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well, that doesn't feel very nice
Friday, July 14th, 2023 10:06 pmI'd read one of you warn, a few weeks ago, that there is some sad person or people or machine going around leaving lengthy, AI-generated comments on some stories, for no immediately obvious reason, perhaps trying to see how many authors it can trick into responding, perhaps only to be unkind.
I just received one. Of course it made me feel a little sad and confused when I figured out that's what it was. But that's better than feeling insulted and hurt, which would be the feeling if a real human had actually written that specific reply in response to my specific story after having read my story and the canon. That's the giveaway, you see. Besides being by a supposed guest identifying as a "Hippdameia Fairchild" with no account, the passage, as a generic response to almost any other fanfic story, swapping out the names, might well have looked like high engagement, but in response to this specific fanfic story of this specific source, it's vile and disrespectful. Surely no human fan of this canon in the twenty-first century would say this unless meaning to be elaborately insulting. Perhaps it's the ghost of a misguided nineteenth-century fan...
In 2015, for the RarelyWritten fanfic exchange, for a request for Gwendolyn Harleth Grandcourt, post-canon, I wrote "Between within and without" (G, gen, ~7K words) as a sequel to Daniel Deronda (1876) by George Eliot, a fandom with, to this day, only 10 works in it, for which mine was the first, and 7 of which are, um, crossovers with Hannibal (not my cup of tea; I don't even want to know). I worked hard on that story. I poured my heart for the character and my respect for the author into it. It's earned only four comment threads over the years, including the recipient's exceptionally generous response. This is the fifth comment thread. And characterizing this story as a wish for Gwendolyn to marry Daniel is petty and mean and implies that I am a bigot -- or it would, if someone who actually knew this novel had written the comment in response to actually reading this fanfic story.
But they didn't. Weird.
July 22: I clicked the "Spam" button on that distressing comment and it vanished.
I just received one. Of course it made me feel a little sad and confused when I figured out that's what it was. But that's better than feeling insulted and hurt, which would be the feeling if a real human had actually written that specific reply in response to my specific story after having read my story and the canon. That's the giveaway, you see. Besides being by a supposed guest identifying as a "Hippdameia Fairchild" with no account, the passage, as a generic response to almost any other fanfic story, swapping out the names, might well have looked like high engagement, but in response to this specific fanfic story of this specific source, it's vile and disrespectful. Surely no human fan of this canon in the twenty-first century would say this unless meaning to be elaborately insulting. Perhaps it's the ghost of a misguided nineteenth-century fan...
In 2015, for the RarelyWritten fanfic exchange, for a request for Gwendolyn Harleth Grandcourt, post-canon, I wrote "Between within and without" (G, gen, ~7K words) as a sequel to Daniel Deronda (1876) by George Eliot, a fandom with, to this day, only 10 works in it, for which mine was the first, and 7 of which are, um, crossovers with Hannibal (not my cup of tea; I don't even want to know). I worked hard on that story. I poured my heart for the character and my respect for the author into it. It's earned only four comment threads over the years, including the recipient's exceptionally generous response. This is the fifth comment thread. And characterizing this story as a wish for Gwendolyn to marry Daniel is petty and mean and implies that I am a bigot -- or it would, if someone who actually knew this novel had written the comment in response to actually reading this fanfic story.
But they didn't. Weird.
July 22: I clicked the "Spam" button on that distressing comment and it vanished.
