Come and wail about AO3 with me

[birdsofshore]

I noticed today that my Smoochfic, Hungry, has been read 5000 times on AO3. 5000 times! Who are all these people? It feels very strange to know that people are reading my fic, which is quite a personal and even, in a way, private thing to me, and I have no freaking clue who they are, or if they liked it, or anything.

I never even wanted to be on AO3! I am such a Luddite, I was going to stay on LJ forever and ever, where it is safe and warm and cosy and I know (kind of) everybody. I blame those wicked hd_smoochfest and hd_erised mods! *shakes fist and blows kisses simultaneously* But now I am on there, I want to understand it.

Some random questions:

Why do we put our fics on AO3 (if we do)? To get more reads / comments? I can't imagine anything else I post to AO3 would get this number of reads; I presume it's because it was in the Smoochfest, which is an adored, popular fest. But for all those thousands of reads, I got erm, I think 8 comments on AO3, and 5 of those were from people I know on LJ anyway, who probably would have read it if I'd just posted it to LJ only. I don't know. *shrugs* I suppose I don't really care how many thousand people have read it, if I don't know whether they liked it?

Bookmarks. What's that all about? If someone bookmarks your fic, does it mean they are halfway through and want to come back later? Or that they liked it a lot and are marking it as a favourite, to read again?

Finally, how do you stop feeling paranoid that only a few people commented because they all hated it? Hungry had Angry!Ron and Mean!Gryffindors in, and I get the feeling that was not so popular with everyone. Maybe 5000 people CLICKED on it, and 4952 of them then BACKBUTTONED because they loathed it?

You see, AO3 is really not good for me. It looks all shiny and tempting, with its stats and all those readers waiting with open hands, but it's perplexing and makes my brain hurt.

Anyway, those 5000 clicks can be two fingers up to Mr Birds who thinks there are only about 20 of us deviant Drarry-lovers in the whole wide world. He thinks the handful of people I talk to on LJ are the only ones who could possibly be weird enough to be into it, and that we have all found one another and are clinging together like this purely by luck :DDD.

The other thing that cheers me up is thinking that maybe Draco was one of the 5000 clickers. If so, I like to think that this would be his reaction:



by Microbluefish on Deviantart

Comments

[torino10154]

I can't speak to the fest influence but IMO though I get measurable hits on AO3, I do get very few comments, always more on the journals than there, whether it's just something I post to my own journal or for a fest.

Basically AO3 is an archive of fic and a lot of people do not comment there. yes, a lot do, but it's far less interactive than the journals. So a lack of comments, to me, means nothing. I get 1-3 on the average short one-shot. Now you should probably have a good number of Kudos, possibly more than you would normally have comments anywhere.

I also really can't speak to the bookmarks with any authority. I assumed it was to be able to find it again--whether that means to finish or to re-read, I don't know. One thing about AO3 is that searching is a bit iffy or has been in the past anyway so probably that's the best way to not ~lose a fic into the ether.

Not sure if that helps at all. Possibly other people can be more helpful. :)

[birdsofshore]

It is helpful! Everyone's thoughts and info about the way they use AO3 is very helpful, thank you.

I feel a bit princessy for even looking at comment numbers with a dubious eye. It's a different culture over there and before I started writing, I hardly ever left comments anywhere, so I do understand. It just makes you slightly paranoid when you can SEE people have clicked on it, but not responded at all.

[drarryisgreen]

To me, bookmarks are like 'memories' or LJ or 'favourite' on FF.NET.

It's a rec for myself so i can go back and read it again, if I want to.

and I don't think i've read your fic, I wasn't the 5000 yet. I'll be 5001

♥

[birdsofshore]

Oh, that's helpful! It's nice to know that people might be bookmarking so they can read it again.

I hope you enjoy it if you do decide to try it :D

[blue-eyed-1987.livejournal.com]

I love fics on ao3 because they can be downloaded in a nice format (for offline reading on pc or e-reader). I personally bookmark fics that I will want to read again (and use the history/mark for later functions for those I need to finish).

