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

[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.

I wonder about carrying that theory over to commenting behavior on more routine fic postings, though. Whatever forum one posts to, that forum has regular followers, and those followers are going to see the fic pretty quickly and have that initial rush of "OMG!" where they rec and respond. And again, those followers are also the people who are most into the fandom being written for and thus the people most likely to comment in the first place. But what about the stragglers, let's say people who come in from recs, or who don't browse the forum as quite regularly? The sort of en mass excitement has died down, but these newcomers are seeing it for the first time, right? So--is it the case that as the en masse excitement caused by the posting of new material waxes and wanes, so does an individual's impetus to comment, regardless of how new the material is to her personally? Ah, we're still so pack-oriented...

[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. ;)