Just Wow

Following K.S. Brooks’ latest Tutorial Tuesday column, addressing Reddit, the Reddit welcome wagon came out. Apparently, at least some members of that community do not relish the thought of having indie writers among their ranks. Not content to vent their spleens there, a few members of their community decided to come here and make some comments ranging from condescending to vulgar.

In fairness, a few Reddit members came over and tried to offer some helpful advice. I wouldn’t paint all the members of their community with the same broad brush. I would hope people wouldn’t do that with ours either. Life is full of disappointments, though.

I’m not going to pretend I wasn’t offended by the ad hominem nature of the comments. It doesn’t require a surfeit of intellectual firepower to make fun of someone who is struggling in attempting to do something for the first time when you yourself have mastered it. It’s also easy to forget all people are newbies at some point.

I thank the few members of the Reddit community who came to offer some helpful insight. As for the attempted commenters whose inelegant bon mots did not make it past our spam wall, I will abstain from responding in kind.

Everyone makes their own decisions about which social media platforms to use. I’ve made mine, and I am sure Reddit will be none the poorer for it. If you decide to use Reddit, I wish you the best. There do seem to be some reasonable folks over there. Don’t be surprised if some of the others look at you like you’re a possum in the punchbowl, though.

There is an opportunity masked in every difficulty. From this, let us remind ourselves once more that the newbies in our own community need our help, not our condescension. We were all there once. I would hope our community would be more helpful and welcoming than some others.

Author: Stephen Hise

Stephen Hise is the Evil Mastermind and founder of Indies Unlimited. Hise is an independent author and an avid supporter of the indie author movement. Learn more about Stephen at his website or his Amazon author page.

33 thoughts on “Just Wow”

  1. It’s the best hallmark of IU that we act in the best interest of all those who struggle to make it in a difficult Indie world. Anyone who participates in a cooperative manner is welcomed and supported. If Reddit does not wish to do so with us that is their loss, not ours.

  2. Thanks for supporting the Indie author, Stephen. I am sure that these people can’t pick up a pencil, much less write a book or read one longer than 2 sentences! Have a great day, GREAT INDIE AUTHORS!!

  3. I have no idea what the “unfriendly” comments from Reddit were, and don’t particularly care to. All I can say is that I’m glad to be among people like those of the IU community, who are more interested in helping each other than sneering at those struggling to better themselves and their writing.

    Thank you IU for such a nice place to come and always feel welcome.

  4. I just went to see some of the comments. They are plainly insulting. So now we are a bunch of middle aged nuts trying to spam our way in? Come on. Is that why Preditors and Editors put us on their recommended list? Really??

    1. Nice try, you evil swine.
      Don;t you know that all those anonymous people over there are totally uninterested in promotion, just a nice place to hang out with other anonymous friends. It’s not like it’s Twitter or anything.

  5. I have played in Reddit’s bailiwick and they didn’t play nice then. I left it. So it might not be all of them, but it IS many of them.

  6. Call me a newbie, but even as I read the blog post here yesterday, along with the comments, I was thinking to myself: the goal and desire of the writer is to have readers. I don’t care how you euphemize (or euthanize) it that is promotion, however nicely and politely it is done. It seemed from the comments that their goals were to be entertained by content. Conflicting goals don’t make a good engagement let alone marriage. I had concluded by the end of the post and comments that I already have enough social media management pulling me away from writing, thank you.
    On the other hand, setting up the blog-follow was a big help to connect with fellow writers. Thanks.

  7. I have no intention of using the site. There are far too many other excellent social media, Indie, writing and other sites that offer help and community.

    There are authors who simply do not understand or care to ponder how they are interacting with a new social group or network. An entire group should not be branded because of the poor behavior of a few people.

  8. Just Wow is right. I have no plans of joining their site now after the rude comments made on their site. They seem to forget it is a small world and even smaller on the internet where your actions speak louder than words. In a small online community like theirs where everyone can see what they say how they say it really does not make them look good at all. Do they really think that pissing off potential buyers/readers of their work is going to get sales of their work? Just as in a small populated town where everyone knows everyone, businessmen who piss of potential customers in a like fashion as ‘that site’ not only lose customers, but the customer’s friends as well. A domino affect for sure.

    1. I’m not sure anybody knows anybody over there. They are built around anonymity. Sometimes that kind of thing allows people to be more open. Sometimes it invites bad behavior. I’m not sure spamming is the thing they should be the most worried about, but it is their club. They can run it however they like.

  9. Well, aren’t they just so flippin’ Special. What a difference from the philosophy and attitude of IU. I don’t know them and now I don’t want to know them either. Thanks for your efforts, Kat. I ditto Yvonne’s comments above. That’s not the definition of “community” as far as I’m concerned.

  10. “Lead, follow, or get out of the way!”
    I thank you for your leadership, and will follow Indies Unlimited. I think the IU magnet will draw many other followers.
    Thank you once again for educating us on some of the dangers out there.

    1. Thanks Dick, and for all I know, there may be indie writers over there who are enjoying great success with the Reddit community. It doesn’t seem like a place that tolerates too many missteps, though.

  14. Thank you so much, Stephen, due to a heavy workload I haven’t gotten around to checking out Reddit; now I really don’t need to. Their loss. It never fails to amaze me how short sighted people can be!

  15. How… sad. That’s the kind of behaviour I’d expect to see from fanboys on an mmo. Unpleasant coming from children, unacceptable coming from adults.

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