User blog:Raidra/You're not the freaking Pharaoh!

Just so you know, this is a rant. Others have said similar things, but I wanted to blow off some steam. If the admins want to delete this, then that’s fine. I certainly won’t be a hateful crybaby about it.

One of the songs in the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat describes the Pharaoh with the line, “Whatever he did, he was showered with praise/When he told a joke, then you chortled for days.” I bring that up because apparently there are people who have been coming on here thinking that everything they do will be praised, no matter how incompetent and lazy a job they do, and then reacting with blogs chock fill of petty, childish, and vicious bile when their work gets deleted for poor quality (probably because their parents have raised them to believe they’re so much better and more special than everybody else, that everything they do should be praised and rewarded even if it’s terrible and lazy- or even out-and-out plagiarized- and that anyone who offers criticism instead of showering them with praise is a monster who should be reviled). I’ve been wanting to do a rant on this since late January, when a friend of mine, an elderly gentleman from my church, passed away due to a heart problem. At the time there were some blogs whining about deletions. I was at the viewing (a pre-funeral service in which mourners file by the casket to pay their respects, something between a wake and a memorial service), and among the large crowd of mourners I did not hear not one person talking about stories posted on the Internet. I thought that when I die, nobody will be saying, “Oh, she had pastas deleted!” If having stories posted on a website is your primary concern, then you have some kind of pathetic, petty life and you need to learn what’s really important. In the past few days there have been a couple prominent blogs with users bellyaching about story deletions, practically wiping away tears of anger and sorrow as they whined and moaned about how unfairly they were treated to have lousy stories deleted. Well, I’ve finally reached my boiling point. This is tied for the second angriest I’ve ever been on this site, so I’m going to give examples of complaints you might find on these blogs and share some thoughts.

“I had a story deleted recently, and I worked on it!” We’ve all had stories deleted, so join the club. Do you know what I did the first time one of my stories was deleted? I shrugged and moved on with my life. Also, I’ve found when people claim, “I had a story deleted recently, and I worked on it!” they usually didn’t work on it. They submitted some slap-dash job loaded with mistakes most eight year olds would catch, or else copied and pasted another story almost word for word. Making a blog to gripe and snivel (A winner doesn’t snivel!) about pasta deletions is always bad, but the timing of one of these latest blogs is atrocious. First off, did you not see Dorkpool’s blog post where people where complaining about people making blogs complaining about story deletions? Did you somehow miss the derision users who had done that were getting, or did you somehow think that you were so special that people would give you praise and sympathy when they’d rebuked and mocked others who had done the exact same thing? More importantly, did you not see Tiaxn’s blog post about the young man who died in the hospital after an accident? The community’s in mourning and you think it’s more important to whine about your story deletions? That is low. I think that young man is worth more attention than someone whining about story deletions and how “unfair” and “restrictive” this site is. Plus, you don’t know what kinds of personal issues people here are dealing with. That's why I've blocked commenting on this blog- so I won't take attention away from more important matters. If you think people should turn from their serious concerns to give audience to you griping about your petty complaints, then I have news for you- You aren’t the freaking Pharaoh! You’re either a bellyacher or a troll, but either way you’re certainly no better than anyone else.

“It got deleted even though it got a 10/10 in the comments!” Did it really? If you claim that your story got praise in the comment section and it turns out to be a lie, then any credibility you may have had is lost. Second, there have been plenty of terrible stories with at least one comment like that. Friends/constructs of the writer come to leave comments, or some people have bad taste (but are at least honest), or people are just sarcastic. If you look at “TEH DAY OF ALL TEH BLOOD” you’ll see comments like “Amazing story 10/10 it was sooper creepy,” and, “Best. Creepypasta, Ever,” so does that mean it’s a masterpiece? Plus, if someone had left a comment saying, “10/10 originality good story,” or “100/10!! GREAT!!!!!!” then the poor wording and lack of specifics would indicate that it’s either sarcastic or a poor attempt to use a strawman, sockpuppet, whatever, to make the story sound better than it is. You couldn’t even come up with decent fake praise, so that doesn’t say much for your story (I’m not a fan of American Dad!, but I was reminded of the line, “You don’t even have good murder stuff!”). Lying about your stories isn’t going to get you praise, and do you know why? It’s because you’re not the freaking Pharaoh! You’re not going to get acclaim for whatever you say.

“Having the blacklisted category is restrictive! You’re robbing people of story material! You’re not letting people be creative! You don’t even let people write about killers!” I’ve never had a problem finding story material. Hey, Banning, Humboldt, Black, Jay, Vroom- have you ever had any problems with this? Someone with talent and drive would look at the list of blacklisted subjects as a challenge, or at least as a call to rise above the crowd of clichés and create something different and notable. Blacklisting clichéd subjects doesn’t stifle creativity and good stories- it encourages them! Also, who in blazes said you couldn’t write about killers? All of the writers I just mentioned have had at least one story with someone getting murdered. Shoot, I have a couple stories with killers as well! The secret is not making the killers bland and blatant Jeff rip-offs. Inferior work isn’t going to garner you praise, and can you guess why? It’s because you’re not the freaking Pharaoh!

“Since you’re being so unfair, I’ll just post my stories elsewhere!” You mean you’re going to post your lousy stories somewhere where they don’t care? Fine by me. We don’t want unimaginative whiners anyway. Bye, Felicia!

“You’re hung up on grammar and spelling!” That’s because we want to be able to tell what the story is talking about! If people can’t tell what your story is even saying, then it’s no good except to laugh at. Trollpasta has a bunch of stories getting mocked because of the failure to use basic Language Arts, so if someone points out grammar and spelling issues, than guess what? They’re trying to do you a favor! What is so hard about posting the drafts to the Writer’s Workshop and asking for help? Normally I have understanding and patience with people who admit they don’t have good grammar, but I don’t have patience for people who whine and play the victim instead of doing anything to improve themselves. Speaking of excuses, one time there was someone claiming to be dyslexic and crying discrimination. I don’t believe that they’re dyslexic for half a minute. By the way, I’m not a great speller, so you know what I do? I keep a dictionary handy. I don’t make excuses or chew out someone who does me a favor by pointing out typos.

“I used spell check this time!” So you usually don’t check spelling or do proofreading? That explains a lot.

I said at the beginning that this was a rant brought on by my boiling point getting so low. The users who make these kinds of blogs will probably say, “Oh, you’re just a big bully!” First off, I could have been a lot worse. This is something like my fifth draft, and there are a lot of things I wanted to say, but decided not to. Second, go ahead and ask the established users of this site; see if they say I’m a bully. Then ask them if they think your blogs had reasonable & well-thought out arguments and if your behavior was sensible, cordial, and appropriate. Notice I said established users- not some users who mysteriously popped up shortly after this blog was posted (or shortly after your pastas were posted) and have no posts that aren’t in defense and praise of you. Speaking of users, I agree with those who have said that from now on we should refrain from commenting on these “Wah, my pasta was deleted! WAHHH!!!” blogs. In fact, Creeper50 recently suggested banning those blogs altogether. I am now 100% behind this.

One last word to the complainers- In case you didn’t catch this, you’re not the freakin’ Pharaoh, and you’re no better than anybody else!