Chapter 20:

Ignore, Unconnected to the Book👍, just an archive of my side of things/a madman's ramblings - Not an attack (Final-Ver w/ 28-02 Addendum/Archive of Quotes) Scaling Back From HoneyFeed (Unrelated to the book - Status Post I Guess - Pretty Sad Afterword)

The Girl He Used To Know - Original HoneyFeed Version


Hi all, wrong place to put this but I don't know where else to do so and this book is the one the most have seen but also the book I specifically wrote to be catered for HF's reader base, so it feels appropriate enough.

I've decided to scale back a bit from HoneyFeed - I'll still be reading everything I've started and reading anything new from those I've made friends with - But I won't be picking up many new books any more and I don't intent to write as many critics.

There's a few reasons but as a critic an old writing rule comes to mind; 'No one cares' - That's not meant as an insult, what it tries to convey to young authors is that we automatically on some level love the world's and characters we make, however a stranger does not have that inherent connection - You have to work to make a reader care.


So I'll keep it brief - I don't really feel all that welcome here, my recent disagreement of opinions with the staff is really only the tip of that - And while I deeply appreciate one of the mods did eventually take the time to answer me properly, they did still mis-interprit my arguements and ultimately didn't actually address my central concern.

That said, that's probably my fault, I clearly did not explain myself properly and for that I apologize.

In general I apologize to anyone who's felt unfairly addressed by either my words to the mods or in some of my less well received critics.


But far more then that, I just feel awkward - Learning that at any time people are reading your comments but not liking or replying, is quite honestly a bit off-putting.

To know mods or anyone else read a thing you said to someone else or even to them and then just don't engage with you is kinda creppy - Like talking to a friend in your house, only to look out the window and see a work colleague just staring in at you silently......


Further some seem to think that by not using the discord, I cannot see it - Except when you spend as long reading and writing chapters as I have these last few months, you do see the little discord box below the comments from time to time.

And this is why I'm pulling back: 

This morning I decided to just follow my routine, used to be an audiobook first thing - No a days I read some HoneyFeed.

Clicked a new book, had a read, liked and left a fairly light hearted comment - To which the author replied politely in kind. Except later I scroll past the discord only to see me as the topic of discussion.

Now to be clear it was nothing bad at all - Someone even said 'I Stan momentie' as a jk which made me laugh and smile.

But the same author from that morning read, appeared to be commenting on how my tiny one line critic was on an unfinished product or some such.

Now to be clear, they were in no way being rude - I'm not saying that at all - No one was. It's simply unnerving to know that any comment I make can be seen by dozens of ghosts and then talked about on the discord simply because no one thinks I'll see it


It just feels kinda crap tbh - I think I've had a mostly positive impact round here - I post consistently, take part in challenges, review litterally anything with respect regardless of weather it was written by a 12 year old or a 60 year old.

Further I like to think I cater my reviews - Some people can be very flat with their reviews - Cold facts, few to no positives and a lack of emojis or levity.

I try to always be civil, to point out stuff I did enjoy - Sometimes people don't want a critic, in those cases I just comment on something I found funny or enjoyable - A good review imo is one that the author can find useful in some way - Telling someone who speaks English as a second language, that their English needs work - Is not as helpful as telling them that you like their protag but think he could use more relatablity etc etc - Some people are just writing for fun and I try to account for that in my interactions with the community


But in turn I honestly don't feel that welcome - And again let me stress this is totally a me problem, no one is being unwelcoming - I just don't feel comfortable knowing my words are being secretly read or my comments discussed, politely or otherwise - In chatrooms where people think I won't see all while what I perceive to be as a mob culture is being born.

I'm not here to rat on people but I just think it feels 'off'. I saw at the same time as the bit about me - Someone say that a person liked their book, but that they doubth they read it.

That's what gets me - It's like everyone is so pent up and passive agressive - If someone did like but not read your book, then who cares? They're still showing support and that like will probably make up for one of the ghost readers  who decided not to leave a like😅.

It feels like gatekeeping, arnt we just meant to be causally reading books? Why should you automatically be suspicious someone is giving you an earnest critic or is actually reading your books - I've seen this a fair few times, amoung other instances of what just seems like unproductive discourse.

