Look Before You Leap, Think Before You Speak, And For Chrissake Be Careful When You MST

Who’d ever think that the advice your parents gave you would actually hold true?

I am not an individual known for my dexterity with scruples and manners in general. I write what I want, when I want, often with blatant disregard for my audience, but I guess you figured that one out already.

Yeah, this probably is a half-assed attempt to make myself feel better after I and one of my friends (who shall remain nameless) MSTed a story we found while trolling the Trigun section of FanFiction.Net. It wasn’t that great of a story…well, realistically, the plot, although predictable, was certainly passable, but, being the nut I am for grammar I insisted we had found our prey.

So we MSTed it. Everyone who reviewed it acclaimed this butchering as witty and well-written, except for one – the original story’s author.

We did email her, asking for her permission, but when she failed to reply in the specified time period, we did as we’d threatened to do in the request and posted it anyway. A few days passed without a peep from her corner and we figured she didn’t care. That was, until she reviewed it. I don’t rightly know if she read it the whole way through or if warning bells went off when she saw the title at the top of the new additions for the day.

In her review she shattered an illusion I’d come to believe (that she was probably a blissfully ignorant, flame-retardant author probably as old as myself who couldn’t give a shit) when she said she was only in the eighth grade. I don’t know how any of you would react, but I’d been waiting for an angry flame (which I could handle hands down – the angrier a person gets the less coherent they are and the more funny it becomes,) and the hurt in that passive voice made my guts do a backflip, and not in a good way.

I realised I’d probably shattered the poor kid’s confidence permanently. Suck-up letters reassuring her that she wasn’t a bad writer don’t make up for it. I hate being picked on, and I’d turned into a bully myself. For shame.

That is probably the biggest mistake anyone who prowls the internet as much as myself can make – assuming that everyone out there is an attitude-fuelled Juggernaut you couldn’t hurt with a flamethrower and a barrel of napalm. We should all probably be more careful of other peoples’ feelings when we do things like that, because behind the screen name and the façade of confidence, there is always a real person with real feelings on the receiving end of whatever you do, who will get hurt.

Please be careful when you MST someone’s work, and make sure you have their permission. Declaring a waiting period is not enough.

MecurySly, wherever you are, I’m sorry.

~Owari~