#longlivefeedback

[longlivefeedback]

If you comment on some fanfics and not others, pick an answer that applies most commonly to when you don't comment.

#longlivefeedback #llf polls #ao3 #commenting #fanfiction research #fanfiction survey #commenting and culture #comment culture #fandom #kudos #writing #writing feedback #commenting and community

[byebyekaywhy]

fic rec

The Ultimatum: Untamed by kimseokbba

Summary: In a moment of desperation, Lan Zhan proposes going on his brother's newly produced show "The Ultimatum: Untamed", a mixed queer show filmed over three months where couples swap, either ending each relationship with a breakup or a live wedding hosted on prime time TV.

The Modern, established couple WangXian!"The Ultimatum: Queer Love" au no one asked for.

OR

Mian Mian and Wen Qing are having the time of their lives, Yanli's an incredible goddess as always, Jiang Cheng's Big Time Thirsting, Lan Zhan's sad, and Wei Ying's just stressing all the time

Additional tags: Established Relationship, Angst with a Happy Ending, Jealousy, Possessive Behavior, Sad Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngji, Sad Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Drunk Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī, Minor Luó "Mián Mián" Qīngyáng/Wēn Qíng, Established Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī and Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn Being Idiots, Wēn Cháo Being an Asshole (Módào Zǔshī), Minor Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Mò Xuányǔ, very little, like blink and you'll miss it, Soft Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn & Wēn Qíng Friendship, Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī & Luó "Mián Mián" Qīngyáng Friendship, Minor Jiāng Yànlí/Jīn Zǐxuān, Jiāng Yànlí is So Done, Good Sibling Jiāng Yànlí, jin zixuan is an idiot but jiang yanli loves him anyways, lan yuan and jin ling are mortified, Crack Treated Seriously, Alternate Universe - Reality Show, The Ultimatum

Words: 1,942 Chapters: 1/3 Last updated: 2023-06-03

---

Just found this little gem on AO3 and I loved it already! The premise is that for some reason, WY is avoiding LZ, causing their five-year established relationship to hit a snag. Desperate for his lover but unwilling to force him into an uncomfortable situation, LZ looks to his brother for help. The solution suggested to him is nothing he would agree with, but as situations play out and his hands become tied, it'd appear he'd have to accept the proposition anyway.

The opening chapter is short but characters are already shown to be, well, in-character, with quite fitting thought processes and dialogues, and it's even better how this doesn't impede the plot but instead is leveraged to "heighten the stakes"/make the plot even better. Though the thing that stood out to me the most and impelled me to make this post is how there's only been 78 hits for it so far.

The author didn't link to a retweet/bloggable promotion post so I just decided to do it myself. Please give the fic a read! I don't mean to force it on everyone, of course, but if the summary and tags call out to you then I'm certain you'll like it! <3

if it does turn out to be your cup of tea, please, do comment with something encouraging (even just a row of 5 heart emojis) or reblog this post! it'd be nice to show the author support :-)

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #wangxian #xicheng #wen qing/mianmian #yanli/zixuan #sorry got no ideas what their ship names are :/ #modern au #reality tv au #established wangxian #in any case you’re wondering: yeah feels weird to put myself forward like this #but i guess we should develop the habit to talk about things we like #yeahhh this is somewhat inspired by longlivefeedback

[catgirl-catboy]

MUTUALS AND DISTINGUISHED GUESTS!

I have found the coolest fucking thing ever.

tumblr user longlivefeedback has created an INTERACTIVE SOCIAL SCRIPT for commenting on ao3. You can find it at:

doc!google!com/spreadsheets/d/1lOqWGDNquHxr23l84ASKn-vdSLFrHop4giVOYDkKnWI/edit#gid=986224789

(replaced .s with !s because tumblr doesn't like links.)

Look at all the different categories it has!!! and if you click any of the boxes...

It tells you loads of things you can say!!!!

As an autistic person, I struggle with communication. This puppy can take my ao3 commenting up to the NEXT LEVEL! I'll be too powerful. Authors will love me!

