A bit ago it came to light that an author can request no comments be allowed on their story.
My general policy is if there are no comments, it means the story will not be read.
And if the lead in synopsis feels a bit sketchy or very vague, the story will be ignored.
An exception to that might happen if I am acquainted with the author's style from previous stories.
In years past, I have started reading a story only to find it wasn't something I wished to read for one reason or another.
Some of those had no comments posted when I started to read or a short synopsis that was quite vague.
Some might say, look at the key words. OK but even those can be misleading depending on how they are chosen.
Just my thoughts, for what they might be worth.
Thoughts on comments
A word from our sponsor:
Comments
Hostility
In my limited understanding, perhaps comments would be forbidden if the author feared negative comments? Perhaps at times stories do not gather comments because the work is so bad in their opinion? I've not been good with comments either because I am lazy? Sometimes the work demands a 'Bravo' ? My own work seems to not have gathered negative comments and I don't try to search out why.
There were a few well written
There were a few well written stories I read, but they really didn't "touch" me, and there was nothing really wrong with them. So I just didn't have anything to comment, good or bad.
No comments allowed
makes me think twice about reading a story.
That said,
There does seem to have been a dearth of comments recently. Kudos is one thing but comments... be they good or bad are a lifeline to an author.
The lack of comments is starting to make me think that posting is a waste of time.
Samantha
Comments
Now I'm trying to figure out why comments seem so important to me, instead of just being, hmm...satisfied? with kudos counts. I think it's because, at least for me, I spent a year or more working on each of the last few books. They aren't made up of serial chapters which can be knocked off in a couple weeks and declared 'done', posted, while moving on to the next one. The books need to be edited in context of their written wholes, and sometimes several 'false start' chapters get tossed aside along the way and utterly re-written.
In other words, it's actually a fair amount of work in plotting, writing, and editing which consume huge chunks of each weekend.
Then they get read by one good friend who helps do an editing 'sanity check' pass on each of the parts before I post them up. They're the first and only person to see the story before it gets posted here. And while they seem to like them, they're a close friend and are probably biased, lol.
So after spending over a year trying to craft the silly things, mixing in all the tears and laughter along the way, it's suddenly released into the wild and posted here first. Maybe I'm insecure or something, but I treasure the comments - especially those that let me know that they too as a reader felt as I did when the words first appeared on the page. Maybe it is ego searching for validation, but as it is for many authors our hearts get splashed across the sentences and hearing back that others were touched by the story and characters means finding out whether all the effort was successful and worthwhile.
Writing, to me, is an act of deep sharing with the reader. Maybe I'm weird. But with each new section of a book's posting, I bounce around nervously for the next day waiting for that first comment and that first external contact. Someday maybe I'll get over that, but it hasn't happened yet. :)
This is an old chestnut
and I raised it recently regarding Bike because I felt the comments had tailed off somewhat. I think that we now have more stories and probably more readers than ever, but fewer comments. Part of it may be that readers are spoiled for choice, many readers don't actually join the site thinking it would betray them if they are firmly in the closet, and increasing numbers of people are pig-ignorant. I am, however, grateful for those who take time to comment or send me a private note.
Angharad
Lack of time
It is an old story. I log on and find stuff to read but my time is limited. There's just so much to do and, as I get older, seeming less time to do it all in.
Most of what I do read I Kudo if I like it. If I don't Kudo something then I probably won't read any more of that story. Then, on to the next thing, because time spent reading is time spent sitting in one place not exercising or doing something else that is potentially more important.
I very rarely comment on stories since I dislike making "me, too" comments and, very often, by the time I get to read any story, someone else has already made the comment I would have done. I do make comments to blog posts, though.
Then of course, if I'm reading then I'm not writing. I have this planet in my head that has several stories which must be told (not to mention all the other stories that are waiting to be told). But of course I can't spend all my time writing, either.
I do what I can, but it will never be enough.
Penny
Readers are not writers …
… and even just writing a comment can be quite difficult for some of us (/me definitely included).
It is easier to take part in a discussion like this, but writing a comment on a story? That is awfully close to a review and how to comment without giving away anything of the story ("No spoilers!" as The Doctor's wife repeatedly said) is not easy (at least for me, that is).
So showing appreciation through giving kudos is the best you can expect from me normally. Add to that that I only read short stories online (the multi-part stories get saved to disk and converted to EPUB to be read with my ebook reader while lying comfortably in bed) – going back later to comment on a story takes additional effort, so the threshold to commenting is higher.
Blockers (not T blockers though)
Comment blockers should be taken outside and shot with a blunt bullet.
No...I take that back shooting is too good for them, they should be made to wear walmart undies
アンその他
Ouch!
Anything but Walmart undies, I'll be a good girl, I promise!
Grr!
I truly hate this Chromebook, another double post!
I've got some
Asda knickers, which used to be part of Walmart, Asda not the knickers, which are fine. I like thin cotton panties and these are what they are. People who wear satin ones obviously have no functioning sweat glands or no sense of smell or they don't wear them all day.
Angharad
Asda knickers
and what about their bras? super cute and cheap for UK.
アンその他
All my undies come from Walmart.
Most of the brands are the same as you'd buy at Target or anywhere else: what's the problem?
(They carry this one brand, FitForMe, that are my favorite undies. Super comfortable.)
Melanie E.
I have found over the years…..
That it’s not where you buy them that matters - but what you buy, and I say this as someone who works for the largest independently owned department store in the US.