Bookmarks can also be used as recs/people can leave nice comments on the bookmarks :)

It is weird to think that you can see all the people who read your fic and know nothing about them, but I guess that's the nature of the archive, you know? And kudos is a decent enough way to see how many people enjoyed it.

[birdsofshore]

Yes, I find AO3 nice and clear for reading on my phone. I do like the site, really, it's got a lovely clean layout, but I am not sure about uploading fics, yet. I haven't got the hang of that, and as for the paranoia it induces, LOL!

Now don't start about Kudos. Does that mean anyone who DIDN'T leave Kudos, didn't enjoy it? Because not a lot of those 5000 people left it. You see where my mixed-up brain is taking me, sigh.

[fantasyfiend09.livejournal.com]

First, that comic = HA HA HA HA HA. Oh my goodness. There is a huge smile on my face now.

Part of the AO3 love is that it's pretty, it's clean, and no one will randomly delete your stories (cough, FF.net, cough). If I am exploring a new author, I will chose their AO3 over their LJ. I can sort by pairing, see word count, and otherwise filter for the type of story I'd like to read. It's also easy to download for people who want to read in a pdf form or like to keep copies of their favourite stories.

Bookmarks - I don't use these well, so I am no help to you. I think I have a random few stories bookmarked.

The 5,000 - Don't forget the lurkers! For everyone who finishes a story and writes a comment there are probably dozens who don't. It does't mean they didn't like it. Maybe they don't realize it matters to the writer. Maybe they don't realize they can do it anonymously and don't want to have an account. Maybe they feel self-conscious about their ability to write a comment. Most of us grew up reading books and putting them away when done. I never wrote my favourite authors to tell them I liked their book. It didn't even occur to me. Some people read fanfiction the way they read books. Those lurkers are on LJ, too. It's just that now you know they're there.

[birdsofshore]

Oh, so happy you liked the comic! His expressions are just priceless. I particularly like going back to look at the earlier, bored ones, this time anticipating what is coming :DD

I know, I know! I have been dreadfully guilty of not commenting in the past, and with old fics, I still don't always, even now. I know it's not rational to fret about lack of comments. I also know logically that there are lurkers on LJ. It's just the visible nature of the AO3 lurkers that gives me the wigginses.

[nerakrose]

I'm on ao3 but not because of reader counts. It's because it's easy to upload fic there and organise it and it's easily accessible. What I use it for:

1) mark fics for later. I find something I want to read and mark it as later so I won't forget. Later, I can go through my history and click the "marked for later" button and the stuff I want to read is saved there. When I've read it, I can mark it as read and it vanishes off the reading list. Depending on how much I liked it, I'll do one or more of the following:

a) comment (I always do this - or try to do it at any rate) b) kudos if I liked it and c) bookmark as rec if I liked it enough to want to rec it. There's also d) write a note on the bookmark, either for own reference or to tell others why I liked it.

About bookmarks: fics bookmarked as recs will show up in the recs list thing on ao3. It updates constantly and can be a nice way to find reading material. If you only make a bookmark, I don't think it shows up but will be only saved to your own bookmarks. That's why I prefer to bookmark as rec. I want to give the fic that extra exposure. Advertisement, if you like.

2) archive for recs. if I like a fic enough to bookmark it as a rec, it'll appear in my bookmarks which is easily browsable via tags and I can always find the fic I'm looking for when I want to re-read it.

3) this is probably the most important for me, but the option of downloading fics as epubs is the best ever seriously. I never read fics on ao3 itself as I prefer to read on my iPad and not in front of the computer. I download the epubs onto my iPad and read them there. At the end of the ePub there's a link straight back to the comment page for the fic. So I can download a fic, read it whenever I want and then I can conveniently go leave a comment, mark the fic as read, kudos and bookmark. And then I'm done with it. I keep the ePub on the pad unless I didn't like the fic, in which case I'll delete the file.

