JUST LEAVE A COMMENT FEST MASTERPOST

DAILY THEMES DETAILS

HELPFUL COMMENT RESOURCES

FLOATING AO3 COMMENT BOX

BINGO CARD FROM LAST FEST AND LOTS OF COMMENT RESOURCES

HELPFUL COMMENT STARTERS

GUIDE TO LEAVING LONG AND DETAILED COMMENTS

FIC AND COMMENT TRACKING TEMPLATE

FIC AND COMMENT TRACKING TEMPLATE FOR APRIL 2024

MORE TO COME!

you ever read a fanfic and just sit back and think…someone wrote something THIS good… and then just….published it on the internet….for free…..

I love you, fanfic authors

I made it

Reblog for the awesome fanfic authors you know

I’m looking at you.

Yes you.

You're doing so good. Hone your craft.

i’ve started to think about ao3 audience interaction as kinda comparable to doing a live reading in an intimate little bookstore, like kudos are everybody who stayed til the end and applauded, comments are everybody who waited to come up to talk to you afterwards, and bookmark comments are the little snatches of conversation you overhear outside.

this helps me feel better/less anxious about responding to comments with some form of thanks, because if someone walked up to me in person and said they liked my work right after reading it, i would compulsively say thanks. it also helps contextualize audience size in a healthy way i think, bc most of us naturally crave more attention on our fic, but if we were actually in the room with even like 20 people applauding and five people waiting after to tell us how awesome we are we’d be fuckin elated.  

If you don't think that fanfic writers get attached to their commenters and repeat commenters... you're crazy.

There's people who comment on my stories, disappear for months at a time, then comment when they catch up and I almost always remember their tagnames. It means the WORLD to me as a writer to have people who comment both regularly and irregularly on my stories/oneshots/moodboards.

When you guys go away for a few weeks or months... we notice! We hope you're okay and just taking a break, and when you come back rested and excited to read more stories, we're so happy to have you back.

So yes, please comment on stories even if it's once in a blue moon. You're not annoying, you're not overbearing for multiple comments or being super excited. You're helping fuel a writer to keep writing just to see what you have to say next about the next chapter! You're doing the Lord's work with your comments!

Whether you leave a Russian novel in a comment, or just go "noice", like... it makes the writer brain go !!!!!!💞

time for another round of "I should be sleeping, but instead I brain dumped at my phone"

transcript: So, I spend a lot of time in my day job trying to find the root cause issues behind things that happen and this has been really useful for me in my personal life and life outside of work in general. And that's sort of how I came to that conclusion like a year or so ago that it's not the comments themselves that authors are so desperate for when they make those posts or those reblogs where they're begging people to please just comment.

Last year, I was saying that it's about community, and I think that that really is a very key aspect for a lot of people. We're lonely or we want to share with other people. We want to put something out, and then get something back, and then keep that relationship ongoing.

But the thing is, that's not the only reason why people want comments, and it's never really the comments themselves so much as it's what the comments represent.

So for some people, comments are a way to keep score. They see that their fic has 5 comments and another person's fic has 10 comments, and they feel like they're losing if they can't get at least as many as that other person. So that's one scenario.

For another person, they have in their head that getting 10 comments means that their story is good, so if they can just get 10 comments they'll know for sure that they're a good writer.

For another person, it might be more like I'm looking to have that connection. I'm looking to hear some recognition from my intended audience. That they understood what I put out there. That they connected with what I wrote. That I've made an impact on somebody else's life, or at the very least their day. That I, as a human being, have made a connection with another human being elsewhere in the world.

All of these different reasons for valuing comments or treasuring them or needing them, all of them are valid in their own ways, but none of them are going to be satisfied in a way that's reliable.

Because, as an author posting your work on A03, all you have control over is your story, your tags, and your summary. You have no control over how people respond to it. And so relying on other people's response to feel good about yourself, or to feel accomplished as a writer, or to feel that connection that you're seeking is not a reliable way to fill that need in your life.

