The Natural Selection Survey Round-Up
Well, let me just start by saying that the number of people who took the time to complete the survey AND provided comments makes my soul sing. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you!
Part of this survey was about understanding the reading behaviour. For several months this year, the story was getting approx 3-5k hits a week. That is mind blowing tbh. I asked 9 questions (and one for a nickname) and received 197 respondents. I’m not going into the detail of each questions’ results (because that’s time you’ll never get back!).
Before we get to the results of the survey, there’s a few things I have to share.
Some of the comments were brilliant - here’s some highlights:
- “There's no polite way to say 'I masturbate to your story a lot'.“
- “I love that you love these taboo themes because I do too lol”
- “But it's ALL so very good.”
- “i've left a few comments via tumblr, but want to re-iterate how amazing all your stories are. i cycle through them all when i'm ‘in the mood’.”
- “This story hits a lot of my kinks, so it's one of my favorites even though I'm not actually in the Glee fandom.”
- “I'm pretty sure last year my neighbor blocked his wifi because I was reading this story while stealing it.”
- Is it disturbing that I wasn't disturbed?”
- “so all of this hits all of my buttons. Seriously, you're amazing. Thanks for writing this!”
- Nickname? “nah this amount of sin needs to stay private but love it so much!!! “
Even the con crit was intriguing:
- “i reckon u can push it further :)"
- “I hate that it is Burt - the father son thing skeeves but your sex scenes are so hot that I look passed it.”
- “For this to end. This fic is insane, man!”
- “it seems like you're going for a happier ending, which makes my morals feel better but is a little disappointing for my horrible libido.”
- “Honestly, I don't really support most of the "disturbing themes" but they are kind of my guilty pleasure.”
- “burt is just too old”
- “but I know what I'm in for when I go into a boypussy fic rather than a trans male fic, so there's not much point in complaining about that.”
- “Personally, I really hate the feminization and misgendering”
- “It's not real. It's fiction. Fiction isn't hurting anyone when there's proper warnings, which you've done.”
The Trends
The results surprised me in that there are two core audiences (still) reading this story (GKM readers & AO3 readers), but the subsets of those groups have very different expectations about fic and their level of interaction. Here’s some trends I’ve noticed (yes, these are generalisations).
The Results (brace yourself for stats, charts and rambling. Long post is long)
The hits:
AO3 tries to filter out multiple hits to a page when sourced from the same IP address, so if you bouncing between chapters in one sitting or are logged in (with cookie tracking on) then less hits are generated than a random reading spree. The site will also count the hit if you click to check it out and then back away screaming.
As you can see from the chart, there’s a core audience who visits a lot (several times a week is the average) and when people arrive at the story, they spend time and look around. What was also interesting is that 22% of visitors (who responded to this survey) did not know you could download the story from AO3 - now they do, I suspect the hit rate will subside.
Commenting on stories:
It’s often talked about, the difference the level of interaction between the writer and newer (and possibly younger) fandom people as compared to previous iterations of fandom (that were established via earlier fic platforms).
Generally speaking, I have found Tumblr users to be the least likely to offer feedback (probably for several reasons e.g. a more ‘woke’ audience means less interest in this fic; and can’t be anon to like, comment or share the story for fear of kink shaming etc). Live Journal (LJ) and AO3 are friendlier in that regard, allowing anon comments on the story and as a consequence, I get more comments on those platforms.
So I asked if the readers if they wanted to make an anon comment via the survey. Interestingly enough, most of the 29% that said ‘Nah, I’m good’ were AO3 readers (so just reading it is enough, not leaving kudos or a comment is preferred behaviour). The majority of 41% were actually a mix from all platforms. One respondent summed it up nicely. “Got complicated thoughts but putting them down in writing is a bit daunting.”
Ratings:
This was my most self-serving question in the survey but how else can you get people to be honest about your work? I asked the respondents to rate the fic on a scale of 1 to 4 stars.
Apparently lots of people love it and gave it 4 stars (yay!) and this rating came from a cross-section of fic platform users. Those that gave it 3 stars or less used AO3. This was very interesting to me - if those readers are checking in after every update and/or subscribing to the story then you would think that they’d love it rather than simply enjoying it.
There was one respondent who gave it 1 star (and a comment), which I find hilarious! They either had to read through all the last chapter and complete the survey, or they went out of their way to click via Tumblr and complete the survey. To this reader I need to say this: Your time is precious, go find something that you actually enjoy to read.
Now to the meaty bits!
Disturbing themes/Taboo topics:
The majority agree, the forced feminisation of Kurt was THE most disturbing aspect of the fic so far. Most of the comments on this question mentioned that as an issue.
This was not surprising. I knew that this would be super controversial and could turn a lot of people off the story. This plot point is about two things:
1. Burt’s kink and character evolution, and;
2. the power disparity between Kurt and himself. It demonstrates that if your self worth comes solely from another person, then you could willingly tie yourself in knots, and into someone you don’t recognise, in order to remain in their world.
So no, neither of those two things are healthy. Is it something that I personally support? No. I also don’t support incest, bestiality, rape, or “the adamant rejection of trans people” in the world but I will not kink shame anyone for writing or reading about it.
This fic started like on the Glee Kink Meme, where I had an OP that I checked in with to cover off the plot I had conceived. They were on board with the plot points and had some requests of their own. Whether they’re still reading after all this time, I don’t know.
What I do know is that the GKM and LJ readers were happy with the warnings, as were most of the AO3 readers. There were some thoughtful and constructive comments about boypussy vs trans people (as compared to the bullying anon hate that my Tumblr attracts) - the points are absolutely valid. I understand why lots of writers have backed away from boypussy. I also know that I will not abandon this fic, so that means I will not abandon the b!p concept until the story is done.
There are a lot of taboo topics in the world - some are hidden in plain sight in everyday media e.g born sexy yesterday, rape, dub con and incest (hello, we’ve all read/seen Flowers in the Attic) - but some remain behind closed doors or a firewall e.g. porn of all genres, and my wild Hummelcest fic to name a few.
Fiction is meant to be a release valve from our everyday lives. It is an escape into a different world. As another respondent said: “It's not real. It's fiction. Fiction isn't hurting anyone when there's proper warnings, which you've done.”
And now the....
Coming attractions:
There were so many fab comments on this question! Here’s the breakdown:
- Kurt and Cooper’s romance has been a surprising success.
- The time with the dogs is also popular (less surprising as this theme is very popular on AO3 across all fandoms).
- But the hold the phone, the thirst for Klaine is real.
Blaine’s introduction has been a long time coming - in the fic and also in writing the fic. The fans of this story have some fucking amazing patience. This may be one of the reasons why his introduction has be so lauded. However, I am all to aware that he is often viewed as Kurt’s prince charming in so many fics but we also know that Kurt is not simply waiting to be saved.
So the plot thickens!
How will Blaine fit into Kurt’s life? How will Blaine react to Kurt and Cooper’s relationship? What is Blaine and Cooper’s relationship really like?
There were a few contradictory comments made around the Anderson brothers in particular. Lots are all rooting for Andercest while a few are most decidedly against.
What I will say is that this survey wasn’t about gathering ideas for future plot points. The story outline has existed for the at least 3 years. I have simplified it over time - cutting characters, cutting scenes, and adding in things I’d missed. So there are some unexpected plot points coming up that will throw some readers for a loop - but as always, there will be warnings.
Right, that’s it for now! Thank you for completing the survey, and thanks for reading the results. See you soon with an update on AO3.
Gigi
