[ SECRET POST #5947 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5947 ⌋

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


01.



__________________________________________________



02.



__________________________________________________



03.



__________________________________________________



04.



__________________________________________________



05.
[Shadow and Bone]



__________________________________________________



06.



__________________________________________________



07.



__________________________________________________



08.





























Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 30 secrets from Secret Submission Post #850.
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 miss the days of FFnet where people seemed more inclined to show their appreciation for fics they enjoyed reading, instead of getting defensive and entitled about how the author is a terrible person for thinking that maybe hits aren't quite as encouraging as when a person took the time to write a thoughtful comment. Authors seem expected to crank out content for free, without a single jot of appreciation or encouragement, or they can shove it, apparently.

[(Anonymous)]

That it's a gift economy goes both ways. Writers who go around hawking their complaints and calling anyone who doesn't appreciate them in precisely the way in which they desire to be appreciated an entitled asshole *can* shove it as far as I'm concerned.

[(Anonymous)]

This is what I'm talking about, though. Writers are expected to create lots of content, on a regular basis, for free. They're expected to do so without any encouragement, and it is not at all unheard for even mild expressions that wish for reviews can be met with fingerpointing and screeching about entitled authors. Writers who aren't filled to the brim with warm fuzzies by hits or kudos alone are bad, bad people who should shut up forever and never complain, just keep cranking out media for other peoples' entertainment like a good little robot.

[(Anonymous)]

The opposite is also true, though. Some writers complain about the readers who give kudos and say they don't count and are downright nasty to them.

[(Anonymous)]

"The opposite is true" doesn't really justify being this entitled and nasty to the writers, though. Like by all means, cut dead the writers who are rude. But IME, it's very hard for a writer to say ANYTHING about preferring reviews from people who read and enjoy their work instead of, say, dead silence. This is not an unreasonable preference, IMO, but it's often treated like one.

[(Anonymous)]

I really don't think this is true. What people have a problem with is writers like the secretmaker who are nasty to those who don't write lengthy reviews on every single chapter.

[(Anonymous)]

Eh? I never felt pressured to create tons of content for free, and I've been cranking stuff out for the past 25 years. Whenever I write something, it's for ME. I like to share it for feedback, true, but I've never felt like I owed any community my content.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, same. I write because I enjoy the act of writing itself and because I want to create something for the fandoms I enjoy. Other people liking it is just the icing on the cake, and I certainly don't feel like I owe anyone my writing.

[(Anonymous)]

Many authors don't want feedback these days, they want fellation.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think any of this is even remotely an accurate characterization of either the secret or any of the replies made to it.

[(Anonymous)]

This ^

[(Anonymous)]

Writing fic is a hobby, not a job. Nobody is actually /expecting/ anything of fic writers, just enjoying what's been shared. If the sharing of your hobby isn't fun for you, you don't have to do it.

[feotakahari]

Hard disagree. The idea of free content that ignores copyright laws is in tension with the idea of purchasing copyrighted content, so fandom can easily become a haven from the capitalist trends that produced and sold the original material. The more free content is treated like something you have to “purchase” through likes, comments, or reblogs, the more that haven disappears.

[(Anonymous)]

This idea is so whacked I have no idea what to say. Except that geez, people go through all sorts of mental gymnastics to explain why showing appreciation and leaving thoughtful comments is actually super bad for fandom. Uh huh.

[feotakahari]

This isn’t hypothetical. People on Tumblr actually do look at this shit as transactional, and it really does ruin Tumblr for fandom.

[(Anonymous)]

It's still a nutjob way to look at things. Just because it's ruined tumblr for fandom doesn't make it sensible. It just means that nutjobs with dumb, crazy perspectives have pissed in their own sandbox.

[(Anonymous)]

Guess you're a fandom young. I remember when authors held chapters hostage for comments. They HAD to receive a certain number or they wouldn't update. OP is doing the exact same thing. It's like the secret from a few days ago: if they don't get paid in engagement, then they're gonna take their ball and go home.

Bye.

[(Anonymous)]

taking their ball and going home =/= finishing the longfic, but not officially marking it as complete

At least, not to me.

[(Anonymous)]

Uh, how is OP doing "the exact same thing"? What are they holding hostage? They're not withholding chapters. They're finishing the fic, but not marking it as complete. The whole fic is there and available to those who want to read it. Is this a reading comprehension issue on your part, maybe?

[(Anonymous)]

oh shit, I remember that (not AYRT, just a random anon having flahsbacks to quizilla sites lol).
And the good old " Comments = LIFE. Feed the author!!!"

Like damn. That used to make me not want to comment.

[(Anonymous)]

or any positive comment really, besides 'update soon'.

[(Anonymous)]

Nah. Nobody is saying that, you and ayrt are just reaching with your own actual mental gymnastics to feel persecuted.

[(Anonymous)]

I suspect that how we physically view fanfiction also has a hand in the change of attitude; in a desktop/laptop vs smartphone way. Smartphones are designed for with features like endless scrolling so people are mostly passing the time flicking through without much need to interact - whereas typing/mouse usage on desktop and laptop isn't as easy to skim through like a touch screen, so it makes people take in more and can give them a chance to actually think of something to comment with a higher chance to write something rather than to scroll away without a second thought.

[(Anonymous)]

I think there's probably something to this.

For me personally, though, the biggest determining factor in whether I post a comment is whether there are a lot of comments already, and how popular the pairing and fandom are. If I'm reading in a mega fandom, and I'm reading a fic with 100 comments, I don't feel that I have anything to add. If I'm reading a rare pair, or a fic with only a handful of comments, I absolutely will say something and try and express my appreciation as much as I can.

And I do think that one of the things that has happened in fandom has been that megafandoms have gotten bigger and drawn more and more of the fandom energy.

[(Anonymous)]

NAYRT

The engagement a fic is already getting influences me too. I'll comment on more popular fics if there's something I really want to say, but if I have nothing of substance on my mind I'll just leave a kudos and be on my way. On rarepair fics with little engagement, I may sit there for twenty minutes thinking of things to say because I want to encourage the authors of fics I like. They might even write more just because there's that one person leaving thought-out comments on their work.