too invested is your own opinion

There are moments when I haven't got a bloody clue why I subscribe to some internet groups.

Okay, this one in particular (which shall remain unnamed) is one I'd been harped on for well over a year to read before I finally signed up. And every now and again there's a nugget amongst the multitude of posts made each day.

But more often than not, there's just a lot of crap.

One person doesn 't like one book or series. Fine, fine. But beware the onslaught of defenders who will overwhelm the thing with the same opinion of their own, stated again and again and again.

Geez, WTF can't we have different opinions?

I mean, first one I read today says, "Series writers take note!" at the end, like a warning - in this case, the writer inferring that if your protagonist isn't giddy at the end, you're a crappy writer. Or a bad storyteller. Just plain not worth reading more from.

Who the hell appointed this guy the fiction god and said he gets to state what should and shouldn't be published, where writers should and shouldn't go with their stories? And it's not just this one poster - it's the tone of the whole thing some days. Some of these people should have a programmed key for the phrase, "I disagree so you're a complete idiot."

Surely someone will track this down and criticize me for expressing my opinion. Fine, but at least I'm not subjecting hundreds of people to it. Nobody made you come here. This isn't a subscription service. I'm not so arrogant as to type up the response that I think some of the posts on that unnamed group merit today and foist it upon everyone via the group.

Guess this is a classic example of how everything has a good and a bad side. I'm just glad that all **** people who subscribe to the thing don't feel the need to bang everyone over the head with their petty opinions about one specific writer, happy endings versus sad endings and the use of directions within the story.

No wonder some genre writers are marginalized. By spouting off formula after formula requirement for absolute satisfaction, they're marginalizing themselves.

(And as a fan of Rankin, MacBride, Kernick, McDermid and Billingham and the great tv show The Wire, I'm quite fine with endings that are a little depressing. I don't read books about murder and 'sin' to make me feel warm and fuzzy. Kudos to Laura Lippman for making me cry with her latest - clearly, that book resonated with me to evoke such a response.)