As a matter of fact, I've got the hungry ePub on my iPad just waiting for me to read it. :)

I like the kudos option because some people have issues with commenting and/or social interaction, simply don't know what to say or think "I liked it!" is a stupid comment. They can leave a kudos as a sign that they liked it. It's an easy way out maybe, but I don't think the kudos function has a negative influence on the amount of comments.
The stats page can be fun to look at but I'm not really fussed. I used to care a lot about my stats (I used to post hit counters on LJ with my fics) but by now I just don't care anymore.

I don't know if this comment shed any light on ao3 for you?

[hollys_tree]

What Karen said. :)

+10000 on the epub and downloading options. Best thing ever to be invented. :)

Also yeah, I like the kudos because fandoms in which I have no presence (Merlin and Teen Wolf) make me shy and I don't want to comment. I'm just shy and lazy! It doesn't take any quality from the fic.

[eidheann_writes]

As mentioned, ao3 is clean, well formatted without weird fonts or wonky spacing, and allows for downloading fics to read later.

[birdsofshore]

Yes it is clean, isn't it? But I don't like uploading fics to it, so far. It seems very time consuming and full of pitfalls. But I struggle with anything new, especially technology-related *sigh*

[hollys_tree]

If it makes you paranoid, you can hide click counts. ;)

That being said: I browse a lot, like A LOT (!!!) of fic but I only read about 1% of it. I browse through fics in fandoms I'm not even in... so I produce a lot of clicks and never even read the stuff. Also if I read a fic, I come back to it several times: maybe it takes me several days to read it, then I go back to it to bookmark on pinboard or on my LJ. Like... i can easily click an AO3 fic fifteen times, before I leave a comment or a kudos. AO3 fic always gets a lot of traffic, but it doesn't equal the same amount of readers. My most popular fic on AO3 has over thousand clicks. I don't think this many people interested in HP Nextgen even exist. ;)

And yes, don't forget the lurkers.


ALSO: THIS COMIC IS BRILLIANT WHY HAVE I NOT SEEN IT BEFORE?! His face in the last panel! *loves* ♥ ♥ ♥ Poor Draco.

[birdsofshore]

Hooooold on... so the clicks are not individual users? It could have just been 500 people looking at it 10 times? Don't tell Mr Birds!

Man, I think there are that many Next Gen fans. I really do!

I couldn't hide the clicks. Since it is there, I have to know, just HAVE TO :D

I adore this comic. So funny. The panel with Ron and Hermione in makes me want to die laughing, too. Poor Draco indeed :D

[gamma-x-orionis.livejournal.com]

Dying over Draco's face in the last panel!

I'm used to the stats feature, since ff.net has basically the same thing - there are obviously a Hell of a lot more than 20 Drarry lovers, and those 5000 people were probably just mostly too shy to comment.

I like Ao3 as a sort of back-up archive, where it's easy to organize fics and search for them (let's face it, searching for fics on LJ is a practically impossible task). Because of the things I write, I get one comment per, like... 10 fics (you non-shipsters are spoiled ;) (I kid, of course)), so I'm definitely not in it for the feedback. To me, maintaining my Ao3 is almost like maintaining an interactive, searchable masterlist.

[birdsofshore]

Mr Birds says that he believes there *could* be 5000 HP fans who read fanfic, but that most of them clicked on my fic by mistake. Like, they wanted to read het or something, but they accidentally clicked an NC-17 Harry/Draco slash fic instead O.o

He just can't believe there would be 5000 freaks like me in the world :D

Draco's expressions in that comic are. Just. Perfect.

[capitu]

As a reader, I like having another option to where to read, I love AO3 specially to read on the go. The format and layout are really cool on mobile devices. When I'm looking for a fic to read on my phone or ipad, going to AO3 is my second choice (to lj).

I bookmark a story i want to read, and as a way to remind myself I want to read more of that author starting with that story. But I admit that even once I read a fic I don't de-mark it. I probably should, since I read it and left a comment. ^^ But so far I keep them. I'd just feel so weird de-marking, you know? Like, I wonder what the author is going to think when they saw a bookmark less and think I didn't care for it when it's the opposite, it means I already read it and loved it. So yeah, I don't delete bookmarks precisely for not adding paranoia to a poor and tormented author. ^^

As for those 5,000 clicks, you have to account the lurkers, also that each click can be the same person who for whatever reason when to a different page and then came back. Every time you return or refresh it's counted (unless I'm mistaken???). Also, sometimes I read at AO3 and then come back to comment at lj, that's another click.

