Misc thoughts about comments etc on fanworks

[alias_sqbr]

(Based on recent discussions and also being inundated with them recently. Don't know if anyone cares but it was good to get them all down)

I love comments, but I am totally cool with people reading/looking at my stuff and not commenting if they don't feel inspired to. "I liked this" or indepth thinky, it's all good. I am also ok with people bookmarking/favoriting/reccing etc without commenting (it means even more people might see it!), though if you rec me somewhere I might not see would like to be told because it's a chance to feel more special (..probably don't tell me if you write a rant about how much my stuff sucks)

I am not very good at leaving comments myself, especially on vids since there's that gap between downloading and watching.

Thinking about what gets the most response, quality helps (as much as I can judge it), but fandom and type of work, plus of course where it gets linked etc, can make the difference between 50 hits and 1000. Challenges like yuletart get WAY more responses.

Most popular works (comments, favourites and hits): Dragon Age fanart, even though I only got into this fandom quite recently. I think het > gen > femslash but this is much less significant, possibly because everything I make is gen-ish anyway (Have not done enough m/m or poly stuff to draw any conclusions)

Least popular: obscure Australian political humour in the form of an icon, who'd have thought.

I think my best comment/bookmark:hitcount ratio is on an objectively not that good comic at AO3 about AO3 that I think appealed to the tag wranglers etc :)

My worst is for Dragon Age related stuff at AO3, I think because most readers came from my links on dragon_age and don't have accounts (and several people commented on the lj posts instead). Note 611 hits, no comments or bookmarks on AO3 vs 1010 hits, 9 comments, 12 favourites on DeviantArt for the same comic(*).

I crosspost comics to AO3 anyway since (a)It's better for multiple chapters and series and (b)I want people who are looking for that type of work to find it, whether or not I get any feedback in response.

Various people have said they never get comments on old stories, but I haven't found that to be universally true. eg One of my comics got a huge burst of popularity (a few hundred hits and a couple of comments) several months after I wrote it when it got recced. I guess "Humourous Stargate fancomics with plot" are a bit of a niche market so people might seek them out.

DeviantArty thoughts:
Joining a Dragon Age group doubled the number of favourites on one of my most popular pictures overnight, thus simultaneously making me feel special and reinforcing how little direct correlation there is between popularity and quality.

Several commenters I got via the Dragon Age group said "You're welcome" after I said "thanks" to their comment. I don't mind either way, but it's not something I've seen people do before and it's odd to have so many at once. Maybe it was just two people and they said it several times :)

Personal thoughts:
Comments from strangers are different from those from my friends. I like getting lots of both ^_^ I really appreciate when someone is unfamiliar with the fandom but comments to say they liked it anyway. I love being bookmarked/favourited, what that says to me is that someone liked something enough that they want to look at it again later or share it with others.

Having finally actually joined a popular fandom to the extent of being on communities and posting multiple fanworks and then seeing the different reactions they get, I finally understand the temptation to create things people will like vs what I actually feel like making. But I am being strong and sticking to my artistic principles, such as they are. I made myself make a non Dragon Age artwork I knew noone would click on partly to remind myself I can (and noone did. But people on my friendslist said nice things ^_^)

(*)I still boggle any time I get more than maybe 200 hits on a story, I have to believe that a lot of those must be artifacts caused by bots or whatever. But it means I definitely don't hold to the "everyone who reads should comment" philosophy, I'd never get to the end of the necessary replies!

Comments

[furikku.livejournal.com]

I don't really get the big flap about comments. I mean, I like getting 'em, but I mainly like them when they're something of more substance than "I like this" (especially in places like devArt where if they like it they can fave it).

I usually don't comment on something unless I can think of something interesting or helpful to say.

[alias_sqbr]

I like that people went out of their way to say they liked something, it feels more personal. But I do prefer when they at least say "I liked the expressions" etc, and I don't understand creators who say "ANY comment is better than just a favourite".

I mostly comment on stuff that I adore and want the creator of to know how happy it made me. So it's less coherent meta and more "OMG THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER". But sometimes I write coherent meta too :)

[furikku.livejournal.com]

Very enthusiastic comments are also awesome! :D

Yeah, I consider a fav to be pretty much as good as a comment.

Like I can KIND of understand the creators that want crit, but at the same time, it's the internet- the majority of people reading you probably don't have much in the way of editorial/writing/artistic skill, and just want to enjoy some creative stuff. (I especially wouldn't trust devArt (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v480/furikku/schoolpoll.gif) to supply the kind of crit I need!)

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah, you won't get concrit by pouting, it's a lot of effort and not something everyone is interested in making!

It's interesting noticing the different dynamics in younger skewing fandomy places like DeviantArt or avatar_fans versus AO3 or Pride and Prejudice forums. The latter do seem more prone to thinky versus squee.

[furikku.livejournal.com]

That is not terribly surprising, both because younger folks tend to be less trained in the thinky and because they tend to be more emotional on account of puberty and all.

I remember being kind of frustrated as a younger fannish type because there was such a dearth of what I wanted to talk about.