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I am beginning to wonder if Bike has had its day. It's interesting because when I stopped writing it for a year or two, I had regular pleas to start posting it again, but peculiarly, the people who lobbied hardest no longer seemed interested in commenting, so I presume they were no longer reading it. Comments are the only payment we receive as authors and I notice the number of reads and comments are dropping although the kudos stay about the same.
Do I continue posting Bike, or has it had its day? I am asking for your opinions.
Comments
Bike quiz
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm still reading and loving it. Not more than a couple of months ago, I went back and re-read every episode. Still laughed and cried as needed.
Weekly Dormouse
Angharad,
As long as you enjoy writing bike, I shall enjoy reading it. The travaills of clan Cameron are always lively and loving.
Darling, as long as Mark Cavendish can still win stages of the Tour de France at his age, only in a team due to another's illness then dreams become reality.
Carry on is my vote. But you know that anyway.
Love to All
Anne G.
its not just Bike
that is getting fewer hits
I've noticed that over the last year, Gaby chapters are getting @ 20% fewer hits whilst, like Bike, the kudos are fairly constant. I'm sure there are many reasons, i've discussed this with Bev, it could be that there are more distractions, a change in the demographic or just time of posting!
Personally, when there were fewer stories being posted i would read just about everything but as more authors have increased the volume available i've become more selective.
As for comments, well i hardly get any which i take as a positive - clearly there's nothing blatantly wrong, people complain easily but are much more reticent in giving praise.
I look forward to the weekly bike episode although posting at midnight on a Saturday means i often don't see it for best part of a day by which time it could be halfway down the page! keep writing it if you want to, I know it'll be missed if you stop but its your choice not ours.
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Great comment Maddy
There is just so much being posted here that it gets hard to read even 50% of it when real life gets in the way.
Five years ago, getting 2000 reads in a month or so, was common. Now I'm seeing 1100-1400 hits in the first few months. Some even less.
Samantha
Same Here
I share your views and it has meant I've lost a lot of my appetite to post regularly and particularly to finish two of my stories. I assumed it was my writing or subject matter that wasn't interesting.
Maybe too much competition these days for the site.
Clicking the "kudo" button is my way of ...
... saying "Thank you for writing that." Then I must choose between adding a redundant "Thank you" as a comment or reading the work of the next most deserving author. (So many words; so little time.) Yes, a lazy choice, I know. :(
How much is one read worth? It is worth a lot to me when it is me reading Angharad or Julie or Samantha or Angela or ...! And when more than one of you show up in the morning listing? Oh, where to start???
Thank you, sisters.
Sara
Between the wrinkles, the orthopedic shoes, and nine decades of gravity, it is really hard to be alluring. My icon, you ask? It is the last picture I allowed to escape the camera ... back before most BC authors were born.
Ultimately
It's up to you, but I still like it and I still find the situations interesting. I would just point out that some of the finest writing here has quite low readership but high Kudos relatively speaking, which seems to indicate a dedicated following. I'm sure there would be many disappointed fans if you stopped, myself included.
Keep the Bike rolling please.
I have become selective of what I read but I still read this.
I have been reading from the very first post and would look for it first thing when checking in on new stories.
Thank you for thousands of entertaining episodes.
Duane
At some point past number 3000
At some point beyond episode 3000 I had to stop reading for a while (too busy in real life to keep up with much here on BCTS), when I went back (months) later, I noticed that I had a hard time keeping track of who was who and their backstory.
So far I haven’t had it in me (time) to start the dauting tasks of rereading from episode 1
Anne Margarete
Hiatus
It will take a bit to get me in sync again as it is a big time investment at least to me to bring me up to speed again.
Part of the original charm was the soap opera level posting as you are kinda doing a Truman Show look at how your neighbors are doing.
I will wind up binging on it at some point to get back into the game as it were.
weekly eipsodes
I too have trouble with continuity in the present format. People still care about the characters and will keep reading but the soap opera form doesn't work as well for me in weekly installments. Perhaps writing an entire story arc in chapters as you have time and then posting them closer together would work better. I know that it would be welcomed back after each pause. That said I almost always read Bike as soon as I see it.
Get back reading
As there was this pause with new chapters on a weekly basis the details of the story fled my memory. So I'd have to read many old chapters to have the important facts in memory again. With so much going on I postpone doing that. So I'd like to read more but it'll take me some effort to do so. The same goes for Gaby.
Honestly never read Bike
But, I used to read quite a lot of stories that I just don't anymore, and it's generally changing tastes or sheer lack of time. Funnily enough though I don't work I've gotten busier and seem to have less time these days. Covid has only made it worse. I should probably try reading Bike but I don't know if I'll have time.
As I believe I have mentioned
As I believe I have mentioned in the past, I love Bike.
It is the first story that I look for on the site.
I also have just re-read the entire storyline in the past few weeks.
It helped provide entertainment during the lockdown.
I will continue to read it as long as you continue to write it.
Thank you,
Bike
Bike is still one of my favorites. I look forward to the weekend knowing Cathy and the whole family will be back with a new episode.
