AceFrehley101
 Mission Statement- Ok, so what do you want to know about Ace? Well I believe this site needs more firmer reviewers who aren't afraid to point out the mistakes of others, and that's what I do. This site has seen increasing accounts in the past few months of what I call the Three Problem Points: plagiarism, bad grammar, and just generally bad storytelling. Bad story telling can include things such as non canon information to an extreme degree, OOC, and Mary sue characters and Mary Sue-isms. I've seen reviewers actively praising stories with these problems; it has to stop, and I'm gonna help make that happen in any way I can. Now if you've been a recipient of my reviews, or are curious about my reviewing style, here's an explanation. I believe the time for diplomacy and politeness of reviews are over. Other reviewers have had the time to decide to grow a brain and stop the spread of bad grammar, bad storytelling and plagiarism; they haven't and have only helped to further the spread. This has to end; as a result I am very firm when it comes to pointing out these problems. Some say I'm hostile, so what? The whole world is a hostile place, Fanfiction is no exception. If you do something wrong then you need to be told about it, a firm tone helps to get the point across better. If I am hostile towards you, it means you seriously screwed up and need a stern explanation of what you did, so you can avoid it in the future. If you decide to challenge my review then there's some things you should know. If you think that by pointing out the fact that I don't write automatically makes my opinions wrong, well you need to realize that this simply isn't the case. If you received one of my reviews, you'll see that it cites a lot of evidence and has genuine arguments against the fic in question. The fact I can present a coherent argument with facts is all the qualification I need; me being or not being a fanfiction writer has absolutely no bearing on whether or not my reviews can be construed as valid. Those that have tried to challenge haven't been able to cite evidence or communicate an argument in a coherent manner that helps solidify their side of the argument. Below, you'll find assorted topics and lists that I felt should be shared with others, so as to properly inform people of the problems plaguing this site. Terrible Authors- this is a profiling of authors that I've come into repeated contact with over my time here. Authors who despite receiving multiple reviews citing massive flaws in their story and writing, have chosen not to fix them. Some also exhibit rude behavior when dealing with me and other negative reviewers. Nedy Rahn- Nedy is a frequent writer of Stargate and Battlestar Galactica fics, mostly crossovers of the two. While she has had some generally interesting and good plot ideas in the past, as of present its her writing style that is her biggest drawback. Based on references in her fics and one testimony, she is formally a member of the Kansas National Guard, and such as a habit of trying to poorly imitate Tom Clancy. Most of her fics' characters are OOC with an emphasis on info-dumping military terminology in their dialogue. She uses military terms that civilians (the entirety of FF readers) have no idea what they mean. Often times she will create massive AU elements in her fics that she didn't take the time to develop through the story, and leaves readers con fused. Her other habit is to promote authors who exhibit my three problem points. She'll respond with words of encouragement in reviews, but offer no advice on fixing even the simplest of problems such as spelling or grammar. She is an active collaborator with authors who write RAAB clones (see below). If you're familiar with this author then you'll know about her habit of occasionally deleting all her stories, I can tell you she did so after receiving a review from yours truly, continually highlighting her problems. Nedy has since discontinued that practice, and merely leaves stories unfinished when she gets a negative review from me or another author who points out the same flaws. Lightsource- Now calling himself Darksource, is someone I dealt with a while back when he posted a fic in the Halo section entitled Random Life. The story was universally panned as a failure by other reviewers, and myself, due to extensive amounts of OOC and lack of proper grammar. Lightsource responded believing that all the negative reviewers were in cahoots to gang up on him for no reason. He then proceeded to positively review his own story using the anonymous review function, while at the same time bashing the so called 'Flaming Cabal' against him, making it appear like he had supporters. I have been named in his conspiracy theory as the “de facto leader of Halo fanfiction flamers”, and on his profile he as come up with a similarly styled description of me like the one I have here, only with excessive use of the word terrorist and some rather baseless conclusions of me. Random Life has since been taken down, per say. The story had all its chapters replaced with a different story, and the title changed to Infection of Reach. The original Random Life reviews are available to read in that fic's review section, and you are welcome to view his blatantly immature tactics for yourself. LachyZilla- This author was actually recommended to me by The Hidden Sith, and I have not had any formal contact with him. None the less, this guy meets all textbook criteria of a bad author, and hits all of my Three Problem Points on the head. By his own admission, he is a 10 year old boy with practically no prior writing experience. He frequently violates the guidelines by failing to correct blatantly obvious grammar issues, and posting stories written in script format. Lachy is incapable of writing a coherent