Quote Originally Posted by Clevernick View Post
I think the opposite happens, too.

I'm well aware of how few reviews stories get, and my responsibility to review more of them myself to make it up. But when I come across a story that sounds like it was told by a 10-year-old with a learning disability, I am usually reluctant to post the "2" or "3" it deserves.

Why? Because
a) I'm new here and maybe the story really deserves a "1" or a "4". I haven't calibrated yet.
b) Author of said piece o crap story may decide to avenge themselves on my own stories, which would not only piss me off, it would reduce my readership.
c) I am not feeling generous enough toward the author to give them the advice they really need, and they wouldn't appreciate "go back to high school" as feedback anyway.

So I say nothing. Call me a coward.

Assuming that others feel as I do, there are probably several really scathing reviews out there unwritten, and some overrated pieces o crap as a result.
That's not being a coward, that's being smart. There's no point in pissing on someone lying down. It cannot add anything. Stories that bad are always painfully aparent, and if it isn't to the author they've got more serious problems, and nothing you say can change that. The people we like reviewing is off-course the stories we like, (or we wouldn't have bothered finnishing it, would we?) so then it's about helping an author making something good better. Reviewing I think should be fueled by selfish greed. We encourage authors we want to see more of, and we help them to get even better. There's no brownie points for helping people you don't care about.