Fundemantally the site could be better - I'm not saying it's the worst but why should it settle at just ok?

If you click the suggestions box, you'll see people jokingly saying HoneyFeed can't afford better features - But why? I'd happily help support the funding of a proper app, of PDF uploads that don't force me to reformate every chapter of my text - Or how about links to affiliate artists to help new authors commission covers? How about a review tab - I've seen litterally 1000s of my words disappear becuase someone unpublished and later republished a chapter(I don't blame the authors mind you, just making an observation) - why not have it be a dedicated part of the novel - In turn encourging more people to give constructive review?


But I realise that is simply my view - Most people love this site, and enjoy the Discord enviorerment - Most don't think any poor handling has occured. And of course I don't understand the financial or technological side of the website at all - I'm simply imaging a more refined place then is maybe feasible.

People are 100% entitled to ghost read your comments or books - They are 100% entitled to complain that Tokyo or anyone else 'might' be liking without reading - They are 100% in their rights to say that they are doing the best with / on this site as can be done.

However to me personally, and again this is purely a 'Me problem' - I don't like it. I don't like being watched, I don't like people commenting on others where they think they won't see (good or bad comments) and I don't feel like the site serves us as well as it could.


So ya, I'll still post a new UnderCurrent chapter every 5 or so days and I'll continue to support those I've made really lovely connections with here, I appreciate those genuinely quite dearly, it's a lot of fun interacting with entuastic authors who have a passion for their books and sometimes even mine - But Amma pull back a bit, simply cause I ain't very good at social stuff, I don't like being privately spoken about and I don't want to be getting involved in any 'drama', but by nature I'm stubborn - And the more involved I am, the more I'll want to comment on what I see - It's why I've spent years writing and learning how to write comprehensive anime reviews😅😂.

But again that is a me problem, so I shall endeavour to fix it myself by being less involved.


Best Regards to everyone on the site, happy writing,

-Momentie


Addendum - 28-02-2020;(This is litterally Me simply listing the facts from my perspective for anyone who might be confused, or now thinks badly of me becuase of miss-information - It is very clearly not an attack nor is it a new chapter so you will not of been notified of it - Therefore if you have sought this out in bad faith - Then kindly leave and just move on with your day - The mods and anyone else involved, are grown ups, they do not need you to harass me on their behalf - In fact they've said not to - They are free to contact me themselves at any time - I have never turned them away from an actual dialogue, it's worth remembering that. The following is simply an elaboration of the original post, nothings new here - Just explained in full becuase people kept making baseless remarks or miss-represntations)

Let's start simple - Despite how I've been spoken to these last few days,I nether suffer from any form of paranoia, I am not a child and I have not attacked, been 'angry' or baited for viewers at any point.

I do have severe diagnosed form of medical anxiety - I'm medicated for it, nothing to worry about but I did become unable continue in a job I was quite proficient at because of it.
Let me be clear here, I do not say that for sympathy or as excuse - My actions and words are always my own - I say it because;
1. I think it's nice to remember that behind every username is a person - I think you can see me abiding this in every single one of my messages.
2. I need to write this down properly because otherwise I won't be able to move on - Again another me problem, feel free to berate me again for having feelings😊.

So than lets get to it. 
In my original post which I have decide to leave exactly as is forever as to avoid anymore baseless accusations, I listed three broud problems I have encountered over my time here - Leading to my decision to distance myself a little from the website.
Unlike what some have suggested, those three problems were what I perceive as poor moderation, a lack of innovation over months and most of all a rather broad group of issues around the community - This retaining to unproductive discourse, a clear focus on discord over the website itself and what seems worryingly close to bordering on cyber-bullying in my eyes only.

I don't intend to comment anymore on the matter but I feel it bears fully documenting my perspective because as it stands;
1.This could well all get swept under rug - Resulting in nothing coming from it.
2. Though many have been brilliantly lovely, some have deliberately or unintentionally painted me as some sort of rude "angry", "paranoid" man with a "persecution complex", who doesn't understand how the internet works and should keep his "silly-little problems" to himself - To quote a few phrases.

