General Request of Round Robin Authors

[countrygirl1986]

I am sure that many of you have noticed I stopped participating in round robin stories a long time ago. I have many reasons for doing so, and I am going to try to politely explain them because there is more than just me that stopped for the same reasons, but first, i am going to make a simple request that is not hard to abide by that I am sure multiple authors will appreciate.

Please, do not message authors, especially multiple times, begging them to participate in round robin stories, especially if they have never posted to them. It reeks of desperation, and can be considered kind of rude. Really, some of us are flattered you are requesting us to participate, but unless we have shown an interest in the story, or are someone you have spoken with in the past about writing, please, do not ask us to participate if we've declined you before on the same story. Please, you may invite us to participate in the round robin, especially if we've shown interest, but to ask us to post without expressed interest... please, be cautious in how you ask. If we have declined in the past, don't ask again. I am requesting this because multiple authors have begged me to post to their stories, multiple times. Sometimes I can't even read the request because I have no idea what is being said due to run on sentences and lack of punctuation.

This brings me to my next request... please, think back to elementary or grammar school when you learned about punctuation and sentence structure. I stopped reading fanfiction outside a select few authors years ago because there is no sentence structure and I cannot follow the stories. This goes on across many fandoms, many websites, and is done by many authors... including here on hazzardnet. If you want to take your writing seriously, and you want people to read your stories, not to mention if you want people to post to your stories, please, remember sentence structure. A long, run on sentence that incorporates multiple thoughts is not a sentence. An example of this writing, so I am not calling any one individual out, would include:

Bo drove out to the dairy and picked up a carton of milk but it turned out to be cream but he did not want cream so he called Uncle Jesse and asked if he wanted goat milk or cows milk and uncle jesse said he wanted cream for his coffee in the morning which he doesn't usually drink cream in his coffee so Bo decided just to get some milk

And yes, I just cringed writing that example out. Anyone who wrote an English paper like that, especially come junior high or high school, would not have received anything higher than an F. You do not speak like that, so please, do not write like that. It makes you seem uneducated beyond the second grade.

Scoot

[Hobie Hartkins]

Don't worry...if I EVER post on one of those stories, they done learned me real good in that there school i've been going to and I dun gagiated with one of the highest temperatures in my class!!

[countrygirl1986]

LOL. You're funny.

But no, seriously, those are two or three things that just really irk me. I don't know how many times in the past I've logged in and found messages in my in box from people begging me to participate, and I go to read the stories and it's like... I just get a headache trying to read one paragraph, which in and of itself takes over an hour trying to understand. My least favorite requests are the ones where people message me and the only thing I can reply is.... "What did you just say? I don't follow your writing format."

I will say this however... Hazzardnet, in the past (i'm not a hundred percent sure of the current author writing situation because I've stopped reading most of it), has had less problems with the "Chat Speak" writing than some of the other websites. The phenomenon of lack of proper sentence and paragraph structure has been something that has evolved and gotten out of hand on most websites over the past five to seven years... and it does occur on here in the stories section. I tried to read one story last night, which shall not be named, where I didn't get past the first paragraph before I gave up due to lack of punctuation and delineation of ideas (See my last post for an example).

I enjoy reading the works of children, especially first or second graders because it is simplistic. You need not use long sentences or big words to write a good story... but even a first or second grader knows how to write a sentence, something many authors I have tried to read works by have forgotten somewhere along the way. I adore the little four year old who lives downstairs from me, and yes, even he speaks in actual sentences.

If any of this has insulted you, you may write like a two year old. If you write like a two year old telling a story, I will tell you so if you ask for my opinion on your writing. I will not post it publicly, but I will tell you the truth and be brutally honest with you.

[Meadowmufn]

I have tried to weed out those kinds of stories over the years because they are unreadable and there have been complaints. Unfortunately, there are a lot of them. I have banned people who have harassed people to write and not stopped even when asked personally by me... and I don't ban people lightly. I tend to give 2nd chances (and third and fourth and fifth and...), but there are some things I just won't abide. If you have an issue with another member, please PM me about it and I'll look into it. I try to keep things respectful here, so I do appreciate you not naming names publicly. One recourse you do have is to rate threads. You can rate good stories highly and poor stories low. Occasionally, poorly rated threads will be "retired" to the Retired fiction forums. Writers can still work on them, but they won't clutter up the "active" threads. Seems it might be time for another clean up.

Thanks.

[countrygirl1986]

I think it is too.

I'm still catching up with some of the changes that have taken effect over the past year during my latest absence and I was unaware of the rating systems that you have implemented.

I had thought the harassment had stopped with my year long absence this most recent time that i was away from the forums, but the second the person noticed my username at the bottom of the page, they immediately shot me a message asking me once again to participate. Prior to my absence, I told this person six or seven times that I was not interested in participating in round robin stories and why. It happens every time they catch me online. I have considered closing off my inbox to avoid it but there are people I do communicate with on here and that would close the lines of communication. I have also considered a hidden status but again, those people i still communicate with sometimes wait until I'm online to message me.

I'll message you the name Mufn, but don't be too harsh on them. I was MIA for about a year, although I ain't too certain due to previous behaviors that they forgot my previous requests not to be messaged about stories like that. I mean, I have seriously considered critiquing the stories publicly to get it to stop, but I REALLY don't want to start a war.

The first warning should include 20 lashings with a wet noodle LOL. Embarrassing, yes, but it's not painful!