#ao3 #fanfic #archive of our own #archiveofourown #FFN #ffnet #fanfiction.net #actuallyautistic #I hope you don't mind me tagging it as that because it helps my autistic butt

[ao3commentoftheday]

I was scrolling through a post about "good comment" or something??? I did NOT know "all comments are welcomed" =/= "critiques are welcomed." I think I've been rude now that it's been pointed out to me from a different perspective I - 🤡 I wanna shrivel up and die omg I'M SO SORRY

Please don't feel bad 💓

Some authors mean all (nice) comments welcome. They're referring to short comments, long comments, emoji comments, reaction gifs, etc. They're not talking about concrit and corrections. Other authors mean all (of any kind) comments welcome, including concrit. You have no way of knowing which kind of author any particular writer is.

Generally speaking, AO3 fandom has shifted to prefer comments without critique in them. This isn't true of every website, and it's certainly not true of every author on AO3. It's just a general rule of thumb you can use if you don't know the author and their stance on the issue.

Some authors are frustrated by this state of things and in order to make it clear that they want that kind of feedback, they use the tag constructive criticism welcome. Others use @longlivefeedback's Comment Project to create an end note for their fics that clearly lets readers know exactly what kinds of comments they like to receive, as well as whether or not they reply.

I appreciate these authors for taking this extra step to make sure that the feedback they're receiving is aligned with their preferences on the matter. While "all comments welcome" seems like it's a clear statement, it really does leave a lot of opportunity for miscommunication.

#asks and answers #how to ao3

[kuwdora]

Witcher Commenting Event & Community Engagement

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this post that @jackironsides reblogged a few days ago about the lack of engagement with fanworks.

Comments are great. Commenting can be hard (more on that later) but receiving them is great, right? We want to support each other as a community and continue to squee about our blorbos and meow meows together.

(nostalgia time) I come from the old livejournal days where it was usual to see conversations happening in comments for days or weeks on end, even on short fics. People writing ship manifestos, fannish newsletters, community recommendations and commenting on those too. People reccing fic and meta. Things just were a little easier to find and engage with. Things didn't get so lost in tags or in a discord server you didn't know exists.

I have been thinking about the ways we could be social and connect to each other again and comment more. I love the Witcher Flashfic discord server because there are “Live readings” that groups of people perform on your fic while your story is under anon for the week. It’s incredibly fun to both be the author watching this anonymously while people READ YOUR STORY IN REAL TIME (or during a backread). And it is SO MUCH FUN fun to read a story together and comment WITH PEOPLE. Riffing off your squee and comments about the style, the plot, the characters in a fic. It’s like a book club! It’s so much fun.

A DREAM:

So I got to thinking. What if we tried something something similar to discover, read, and comment on fanworks TOGETHER? I have this dream:

A Comment Crawl, a la pub crawl. Except instead of pubs, we are visiting fics and art and vids and everything else and leaving comments on it together. (Fanwork Crawl doesn’t roll off the tongue the same way, okay…!). Target all kinds of fanworks: fic with no comments, few comments or are older than 6 months. Fanart that only has reblogs but no one ever told the artist what they like about the piece, not even in tags. Etc. etc.

We could put up a list of fanworks that are recced/nominated based on a theme and give people that window of time to read and compose a comment. Then we go and drop our comments on the AO3, tumblr post/etc during a designated window of time. Build off each other’s squee in the comments like I KNOW we do in discord. Let the creators see our avalanche of love and squee together.

Commenting can be hard and stressful when you don’t know what to say or think or what the creator is looking for.

Maybe you don’t know how to comment on a fanwork you’re unfamiliar with because you’re not an artist or a vidder or cosplayer or don’t know how to show an author how much you enjoyed the story.

This can be taught! There’s even work that @longlivefeedback has done in 2018 where they created a COMMENT BUILDER TEMPLATE that we can modify for Witcher related squee. For your personalized squee. Remove that inhibition and hurdle to comment and show love for the things that you spend all that time reading, reblogging and dropping links in discord.

We can learn from writers and artists how any scrap of feedback is going to mean the WORLD to them. And we can learn how to make more technical comments on things, too!

I have created a survey to gauge interest in A Comment Crawl for Witcher fandom. Please fill it out here if this sounds like something you would like to participate in or help organizing. I would really love help on this if it’s something people want to try!!

SURVEY HERE

I also have a ton of ideas about how create engagement through writing recs lists and creating fannish teams to go on treasure hunts to go together and look for fanart, fic, fandom-inspired jewelry, gifsets/etc based on a theme and then write a recs list to the public community. Link/tag the creators so they know how much their work is being loved on by other people!!

