I always wondered how this was considered a valid reaction to criticism, as it assumes the critics have a psychic ability like precognition or something and comes across as short sighted.
Well, okay it can be valid sometimes but otherwise its basically a knee jerk reaction and comes across as dumb.
Edited by MightyKombat Hide / Show Replies
I only feel it is valid when it's people complaining about a series. Every time a new part of that series is released and every time they show unrestrained hatred, yet they keep reading or watching.
I feel Don't Like, Don't Read is valid when this happens. Because it gets REALLY annoying to the series' fans when someone appears to watch/read a series just so they can complain about it.
It probably depends on the nature of the suck—I've run across a few things which do suck, but Bile Fascination kicks in. If nothing else, it could at least aim for So Bad, It's Good or maybe just no longer so hypnotically bad. (And sometimes I've seen it used against what is perfectly valid concrit, unless possibly there somebody who actually enjoys such things as stories that are pure Walls Of Text.)
My thinking is: criticisms, however valid they are, that don't come with solutions of how to make something better are just nothing more than glorified bitchfests, and what author wants to waste his time reading through an endless sort of bitchfests of all varities when there's nothing being presented for a solution?
I think this trope has one main issue: People can talk about not liking tings without bashing them. Yes, I know there are bash sites, I belong to one for Twilight, but it's more due to a phrase that's on a stamp there: "I love hating Twilight more than you love lowing it". So, in a way, I'm part of almost a reverse-fandom. As long as we don;t troll their groups, why should the fans troll ours? For a less contentious example, I read a book recommended by my classmates a few years back. I didn't like it. I felt there was too much build-up without enough payoff, detail was paid to things that ended up not being important, etc. I told them those criticisms. Most of us had a decent discussion. A couple of them did, however, try to invoke this. I can't unread it, so I will have an opinion on it forever. Just because I'm not a fan doesn't make it less valid.
Slightly reformulated the Book Girl example (under Anime & Manga) to avoid syntactic ambiguity. Previously it read: […] a series of light novels about a girl who literally eats books and the boy she makes write them for her. […]