Good day, everyone.

I think I need to write this because recently every time I posted comments on someone's story, I saw critics about grammatical errors, use of vocabularies, and writing style on their comment box. I cannot help but to think that this is a bit bothering. Although reviews/critics are very good and encouraging authors to write better at the same time, the place where you leave them is also important issue. I'm trying to write this from a reader and author view at the same time. I need to remind you that this is just what I feel towards critics on comment box. No need to be skeptical or offended. Thank you.

So I was reading a story last week and was about to leave a comment on a story. Well, grammatical errors or whatever errors to me don't really matter as long as the story itself is good. Here on aff, almost everyone are amateurs and I don't expect them to write like a professional novel writers. Although good grammars, vocabs, and structures make your readers happy, I don't see why people make this as a requirement of 'extremely readable story'. There are many stories that have very good story lines, but also have many errors because the authors are not native speakers. Obviously, this is the main reason why they have errors in their stories to begin with. Believe me, although critics are encouraging you to learn, it also hurts to be criticized for using the language which is not your mother tounge.

So I wonder why this reader left this critic on the comment box. Well, it is an appropriate place to leave reviews, I can't deny. But if I'm a new reader who wants to see what people say about this particular story and then I see that comment, I'd stop and close the tab. Believe me, there are many people who are curious of what people say about the story and sometimes they will read the comments first (at least some of my friends do this). If they see critics about grammatical errors, they tend to hesitate reading the story, despite how good the story is. It's good to be blunt and say what's bothering you about the story, but that doesn't mean you can say everything as you pleased (as what the law students usually say: one's rights shall not infringing others' rights) e.g what's the use of your beta reader if there are still many errors OR get a beta reader to edit your story. First example: how would you feel as a beta reader if you read this comment? It's just simply degrading her/his ability as a beta. Meanwhile, we are not perfect; sometimes we miss/forget small things. Second example: this sounds more like mocking rather than a suggestion, I might say.

Guys, reviews are meant to be a positive criticism to help you to improve, not a gallery to humiliate authors and their betas. Oh, and adding NO OFFENSE will not work. If you want to leave harsh review, you can PM the author instead or just be patient and close the tab without even leaving a comment at all (if you'd like to do so), you know. Another option, you can be polite and stop adding 'no offense', because it sounds like you are indeed trying to offend the author. For God's sake, they are not native speakers, what do you expect? Case will be different if they are natives! Try to respect by judging the story from the story lines, not the grammatical errors. Try to give appropriate reviews. You can start by saying e.g I'd like to suggest you for getting a beta reader OR maybe you should correct [word] to [word]. At least they have the guts to write what they have in mind and they've tried to write in foreign language.

Thank you for those who read this. This is not a rant, btw.This is just what I feel. I do not mean to shove this view on someone. I just want people to understand the effort for writing in foreign language. Anyway I still love you people on aff <3

ps: I am also an author, I'm not a native, and I've also experienced how difficult it is to please your readers by correcting errors and learn from your mistakes (and I still need to learn. My english big time). Well, I got a beta for one of my stories now, but the rest of my stories are unbeta-ed and I prefer them that way (just to make sure that people DO read because of my story lines, I'm not saying that my strories are good. It's my way to review whether my story lines are interesting or not). Sorry, I shouldn't have talked about myself ;_;