fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3042 ]

[ SECRET POST #3042 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3042 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 071 secrets from Secret Submission Post #435.
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.

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During the latest Tumblr discussion about leaving reviews/feedback for fanfic writers, I came across someone who said they wouldn't bother leaving a review if the author didn't seem to reply to comments they'd already received. As someone who doesn't respond to reviews on AO3 (unless they ask a direct question) because I think it artificially inflates the comment count, it made me wonder if I was putting readers off. I always respond to questions and comments on my personal blog, but it feels spammy to me to do so on an archive site.

Thoughts, fic readers/writers? As writers, do you respond to every comment on A03, or reply to every review on FFnet? Readers, do you expect a reply from writers if you leave them a comment?

I try to respond to comments on LJ and Ao3, but don't always get to them. I've never really been concerned with comment inflation (it's LJ; people leave comments on stories for completely unrelated things, like trying to set up a meeting) and I like to show my thanks, especially if a commenter is particularly insightful. I like to try building conversations with my readers, to find out what they want more of.

--Rogan

As a reader: no, I don't expect a reply. I do enjoy getting them (and sometimes talking in detail about certain aspects of the fic), but I understand that not everyone wants (or even has time) to reply to everything.

I respond to every comment/review but I'm often very late. I usually do it right before/after the new update, and that means someone can go months without an answer.

Straightforward questions are more likely to get a quick answer.

I do not expect a quick answer or an answer at all from the writers' whose fics I leave comments/reviews on. Interacting with someone you admire is nice, but my primary purpose is to give the gratitude/attention they deserve for writing splendid fic. Sometimes I even put that in the comment/review, if it's an author I know responds to everyone and has to work hard to keep up with the comments (some authors I read get 40+ comments a chapter and still answer every comment...that's dedication).

I respond to every comment/review but I'm often very late. I usually do it right before/after the new update, and that means someone can go months without an answer

Haha, I'm the same way.

I respond there to seem attentive and also to underline the fact that I do care about receiving feedback. A lot of my comments are along the lines of,

"Thank you, I'm glad you liked it.

Oh, thank you for letting me know. It's fixed now. :)"

Cause a lot of people pretend to care about getting told about typos and so forth but either act dickish about it or let things like that sit there. I want to encourage readers to tell me if something is wrong.

Also, I just figured it was polite. They took the time to say something so I should probably take the time to show my appreciation for them doing it.

But hey, if it's not your thing then it's not your thing and that's fine too.

Oh man, I so appreciate my readers who catch my typos. They move with the speed of lightning, and my writing is improved by them.

--Rogan

Re: Replying to reviews

forgottenjester - 2015-05-03 22:54 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Replying to reviews

lb_lee - 2015-05-03 23:01 (UTC) - Expand

As a writer, I have to say no, I don't reply to every review I get, even though I don't get a lot in the first place. I make an effort to answer questions when I get them, but just general reviews about how they like it get a general thanks in the notes of the next chapter if it has one.

As a reader, I don't tend to leave reviews unless I know the author accepts con-crit and I have some to give. Otherwise I just leave kudos or favorite/bookmark it and be done.

On AO3, I almost always respond to comments, although admittedly with a variation on 'thank you, I'm glad you liked it' unless the review was in-depth or pointed out something specific that I can respond to. I always mentally halve any comment count I see because I presume most people do the same (I've realised this isn't always the case, but I still do it on autopilot). Even halving isn't always enough, I've ended up in full-blown conversations in the comments of several of my stories, so their comment-counts are all over the place. I actually sometimes have trouble ending conversations because I feel compelled to reply, and feel bad if I've left someone hanging.

I think it's fairly easy to tell if a story's comment count is being artificially inflated by comment conversations, though, just by comparing comment-count to kudo-count. If it has few kudos but lots of comments, I assume that it doesn't have many readers but at least one of those few is inclined to discuss things (this isn't always correct and tends to depend on the fandom, of course), whereas if the kudo-count is high as well, it's likely that mentally halving the comment count to allow for single replies will be accurate. Some of my stories in the bigger fandoms have respectable kudo and comment counts even despite my replies and multiple small conversations in the comments.

I don't tend to leave comments on other people's stories that much, preferring kudos because I'm pretty shy and I get uncomfortable starting conversations, but I usually expect people to respond, yes. Mostly because they usually have? I think almost all the comments I've left have been responded to by the author, even if, again, it's just with a variation on 'thanks for the review'. I mean, it's okay if the author doesn't, I'm not going to feel slighted, it's just been my experience that most people do, so I've come to expect it somewhat.

I try to reply to most reviews/comments I get, if I don't it's because I missed it or there's something about the comment that I don't want to respond to.

As a reader I don't expect a reply to my comment at all, if they do then that's nice of them but I don't think it's a necessity.

there's something about the comment that I don't want to respond to.

I have a lot of trouble with this. I always feel like I should respond, but I've gotten some very ... odd comments on occasion that make me struggle with that a lot. Some of them I can just ignore the weird bits if I don't want to get into, just respond to the rest of the comment instead, but others are pretty weird all the way through. For a couple of them, even a bland 'thanks, I'm glad you liked' wasn't safe, because it implied an agreement on my part with some very strange interpretations on theirs.

It's not even that they're flames or anything. Those are easy, I just go 'I'm sorry the story didn't work for you' and call it done. It's the ones that read very strange philosophies/meta into the stories, or presume that writing such a pairing means I automatically hold such-an-opinion, that I have the most trouble with.

