hope | (no subject)

So, people like my story! Yay!

Though, my half-baked theory that the more plot = the less comments seems... pretty correct, actually. Hahaha...haaah... <-- somewhat exhausted laughter because I heart feedback but omg writing porn is GRUELLING.

ETA: okay, writing the above makes me SO PARANOID because it's this THING again where if you talk about what it's like to receive feedback then you are being precious. And yet that site of engagement is such a complex one that I wish wish WISH fandom as a whole was more open to meta'ing and being frank about it (I know, I have said this before, but then I get - hah - paranoid, and lose my nerve and delete after all). But I am trying to be brave, and not think about being silently judged. CAN WE PLEASE, AS A COMMUNITY, JUST TALK ABOUT IT?

Ahem.

Anyway. Speaking of writing stuff, I am going to re-do the Nerdy PSA into a v.2, seeing as lots of people are still using it and I think I could tidy it up a bit and integrate a bunch of stuff left in the comments. If you have anything to add/weigh in on wrt accessibility and casual coding that isn't covered there, drop me a comment/PM/pigeon?

omg productivity!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I feel so conflicted about people who rec but don't comment. On the one hand I feel totally grateful to them for liking it enough to tell other people to read it. On the other hand, I feel angry at them for expending the effort on making a post but not replying to the actual story.

And don't even get me started about people who comment on recs telling the reccer how much they enjoyed the story, and not the actual author... *g*

They can't tell the author! The story has already been up for a few weeks, but the reccer just posted the rec now! :D

This is my unconvinced face. Everyone knows how awesome it is to receive comments, *especially* after time has passed!

I know! They're food!

But it's internet behaviour in general, as one finds with blog posts. I really do think it's often down to publish dates appearing on stories versus stories appearing to be in an undated archive.

It's easier to stop assigning weight to comment numbers than to worry too much about it, I think.

I will totally add you to my back-catalogue commenting project, if you're interested. Bearing in mind that it might be another six months before I get to it. (*is woefully behind...*)

Oooh, back-catalogue commenting project? Where you go back and comment on all the stuff you've liked? That sounds awesome. I might copy you on that, my delicious bookmarks make it easy to find everything again, and it's totally been long enough since I read most of them that it'll be like enjoying them for the first time all over again! :D

The way I've been doing it is to pick any fics the writers especially want comments for -- whether because they didn't get enough in the first go-round or because they want feedback on specific things -- and offer concrit or a synthetic overview or a kind of comparative view of the different fics. It's really up to the writer. I think it's helped me do better beta, and I've had great conversations with the writers along the way. Alas, though, I've been terribly slow about it -- I started last March and have only done about six of the twelve I initially promised, so unless I can pick up speed, it might be awhile. But I love doing it; there's a kind of thrill about looking at how someone writes in that kind of depth. Also, my flist is full of favorite writers, so it's not exactly a hardship. :)

Yep, it's fun to revisit old favorites, too. I spend a lot of time thinking about how stories have changed over the growth of the fandom. You'd probably get a big kick out of it.

Oh, that sounds awesome!! I'd love for you to do mine, and totally love the idea of doing it for someone else, too :D

I like that idea of arranging it with the author beforehand. There has been occasion when I've left a thinky comment, hoping to talk about it, and have not got a response from the author.