response from moderators?
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is it just me (it's me, isn't it? ) who writes to the moderators and never gets a response?

does anyone else get replies back when you ask questions under "contact us?"

It is a generally "free to use" site after all. So we all get out of it what we put into it. Some people opt to pay the fee to perform less reviews, but this is designed to give you feedback from people who are also engaged in writing. It gives you a perspective of other writers, but not necessarily professionals in publishing.

So far I haven't had any questions of the moderators, and I'm pretty much self starting on getting stuff done. If you have a particular question about the process here, then post it in the forums. Otherwise the moderators are not super active here.

yeah, that's what i'm getting. i got a really unfortunate story about a cop raping a dead old woman and when i complained...nothing. i wrote to ask why i only got two reviews instead of three...nothing.

i really like this site, the way it's set up and the people who crit, including you zMortis, but i'm guessing there's not a lot of oversight.

I wish there were some sort of basic spelling/grammar filter - I just reviewed 2 pieces that were rewrites of the exact same story, and both had atrocious spelling and grammar issues that made it almost impossible to understand the piece. A then reviewed a third piece of writing that was an academic essay and read as if it should be a philosophy paper for a PhD - not really my area of expertise! I wish the moderators could be a little more hands-on or use some sort of filtering so that those of us who write and edit fiction can stay in that world.

I have contacted the moderators twice; no response. I'm like you, Sue E, I read a story that made just made me ill about abuse to animals -- actually killing a dog. It really upset me as our young people are growing up thinking it is normal behavior. Also jetsetjenny, I feel as you that we should stay in our own world. I am definately not a good poetry reviewer.

sorry to hear that, kimby. i read O Henry yesterday and all the casual references to scorched cats and racial matters upset me. You'd hope that mankind would grow out of cruelty when there was no need, but..?

Because of course it's completely impossible to write about an act without thinking that act is okay.

That's why everyone who features murder in their story thinks that it's perfectly alright to kill people.

Penny, You are correct. But I also believe if a story is based on fact and murder is in the story, then it has to be told truth needs to be told. But to conjure up in your mind awful stories about killing humans and how you are going to do it or animals slowly torturing them to death -- well, let's just say I would not invite Stephen King for dinner and I'm sure he wouldn't invite me either. : )

pennyanna, sorry if my response came off superficial.

the story i read was excessively sordid with no edification/educational/entertainment value for the reader. one suspected it was written entirely for the purpose of revolting/upsetting old biddies like m'self.

if you'd read it i suspect you would agree. i won't go into particulars here in public but if you want a description to judge for yourself whether it had any redeeming value, write via the review i gave you.

but that doesn't matter, what matters is that it contravened the regs here on Review Fuse and should have been taken down.

sorry "Literary value"

You should probably be aware - I read and write a lot of fanfiction. People deal with subjects such as rape, incest and torture all the time, in explicit detail, all without thinking that they are in any way okay, and not always intending just to shock people. I'm actually good friends with people who have written such stories.

For some people, that kind of stuff does have entertainment value. Some people find gorn amusing or exciting. There's a whole genre of horror films based around that. There are also people who find subject matter you find intensely distasteful sexually arousing. As far as I'm concerned, that does not equate to condoning that kind of behaviour in reality.

It's possible that what you read was intended to have nothing mroe than shock value, but it's also possible that that's just what they like to write. *shrugs* I don't think you can tell anything much about a person from what they like to write. I've had people assume I'm a pro-lifer because I wrote a pro-life character and that I condone underage drinking. There's a correlation there, sure, but correlation does not equal causation.

I've see people dismiss perfectly valid films and books just because they contain violence/language/sexual content before. There's a very very stupid review of Watchmen, for example, that seems to assume it was made just to shock 'old biddies'. *shrugs*

Of course, being against the rules of the website is another issue altogether.

Interesting. .. Penny -- always good to get someone else's insight. Close minded never opens a door. .

Just to repeat:

The point is that one signs an agreement when one signs up here not to disseminate material like that here because this is a forum open to all ages.

Your posts could, and probably will, be sent to 14 years old readers or 70 year olds.

So when posts like the one described end up here, according to site regs, they're supposed to be deleted upon complaint.

Yes, but that's not what I was commenting on. The sense I was getting wasn't so much 'people shouldn't be poting this stuff here', it was 'people shouldn't be writing this stuff, what is the world coming too'.

To be honest, I wouldn't much like having to review some of the stuff you've described either.

I agree there is plenty of material written which I might find boring, unappealing, tedious, nauseating, or obscene, I also understand there is a place and an audience for it. So while Review Fuse is not the place for material which is too graphic in nature due to the younger audience, that doesn't mean that graphic material inherently should not be written. It only means that care to select the community to review it should be used.

The whole reason to write is so the author can express their ideas to another. Not everyone wants to read their ideas perhaps, but that shouldn't stop them from writing. A ban on writing graphic material makes about as much sense as a ban on religious or political material. Why stop there? I may not care for hamsters, so should a ban on any reference to hamsters be included as well? Someone else may not like cats, so should their preferences be spread to the rest of us?

Thus you get to the crux of when the censor should restrict a work, even unto the point where any reference to any living being becomes unacceptable because a reader may not like it. Personally I would rather keep the censor in check to things generally considered unpalitable for a younger audience, than run rampant and censor everything to "protect" the people from words.

Otherwise we find ourselves in the distopia envisioned by George Orwell in 1984 where words themselves are treated as the enemy of the state because of their power to communicate concepts considered dangerous. Personally I'm not for trimming out the dangerous words so that no possible combination can be used to relay a concept someone may find unpalitable.

Yes, I think some writers can go too far for most in an attempt to "shock or offend", but I would rather they have that right, than have all of our rights surrended to live in a comfortable confinement of nice concepts only.

If you don't agree with my point below, then I am voting to ban Vampire Romance stories. They offend my sensibilities of how vampires are supposed to be handled in classical literature.

Just kidding about the Vampires.

zmortis - I would vote to ban vampire romances too. I am getting quite sick of them. XD

Totally with you on the serious aprt of your psot as well. But this is getting more than a little off-topic, I suppose.

Good Suggestion Penny - this sub-discussion should be its own topic separate from moderator activity on review fuse.

To stay off subject (sorry, newbie here) The current crop of vampire romance laden with teen angst is a little tired. However I am a fan of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's St. Germain series of historical fiction centered around a couple of vampires. And, yes, zmortis, they do veer from the overwhelmingly portrayed vampire as an evil villain, but they are quite entertaining.