So you need to find an alternate way of filling that need.

Heads up for anyone who didn't already know: popularity doesn't equal quality.

Sometimes popular things are also quality. Sometimes quality things are also popular. But those are two different metrics on two different scales.

What you see as "good" will depend on which scale you value more in any given moment for any particular creation, and in the end neither popularity nor quality are what matters most.

What matters most is your own enjoyment.

Case in point: I was just prompted to look at my instructions for how to get dark mode on AO3, and it is without question the most popular thing I've ever posted on the site. Does that make it good? No. It doesn't make it bad either. It just makes it popular.

Some really nice words from the irreplicable Naomi Novik.

“People wonder why I still write fanfiction.

Part of it is that fanfiction is like being in a community. You’re literally doing it in the context of a fandom community of other people who are all your peers within this one writing universe. But the other piece of it is that it’s just play.

Just the same way some people like to learn to play the piano or guitar. Some people will learn to plink out “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” with one finger. Some people will really get into it and like to do it as a hobby. And then a very tiny number of people devote so much time and energy to it that they can perform as concert pianists professionally. And probably an even smaller number of people actually want to compose their own music.

Those things are all completely valid. If you take your guitar out to the park on the weekends and play Simon and Garfunkel with your friends, people aren’t like, “Why aren’t you at Julliard?! Why aren’t you getting paid?” Because that’s so clearly not the point of it. The point is to enjoy making art. And all of us as human beings like to make things.

But there’s this sense that writing has to be hard work. Probably because it’s so necessary for schoolwork and it’s so emphasized as work that people forget that people start writing for fun.” - Naomi Novik in the 88 Cups of Tea podcast

It's so funny, because I didn't realize this until I started posting fic regularly myself, but there is genuinely no way for a fic author to tell that you even read their work, let alone liked it, if you just click off when you're finished.

It feels like they should know—of course you read the fic! You just had fifteen emotions in a row about it! But they don't know, because you haven't told them. All they know is that the 'hits' counter went up by one more, which means someone clicked on it, and then probably didn't read more than a sentence before clicking off.

And alright, maybe it feels like it doesn't matter, because they're not ever going to know that you read it in the first place, so why should you even leave a kudos/like, let alone comment?

Because—and I say this as both a fic writer and reader—it means they know someone actually read it. Every time they get proof that someone actually read the whole thing from start to finish, it gives them just a little more evidence that it was actually worth it to put the fic out into the world, and that's a little more chance that they're going to keep writing and posting.

I don’t know who needs to hear this but be nice to fanfic authors. Reblog their stuff. Tell them you liked it. How you felt when reading. What school assignment you didn’t finish because of how captivating their story was. Don’t just scream to your friends about it. But tell them.

So many wonderfully talented people out there don’t get the praise they need. If their work brought you joy, make their day better by telling them it did.

Long ago I wrote a fic. Posted it under a different name without telling anyone in the fandom group I was active in. Watched how the online fandom group loved the fic and had a conversation of it in a positive spirit with each other - what did they like it, theories of this and that, how nice it was to get a new fic into this small fandom etc. - but did they leave feedback to the fic? No. I think it was only one person who commented the fic from the group.

I know the fan group liked the fic because I saw the outside comments. But, if I hadn’t seen them - like readers don’t - then I’d think the fic was not worth of my time and no one read it, or read it but didn’t care about it as it clearly was not worth of any comment.

We’re not telepathics. We don’t know. Tell the creators. They want it and appreciate the feedback. If we didn’t want you to interact with the stuff we create, like comment it/share it/reblog it/etc. we wouldn’t post the stuff online for you to see.

It occurs to me upon reading this that we don't have conversations like this in the comments to the author's fic---so much of fandom is interacting with each other about media we love, but in the fanfic comments section the conversation is almost just commenters talking directly to the author, and maybe the author talking back.

