On Reviewing

[dawn_felagund]

Reviewing (meaning leaving comments on stories) is one of the more anxiety-provoking and frustrating aspects of fandom participation, in my experience. I frequently see newbies lament that their stories aren't receiving comments; authors sometimes stop posting to or leave entirely from sites where they feel that their work isn't receiving adequate

Comments

[dawn_felagund]

It might not, of course, but it's the kind of good karma/ be the friend you'd want others to be type of action.

I think this is excellent advice.

One of my mottos, in fandom and out, is "Be the community you want to see." To give a non-fandom example, in the SCA, people always want to attend classes on how to do various medieval arts and sciences. I have been too new to really have much to offer, but as soon as I did, I taught a class on gilding. If I want to see more classes and more artisans sharing their knowledge, then I need to do my part to teach and share my own knowledge.

One of the things that kinda irritates me as a moderator is when someone will contact me, usually to say that they're not going to post anymore on one of the sites I manage, and they want me to know why. "I expected to get a lot of feedback here," they say, "but I only have x number of reviews." So I go and look up the person's account, and sure enough, they do only have x number of reviews ... but they've written even fewer comments on other people's stories, if they've written any at all. So they've basically posted to a community with the hopes of reaping benefits from said community but without wanting to commit any time at all to enriching that community. They're not being the community they want to see.

I'll also leave a review if I think it's a new author who would like some encouragement (*particularly* if I think the story is terrible)

I find this interesting! (And admirable. :) Back when I had more time, I tried to review the first story every newcomer posted on the SWG. It was sometimes a challenge picking out something nice to say, but I felt like it was important that a person's first steps into our community not be answered with only silence. One of the things I love about fandom is its inclusiveness, where one doesn't have to be a brilliant writer to participate (and those who do aspire to improve can do so within a supportive community).

[just_ann_now]

It was sometimes a challenge picking out something nice to say, but I felt like it was important that a person's first steps into our community not be answered with only silence.

The Swordspoint community (_riverside is so tiny that we all tend to review every single story or bit of fanart posted there. I'm so exuberantly verbose in commenting on stories I love, that I'm afraid a simple "Well done! I enjoyed this!" which would normally suffice is misinterpreted as "Uh-oh, she really didn't like it...."

[heartofoshun]

You are great there! I try to be a good community member. And really appreciate people who are.