Red MacDonald
I'd missed the updates...
and was delighted to have them back. You're one of my go-to authors, like Maddy Bell, Snowfall, Shiraz, Bev Taff, and a select few others. Your writing is engaging and enjoyable. There are a few very prolific contributors that I simply cannot stand to read, for reasons that are not suitable for airing here. But if you ever decide you'd like to have an exit strategy for Bike, could you please plan on an ending? I'm still mourning the sudden exit of Ellen (of the Tuck series), and am sure to miss the delightful contribution of Maggie Finson.
So, short story, please continue!
Steve
Still my first read ...
... when it pops up in day's new deliveries.
I suppress the urge to rant at some of the outrageous politics and just enjoy the quality of writing as the various antics are explored.
In whatever form you are willing to bestow upon us, my anticipation and appreciation will continue.
Sara
Between the wrinkles, the orthopedic shoes, and nine decades of gravity, it is really hard to be alluring. My icon, you ask? It is the last picture I allowed to escape the camera ... back before most BC authors were born.
What Happened?
I enjoy Bike and I did comment but it is not there now. I do not know why it did not post. I was actually first to post.
Gwen
I guess you already
know my answer to your question Angharad, For me its still as fresh as when I first started to read the stories all those years ago, Once a week works well for me and as you probably know I try to comment after most chapters, I do realise though that time can be short and you must have many other things to occupy yourself with, Having said that while ever you have the will (and the time) to write BIKE I for one will always read and try to comment on the latest happenings at Cameron Towers.
Kirri
After I put Tommy to bed
After I put Tommy to bed (sigh) I needed to find something to read and I picked up on where I left on my reading of Bike. But, it was hard to remember everything. So, I went back to #1 and started over, and I really do enjoy this story. I know I haven't been adding to the read count, because of the way I'm reading it and it's also hard to leave comments too.
Oh no it hasn't!
Has Bike lost its appeal? Certainly not.
Bike is the serial that spurred me on to becoming a member at BCTS. The characters and the story are engaging and what really piques my interest are the (almost) incidental details about dormice, ecology and biology in general. Thanks for all of it so far and being selfish I say long may you continue.
I really prefer novels
I have read, and enjoyed, the occasional short story in my life, but really, I prefer novels. I enjoy sitting down with a good book and reading it in two or three days. I find that most short stories end just as they start to get interesting for me.
Serials, for me, are in-between stories and novels. Each chapter, by itself, is not really satisfying, but at least it is part of a story arc that has a start, middle and end. More and more I have taken to waiting until all of the chapters have been posted and then reading them all, one right after another.
As far as Bike goes, when I found and read the first episode there were already thousands more written and posted on the site, just waiting for me to read them. Having 'caught up' I am now dealing with new chapters of Bike in the same wait-then-binge way that I read most of the other serials posted here. Unfortunately, this method leads to fewer and later kudos, as I tend not to click on the kudos button twenty times as I read through twenty chapters, but only once when I get to the end of the available chapters.
So, by all means keep writing Bike for as long as you wish, and I will keep on reading it, but if you ever catch up with reissuing the entire series as books on Amazon, I would probably just start buying the latest book when it was released,
Issuing books
As far as that is concerned I leave that to BC staff and Erin, I gave them permission to sell the ebooks to help defray the site costs, so they get all proceeds.
I asked a question at the beginning of this blog and am happy that there are enough readers who would miss Bike if I pulled the plug, so for the foreseeable future I will keep writing it and I hope you all continue to enjoy it, perhaps enough to leave a comment or kudos.
Angharad
I promise to comment more often,
Bike is something I look forward to every week. I did comment recently that the current story arc you have now is more like it had been in the past and I am really liking it. Please don't stop.
Your Numbers
Your kudos to "hits" ratio is fantastic.
Over the years BC has gone through many different cycles. It appears we are in a cycle where we have a lot of writers compared to the number of readers. My recent postings have generated about three times the hits your "Bike" postings are getting but about the same number of kudos.
You have a product that is enjoyed and appreciated by your readers. Congratulations.
If you publish, I will buy your book(s).
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
The "Like" Culture...
I have found more and more that with the prevail of prime social media and mobile devices that the ratio of live person comments posted on websites is offset now by simple positive/negative, like/dislike, kudos/1-5 stars responses. With things like twitter's retweets and Facebook's likes, the easier road is usually taken by people and is more acceptable and expected than thought out constructive commenting. I honestly wouldn't look at comments on most media sites as a reliable source of reinforcement. It's too easy to copy and paste ad nauseum instead of thought out responses.
**********
I am a leaf on the wind, but someone turned the fan off.
Hi Ang'
I still read 'Bike' every time you post a story, it and a few other stories are the ones I look for each day. I must confess to having dropped off in the comments department and admit my guilt for you are right, comments are the 'dues' that writers seek as some form of renumeration. It seems this is a general trend right across B.C.; that is comments seem to be less forthcoming now than ten years ago. If any of the longer term writers look back down their stories they will find this trend to be quite common. As Maddy wrote in her response, comments seem to be getting scarcer and scarcer. We chatted at length about it one evening but it seems there is little one can do to encourage more comments.
