#i do have respect for you twistedchickness but in this case i'm a bit like

[decepti-geek]

Some people also just want to post for the enjoyment of writing and sharing it whilst being pretty unskilled; I don’t think the motivation behind posting poorly-written stuff, and not wanting to make corrections, is always gonna be that they’re convinced their way of doing things is the right one and they want to make a point of that. Some of em might be convinced of that, but them posting a fic in that conviction isn’t really anything to do with the conviction, honestly? Like, if they post it, there’s another badly-written fic on the internet. That’s not... hurting anyone, beyond the fact that someone might feel they’ve wasted a couple of seconds clicking the link, going ‘oh, this isn’t readable for me,’ and hitting the back button. (It might honestly be readable for some people, people do engage with very poorly-written fic and honestly that’s frequently kids engaging with other kids. I think that’s an important part of fandom that it’d be a bad idea to lose sight of or act like it’s something that needs to be corrected).

Also some of em who write badly don’t have that conviction and just... want to write, even if they’re unskilled at it, and a lot of those honestly are gonna be like, teenagers who are still not done with even a high-school level education on writing, and may not do well in it on top of that. But there’s nothing in AO3′s rules that says they can’t post fic just because it’s low quality. 

I think it’s fair to be like, well fine your loss, if the person is complaining that they’re not getting the amount of views/kudos/comments they were hoping for when they posted it, and they’ve refused help to make it more appealing. But if someone’s just posted their fic and left it there and not made any remark about what their expectations might be, idk if it’s a fair assumption that they must want help/if they don’t like being offered it, they’re in the wrong (in the wrong for cussing out the would-be helper, maybe, but not for the rejection). I know everyone loves getting kudos and comments, but I don’t know if it necessarily follows that it’s then reasonable to assume that... anyone would want more kudos and comments badly enough, that help to attract more positive feedback would more likely be well-received, and if it’s not, that’s purely about the writer’s attitude. 

And bad writing is just like any other thing that people might dislike seeing on AO3 - if people really don’t wanna interact with it, they can hit the back button and leave it alone. No author is obligated to improve for the sake of readers’ comfort in only encountering decently-written fic, and existing bad fic doesn’t need to be curated so that it becomes good, if the author is fine with the consequences of their fic being unskilled (diminished engagement, etc, I don’t think I regard unsolicited critique as quite so neutral a consequence that people need to accept). They’ll probably improve somewhat just by continuing to work at writing anyway, even with absolutely no feedback - but even if they never do, like, their fic just existing on the internet and them leaving it there and going on to write the next fic, isn’t really a negative or a thing that needs correcting, in my mind?

I know a ton of people have said this before but for the love everything PLEASE stop treating AO3 like instagram. It is NOT cringe to comment on an old story. It’s an archive old stories are still meant to be found and read. Please think about interacting with the fic you read: at least kudos if you read it, a comment would be ideal. The authors will be over the moon. I guarantee you not a single author is going to ask why someone is commenting on an older fic.