Kudos

[author_by_night]

So I posted a fic at Ao3 (I've been meaning to for a while, I only haven't because laziness), and I received my first two kudos with no reviews, meaning I now know what people mean by that. It also received 17 hits.

I don't really mind, honestly, mostly because I think I'm used to people not commenting on the internet anymore. Don't get me wrong, I wish people would, it can be annoying - but I also think people often do internet things from their phones or even on work/school computers, which means they're probably multitasking. It's easier to leave a kudos then a review. (Though I do like reviews. Including negative ones, as long as it's constructive and not "I hate this pairing rah rah rah.")

Actually, I think what annoys me more is when people like questions you've asked them.

Me: Hey, does anyone want to go to that movie night thing?

Three people: *Like this*

Me: ...is that a yes? Maybe?

Even that, though, I think generally just means people are acknowledging you said something. It's vague, but well-intended. (Or they're flakes. Take your pick.)

Anywho, I'll be posting more fic there over the course of... time. Hopefully a few days. Mostly I just want a second place for it to be archived in case LJ does go down or I delete this LJ for any reason. I may upload a second fic after I post this, actually. If you're interested, my profile is here. (Still AuthorByNight - it's my fandom identity now, high schoolish as it may be. That and it's too late to change it, I think. If I do, it'll probably be "Azaelia." Or something entirely different.)

Comments

[jo-blogs.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the discussion of that post on Tumblr about AO3 stats? It's pretty interesting. There's a really good comment arguing how it's important to support fanfic authors that really gets to the heart of what positive feedback means to authors. I can send you a link if you want, though to be honest I'm still figuring out how Tumblr works so I don't know how to link to the specific comment.

I like getting kudos. As a writer, kudos from signed in users is better than kudos from guests because I can then go and creep on their author pages and find new writers to talk to if I like what I find.

Hit counts I try to ignore because, for me, getting frustrated about the disparity between hits and kudos is where madness lies. I rationalise it that a high number of hit counts has nothing to do with my writing - it probably just means that a lot of people like the title/summary/tags/pairing and a lot of people will hit the back button after one sentence anyway. I wrote a piece of unadulterated fluff partly because I was interested to see what the difference would be between that and the angsty story I posted earlier. Result - more hits on the angsty (longer) story, more kudos on the short and sweet fluffy story. Go figure.

I'm a relative newbie to AO3 and Tumblr after a break from writing fic for a few years and my view right now is that if there isn't a review culture at AO3 it's up to me to try to do something about it. Be the change I want to see in the world and all that.

Reviews are love, obviously. Short ones or long ones. I don't post concrit on stories on AO3. If it's an author I want to encourage, I leave kudos. If I hated the story, I say nothing. If it's a story I think is awesome and I'm fangirling, I post a positive review and try to be specific about what I liked. I think concrit is only for your inner circle of reciprocal writing buddies - i.e. people you've invited to criticise your work because they are also writers in the same group/fandom. It needs to be clearly recognised/acknowledged that everyone is "working" on their practice and wants to hear about specific places/rough spots where they can make their writing better.

Thanks for your email by the way - still thinking about it!