All my love and take care,
Bev. xx
Some places to ‘explore’ in EAFOAB:
We haven’t heard from Shekinah in quite some time. And >why< has Cathy never visited Billie’s (et al.) graves, by herself, without begging/asking, with flowers for all? Sheesh! Does the Shekinah even >have< a bigger “I want flowers and gratitude” stick?
Cathy and the girls have all had hints that Shekinah seems to have Big Plans for Cathy. Way past time to find out.
- - -
Just about ‘everywhere’, Cathy complains about the state of farms, of food, of species decline, habitat destruction, land overuse, salmon lice, pesticides, has seen health problems in her own family, and more.
And the start of a solution to all of her issues stares her in the face three times a day, looking up at her from her food plates:
“Everybody” goes vegan, and farms don’t have to feed ‘food’ animals. So the farms do not have to plant fence line to fence line. The hedgerows can come back, the dormice get their homes back, other animals and plants get their homes, ‘habitat corridors’ open up, increasing genetic diversity in populations. See: https://www.tolhurstorganic.co.uk/about-us/. If farms are no longer growing animal food, they need far lest pesticides, they need far less lab-GMOs to feed people.
When farms can get out of the job of feeding cheap crud to animals, they can start feeding good food to people. Not feeding animals, in order to mis-feed people, takes the pressure off of the Rain-forest, and just about all other parts of the global Ecosystem. See https://awellfedworld.org/ for far more information.
"It's alimentary, my dear (Donald) Watson." https://www.vegansociety.com/
If her family goes vegan/Whole Foods Plant Based (no oil) (WFPB), all their health problems from bad food should fade. Simon should find it easier to reduce that pot belly of his. There is no need to beg the Goddess, no need to thank the Goddess for curing a heart attack, or stroke, or … if one does not inflict said dis-eases upon oneself. https://kickstart.pcrm.org/en, https://www.pcrm.org/, https://nutritionfacts.org/. Oh, and getting off of salmon and other fish – her family is no longer part of the salmon/salmon lice problem. Getting off of all fish means she is not longer part of that problem. With 1/3 to ½ of the catch (sc)Raped (bottom trawlers) from Mother Ocean being fed to land “food” animals, and to farmed fish, she is out of that problem. Only about 10-20% of the sea-life caught comes to land, the rest, 80 to 90%, is thrown overboard, dead and dying, as not enough profit to even ‘land’ it. Last kill total I saw was 2.7 US Trillion lives per year: 2,700,000,000,000. Bonus: 46% of the plastic fouling the World Ocean is discarded sea-hunting (fishing) gear.
Did I mention all the diseases (zoonotics) that we got from messing with animals. COVID is just the latest. And it is not the worst. Influenzas >already exist< estimated at 50% lethal. All they need are 1-2 mutations to go human-human transmittable. And mutate is what viruses do. In the USA, ‘culls’ (mass killings) of tens of millions of diseased chickens is >routine<.
That Climate Disruption (global warming) Cathy is lamenting? Where do those GHGs come from? https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2019/04/04/meat-and...
Might this be Cathy’s Purpose/Mission from the Goddesses? Both of them: Shekinah, and her boss, Gaia? A Mission to shove the World, kicking and screaming, towards a better World? The story needs conflict and ‘bad guys’? The agri-PLAGUE-death animal agriculture system has, is, and will oppose plant eaters with increasing levels of verbal, legal, physical and lethal violence.
- - -
Danni & football: This is so muddled up, that I have no clue (and Danni, Cathy, and the involved football associations also likely have no clue) as to what’s going on, which way to proceed.
- - -
Long time no visit to Stanebury Castle. Surely, something has been neglected, needs attention – and the Ghost Mistress of Stanebury will alert Cathy.
• “Zoning Committee/Heritage” site people want to ‘mess with’ something of how Cathy’s family runs it.
• Poachers.
• Waif spotted living on grounds or in castle. (This is Big Closet, so of course waif is TG. How about he’s FtM?)
• Open up castle as a “Bed and Breakfast”.
Bike
If I’ve enjoyed a story or episode I’ll always add a kudos, but if I don’t think I have anything of genuine value to add in relation to the episode or to contribute to an existing debate, then I won’t, but I’ll always actively encourage an author if it seems appropriate.
Equally, I’ll always try to couch any criticism in as constructive a way as possible and think very carefully before posting - as often as not I’ll decide against doing so. I do think it’s very important to ensure that feedback should be as supportive as possible, but never added for its own sake either.
I realise that’s a bit long-winded, but you can rest assured that I for one look forward every Saturday and another update in the ongoing saga of Cathy and her brood, especially as they mature. Please don’t stop.
Rob xxx
☠️
I look for it first, every day!
I didn't realize I had been failing to comment on it, I just went through my messages and discovered I had! I love Bike, please don't stop.