A poll about YOU!! : comments.
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![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feedback issues, I has them
On the one hand: feedback is lovely, it's an ego boost, and people like to comment on stuff they've enjoyed. So I leave comments on for those reasons, and because sometimes you can strike up great conversations that way.
On the other hand: I think not responding to feedback is, well, impolite, unless you specifically state somewhere that you don't do it. BUT. When I'm blessed with lots of feedback, I feel obliged to respond to all of it, and this is where the awkwardness comes in. Because it's really difficult to not repeat myself (which I hate doing) when responding, or else trying to think of something interesting to say, and I often end up feeling like an idiot and wondering if anyone really cares whether I acknowledge their feedback or not. And not in a 'my first world writerly problems' way--I don't need to feel popular; I just don't want to be rude!
There was a short period in 2007 when I DID turn off comments, and only accepted feedback via email (particularly for Big Bang). It was something of an experiment, but also mostly because of the above awkwardness. I did observe the feedback I received was ... not "better", but more detailed, and geared more toward points of interest that were also interesting to me as the writer. There was also much less feedback than I would probably have received if I'd left comments on, but this didn't bother me, because of the aforementioned detail/quality of the feedback I did receive. It was of interest in a cynical sense, though.
Bottom line: I like everything I write, because if I didn't like it I wouldn't write it in the first place, let alone post it. My general aim is to write the sort of thing I like to read--which is why I often go back and re-read my fic, even if it involves cringing and eye-rolling and occasionally, pointing and laughing.
... talk about overthinking it. I think I need a beer. And to get back to wrestling with the fic of the moment.
Re: feedback issues, I has them
I do sometimes find it exhausting if for some reason or another I have been away from my computer and there are 20 comments to answer at once. So i can totally see how, for the people who get four pages of comments on every fic within a few hours of posting, it seems unimaginably daunting. Especially with a job, or kids, or a partner, or all of the above.
I cannot bear the thought of not answering all my comments. I cannot bear the thought of turning off comments. So I really do not know what I would do if I suddenly became a must-read author.
...Or the kind of author that more people left feedback for. I do often wonder about things like reader:commenter ratios versus straight-up numbers of readers.
Re: feedback issues, I has them
Until quite recently I had no idea people had, like, strategies for when to post a fic. I generally tend to post before I go to bed, mostly because that's when I most often have a finished/tweaked fic ready to post. Plus it's nice to wake up to feedback. I don't get to check LJ at work unless I have my netbook and a lunch break, so generally I have a window of 2-3 hours a day to respond (before and after work). It's a little daunting sometimes. Then too, sometimes people leave such awesome feedback I kind of flail around trying to respond appropriately, and that takes time as well. Basically, I want to thank everyone individually for reading without sounding like a robot or an idiot, and that isn't always easy.
Reader:commenter ratios are intriguing. I am very very guilty of being a non-commenter, which is yet another reason I don't worry about comment counts--I figure for every one person commenting, there are at least three who don't. Occasionally, delicious bookmarks and PDF download stats are useful for the curious too, since hit counters are apparently bad taste these days.
Re: feedback issues, I has them
Based on some of the fics I've read that do have hit counters, I think for a lot of people, for every one person commenting there are 100 who don't. Or more. for others I think the ratio is a lot lower. And that is something that really fascinates me. But there is no way to study that at all without creating wank and bad feelings.
When I first came to LJ I got involved with a beta who was OBSESSIVE to a truly terrifying degree with marketing her (and as an extension my) fanfic. strict rules about days and times of posting, where/how to crosspost, and re-pimping in her own journal. A lot of it I didn't agree with, because there is a big difference between marketing and pushing yourself on people. But the result is that while I have a straightforward confidence about my skills as a writer (and I think a pretty good idea of where my strengths and weaknesses lie in that regard), I have no confidence at all in my skills as a poster. To the point that if I do not get an "expected" number of comments on a fic, my thought is never that it is not well-written, but that I should have posted a different day, time of day, to different comms. It's kind of insane. (or a lot insane)