The people who only buy at “the best stores” are deluding themselves, and paying too much. Most retailers carry the same brands, perhaps not all of them, but there are many brands common to most. Also, in this day and age, the so-called “off brands” or “store brands” are quite often made by the same company as the name brand.
I know, and have known my entire life, many who look down upon those who shop at discount stores - Walmart, or in my youth Kmart, or even Sears. I know people who frown on anything purchased at any department store, as they insist that you get better quality by only shopping at specific clothing chains. If you comparison shop, you will find that although some stores may carry only quality brands, those same brands can quite often be found at a department store for less. Also, quite often the name brands are no better - they are simply marketed as such, and priced higher to make the unwary shopper think so.
My oldest son spent yesterday shopping with his girlfriend and her mother - his girlfriend just graduated from law school and started her first real, professional job, requiring of course that she dress appropriately. Her mother insisted on buying most of her clothing at the Loft, which is Anne Taylor for those not acquainted with it. It purports to be an “outlet” with the connotation that the prices are lower. They are not, but people are still fooled into thinking so. Having seen what they bought, I had to laugh…….
She could have purchased the same items at the chain I work for, spending considerably less - and even gotten a 20% discount off retail by having my son purchase them with my family discount.
All because her mother insisted on going to a specific store because of the name - and her own uninformed prejudice against department stores.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
I am a comment slut
I have to say it, I love comments. Kudos likes are nice, but comments tell me whether I have really made an impact on a reader. It is like a good meal makes you smile, but a great meal is one where you just have to tell somebody about it.
I have said it before, but art is (or should be) about provoking a response - emotional or thoughtful. You can look at a painting and like it or hate it, or in can confuse you or leave you wondering whether you love it or hate it...
When I open "My Stories" on BCTS I love to see a comment, and I really appreciate the way that unread comments on older stories are visible.
I cannot imagine why a person would not want to know about responses to what they have posted.
Just my view
Maryanne
People who make demands of writers should pay those writers
An acquaintance of mine once told me that, when it came to science fiction, he refused to read stories that featured faster-than-light travel.
Naturally I thought it was one of the most foolish things I'd ever heard.
Even now, years later, I like to imagine him writing notes to the prominent, successful authors that he doesn't read, explaining that IF ONLY they could find a way to slow those spaceships down, he would read their stories. I'm SO SURE that the writers of Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, etc., etc. would be more than happy to revise all their work so that nothing ever moved faster than light FOR THE SAKE OF THAT GUY I USED TO WORK WITH.
----- WARNING: NOT AN ACTUAL RULE -----
Personally, I avoid reading stories written by authors whose names are more than twenty letters long. That's a big hard NO from me. If you can't come up with a decent name without using more than 20 letters, you obviously don't have the creative chops to write an interesting story -- by which I mean a story that would interest me. And that's what it's all about, isn't it?
----- END WARNING: NOT AN ACTUAL RULE -----
I know there are readers who avoid stories with explicit sex. I have no problem with that preference, even though I write stories that are heavily larded with the stuff. If someone doesn't read my stuff for that reason, god bless them everyone. I don't *see* them not-reading, I don't *hear* them not-reading, so it's a win-win.
On the other hand, if someone told me, "Your story A Minority of One would be so much better if only you could leave out the sex."
I'd first have to point out that there isn't any sex in that story at all, but then -- no -- first I'd ask them how much they were willing to pay me per hour for re-writing the story, and then a week after their check cleared I'd tell them it was done. Another win-win.
There's a principle here: if you don't want to read authors who won't accept comments, you could consider offering those authors payment for reading your comments. I mean, you can set a monetary value on your opinions, can't you? And you really should pay them. After all, your preference intrudes on their desire for peace and quiet -- or whatever their motivation is.
On the other hand, if you don't want to back up your comments with a monetary offering, you could -- for free and nothing -- attempt an empathetic meditation on the reasons a perfectly sane and sincere person might not want comments. The assumption in the OP is that there's something wrong with a writer who doesn't want comments. I have no reason to agree with that assumption. In fact, that assumption strikes me as unkind, simplistic, and just plain selfish.
OR -- here is a win-win-win (a three-party win!). If you see that an author doesn't accept comments, but you just BURN to leave a comment, go ahead and read their story any way. Then, choose a story of mine at random -- any story, any chapter -- and leave your comment there, exactly as if it was the other story. However, don't identify the actual story you're commenting on. That would break the social contract, and no one wants that.
In this way,
* the author who doesn't want comments won't get comments
* you'll be able to get your valuable insights off your chest
* the comments won't bother me, and will probably make as much sense as some comments I've already received
There are certainly authors who actively desire comments, who regard them as "life-blood" -- some of whom might volunteer to get your random, context-free comments. We could make a list of volunteer comment-receivers, as a public service.
- io
Names
I had to go and count the number of letters in my name...
Melanie
Oy! In my ignorance...
... I counted the letters in my own name to be sure I wasn't caught in my own snare, but I foolishly believed that there wouldn't be ANY authors here whose names were longer than mine. Of course, there are plenty of notable writers with long names, and writers who go over the top simply by using a middle name...
Luckily I'm not making the rules here! Or following my own rules!
- io
my neighbour
my neighbour Jim Smiles has the longest name I've come across
doesn't matter how small etc.
アンその他
all the letters
... and if he ran the Post Office, he'd have all the letters.
Jim Smiles
a mile between the S's
アンその他
That metric system, though
Unfortunately, in most of the world, he would be Jim Skilometers.
- io