Is this reccing thing something that sounds like it might be fun for you to participate in?? @fancakeofficial is a pan-fannish reccing community that sort of inspired me in my thinking in how great it would be to have more recs in Witcher fandom in a more centralized way. They have a presence on tumblr, twitter and dreamwidth and people have been submitting themed recs for years and it's definitely a community I go to when I am looking to see what other people liked and to find something new. And sometimes my stuff gets recced a decade after I made it! It's fucking WILD and amazing feeling!! I would love to see something like this for Witcher fandom if possible..

Truly, recs are like... comments and kudos turbocharged because someone went out of their way to tell other people why your fanwork is great and get more eyes and squee on it!!

There is so much excellent rare pair fic out there in Witcher fandom. There’s amazing character-driven stories and hidden gems in the juggernaut pairings. There’s some fucking incredible femslash out there, omfgggg. So many of these stories get lost amidst the volume of fanworks and don't get comments or squee and it's can be so lonely. There is SO MUCH INCREDIBLE ART AND VIDS AND COSPLAY and gosh, so much amazing creativity out there.

*takes a deep breath*

So yeah, I would like to try to figure out a way to bring people together and comment together and squee together that can happen more outside of discord where the creators can see, squee and even participate with us!!

Anyway. This is very rambly and I am probably forgetting a million details because my brain has been on fire because of 10,000 other things. BUT I am putting it out there!! Hoping some folks would like to hear me out and try something like this.

Signal boosting is greatly appreciated!! If we build it, will you come??? Leave me your details in the survey! Let me know what you think!!

P.S. If you are a rare pair writer there is another round of @witcherrarepaircommentexchange will be open for nominations again in November so PLEASE be sure to check that out!

Tagging people that I know have many more followers than I do who might have followers who could be interested...

@fangirleaconmigo @jackironsides @limerental @ghostinthelibrarywrites @bomberqueen17 @brighteyedjill @sargassostories

#the witcher #the witcher netflix #geralt #yennefer #jaskier #geraskier #yennskier #yengilla #yennaia #yennefer x tissaia #yenralt #merihart #witcher comment crawl

[comment-exchange]

Welcome

Hi to all the new people who found Comment Exchange in the last few days and thank you @longlivefeedback for the signal boost!

Welcome to the Comment Exchange where we try to give under-appreciated fan works of all kinds more attention, and of course more comments. If you want to dive into what we're about, please check out our rules and our FAQs. If you're looking for works to comment on, check out our masterlist (which is in desperate need of updating and probably needs to be reworked completely, I will get to that eventually) or check out our the bookmarks on the Comment Exchange AO3 account. Please make sure to also show the works in our no-comments-yet-tag some love, they are the works that haven't gotten any new comments since they where submitted here. The tag get's updated once a month.

When you're ready to submit your own work (any type of fanwork on any platform and all fandoms and ships are welcome) you can find the submission form here and submit it here.

If you have any more questions or even suggestions feel free to reach out via ask, message or in the notes of any of our posts.

Happy commenting!

#comment exchange #mod info #fandom #fandom things #fandom culture #fan creation #fan community #fan works #fanficton #archive of our own #fan art

[thefannishmkp]

On Kudos, Comments, & Community

(also featuring resources!)

I think there are some basic principles most fannish folk will agree on:

fen share their fanworks for community and interaction

comments are a better way of building community than simply leaving kudos

kudos are a useful low-spoon way to indicate appreciation and positively affect the number of potential future readers

longer, more personalized comments are a better way of building community than very short and generalized comments such as 'thanks for sharing!'

longer, more personalized comments take more time and energy than shorter comments

shorter comments take more time and energy than simply leaving kudos, albeit not by much [n.b. whether this difference is significant is going to depend very much on how many spoons you have to start with!]

more advanced principles that different fannish folk disagree on:

very short and generalized comments such as 'thanks for sharing!' are a better way of building community than simply leaving kudos

very short and generalized comments such as 'thanks for sharing!' feel impersonal and are not helpful for building community

comments consisting entirely of emojis are a cute/fun way of indicating a more personalized level of enjoyment

comments consisting entirely of emojis are disappointing and demoralizing [yes I've seen at least one author beg readers to not do this as they find it so upsetting; no this is not a widespread take]

comments consisting entirely of 'kudos' 'kudos+' 'additional kudos' or similar are a cute/fun way of indicating a reader is re-reading or still reading and enjoying a work

