DEAR ANONYMOUS

DEAR ANONYMOUS


I hail you Anonymous,
Though I am oblivious
Of your real whereabouts,
Which are much shrouded in doubts.

Who are you and where are you?
What’s your identity true?
Your mail bestowing gift points,
My writing truly anoints.

Anonymous, I beg this,
Please grant me a simple wish:
Hate mail, pray, do not send me,
In sheer anonymity.

Sitting high up on your throne,
On authors you cast a stone,
Reviling them with much fuss,
Without reasons obvious.

Anonymous hate review,
In no way does exalt you.
One must learn to approbate,
Not secretly harbor hate.

Put yourself in authors’ shoes.
And try to think of their blues,
When five viewers rate them five,
But with devil you connive.

Your low rating of but one,
Born of hate, may give you fun.
It makes the average four,
Demoralizing them sure.


* Written in abab 7-7-7-7 format
* Originally written as entry no. 352536 in the book "MISCELLANEA"  MISCELLANEA


M C Gupta
7 June 2005


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NOTE ONE: Even anonymous hate reviews serve a purpose. They tell the author about viewpoints other than his own, even though expressed with vengeance. Since it is not possible to reply to an anonymous person, I sometimes, if deemed necessary in general interest, post the reply as a footnote to the item concerned, as in the case of
"BURNING FATE" .

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NOTE TWO:

I think there is no need to get worked up about hate raters. I have faced their ire. However, the democratic spirit demands that they should be allowed their say. After all, elections in all democratic countries are held anonymously by secret ballot. From a purely scientific and objective view, as per principles of research methodology, a survey is better and more reliable when the respondent is not asked to reveal identity.

And, what would one say about "sky raters"? Those who rate an item sky high, whether anonymously or otherwise? I have had several occasions when I have had to rate an item low even though it had been high rated by many others and, even, won prize in contests. I always send my ratings along with a detailed public review. But, if I rate it low anonymously and without review, I might be viewed as a hate rater!

There is a possibility that an item may have sky raters and a genuine rating might be labelled as hate rating.

Let me add that I know that there are people who rate maliciously. If 7 people rate my item 5 and one person rates it anonymously as 1, it is almost certainly hate rating. I have been a victim of it many times. I have learnt to simply ignore it.

A so called hate rater has a right to free expression and he is exercising his right. That right has been given to him by the owner of this site. If anyone feels that it is wrong, the approach should be to ask the Storymaster to delete the facility of anonymous rating. But, then, all rating is anonymous!

The remedy would then have to be deleting the facility of anonymous reviewing. If that is done, it would be extremely deleterious to writing.com., whose USP is its feedback and review system. The remedy would be worse than the disease.

If we welcome anonymous sky rating/reviewing, we should also be willing to tolerate anonymous low rating/reviewing.


Rating and reviewing should not be regarded as judgment. Both are simply feedback—the former without words and the latter with words. Which author will not like a feedback from the readers? As a matter of fact, writers often invite readers to rate and review their items, even giving them gift points for the favour!

A low rating by a reader tells the writer about the receptivity by the target audience. If the reader spells out the reasons for his rating, so much the better. But mere absence of reasons cannot take away the value of a rating.


There are potential problems in instituting a system of checks on malicious low rating/reviewing. The problems would be clear from the following:

1. If the Storymaster entertains complaints of malicious anonymous review [He can do so. he has a system to track an anonymous reviewer], he will have to treat such review as harassment. However, a low hate rating, as part of anonymous review, does not come under the site's definition of harassment, to the best of my knowledge.

2. Rating is a subjective thing. If the Storymaster wants to support the victim of malicious hate review/rating, he would have to take punitive action against the hate reviewer. But, before punitive action, the crime must be established. The reviewer can always plead that rating is a subjective thing and that he gave his honest rating as he deemed fit. The Storymaster would find it very difficult to refute such plea.

3. Hate reviewing/rating can be checked only by punitive action. The only punitive action can be removal from site. This has a major problem in case of paying members. ONE, they have paid, so they can't be removed till payment period expires. TWO, if they are refused renewal of paid membership, the only loser would be the Storymaster and the site! If the hate rater is a free member, even then, the site loses because it is the aim of the site owner to increase, not decrease membership!

4. The above points address only the anonymous hate reviewers. But, what action can be taken against anonymous hate raters? None. All rating is anonymous!

I think that those who open up their items to public rating by others do so willingly because they want feedback from readers. Feedback cannot always be positive and should not be questioned. If an author is too sensitive, he should not allow rating. It is as simple as that.


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NOTE THREE:

I got a mail from a member asking for my perspective on anonymous reviews. The mail and my response are given below:


*********
Dear Khalish,
I have a problem ...

I'm receiving some anonymous ratings and thought you may have some wisdom to share. I have an item that received 4s, 4.5s and an anonymous 3. I don't have to have all my poetry rated 5 star! I know better than that, but an anon 3 hurts because I don't know why? And then there is a poem that got an opening rating, anon, of course of 2.5! Now, they aren't my strongest, nor my best, but the spelling and grammar are good, which is more than what I can say for some of the stuff I have reveiwed.
I don't think I'm being merely thin skinned, either, because I got a 3.5 on
a favorite poem of mine from a reviewer who kindly stated why; her review will make me think, and that's good!

I know in the end, the stats will help me. But in the mean time, I feel like
I've got two black eyes.

I would appreciate your perspective.

ABC

*********

Dear ABC,

I have received ratings of 1 [that is the lowest] for poems rated 5 by more
than 1 reviewers. Let us think of the possible reasons:

1. The reviewer is immature or inexperienced and unable to understand the true worth of your writing;

2. The reviewer is biased on grounds of politics, religion, colour etc. and
rates you low out of spite;

3. The reviewer does not know his job well and is unable to appreciate that a
writing has to be reviewed for its literary worth, not content. Comments on
content are important, but they should not influence literary assessment.

4. The reviewer is very new to the site and has yet to feel his way around. It
happens not uncommonly that a newbie rates me 2.5 for poems rated 5 by others. It happened so even today.

My response is to not allow myself to be perturbed by low ratings. At least, I
should be thankful that someone read and reviewed my item. Nothing is more
pitiable than the note appended in the portfolio list: This item has no
rating!

Hope this helps.

Best wishes

M C Gupta