There really isn't any perfect way to weigh response. Comments are great, but fewer than 5% of readers leave them (on average). Hit counts are helpful, but they don't show you if someone hit the back button ten sentences in. Links on Delicious or Pinboard or AO3 can be nice, except they often don't include any commentary. Recs are great, although I admit to being mildly peeved if I get recced by someone who never left me a comment.

Frankly, we're never going to be satisfied. I know someone with a story that has been bookmarked 400 times on Delicious, and she still thinks she doesn't get enough feedback.

Frankly, we're never going to be satisfied. I know someone with a story that has been bookmarked 400 times on Delicious, and she still thinks she doesn't get enough feedback.

I guess that's the disconnect for me. Some genres aren't even going to get more than one review somewhere, and very few direct communications from readers. And, you know, when someone buys your book, you still don't know if they actually read it, or read part of it and threw it against the wall, or what.

I guess I'm saying that writing with the idea of feedback, especially good feedback, in mind is probably emotionally dangerous.

I'm saying that writing with the idea of feedback, especially good feedback, in mind is probably emotionally dangerous

Indeed. I hate to see writers write to the readership, because the readership is notoriously fickle. It leads you off into answering the feedback instead of following the story's own logic.

Me, I had one story I was writing that was almost entirely for me, because it was narrated by and was primarily about an OC, a family member of the canon characters (who it turned out later never actually existed, although I didn't know that at the time). I had hated the way the canon ignored the possibility of family, and wanted to examine that. So I wrote the story for myself, and figured hardly anyone would read it because hey, no Winchesters.

Turned out to be by far my most popular story in the fandom. Possibly my most popular story ever. Somehow, in writing for myself, I hit the fannish sweetspot.

Of course, it's never really happened again, but it was nice.

Is it time to put up the link to Penknife's essay about The Claw? [link]

What do reccing and leaving comments have to do with each other?

I don't have an official rec outlet, but leaving comments and putting on Delicious aren't really related activities for me. One is talking to the author, and one is saying "I might want to read this again, or tell Amy or Lee about it." Don't always overlap. Though I did pass my D/C list onto someone I don't really know yesterday, that was the first time in the years I've been accumulating it.

The picture I spent the most time composing and put the most thought into the most innocuous-seeming of components and put the most heart and feeling into...got the most comments on LJ/kudos on AO3/bookmarks and comments on dA, and represented me breaking my block.

I can't argue with that...I may never be able to argue with comments ever.

What do reccing and leaving comments have to do with each other?

Some? I mean, if one likes a story enough to tell other people to read it, why not tell the writer themself? I know it doesn't always work that way, for whatever reason, but I acknowledge my irrationality on the subject.

That said, I agree that bookmarking is different than a public recommendations post, or it can be--people bookmark for a variety of reasons, and not always for purposes of sharing.

The picture I spent the most time composing and put the most thought into the most innocuous-seeming of components and put the most heart and feeling into...got the most comments on LJ/kudos on AO3/bookmarks and comments on dA, and represented me breaking my block.

Yay! Whereas for me, often the most throwaway stories are the ones that get the most comments. Because there's something about them that isn't over-thought, perhaps? I don't know.

I mean, if one likes a story enough to tell other people to read it, why not tell the writer themself?

I guess I could come back and say "Hey--I recced you."

But if they find out I recced them, maybe they didn't need to be told?

They just feel like different urges for me as a consumer.

But then again, I keep watching artists agree on etiquette points on tumblr that mean nothing to mean, and I think maybe I don't have the profile or the volume to understand. I mean, you can repost my picture from scratch if you want, and you can reblog my entry and delete my comments if you want. I seriously don't give a fuck. If I did, I'd not only not put it on tumblr unwatermarked and unsigned, I'd not put it on the internet.

But then again, I keep watching artists agree on etiquette points on tumblr that mean nothing to mean, and I think maybe I don't have the profile or the volume to understand. I mean, you can repost my picture from scratch if you want, and you can reblog my entry and delete my comments if you want. I seriously don't give a fuck. If I did, I'd not only not put it on tumblr unwatermarked and unsigned, I'd not put it on the internet.

Dude, I think the Tumblr "etiquette" is ridiculous. But, err, I also don't think that it's high art to slap your filters on a screenshot or promo pic. SO.

Effing kids on my lawn.

If I wrote for feedback, I would, I suspect, publish more of what I wrote. Between the change in writing climate after the warnings debate, my own anxiety issues, and my general laziness, these days, I write entirely for myself unless it is Yuletide.

That way, I can be as sick and twisted as I like, without ANYONE having a fit about it. Mwhahahaha. (I mean, not that most of my crap is all that twisted or sick. I just don't have the energy to deal with people if they decide they want to tell me I'm doing something WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. Eff that.)

It's very freeing.

The people opining this way include "from scratch" artists and do some amazing work (daunt, for instance), but there are some colouring people and GIFset creators...I know that shit ain't easy--it's a skill and an art--multiple, even. But the amount some of them get bent out of shape over their manipulation other people's frames (and not in a vid sort of way--there's no reordering, syncing to music, etc...)...whoa, nelly.

Never mind some of the wacky kids selling screenshots on deviant art. I want to pimp slap every one of them. And kick them on their way out of fandom until they pass sixteen.

GIFsets are a pain, esp. with the size limits. No lie there.

Never mind some of the wacky kids selling screenshots on deviant art. I want to pimp slap every one of them. And kick them on their way out of fandom until they pass sixteen.

No kidding!

I'm not even going to start on the part where most of the screenshots that the Etiquette Police are screaming about are made from illegally downloaded copies of media.

So, y'know. Pot kettle black, kiddoes.

MY LAWN. GET YER ASSES OFF.

It's true that keeping their size down is an issue, but the editor I was reading said she had a repeatable process for it. So I applaud her for working it out (like the colorists that made their go to filters), but once that is done and you're recognising economies of scale...relax. Shit happens, it's the internet, and losing control of where your picture goes is akin to the big time. This is not like having your book or album pirated.

I unfollowed a few people because of it, and because they were also doing things like reblogging themselves to up their notes (they admitted that much explicitly) and fuming when someone posted their coloured pic completely credited with source URL and everything, because it splits the notes count, and someone might delete the text and.. and.. and..Tumblr's supposed to be fun. You can't trade notes in for cash or orgasms.

Breathe...