[probably some people also feel weird about additional kudos comments but I haven't actually seen complaints so I'm mentioning it but not listing it as such]

some commonly noted barriers to commenting:

lack of spoons/energy

anxiety over getting a good grade in comment

anxiety over possibly getting a response back

anxiety over possibly not getting a response back

difficulty verbalizing thoughts

difficulty translating thoughts

multi-step process of getting back to the fic url, as the reader downloaded the fic for offline reading

just don't think about it/not in the habit

The best way to get more community interaction between writers and readers, imo, is always going to be minimizing those barriers. Framing it as a requirement of reciprocation has some elements of truth to it, for sure! but I've found that once you start talking about it like an expectation, you get pushback from people who have a knee-jerk reaction to any sort of command, and induce guilt and anxiety paralysis in people who would like to comment but aren't capable of doing so on a regular basis.

So! What can we as readers, writers, and fans in general, do to lower these barriers and improve the quantity and quality of community interaction?

@longlivefeedback is a blog dedicated to discussing just that! Their LLF Comment Project is a really cool initiative for authors that lets them make very clear what kinds of comments/feedback they like and (if applicable) what they dislike. It also as a template suggests authors may want to include a statement about their general policies about responding to comments.

They also have an interactive tool for readers meant to help users learn to comment and lower barriers such as anxiety, mobility, fluency, etc. - the LLF Comment Builder.

There are also a bunch of userscripts various fans have created that make it easier to leave comments! Check out the full set of userscripts I've collected on GreasyFork here:Fandom-Relevant [Archive of Our Own]: For Readers.

A userscript I personally highly recommend is the AO3 automatic rekudos converter - if you've previously left kudos on a fic, and hit kudos again, it converts the button to a question Rekudos? which (when clicked) will randomly generate a comment from a pre-approved list of comments. The script author already included a basic list such as 'kudos+' 'additional kudos'; I personally added some fun ones such as 'but what about SECOND kudos?' and 'a fic so nice, i kudosed it twice!'.

The reason I so highly recommend this one is because I a) read a lot of WIPs and b) re-read fics so often - this lets me very quickly let people know I've re-read their fic yet again or am continuing to read their ongoing saga!

I've found over time as I have more and more strictly followed a policy of rekudosing any fic I've already kudosed, I've actually found it easier to leave free-form ad hoc comments as well! YMMV there, of course.

Other notable userscripts:

AO3 Random Nice Comments

ao3 Comment Assist

AO3: Add gifs to comments

AO3 Floating Comment Box

AO3: Comment Formatting Options

#fandom is a tool-building animal #fandom #fandom resources #fandom etiquette

[altschmerzes]

one of the wildest like, tertiary characters in my online experience is this one really pissy asshole who pops up every so often on posts about comments on ao3 who is like, really really really upset about how there's a generally accepted fandom etiquette rule that you shouldn't just dump unsolicited criticism on people's fics. this person insists this is ruining fandom, obsessively replies to blogs like longlivefeedback whining at them about it, and insists it is uh. everyone else. who is sensitive and entitled. it's amazing to me every time i'm reminded they exist, but they just keep showing up lmaooo.

#gav gab #can you imagine being that dedicated and intent on being a profoundly unpleasant person #they're like AUTHORS ARE SO ENTITLED AND MEAN AND DEMANDING AND RUDE AND- #like no dude you're being a dick and you're being called on it #if it isn't the consequences of your actions! #like if you want criticism feel free to say so but you are in the *pretty extreme minority* in fandom spaces #and you're just gonna have to get used to that #trust me i'm romance repulsed lmaoooo you'll fucking survive if you're in the slim minority opinion and preference wise #and nobody is Persecuting You Personally by expecting you not to randomly be a dick to people because you think their writing is bad #someone: writers are allowed to have boundaries and you shouldn't be mean to people online #this fucking guy: YOU'RE RUINING FANDOM!!! YOU'RE SO ENTITLED AND HORRIBLE!! YOU DONT SPEAK FOR EVERYONE!!!

