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

[kerrilee75.livejournal.com]

I'll also say that the wonderful comments you leave each other inspire me to share mine! I notice many of you say "more thoughts on LJ" when commenting on AO3. Just curious your reasons behind that....

[birdsofshore]

I love reading comments - they can be so thought-provoking, or inspiring, or funny, or just gleeful, when someone has really let their squee run wild, LOL.

I usually comment on LJ because I don't feel so comfortable over at AO3 - I think I described it once that LJ feels like a friend's house, or maybe a coffee shop where you are a regular and you know lots of people there. AO3 feels more neutral and impersonal - a nice place, but maybe like a public library. I don't feel comfortable leaving a rambly comment there, or a very excitable one, or anything like that. This feels like our little community, here on LJ.

I might then leave a comment on AO3 saying "thoughts on LJ" because some people on AO3 judge which fic to read by how many comments it has. You can search by comment count, or if you're looking at a collection of fics, eg erised, you can scan down and see how many comments each one has, and it can be a sign of which fics are more popular, and therefore (possibly) which ones are more enjoyable. So you're kind of giving the writer that little boost in the AO3 stats when you leave a short comment on AO3. I don't always do it - but I think that's why people do.

[awickedmemory.livejournal.com]

LJ feels like a friend's house, or maybe a coffee shop where you are a regular and you know lots of people there. AO3 feels more neutral and impersonal - a nice place, but maybe like a public library.

That's funny, because I feel kind of like the opposite! Or, well, not exactly - yes, I feel like the LiveJournal HP fandom knows each other more (your coffeeshop analogy is a great one), but to me it's still a blogging platform before it's a fandom one, and I've noticed that I get WAY more reader/writer interaction in terms of commenting back and forth on AO3 than I've ever seen on LJ, whether it's on one of my fics or whether it's someone else's fic I commented on... Which is also why I never, ever search on AO3 by comments, because the numbers can be very skewed based on conversations exactly like those I have, lol. I always do my searches by kudos count, since it allows anon votes, followed by bookmarks. :P

[birdsofshore]

That's really interesting - until this last month or so I didn't really get many comments on AO3 at all - sometimes on fest fics i would do OK, and once someone who I think is very big on tumblr recced a fic of mine, and I got a load of comments, but I never thought of it as a very chatty place - not for HP fics, anyway. I've been told it's different in other fandoms.

[awickedmemory.livejournal.com]

Huh, that's interesting! I think you've got some pretty good comment numbers? :D I've never gotten many comments on LJ even for fests, and never get replies when I comment back, whereas I've made various fandom friends through AO3 comment discussions on both my fics and other people's fics. Most fic writers I follow on AO3 are also on Tumblr as well, so there's a lot of interaction and username recognition that happens that way, whereas it feels like comparatively fewer LJ writers are on Tumblr (but then again - LJ has a messaging system - so we don't really need that secondary channel... XD)

[birdsofshore]

Oh, gosh, yes, I have been lucky with comment numbers. I read my comment back and it sounds really ungrateful and whiny! I think it has definitely picked up in the last year. I'm so happy people seem to like commenting more on there. I've definitely connected with people on AO3, but the conversation seems to end: "Are you on LJ?" "No. Are you on tumblr? No? Ah, well, thanks and bye."

[awickedmemory.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, I wasn't at all trying to hint that you seemed ungrateful or whiny! I was just trying to be encouraging, that for comment culture and AO3 and fandom in general, your numbers are not bad at all. =) And yeah, the Tumblr vs LJ thing can be a tough one, I imagine. It'd all just be easier if AO3 had a friggin' messaging system!