Reviewing everything you read may only take a couple of minutes per fic, but those minutes add up -- the first two years in my current fandom, I tried to review every single fic I read, like actual thoughtful reviews where I listed exactly what I'd liked about the fic and not just "Great fic, I loved it"s, and read most of the fics posted to our comm, and I Burned. Myself. Out. As the months went by, I found myself reading less and less fic, going off to lurk in other fandoms when I wanted to relax and read for pleasure, because I was only a lurker there and didn't have to, you know, *do* anything while/after I read - there was no social component and no energy commitment required, just like reading a published book. (I've probably read hundreds of fics in fandoms I've never been active in without reviewing, because I read *quickly* and often and always feel weird commenting on old fic, or fic outside my fandom written by people who don't know me, and because I started reading fic back in the days when everyone had websites on geocities, and reviews required the dreaded and terrifying step of emailing the author).
My New Years Resolution was to start reading and reviewing in my fandom again, but thus far I have a grand record of three fics reviewed since January. I really need to just suck it up and stop being such a lurker. And reply to reviews no matter intimidating it is, or people will start thinking I'm ignoring them.
People stressing out over hit counts puzzles me a little, or at least, I'm puzzled by the degree to which some people are upset by it. You *always* get more hits than comments, particularly is a fic is long - not everyone reads a fic in a single sitting. Some people read it more than once. Even if every single reader left a comment, you'd probaby; still get at least three times as many hits as reviews. Ten times as many, for extra-long fics. There are some long-running WiPs that I go re-read from the beginning after every update, which means the author's probably gotten dozens of hits on the fic just from me alone.
I have huge social anxiety problems, so even a three word sentence takes a lot of spoons out of me
You're not the only one. I stress over replying to reviews, rather than over reviewing, but I have friends who do both. Sometimes, even posting an lj comment is more social interaction that someone's capable of at the moment. Hmm... actually, I don't stress over reviewing on lj or dw or ff.net/AO3/yuletide, but I'll pretty much never review if I have to email the author directly in order to do so. Post an lj or dw comment, yes. Leave a review on an archive, yes, but sending an email to someone I don't know just seems so intrusive that I can't bring myself to do it, even though I know intellectually that they'd *love* getting it.
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carisma_sensei
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Date: 2010-03-11 05:58 am (UTC)My New Years Resolution was to start reading and reviewing in my fandom again, but thus far I have a grand record of three fics reviewed since January. I really need to just suck it up and stop being such a lurker. And reply to reviews no matter intimidating it is, or people will start thinking I'm ignoring them.
People stressing out over hit counts puzzles me a little, or at least, I'm puzzled by the degree to which some people are upset by it. You *always* get more hits than comments, particularly is a fic is long - not everyone reads a fic in a single sitting. Some people read it more than once. Even if every single reader left a comment, you'd probaby; still get at least three times as many hits as reviews. Ten times as many, for extra-long fics. There are some long-running WiPs that I go re-read from the beginning after every update, which means the author's probably gotten dozens of hits on the fic just from me alone.
I have huge social anxiety problems, so even a three word sentence takes a lot of spoons out of me
You're not the only one. I stress over replying to reviews, rather than over reviewing, but I have friends who do both. Sometimes, even posting an lj comment is more social interaction that someone's capable of at the moment. Hmm... actually, I don't stress over reviewing on lj or dw or ff.net/AO3/yuletide, but I'll pretty much never review if I have to email the author directly in order to do so. Post an lj or dw comment, yes. Leave a review on an archive, yes, but sending an email to someone I don't know just seems so intrusive that I can't bring myself to do it, even though I know intellectually that they'd *love* getting it.