As a writer, I respond to every AO3 comment I get (but the fact that I'm able to do so is probably a result of me being a part of a bunch of really tiny fandoms). However, as a reader, I do not expect the writer to reply at all. It IS very nice when they do reply, but mostly I comment on fic in order to make the writer feel cherished and appreciated!

For what it's worth, I don't think anyone on AO3 thinks that high comment count due to the author's responding to comments is "inflated". It's precisely for this reason that people look at the number of kudos rather than at the number of comments.

I try to, but sometimes it's hard to respond when it's just something like "that was great!"... even then, I'll say something like "thanks" most of the time.

I have a love/hate relationship with comments. I LOVE to get comments to my fics but I hate the pressure I feel to respond. I never know what to say, and it seems redundant to me to just say, "Thanks, glad you liked it," for every comment. That doesn't seem any better than not replying.

BUT, i determined last Yuletide that I just wasn't going to respond this time around to any comments. Then I read on Yule_Coal about how disappointed a few commenters were that the author didn't respond because they wanted to start a conversation, which I would've loved in my smaller fandoms. So, I'm again torn. I think it's good practice for me to keep commenting but I spend so much mental energy on each and every response I give that I'm not sure it's worth it.

For me, when I'm looking at comments, they tend to give me a big picture idea of the fic. So, a fic with 2 comments versus 200 comments says a lot (especially if they are the same length and not chaptered) but a fic that's 25 comments and another that's 26 (but really 13 because of replies) are about the same to me. Number of comments depends so much on the fandom/pairing/popular tropes that everything sort of has to be measured on its own scale anyway. At least that's how I view it.

You can give standard answers, like thank you and I'm glad you liked it/enjoyed the fic.

Re: Replying to reviews

(Anonymous) - 2015-05-03 23:37 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Replying to reviews

solticisekf - 2015-05-03 23:40 (UTC) - Expand

Why not reply only to the comments that offer something in terms of discussion? Say something when you have something to say. I think it'd be a pretty reasonable rule of thumb.

Once in a blue moon I open up my e-mails and am pleasantly surprised to get some feedback to my feedback on AO3.
I don't have too many comments on my fics, which are few, so I just reply what I think. Usualy Thank you and an emoticon.

I reply to every comment i get, but that's just me. It feels rude not to. And sure, sometimes my reply is only 'Thank you so much!', but that works for me. I don't care about comment counts or being 'spammy' in my own space.

I leave comments most of the time, unless the fic wasn't that great, or if there are a ton of comments and not a single reply. In the latter case, I just leave a kudo (or nothing if it's LJ/DW).

But you do what feels best. Even when i was getting tons and tons of comments on stuff on LJ, i never felt overwhelmed or anything, though i know some people do. So - to each their own.

As a writer, I do try to respond to all comments; the reply is usually matched to the comment. Someone tells me they liked the fic? I say thank you. Someone tells me that a fic moved them? I (quite honestly) say that hearing that means a great deal to me. Someone leaves a long, detailed comment? I usually try to respond in kind, elaborating on something they mentioned in their comment.

As a reader, I don't expect replies to comments I leave, because usually when I do read something (which is rare) my comments can get rather effusive.

I reply to every comment on AO3 that I get. That's just how I am. But I certainly don't expect to get responses to all the comments that I make.

when I was posting regularly, yes, I responded to every review on FF.net with a PM and commented to every LJ comment (not that I got many.) Did I expect the same from anyone else? Hell no.

I responded because the reviews made me happy and I wanted those who did take the time to click the button and write something to know that. I appreciated their effort. It's actually, also the way I made friends, including my best one.

I almost never reply to reviews unless they ask a question because I too worry about seeming spammy. Me and you think the same anon.

(Also I'm a very nervous person and don't know what to say usually because I worry about just saying "Thank you!" over and over again seeming trite or something?)

I don't think it's necessary to respond to comments unless you get a specific question or unique point of view. It gets very tiring and repetitive to always respond to comments with, "Thanks for the feedback!" so after a certain time I usually stop responding.

It's nice when people respond to comments but I don't find it necessary. And I don't think someone should leave a comment expecting anything of anyone.

I think it depends on the platform?

A long, long time ago when I first started posting on FanFiction net, I don't even think there was any kind of PM system or means to reply there, so unless someone listed their email or linked their LJ etc. it wasn't always possible to reply. In my circle at least, we'd email if we had anything specific to say.

Later on, posting on LJ and other journal sites was different, because that really was your space and it lent itself much easier to conversations. Replies felt more engaging and interactive.

And now I find AO3 is an amalgam of both, so I guess it depends on how you view it? Someone upthread mentioned that they considered the comments on AO3 as their 'space' (I don't, for the record; I think archive sites and personal pages -- LJs, Tumblrs etc. -- are different spaces in that regard) so if you view it as an extension of posting on LJ/DW or Tumblr, then you're going to see AO3 comments in the same way you'd see journal comments. If you see AO3 and sites like FanFiction net more like public archives, then you're not necessarily going to feel the same way, and the review is going to feel more distant and replying is going to feel more spammy.

(Add to that the experience of anon kinkmemes that specifically tell you NOT to reply or start conversations because it uses up comment space. How does one anon reply to another anon in that situation?)

I reply to everything on my DW or Tumblr, but only on AO3 if there's something to actually address that I feel could benefit from an immediate public reply, e.g. a question that, if I don't answer, will prompt a lot of similar questions. If I reply, then other readers can see that if they go to comment. I automatically thank readers within the actual A/N itself, so doing it over and over again in the comments seems redundant at best, and like I'm just paying impersonal lip service at worst.

If I see a writer answering only some comments I'm less likely to leave any comment than if I don't see them answering at all, but that's just me.

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