I reckon I'd be paranoid, too, though. Who are all these people, where do they come from? lol

[birdsofshore]

I didn't know it was not per individual user! So it might be far less than 5000 individual readers? Damnit! Mr Birds will be delighted. He will come up with a theory that it's just one insane obsessed person clicking again and again and again.

You are so sweet to not unbookmark people. That's really thoughtful and funny!

ANYTHING can make me paranoid. omi_ohmy will testify that I have been obsessing over AO3 stats since Smoochfest posted. I knew it would be a nightmare for someone like me, and lo, I am still finding new ways to have it fill up my brain with nonsense.

[omi-ohmy.livejournal.com]

AO3 is an archive and I have never really had many comments on fics there. I think of it as a nice place to store my fics, and only really focus on interacting with readers on LJ (because it is just so lovely here *rolls around in the fluff*). Plenty of my fics there have no comments at all (and only a handful of kudos). I have no idea how many hits there are. And that's fine.

If you archive all the fics you've written there, you will probably see the same. No more looking at numbers. *stern look*

[birdsofshore]

Oh, you caught me! But, NUMBERS. It must MEAN SOMETHING. I can ANALYSE THEM, and COUNT THINGS.

God it's a nightmare. It's like having a needy child sitting in my head, wittering on about Kudos and Bookmarks and Hits and Comments. AAAAAUGHHHH.

[amorette.livejournal.com]

I have sooo many unpopular thoughts on AO3. But first:

Omg Draco loves it so much! He is pretending to be appalled, but he's secretly totally interested XD And that is one nice Draco drawing - I love it!! I love his face, his hair, omg he's so attractive! <3

So, Ao3. At first, I think the people who posted to AO3 did so as a place to archive their works and not necessarily for the purpose of getting more comments than on LJ. I remember when people would re-beta their fics before posting there, just so everything on AO3 was complete and shiny and as close to perfect as possible.

Now, AO3 seems to me like a big mess. I love love love the concept behind a fan-run archive, and I appreciate that aspect of it so much. But from my experience and from things I hear, it has unfortunately become a big old mess. I hear more people getting shitty, rude comments on AO3 than in any other place. Also, the tagging system is messy. And navigating through there to find fics is not fun because I feel like they aren't organized well... maybe because the tags are fan-made. And yeah, I know the AO3 "mods" can't make every tag for every fandom themselves, so it's just an unfortunate circumstance about the site. And people list way too many tags, and characters, and they s=post all these short, unbeta'd things on there. That's just the impression I get. I am not a big fan of the Kudos because I'm like, can I just get a comment? The kudos just feel impersonal to me.

I know a lot of people disagree with these sentiments, and I'm okay with that, and I don't mean to insult anyone who really loves AO3. I do prefer reading on there simply because their screen fits my phone the best... but that's about the only reason.

[birdsofshore]

YOU ARE SO RIGHT, Draco loves it. Look at him blushing and he can't take his eyes off the screen. This comic is so great, I love his face and hair too! And his cute robes and polo neck :D

I find AO3 really good for reading on the phone, the best site, definitely, with all the browsers. Some other sites I can only use Opera to browse, and I don't really like the navigation on there.

I never search for fics on there, and I have not had any rudeness at all, so I can't comment on your other points. I am quite amused by the tagging system, though. I like it when you go to tag your fic and you type in a couple of letters and get suggestions. I have seen some really funny tags that way.

Have you seen who_la_hoop's amazing tag poem? You have to read it:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/591845

[evilgiraff.livejournal.com]

I love AO3. As a reader, it's so much easier to navigate - all of an author's stories are listed, and multi-chapter stories are easy peasy to read. You don't have to contend with other people's unfortunate choice of backgrounds or lack of next-chapter-link-providing or lack of masterlists as you do on LJ. I use bookmarks to keep track of particularly enjoyable fics - and other people's bookmarks can serve as rec lists. LJ is good for the community feel and commenting, but otherwise I honestly can't stand it. If my ipad didn't have the "reader" function for most LJ fics, I'd read a good deal fewer of them.

