Request Meme Etiquette

[beckyh2112]

Someone posts a request-a-fic meme! Shiny! You make a request! Shiny! They write for you! DAZZLING!

You never respond.

*brakes screech*

Yeah, when you do that? You're being a dick. Someone went to time and effort to write something just for you, based on the prompt you gave. It may not be what you wanted, but even if it isn't, you should still say 'thank you'.

You know why? Because it's hurtful to ignore, intentionally or not, something made specifically for you.

But I am disorganized, you say! I forget these things! I cannot be expected to keep track of things!

Well, the simplest method is to stop participating then. But we'll assume you don't want to do that.

- make a folder in your inbox specifically for the e-mail notifications you get of meme-fics that you haven't replied to yet. go through and clean it out every week by replying
- if you have a Paid account, adjust your message settings so the only entries that go into your LJ inbox are the threads you're tracking on request-memes. go through and clean it out every week by replying
- open the meme-fic in a new tab as soon as you get it. don't close the tab until you reply.

This isn't rocket science. A little extra effort on your part is all it takes to not hurt people you presumably don't want to be hurting.

Comments

[kalaryx.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if it's close friends I'd be curious if I didn't get a response - even a "Thanks!" is fine just to acknowledge they've seen it even if they didn't like it (Although I'm actually good with people saying 'Not really to my taste' too - whether or not I care depends on who they are of course. ;3).

On the other hand, if I do a drabble offer post that's open to the general public I can guarantee that there's usually at least one person in ten that request but don't reply to what I write for them. I always wonder if they've actually seen it, if they hated it so much it fried their keyboard, if it's just a case of they lost track or are having a hard time IRL, or if it really is a genuine case of they read it and couldn't be bothered to say a word. That last is the only one that actively annoys me. I should note that the last couple that did it to me aren't writers themselves, or at least they don't post on LJ/DW/FFN under the same name, so maybe that's part of it.

If you ever spot me not responding to a filled prompt for heaven's sake tell me.

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Oh, I always figure there's people who won't reply. They still annoy me. -_-;;