Comments up at AO3?

[birdsofshore]

I hesitated about posting this, because it might be annoying to read if you're NOT getting comments, but I decided to go for it anyway. It's not often we hear good news about comments!

I feel like there might have been an upsurge in commenting at AO3. I was lucky and had comments for my erised fic over the last few weeks, and I'm still getting the odd one on that fic which is lovely, but in general, I'm getting one or two comments (on other fics) most days. This is NOT usually the case for me, and it's quite delightful.

Do you think there might be a swing back towards interacting with writers, rather than just leaving Kudos or navigating away? It would be super if there was. Kudos and hits are all very well, but comments - oh, nothing makes my heart go pitter-pat like a real juicy comment. ♥ Thank you so much to all of you who still leave them, whether here or on AO3.

EDITED TO ADD: this is in no way meant to make people feel uncomfortable or pressured about comments. I know some people get stressed about commenting / not commenting. DON'T WORRY! Read fic and be happy.

Comments

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

I know that I got a bit of an upsurge in ao3 comments in December, and not just on the fest fics that had been posted recently, but across the board. I think it might have something to do with Tumblr, because there's been a post that I've seen on my dash loads of times, explaining the kinds of things people could say in comments and urging them to leave even just a word or two on the fics that they read and enjoy (and I had one comment apologising that they hadn't commented before now and saying that Tumblr had reminded them to do so, which was sweet).

And I agree; kudos and hits are lovely, and I do like getting that daily email telling me how many kudos I've had, but a notification of a new comment always makes my smile just that little bit bigger!

[birdsofshore]

Ah, I did wonder if there was such a thing happening at tumblr, that was one of my theories. I will sit on my hands and not grumble on about the irony of tumblr encouraging people to interact with one another... ;)

I know from past discussions that some people do find it stressful to leave comments and I hope nothing I've said would make anyone feel awkward or obliged to do it. But that post with encouraging suggestions about comments sounds like a really good thing.

[capitu]

Where is this post? Do you have a link to it? I'd love to see it! :)

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

I've had a look, but I can't seem to find it (I know I reblogged it at some point, I know it, damn it!), but I think I remember it being a part of Fanfiction Writers Appreciation Day, which was back in August. So I can imagine that it might have taken some time to filter through to some people who have now started leaving comments. But it was basically a list of the sorts of things you could put in a comment: c+p your fave line, mention a moment that made you laugh/cry/thought was smutty awesomeness, how much you loved a certain character, how the story made you feel, or even just a "I liked this, thanks!" I think it's the kind of thing that could help some people who get worried about what to say, because the post bullet-pointed it all. Ugh, why can't I find it?

[capitu]

Ahh. Well, don't worry! :)

It just sounds a bit like something I wrote a couple of years ago (here) so I was curious. It's such a lovely thing, encouraging others to leave comments. <33

[dicta-contrion.livejournal.com]

I don't know which specific post lauren3210 is thinking of, but I have a whole bunch of them tagged here. And would love to see you post your commenting advice on tumblr!! I think it's the sort of thing people appreciate, because it can be hard to know what to say.

[capitu]

Oohhh. So many! And so lovely!!!!! I learn something every day. Like, up until recently I'd only leave kudos at AO3 and make my comment at LJ, but now I'm trying to remind myself to also leave a small comment at AO3. Even if it's to say I'm totally flailing longer at LJ. I learn that from reading comments on another post. :)

Also the thing about reading a chaptered fic and only leaving a big comment, something I definitely want to change and comment on EVERY chapter. :)

I'm such a comment squee person. It's ~embarrassing~ (SO NOT SORRY!). :)


About me posting my comment thingy... I just don't know! I mean, so far my blog is just a crosspost of my_drarry_recs, but lately I've had people asking me questions (OK, only two LOL) about recs, and I'm like... I could totally answer, but does it mess the format? I start (ridiculously) wonder if it's something people would like from a rec blog. Same with the comment thing - it's still related to fanfic/art appreciation, but would it turn people off? Would it change the purpose of my Tumblr?

I know these are silly questions that ultimately is for me to decide, but... yeah, I don't know what to do about that. If you have thoughts... I'd love to hear! :)

(sorry for going OT Birds!) <333

[birdsofshore]

It's not OT, and I wouldn't mind in the least if it was.

Have you seen lots of people think that comments are up due to erised? ♥ I KNEW it would be down to you once we worked it out ;)

[dicta-contrion.livejournal.com]

I'll admit, I'm still not great about every chapter. There's just so much fandom to do that if it's down to leaving comments on every chapter, or reccing, or answering fic requests, or writing fic...sigh. I need a time turner.

However: OMG PLEASE NEVER BE SORRY YOUR COMMENTS ARE AMAZING PRECIOUS TREASURES (as are you, but in the singular.)

I don't think either of those things would turn people off at all. I know people love and appreciate having places to request fics. I don't think commenting posts are a bad thing, and they're related to recs. And if you're tagging things people will be able to find what they want, so it won't get in the way of the usability of your tumblr. Like, I usually keep a queue running and reblog stuff all the time and then just have all of my recs under one tag (and a masterlist on lj that I link to from tumblr) so people can find them. Ultimately it's down to what you want the purpose of your tumblr to be, I think, and what your purpose is on tumblr. If you want more followers, posting more and answering requests would probably help. If you want to crosspost only, do that! I'm realizing more and more that tumblr is only fun and useful if it's doing what you want it to do and using it in ways that are gratifying for you, so my biggest piece of advice is to do whatever will make you happy there. And if you want to discuss more, I'm happy to!

(And thank you/sorry birds!)

[capitu]

I am trying to do it, but usually when I read long fic I download the epub and, you know, get going, so that's why I left a single (big) comment. But the next time I'm sitting down and reading it on line, I'm definitely doing it. :)

I hadn't thought about requests because I only got two, most I've gotten have been replied in privately, so it hasn't been an issue until I got these, and I thought, hey, I do have some recs for these requests. So I'm doing that now, too.

Or will, in a bit. Unless I screw it up. LOL Tumblr still confuses me. XD

*HUGS*

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

Hah, and now thanks to dicta_contrion's truly awe-inspiring ability to Tumblr, I've found the post I was looking for! (Also, Dicta's own post on this subject is very excellent too, and definitely worth a read!)

Thanks Dicta! (And seriously, how did you do that? I only know how to go back pages on my own tumblr one by one, it's like you just performed a magic trick!)

[dicta-contrion.livejournal.com]

That's such a good post!!

Re: magic!: Any time you tag something it basically creates an ongoing index, and then when you search your blog it gives you all the results for that tag (and any other posts with that term in searchable text) and those show up like pages of their own. So, like, when I started reccing I made a tag for it, "dcrecs" and if I search for dcrecs on my own blog I can see all my recs. Basically, it's yourtumblrname.com/tagged/tagofyourchoice. You can also use tags to search across all of tumblr, but if you're searching your blog alone, much smaller pool of posts. Hope that helps!

[capitu]

This post is so, so, so cool! Love everything about it. :D

[birdsofshore]

Lovely post!