What kind of readers do you dislike

I don’t like it when people insist on full CC only (this is what I think killed Escape from Stetyca’s episode completion rate). I also don’t let people customize the LI because I’m heccin’ lazy and that would require tedious code. This is speculation because I have my fanmail turned off, but I have a hunch that’s a major reason (as are the Heroic gem choices and Episode 1’s length).

4 Likes

Aghhhh, that’s frustrating. It sucks that the CC-complaining affected your story, but I’m glad you stuck to what you wanted.

4 Likes

as a reader, I REALLY hate those people who nag about when the next chapter is coming. I always get second-hand shame T_T
writing down concept ideas is already stressful enough for me, I can’t imagine actually WRITING IT
IT TAKES EFFORT

also, general impoliteness

3 Likes

I haven’t gotten any complaints yet but I’d like to know how you deal with discouraging or hateful fan mail in an appropriate way. Or do you just ignore it?

1 Like

I legit have no idea if it did–I’m speculating, though.

1 Like

If anyone actually read my story, I’m sure I’d get complaints about no CC.

2 Likes

Readers who complain about CC are the worst. My story has limited CC because I understand that some people don’t like specific facial features, but things like eye color, skin color, and hair color can’t be changed since they matter to the story. Not just because of custom poses, but also because of the plot itself. They can sit their a*ses down and stop complaining because limited CC is the most I will fold.

3 Likes

What’s your story title?

I read stories with no CC and no choices that are very good–I have at least one recommended with no choices and a couple with no CC. I know Episode is meant for interactivity, but a story can still be interactive and enjoyable without full CC or choices.

2 Likes

Block and delete, you don’t need to waste time on anything that like that. Constructive criticism is helpful and praise is uplifting but anything hateful, petty or entitled isn’t either of those, it’s just an unnecessary negative.

4 Likes

I usually don’t hate my readers even if they aren’t pleased or anything, and it also contributes that I don’t have any toxic readers yet.
But I would hate to have these readers:

  1. Bombarding me with pointless questions. I don’t get annoyed by any sort of questions really, but I would hate to have a reader constantly coming to me and asking the same questions again and again, whether update schedules, sneak-peeks, or even the same question I tried addressing in and out of the story. Especially if I don’t know them very well.
    I don’t know you, mate. Go harass someone else- I mean, go do something else meaningful?

  2. Toxic readers. It’s pretty self explanatory, just don’t throw crap at my face if you have nothing good to say.

  3. Reviews that are like headless horses in the field. I would despise whoever calls themselves “reviewers” and completely trash on any story (not just mine, but I take more offense on mine lol) with no apparent reasons.
    It can go as ridiculous as spatting on your story with a 2/10 for “bad character development” and proceeds to tell you how much they love the side character. This is just straight up trolling, nothing less. These peeps will have a name on my black-list.

  4. Argument seekers. I’ve faced people like this before which aren’t readers, but I’ll limit this point to the parameters of this topic: if you dislike my character, don’t go all the way to make it personal and insult me. State your reasoning, be matured.
    My characters are fleshed to be humans not Jesus Christ, they can’t please everyone and that’s my goal. If you have a problem with the characters, just know that they aren’t real, but if you make it personal with me, I wish you a nice life because I’m not gonna be nice to you.

5 Likes

This :raised_hands:t4: I couldn’t agree more!

1 Like

Is it just me, or are there a lot of “Please help me find this story” threads lately?

I could parody one, and there would probably be a real Episode romance story that would apply. Or 100.

3 Likes

There definitely is. I don’t dislike those kinds of readers, but they are a little annoying when they spam threads about trying to find a story.

1 Like

I dont mind the help me find,

its the, should I continue reading this story, is it worth it? that annoys me, if you need to ask then its a no.

5 Likes

That’s true.

1 Like

Thank you so much for saying this. Something that I find so annoying is requesting full CC. I feel like readers don’t understand how annoying and more complicated this can make coding. I plan on using limb overlays so it’s just easier if you can’t change the skin tone of my characters. But at the end of the day I feel authors don’t have to explain themselves to you. Because I’m making this story to my liking, because regardless if you read it or not I need to be able to say I love the story I wrote.

5 Likes
  • Readers who come into my fanmail just to say awful things about my story. Thankfully, most of the people who sent fanmail on my previous story were very kind, but there was this one person who said my main character was stupid and not “bada$$” enough. That really made my blood boil because I freaking hate it when someone perceives a character as stupid just because they aren’t rude, hateful, and negative.

  • Readers who say things like, 'This character doesn’t act their age. What the heck is ‘acting your age’, anyway? Not everyone acts the way society expects a certain age group to act. I’ve met very mature, responsible teenagers as well as teenagers who are silly and never take things seriously. I’m over 30, but I don’t act like a lot of other people my age. No age group is a monolith.

  • When readers get mad because the story doesn’t have the love interest they want. I haven’t received any complaints about this, but once I recommended a story I really like on Reddit, and someone asked me if a certain character was a love interest. When I told them who the 2 love interests were, they replied back, “Now I’m not interested in reading it.” Okay, then…

  • When readers ask if they can remove a character’s beauty mark/tattoo/piercing. It wouldn’t be a problem if it were a facial/body feature option, because then, they could add or remove it during customization. Unfortunately, since it’s an outfit option, that’d be way too much coding for an author.

3 Likes

I’m gonna say readers that ghost me on read4reads and readers that say something negative about my story.

2 Likes