Comments

[author_by_night]

 I've been seeing a lot of people talking about the lack of comments. So, let's talk about it.

I have a few theories.  

First: Are kudos being counted in this conversation? Because I think that makes a difference. It took me a long time to see kudos as comments, given that I'm a Fandom Old who remembers when you couldn't really hit fancy buttons. You had to hit reply, hope you were logged in, and type a comment. Over time, I've come to count them, but I still prefer comments. Especially on chapter fic. I've written chapter fic where I didn't receive many comments, and I wasn't sure if it was because people lost interest, or they'd used their one kudos and that was it. Like that one call from jail.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, some of my theories:

• I'm going to be an old fart here and blame phones. Okay, I give them only a small fraction of the blame. But here's the thing - going back to my fandom old days, people generally went online when they had time. Baby was napping, they were home from work, they were on their lunch break and lucky enough to have an oblivious boss who thought Livejournal was a news website, it was Sunday afternoon. Now I talk to friends on Evilbook Messenger who are in between soccer practice runs. People go online on the toilet. I actually think that's stilted internet communication in general; there really isn't a captive, attentive audience the way there was 20 years ago, or even ten years ago, really. (I feel like it was about ten years ago that people started using the internet on their phones regularly, and not just in times of desperation.) 

The other issue with phones? They're hard for some of us (me) to type on. I'll own it, I have meant to leave a comment before, but I read the fic (or whatever else) on my phone, meant to comment when I could type something longer than "I'm at the restaurant got us a table", and it never happened.
 

• I think in the case of some fandoms, they became active in 2020. What happened in 2020 that meant a lot of people weren't leaving their houses very much? Yup. And it seems to me that a lot of people really didn't become active again until early 2022. I know that while I was back in the office by late 2020, I wasn't seeing people in large quantities until early 2022.  So that's two years of people being able to read and comment a lot more, before their lives went back to being busy. 

 

• Going along with this, in general, the fandom may have been inhabited by people who had time in the social distancing years, and then everyone moved on. And even if 2020-2022 has little to nothing to do with it, it is true that fandoms don't seem to have a very long lifespan these days. So it may just be that the fandom's gone stagnant. 

 

• Some people are afraid they'll comment the "wrong" way. It's weird to comment on older fics.  Your comments need to be long. They can't be too long. Emojis are cringe. Among other worries. 

While I realize you're supposed to "write for yourself", we can't deny that people like comments. They like feeling part of a community. Also, it's just nice when your work is appreciated. So, what can we do? I have a few ideas.

• If you are one of those people who won't respond to things while you're on your phone, try marking for later, or emailing the fic to yourself. 

 

• I try commenting on chapter fics, if I've already used up one kudos. Please let people know you're still reading. If you're not reading at all because you don't read WIPs, may I suggest letting the writer know if you've interacted with them before? I'll be very honest here, I once almost trashed a WIP because no one was commenting. 

 

• Don't be afraid of commenting the "wrong way". People LOVE reviews on their old work. People don't care how long or short your review is.  Emojis are adorbs. If the writer doesn't like it, welp, that's their problem.   

 

What does everyone else think?

Comments

[mossy_bench]

I suppose it has transactional/economic aspects! Though I like to think of it as being a lot more about relationships; IDK if it's particularly more transactional than any other reciprocal social interaction.

Did some searching out of curiosity and stumbled on these articles, which you may find interesting!

Fan work: Labor, worth, and participation in fandom's gift economy
https://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/518/428

Gift Logic: Labors of love flourish online under fandom’s social norms
https://knightcolumbia.org/blog/gift-logic-labors-of-love-flourish-online-under-fandoms-social-norms

[mific]

Oh cool - thanks so much for the links!