As a writer... My fics get more traffic and more comments on AO3 than LJ - and I love the kudos buttons. I put them up for people to read, after all! It is interesting how fandoms seem to prefer different platforms, though. My Twilight fics see more action on fanfiction.net, and everything else does better on AO3. Maybe I'm just crap at finding friends-who-will-comment on LJ?

In short: LJ is great for comms, meta, and general babbling. Fic is much, much easier to read and find on AO3. Fanfiction.net is similar to AO3, but is more glitchy and restrictive about what you can post.

[birdsofshore]

Interesting! It sounds like it depends which fandoms you write for. I agree with you about LJ for comms and babbling. I love the interaction. When I'm too tired for interaction, I go to tumblr. I can't imagine how much time I would need to have on my hands to actually browse AO3 looking for fic... it hasn't happened yet. I've always got a long list of fics from recs or fests that I am behind on, so random browsing never happens here.

[0idontknow0]

That is a lovely reaction for Draco to have, haha. It so fits.

And I know nothing about AO3 so I'm not even going to say anything about it.

[birdsofshore]

That's fine, we all said enough about it already :D

Isn't that comic wonderful? I love her style.

[calrissian18.livejournal.com]

I LOVE AO3 SOOOOOO MUCH!!! But not for the Harry Potter fandom at all. Nothing really happens there in that land and I thought it was just me but, checking in with others, no - nothing really happens there in that land.

AO3 for a stupidly active fandom like Teen Wolf is the greatest thing that will ever happen. People there are like, have a Kudos, have a comment, I have soooo many of them, why not toss a few your way? I understand it's pretty great for Star Trek too but I can't speak to that personally.

I got an invite to AO3 in June 2012 so I could have a nice, grown-up looking site to post a bang fic and not have to split it into parts (the way I would've had to on LJ). *crickets* Then I didn't use it. At all. Because HP fics do *blows raspberry* nothing. They go there to die be archived. The only fic that's done any damage there is my smoochfest fic and that's because it was in a massively well-read fest, otherwise nothin'. Then I started posting Teen Wolf fics there in Feb 2013 and now I use it ALL THE TIME.

I even read fic pretty exclusively on AO3 now because I love the formatting and all the options. As for having your fic read there: in only that fandom, there seems to be the same give and take as on LJ, people engage. HP, yeah, there's no point in posting your fic there. It doesn't really matter to me if my HP fics are there aside from the purpose of having a masterlist (which I still don't have *headdesk*).

The Bookmarks option is the same as Favoriting. There's a specific 'Mark for Later' button for fics that you would like to read/are in the middle of reading and mean to come back to. It's also brilliant for WiPs because you can subscribe to them and get updates emailed to you every time the author adds to it. You can subscribe to authors too and download fics and it just has very neat options for things but without the horrible formatting or obnoxious teenagers of ff.net.

I've found - and this might just be me - but AO3 also seems very hooked in with tumblr. Or maybe it's that Teen Wolf fandom on AO3 is very hooked-in to tumblr (as that's my only real experience there) but that's great for someone who's trying to figure out tumblr, like myself!

[birdsofshore]

Ah, that's what evilgiraff said up there! She writes for Star Trek. I hadn't realised it was fandom dependent. All I know is that it seemed like an awful lot of reads for fuck all comments. But *shrugs* even a few nice comments can make it seem worthwhile.

[celestlyn.livejournal.com]

I love AO3 because it is owned and run by fans, not some obscure company that doesn't care about fan issues. There are few if any restrictions on what you can archive. It's a far better place to archive than ffdotnet. As for the massive number of reads...people are downloading and putting fic on their devices! AO3 makes that very easy! I sadly, I have heard it has now become saturated with the teen crowd that has migrated over from ffdotnet. I know comments are lovely, but at least it's getting many reads. Plus, if someone rec'd it on tumblr that will add hugely to the readership. Relax and enjoy.