[consistentsquash]

Hello Squash!!! First of all I'm a big fan of your work because it has allowed me to discover a ton of fics and meet new people ❤️❤️ second i have a small question, what do you think makes a good comment? like okay i read a chapter-fic-series and i really wanna say something to the author to convey how amazing their work is but all I can think about is -KEYSMASH- lmao I honestly do not know how else to explain the sheer happiness and delight some fics make me feel lol pls help me

Hiya!!!!! <3 <3

I am the worst commenter! But I love commenting now. It was something I really hated/stressed about forever.

So! I was lurking for like two decades and didn't comment on anything. I mean sometimes I commented on LJ or AO3 with anon but I was in general feeling really underqualified because it felt like people wrote really insightful comments and a lot of the commenters were writers themselves.

Pandemic got lots of people to do crazy things at home. Like baking bread or learning the ukulele or whatever! For whatever reason my crazy thing was commenting on fic! I did a whole list of Qs before commenting on fic like a crazy person because I was that insecure and stressed out. Does the author reply to comments? Are they replying to keysmash comments? Are they really encouraging in the comments? Generally I went for commenting on authors who were good at building up commenting confidence or like authors who were inactive in fandom because it felt zero stakes. I know. Overthinking it.

But my comments kind of moved from Keysmash which went for some months -> Emojis phase -> Actually quoting lines from the fic I liked for some reason -> reading other comments and finding some common vibe I also liked -> doing real comments.

I now have a default comment style! For fics I really love I copy paste lines from the fic and put lots of exclamation marks about why I loved stuff. "It's peak angst and I love it! OMG Snape + glove kink is so fire for real!" For other fics I do emojis because my comment max is around 1 comment/week because I get super tired after writing one of the copy paste ones. I am not that good at commenting on everything I am reading honestly. But I am keeping a list because I can do it during the next pandemic lockdown.

Also! Finding authors who respond great helped me a lot with my insecurity in general. If I get a reply for like 1 in 10 comments that's great for my confidence!

I love reading comments! Other people's comments have a lot of unique things which I really like reading/vibing with. Of course I can't write a comment like that but it's fun to read detailed meta comments. These are 5 of my fav comments by other folks on some fics I really love!

Some Tumblrs like longlivefeedback also have some guides. But generally I don't vibe with those because they are often written by writers expecting everybody to have the writer mindset. Which is not how it works. But lots of good ideas on those blogs!

Also!!! @usagifitz Good on you on meeting new people and getting to find new fics <3 <3 Lots of love. Hope you get to have loads of fun in fandom in 2023!!!

#commenting #fandom #asks #emojis count

[wannabetranslator]

Les presento el Creador de Comentarios (beta) de LLF*

(Esto es una traducción de este post original)

El Creador de Comentarios hecho por @longlivefeedback​ es una herramienta creada para ayudar a que los lectores de fanfiction dejen respuestas en las historias y puedan comunicarse con los autores. Partimos reconociendo que comentar es una habilidad que se puede aprender y que existen muchas razones por las cuales una persona puede encontrar difícil o intimidante dejar comentarios.

El Creador de Comentarios de longlivefeedback esta diseñado para ayudar a los ususarios a aprender a comentar usando “andamieaje” instruccional, asi como también para quitar las barreras al momento de dejar comentarios, tales como síndrome disejecutivo, ansiedad, problemas de movilidad que dificultan escribir respuestas muy largas (especialmente desde el teléfono), fluidez del lenguaje, y funcionalidad al comentar desde un teléfono móvil en general... o quizás simplemente no estás seguro de qué decir.

[google sheets]  [excel]

Al expandir estan las instrucciones y más detalles.

Comenzar

1. Guarda o descarga una copia.

• Google sheets: Abre el link de arriba, seleccionar archivo -> hacer una copia. Debes hacer una copia para usar esta herramienta.

• Excel: Abre el link de arriba, seleccionar archivo -> guardar como. Necesitarás tener algún software para hoja de cálculo (tales como microsoft excel, OpenOffice, etc) para abrir la versión en tu Escritorio en tu computador. También puedes volver a subir el archivo a tu cuenta de OneDrive para usarla en internet o teléfono móvil.

2.  Usarlo en el teléfono móvil requiere la aplicación de Google sheets o Excel.

• Ambas son applicaciones gratuitas.

3. Selecciona la página deseada.

• Bienvenida: Visión general e información

• Tutorial: Una guía para el uso

• Creador de comentarios: La versión completa

• Creador de comentarios simple: Solo contiene plantillas que no requieren edición o personalización. Esto esta diseñado para el uso en teléfono móvil or hacer un comentario rápido.

