Let me explain you a thing about bookmarks.
When you leave a bookmark on a work on the AO3, you are making a comment to which the author cannot respond. You are giving feedback that cannot be replied to. When you leave trash like this on somebody’s bookmarks, the author has no recourse. Can you do it? Yeah, sure. Should you be banned from doing it? No, because used wisely, it can be used as an important tool against an author who’s being in some way abusive or hiding warnings that readers need to be aware of.
Should you leave this type of shit on literally hundreds of stories?
If you’ve got any fucking home training, you should already know you shouldn’t.
I’m not going to sit here and give y’all- and I mean all y’all, because this is far from the only offender- the “fanfic doesn’t have to be good” or the “fanfic’s just for fun” arguments against feedback, because we all know both those arguments are disingenuous. Instead I will inform you that making attacks on people who can’t respond- and yes, it is an attack whether you meant it to be or not, don’t hide behind “I only criticized the ~story~”- makes you a giant bag of dicks.
If you want to criticize the quality of an author’s work, do the polite fucking thing: either say it somewhere the author can respond, or say it behind a friends lock, where you and your dumbass friends can snicker about it together. If you can’t say something nice, then act like a fucking adult about it and don’t do this fourth-grade shit.
[Some disclaimers: None of these bookmarks are on stories by me; I pulled 4’s and 5’s on the two I saw (yippee). And let me make it very clear: if someone acts like a bigot, if they do something *ist or *phobic, if they’re just an asshole to you, you don’t owe them a space to reply. Also, I’ll be using notification block on this post and probably not responding to any asks about it- because, indeed, giving someone the ability to reply doesn’t mean you have to continue the conversation. Have fun.]
Okay, unpopular(?) opinion time. I don’t think it is a requirement to make criticism where an author can respond to it. This applies to everything, whether it’s published fiction/nonfiction/etc. or fanworks or news articles or film or TV or whatever. Is it polite? Hell yes, especially in fannish circles.
As a reccer, my recs aren’t for the author, they’re for other readers. I don’t generally make anti-recs (since I usually don’t dislike things enough to make an effort), and if I do, I will give you a squillion details as to why. I’ll give you a squillion details as to why I liked something, too, since a) it helps me remember what something was about if I want to read it again, and b) it helps people to find good things they may like. All the bookmarks I have added (and will add) to AO3 are full of praise for the author and why I think something is good, and every AO3 bookmark with no notes irritates me as a reader because I want to know why you liked something!
What this person has done seems designed to start wank (granted, they have 900+ bookmarks, so this is really only a fraction of the whole, but it’s apparently a large number—I saw less than 5 in my browse of their first couple of pages, though), and I think it’s incredibly rude, especially, since these “recs” aren’t even criticism. They’re the equivalent of the “Nope” collection I have on my kindle for works that I read and don’t want to rec or read again for whatever reason. They’re entirely unhelpful to anyone, which is why I think this person just wants to stir up shit.
I’m really sorry if any of you got one or more of these comments and it ruined your mood or your day, or screwed with your confidence. If I follow you, or if I’ve commented on or recced your fic, you should know that I consider you amazing, and am so happy that you write or have written things in my fandoms. Please don’t pay any attention to people’s random negative comments! I know it’s hard, but remember you are awesome! <333
I’m just wondering what the OP would have replied to this person. I’m more of an author than a reccer, and would you rather have a comment left on the fic that says “meh”, where there’s an actual expectation of responding? Yes, these particular bookmarks seem geared toward wank, but as authors we have to roll with the fact that sometimes criticism is geared toward potential readers, not authors.