Meta I can get behind

[luxken27]

Surveying Webfiction Feedback, or "why readers hate commenting on fic posted to the internet"

The original survey was posted, among other places, at fanficrants. Here is the results post, for those interested in seeing the raw data.

I always figured I was somewhat in the minority, trying to comment on everything I read (hence the backlog of reading I have to do), but I never realized just how far into the minority I was :P As a writer, this mostly confirms my suspicions/makes me feel better about my lack of comments, though.

Thoughts?

Comments

[luxken27]

It honestly surprises me that readers in general hate to comment because it's always seemed so obvious to me that the best way to get more of what you like - at least in terms of fanfic - is to give a little (or a lot) encouragement to the person/people producing it.

I think it boils down to just a sheer laziness thing, because comments on the article suggested that a "like" or rating system might garner more reaction.

There is also this contingent of "I'm here for the pr0nz", of people who basically want to get off, not get invested, so *shrug* Posting this to fanficrants certainly hit that subsection of fandom, LOL.

From the article, it seems like those writing and posting original fiction ("webserials") have even less luck than fanfic writers receiving feedback, so I guess its about what is your limit - how much are you willing to share in a vacuum? IDEK...but it was fun food for thought.