this is a fandom psa
Oct. 10th, 2017 02:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gravityeyelidsvia http://ift.tt/2yCaRtB:
niuniente:
purge-that-urge-rhackathon:
ledgem:
(Screenshot taken from a random fic in a random fandom. neither matter because it’s the same everywhere you look right now)
dear fandom,
what. the fuck. are you doing?
these numbers are even worse when you consider that half of the comments are from the author themselves, thanking the precious few people who took the time to leave them comments. if you are looking at these numbers and not seeing anything wrong, then congratulations! you’re (probably) part of the problem.
“but hey,” I can hear you calling, “I leave the author kudos, what about that!?”
okay. let me be frank with you. a kudos is the press of a button. it takes you less than a second. it is nothing. it is nothing, because it tells the author nothing. (the author tried out a new kink, did you enjoy their take on it? they revealed a plot twist that has been hinted at for a couple of chapters, did you guess at it or were you taken completely by surprise? they wrote a rare pair, had you considered this pairing before? did they maybe even convert you to this ship with their fic? the author tried their hand at a rather sensitive/dark/etc topic, did it resonate with you? the slowburn finally turned into a full on burn, was it worth the wait? was it good for you? so on and so on.)
I’m actually struggling to find a fitting simile here…. a kudos is basically the equivalent of a shoulder shrug and the sound “eh”.
authors spend hours, weeks, months, years working on these fics so you can read and enjoy them. and you’re telling me you don’t even have 5 seconds to tell the author a simple “I enjoyed this, thanks!”? does this free, versatile, free, heart-wrenching, free, mind-blowing, free, seemingly endless well of free escapism mean so little to you?
and yes, in case you’re wondering, the same goes for likes on tumblr. a like tells the creator nothing. a reblog on the other hand is you going, “hey guys, look at this cool art/fic/moodset/mixtape/etc I found!”, and gives the creator a chance at even more feedback on their works! same goes for tags, and of course comments.
I’m not posting this as a writer. I haven’t written a thing in over half a year. this is coming from a fandom grandma who knows how fandom used to be.
and who can guess how fandom will be if this ugly trend continues; especially if you continue to leave the stage to antis/haters and trolls. the only voices creators are reliably hearing right now are the negative ones. you reap what you sow, fandom.
no new content in your favourite tags. zero fics for the latest action blockbuster even though the movie has already been out for over a week. abandoned and deleted works. fandoms that shrink and shrink and vanish; maybe long before you ever have the chance to immerse yourself in them.
and it will be nothing less than you deserve.
Let’s just repeat that again folks:
the only voices creators are reliably hearing right now are the negative ones.
Feedback is so so freakin’ important. Especially if you consider the positive-to-negative ratio and how many positive comments it takes to make up for one negative. Lack of response is just as bad as negativity, especially taking into consideration those stats like above.
I have had people LITERALLY APOLOGIZING ME FOR WRITING A REVIEW/COMMENT. W.H.Y.????????I love to hear from you. I need to hear from you. Like said in the original post; kudos are wordless. They basically mean nothing compared to the reviews. I wonder every time when I get a new kudos that what made the reader press it; did they like how the fic started? Are they fan of the fic setting, the pair, the world, the theme? Was there a situation they enjoyed a lot and thus they pressed the kudos? Was there a dialogue which they liked a lot? Is the suspense reason for the kudos? Or the text type, how it’s written, its visuals and/or grammar? Or are they curious and like to press kudos on each fic which piques their curiosity? Did they like the length of the chapter or the fact the fic keeps updating regularly? Was there something which delighted them? Or did something unexpected happen?I can’t underline this enough; KUDOS = VOICELESS, like thumps up and that’s it while from the author’s point of a view it looks like you stroll across the fic, show them thumps up and then what? Continue reading it? Stay a little longer? Stroll forward? I don’t know, we don’t know. We just stand back turned to the readers and hear someone yelling us “They gave you kudos” without any further information of why it was given and what the reader does afterwards.Commenting is not bothering anyone, stupid, useless, not too much of a text, not too little of the text. It’s a personal message for a creator. It keeps them fueled. The number one reason in 90% of the cases when a fic/comic/original story doesn’t continue is because the lack of feedback disheartened the creator.
EDIT: I noticed from the tags someone saying that if you don’t know what to comment, you can just copy-paste your fave moment from the chapter/fic and say you liked that part the best. Easy, personal and definitely tells a lot for the author.
