Yuletide 2009 roundup.

[squonkfan]

I know you people have been waiting with baited breath lo, these many moons for the second installment of my Knight Rider recs. But I need to talk about Yuletide first.

Comments

[joyfulfeather]

I think people are less likely to comment after the initial rush of excitement wears off (after a few days), regardless of how many comments particular story has. It's like discovering an awesome new food. At first, with every bite you go, "OMG that's so good!" and you compliment the chef and rave about it to your friends. After a while, though, when you've had it a few times, you still really enjoy it, but it's more of a feeling of "Of course it's good" (or even "well, it's not as good today as it was last time") so you're not sending the compliments to the chef or informing your flist of how much you love it. There's pleasure but the excitement has waned. There's really only so much enthusiasm people can feel and express.

[squonkfan]

I'm not sure I understand the analogy (though it did make me hungry :)), because we're talking about someone making different comments on different stories, not commenting repeatedly on the same awesome one. Or did you mean that for something like Yuletide, an individual is less likely to comment on any story as the days pass, because her general excitement about the whole event dwindles after the intial reveal? This is sort of along the lines of what I was thinking about in my entry--like, I've already read all these stories and left all these comments and it's already two days past Yuletide and now, eh

[joyfulfeather]

Or did you mean that for something like Yuletide, an individual is less likely to comment on any story as the days pass, because her general excitement about the whole event dwindles after the intial reveal?

That! I know, the food analogy didn't work out as well as I'd hoped. But yes, yuletide being the food and each bite being a different story -- maybe a box of chocolates? I'm not sure. But yes, what you said. :)

See, on LJ or elsewhere, it's a little different -- it can feel a little awkward to comment on something that's been up for a while. Never mind that I think most authors love getting comments on something that's old; it still feels weird to do. I've never been able to put my finger on why, other than it feels like it draws too much attention to the commenter (feeling like you're standing out by saying something, maybe).

As was pointed out to me in my own LJ, after I had a mini meltdown regarding the failure of my fic to get comments: people are weird about commenting. Sometimes there's just no rhyme or reason.

[squonkfan]

maybe a box of chocolates?

Oh, God. Totally Forrest Gump-ing Yuletide now.

IKWYM about leaving comments in other forums. There's some uncomfortable sense of being unfashionably late to a party. It is goofy, because as authors, we all know there's nothing that can brighten a day more than receiving an unexpected comment after we'd thought they'd all dried up!

[joyfulfeather]

Exactly! I've had comments on fic from a year ago and had it make my entire day. You'd think we'd apply that kind of thing when we're commenting, ourselves, but somehow it doesn't work. Reader!brain and writer!brain don't always speak to each other. ;)