I’ve seen five different authors take down, or prepare to take down, their posted works on Ao3 this week. At the same time, I’ve seen several people wishing there was more new content to read. I’ve also seen countless posts by authors begging for people to leave comments and kudos.
People tell me I am a big name fan in my chosen fandom. I don’t quite get that but for the purposes of this post, let’s roll with it. On my latest one shot, less than 18% of the people who read it bothered to hit the kudos button. Sure, okay, maybe that one sort of sucked. Let’s look at the one shot posted before that – less than 16% left kudos. Before that – 10%, and then 16%. I’m not even going to get into the comments. Let’s just say the numbers drop a lot. I’m just looking at one shots here so we don’t have to worry about multiple hits from multiple chapters, people reading previous chapters over, etc. And if I am a BNF, that means other people are getting significantly less kudos and comments.
Fandom is withering away because it feels like people don’t care about the works that are posted. Why should I go to the trouble of posting my stories if no one reads them, and of the people who do read them, less than a fifth like them? Even if you are not a huge fan of the story, if it kept your attention long enough for you to get to the bottom, go ahead and mash that kudos button. It’s a drop of encouragement in a big desert.
TL;DR: Passively devouring content is killing fandom.
^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^
Fandom is kept alive by readers, watchers, lookers, commenters, and supporters. And the FiKi fandom has some MAGNIFICENT ones…but a lot more who click, consume, and say nothing.
Otherwise, artists and writers are throwing into a vacuum. And it’s the artists and writers who get blamed when there’s not new content?
This applies to so many fandoms. It makes me so sad to see that even on LJ comms, there are far more people reading things than there are commenting on and liking them. I co-mod one of the oldest sites in a particular fandom, and I know it’s still active because of the sign-ups for our challenges, but it’s so disheartening when people post and nobody says anything. How does that encourage new writers, if the first thing they post gets no response? I cheerlead our comm on Twitter, where a lot of the members hang out, and still nothing. It makes me feel like people are eventually going to just stop, and then I shall be sad, because if nobody’s posting and nobody’s reading, there’s little point in my writing and drawing either. I don’t know why fandom is getting so heavily skewed towards passive consumption, but I wish I could do something – anything – to fix it. I miss the kind of comment threads that used to lead directly to more fic and art.
And there’s the answer, random fan demanding more fic but not actually doing anything to encourage it. If you want us to create stuff, let us know we’re not shouting into the void. Engage with us. Discuss plot points with us. We create for ourselves – but we post for you.
Creators love kudos, comments, and feedback. Take a few moments and give it to them. It means so much.
I think people dl’ding fic to their kindles (which, yay!) is a part of this, too. They enjoy it,they re-read it, but they don’t go back to AO3 to leave a kudos or comment.
Perhaps folks could make a point that after they’ve read X number of stories, they pull out their Kindles/eReaders and go back to the AO3 and leave something for the fics they enjoyed? (Note: this is what I do about once a month.)
I get my AMVs from http://www.animemusicvideos.org/. And they do something interesting that I never really understood before I started posting on AO3. Every X number of videos you download, the site stops you and won’t let you download or view any more until you’ve left some ratings for the ones you’ve already downloaded. It might not be more than a star rating, and a few words, but it forces you to stop and go, oh, these people worked for hours, for DAYS on this 3 minutes of video footage. Least I can do is add a few words, and click a star rating.
And just some numbers from my side.
I have a one shot that has 173K hits, and 4.6K kudos. That’s about 2.4% For every hundred people that read that fic, less than three bothered to click the kudos button on the way out. Even assuming that we’ve got some major rereads in there, that’s a depressing statistic. Most days I just ignore the hit and kudos count, because if I look at it, I’ll lose my marbles, but I can’t imagine being a new author, being a kid who’s trying hard to be brave and write a thing, only to not know if those other 97 out of a 100 just noped out, or hated it, or what.
Especially if they only have a few works. Especially if they’re new. Especially if they’re trying to break into a new fandom. Especially if they seem to be struggling. Take a moment and write them a few kind words. Give them a reason to believe the effort was worthwhile.
You’ll be rewarded for it. 8)
Found these tips on my computer.
For the readers that don’t know what to write. Last added thing gives you some ideas.
“incoherent screaming” is easy to type, and is ALWAYS well-received.
Loki is the Philosopher King 