(Your picture was not posted)
niuniente:
purge-that-urge-rhackathon:
ledgem:
(Screenshot taken from a random fic in a random fandom. neither matter because it’s the same everywhere you look right now)
dear fandom,
what. the fuck. are you doing?
these numbers are even worse when you consider that half of the comments are from the author themselves, thanking the precious few people who took the time to leave them comments. if you are looking at these numbers and not seeing anything wrong, then congratulations! you’re (probably) part of the problem.
“but hey,” I can hear you calling, “I leave the author kudos, what about that!?”
okay. let me be frank with you. a kudos is the press of a button. it takes you less than a second. it is nothing. it is nothing, because it tells the author nothing. (the author tried out a new kink, did you enjoy their take on it? they revealed a plot twist that has been hinted at for a couple of chapters, did you guess at it or were you taken completely by surprise? they wrote a rare pair, had you considered this pairing before? did they maybe even convert you to this ship with their fic? the author tried their hand at a rather sensitive/dark/etc topic, did it resonate with you? the slowburn finally turned into a full on burn, was it worth the wait? was it good for you? so on and so on.)
I’m actually struggling to find a fitting simile here…. a kudos is basically the equivalent of a shoulder shrug and the sound “eh”.
authors spend hours, weeks, months, years working on these fics so you can read and enjoy them. and you’re telling me you don’t even have 5 seconds to tell the author a simple “I enjoyed this, thanks!”? does this free, versatile, free, heart-wrenching, free, mind-blowing, free, seemingly endless well of free escapism mean so little to you?
and yes, in case you’re wondering, the same goes for likes on tumblr. a like tells the creator nothing. a reblog on the other hand is you going, “hey guys, look at this cool art/fic/moodset/mixtape/etc I found!”, and gives the creator a chance at even more feedback on their works! same goes for tags, and of course comments.
I’m not posting this as a writer. I haven’t written a thing in over half a year. this is coming from a fandom grandma who knows how fandom used to be.
and who can guess how fandom will be if this ugly trend continues; especially if you continue to leave the stage to antis/haters and trolls. the only voices creators are reliably hearing right now are the negative ones. you reap what you sow, fandom.
no new content in your favourite tags. zero fics for the latest action blockbuster even though the movie has already been out for over a week. abandoned and deleted works. fandoms that shrink and shrink and vanish; maybe long before you ever have the chance to immerse yourself in them.
and it will be nothing less than you deserve.
Let’s just repeat that again folks:
the only voices creators are reliably hearing right now are the negative ones.
Feedback is so so freakin’ important. Especially if you consider the positive-to-negative ratio and how many positive comments it takes to make up for one negative. Lack of response is just as bad as negativity, especially taking into consideration those stats like above.
I have had people LITERALLY APOLOGIZING ME FOR WRITING A REVIEW/COMMENT. W.H.Y.????????I love to hear from you. I need to hear from you. Like said in the original post; kudos are wordless. They basically mean nothing compared to the reviews. I wonder every time when I get a new kudos that what made the reader press it; did they like how the fic started? Are they fan of the fic setting, the pair, the world, the theme? Was there a situation they enjoyed a lot and thus they pressed the kudos? Was there a dialogue which they liked a lot? Is the suspense reason for the kudos? Or the text type, how it’s written, its visuals and/or grammar? Or are they curious and like to press kudos on each fic which piques their curiosity? Did they like the length of the chapter or the fact the fic keeps updating regularly? Was there something which delighted them? Or did something unexpected happen?I can’t underline this enough; KUDOS = VOICELESS, like thumps up and that’s it while from the author’s point of a view it looks like you stroll across the fic, show them thumps up and then what? Continue reading it? Stay a little longer? Stroll forward? I don’t know, we don’t know. We just stand back turned to the readers and hear someone yelling us “They gave you kudos” without any further information of why it was given and what the reader does afterwards.Commenting is not bothering anyone, stupid, useless, not too much of a text, not too little of the text. It’s a personal message for a creator. It keeps them fueled. The number one reason in 90% of the cases when a fic/comic/original story doesn’t continue is because the lack of feedback disheartened the creator.
EDIT: I noticed from the tags someone saying that if you don’t know what to comment, you can just copy-paste your fave moment from the chapter/fic and say you liked that part the best. Easy, personal and definitely tells a lot for the author.
(Your picture was not posted)
