rodo's journal

Not that I'm saying you do this,

Actually, I hardly leave any feedback, for various reasons, and I very much dislike people telling me that it's solely the reader's fault if an author deletes his/her stories. In my experience, that might be the case with fanbrats and newbies, but they, I think, tend to just leave their work unfinished. Those who really were a part of fandom tend to leave things unfinished and not updated because they leave for other things they are more interested in.

I also don't expect more feedback than I give myself. I'm also not that great at updating my own website because I'm too lazy most of the time, but I don't just delete it. My motivation for keeping it is a different one altogether (I want to keep all my stuff in one place). And before deleting it you could still post an annoncement on the frontpage and leave it up there for a while to ask if anybody's still interested in the site. And then there's the new OTW project most people probably don't know about. The Open Doors project. You wouldn't have to maintain it anymore but it would still be out there.

Livejournal is a site where you can post a story and get instafeedback

If you're publishing in English, maybe. I don't think I received more than two comments on all my fic because I write in German. For me, the best way to get feedback are still the multi-fandom archives.

Most fans these days won't even be arsed to write an e-mail if they like a story.

Because it means handing your e-mail-address over to a stranger most of the time. And some people (like me) don't like that. Who knows, the author might expect you to write feedback regularily, or put you on the list for a personal newsletter you have no interest in because you were only interested in this one finished story. E-mail is a very private way of communication for many, and I understand why people are wary. Who knows what kind of weirdo you're writing a mail to?