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I recently had my first experience with someone trolling me on a different website, and I wanted to just write a few thoughts down and see what the community thinks.
I recently wrote a story based on an idea by Lilac Wren (of TGCreation) involving men who take over women's bodies to get them physically fit. I asked their for permission to use the concept, as I like the idea of our community helping each other out by presenting cross promoting each other's work. While our stories, theirs being in video form, dealt with the same central idea they couldn't have dealt with it any differently. So someone on another site simply saw the summery of my story (which did not include a Author's note at top featuring a credit to Wren as it does here on BCTS) they gave me this Review:
"Reviewed by You Are A Thief on 06/03/2016
You stole this story from tgcreation
You took LilacWrens idea and pretended you thought of it. You thief"
Now I've been writing stories for over three years now, and I've received review that have pointed out how I used the wrong bra measurements, notice of misspellings and shock over how I used characters... but I've never been personally attacked until now.
Not that I blame the anonymous reviewer. On every other site that features this story, there is a note that thanks Lilac Wren at the top and credits her with creating the idea. This site had the credit at the end of the story, and although the story is only 3500 words, this reviewer did not get that far. So I got the slanderous Review and thought I would explain myself, only I consider myself a sarcastic to a fault and responded in kind:
"Reviewed by TGTrinity on 06/03/2016
If you read the story you would see that Lilac Wren is credited and thanked for the use of her story since I asked if I could use it. Feel free to visit her site and check out the comments in "Leave the Driving to Us".
*Mic Drop"
Yeah. I "Mic Dropped" at the end of the Review. As soon as I saw it posted on the site, I knew that I had made a mistake. I figured that whoever would take the time to write a Review like that would not consider the "Mic Drop" a bit of fun on my part. So I come back tonight to see this:
"Reviewed by Perhaps be original next time on 06/03/2016
Good job getting another persons permission to copy their story. Perhaps next time you might choose to be original."
Now they were attacking me on the basis that I'm not original, but when I first got into TG Fiction every story was either Master PC or SRU. Having seen the error of my ways I wrote in and asked for my comment to be removed so I don't incite this person even more, yet the damage is done. So I present this question to the TG Fiction Community at large: Is there a better way of dealing with people like this? I fear that I have made an enemy with one simple sarcastic remark, and I accept that I did that. Yet at the same time I don't want others to see Reviews like that and think that I'm a thief.
Probably no good answer to this, but I feel better having put it all down here.
Good Reading To Y'all,
TGTrinity
Comments
All ideas?
As someone once said, 'there's nothing new under the sun.' One of the best westerns of all time was The Magnificent Seven; a takeoff strongly based on the Seven Samuri. And you got permission. You figure out a way around inspiration that does not include the work of those who wrote before, and you'll have everyone beat, yes. I'm sorry the person didn't take the time to really look at your writing. Good Writin' to you!
Love, Andrea Lena
And they've remade
The Magnificent Seven for this September.
Now that is a shame.
Nothing can beat the original western.
Not Really
Haters gotta hate. I would suggest inviting the person to view the Whateley web site. There are at least 20 authors there sharing a single universe, so you are in good company sharing this universe. It is rather a tradition to do so, look at all the universes that have multiple authors playing in the same sandbox. The SRU universe, the Comics Retcon, the Altered Fates, and the MAU universes are all examples of multiple story backgrounds that have more than one writer. If it were me I would invite them to observe the mistletoe attached to the back of my belt inviting them to kiss immediately below it.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Rule #1: Don't feed the troll!
Best strategy to deal with the trolls is:
Ignore. Just that simple.
If there is an accusation of some kind that you are not comfortable with ignoring or letting go unanswered, reply with one (single) comment explaining your position without sarcasm, humor, hints. In as few words as you can manage.
If this generates more trolling or accusations - ignore. Or you could ask site admin to remove those comments.
In that particular case your reply was quite good and a good starter for a little flamewar, if you are so inclined :-) For example, ask the accuser to provide reference to their original work so that their accusation could be somehow justified. That _will_ cause huge explosion :-)
Or you could just ignore further comments from that person.
Another thing: trolls are an integral part of human communications in general and online communication in particular.
If your online activity is not attracting trolls - you are doing something wrong :-)
Anyway, IMO trolls are necessary part of Internet biosphere.
