[ SECRET POST #2893 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2893 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 012 secrets from Secret Submission Post #413.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I still get the odd notification from FF.net that someone has added alerts for fics that are nearly ten years old that were only ever one-shots in the first place, and they make me laugh every time.

[vongroovy]

I love getting these, they're so baffling. I get them occasionally, but over the past couple weeks have got a ton for this one story for some reason. Like, what happened? How did anyone even stumble across it when it was buried 10+ years deep in a fandom with hundreds of thousands of fics? And it's clearly a oneshot, so why why why would anyone start following it?

[(Anonymous)]

I've heard it's a bookmarking technique.

[vongroovy]

I was going to be all, 'But isn't that what favorites are for?' but then I thought about it for half a second and, oh, okay. Following just makes it like a private bookmark, doesn't it? That makes sense, and I will be slightly less baffled to get those alerts in future.

[(Anonymous)]

Lots of people use the search function on ff.net to find fics about keywords or genre/character filters they're interested in.

Also, ff.net stories show up in google searches for certain keywords or phrases.

And often, ff.net users will favorite a story and then their friends will search that user's favorites page and read the fics there. Favorites pages are like implicit rec pages ("if X person whose taste I agree with likes this fic, I might like it too").

And they could have been rec'd by someone.

Lots of fic readers don't just skim whatever just got posted or wade around blindly. They judiciously dig for fic they will actually enjoy.

[vongroovy]

And when someone comes across an old fic of mine, I assume any of the above. I don't think most people just wade around blindly looking for fic. I certainly don't! I assume the sudden popularity in this case is probably from a favorites page, but this fic in particular just happens to strike me as an odd one to catch anyone's attention in the first place - it doesn't even have genre or characters listed! it barely has a description! If I were looking for fic, it wouldn't stand out to me at all. So my 'how did they find this fic?' bafflement is just of the curious sort, not the 'I don't understand how searching works' sort.

[ibbity]

About 8-9 years ago I wrote a very embarrassing xxxHolic fic that involved a Christmas party and accidental kissing and random gratuitous Japanese words sprinkled throughout the fic and for some reason people are still occasionally adding it to their favorites and every time I get a notification it fills me with great shame (mainly because of the random gratuitous Japanese words) but I leave it up because apparently people like it for some ineffable reason.