I'll escort myself over to the corner of shame. I totally do this. It probably doesn't help, but I don't think I've done it to you specifically, and if I have I didn't mean anything negative by it. Back in the LJ days I left many more comments on people's fics because I followed their journals. There'd often be lots of personal stuff mixed in with the writing, and I felt like I got at least some sense of the authors as people. It was comparatively easy to leave a nice comment for like, Laylah or Ciceqi, because I had an idea of what sort of feedback they'd appreciate, and what might come across as pointless, confusing, or even offensive. I can't really tumblr much because it doesn't mix well with my particular issues, so these days it's mostly just Ao3 archives with very little information about the author. I have no idea how to even begin to approach these strangers. It takes a couple hours of fairly intense mental effort to compose one comment. I know that's nothing compared to what must have gone into writing the fic itself. It's just sorta hard to muster when I'm unsure of what direction I should even be going. I can't shake the fear that saying the wrong thing is worse than saying nothing at all.
yeah and the way tumblr fandom is right now, there is sorta reason to be paranoid that a comment you left on ao3 could be used against you by someone, if they had the inclination.
I've been known to do this as well. Words are hard. Sometimes, they're very hard. It's for that reason that I am grateful that AO3 has an option that allows you, with one click, to let someone know that you were here, and you enjoyed what they created. Sometimes, that's all you got in you. There have been times that I'd really like to have been able to pull enough words together to let an author know that they kept me alive for another day, and thank them. But words are hardest on days like that. So you click the button, and find more of someone else's words to keep your mind dragging along, or distracted, or somewhere else, and wish you had something to give back, but you don't. But at least you're still alive, and maybe the story will update tomorrow, and there's a little heart you can click to let someone know you exist, and you like their words, and thanks.
I don't leave kudos mostly because I feel depressed or insulted by them personally and I know several others feel similarly. Occasionally I'll leave comments. If I don't have it in me to comment then I won't bother interacting with it otherwise because I'd rather not spread the feeling that I get over kudos. Like nothing sucks, but at least if it's nothing then I don't have to be reminded of it. Kudos are just an aggressive in my face reminder that no one comments on anything I write.
As a contrast, I prefer kudos to comments because I feel like I have to RESPOND to comments, and it makes me so intensely anxious that rn I can't post the three fics I wrote six months ago because I Have To reply to comments first. But kudos are no-stress and give me a smile whenever I see them n my email. (I know I don't "have" to respond, and I happily read and leave comments for authors who don't, without minding in the least, but that doesn't help the anxiety bugs.)
I would like to gripe that fanfics take way too much work, and it would be much more considerate if they would just spring from my head fully formed. In other news, I thought wrapping this thing up would be like, two hours tops, and instead it's taken half of my day and I'm still not done.
I don't think people in Hawaii would be terribly familiar with British gardening shows. Then again, considering American fans ascribe endless American cultural artefacts to the UK, maybe it's time we got our own back.
(In the interests of clarity, I would like to state that I absolutely understand why people leave kudos and don't comment and that comments take spoons, which is why it's a petty gripe. But it's still a gripe, because I'm writing for a very small special-interest fandom and I am desperate for interaction or discussion of any kind, and look, I made this thing, PLEASE TALK TO ME ABOUT IT I WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT. ;_;)
do you also get kind of sad when a comment doesn't say much about what in particular they liked because i do Like I am at my absolute giddiest when people at least say something like "It's evocative" and then explain what in particular about it is. Even if they can't articulate it terribly well or it's only in brief.
Yes. ;_; Though I will also accept things that let me talk about canon. And like, I'm not going to be mad or anything if it's just, "This is so good!" but something to respond to plz, I am lonely. ;_;
Man if I ever got a comment from a genuinely random stranger I think I'd have a heart attack out of sheer shock I get few enough kudos, and I nearly went into transports when I realised a couple of my fics had one, maybe two bookmarks from randos A comment from someone I don't already know would just be beyond anything I could hope for. xP
I mostly get people I already know, but a questionable upside of the small size of the fandom is that since I wrote like 20% of the fic on AO3, any random person going to look for Radiant Historia fic will find my stuff.
i really hope ao3 has someone to look carefully through reports, 'cause if frivolous reports like that got taken seriously, i would be really upset with the site. like, i would not want anyone to get in trouble for actually using the site the way the site is supposed to be used (and "!!!!!", in my opinion, does have meaning as a comment. vague meaning but it still conveys something [strong emotion] and thus counts as a genuine comment and not spam, provided that it wasn't put randomly on multiple stories by a bot or something).
anxiety about writing mediocre comments increases it's just so hard to do. no praise is better than praise that accidentally insults someone
Yeah but it's still not botspam. Someone shouldn't get in trouble because of a mismatch in what each person thinks is a good comment.
Still not spam/what the report spam function is for though, even if you don't like the comment. You can, as the author, simply remove it without reporting it erroneously.
"strong emotion" means a lot more than nothing at all. and just, please, people doing shit like you did is what makes people paranoid that they are gonna get in trouble for doing something completely innocuous and good intentioned. and like, comments are hard for some people. words are hard for some people. and a comment is still more effort than just clicking the kudos button. so, reporting a comment just 'cause it didn't live up to your standards for comments is just cruel.