And, also, tolling the trolls is qute a good fun.
Don't waste your energy...
... and time. Hatred is a vocation of some humans'. The best you can do is ignore them.
The Sincerist Form of Flatery
My most recent and most successful story was based on a play and opera written more than 100 years ago. I did give full credit.
Portia
Trolls don't have opinions
They have bait which is usually a form of ignorance on parade.
I just witnessed on one of the comics boards someone attacking Marvel about Namor the Submariner being a ripoff of Aquaman when in actuality, Namor predates Aquaman by years and even came out before Batman. Of currently published Marvel superheroes, in fact, the Sub-Mariner (spelling back then) was the first to see print because Namor did not start out as a Marvel (Timely in the 30s-40s) character but was published by a different company before Timely got into the superhero business.
Namor was almost unbelievably original for his time. For years after Superman's first appearance in Action Comics in 1938, company after company tried to mimic Superman's success by imitation of his formula. Namor was almost the anti-Superman. He had no secret identity, he didn't wear an elaborate costume and he did not fight crime. He was a wise-ass which he did have in common with the Superman of that era. :)
Namor first appeared in 1939, less than a year after Superman and a month before Batman though it was another six months before a comic featuring his adventures got widespread distribution because Submariner's debut was in an obscure New-York-City-only giveaway comic. Only eight or nine copies survive and the original print run may have only numbered in the hundreds.
The troll I saw on the comics board knew none of that, apparently. But with eight or more responses within just hours of his ignoRANT, he may have got what he wanted, attention.
Starve the trolls, ignore them.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
;))
Well I might have gone for the confuse them option. Such as:
Hello, "You Are a Thief" I just love your name! Thank you for the review, so few bother to take the time. Every little bit helps. Thanks again, TGTrinity
This kind of response tends to drive them up the wall, and at the same time tells anyone else who sees it that, you thought it was meaningless.
OK, so I am a bit weird,
*giggles*
~Hypatia >i< ..:::
So
So
meaning whatever, talk to the hand, did I hear something , etc
ed
ed
You see this a lot
when talking about computer tech, games, or almost any other geeky subject. I wish I could say the best response is to ignore them, but the simple truth is there IS no best response. Ignoring them simply causes them to ramp up their slanders, while responding gives them a justification to continue the onslaught they've already started. It can be hard to judge when someone is looking to "troll" and when they are simply ignorant too: I've been caught in that trap more than once.
In the end, ignoring them might not be the best way to handle it, but it probably is the only answer that also lets you keep your sanity. The only other option, after all, is banning people like that, and that way leads the slippery slope of the whole "free speech" argument, which isn't worth discussing.
Melanie E.
On the Other Side
I have a few times been called a troll, or some other comparable term, even though I wasn't trolling. Once on this site, even. I suspect that the appropriate response to being called a troll is the same as the appropriate response to a troll. At least, I did that the one time on this site -- just drop the subject. It really is offensive, and one has to count to 10 (or maybe 50) to avoid a flaming response that does no good.
A tangentially related account: a boy and his grandfather are walking, when someone comes up and insults grandfather horribly. The boy is about to throw a brick and the insulter, when grandfather says, "Now, now, count to ten."
The boy does so, and now feels better and is no longer inclined to throw the brick.
Grandfather says, "Now throw the brick. You'll aim better."
-- Daphne Xu
Now that is wise advice!
Or in other words, don't fight when you're angry!
To avoid a total flame-o-rama what you prob'ly dont wanna do...
is take this discussion to that other site's reader's forum (unless you're hyper-bored)
We now return to our regular programming:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTl00248Z48
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Good Thoughts
Thanks for everyone's ideas here, as it seems to something everyone deals with. I've spoken about this with some people who messaged me, but I think the biggest disappointment when stuff like this happens is we're such a small community online. You'd think anyone who visited this site or others would give people a chance, or call people out in the best way possible.
I just criticized a new comic on TG Comics (Superego) which was an amazing read, but the characters hair was sometimes so crazy that it pulled me out of the story. Since I paid for the story and love Cblack's work I posted my thoughts (as TGTrinity, so there's no anonymity) in way that I hope was constructive, but I felt they should know how I felt as a paying customer.
I guess I'm saying that there's a right way to so something, but some people are either afraid to rock the boat or are intent on flipping it over... It is what it is.
TGTrinity