the site has very strong policies against creator/work bashing these days, so we can possibly get the review reported for this offense.

Invalid criticism is invalid.

I did try and reason with them but to no real avail. The least I can say is they were polite and explained their reasoning, flawed as it was, which is better then what I’m used to dealing with on fan sites.

Yet another person deciding we're Teh Ebulz without doing any research or, y'know, actually talking to us. Yawn.

In fairness, sporking does mean squaring yourself with the fact that you may offend or discourage someone in some way. Personally, I'm content that we are doing the best we can not to hurt anyone, and if people somehow find out we've sporked their stuff, the ball is then in their court when it comes to choosing what to do about it. If people are gonna take a random stranger's criticism of their writing and characters as a personal attack regardless of it being explicitly not a personal attack (how can it be if we know nothing about them personally, eh?), there's nothing we can do about it.

And, I mean, I would also rather assume that people are not generally so emotionally fragile that a single negative experience can push them over the edge into declaring they Shall Never Write Again? Especially if they've decided to post their work out in public? I'm sorry, but I don't want to live in a world where no one ever says anything critical of a creative work ever, so I'm not going to bite my tongue on the off-chance that I might happen to upset someone who shouldn't have gone public in the first place. I learned a long time ago that everyone has to take personal responsibility for themselves; it's not my job to do it for them.

Citation needed on that stuff about egging on trolls, too. Where? When? Links or it didn't happen.

~Neshomeh

Simply put—either get a TVTropes account and respond, or just accept that not everyone likes us and move on. Sure, what they may have said is inaccurate. But I noticed that there were a couple of more knowledgable reviewers who left kind reviews.

And as for the comments on the jargon and Lorson being a Stu; I just thought they were funny, in a Hypocritical Humor sort of way. It’s silly to say that “if you need a wiki to explain jargon, you’re doing it wrong”. Especially on TVTropes. Lorson’s writer Iximaz, found us through TVTropes. (According to her wiki page.)

And the quote on Sue Hunters continues: “Some works in this genre, inc. the Trope Codifier [us], have recognized this. In spite of this, entertaining Sue Hunters, or ones that target hated fanfics, can gain fans who like the Fix Fic aspect of these stories. Badly-written ones, however, aren't any better than your typical God-Mode Sue Revenge Fic story and may even become targets of Mary Sue Hunter stories themselves.”

Basically, they’re saying that Sue Hunters can become Sues, not that they automatically are.

And while these guys may be totally misinformed, they still have a right to say what they want. Even/ with/ a/ bunch/ of/ weird/ backslashes/.

Besides, if we could force everyone to like us, we’d be the Sues.

Tl;dr: free speech means they have a right to be wrong. Either respond calmly, or just ignore them.

—Linstar

The big problem with this sort of character and this sort of fanfic is He Who Fights Monsters. The most well known kinds of Mary Sues are the ones who warp the reality of their 'verses to the author's own liking. As Mary Sue Hunters exist solely to kill perceived Mary Sues and thus change the world of that "verse" to the author's liking, they are by definition a type of Sue. Also, not all authors can reliably tell if an Original Character is a Mary Sue, but Hunters are almost always presumed to be able to tell — they don't generally say "My God, What Have I Done?" So statistically, they are slightly more likely to be a Mary Sue than an OC without an agenda.

(Source)

This probably explains why one thinks Lorson as a Mary Sue. According to the page for Mary Sue Hunters itself, all of our agents are Sue and Stus, more than likely.

Which doesn't make sense to me but okay.

In my opinion, I would just ignore their opinions on the topic. I don't think they're gonna change their opinions if their literal page on Mary Sue Hunters notes that, by killing Mary Sues, our agents are Sues. (This feels a lot like John hunting zombies and demons and them being told "John, you are the demons" and then becoming a zombie to me, tbh.) But, I can understand why you feel upset. I intially felt upset myself upon learning this. It made me have second thoughts and, to be completely honest, it was, for the longest time, why I hated my first mission. It was just as poorly written as the badfic, in my eyes, so I wasn't any better than the fics I was sporking. I hope I've gotten better (and I think I have?), but sometimes it does linger there.

TL;DR: Their page on Sue hunters effectively calls all hunters Sue and Stus, and I don't think their opinions are worth thinking too hard on, but I understand feeling hurt because I felt hurt when I read them, too.

-kA

Speaking as someone who literally has a postgraduate degree in This Exact Thing, the average Troper does not understand writing. They understand... fan wikis. They understand plot points and moments. They understand that lines and dialogues and themes exist, sure, but have not the slightest clue how any of it is supposed to actually work. They engage with media in the manner of someone ticking off a checklist. They only express interest in whether or not a certain trope or genre convention or whathaveyou is present, and never stop to wonder why.

I'm not sure why anyone cares what they think, but then, I'm biased like that. =]