Sorry for taking so long to respond to this (lolirony, discussion about commenting...) - I have been putting it off until I have a moment where I'm not distracted or exhausted :)
So yeah, yes to pretty much all of the above. It's those unspoken contracts and expectations that are the sites of turmoil, I think. They're just so volatile and subjective at any given moment.
Like, when I am thinking logically I consider hit counts and recs and bookmarks to be a measure of feedback as well. So some days I'm gleeful to see a story that's a year old is still at the top of my most-read list. But other days I feel crushed that 400 readers a month aren't leaving a single comment. Then yet again other days I find that immensely amusing.
And the reason for hits vs. comments divided by time multiplied by flistiness or popularity... I mean, you see trends, but it's basically impossible to measure or conjecture from.
So yeah, it's those sites of anxiety or shyness or expectation that are the most fascinating to me. I think there is a lot of entitlement issues (though I don't like to throw that word around) influencing things too. Like, I remember someone having an absolute tantrum and flaming this author's comments because she dared to have a visible hit counter on her story. I think the criticism of that was - how dare she stalk her readers and make them feel guilty for being visible to her even when they don't comment?
And, you know, the whole thing is very personal - which I think is why it is taboo to talk about. (The person who had the tantrum about the hit counter obviously took it very personally, as do the people who loathe LJtoys.) It's hard to talk about because as soon as I make a post about what it feels like to get comments, there's this connotation that I'm being precious about the comments I do/don't get, which leads to an assumption of passive-aggression. But because it comes across that way, it inspires guilt (the majority of the time, I think) in the readers - who feel compelled to then talk to the OP about why they do/don't leave comments. Which only serves to back up that assumption that the post is essentially the OP passive-aggressively saying, "why aren't you commenting on my stuff?"
Er, anyway.
You are totally one of the best commenters out there. I am always overjoyed to get a comment from you, they're the ones I go back to read again to give myself a buzz :)
no subject
So yeah, yes to pretty much all of the above. It's those unspoken contracts and expectations that are the sites of turmoil, I think. They're just so volatile and subjective at any given moment.
Like, when I am thinking logically I consider hit counts and recs and bookmarks to be a measure of feedback as well. So some days I'm gleeful to see a story that's a year old is still at the top of my most-read list. But other days I feel crushed that 400 readers a month aren't leaving a single comment. Then yet again other days I find that immensely amusing.
And the reason for hits vs. comments divided by time multiplied by flistiness or popularity... I mean, you see trends, but it's basically impossible to measure or conjecture from.
So yeah, it's those sites of anxiety or shyness or expectation that are the most fascinating to me. I think there is a lot of entitlement issues (though I don't like to throw that word around) influencing things too. Like, I remember someone having an absolute tantrum and flaming this author's comments because she dared to have a visible hit counter on her story. I think the criticism of that was - how dare she stalk her readers and make them feel guilty for being visible to her even when they don't comment?
And, you know, the whole thing is very personal - which I think is why it is taboo to talk about. (The person who had the tantrum about the hit counter obviously took it very personally, as do the people who loathe LJtoys.) It's hard to talk about because as soon as I make a post about what it feels like to get comments, there's this connotation that I'm being precious about the comments I do/don't get, which leads to an assumption of passive-aggression. But because it comes across that way, it inspires guilt (the majority of the time, I think) in the readers - who feel compelled to then talk to the OP about why they do/don't leave comments. Which only serves to back up that assumption that the post is essentially the OP passive-aggressively saying, "why aren't you commenting on my stuff?"
Er, anyway.
You are totally one of the best commenters out there. I am always overjoyed to get a comment from you, they're the ones I go back to read again to give myself a buzz :)