[ SECRET POST #5949 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5949 ⌋

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


01.



__________________________________________________



02.



__________________________________________________



03.



__________________________________________________



04.



__________________________________________________



05.



__________________________________________________



06.



__________________________________________________



07.



__________________________________________________



08.





























Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 14 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

[fscom]

01. https://i.imgur.com/A8d9wlM.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

I think you're massively overthinking this. Just comment or don't as you see fit and let other people do the same thing.

[(Anonymous)]

Everyone who has more detailed thoughts on the matter than "just comment or don't as you see fit and let other people do the same thing" is overthinking it, but that's a lot of people

[(Anonymous)]

Fic comments are cursed pirate treasure.

[(Anonymous)]

Wait, does that mean if you get enough fic comments, you can live forever?

[lumy12]

A few years ago, someone I considered a fandom friend left me long, thoughtful comments on every chapter of a fic while I was writing it -- until the very last one. She simply disappeared. She had vanished for long stretches before, so that wasn't really surprising, but... I couldn't help wondering if she hated the ending. Is she a dick for doing that? No -- she was under no obligation to comment! Hell, maybe she did hate the ending, and did me a favor by staying quiet instead of bashing it.

If you really don't want comments on your own fic I'm pretty sure there's a way you can turn them off, if you're posting on AO3.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I would kind of wonder if someone who didn't comment on a final chapter disliked the way it ended!

I usually only comment on the last chapter, or at least comment ALSO on the last chapter.

[(Anonymous)]

I don’t think any of this makes you a dick, OP!

Hmm.

[(Anonymous)]

If you're on AO3, you can disable comments on your fic. That might be a good thing for you if it gives you that much anxiety.

As to commenting on others' fic, I don't generally post WIPs so I don't have experience with this specific context, but as a fic writer, if I found out that someone was commenting without reading, without meaning their comments, I would find that disheartening.

[pantswarrior]

I dunno, this seems like one of those cases like... when I started working in retail, they told me "treat the customer like you would like to be treated!" and mentally I was like "so leave them alone and never acknowledge their presence unless they actively approach me?"

Not everyone likes the same treatment (I love commenters who comment on every chapter, and getting to know people like that!) but you seem to be trying to find a balance in what you (and many others, I'm sure) prefer, and what people like me prefer. I don't see that there's a problem with that. It sounds like everyone comes out of it with a some moderate-but-not-intrusive interaction, which sounds all right to me.

[(Anonymous)]

That doesn't seem like a great way to interact with people who are providing you with a fic that you apparently enjoy enough to try and encourage them to finish, but honestly, very fitting with how fandom works these days. Nobody thinks they owe anyone anything to the point where even a small courtesy gesture is too much obligation.

[(Anonymous)]

Nobody thinks they owe anyone anything

It's true, though. Fandom isn't owed my writing, but at the same time, I'm not owed comments by the people who read my fic.

[(Anonymous)]

So what should OP do?

Are we saying that readers have an obligation to read WIPs?

[(Anonymous)]

So what do you think op owes to the fic writers? And why do you think they owe that?

[(Anonymous)]

OP doesn't want to interact. OP doesn't want to engage. But it's become an expectation from writers that they're owed some percentage of engagement on their fic, so much so that some stop writing if they don't get certain percentages. I actually had someone the other day explain to me that stat as the MOST important part of writing for them (and someone else said that lurkers could go fuck themselves for ruining their stats). So OP is giving them this thing that other writers explicitly state that they're expecting (something OP doesn't care about in their own writing.) But apparently, even though the end result is the same, doing so for the "wrong" reasons makes them a dick.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[(Anonymous)]

Seriously, when some people hear "you're not obligated to" they use that as an excuse to be thoughtless in their endeavors.
"Well, I'm not obligated to and it wasn't even that good."

Yeah? That's fine.

But would it be that big of a bother to you to do a kind gesture that isn't absolutely about you and how it'll effect you and only you?

Not saying it has be grand gesture or that you do it for every/most fics, but seriously, how hard is it to go out of your way (in a small effort way too IMHO) to do something nice?

And TBQH, the varying opinions on comments and lack thereof and social "expectations" are what have slowly killed fandom fanfiction for me.

[(Anonymous)]

OP ist leaving comments in the fic, though? Does the fact that they don't leave a comment on the very last chapter negate the previous comments? The comments while the fic is a WIP ARE the courtesy gesture.

This comment doesn't fit with the secret, imo.

[(Anonymous)]

I generally just ignore comments

[(Anonymous)]

As a writer, I love when regular commenters comment on every chapter. And uh, I have never made friends from an AO3 comment thread, and I've been uploading fics there from the beginning. Perhaps I'm doing it wrong, but the comment conversations seem to end pretty quickly.

[(Anonymous)]

Saaame. Like, I'm friendly in my responses to my commenters but we're not actually friends?

[(Anonymous)]

This is an incredibly bizarre approach that sounds more like the result of several fake unwritten rules crashing together into a terrifying trainwreck.

... wouldn't say it makes you a dick per se, but it's weird.

[(Anonymous)]

That... doesn't make you a dick, OP?

Pro Tip: If you find it difficult to answer comments, put a note at the start of the fic saying something, "I like and appreciate feedback, but don't have time to answer them." It manages expectations for comment-happy people.

Or, just disable commenting - some people do that, too.

[(Anonymous)]

Ok, whatever your rules are, that's fine. But I don't get why you would take "comments are encouraging" as a rule and then not comment on the last chapter of a completed work. Don't you want that person to write more in that fandom? Or is your interest finished once a single long fic is written?

[(Anonymous)]

You're the owner to your fic. If you don't want comments or don't want to respond, you don't need to have those things, and that doesn't make you a bad person.
If you post on AO3, you can disable comments or even have them screened so that they don't appear on your fic until you see the comment in private and you can choose whether or not the comment will be posted in your fic's comment section.

And in terms of replying to comments, I don't think writers must reply to comments.
Think of it like a musician getting reviews of their album, or an author getting reviews for their books.
It's there, but not all musicians or authors care about or react to the reviews of their works.

[(Anonymous)]

You're not a dick for not replying to comments on your fic or for not commenting on a fic after you read it.

You are a dick for leaving fake-enthusiastic comments pretending you've read something you haven't. WTF, OP.

Even if the fandom is quiet enough that one person's comments make a huge difference, it is absolutely ok to leave a comment that says "I don't read WIPs anymore but I'm super looking forward to reading this when it's finished! So happy to see more chapters!" or whatever. I've seen plenty of those.