just saw a tiktok of a guy saying "Me when I see a fanfic that mischaracterizes my favs so bad that I actually have to comment and tell the author to never write again" with the sound "i love the way it feels to be a hater", and I opened the comments expecting people to be like "haha yeah, but don't do this" or like "okay but never comment hate on fics because people are writing for free and out of love so...", etc. but the comments were full of people admitting to absolutely heinous behaviour.
someone said: "that time i hated a fic so much I bookmarked it and filled the notes with an angry paragraph about how much I hate it", like, what? in what world is it normal and acceptable to do that? and that's just one of the many examples.
I mean, there was a lot of joking and exaggeration but also people have done this, people do this. idk it's so bizarre to me that you would actively read something you don't like (after reading the tags and author's notes), to then write paragraphs upon paragraphs of hate, that is directly sent as an email to the author
honestly, if I got something like that in my comments or bookmark notes, it would really affect me. someone going "never write again" or just loathing what I wrote, I'd feel really bad.
just idk, have some empathy. you can exit a fic, you can block the author, you can hate silently, or even pour every ounce of hate out into your friend's dms or a journal or something. just why would you actively hate on someone who is providing entertainment for free and for fun?
strange behaviour
if you ever get any hateful and unconstructive feedback…
rather than feel bad or victimized, show that person what a fucking idiot they are by whatever means you feel comfortable (a scathing reply, a tumblr post, an AN response, your call).
i would have nothing but pity for someone who told me something along the lines of “never write again” because, for one, me and @k3uuu would split their assholes open. and for two, because it would expose them to additional stress, while leaving me pretty much just annoyed for maybe a couple of minutes.
make yourself as antifragile as possible, and other people will naturally fear crossing you.