Comments! (and the encouraging thereof)

[graycardinal]

I've just been prowling the AO3 collection (where most though not quite all of the stories for the Exchange have been posted), and have noted an interesting phenomenon: of the 120 works posted to the collection, exactly half (60) have more than two comments, while nearly a quarter (27 by my current count) have one or fewer comments.

In the interests

Comments

[seta_suzume]

My! Well, I thanked my writer on lj (since we're already acquainted), but "For Whatever Kind of Puzzle You Got" deserves a great comment on the AO3 as well. Thanks for the reminder, graycardinal!

(but I thoroughly encourage any of the rest of you who like FMA to go read it and leave her a comment too!)

[likeadeuce]

<3

[graycardinal]

[glyph of [oops!]]

Per my ETA'd comments and those elsewhere in the thread, I totally didn't intend to unjustly imply a lack of thankfulness where thankfulness happened. Color me suitably mea culpa'ed.

[seta_suzume]

Oh, no, I certainly didn't interpret it as a lack of thankfulness, so no need to worry! :D

I just thought, "Well, I should go be thankful where everyone else can see!!"

[likeadeuce]

Hey graycardinal, I appreciate the intention behind the post (and I also appreciate the people who followed your lead and checked these fics out -- I just read "Fire in her Fists" and found it delightful). It's great to share stories and everybody likes to get comments!

I do want to mention that, as seta_suzume tactfully pointed out in her comment, it's not fair to assume a recipient hasn't thanked their writer just because you don't see a comment on AO3. This isn't an anon exchange like Yuletide or Remix. Stories may be crossposted and participants might know each other and communicate in other ways, as happened in this case w/ me & Suzume. Not a complaint, just something you may not have considered as you were phrasing the post.

[graycardinal]

This is an entirely valid point, and I have inserted an edit acknowledging it. While I tried to target the post fairly narrowly toward the positive, you're right that I overlooked the possibility of crossposted stories and the implications thereof.

In the interests of full disclosure, I should note that when I wrote the original post, my own story (non-crossposted) was among those with one comment on AO3. As a result, I was to some extent extrapolating from my own situation when I created the post. If anything slanted my comments away from the cheerful and mostly objective, that will have been the notable factor.

[rivulet027]

I'm glad you posted this here. I'd commented on the fic I received, but it didn't go through for whatever reason. So thanks for the heads up!