• Fuente: Contiene todos los comentarios y plantillas originales. Puedes modificar, quitar y añadir tus propias plantillas.

4. ¡Comienza a dejar comentarios!

• Por favor revisa el tutorial en el archivo para obtener instrucciones más detalladas de cómo usar el creador de comentarios y el creador de comentarios simple.

5. Futuras metas

• Recopilar opiniones de los usuarios para perfeccionar y modificar versiones futuras

• Traducir esta herramienta a varios idiomas

• Crear una versión en una página web

Es importante mencionar a @dawnfelagund​ que fue quien creó las 101 frases para comenzar comentarios (en inglés), por darnos permiso para usar estos comentarios como base.

#longlivefeedback #creador de comentarios #fanfic en español #fanfiction en español #comentar #comentarios #dejar comentarios #fandom #español

[longlivefeedback]

Have you ever read a fic that gave you so many emotions, wrecked you and put you back together just to tear your heart out again, and you have nobody to talk about it with?

Tell the author.

Not only does it make the author happy (and it will, for days or more), the author may want to talk about the fic with you! They may have answers to questions you have, or share what made them think of that particular scene that had you bawling.

#longlivefeedback #ao3 feedback #submission #stephanidftba

[dawnfelagund]

I liked your guides on leaving comments for fics, however I noticed that most if not all of it is geared towards whole works (by which I mean completed or abandoned works). What's the general opinion on leaving a comment for every chapter? I doubt it's helpful feedback for whole stories but I assume that it's good to do this for wip? Thanks for the, dare I say it, feedback ;) lol

I can only speak for myself, but I love when readers leave comments on multiple chapters. I’m in the midst of posting a chapter a day on a multi-chapter story now, and I enjoy seeing the same readers commenting multiple days in a row; it lets me know they are still engaged and reading the story. I also love when readers comment at various points in completed multi-chapter stories, kind of charting their reactions as they go. Again, it lets me know that I am holding their interest; that they didn’t read a chapter or two in a single sitting and then lose interest in coming back to the story ever again.

With all due respect, I don’t agree that the 101 Comment Starters is geared toward whole stories. The vast majority of the comment starters could be applied to a single chapter; in some cases, you might have to substitute the word “chapter” for “story”–which is why I’m assuming you feel like it is aimed at whole stories–but most of the comment starters address a single element or scene in a story.

In fact (since you specifically asked me for feedback! :), I’d gently challenge you to think about what you mean by “helpful feedback.” I think most authors simply like to know that their work is being read and appreciated by their audience. As I’ve noted before, posting a story is not an effortless act. There is first multiple steps of editing and revision to get it ready for an audience, then the summary and title to come up with, tags and metadata to formulate, the actual formatting of the fic for different sites, crossposting it multiple places, and then using one’s social media channels to let people know it exists. I generally end up setting aside the better part of an evening to post a new fic. So while, yes, I wrote it for myself, I posted it for you, and therefore, if you liked it, I don’t think that asking for acknowledgement of that is a huge ask, but my bar is also not terribly high. I just want to know if the people reading my work enjoy my work.

The reason I initially posted “101 Comment Starters” wasn’t because I think that readers need to write deep literary analyses of the fanfic they read; it’s because most readers aren’t saying anything to us and the more I investigated why that was, the more it became clear to me that readers felt like generic “I liked this! Thanks for posting it!” wasn’t enough but lacked the confidence to comment in ways that they (readers) felt were appreciated by authors. Furthermore, commenting is a unique form of writing that many of us don’t feel trained to do. (My research, which appeared on @longlivefeedback, can be read here for more details on this.)

Anyway, all this to say that the “101 Comment Starters” were deliberately meant to address just small parts of the story. As a humanities teacher, I know that synthesis across a whole text–describing how a character evolves or a theme develops across multiple chapters, for example–is a fairly advanced skill. I don’t think readers need to be that ambitious. Most of us, as readers, are familiar with that feeling we get when we read a passage we love, the welling of emotion at a turning point in the plot, the sudden avalanche of thoughts when an author presents a character or worldbuilding element in a way that illuminates the canon for us anew. So I’d actually encourage you to become aware of those moments and use them to choose a comment starter that shares with the author what about their work you found particularly effective or moving. (And, to me, as an author, this actually is helpful. I love knowing what specifically worked for a reader in my work so that I can continue using that technique in future stories.)

