Okay, so...

You probably know said user and all the discussion in the main thread about his reviews. Recently he asked for some help in a new thread and got a lot of helpful advices from seasoned users.

Yet, shortly after he wrote a post about himself in the Reviewers to avoid thread, basically mortifying himself because he acknowledged that he got several reviewing aspects wrong (which is perfectly natural since he's very young and he started only recently). Being not much older than him, I was a bit heartbroken about it and feared he'd take that constructive criticism in the wrong way and basically throw everything up out of sudden "depression". So I tried to reach out to him with a PM, but it never got sent, and now his profile has disappeared.

As I said, deleting everything about you (especially 60 reviews which still took a lot of time to write) probably was not the most appropriate reaction, but being a little oversensitive I can't help but feel a part of guilt about a young user leaving the site so early. It didn't have to end this way.

Thoughts about that? Additional details I may not be aware of by the mods?

No additional details. He terminated his own account.

He posted the following on his profile, so perhaps in a few months he'll be back, better than ever:

There was a pretty insane pile-on on that kid when his reviews, from what I read, were no different than your average new user just starting to write for the site. Probably didn't do him any favors for sticking around.

Definitely. I, for one, went to that thread to namedrop some actually worse reviewers.


Okay, I missed out on that and it gives some hope, at least if compared to his blunt statement in the forums. Thanks Derigin.

Why does this sound like the beginning of an epic quest to become a famous scribe by an old Roman poet? Happy travels bro, enjoy the music for a while.

Man he wasn't bad enough to cop the amount of attention he got, not like he was doing track by track or instrument by instrument reviews. Mostly just limited in vocabulary. Drama queen reaction to it all though, I mean he asked and the main point was "stick to it".

Yeah really, I even made sure to mention that in the Reviewers To Avoid thread, and even mentioned how bad I was. This sorta sucks.

I agree with it being a tad excessive but I kinda understand it.

I started reviewing here approximately at his age, and if several people were to call me out publicly like it happened (with more or less constructive comments), I would have probably been way less mature than I'm now. Not saying that I'd have deleted my profile, but I sure would have felt rather bummed out and would've spent a lot of time overthinking about my wrong choices. You know, that kind of epiphany where you question everything you did in your life

Luckily my first reviews were for (still now) virgin releases and nobody ever cared about those lol. Being in the shadows sometimes has its advantages

Dang. Didn’t think it would get that bad

Well it sucks to see a user like AC go away, I think we should take this as a lesson to not be so harsh to new reviewers. I mean, even I can acknowledge that some of the stuff I said was kinda a bit much.

I didn't really involve myself in this one because I hadn't really read much of his material, but after all the complaints started appearing on this forum I perused a couple of his most recent works, and the guy did have some potential. I usually stay out of these pile-ons unless it's because somebody did a terrible writeup of one of my favorite albums and if the opinion is of an openly contrarian or willfully ignorant character. I don't remember the hazing process here being as brutal back when I first started in 2005, but then again, I didn't really use the forum much the first couple years I was here. Hopefully he won't give up on writing completely.

Hmm, that's disputable. Remember we're talking about the times when the likes of Ultraboris, Speedemon86 or Christkiller were in charge, so the general atmosphere wasn't really... newcomers-friendly The important difference would have been that, compared to the standards of the day, AC's reviews would have actually looked above-average.

Nevertheless, it seems like I'm not the only one the end of the story leaves with a bitter taste. I won't go as far as saying we've been trolled, but some things in it just don't sound... right. Not talking about the reviews themselves, but the general attitude. So the man comes for feedback. Not in the dedicated thread, mind you, but he creates his own. Usually, a mod would have kindly redirected him to the Workshop, but, as he had already become some kind of celebrity here, he's allowed to go on, and by Derigin no less. So he got feedback. Constructive feedback. Lots of it. Then, just when you thought the initial misunderstanding was over, and that he finally would become a regular and respected reviewer here (as many said, it looked like he had potential), he doesn't even thank anyone, but deletes everything, including his account.

Yes, a strange story indeed.

