list, so I didn't think it was all that old, pardon me. I also brought it up again because... well I agree with it, and I actually don't read any of my reviews even ones from logged in people, due to the fact that I don't like annonymous reviews. Period. I say this at the beggining of every chapter.

I understand that the coding is probably ridiculously complicated, I just wanted you all to see that it's not just one or two people who want this but more.

Of course, the "delete review" button for anonymous reviews would solve the problem in many ways. If you don't want any anonymous reviews you can simply delete all of them. I rather liked that suggestion as far as compromise goes. How much worse the coding would be? I have no idea, but I was bringing it up because it is something I feel strongly about, that is all.

So let me get this straight... You refuse to read any of your reviews, because anonymous reviews exist?

I hope you reap what you sow with that attitude about your readers.

Well yes, that's the in general idea. I tried once to read the reviews, got so aggrivated, I deleted my account. Thus my simple solution is to simply not read them. I write for my pleasure now and only my pleasure, however I know that many of my ideas would appeal to others so they may read it if they like, and if they really want to say something to me they can send me a private message.

Really though you don't seem to like me, despite my less than antagonistic nature and your overtly antagonistic one, I hope you at least take into consideration that a "delete review" button, or allowing us to disallow anonymous reviews, would make a lot of people happy. Obviously I know you're not obligated in any way to do this, but it would make things nicer. That is all.

@ Kara:

I am assuming that you have read all responses to this thread thoroughly, but I would, once again, like to direct your attention to my response:

http://dokuga.com/forum/5-bug-reportsfeature-requests/44043-option-to-disable-anonymous-reviewscomme

Note that this was over a month ago, and that I stated that the site owner, Miss Kagura, was working on a solution to this problem. I sincerely doubt that Miss K has forgotten that this is still a concern. I believe that, upon your reviving the thread, I again mentioned that Miss K has been working on this, but that she has been deluged with Real Life issues. To continue to reiterate your wishes in this regard is just a tad redundant and, to some of our Administrators, may seem a little unnecessarily... demanding?

I'm sure your wishes have been noted by Miss Kagura, since she monitors everything on the site regardless of whether or not she is able to effect changes. Please, let it stand as is. We WILL effect changes when, and if, we are able. Your request has been duly noted.

Sincerely,

~~WiccanMethuselah~~
Site Administrator

Long before this topic ever came up, I noticed that under the edit stories options on our accounts, there is a review tab, and it states that it is a "coming soon" feature that will allow you to delete reviews.

While I don't know Miss Kagura's plans, this suggests to me that she does have the intention to allow us to remove unwated reviews, be they anonymous or not. The fact that it hasn't happened yet just means that she hasn't had the time to work on it right now, or it is proving to be a more difficult feature to code.

Hello everyone!

Since my name came up a few times in this topic, I thought I'd take a moment to weigh in.

Anonymous reviews will stay.

Dokuga was created so that the entire fandom could have a home and we've all worked so hard to create a very warm atmosphere and a lively place for people to come and celebrate such a good pairing.

One of the most important parts of Dokuga is that it's as accessible as possible to both members and the public. Making it easy and simple to interact has been probably our biggest goal. Those of you who remember the way the site looked when it launched can obviously see that we've made a lot of progress toward that goal.

The unregistered public is an important part of that! They're the people who later become members and active participants. Separating people from the authors and stories would only serve to erect an unnecessary wall between members and non-members, and while that may not seem like a big deal, there's a reason we've been so successful at bringing new members into the community.

There are some features that have disappeared from Dokuga because they were abused -- ratings on fanfiction and fanart and member email are gone and they won't be back. At one point, we had mass abuses of forum karma going on as well. In all those circumstances, members were making the trouble, not non-members.

That doesn't mean you have to suffer from flames. In reality, only a small portion of visitors flame and as time goes by, it's become less and less frequent because unlike most sites, Dokuga deals with flames very harshly.

So, before you call for a measure that would take 26.7% of our reviews away, I think it's worth understanding how we deal with flames.

We keep Dokuga safe by taking away their anonymity.

When someone posts anything on this site, we keep a record of it. We have IP addresses for every single member, fanart comment, and fanfiction review, as well as profile comments, profiles, etc.,

Most of the time, we can match an anonymous reviewer to an account, pull up all the reviews and comments they've ever left, look through them for unreported flames, and then deal out the punishment that's necessary. If it's someone who just left one nasty comment, they'll get a thorough hand-slapping at their real email and a threat that they'll be banned.

If we can't match a flamer to an account, they normally go directly onto the the IP ban list. Once they're on that list, no matter what link they use, their browser redirects to dokuga.com/banned.html .

In order for them to get back into the site, they have to talk with an admin and they're on notice permanently.

So, a person who flames anonymously can get away with it one time AT MOST and usually, not even that. Someone who is nasty enough to really want to flame will usually just make a fake account if it means that much to them anyway. We've seen that too.

Also, catching and dealing with these people is an important part of how we police this site. If a person could delete their own flames, they'd do that, and the same flamer might get to strike a dozen times before admins learned of it.

In the future, users will have a 'Report' button that will make a report that any of the main admins will deal with, and since they're around a lot, there will never be a flame that stays up more than a few hours.

Implying that the authors are somehow at great risk for unwanted flaming is really unfair to the admins who have put so much work into building a site that allows us to then invest even more work in keeping it safe. We've received over fifty thousand reviews and over 13,000 of those were made anonymously.

Would it really be worth not having all that positive, wonderful feedback for the 12-13 flames we've removed since then? That wouldn't be the best thing for Dokuga OR it's authors.