it made 5 minutes of my mortal shuffle through life fractionally less grim
I read some really interesting meta over here about an author who uses polls as a method of gathering non-comment feedback and information about the number of readers of her fic. As we all know, I adore polls and gathering information about readers, and lj statistics are helpful but don't give a complete picture of whether a reader went to an entry and immediately hit the back button. The poll is included at the end of the story as a means for giving readers who don't want to comment (for reasons such as social anxiety) a way to let the author know that they read and enjoyed a story without having to put it into comments. The basic format is this:
Poll Feedback poll
The reason the meta-author decided to include these polls at the end of all her stories was due to this equally fascinating entry over here where one such reader wished that authors left polls at the end of their stories. I can certainly see why the idea of including these feedback polls hasn't caught on in a large way throughout fandom because they may come off as needy or clamoring for feedback. There's also the fact that not everyone has a paid lj account that would allow them to include polls even if they wanted to.
But as a reader I know I would love to be given the option to simply tick a couple of boxes that tell me I read a story and enjoyed it. Sometimes I don't have anything much to say in response to a story beyond that, which leads me to either write a very brief comment out of a sense of obligation, or leave no comment at all and just move on (both of which are unsatisfying ends).
Don't get me wrong--Dean/Castiel fandom has been extremely generous to me in terms of comments and I have zero complaints about the number of responses I get. I also know that there are some readers out there who comment consistently on 90% of everything they read, and for whom a poll would likely not change their commenting habits at all. The poll is directed at the huge community of lurkers out there who I know read fics and answer polls (some of which are mine) but never leave comments for whatever reason--and frankly, I am interested in knowing that they are reading my fic as well.
So in conclusion, I may begin experimenting with including these polls at the end of my fic in the near future. Luckily, I have no shame or sense of embarassment over being perceived as greedy for information because, well, I am greedy for information. I also think the people who like to comment will, and the people who don't, won't, but may be persuaded to vote in a poll. Here I end with yet another poll:
Poll Would you vote in a feedback poll?
Thoughts, anyone?
Poll Feedback poll
The reason the meta-author decided to include these polls at the end of all her stories was due to this equally fascinating entry over here where one such reader wished that authors left polls at the end of their stories. I can certainly see why the idea of including these feedback polls hasn't caught on in a large way throughout fandom because they may come off as needy or clamoring for feedback. There's also the fact that not everyone has a paid lj account that would allow them to include polls even if they wanted to.
But as a reader I know I would love to be given the option to simply tick a couple of boxes that tell me I read a story and enjoyed it. Sometimes I don't have anything much to say in response to a story beyond that, which leads me to either write a very brief comment out of a sense of obligation, or leave no comment at all and just move on (both of which are unsatisfying ends).
Don't get me wrong--Dean/Castiel fandom has been extremely generous to me in terms of comments and I have zero complaints about the number of responses I get. I also know that there are some readers out there who comment consistently on 90% of everything they read, and for whom a poll would likely not change their commenting habits at all. The poll is directed at the huge community of lurkers out there who I know read fics and answer polls (some of which are mine) but never leave comments for whatever reason--and frankly, I am interested in knowing that they are reading my fic as well.
So in conclusion, I may begin experimenting with including these polls at the end of my fic in the near future. Luckily, I have no shame or sense of embarassment over being perceived as greedy for information because, well, I am greedy for information. I also think the people who like to comment will, and the people who don't, won't, but may be persuaded to vote in a poll. Here I end with yet another poll:
Poll Would you vote in a feedback poll?
Thoughts, anyone?