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

[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.