Hi guys :)

So yeah, it's been a long time since I wrote a blog post and well...this is going to be a rant so if you have no interest knowing about anything, leave now. Don't say I didn't warn you!

So...I've been on AFF for more than a year and sometimes I really get frustrated with the things that people say, the things that people do.

I figured I'd have to get it out of my chest or I'll go mad some day, so many things I've been keeping in.

I've got a few things I want to talk about, firstly, haters.

Well they're a few, but they're there. They drop a comment sometimes and my readers would defend me (thank you). I don't bother deleting their comments because...well yeah you guys can make judgement for yourselves if you like my stories. You don't need another person to like or not.

And yeah the first time someone did that on my earlier fics I was kind of traumatized. The comment was something about why you people are so stupid, writing about love stories all the time.

And I pm-ed the person that hey, if you're not looking for love stories you can go to fanfiction.net instead because in AFF, I should think 99.9% of them are about love.

And that person sent a "bull" back.

I was honestly stunned.

I've grown in an environment that I get surprised when a sixteen year olds smoke just because its illegal. When I see the figures for teenage pregnancy I get astounded.

You can say I'm really sheltered but yeah, the schools I've gone to, the people I've met, they weren't the "rebel" types if you get what I mean.

And even on the Internet, I get surprised when I see how mean and tactless people can get.

There are haters, for instance, that target not just me. They target every single author out there, creating a fic right here and damning all of us.

There are good stories here. There are not-so popular stories.

But the same thing about all stories here is that every single author puts effort into it. And I think that's commendable, especially for the people whose first language isn't English.

We're here because we like to write. We like to imagine. We have our little fantasies we want to put in words.

And it kind of when people just insult your stories without a care in the world.

And it even more because they read your old fics where you can't even connect separate sentences coherently in a paragraph, and they don't bother looking at your newer creations anymore. It never occurred to them that hey, maybe she improved. I should check her new stories out.

No.

Not only on AFF, even on tumblr and things like that. There are just things that are so so so filled with hatred about every single thing and I just...can't understand.

As an author I've met with plagiarism for quite a number of times. Some times a fellow writer would pm me urgently, wondering if I would misunderstand if their story is similar to mine. I don't usually mind things like that.

I believe that coincidences can happen. And I believe even if the setting is similar, the brain would allow enough creativity to develop the story to something different.

I've never once contacted any of the people who plagiarized my stories, I don't feel the need to. They might have similar storylines, but they aren't so evil to copy everything...right?

And then things got a little worse, when the title is exactly the same, save for the main character's name.

The way I phrase my foreword, the tiny details that happen in the story, the way it starts...I realize they're the same.

I get so frustrated, so shocked, but I still don't contact the author in question. Once, I let one of my readers just comment on the fic in question to hint that the similarities are starting to get striking, and the person started to change the storyline after that.

I remain in my stand, I will never ask anyone to take down their stories just because its similar to mine.

I trust you have put in your effort in making that story, and I can never understand the pride one gets from a work that wasn't theirs. Unless you've copied everything, I will let it go.

So this brings me to my last point, comments.

Comments comments comments. I get so many comments a day once I update a story, especially if its featured.

I try to read every single one of them but (I'm sorry) if I missed some, sometimes when I'm lazy.

But it doesn't mean when the comments are aplenty and I scan through them briefly translates to me overlooking them.

There are the usual "UPDATE SOON UNNIE!!!" just when you updated a chapter you spent one hour writing.

It's okay, maybe you like my story.

And then there's the "Update soon! ^___^"

And then there's "update....." Just the ellipses to fill the character requirement.

These aren't so bad, I can live with them. I understand this mad need for karma (well actually I don't) and yeah, I try to think like I have to update more because people are waiting.

And then there's this sort of comment that makes you want to fling your laptop to the North Pole. So I just updated (at that time I was updating once every two days, I was less busy), and I updated two or three of my fics.

And then a wild comment pops up. One word.

"Finally."

I just....I don't update slow do I? It's like once in two days in the past, and even when I'm having exams now I don't think my speed is considered THAT slow.

If you must know some authors update theirs once in a month and you die waiting. I know because I had been a subscriber of such a fic once, before I quit reading fanfics altogether and opt for books instead.

There are comments that even ask you why you don't update. "Why didn't you update XXX when you updated YYY?"

So I explained, yeah I'm busy in having exams they're the college entrance exams etc etc.

She replied. "But you're online all the time..."

Okay, that did it.

Before everything I'll explain why my "online" asterisk is always by my username. That's because I don't close my AFF tab on my iPod and phone.

So as long as I'm connected to Internet, I appear to be "online". But I'm not.

I even created a faux account to see if the asterisk was still there if I wasn't even using my iPod.

And yes it was there. I am virtually online all the time but I'm not really there.

But yeah this isn't what I want to talk about. This is just one of the many comments that kind of hinted that I have an obligation to update.

So what, if I was really online did that mean I have to update? Did I owe my life to AFF or something?

I have a life out of this AFF thing and I hope you guys understand. Someday, I wonder when that is and when it would be coming, someday I'll leave AFF.

Because I'll mature, I'll find better things to do in life and fanfics would seem redundant someday. Someday I'll forget all about the AFF life I had because I'll be working, I'll be living a life out there in a working world and I won't see something like fanfics as important anymore as I do when I'm a student right now.

But let's not talk about that, it seems far away.

For now I am committed to my stories. But that didn't mean every waking hour of my life is to be committed to this, and that doesn't give some people the right to demand things from me.

It gets tiring to bear with all these things this whole time and yeah, I'm sorry to burden you guys with it.

These "bad" and "hurtful" comments are going to keep coming. I don't see the point of downvoting any of them, it's just a karma point. It won't hurt.

And what's the use of deleting them? There are tons of other positive comments so I'm going to ignore those other ones.

What I'm trying to say in this post isn't exactly about myself...ironic since that's all I've talked about.

Well it's just how one should behave on the Internet.

Just because people can't see you and you go by the name of teddybear12345 or something, doesn't mean you can just do anything you like when no one knows you're you.

On the Internet where there are only twenty six alphabets, arranged and rearranged to form words, and these words are the ones that string up to form sentences, it is up to you to phrase them so that people get your meaning.

You may have typed it with a certain amiable tone in your head but when I read it, I find it frustrating and demanding.

"Give me the URL for bla bla bla"

Like excuse me? If someone went up to you right now and demanded something from you like this, I'd say I'd give him a slap. Or not. But yeah.

Because facial expressions aren't available, the tone of your words are just so so sooooo important. I can't stress that enough.

And just because the other person doesn't reply anymore doesn't mean she has forgotten about what you said. Doesn't mean that when she replies with an amiable tone means she wasn't offended.

Because she doesn't want you to know she was offended, because she phrased her words carefully to avoid the same mistake that your words made.

I'd like to end this off with a lesson, really, that I've come to understand.

The Internet is the miracle baby of technology. You can use it however you want, do whatever you want with utmost freedom and be anybody you want.

But you've got to remember out there, those other usernames like "bananamilkytaeminshineerocks" or "ilovedbskyoohooo" or whatever, those are real people behind them.

Real people with feelings.

If you won't say something bad to a person face to face, please don't say it to someone on the net.

One word. Respect.

Not only to me, to every single person in this community, to every single user out there in other sites.

Respect. Please remember that.