So Q & A (and lets get some quotes in here - Since some of you love quoting me so much...);


1. "TLDR: People read my stuff but some of them dont engage with me. I dont like that." - This comment and all the people who said I was baiting for views are the ones that baffle me the most - At no point in the entire post did I mention my books, I mentioned comments on other peoples books. I'll leave one of my response to this from the comments as the final word on this complete baseless and kinda stupid claim;

"At no point did I ever complain about viewership on my books - I have a lovely group of readers, I had the highest number of like and views on my valentine's book when that challange ended.

I am quite content with my books😊👍."

2. "This doubtlessly sounds as if you have never once used any form of social media. Because surely, you like and reply to all YouTube comments you ever read? It is absolutely senseless.
In which world are people obligated, or is normal for people, to engage with everything?"

This type of complaint I can sort of give the benefit of the doubt - I really as you can see in the post, had no desire to list case studies, or name names - So I kept things brief and vague.

My point about commenting was wrapped in my boarder point about the interactions of people with the site - This has occurred a few times but the one I have proof of is what I'll allude to, to clear this up:

During my discussion with the mods, they spoke on a comment I had made to a friend on Chapter 35 of a book  - They have not liked, commented or anything else on a single chapter of this book - They did not like or comment on the comments that they reference to either.

But further it wasn't just they'd glanced over it to check for inappropriate language or any other mod-like activity - No they had clearly read the thread of remarks, presumably in full and then stored away the info so they could throw it back at me during my conversation with them.
And before anyone says it - I don't mean that literally, they obviously didn't foresee our conversation or anything and I'm not even sure they realised they were referencing something so obscure - But what I Personally found off putting was that on the 35 chapter of a book they have never in any form engaged with a single chapter or comment of - They had read all the threads comments and in enough detail as to remember it and bring it back up in our conversation - To me that is two things:
-Friggin Weird
-But more so, just unproductive.

The mods are meant to lead this site, encourage a proactive environment, foster author growth but in there own words they often times read things and then completely ignore them simply because they aren't obligated.

And that's true, they aren't - As I made abundantly clear in my post - This is a me problem, I think It's a bad thing, you don't have to.

They also aren't obligated to give my comments a fair reading - Now to be fair I clearly could of been better spoken in my discussion with them, 100% - That said claiming I lack context and I am in turn unintionally fanning a negative flame? - If I were doing that then why didn't you step in and correct me? You state you can email people, so enough of this crap that I'm uncontactable - Heck people have reached out to me on platforms other then HoneyFeed - The simple fact is that as a staff team, you didn't want to address my concerns.

And that's why, intentionally or not, you skirted issues - The 2k word response I did eventually get (it's been taken down now for Understandable reasons - I would quote it but I'm litterally too close to the HF chapter-character limit😅) - Claims that I lack critical information in the example B***B**** case, except I don't.

I made the point that the conversation should not of been allowed happen, not that he'd been pressured into anything directly but that the pressure might of come from the proceeding conversation - I saw the conversation, I saw the context and weather you though he was liking without reading or not - That was surely an unfair discourse to have.

My point was that in his and a few other cases, by allowing conversations like that, you risk driving away active and polite members of the community. B***B**** is great, he's learning fast and becoming a great author and I sincerely regret name droping him in the initial conversation - He is the sort of commodity you staff should want to protect, not even if in only minor ways, risk driving away.

Similarly when a discussion of a compatible nature occured on the user T****, you again did nothing to stop it but instead a member of staff said along the lines of; 'I'll look into it - Reported'.

Reported? Your a mod, talk to people - But more so don't encouraging that chat, privately investigate - While telling the chat not to spread unproven rumours. Investigate? Yes. Tell the chat to be more polite and Understanding ? Apparently not?

And yet in the mods initial response to me you state nothing improper had occured but rather I lacked context. My points were litterally to do with what I saw in public chats - I saw that chat, do not fob me off by saying I didn't see the chats - If you don't believe there was any issue with what I was saying, then fine - state that fact but do not try pass it off as my ignorant dilusions.

