reviewing continued

I knew there was something else I wanted to say about the post about reviewing. In fact it was almost the most important thing. Someone in the comments said that an author can always tell if you mean it when you say you loved a fic. So if you are saying 'I really loved this fic but..' simply because you are desperate to tell them the thing you didn't like and are trying to sugar the pill then you aren't fooling anyone. ( I can think of at least one occasion recently when I have stopped myself doing just this, and I'm particularly glad now that I did (stop myself that is). )

Also it seemed to be a consensus that even if you really did love the fic and this is clear from what you've said and even if your one tiny 'but' is completely valid and politely put it still really hurts the author to read it. I imagine it is like if somebody even looks sideways at something my son does - even if I'm about to tell him off for it. Even though she was completely professional and entirely justified I'm sure, I was really angry with my son's teacher when she was less than gushing about him.