What do you do?

[shivver]

On ffnet, I received the following comment for the last chapter of Journey of a Lifetime:

"You have got to be shitting me"

What do I do with this? Should I just report it for language? I don't even know what it means. I'm assuming that they didn't like how the story ended, that they thought it would have gone the other way (because, judging from other people's comments, they did not expect how it turned out), as opposed to disliking the story as a whole (which is possible, but you'd think if they didn't like it, they wouldn't have sat through fourteen chapters), but I can't tell, since the person didn't leave any other comments on the work. Should I bother to reply and try to find out what means?

Comments

[dm12.livejournal.com]

It was a big twist; everyone was probably expecting her to come to the end of her human life and then, right before she died, open the watch. The expression means "You're kidding, right?" I guess that one was surprised also. It could have been written more politely, perhaps with more detail on exactly what they felt was shocking. Sometimes people just wait until a story is finished before reading it, read it through completely, then comment on the last chapter.

I guess if you want to pursue it, you can politely PM the person and ask them for more input (that way you can avoid public flaming if that's what they were inclined to do). Edit: I agree with the next comment below, maybe check to see what other responses they've given to different stories to get an idea of how they function first. Then if you're inclined, use PM.

I know, I haven't written my response yet... I was a bit in shock myself and need to digest it and read it over again so I can be coherent and detailed. I did like it, though. Update: I had to write my response on ffn because LJ was being a bit of a bear; I wrote the whole response, went to post it. It wouldn't post and went to an error page. Fooey!

[dtstrainers.livejournal.com]

Do you care what that person thinks?

I have to admit, before I'd respond, I'd look at their posts. That would give me a bit of insight into their typical character. Maybe they're just flippant always and nothing should be read into it. (I like to consider the source before I open my mouth.)

Reguardless - and I know this isn't an issue with you, since :
1) I've read you for awhile and feel I know you at least a bit and
2) you expressed a concern about someone else's possibly (probably) rude behavior- don't stoop to their level.

I would suggest a polite acknowledgement of the comment and say I was sorry they didn't seem to like how the story concluded (seem, since they were unclear what was shitting them) but this is how you saw it unfolding.

As my husband is overfond of quoting Ron Burgandy, "Stay classy, San Diego"

And BTW, I don't usually care for OC, but your resolution was perfectly in character for someone who had only experienced one life and wanted resolution to that life. Only someone very, very young would automatically assume that everyone would naturally want another lifetime or eternal life.

[shivver13.livejournal.com]

Well, I did what you suggested and looked at her (I'm pretty sure it's a her) history. You can't easily view a person's reviews on works on ffnet, so I went through about 1/3 of her list of favorites and looked through the reviews, and I didn't find a single instance of her leaving a comment. I also noticed that most (all?) of her favorites are stories of "a seemingly-ordinary human girl who travels with the Doctor and discovers her unknown, amazing past" or something similar.

From that data, I expect that she was simply shocked by the ending of the story, that there was no epiphany or glorious exploration of the universe, that the main character actually died, and it was enough of a shock to make her actually type out a comment. Which is making me grin. That wasn't the intention of the work, but it makes me happy to shock someone a little. :)

Funny... We were just mentioning at lunch how quotable Anchorman is. :D

I'm glad that you found the conclusion to the story fitting, and thank you for reading it! I completely understand not caring for OC - I don't usually care for them either, especially since most of them are the type I described in my first paragraph here.

[shivver13.livejournal.com]

Well, I did what the two of you suggested and looked through some of her history, and of the stories she's favorited that I checked, she's never left a comment. She also only favorites "young girl traveling with the Doctor and turns out to be amazing" stories. I have a feeling the conclusion of my story simply shocked a response out of her, because it wasn't a happy, fly-through-the-universe tale. I do plan to respond to her, because I feel it's only polite to respond to anyone who takes the time to comment.

Thanks very much for leaving your review, and I'm going to reply to it here. :) I'm very glad that you consider it a twist to have her choose to die. I mean that it really was the only reasonable decision for her to make, given who she is and her personality, but it makes me happy to know that it was unexpected, fic-wise. (Though, as I commented to my husband a little while ago, anyone who knows me knows I can't possibly drift from canon and allow the Doctor to not be the last of the Time Lords in a fic that isn't explicitly marked as AU. :)

I went back and forth, up until the very last hour before posting the chapter, on whether or not to have the Doctor tell Katie who he was - that he was her childhood imaginary friend and that he'd known her mother since she was seventeen (though he would have never told her who her mother really was). I finally decided against it because I think the Doctor, out of respect for Traci's wishes, would not have drawn her daughter into his world like that.

I really am so very glad that you enjoyed the story! I've been very nervous about the whole thing for a long while, because it's so unusual in concept and execution. I wasn't sure if the one-scene-every-four-or-so-years format was going to work.

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

UGH. Whether it was a 'good' comment or not, they could have phrased it a little better, maybe added some context??!?!?

*sigh*

Have no idea what advice to give on this one!

*HUGS*

[shivver13.livejournal.com]

It makes you wonder why she bothered typing anything. :)