All my points to the mods, regardless of supposed 'goal-post' moving and 'gaslighting' - Was that from the pov of a website user, inappropriate conversation and lack of action from the mods seemed to be occruing - And to this day you have still never addressed that anywhere. Again I apologize sincerely if that point did not come through in my original writing - My bad.

But to finish the entire central point as made in my discussion-- no wait sorry, my angry messages towards staff - Was that if your on a young author's book in order to request they remove a link - Why not also provide a little public feedback?
Something as small as leaving a like or hey maybe even saying something you did or didn't like the about the chapter.

But no - Three prominent members of the community, 2 mods at that - And not one of them felt it might be nice to support the author they were reprimanding, just the tiniest bit of encouragement for them.

I am in no way saying they are obligated to do so - I am in no way saying that the author in question should of been allowed to break rules - I am saying that you are only doing half of what I believe to be your job.

You are enforcing rules - But not fostering growth, if anything you are dis-incentiving it - Which to me is bad.
I have great respect for the author in question taking it so well - First his book is unpublished via email rather than a comment telling him to tone back the errotica or just unpublishing the troubling chapters rather then the whole thing(Talking with it any comments he had received) - He rewrites the thing to better fit Hf's standards and immediately three people are on top of him because he made a joke about loopholes - None of whom show any support but make damn sure he knows links are banned - Nice....?
He ain't innocent, he broke a rule and spoke back cheekily - But damn if I were him I'd of left and never turned back

Moderation - Balance - Mods/admins exist to maintain order, sure - But they are also here to create a friendly and welcoming environment.

Do I think that only communicating with someone when they've broken a rule and literally doing nothing to encourage them - Is good moderation? No.
Do I think three people should of been in that chat, three adults - There to reprimand one minor author and later on myself? No.

But that is my opinion, the mods have made quite clear they disagree, as do many others -  Momenties is "Not being nice" but "Angry".


And that brings us to why I felt the need to write an addendum - This started as me discussing ( I say discussing, I mean being ignored for hours and then accused of having a vendetta against the site, being ignorant in terms of context and of accusing people of spearheading dictatorships) - It morphed into me politely expressing my concern in a post intentionally left vague to avoid hurting any more people - And then it became, "A silly little problem" or a guy with a "Persecution Complex".

So how did the mods handle the unwarranted and generally unfactual discourse aiming at me on this thread? How did they handle a certain GEP's incredibly rude post about me? How did they handle the fact that if I didn't feel welcome before - I sure as heck don't now? 

With a discord post!!! Yay!!! I love discord!!!.......

Oh and not just a discord post folks - One were the mods spend most of their time saying they were just doing their jobs - Not explaining my side what-so-ever (tho making sure to name drop me and mention how I'm 'angry' and don't know where buttons are, while framing all my complaints as 'Against the mods') and only at the very end saying don't harass people - After 12+ hours of me being harassed...yay...

Let me please be absolutely clear, I do not think either of the mods involved or anyone else are bad people - In fact I believe the mod who made the discord post had purely good intentions - But what good is a post on a seperate platform hours after the fact?

When the mod post went up, it was too late, everyone had long had their say - They didn't moderate anything - They left me to sit here and have to defend myself from people spouting utter bullshit.
It took hours for the GEP counter-post to go back down (And that presuming they took it down rather then S**** simply realising the error he'd made for his Pr - After all they didn't think it was worth publically saying such behaviour is against the rules - But don't worry, rest assured they'll always publicly catch any devious link posters!!) and literally everyone was already done talking when they finally stepped in with a post, not here on Honeyfeed, in say my comments to co-inside with everyone else's word - No on a discord server they know not everyone uses....

Again I am not saying they did any of this intentionally but that isn't good moderating - Were they asleep at the time? Do they not work rotas?
You guys should of just asked, I'd of happily done Saturdays and Sundays for ya, because what business leaves their doors wide open at the weekend with no staff inside - Who thinks that is a good thing?
Of course the mods need days off, but why don't some of them work Mon - Fri and others Sat - Wes?
Am I seriously the only one who thinks that's just plain bad organisation? The only one who thinks it was not ok for them to of not stepped in here and called time yesterday?


