What's That Spell?

[mousapelli]

Mousapelli: also, 97 people have clicked into the kisumai fic. you know how many comments i have? 5. this stupid fandom is for losers
Jackoweskla: it really is. i feel like i need to put a badly worded COMMENT PLZ on my fics to get comments
M: there must be some way to encourage commenting throughout this fandom. i don't understand why it is so crap
J: i don't either. everyone can't lurk, or else no one wants to contribute
M: nobody DOES contribute
J: and everyone comments on scan or dl posts... why is fanfic different
M: it's just like at school. i do all the shit and then everybody complains to me about it
J: give me an a
M: a?
J: like at school
M: lmao i thought you were going to spell something. GIVE ME A T
J: ahahahahhaha
M: WHATS THAT SPELL
J: NOT MUCH
M: ....apparently 'at'

Okay, but in all seriousness, I will again say, you know why JE has so few authors? because nobody comments so being a JE author sucks. Is it really so hard to say "I liked this" or "nice fic" or even just "I read this"? What would that take you, fifteen seconds? Ten?

Like, it isn't that I care that you want to lurk or whatever thing, but geezoo, 92/97 people couldn't even manage to say "nice job"? I mean, leave an anon comment if you're too scared omg to use your name (but really? why?) but goodness, don't marvel at why there are so few decent jr authors when it certainly isn't worth anybody's effort to be one.

so let's all go out there and comment on the things we read, okay? As a veteran of roughly 50 fandoms, I guarantee you making JE a more comment-filled fandom will get you more fic in the end.

Comments

[musikologie.livejournal.com]

No comments makes me a sad panda.

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

DEAR LURKERZ: O HAY I CAN SEE JOO. just honestly why.

[talisa-ahn.livejournal.com]

Totally agree! It's ridiculous that JE authors need to call out the readers to leave comments! Ugh!

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

I realize that I was completely spoiled by HP, which was reasonably high comment yeild, but goodness, even most of the anime fandoms were better than this. I just don't understand why JE generates like no feedback at all.

[(Anonymous)]

Not sure if anyone else feels this way, but I'm always too shy to comment on the fics of someone I admire as a writer – in this case, you. I know it's ridiculous, especially because of how frustrated I get when no one comments on what I write, but there you go.

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

that's really very silly, since I'm only going to be pleased that you liked it (if you did like it), but even an anon comment would be something. If it makes you happy to be nameless, then go crazy.

[conser.livejournal.com]

I'm not an author, so I may be wrong on this, but I like the authors best that write for themselves. Obviously everyone likes the comments, so I guess I'm just playing Devil's Advocate, but what about the worth of writing what you love, without acknowledgment?

[(Anonymous)]

I wonder at the wisdom of post a "people should comment more" when it has been done over and over in other fandoms by other people and the results are never quite pretty.

I had this long sprawling paragraph here, but I think the point can be put across much simpler: Just as no one is obligated to write fic, others are not obligated to comment on it.

Realistically speaking, the majority of JE fandom speaks English as a second language with a great deal of junior fans being in the under-20 crowd with fewer media resources than debuted groups. And the fandom is a large and sprawling beast over multiple groups. Despite not being a bastion of quality, jent_fanfics averages somewhere between 15 to 20-ish posts a day, and that would probably be a fair representation of the fan makeup of JE.

[(Anonymous)]

I was one of the 92 people who read and didn't comment. I just didn't like the story. Sorry.

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

It isn't that I don't enjoy what I write, because I do, but if somebody didn't want acknowledgment for it, I doubt they'd post it on the internet. The point of having a social networking site like LJ is that people...y'know, network. There's give and take.

It'd be one thing if I weren't posting to comms and not many people read me or whatever, but I know for a fact that lots of people do, and after I've spent hours or days working on any particular thing, it's pretty disheartening to know lots of people are reading it, but can't be bothered to say 'thanks' or 'nice work.'

And also, it's a two-way street. I like to read fic as much as I like to write it, and I know lots of good authors who can't be bothered to write in JE, particularly in jrs, because they know the comment response will be low.

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

Which is fine, that's your perogative. I'm not saying I'm shooting for 100% or anything, that's silly. I'm saying even going for 10% would double my numbers.

[conser.livejournal.com]

As little as I have written, I've written for myself, but I have attempted to reach as many people as possible, for that very acknowledgment. I'm just wondering why it is that authors would avoid JE because they won't receive acclaim. Acclaim is wondrous, but not the only cause of writing,

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

I really just think, as an older member of lots of fandoms, it can't hurt to remind people that a simple 'thank you' goes a long way. I think most authors would appreciate that gesture, because let's be honest, we don't get much else out of it. I think especially younger members of fandom, which a lot of JE fandom people are as you pointed out, could benefit from the reminder that the goal of a site like LJ is to have some sort of social exchange.

Fandom works a certain way, where some people produce things, fic or art or scans or what have you, and other people consume it. If all you have is silent consumers, then the community isn't working properly. Don't you think it's a better idea to encourage the people who are producing things, who will then produce more things and draw more people in who will in turn produce their own things? That's how fandom works.

