AO3 Stats Memes: no... comments?

[ely_baby]

I've seen these AO3 stats memes popping up in my flist for a couple of days now, and I'm sorry if I haven't commented on each one of them. It doesn't mean that I don't like them or feel the urge to snob them, just that I've been rather busy with my betas, translations for the OTW October Drive, helping out crack_broom with tidying up their archive, and what else? Oh yes.. real life.. Ugh.

I do have some thoughts on them (personal thoughts, please, I'm not trying to impose my point of view on any of you), though, and I am also rather curious to know why you'd post them in that way (and I don't mean the top five thingy):

1. First of all, my thoughts on questions such as: "Oh, I didn't expect that pairing to be so high in my top five! Why do you think that would be?" or "I really didn't like that fic that I wrote, how can it be that it's so loved?" - My question is: is your fic rated E? If it is, well, you have your answer. People can't care less what the pairing is or what your writing is like, if they're looking for two paragraphs featuring "Anal Sex" and "Dom/Sub" and you have tagged your fics as meticulously as I usually do, well, that's all they need to know to click on it and raise your Hit Count. They're probably not even going to read your whole story - or maybe they are, "probably" is key here -, just what they need to get off (hope I'm not shocking anybody here) before they're off to bed.
2. Which brings us to thought number two. I really, really don't think Hit Counts is a good indicator of how good or popular a fic it is. Just how dirty it is, in my humble opinion. (Unless it's not dirty at all, then congrats!) Why would my absolutely lovely story (if you allow me to call it so), "Granny's Little Helper", where five-year-old Lily helps Grandma Molly baking mince pies on Christmas Eve have only 147 hits, and the story that got me a one-way ticket to hell, "These Violent Delights (Have Violent Ends)", where Bill rapes Lily because he thinks he is role-playing with Ginny, has 11,554? I've posted them only a few months apart, my writing style hasn't changed one bit in the months I've written them, one is not better than the other. But one is tagged "Christmas", "Fluff", and "Children", while the other has "Rough Sex", "Sibling Incest", "Breathplay", and "Rape/Non-Con" amongst its tags. So yeah...
3. Kudos. I hate Kudos so much, you have no idea. To me a kudos by itself says, "Hey, I read it, kind of, it was good, kind of, I enjoyed it, but I really can't be bothered to leave a comment so have a kudos instead." Maybe I am a bitter old maid who doesn't get many kudos on her stories - I don't. I really don't, and I'll refrain from using the "but English is not my first language" card - but that's what I think in general. When I read a story Kudos and Hits are the last things I check out as indicators of the level of the fic. In fact, my favourite stories on AO3 have very few Kudos and Hits.
4. Anonymous kudos are for people who don't want to put their name next to the fic (we all know that), but I think that 75% of them does it because it's a dirty story story and they're ashamed of what they're reading and enjoying, 5% probably doesn't have an account for real, and 19% might be slightly ashamed that they can't be bothered to leave a comment. 1% can't be bothered to log in - I've met those too. That's what I think about anons.
5. Bookmarks are just the same as kudos for me. Anonymous Bookmarks are like Anonymous Kudos - minus the don't have an account/can't be bothered to log in. Too ashamed, or don't want the author to see that they have liked the story but haven't left a review. Which brings us to...
6. COMMENTS. Call me old school - every other archive where I've posted my fics in the past only had comments/reviews as an indicator of how much loved a story was - but comments are the most important thing to me. And I don't understand why you wouldn't include them in your stats. I mean, comments let us know that the person has read the story, and that they have enjoyed it, comments are a wonderful way to connect to your readers... or to the authors you read and enjoy: you can start a discussion, you can ask them things, point out what you liked the most in their stories and what perplexes you. And this is one wonderful thing about Fanfictions, authors are so much easier to reach than published authors. And AO3 is absolutely fantastic with comments. I get the best reviews - compared to the other archives - on AO3. They're almost never one-liners, never just one word, most of the time they're long, insightful reviews that make me feel all warm and fuzzy. And you can reply to them, and the reviewers are happy to know that they have spent time writing something for you and you're acknowledging their effort. By the way, I really don't understand when someone doesn't reply to comments, but what I know is that I don't feel inspired to leave a comment to someone who hasn't replied to the comments that were posted to their story prior to my comment. I feel like the author doesn't care about comments and thus I don't care about leaving them a comment.

So, is that why you wouldn't include your Comments stats in your posts? Because they're not important to you? Are your Hit Count and your Kudos and Bookmarks more important than your Comments? I would understand that from someone who isn't a writer, but don't you feel a shiver or butterflies in your stomach when you get a comment rather than a kudos? I mean, probably I have completely misunderstood (I still won't play the "English not first language" card, though) your posts, but I thought you wanted to talk about what readers like in your stories - and posting your stats is a perfect way to do it. But we all know they like porn (yep, not going to call it "erotica", sorry), but what is really important to them? What do they really enjoy in your stories? Hits and Kudos and Bookmarks are just a cheap way to get to the porn or ask an author for more. Personally, I might have helped raising the Hit Count quite a bit on some pornish stories when I feel particularly lonely. I mean, I am sure I am not the only one. That doesn't mean that I think they're good at all or that I've read them from start to finish (ctrl + F + cock, that's how I get to the part I need). Sometimes I open a few and never even get to read some.

I feel really old right now. Comments - giving and receiving them - are important to me and not seeing them in your stats saddens me greatly.

That's all. God, I'm wordy! At least, I don't post very often, right? ;) x