I am not a victim in any way shape or form - And neither are the mods. Yet their eventual posts clearly frames me as being an angry aggressor, to their dutiful work ethic.
That just isn't fair representation - You can read most of the comments for yourself - I don't believe any of mine have been removed from here or the mod discussion.

I said such atrocious things as 'crappy coding', 'Your team(not you specifically obviously)', 'or I guess she doesn't give a crap' and the oh so terrible 'honeyfeed strikes me as being more and more poorly run' - Dear lord call the FBI and arrest me - But when you do, make sure you also take the people calling me a 'angry' 'ranting' 'paranoid' 'silly little me problem' 'Persecution Complex' 'facistic ideas' etc etc. 
You have eyes, you tell me who's being civil and who's not - I would suggest this addendum is the rudest I've been at any point in all this or for that matter in my entire time on this site.

Again I am no victim but equally neither are the mods and its unfair that they've framed this like that - Unfair that they let people spout lies and berate me in the afterword of my own book - And it's downright wrong that while I have apologised profusely, and I earnestly mean it - Where's their apology?
I genuinely don't want the mods to feel I wronged them - But I can only wonder if they genuinely think nothing I said had merit....

But don't take my word for it - Here is the post the Mod made on a server I'm not on, hours after everyone had had their say towards me;
"Hello, everybirdie. Given to the recent state of affairs that happened today at the website, I feel the need to personally address this issue. I hope this topic will not resurface again after I am done explaining myself.

A user at Honeyfeed, S*********, had posted a story which them, having declared being a minor, had rape and other mature things written on it. After another mod unpublished the novel, they were encouraged to reuploaded without the mature and rape contents. Later that same week, while I, A**-****, was doing my rounds, I noticed their story's author's note had links to that same story: clean and R18 version. As many of you already know, I always write a comment to people who break the no self-promoting other websites/SNS on your own story rule/ToS unless it's to promote the artist you commissioned for your novel and so on. However, my warning rubbed them the wrong way. You can find the comments on the prologue of S**********s novel. They kept on writing to me, and of course I did not reply since they were looking for loopholes about the links and excusing themselves about not reading the ToS nor Privacy Policy. I did not reply since they later started talking about Honeyfeed's moderating system and such, which, in my opinion, it's not something to be discussed in a comment section of a novel. Hours later, M******* made a comment, and kept on going about Honeyfeed not having a Privacy Policy, ToS, etc. links on the webpage amongst other things in regards to Honeyfeed's management. Again, I replied to them only mentioning that they could find what they did not see, at the bottom of the page and that they could contact us using the Contact Us form. Still, they got very angry at me for only replying to something that specific instead of addressing all of the issues they had and started a big argument. As I aforementioned, the comment section is not an adequate place, at least for me, to address these internal issues. They blamed mods for "threatening" S******** to "delete" their previous work, even though they cleared up that there was no threatening to begin with.I believe I must name drop due to how a convoluted mess it would be if I did not. Eventually, B*******' saw the conversation and jumped into it and take their sweet time to even reply to Momentie's comment where they talked how badly Honeyfeed managed "the mods" when it was not necessary, but B******' took the initiative I didn't have so props to her for handling the situation properly. Things wouldn't have escalated this far if I had not:
 1) Made my job of telling them that linking is not allowed.
2) Not replied to Momentie's.
 So I truly apologise to everyone that has seen themselves involved with this. It was never my intention to bring any harm to any party. I am sorry for my mistake, and I profously apologise. I'll become a better mod, I promise to learn from this mistake. For some I might sound like a martyr right now, but I don't care anymore. I just want this to stop, and since it was my fault to begin with, I apologise, please don't harass S******* nor Momentie nor any other person involved. A**, out.


And here is my reply, which I had to post on HF because, ya know, I can't defend myself on a server I'm not on;

"Just to be clear if anyone comes here based off Ana's discord message - Some of the mods replys are gone now - Hence why there's gaps in the convo - And I have already apologied elsewhere for if anything I said came across as unfair.

