Come and wail about AO3 with me
Sep. 1st, 2013 09:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
birdsofshoreI 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![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
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
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
no subject
Date: 2013-09-01 09:47 pm (UTC)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
no subject
Date: 2013-09-01 09:59 pm (UTC)You are so sweet to not unbookmark people. That's really thoughtful and funny!
ANYTHING can make me paranoid.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-01 10:02 pm (UTC)I wonder how many of the 5000 hits are down to you, refreshing... :D
no subject
Date: 2013-09-02 11:45 am (UTC)Bloody hell, I have been driving up my own stats! I feel like I got caught bidding on my own items on ebay or something :DD
no subject
Date: 2013-09-01 10:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-02 11:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-02 12:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-02 01:55 pm (UTC)(see her comment below :D)
no subject
Date: 2013-09-02 02:10 pm (UTC)