yuletide thoughts: still not done, so much more to go

[wishfulclicking]

It's not so much I'm a slow reader but I have been fighting back a migraine and I was so exhausted last night. I got through some stories; right now I'm in the G fandoms and I've saved 7 fics that I've really liked and I still have 4 other tabs open to read other stories.

But wow does seeing the number of hits a story gets versus the number of comments make me o_O I'm aware of the whole at most a fourth of people who read the story actually comment, and I've even seen it expressed as a tenth and some optimistic part of me thought that was too low, but I'm ready to accept the truth.

Of course 'Hits' is just the number of people clicked on the story, not truly indicative of how many actually finished. There have been some stories I clicked out of. Though I have only saved 7 stories so far, I have read more.

Part of that reason is I don't leave comments that would generally amount to 'meh'. For me 'meh' is what happens when a story is just ok and does something that turns me off. Reading fic, I've become more aware of when a story does something I'm just not fond of and how that puts the story down a notch for me, making it work even harder to be something I really liked. I've had it happen; if a story does something I don't really like but the story is handled so well that I still love the story--that's an automatic delicious tagged HFW*.

Sometimes 'meh' has come just from 'no matter how well you do X, I don't like it and I am not getting beyond it' and I'm not going to finish this. This has gotten longer than I expected.

From my dealings with yuletide I've went ahead and signed up for the beta AO3 list. The server holdup was kind of expected and for a new site they handled it really well and I haven't had any major problems since I've started reading yuletide. (Though having Yuletide Madness open up is not a major problem except I'm still going through the original challenge, but having too much fic to read is a problem I like having :) ) #47!!!

Hope you guys are having a wonderful weekend!



* HFW being Holy Fucking Wow, the highest level of tags I have so far after my guh!!! tag felt overused to the point of losing its meaning

Comments

[ct]

I hadn't heard that 10% figure before, but it sounds about right... my comments/hits ratio is at 9% right now.

[wishfulclicking]

I spend a ton of time reading meta about fandom and writing and I've come across the whole ten percent things a couple of times. I just remember going 'NO WAY' when I first read it but after seeing the hits/comments numbers and really thinking about my reading/commenting habits--it sounds about right.

I know I comment usually on things more often than 10% but I have to tell myself I'm going to comment more.

[torakowalski]

I'm still on the 'B's with my Yuletide reading /o\ But I am doing my best to comment on every fic I read - the two fics I wrote are at 3% and 6% comments to hits at the moment, but I think it has a lot to do with a) AO3 being really slow on Christmas Day when everyone started to read and b) people opening fics in tabs but not yet having actually read them. (This is what I'm telling myself anyway!)

[wishfulclicking]

Yeah, I remember some people not being able to comment. I just waited because I am so prone to forgetting to comment on a story after I've closed out a tab. Also, I think the comment counts will increase after the first wave of recs. I know I'm counting on recs for fandoms I skipped over in my first reading.

[saekhwa]

Yeah, the hit counter versus comments is a trippy sight to see. But then commenting was difficult with the large influx of people reading, and I ended up just opening a bunch of tabs until AO3 settled enough for comments to work.

I'm going back now and commenting as much as I can, because I'm trying to get better about things like that. I guess part of it, too, (for me) is that lately, I only comment on the truly wow. Like blew my socks off or made me laugh out loud. Maybe it's my jaded outlook, having been in fandom so long, I have no idea. But again, I'm trying to get better about commenting in general.

[wishfulclicking]

Same here. I'm really trying to be better about commenting too. If I really enjoy a story and save it to delicious I make sure to comment. With fests like yuletide and other smaller ones, I try to comment more.

I do think there will be a slight increase of comments because of what you said; but now I'm curious of how much.

More people read the story than actually comment and I don't see that as a bad or good thing. Just part of fandom.

But I am so excited to go through Yuletide rec lists to see if I missed anything. That and Yuletide madness.

[saekhwa]

I don't see that as a bad or good thing. Just part of fandom.

I agree, so I'm sort of meh about the whole thing because OMG, all this fic!

And Yuletide Madness. I've barely touched Yuletide and keep hopping between recs (which yay for the AO3 bookmarks/recs feature making this easier) and fandoms that I'm familiar with.

This is such an exciting time of year, and there's so much, and I love that there's so much.

[wishfulclicking]

There is so much that I'm just grinning at the screen. Part of me wants to just sit down and read until I'm done but I've got other things to do that have deadlines (that glee fan mix exchange and talk_bingo and something for a friend) but man is the pull of yuletide strong.

I haven't explored the bookmark function of AO3 yet, I'm waiting until I get the invite to play with the full site.

[saekhwa]

I know! Oh, goodness, yeah. Like you, I was planning on finishing fic that I owe several persons who have been ever so patient with me. But Yuletide. It's like a drug. I can't pull away.

The bookmark function has been nifty because I can hop over there and see what other people have saved and/or recced. It's pretty handy for engaging me in fandoms I know little to nothing about.

Also, randomly, another thought occurred to me on the comment thing. Sometimes, it feels like there's a time limit on comments, like after X days, some people just don't no matter how much they liked the fic or they get intimidated by the twenty plus comments already there.

[wishfulclicking]

You have described me perfectly with the timed commenting thing. The internet seems to move at hyper speed so I feel even a little awkward typing out comments for something a week old in fandom, but if I've really enjoyed it I just comment and don't really expect a reply from the author.

At least with Yuletide I'm commenting as I read but I also know I plan to finish that out within the week and there won't be anymore fic until next year.

Also seeing pages of comments make me more inclined not to comment too.

[saekhwa]

I try not to let the entry date affect my commenting, but it sometimes does, especially if a month or more has passed. Which actually happens to me more often than not due to time constraints.

I'm with you on the last note. Pages and pages of comments definitely intimidate me. I'm pretty much of the mind that I have nothing to add and brilliant can only cover so much so I pass on commenting more often than not.

I'm not really getting a sense of that on AO3 yet, though, with the way the posting date is practically hidden/obscured. Additionally, the add comment box is right there and open and ready for me to type my squee, so I don't readily see that the fic already has lots of comments of squeeing and general adoration.

[wishfulclicking]

I've only experienced AO3 with Yuletide (I'll look around later at the rest) and yeah I don't notice the number of comments unless I actively look for it and I like how I don't have to click and decide to comment, the option is automatic.