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

[pauraque]

I have noticed a rise in both kudos and comments over the past few months, but I'm not sure if that's attributable to an actual increase in the percentage of people responding in some way, or simply to the site itself getting more traffic as its popularity grows. If ten people looked at a fic and one left a comment, that's a 10% response rate; if 100 people looked at it and 10 left comments, well, I'd be very happy! But it's still 10%.

I'd love it if fandom culture were taking more of a turn towards interaction, but I think more research is needed to find out if there's really any sign of it.

[birdsofshore]

It seems more dramatic to me than an increase in traffic, which I'd expect to be slower and steadier, but there's no data to back up my gut feeling, none at all. I'm glad you've noticed a trend, too - whatever it is , it seems a good thing!