Tl;dr: Embrace the small and simple. Don’t worry if you won’t get hired for the New York Times book review on the basis of your fanfic comments. In a fandom climate where feedback has become more and more scarce, we authors are more grateful than you’d know for any effort on our behalf to let us know that our work is enjoyed.

#feedback #fanfic feedback #fanfic comments #longlivefeedback

[silvandar]

Thank you all so much for 1k views! 😍

#otayuri fanfic #otayuri #yurionice fanfiction #yurionicefandom #yurionice #1k views #ao3 #ao3 milestone #ao3fic #ao3 fanfic #fanfics #fanfiction #fanfic #llfc #longlivefeedback

[ao3commentoftheday]

Hi i want to leave detailed comments behind the chapters I love from the fics I love but I am not so good in expressing myself with words therfore a lot of my writing will be repetitive or shallow word chooses. Do you think the author will still be very thrilled for receiving my comments? I ask this because I highly like to encourage my favorite authors.

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I know that I definitely appreciate anyone who takes the time to share their thoughts with me. I don’t expect long comments or complicated words. I expect them to use whatever words they’re comfortable with using to express themselves. And if words don’t work, then I’m totally happy with emojis or gifs. 

Encouragement comes in many forms, and I think your support and enthusiasm will be appreciated, no matter what words you’re using. ❤

But if you want a little help with finding the words, try the @longlivefeedback comment builder. It’s a great resource!

#ao3commentoftheday #submission #asks and answers

[comment-exchange]

Hi, thanks for running this exchange! It’s such a good project. In response to your questions on commenting etiquette, especially about concrit: I “grew up” in a fandom where concrit was normal and expected. I had much better engagement with my stories then than I do now, even though I was in a small fandom and most of what I wrote as a teenager was pretty bad. These days I have a lot of readership/kudos, but almost no-one comments, which makes fandom really lonely.

I think anxiety about commenting correctly is part of it. I saw someone leave a thoughtful, enthusiastic two-paragraph comment on a fic recently, and also (accurately) pointed out a single easy to fix typo. Not only the author but several of her friends piled in to belittle and humiliate this person for daring to criticise. Even after the commenter apologised, they continued to level personal abuse. That author is a Big Name Fan in my fandom, so it probably won’t affect people engaging with their stories - but it’s difficult to see it and not think “is this why so few people comment on my fic now?” I am actually going to stop writing for that fandom once I’ve finished my current WIP because it’s like shouting into a void.

The only type of comment that was considered bad manners in my old fandom was flaming. Long comments, short comments, nitpicking, “can’t wait to see what’s next!” etc - that was all fine. Personally, I’d much rather we still had that culture rather than a precise set of rules. If people want to opt out of a certain type of comment they can specify in their author’s note - rather than the current situation, where people are so worried about commenting correctly that they don’t do so at all, and that’s detrimental to fandom community. (And yes, I’ve sent this on anon because I’m worried about *that* author - who had hitherto ignored me - sending her friends after my own fic!)

Really interesting questions and I look forward to seeing people’s responses!

I'm very sorry you're having such a bad experience with the comment culture in that fandom. Thank you for sharing your experience and your opinions on comments, hopefully it will help someone to remember that commenting etiquette isn't a one way street and both the commenter and the author need to be kind.

For anyone looking to help find a balance between not commenting/not getting comments and giving/getting the wrong kind of comments, whatever that might look like, check out @longlivefeedback.

#commenting etiquette #anonymous #comment exchange #commenting culture #comments #how to comment

[fandom-discussions]

What do you think would be a good way to encourage people to comment on fics more, without putting too much pressure on them because that just makes them not want to comment? I don't want to guilt-trip people, but I also want them to know that more comments means more fic for them.

a good way might be the @longlivefeedback comment project. you can add that to the header of your fics. you can also promote it on your social media if you like. 

another way would be to comment yourself on fics. especially if you have a smaller fandom or sub-fandom, then it’s a good way to make friends and have a feedback loop going on where you’re commenting on their stuff and they’re commenting on your stuff. make friends on social media or interact more. 

what does the rest of the blog think?

#discussions #comments and reviews #Anonymous