response to anyone of the number of flames he has received, and in some of his replies has even threatened authors (keep in mind these are hollow threats at best). The List of Fail- this is where I put trends or individual stories that I feel fall under the Three Problem Points. Survival of the Lambs- This is a recent BSG/Halo crossover that suffers from firepower wank on the side of Battlestar, in which eight battlestars are somehow able to destroy a superior Covenant vessel with just their little pop guns, and no nukes. Other problems include lack of properly developed AU elements, such as Galactica having seven other battlestars with her without explanation, and total ignorance of canon Battlestar characters in favor of OCs. Despite the majority of the reviews being either a flame or constructive crit pointing out the ludicrous firepower levels, the author refuses to fix the flaws. RAAB Clones- This trend stems from the fanfic Reunions are a Bitch (RAAB) by Bob Regent. First written in 2007, it is a BSG/Stargate crossover that has the Twelve Colonies launch an invasion of Earth in an attempt to annex SG1 Earth into the colonies. The main highlight of the story is the actual invasion itself, the battle between the SGC forces and the Colonial Fleet. It is a wonderfully written and original tale that doesn't deserve the trend it has become the center of. Darth Malleus' The Thirteenth was the first instance of a RAAB clone, in which the plot, right down to the fact it set in an SG1 time line where the Ori plot of seasons 9-10 never happened, was copied from RAAB; which makes it plagiarism of Bob Regent's original work. First published in 2009, it has since been discontinued for over a year due to increasing number of reviewers who pointed out the obvious plagiarism issues. Since 2009 however, other authors have chosen to do RAAB clones, below is a list of them so far. This Should Never Have Happened Halo Fan Inserts- This is a recent problem that has been cropping up in the halo section, and stems from one fic in particular. First off, if you're not familiar with the term, a fan insert is when a fan of a certain game/tv show/movie/book, somehow finds themselves in the universe of their favorite game/tv show/movie/book. Now in the halo section, the usual problems include the fan being a Mary Sue, the fan somehow ending up as a Spartan or in the body of the Master Chief on arrival to the haloverse. Most notably is their mindset, as in most fics the fan character is normally excited to be in a war zone with now way home; which falls under the Mary Sue criteria. Now a couple of years ago in the halo section, an author by the name of general MB decided to break these stereotypes, and wrote a wonderful fan insert called Kyle 091 that had none of those problems. I talked with General MB, and he told me he wrote that fic to hopefully inspire others to write ones outside the stereotypical confines of halo fan inserts. Lately however, he wasn't happy to learn that so many fics these days fall under the problems that he avoided, and feels that people should have used his fic as an example of a good fan insert more often. But unfortunately, a recent fic took the general's belief too far; its called Into the Fire. It plagiarized heavily off of MB's story Kyle 091, but after MB, I and others noticed these problems, he managed to fix his story and is now plagiarism free. However, this one fic has brought about a surge of new fan insert fics that follow the old, flawed ways. Below is a list so far, both old and new, that fall into the fan insert problems. Reach: The Chronicles of a Gamer Policing the Plot- This is a concept where a reader of one fic disagree with the direction that fic is going in, and in an attempt to satisfy themselves, they plagiarize it and rewrite the parts they disagreed with. This is as much a revenge scheme as it is a psychological scheme on the part of the unsatisfied reader. The reader expects a story they're reading to flow in a way they like, and they attempt to outdo the writer of the original story with their knock off while satisfying that desire for a specific flow for the story. Some changes are minor in a plagiarized copy, making it easy to recognize. More often than not however, the changes are large enough to confuse the average reader; a more adept reader can spot these changes. Certain fics from the two previously mentioned trends fall under this umbrella; below are those that don't share a spot on those lists. How I ended up in deep space- This story I first encountered some time ago, it is a three way crossover between Stargate, Terminator, and Battlestar Galactica. When I first reviewed, the author, Hazel Goth, choose to take her story down for some much needed revisions. One of the main problems involved the terminator side of the crossover, which is really in name only. The main character created by the author was portrayed as a Mary Sue by having her be a terminator with only an abridged back story to explain this; thus granting the Sue the customary powers that make her a superior character. Terminators characters are mentioned only, and in the case of Derek Reese, makes a minor cameo as the Mary Sue's husband; this was done I assume to express the author's own desire of the actor Brian Austin Green (the guy Megan Fox is banging). The Mary Sue also bashes canon characters, and exhibits a sense of arrogant superiority over them. Aside from the character flaws, the grammar was absolutely atrocious. The story returned a short time ago, unaltered and carrying no revisions despite all the information I cited in my first review; I could not get past the fourth chapter due to the terrible grammar. The story was removed some time ago, due to my review. Surprisingly, the author expressed support for my mission statement. |