And I'm not saying that people are obligated to comment, I'm just pointing out that if people did, they would get better quality fic more reliably.

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

Because writing is effort, for some people a lot of effort, and it isn't a lot of fun to put a ton of effort into it, hoping people will enjoy it, and get nothing but a bunch of chirping crickets in return. I can name a handful of friends off the top of my head who wrote their first fic, got a poor response, or even a negative response, and decided that they didn't want to do it anymore, if that was the result.

Goodness knows I keep writing despite the low JE return, but that's just me. Lots of other people aren't self-confident enough or have enough time or energy to do the same.

[conser.livejournal.com]

I know that the beauty of fandom is the community and the support one can gain, so perhaps it's just my idealism that people would write whatever they love and feel, regardless of return.

[padfoot]

I completely agree.

[talisa-ahn.livejournal.com]

Ganbatte ne.

[kira-shadow.livejournal.com]

I second this a whole effing lot.
Writers thrive with comments and criticism after all. Constructive criticism makes a writer grow and it enables him to grow in his writing skills.

and it's just so frustrating to see if your fic got over 100 clicks but 0 comments...

[myxstorie.livejournal.com]

THIS. I rarely comment right now, but that's because I rarely read. When I do read, I comment, because I know how nice it is to hear that people liked your fic. I just sort of assumed all fandoms were like this, because I've never written for anything else, and that it was normal for people to lurk and read (and then pop up months later and say 'HI I LOVE YOUR FIC LETS BE FRIENDS', to which you go 'bzuh?' because you have NEVER seen them before), and never say anything.

What counter do you use? I tried using one once, but I found that it would count every refresh, so if someone commented, they'd be counted two, or sometimes three times. Likewise for me replying to their comments. Even so, that only takes yours down another 5 or 10, really..

[sourangel.livejournal.com]

I feel bad for not commenting as much as I should....uhh....my excuse is that I usually end up reading fics on my keitai, which doesn't allow me to comment and then I forget about it later. ^^;; Thanks for the reminder though, I will try to be better about commenting cause although I don't write, I know how much it sucks to put in hours of time scanning something and having no one comment.

[atenishinai.livejournal.com]

Actually, JE is better about commenting/reviewing than some fandoms I've been in, so...This isn't the worst!

But I know how you feel. I don't put counters on my fic, but I do scanlate - and it's pretty heartbreaking when you see 130 downloads and one comment. I think it's 'cause people think "you don't know I'm here so it doesn't matter~"

(Ehh, and I'd be guilty of reading w/o commenting ^^;; but when the last comment is from 2008 or 2007 my reader side goes "...scary." even if my writer side thinks "I should comment..." But I'll do my best to comment more!)

[longleggedgit.livejournal.com]

Jeez, attack of the nasty anons here. :| I will never understand why some fandomers think they're so goddamned entitled to everything. It should absolutely be a give-and-take.

HP fandom really did spoil us, didn't it? The only fandom I've been in since that has had close to the same magnitude of responses/support is Merlin.

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

It's really why there's a handful of well-established authors and then at the other end of the spectrum, a scatter of brand-new sort of shaky ones, because JE doesn't really encourage people to hang around and improve.

It really is. And I don't suffer from low self-confidence or anything, but you start thinking, well maybe nobody DOES like it, and why am I even doing this, and if nobody likes it maybe I shouldn't post it to the comm because I'm just embarrassing myself...

*sadface*

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

I really don't read very much in JE at all, despite how many bands I would read for, because the quality is just so, so low, and the lack of a good comment/rec system means that even if there are good fics out there, it's hard to find them. I wish I knew the solution to that.

Oh god, as much as I really don't mind being friends with anybody and I do like when people say hi finally, I'm really just thinking '...then where are my comments D:'. I mean, all fandoms have that to some degree, and most anime fandoms aren't terribly high in comment-response, but JE is ridiculously low. I hear Supernatural is pretty bad too.

I really just stuck one of my dragon eggs on the last fic. It's not something I do routinely, although I do it during NaNo just to see, but I was curious since I keep seeing more and more people on my flist who say they are into kisumai, but my comments are actually getting less and less. The eggs keep track of both views and unique views (for instance I have 220 views and 133 unique views on that particular post).

It isn't something I do regularly, and I'm not about to start because it's honestly just depressing. I did sort of toy with the idea of sticking a poll on the bottom of fics that just said "I read this" with the one ticky box, but then I thought, why do I have to make it so easy? Why can't people just say thank you?

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

But even so, you comment more than the average person to my journal, I would say, because I at least know who you are! And actually I think you're a pretty steady commenter on my jr fic.

I know that I get lazy about commenting sometimes too, but I've been trying to be good about it for a while now, because I just feel like if we could model positive community behavior, JE could be so much better about it! Most people I meet in it are totally nice and friendly, so I can't understand what makes people so shy.