I don't think he was an elaborate troll - maybe he thought his current account had too much dirt on it so he could just be starting over again on a blank slate. I wish him well if he endeavours to write on here again with a different name (and hopefully, style as well).

Honestly I think it's as simple as: he's a kid and didn't take criticism well. He started up this new hobby and obviously had a bunch of fun with it, only to discover that he was getting clowned on behind the scenes, and when he asked for advice on how to improve he got bombarded with tips from like a dozen different people. Now, he could've seen it as "a dozen experienced reviewers giving good faith advice, the biggest one being 'don't worry about it and just keep at it'", but it seems he took it more like "a dozen experienced reviewers all told me I sucked at once and therefore everybody hates me here". Some of the zoomers latched on to him really hard and couldn't seem to stop themselves from bringing him up fucking constantly but most people thought he had potential and would certainly get better over time. Seems like he didn't really get that last part but really internalized the first part. Shame, hopefully he comes back, but if he doesn't then oh well I guess.

A bunch of the newer reviewers just dogpiled on him for several posts straight in both the 'reviewers to avoid' and the Review Discussion threads. He came here and saw that and figured it wasn't a place he wanted to stay, most likely. Not that weird to me.

Honestly, when I first started I did notice a number of my review rejection notices were of a heavily snarky character, but I guess it just didn't phase me because of the thick skin I developed being mercilessly ridiculed in high school for listening to Dio and Manowar back when everyone was pushing Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins on each other. Naturally I didn't really use the forums much in the beginning, and only ever had any direct dealings with Speedemon86, who didn't seem to care for me due to my European power metal fixation, he probably approved a lot of my earlier material begrudgingly given I was giving high marks to bands like Freedom Call and Rhapsody during that period. Ultraboris was on his way out and I didn't write my first Overkill review until about a year after he'd left so I wasn't really on his radar, ditto Christkiller given that apart from a handful of Darkthrone and Mayhem reviews I didn't really dabble in any truly extreme metal reviewing until 2009.

This...

Anyways, at the end there weren't harmful intentions coming from the users, most of them were very kind and contemplative, and to be honest, the only user I felt that had intentions to roast the kid sucks in everything he does, so why trying to be malicious with him?? Is not the first time of trash talk from him .. Hope Anus come back with more maturity and criticism acceptance tho.

I wasn't particularly singling out any of these former mods, but rather used their names as the embodiment of the good ol' Web 1.0 spirit, where often the only option left to a newcomer was "grow a spine or die". Glad it changed, but it seems to be punctually resurfacing, alas.


I agree the mention in the "Reviewers to avoid" thread was just too much, and may indeed have been the straw that broke the camel's back. That whole thread in itself was never a good idea, to begin with.

I myself made a rather derogatory comment about AC's nasty habit of recycling whole paragraphs of his reviews. Not that it wasn't totally unwarranted, but I should have known better, I guess. Hadn't checked his profile until late, and didn't realize he was so young.

I should have thanked all of you for your feedback back when I still had my Anus_Canis profile. But anyways, thank you all for the feedback! I will be sure to take everything that was said to heart.

As with the deletion of my original profile, I agree it was a little superfluous, but because I felt so humiliated with the writing style I am still developing, and because I felt that my whole little world flipped itself upside down (the same feeling I felt when I first left Christianity), I felt that it was best to temporarily remove myself from the Metal Archives.

Fortunately, I preserved 57 out of the 60 reviews I wrote via screenshots, so I can still see my progress from when I first started out on this site. I will also be sure to not take any criticisms directed at me too personally when I continue to write reviews under my current username.

Welcome back! Here's to solid writing!

Also, one last tip: Save your reviews on Word somewhere...could always be useful for later.

Don't worry dude, as I said (and BH expressed way better lol) I was really understanding you. Around 18 I remember being a little oversensitive about this kind of things as well. It's probably natural and you'll be surprised by how much one can grow in the years that follow.

By the way, I read your new review when it came out and something in my mind kept telling that it was actually you lol. Improvements are definitely there. So, what else can I say? Glad to have you back and, if I'm allowed to speak on behalf of everyone for a moment, you're also more than welcome to the Official Review Discussion Thread just for a quick chat or comment sometime, if you feel like it.

See ya!