I don't believe I got 'angry' at A** but if that's how she felt, then A** I am sincerely sorry i made you feel that way, you have my sincerest apologies - I simply wanted to highlight that a more soft approach to case's like S****, might encourage authors more and grow the site - But again I'm deeply sorry if that came across as angry or hurtful or the message got lost along the way.

Finally, I did at one point mix my pharsing - In one message I said the contact buttons were hard to find, in the next I miss spoke and said they were non-present.I think anyone reading it will see that clearly I just miss-spoke, hence my anounce at it being framed like they didn't exist - Further the contact button still doesn't work for me but I guess that's just on my side of things - crap 1mb/s internet and all that.

__

This has blown up way too much, with people on my book going out of their way to nitpick my concerns - That said an equal number said lovely things and I hope the site grows from some of this if nothing else.

Momentie's gonna go hibernate for a bit now - I don't wish for further hurt, I'll return to reading before long no doubth, I enjoy it after all.

Like I said elsewhere, yesterday HF released a wonderful audiobook which I believe was voice by the very same A** - I'd advise everyone go enjoy that and as A** said, forget about this akward series of miss-understandings😊👍.

((S**** once more I apologize, hopefully I and a flock of mods will never spam your comments like this again😅😅))


I am not asking you in any way to choose between these two statements - I am putting them here for the sake of objectivity - Because ultimately no matter what you chose to think or say - The words written remain the same, typos from us both and all.

Both statements are valid, both should be read, both were put in places were some will never see - This is not a case of choosing victims because there are none - Just a rather unproductive discourse between two mods, some rather verbal commenters and me.

To sum up this rather lengthy section - I, and this is just my opinion, believe the mods of this site to be like those strict and unhelpful teachers in school.
You may know the sort, the ones that are always ready to tell you when you break a school rule - But never smile when you get an A+, never provide feedback to some kids, only to those they feel like it with.

The type who sure, do their job to its required base level specifications but whom don't foster the growth of that one kid in class who maybe just needs a little kindness when your telling them off for forgetting to wear a tie.


3. There is so much more I could say but again I really don't want to - People are going to mis-conscrew what I say regardless of how many facts I state or how comprehensive I am. Further i really don't want to mention people's names any more than I already have and risk dragging in any more people.

But I will address the GEP post which thankfully has now been removed.
It unfortunately proves everything I feared/said - And make no mistake, I don't want proof, I don't want to be right - When I wrote the initial post this was an issue in my head, a 'me problem' - Which was good, It meant everyone could continue on with their fun.

But the GEP author's post literally proves it all - The lack of mod action on the matter or addressing it, the bullshit said in the post and the fact that some in comments even praised the post.

Before I felt unwelcome - After yesterday I now know, that a small but Very vocal group do not want me here simply because I stepped out of line - It was in my head, now it seems undeniably real and true

As someone very kindly reached out privately to say to me:
"While your initial complaint may have been a "you problem" (one which I also suffer from myself), what S**** did was wholly a "S********* problem"

Now to address some points he made that I haven't already covered above;

- He claims Honeyfeed lacks features because it's none profit - Is this true?
I honestly don't know, I haven't come across anything saying honeyfeed is a non-profit - It has direct ties to Kodansha and is a puppet company of qdopp who aren't non-profit at all to my knowledge.

That said none of that was the point I made - I said that if needed I would happily see Honeyfeed implement a 'My Anime List' style of money support - Where everything remains completely free but you peldge some money, in turn giving you a little 'supporter' badge and helping the website gain new features ( You can see this for example, on my MAL account - My point was literally me volunteering to give the site money to be better....How was this seen as a negative statement?).

[[Note; In the countinued interest of facts I did have a look around 'qdopp' and can confirm based on their website affiliates that they are indeed 'For profit' - Again how this affects HoneyFeed who don't appear themselves to be monitised is unclear, and the entire point has literally nothing to do with my own, as explained above - But it does again make apparent how infactual people have been when trying to 'disprove' my complaints]]

- S**** accused me of blaming authors for unpublishing books, in turn deleting their comments - Like I said and like you can read, I was advocating a review tab to novels, so that when an author wants to do a second draft of their books, they don't lose all their feedback and reviews from commenters - Again I'm confused on the issue here.