[birdsofshore]

That's a really nice point - it is great to support a website run by fans. I appreciate you reminding me of that.

I think I found where the sudden burst of reads came from this week - it was recced on a Drarry facebook page. The latest readers commented a lot more than the average reader, too, so that was interesting.

[kedavranox.livejournal.com]

I'm going to read the comments on this after, but I have to say, my heart breaks a little every time a fest says they're going to post on Ao3 because it means I have to either kill myself to read it on their horrible layout or, copy and pate into a doc, change it to a readable font and then read.. THEN remember to go back and comment on LJ (not a03 cause no one ever comments there) ..at least on my fics o_O

Apparently there are skins on A03 or whatever, but honestly, it's too much of a hassle for me to find a readable skin with a readable font that doesn't upset me, and then that still doesn't help the ridiculous spacing. Chances are, if a fest is run on a03 (alone), I'm going to read maybe 80% less of the fics I'd usually read.

As an author, ao3 is irritating because it messes up the look of your fic. At least on LJ, you can code it so that everyone sees it the same way. On a03, with all the different skins people are using, you have no idea if they're seeing it the same way etc etc. But they're still in beta, and it's easy to post, so I'm not hating on them. (before someone gets on me for hating on a03) I just don't like the look. I also dislike the rating system. Makes no sense to me.

--thus ends my a03 rant.

As for bookamrks, I use it for fics I absolutely love...and I've used it once or twice to mark fics I want to read later. Also I've pressed by accident a few times, too. SO I think the bookmark thing isn't anything special.

I post on a03 cause it negates the need for a masterlist. Honestly. That's the only reason. If I were to gauge my popularity by A03, I'd probably stop writing, because I'd figure no one likes my fics anyway, so why bother writing.

Ao3 is great for all the reasons everyone else thinks it's great, but. Yeah. That's how I feel about a03 :P

[birdsofshore]

Aw, I understand your frustration. I think I need to get used to it a bit more, but I certainly appreciate it when a fest posts to AO3 and another site as well. I'd imagine that doubles the work of posting, though, so I can understand some fests not offering a choice.

[enchanted-jae.livejournal.com]

I don't know anything about AO3, but the cartoon is hilarious!

[birdsofshore]

Isn't it fabulous? I'm trying to see if she's done any more with an H/D theme. Her Draco is so perfect and funny.

[dannyfranx.livejournal.com]

First off, I will say that I am just as freaked out by AO3 as you are. It's weird and unsettling and I use it only for kindle related reading and archiving (or at least I will use it for archiving eventually, when I can get my shit together.)
Now, to the scurrilous comments made by Mr Birds. I have written what can only be described as a very short paper, regarding the ways in which he is so wrong it is unfathomable but as it is rather too long for me to post in your comments (and involves a graph) I have put it on my journal.
http://dannyfranx.livejournal.com/18375.html

[birdsofshore]

You are a genius. I can only apologise for Mr Birds' behaviour. He thinks he is very funny. I bet he will think twice before insulting us again, now he knows he will get PIE CHARTS as retribution ;-)

[dysonrules.livejournal.com]

You're probably tired of this discussion already but I JUST GOT MY COFFEE AND I'M AWAKE NOW SO I'M COMMENTING. :D

My take:
Livejournal - I post here because it's my precious and some of my friends still hang out here (and some have come back recently - yay!) but if you're looking for my fics, even with my tags, it can be a FUCKING NIGHTMARE. LJ is for fandom interaction, not necessarily for reading. With that said, I always post my fics FIRST on LJ and my WIPS are only on LJ until they are complete.

FF.net - I post here because 90% of my readers still read them here. I have friends in real life who don't like LJ and will only read my fics on ff.net. Also, you can set up Author Notifications - I know you can do this on LJ but then they'll get a notification and think, "OMG NEW FIC!" and click only to find me blathering about my real life. BORING. Yet when they get a notification from ff.net it ALWAYS means "OMG NEW FIC!" Also, out of the bajillion reviews I've received, maybe a dozen have been trolls, flaming, angry people, or just plain WTF? Most people are lovely and I've made several RL friends through ff.net, so despite their purge policy (and I've Slytherined my way out of that by using a couple of tricks BTW) I will probably never stop posting there.

