You shouldn't feel guilty. If I don't want people to comment then I don't have to post this in forums where people can do so. Besides, you are absolutely right. If I ignore all stylistic and plot issues just in order to get my puzzle just right, I needn't be surprised if the fic suffers as a result. And as I mentioned before, I'm exceedingly happy that someone actually considers it worth their while to point out weaknesses, for while I'm unlikely to do a major re-edit on *this* fic, future fics (should there be any) will doubtless profit from it. I wrote my first fic without a beta (major mistake!). A kindly reviewer pointed out some faults and offered to beta me. You wouldn't believe how much the quality of my fics improved once she'd beta-ed two of them. (I don't dare post my first fic, the unbeta-ed one, here.)