Nobody launches a metacommentary thesis for other readers to debate about in the AO3 comments, or has long comment threads gushing to each other about their favorite character's interactions; it's like the tendency to give the author space while we go play with their creations, a relic of our past when we weren't supposed to exist, has extended to fic authors who are themselves playing in the same mud we are.

We act like it's bad manners to love a fic in front of an author, in the ways the fandom that writes fanfic loves a fic.

And that shouldn't be the case.

They're one of us too.

I have had one or two fics where readers engaged with one another in the comments and I can say with 100% surety that it was REALLY COOL to see!!! Even if they weren’t talking to ME, they were talking about the thing I made where I could see it and that made me feel GREAT. Absolutely loved it.

I write fanfiction and let me tell you: comments about the fic and what you like about it make the hours of work all worthwhile. Literally there is nothing else going for me right now. I get up, go to work, come home, go to bed. To get a (1) in my inbox instantly makes me happy and I'd be nothing without it.

I wish it was more common in fandom culture to do this! Alas, squeeing with your fandom friends through Ao3 comments just isn't quite the same as over something like Discord it seems 🥲

Nevertheless, I want to encourage readers to consider copy + pasting screenshots or the text of their discussions into the comments! I know it's extra work, but I've done this before and the author absolutely loved it 💕

Also, bumping the LLF Comment Project template which is a tone neutral way for authors to invite their readers to comment and let them know it's ok to have reader-reader interaction in the comments.

Commenting positively on fic like

Unfamiliar author: wow I loved this!

Author you’ve interacted with before: you killed me, I’m dead

Author who’s your friend: I hate you

Replying to comments on your fic like

unfamiliar commenter: Thank you so much! I’m so glad you liked it!

commenter you’ve seen before: Let me grab my shovel and help you into your grave.

commenter who’s your friend: HAHA BITCH I WARNED YOU

Survey for Fanfic Readers & Authors

Hello! We are researchers at the University of Washington Human-Centered Data Science Lab investigating people’s participation in online fan communities like Fanfiction.net to better understand how people form communities in online environments. We’d love to have you participate in our new survey.

Fanfiction Survey Link

We’re looking for Fanfiction.net users aged 13 and above. We’re interested in hearing from anyone who has used Fanfiction.net to read, review, or post fanfiction stories. You don’t need to be a current user of Fanfiction.net - we’re also interested in hearing from people who used the site in the past. The survey contains 14 questions and you are not required to answer every question. 

All parts of this survey were approved by the University of Washington Human Subjects Division Institutional Review Board (IRB) to ensure the protection of your rights and welfare as you take this survey. Your responses will be kept confidential, although we may publish aggregated results. You may exit the survey at any time. 

For questions about our research, contact Niamh Froelich at [email protected].

Thank you for your participation!

Hey guys, 

I’m working on a study of fanfiction as part of my MFA at UCLA and I’d really appreciate it if you could take part in this survey if you read or write fanfiction. 

All responses will be anonymous (apologies if you saw the original version that asking for a pseudonym and ignore the picture that goes with this link) and will be used in an academic paper as part of a larger exploration of representation in fanfiction. This paper stems from my love of fanfiction and the wonderful experiences I’ve had as parts of various fandoms, and I’d really appreciate it if you could take part.  If you have any questions the please feel free to DM me! EDIT: I have two responses and I’m like “omg I can finally start planning my essay lol”. But also, even if you don’t take this survey or don’t read fanfic I would still super appreciate it if you could reblog!

I was so excited to wake up and have more responses! Thank you so much!

Please consider reblogging even if you don’t take part!

Fandom Demographics Survey

Note: I am not Laura, but I’m helping her out by sharing this due to my interest in fandom-related research. 

Survey on fandom demographics (10 questions, estimated 2-5 minutes)

This isn’t feedback related, but this is a project we’re very interested in, so please help Laura out by answering these questions and sharing the survey! 

@ao3commentoftheday