He then seemed to imply I should go to other sites with such a feature - So I guess that's a point... Your gym not got any weights? Don't complain, just go to a different gym!(?)....

- I could keep going but If you read it then there isn't really a need to explain - You can still see his fun-filled series of rude comments below this post if your looking to see 'debate' at its very finest today....


4. Though I've been more in-depth and alluded to case studies here I have still barely scratched the surface but I think this is all I have in me for one day and I think I've atleast painted a more detailed and balanced view of things then S****'s mob or the mods did.

I rose these issues because I genuinely thought this was a brilliant and welcoming site - And it is - three times the number of people have said kind things, or been respectful or even shared similar stories to mine.

(And by 3 times I don't just mean people who agreed with me, but rather people who were actually respectful. Saying 'With Respect' and then being rude - Is not respectful. F****B*** is maybe the best example here - He doesn't necessarily agree with me or anything if you read his comment and we haven't talked all that much on the site - But he's civil in his response, understanding and fundemantaly polite - While still not necessarily thinking the way I do. Those sorts of comments are always more then welcome and good for the health of the site or for productive discourse - No baseless accusations, no lies and no name calling - Just a discussion between two functionally mature adults).

People have used the comments on this very chapter-post to make new friends or just have a friendly chat or be open about their own experiences)

But polite people are by nature quite - And so since this is done and can't be taken back - Why not learn from this to make the site better?

To those who seem to think its perfect and nothing bad has ever, ever happened here - I ask you this:
-Would the mods encouraging authors more be a bad thing?
-Would the mods being more open, aswell as doing basic things like having a mod who specifically work weekends - Be a bad thing?
- Would better systems on the site like image inserting and PDF uploading or a review tab, or hey a comment edit button to prevent miss-speaking (which again is my bad but should not of been made such a big deal over) somehow be a negative?
- Would a greater focus on the novel writing facilities not be better than an emphasis on discord and branding logos?
-Would building this community, helping young authors grow and encouraging an active and vibrant discussion over the site rather then 'email' - Not be for the best?

I've read a lot here and I hope I've done more good then bad - Some lovely people down below seem to think so - But why me?

I've read alot on here and sure not all of it good, make no mistake - But I'd never say that to the author's face - Instead I'd try to give them useful advice to improve and I hope that has honestly been in some way helpful to people - But that ain't my job, it's the mods, it's yours, its everyone's - Its how we make this a great, fun, productive place.

Alot here have welcomed me in a way I can only be grateful for - People I've never even talked with before sent me messages of support and I'm extremely grateful.

But equally complete strangers though it appropriate to berate me and spread straight up lies and miss-information - While the mod team hid behind an accuse of 'Just doing their jobs' while literally not doing their jobs in any way when I was getting berated unfairly - Until after the fact and only then on Discord.


I wanted to see this place grow and prosper, to be welcoming and kind - But ya know what?
It won't like this - You can see it, dead accounts that have moved on in just a few months - Accounts with dozens of comments and published chapters who left for one reason or another.

I got told that my 'attitude' did not match with a goal of improving the site - In what way? Becuase I pointed out faults in the server? Becuase I said the mod team had failed in places? Becuase I joked about baning? Becuase I suggested only enforcing rules and not publicly showing support is a little clsoe to mini-dicattorship for my liking. And I appreciate that some of my agruemnrts were poorly put, I appreciate some of my jokes have been taken wrong - But none of that invalidates my points - You cannot tell me I 'refuse to be wrong' when you never addressed my issues, only my 'attitude', ignorance and jokes.

If you believe that blind love for this site is good then I don't know what to tell you.

I appreciate people rebuking me out of love for the site but please try to see the trees from the woods - your not improving this place with radio silence or blind adherence.


Realm Assassin - The competition winner has many likes but any individual chapter has no more then around 200 at most.
So that's at a generous estimate of say 500-odd semi-active, to active writers and readers - Ladies and gents, if we were an indie published video game, we'd be shut down for having too low an active population.

And sure, keep doing competitions and you will drag in growth but it won't stick like this - it's a good way to get people in but it's a forced form of progress.

