and you loved things just because

[musesfool]

I did in fact stop in at Home Depot last night to pick up a new light bulb for my bathroom (everyone I mentioned this to was surprised but it's not like they carry 3 ft. long fluorescent bulbs in Duane Reade. Or maybe they do and I just can't find them), and then when I climbed up onto the toilet to install it, I discovered that the reason the old

Comments

[roga]

There has deeeeeeeeefinitely been a switch from comments to kudos. For a lot of different reasons, obviously, but I can say for myself - I used to feel so guilty leaving kudos instead of a comment, but these days, since I do so much of my fic reading on my phone, comments are do inconvenient to type out and the kudos button is just - comfortably there, I end up using that a lot (and even that's better than not leaving anything, when I read offline :///).

I also see it a lot when I finish reading amazing, *amazing* stories that give me hours of enjoyment and reach the ending and have my mind blown when I see that they have like, 1500 kudos and 10 comments. Which seems extreme but I'm getting the feeling is, these days, normal.

That plus, I think on the LJ days leaving comments was also a way to start a conversation with and befriend the author? And on AO3 that could still happen, but the befriending would have to happen on a different platform, possibly with a different username, so it's a less organic process and therefore serves less of a motivation for people to leave comments...

Btw apropos of nothing I've been diving through your MCU rec because in the past two weeks I have, after years and years, finally fallen down the wormhole of MCU. SO THAT'S HAPPENING.

[musesfool]

Yeah, I've stopped leaving as many comments, too. Part of it is sometimes I'm at work and I'm in a rush, but sometimes it's like, fuck it, people aren't commenting much on my fic, so I'll just be lazy too and leave kudos, and sometimes it's just that I don't have anything to say other than "I liked this!" and a kudos conveys that.

and reach the ending and have my mind blown when I see that they have like, 1500 kudos and 10 comments. Which seems extreme but I'm getting the feeling is, these days, normal.

*nod nod*

I think on the LJ days leaving comments was also a way to start a conversation with and befriend the author? And on AO3 that could still happen, but the befriending would have to happen on a different platform, possibly with a different username, so it's a less organic process and therefore serves less of a motivation for people to leave comments...

Yeah, I think that's definitely so. And I mean, I've had the occasional conversation in AO3 comments, but it always feels weird and out of place to me, because that's the archive! Conversation goes on LJ/DW!

Also, I've found now that some people write really chatty author's notes which to me would be okay on a journalling platform but seem off [and to me, off-putting] on a story on an archive, like they want to talk about their process or why the update is delayed or whatever, and that's what ANs are for, I guess, but to me it smacks of those old FF.net stories where a chapter would like twice as long as it actually was because half of it was the author answering fb? So it's definitely different than it used to be.

Btw apropos of nothing I've been diving through your MCU rec because in the past two weeks I have, after years and years, finally fallen down the wormhole of MCU. SO THAT'S HAPPENING.

Well, I hope you're finding things you enjoy!