I have had a couple of people reach out to me about some of the comments my stories have received; particularly the comments on The Other Site (TOS.) They are brutal and I read every one. When I posted my first story, I stated that I will never turn off or delete comments and that still holds true. Do the comments bother me? I don't want to get all religious on you, but as Jesus said in the parable of the Anonymous Asshat and the Humble Scribe, "Behold, the land upon which I grow my Fucks. Lay thine eyes upon it and see that it is barren."
I've been a member on TOS since 2010 and SOL since 2013. Until a few weeks ago, I had never submitted a story for publication. I have wanted to submit something for a long time because something on TOS was beginning to bother me. If you are a member of that site then you know that in addition to the site contests and challenges, there are also author organized events which are either "Open" or "Invitational." In the Open events, anyone can participate. You write a story that meets the event guidelines, put the name of the event into the subject field and and long as it is received by the due date, your story becomes part of the event. Very egalitarian. I'm a big fan of egalitarian.
I was hoping to publish my first story last year as part of an Open event, but one thing after another came up and then as Mother Teresa was fond of saying, "Shit got real" and I was not able to start, much less finish my story. So this year, I thought I would get my feet wet by publishing a few stories as preparation for this year's Open on TOS. The cutoff date is July 31, so hopefully this time I will have a story ready to publish.
I mentioned earlier that they also have Invitationals. The invitationals are what was bothering me about TOS. Don't get me wrong, I love TOS. The LW section is the amateur writer version of being tested in combat. But there is an individual over there that I will call the ORGANIZER. Once a twice a year, the ORGANIZER will organize an event. These events are always invitational and the participants are always chosen by the ORGANIZER.
I mentioned earlier that I am a big fan of egalitarianism. I like it as much as I despise elitism and cliques. For some reason, it galls me that the invitations are decided by the ORGANIZER based on nothing but their own whims and preferences. The criteria cannot be merit based because some of the authors the ORGANIZER invites are not very good at all. There are much better writers that do not get an invitation. Again, the invitations are based on no criteria other than the ORGANIZER'S whims and favorites. The ORGANIZER's appalling arrogance in answering questions about her choices are very off-putting as well.
The ORGANIZER also has a group of lapdog-like acolytes that frolic about her feet like love-starved little puppies. One in particular, who we'll call "Brooksie" is a particularly odious little chihuahua always yapping and dancing around on his hind legs trying to stick his snout into the crotch of the ORGANIZER and get her attention. The reason I call Brooksie odious, is because Brooksie will comment on an authors post in the most negative, unhelpful way imaginable. Brooksie will also comment anonymously on occasion when he wants get nastier than usual. Brooksie will also cull through comments on their own stories and delete anything remotely negative. The ORGANIZER also boasts about deleting negative comments on their own stories. One thing you will hear me say time and again; If you are going to believe the good stuff people say about you, you have to believe the bad stuff as well. I cannot imagine anything more pathetic than being so emotionally fragile that I have to hover over my keyboard obsessively deleting comments from someone calling themselves omahacuckfan because they think I suck as a writer.
Perhaps It's because I have a healthy self-esteem and self-image; perhaps it's because I'm not easily triggered; or perhaps it's something else. Let me show you my field.