When expressing that you don't personally feel welcome - Gets you mocked and name called - Then your community has a problem.
The few bad eggs will always outshine the basket of lovely people.

Look at my status post from New Year - The prologue to my book 'An Ode To Fallen Nemo' - I was so impressed by this site, how lovely everyone had been and that made me want to get more involved - I got close to joining the discord but everytime something, usually small but notably, would occur and I'd decide against it.

The deeper I've got into this site, the more sad I get - The people are so great but the foundations are shaky at best.

B*** said I didn't understand the internet but I think I do better then he does - I simply though HF was different, a small cottage-community of people looking to improve and have fun talking about books & anime - And to a degree it is - But get a little deeper, and well, like B*** said - It's just another reddit/twitter/YouTube etc, of a small group who refuse to see when they are being rude, uncivil and problematic - Who think their hang-out spot is infallible and that it's right to publicly mock anyone who dares be uncomfortable around their behaviour.

I Thought this place had ambitions of being something really great and kind and lovely - But it doesn't, it's just a fancy facade for another generic social media platform.

I earnestly hate to say it but while I still think and love the people of this site - The site itself is not so great after all.


I'm posting this as an addendum (I made the mistake before of not knowing people pay close attention to the recent comments tab....) as I presume that means no one will get notified of it - meaning no-one is likely to see, it but if you do, then you'll have the full side of my story + The mods official Response over on the discord quoted verbatim - Well atleast the last couple days worth of it.

I'll end with a quote from none other than HoneyFeeds own management posts in the interest of true balance - You're not obligated to make this place great, nor are the mods. The site is free to not implent any major features for literal months on end while communicating with the none discord users at a snails pace(and I don't mean the 24hour delay), despite lacking fairly simple and logical features - Your not obligated to be polite or try and be understanding - But I wonder what sort of website you hope to create, both as staff and users, if you choose to act like this.

-Momentie;


Direct quote from HoneyFeed's own post - As can be found at the bottom of the page just below the comments, discord box, monthly challange banner, the light/dark theme button, all their socials and in the smallest font just above the '©qdopp'👍👍;

"A message from Honeyfeed management:

Although we are the ones who created this space, how Honeyfeed grows will depend on how you, the users, use the site. We want to make Honeyfeed into a lively community and a comfortable space for those who love to read and write web novels.

That’s why you, the users, are so important to us. You’re the ones who are contributing to and making the community full of spirit. To that end, we want to increase opportunities for contributors’ works to be seen by more people. How can you help liven up the community? It’s simple. One way is to write comments on the novels you read, and another is to always hit “Like” on the works you enjoy.

These two simple things also link to what you’re all interested to know: how to get more views on your own novels.

Write Comments on the Novels You ReadWhen you comment on a chapter, a link to your latest novel is shown in the comment box. The more you comment on other people’s chapters, the more likely it is that other people will check out your novel. When you read a novel, make sure to let the author know your thoughts— even if it’s just a few words!

When you read a novel, make sure to let the author know your thoughts - even if it’s just a few words!

Always “Like” the Works You EnjoyWhen you click "Like", your icon will show up at the bottom of the chapter. Make sure to set your icon, and make the most of your profile page!" - Quoted from presumably 'Honey-chan' Themselve.


As an extra, extra comment; Hi all, please don't comment on this anymore, even if this is your first time hearing of it.

That's not for me, if anything I've been very grateful for the polite discourse most people have generatered - However if it's upsetting a mod Every-time Someone Comments/every-time I reply in kind, then please don't propigate it - If you still have a question or concern not answered above, you can easily reach me on Mal as some already have, or heck use the comments on a different one of my books I guess, either way with my full blessing to do so - Whatever avoids our conversation causing hurt.

Thank you for understanding, the mental health of mods is important - As someone with moderating experience both irl and in game boards, I can tell you Moderating is after all a thankless job👍👍.

And again as said alot before, I will continue to apologies to the mods - Those apologies are direct and sincere even if I meant no harm, if you were hurt then my intent matters not, hurt is hurt - You have my apologies.

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