AO3 - I use it for what it is, an archive. I make my fics as pretty as can be and put them there for people to download. I don't expect comments or kudos and I don't look at the stats. They are there for people to read and as a safeguard against the day ff.net figures out how to get around my no-purge trick.

As to clicking stats - I sometimes feel like a terrible person because I will click things on a page in order to open a new tab. I click userpics, links, fics, pics, anything that will OPEN A NEW TAB because the Open New Tab button on Firefox opens a tab AAAAALLLLLLL the way to the right, past the 34345 tabs I already have open. Clicking a LINK opens the whatever-I-clicked in a new tab right next to the tab I'm reading. Then I go up to the navigation bar and type in the link to what I actually want. So, um, yeah, I'm one of those clickers who might not actually read the page I went to; I just wanted a new tab. *cough*

*runs away*

[birdsofshore]

Hah, yes, this discussion is over now, clear off :DD (never tired of you, Cheryl *puppy dog eyes*)

About the only reason I ever go on ff.net is to read your fics! It is indeed impossible to find them on LJ. But then, because it's not on LJ, and there are already a gazillion people who've left comments saying "blah blah how could you make Scorpius TOP I HATE YOU", I don't leave a comment myself. Because commenting on ff.net seems to lower your brain function or something and heaven knows I need all the brains I can get.

I can't believe you just click on random links to get a new tab. That is very funny indeed. Good job I know you DID read my fic, or that would be us FINISHED.

By the way, that was some good coffee you had... ;-)

[ms-hecubus.livejournal.com]

I'm really bad about commenting on AO3 because I download everything in .epub format for reading on my Nook. It makes it a pain to go back and comment. It's great for me, but I realize it sucks for the authors.

PS: Best comic ever!

[darku.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with you about AO3.

I like what it does when it comes to formatting and archiving works that you do, but the best thing (to me) is that it makes it really easy to export EPUB/PDF formats of stories that I come across that I want to read (it's easier for me to read on a Kindle/tablet for longer periods of time).

However, it kind of stops there. I have an open invite from AO3 to create an account, but I always feel guilty about the idea of "OMG wtf, why is nobody commenting? Is anyone reading this? What's WRONG with me?!" but I def. know that I'll feel that way.

I dunno, it's always tricky when it comes to writing and getting feedback though, regardless of where it's posted though I have noticed a greater disparity between the same works being on LJ/FF.net/AO3. Maybe people on LJ just know how to review/comment better? :D

[indyonblue.livejournal.com]

I love A03, especially for reading fics on. I find it much easier to read stuff there than on LJ. I bookmark favourite stories (I'm terrible for forgetting which fics I wanted to rec so that makes it handy) but you can also bookmark authors too.

As for posting my own stuff there - I can't really explain why I did! It just always seemed to be the done thing to post to another site whether that's FF or A03 or whatever. And I seemed to have completely missed the stats thing - only taken note if someone has left a comment or kudos! In fact, I'll go check now and probably spiral into a paranoid 'nobody likes it' mood :D

[khalulu]

okay, I am almost 2 months late to be commenting on this - I read it but didn't have anything to say at the time, but now that I've had a fest post a fic of mine on AO3 I totally understand! All those clicks and not much response, it is enough to make one feel very doubtful! But now I have learned that my gazillion refreshes have accounted for an awful lot of them so I guess I'll stop doing that….

[birdsofshore]

Yes, doesn't it make you paranoid! But I think in general commenting is waning, and we maybe have to adjust our expectations. Omi once said to me that if she wrote a fic and *I* liked it, she was happy, which is maybe a bit drastic, but I see her point. (I don't mean that everyone should write fics that *I* like, LOL, but you know what I mean).

Your writing is fab <3 And I need to catch up on book fair :D