Commenting Behavior + Calibre

[impala_chick]

This meta post about AO3 comments by osteophage discusses how tumblr culture might explain the lack of commenting on AO3. There are also some interesting links in the notes. I have posted about how the 'please please comment' posts on tumblr are super annoying to me, so this was very relevant to my interests. I'm curious about what other fellow tumblr users think? I generally find fic recs or links on tumblr, and then I actually read fic and comment on AO3. I use tumblr and AO3 very differently, and I actually like that tumblr users post their stuff to AO3. For me, AO3 pre-dated my tumblr so I hadn't really thought of them as two sites working together or influencing each other in that way.

This response by yourlibrarian points out the huge LJ connection. I remember when AO3 opened and it was literally considered just an archive to save work. Fic was always posted on someone's LJ first - and that's where there would be a bunch of comments and excitement, and then there would also be an AO3 link available for saving the fic. I think commenting on LJ was so much easier/more welcoming because most of the time, I KNEW the folks who were posting fics. They were on my friend's list, or they were members of the fandom/ship communities I was in. They commented on my stuff, so I commented on their stuff. Oftentimes, people were posting their fic as WIPs to their LJs and then posting on AO3 when it was completed. So now I'm wondering, should we post our fic on dreamwidth more?

Also, it feels weird when I post comments on AO3 and never get a response back. Although I'm very guilty of letting my AO3 comments linger forever before responding. Maybe this is a bad habit because I go to AO3 expecting to just read, whereas when I log on to DW or Discord, I'm usually planning on engaging with other people.

P.S. I learned about calibre in the Escapade discord server. This post discusses how to use the plug-in. Do you use it? I could see it being useful to read and save longfic.

Comments

[cassie_faith]

I saved the entry about Calibre! As a reader AND writer I see it being useful.

[impala_chick]

Neat, please let me know if you end up liking it!

[squidgiepdx]

> Also, it feels weird when I post comments on AO3 and never get a response back.

This.

Sometimes when I'm gobsmacked at just how amazing some fic is, it takes a bit to post a coherent, appreciative comment for the fic. And then to not even be acknowledged? I know artists,a uthors, etc don't owe me a response, but it still feels good to get one. Then again, if I look at comments and see there's no author response, I may not even leave one.

[impala_chick]

Oh interesting, I do that too! If there are no author responses, I'm definitely put off from leaving a comment. Of course, commenting takes less time than writing a fic, but I still feel like I'm investing my time - when the alternative is the kudos button and it's right there, it's tempting to just do that.

[misbegotten]

Maybe this is a bad habit because I go to AO3 expecting to just read, whereas when I log on to DW or Discord, I'm usually planning on engaging with other people.

That's an interesting point! For me, I think I mentally see reading fanfic as part of engaging in "fandom" so I try to give back. But more often than not these days that just means hitting the kudos button. If the button weren't there, I'd probably leave more comments.

[impala_chick]

I like thinking of commenting as giving back to fandom as a whole. That's a good point - sometimes I see the kudos button as the "easier" way to go.

[muccamukk]

I feel like there's a point that yourlibrarian didn't quite hit, which is: on tumblr there IS a social network culture, and people are friends there (somehow? IDK, I've seen it happen), but that doesn't seem to lead to commenting in the way that being on someone's flist on LJ did. So both posts are true to some extent.

But I do find basically being social on discord and drumming up excitement for my fic does lead to more comments sometimes, at least.

[impala_chick]

Oh you're right, tumblr "mutuals" do get to know each other - although I can't even figure out who my mutuals are. LOL. Most of the communication I see is through the ask box, if someone has their asks open.

I'm glad there's some of that happening over at Discord. It's hard for me to keep up with the threads sometimes, but it does help when some of the servers I'm in have separate threads for fic links.

[shoebox_addict]

This whole conversation is super intriguing. I totally relate to what you said about AO3 and LJ. Back in the LJ days, literally everything I wrote lived on my blog. I didn't start using AO3 until LJ fizzled out, but I can't see posting my fic on DW. Maybe that's because I don't feel the same sense of community here that I did on LJ. Which sounds odd because they're so similar, but most of my community migrated to tumblr and not to DW. So now it feels like tumblr occupies the space that LJ once did (at least in my fic reading and writing realm), but the problem is that tumblr is nowhere near as interactive or community-based as LJ was.

IDK, I have no answers, I'm just rambling, lol. I try to always comment on AO3 because it's the type of engagement that I'm after and that I always appreciate on my own fics. To me, it just feels expected that you would comment on a fic on AO3 because that's how the ecosystem works? I know that's not how everyone feels, though.

[impala_chick]

Yeah this really got me thinking about how Tumblr is such a unique place, but so is DW. I've joined a few fandom specific comms, but I don't see people posting fic there. There are some writing comms were people post fic but it's not the norm.

I do feel obligated to comment if I liked a fic, which sometimes means I leave several tabs open for days until I make time for it :P I kind of wish people on my friend's list would link to their fic more so I know to go look for them - or maybe we're all in too many different fandoms now.