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Joined Feb '13

I am a 30-year-old female who is but a humble reader and reviewer. I try to offer constructive criticism geared toward helping a writer improve his or her skills, however, should anyone take issue with anything that has been said - please feel free to let me know.

Unfortunately, there is a group of individuals who lack common sense on matters that are not that difficult to understand and which I have grown tired of repeating myself over; I have decided to leave a note here for anyone else who might suffer from the same shortcomings as certain other individuals do:

What is hate speech, what is a flame?
A review full of malicious intent meant to belittle, harm, humiliate, slander, etc. a writer or their story can be considered a flame and hate speech, and rightfully so. However, if a person is merely stating what they did not like in a story, without personally attacking either the story or the writer, then they are simply expressing their opinion, which they have a right to do. This is an open forum where people are allowed to give their honest opinions without being labeled and harassed for doing so, a person is allowed to speak freely without fear of retribution by those too bigoted to tolerate free speech.

Don’t like, don’t read.
This is an asinine statement for several reasons, the first, a summary does not tell all in regards to the content of a story. To know if you truly like a story you must first read it.

Secondly, a person can like a theme, but not a writers approach. Meaning a person can like a story with a character insert traveling into their favorite anime and yet not like the way in which a specific writer depicts it in their story. However, they won’t know until they read it.

Thirdly, reading a genre or plot you are not a particular fan of does not make one a hypocrite, curiosity is not a crime nor should those who step beyond their comfort zones be made to feel as though it were. Every person is free to explore what is being offered, it is only through exploration that we stumble upon what interests us and what does not. It is through exploration that we may discover a rare find; a story with a plot previously thought of as boring but finally done in a way that is actually appealing to you.

Freedom of speech.
The freedom to voice ones opinion is not reserved for one individual or group entirely, it is for all who have something they wish to say and so they should without the threat of retaliation in return. A person has as much right to say what they do not like in a story, as someone who has something positive to say, no one has more right than another to do so. The only time a person should be censored for their words is when they are being intentionally cruel and seeking only to humiliate a writer, otherwise you are simply impeding upon a persons rights to speak openly and freely. Tolerance is a two way street, not everyone is going to share the same opinion as you and attacking them for it is not how one should conduct themselves, if you simply cannot understand that then perhaps you should reconsider involving yourself on an open forum where free speech is encouraged and biased thinking is not.

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