Have you ever done something and then felt totally bad about it? Like in the heat of the moment, someone says something to you that's outrageous and stupid and you put them in their place Hermione Granger style. But after you've put them in their place you kind of feel like, "oh, maybe that wasn't so nice?" What if it turns out that the person your laid into was genuinely as ignorant as they seemed to be and they weren't at all trying to be rude or disrespectful or a troll?
Here's the story. I write Harry Potter fan fiction day in and day out. I have a group of 20 or so loyal readers who review all the time and are just generally made of love and sunshine. I love those guys. Occasionally I'll get a person who takes their life too seriously who'll be like "YOU'RE INACCURATE!" and I'll be like, it's a story about Harry having a twin sister - accuracy is out the window. And it won't be like something like "That person died and you didn't kill them off!" or "That person is in the wrong house!" it's something stupid like "Boys aren't allowed in the girls dorms!" and I'll be like *face palm*. I ignore those people or politely tell them that it's AU and that it doesn't matter and they'll respectfully back off but today...
Today, I was checking my e-mail and found I had a review from a name I didn't recognize. New readers are the best but this reader spewed off something about how [in my story mind you] Harry shouldn't have been a girl and that Draco should hook up with Snape and that Snape should have a baby.
I was offended. I've been writing fan fiction since I was 14 years old and no one had ever said something so outright ridiculous to me in all these [5] years. This person hadn't even READ my story and that was obvious from their review.
So, I laid into them, Hermione Granger style with the ol' "Honestly, don't you read" line and proceeded to tell this reviewer that they obviously hadn't read my story, that Snape and Draco offended me almost as much as the idea of Mpreg did and not to review unless they had something constructive and nice to say.
The way I said it to them wasn't so much that it was HARSH, but more that it was condescending. So, after I sent it I immediately began to think - was I out of line with what I said to them?
I looked at the stories that this reviewer had written and, let me be blunt - they were awful. It wasn't even that they were all slash [because I enjoy a good slash now and again] or even that they were MPreg [Snape/Voldemort Mpreg at the at *shutter*]. They were just bad. I mean check out this excerpt:
"draco hated harry cuz he was a gryffindor mudblood lover, but harry was soo hot."
There are literally, six sentences after that and the story is over and they all sound just like that.
The fact that there are 7 other stories [though most of them longer than 7 sentences] just like this leads me to believe that this person could very well be a troll. But you never know.
What if it's just some poor, innocent, 13 year old who was giving me their honest and truthful opinion and I totally just spat back in their face? What if they actually were being sincere and I called them a troll? I mean, I'll totally feel like a jackass, but at the same time it's like, how can you honestly think that what you said or what you write is. . . I mean, I don't want to compare it to My Immortal [the worst fan fiction of all time] but it's a slippery slope.
On a lesser note, last night I was on the internet when I happened upon Yahoo Answers - which you should never read because it's poison.
On there someone claimed that Voldemort raped Lily and that Hagrid was a death eater who imperiused Snape to make him kill Dumbledore.
All I could say to that was "Seriously?" Other people weren't so kind. There was one person replied to this saying something about their mother being raped by the mail man...
Then I looked at the date and saw it posted BEFORE Deathly Hallows was released.
That's not to say that I can excuse such blatant ignorance [or ignorance at all for that matter] but it makes their idea a lot more understandable.
Anyway, trolls are ridiculous. I don't approve of them, but it's hard to tell a troll from someone who's just genuinely ignorant - because usually trolls are also genuinely ignorant.
Fair the well,
April
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