Wow, has it really been two months ...

[rodo]

First of all:



I could actually afford the membership because a few days ago my aunt sent me and my brother an obscene amount of money that she insisted our grandfather would have wanted us to have (he died six years ago), despite the fact that my mother and brother tried to argue that it really belongs to her and our cousins. Now I'm wondering which video game to spend money on ...

There's also comment meta going around, which ... urgh. Is the best way to keep me from commenting on anything.

1) My feelings about a story are almost never as simple as "I loved this!". And if they are, it generally takes me at least a few days to sort them out anyway. And then I forget to comment. Not to mention that I have huge social anxiety problems, so even a three word sentence takes a lot of spoons out of me. And it takes way more than three seconds. It takes minutes.

3) I feel a little disappointed when a comment isn't actually about the story, but on the other hand, it's someone who wants to talk to me about something. Which is awesome! Unless it's spam, but I guess we can all agree that spam is always bad.

4) Well, I suck at not criticising at least a bit in a comment. What am I supposed to do when I have to comment on something but am not allowed to say any of the things that I want to say? There are reasons why I hardly comment on fic at all, and this is one of them. Also: I love concrit.

Regarding the comments: Most people who read my fics do read them on archives with hit counts. I can count the number of journal comments that I received on my fics with my hands, and I've been posting for over five years. So my general experience with hit/comment statistics is this:

Good: > 2 comments/100 hits
Normal: 1 comment/100 hits to 1 comment/200 hits
Bad: < 1 comment/200 hits

I know a lot of LJ authors who just started using the AO3 are confused and/or hurt by this, but it's normal. There are bots, readers who don't finish, readers who prefer not to comment, and readers who open a story more than once. A hit does not equal a reader, and staying silent is not a bad thing! Authors who are new to archives or haven't used them in a while just aren't used to the culture. It's not unusual for people to lurk, they do it all the time, the only reason why you didn't notice it before has zero to do with the fact that archives discourage from commenting but with the fact that you don't notice the lurkers on journals!

Comments

[hl]

It's often impossible to 'read the room'. Even people who state they want concrit can react badly to it--there's no way you can just guess what they would welcome.

It makes it more difficult for those of us for whom the writing process is dialogic*, as this type of things helps to make fandom more hostile to real conversation, instead making it about the form. You can only say x, y and z, or then you're just making the author feel bad. And if you misjudge the type of thing that author wants to hear, then you're the rude one, who should've known.

The only safe thing to say is 'I love this story' or a small variation thereof. There's really no other thing you can comment on without taking the risk of pissing someone off. And really, sometimes, I'm up for the challenge--I made various good friends by commenting on their stories in a true way (i.e., not mechanically repeating what one is supposed to repeat), but sometimes, I just don't have what it takes to deal with it in case it goes wrong.

*I totally get that this is not so for other authors. However, stating you don't want x type of comments (or comments in general) can really go a long way, instead of expecting a random person to read your mind.

[rodo]

Even people who state they want concrit can react badly to it--there's no way you can just guess what they would welcome.

*cringes* Yes, I learned that the hard way, probably because I have trouble sounding enthusiastic and supportive in a comment. It works better in real life, for some reason.

I love concrit and I was fannishly socialised in an environment that praised good concrit, so the "don't say anything unless it's nice" attitude is really bewildering to me.

I made various good friends by commenting on their stories in a true way

Me too, even though we don't have much to do with each other anymore. But I never got into a conversation with anyone over stock phrases and a simple "I like this". Unfortunately, this takes spoons that I often just don't have. *sigh*

[elspethdixon]

It's often impossible to 'read the room'. Even people who state they want concrit can react badly to it--there's no way you can just guess what they would welcome.

*nods* I rarely offer concrit on stories, outside of a heads-up about a typo -- mostly it's because doing so is hard work, and even offering more detailed positive commentary (like, specifying what you liked instead of just saying "Great fic!") already takes a lot of thought, but also because not everyone wants to have their fic workshopped when they post it, for a variety of reasons (the fic's already done, and so they don't want to hear about things they could/should have done differently because they want to shift their focus to the next fic; they want fandom to be purely a light, fun hobby and aren't in it to improve their writing; they react badly to criticism; etc.). There's pressure not to ask that people refrain from offering concrit, and so if someone's said nothing about it one way or the other, criticim's just as likely to be unwelcome as not.

[hl]

In my main fandom (though I'm spending so little time in its sites that I wonder why I still call it my main one) the default state is 'no concrit allowed', and one has to explicitly state one wants it. I think in many ways it's worse.

When the people get used to not getting any kind of negative comments at all, neutral ones start seeming negative. There is case where the author was mad because someone had gone 'wow, awesome, I wonder if z'... 'z' wasn't what the author wanted the people to wonder about (it was true, but the author had the hope of deceiving the readers), and so zie almost flounced--a reader had to apologize for the rest to get them to post again. So speculating about the plot is also a touchy subject, even though it's something that used to be very usual, and something the fandom culture likes a lot. Your typo pointing would count as a grievous offence, as well (though it's my understanding that for some lj circles this is also true. No typo pointing at all or in private--depending on the people).

My main point is that... there's no 'one true way' to comment or receive comments. Expectations vary. I'll keep pushing for a set of them that makes it more likely there will be real conversation, because the alternative is just depressing, though.