[ SECRET POST #6080 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #6080 ⌋

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


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[The Owl House, episode "Through the Looking Glass Ruins"]



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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 19 secrets from Secret Submission Post #869.
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/16cMcq4.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

3 digits of comments, so 100+ comments? In what world is that a flop? Mate, I've been in fandom for twenty years and have never reached 25 comment on anything I've written.

[(Anonymous)]

THREE DIGITS??

Please tell me this is a troll secret intended to mock the entitled "comments are payment for the blood, sweat, and tears that an author literally bleeds out for you, the reader" bullshit that circulates on Tumblr every ten minutes.

(On the off-chance that you're actually serious... please realign your self-worth, nonnie. Because if 100+ comments on a single fic really isn't enough to make you feel "adequate", it won't be long before absolutely nothing does.)

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah it's discouraging. I look at the quality of feedback tho. Even if it's just one thoughtfull reader, I'll write for them. It's sad that I don't count myself as such a reader. Then I'd no longer need any feedback.

[(Anonymous)]

This is just proof positive that trying to quantify your fic's success by feedback numbers is ludicrous. Look, we all feel inadequate, but THREE EFFING DIGITS, what the actual fuck.

Anon, you will never find anything but the briefest touch of joy this way. The fulfilment you seek cannot be reached by numbers. THREE GODDAMM DIGITS, I need to lie down.

[(Anonymous)]

Is this a humblebrag or do you write 100+ chapter fics? (If not, please work a bit on your self esteem)

I'll be over here celebrating every time one of my fics reaches 100 kudos cause I write in pretty small fandoms (aka it doesn't happen that often). (Really, only one kudos makes me feel like it was worth it to publish the fic)

[feotakahari]

I have a fic with 30 hits on AO3. No comments, no kudos, no shit. But I’m still proud of it and glad to have written it.

[(Anonymous)]

Success is a complicated thing to measure. I've written fics that have a single kudos, but it was still a success because I wrote it and someone liked it even though it was a tiny non-fandom fic. My most commented on fic has 78 threads, and I know it's because it's a long-standing fandom and I picked the most popular, most cursed to WIP-hood trope there, not because of any skill I have as a writer.

If I write it and like it, it's a success. If someone else likes it too, and tells me so, that's a hell of a bonus.

[(Anonymous)]

There's nothing wrong with wanting attention on something you created, it's fairly normal. But on the other hand if the only thing you care about is feedback you will absolutely get to the point of never being happy, I've seen this so many times in fandoms with fic writers, artists, those who were so overfocused on how many numbers they got were never, ever happy. Even if the numbers were good for the fandom.

And honestly OP if you're being serious and less than 3-digit numbers for your comments on a fic isn't 'enough' you're already there. No number will ever make you happy and at this point: this is a you problem.

[(Anonymous)]

Th

three digits of comments is your benchmark for mere adequacy?!

OP you need to get some perspective. Go write some gen one-shots in older and/or obscure fandoms for a few weeks. Or failing that, at least go read some gen one-shots in older and obscure fandoms and notice that they don't all have hundreds of comments.

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, I don't even have three digits' worth of comments combined on my AO3 stuff, and that's counting my replies. But I guess I can see how that can be discouraging if you really put forth a lot of effort and believed in the fic? Sure?

[(Anonymous)]

It's just hard. That's it sadly. It's just hard.

[(Anonymous)]

If I get ONE kudo or comment on something, I'm happy that I've entertained someone besides myself.

It's funny. There's a poster on the social app bluesky who is TREMENDOUSLY popular and very funny, and I looked at her twitter and she has like 200 followers there after many years.

Sometimes it's just the audience and the right time to get in there, and that's all there is to it.

[philstar22]

A fic is only successful with a hundred or more comments? Wow. Very few fics in my fandom get that many comments. I'm just happy with one or two comments or kudos.

[(Anonymous)]

Honestly, shut the fuck up. Boo hoo, you didn't get 100 comments!!!

Some of us would kill to get even TEN comments for our rarepair/obscure fandom fics. We don't go whining and crying and threatening to take our stuff down.

[(Anonymous)]

As someone with a fic with 3 hits that I adore even if no one else does, and 8 fics with no kudos at all, the thought of being disappointed at anything less than 100 comments is insane to me.

Okay I write rarepairs in a small ish fandom but still, I write for myself and if someone else enjoys it then great! And for gift fics, as long as the recipient likes it I’m all good there too :D

[(Anonymous)]

100+ comments?

I'm happy to get ANY at this point. Hell, even getting kudos is a struggle because some people seem to think they're doing you a favour just reading the story.

[(Anonymous)]

Hadn't you heard? Authors have to be grateful for whatever they get and keep writing no matter how discouraged they might feel or they're literally Satan!

[(Anonymous)]

*yawn*
These secrets wouldn’t be half as boring if any of them came from a decent writer. But no decent writer is going around crying about comments and kudos.

[(Anonymous)]

Cry more.

[(Anonymous)]

LOL, I can see why this is a secret. I hope it's a troll secret, though, because otherwise...hon, I think you're a little too numbers-obsessed in that case.

None of my fics have broken the thirty-comment mark, and they're only that high because I respond to nice comments with a thank you. If I had an arbitrary number of comments as a "success" versus a "flop" I wouldn't be writing in fandom. By those measurements, most fics are "flops."

...You do know this is supposed to be fun, right?

[(Anonymous)]

In the MCU fandom on AO3, out of a little over half a million fanworks, something a bit over twenty-seven thousand have over a hundred comments. That puts it at about %5.

In the Harry Potter Fandom on AO3, out of a little over four hundred and fifty thousand fanworks, something a bit over twenty thousand have over a hundred comments. That puts it at a little under 4.5%.

I think if you expect that kind of response to all of your fics, you are probably going to be disappointed. And if you're really struggling with feelings of inadequacy because of this, maybe it would be best for you not to post your works. Feedback is nice, it is. But your expectations seem bound to discourage you.

[(Anonymous)]

https://gyazo.com/8c6e3f9472dbfa67dfc47f3c9fdabcfb

ok but get on my level

this was from a Transformers ficlet i wrote ten years ago and I've gotten to this point because I get about one kudos a day LOL

[amalthia]

I read and leave a lot of comments on fics. I'm always surprised when I find amazing stories without a lot of feedback and I think ultimately it's just bad timing when the story was posted, or the summary wasn't eye catching enough. The quality of the story doesn't translate to comments.

I also think it's a slippery slope relying on comments/kudos to feel adequate about your writing. I think the people who tend to be happiest are the ones writing for themselves first, followed by core friend group.

I also don't trust writers not to delete regardless of how many comments or kudos they have. One of my favorite writers in Star Wars took down all her works, some of which had over 1k comments because the trolls got to her and hounded her out of fandom. Though why she didn't turn off comments all together until they went away/lost interest is another mystery. But the point is she chose to listen to the few trolls in fandom over the thousands of fans that loved her works. She's not the only author that's listened to trolls over the people leaving positive feedback.

[(Anonymous)]

Ok...??? I write for tiny fandoms and rarepairs, so I'm lucky to get four or five comments at best on a lot of stuff. Doesn't bother me (the people who do like my stuff love it and that's very special to me!), just saying, you're talking about a relatively high level of comment engagement that many fics won't reach. Will you be really sad to get 95 comments but okay with 100? This seems really unfair to yourself, your fics, and your audience. I understand the frustration but it seems to me like you may be approaching this whole thing from the wrong angle.