Yuletide 2009 roundup.

[squonkfan]

I know you people have been waiting with baited breath lo, these many moons for the second installment of my Knight Rider recs. But I need to talk about Yuletide first.

Comments

[franzeska]

*wanders by from blogsearching*

I am totally more likely to leave a comment on a fic that has absolutely none and not bother with one that has tons. It's pretty variable for the in between numbers though.

The performance thing is interesting. Astolat's post about the technical side of things kind of mentions this, but not too explicitly: the way things used to work, once you actually got your fic uploaded, the page it was on loaded really, really fast. However, the uploading process was a nightmare. The way things are set up on the AO3, uploading is much less likely to explode the archive, but loading individual story pages can be pretty slow. I think this gives people without much clue about databases this false sense that the old archive was "good enough" and that we could have squeezed just one more year out of it. (Wrong, wrong, wrong, of course, but I see where people are getting that.)

[ignazwisdom]

I am totally more likely to leave a comment on a fic that has absolutely none and not bother with one that has tons. It's pretty variable for the in between numbers though.

Right--people are definitely less likely to comment on a story after some time has passed and/or its garnered a lot of visible feedback. And actually, didn't there used to be a way to sort stories in the archive by number of comments? I remember people used to be really keen on giving feedback to the authors who, for some reason or other, hadn't had as much.

[franzeska]

Maybe? I know there was a way to see which people had commented most.

[squonkfan]

I totally remember seeing you around because of your cute icon. :)

The uploading process for AO3 really did seem very smooth (not that I have anything to compare it to, Yuletide-wise), and for me, anyway, I would be way more stressed and upset about uploading snafus than anything else. Especially when I'm pushing the deadline.

[joyfulfeather]

I think people are less likely to comment after the initial rush of excitement wears off (after a few days), regardless of how many comments particular story has. It's like discovering an awesome new food. At first, with every bite you go, "OMG that's so good!" and you compliment the chef and rave about it to your friends. After a while, though, when you've had it a few times, you still really enjoy it, but it's more of a feeling of "Of course it's good" (or even "well, it's not as good today as it was last time") so you're not sending the compliments to the chef or informing your flist of how much you love it. There's pleasure but the excitement has waned. There's really only so much enthusiasm people can feel and express.

[squonkfan]

I'm not sure I understand the analogy (though it did make me hungry :)), because we're talking about someone making different comments on different stories, not commenting repeatedly on the same awesome one. Or did you mean that for something like Yuletide, an individual is less likely to comment on any story as the days pass, because her general excitement about the whole event dwindles after the intial reveal? This is sort of along the lines of what I was thinking about in my entry--like, I've already read all these stories and left all these comments and it's already two days past Yuletide and now, eh

[joyfulfeather]

Or did you mean that for something like Yuletide, an individual is less likely to comment on any story as the days pass, because her general excitement about the whole event dwindles after the intial reveal?

That! I know, the food analogy didn't work out as well as I'd hoped. But yes, yuletide being the food and each bite being a different story -- maybe a box of chocolates? I'm not sure. But yes, what you said. :)

See, on LJ or elsewhere, it's a little different -- it can feel a little awkward to comment on something that's been up for a while. Never mind that I think most authors love getting comments on something that's old; it still feels weird to do. I've never been able to put my finger on why, other than it feels like it draws too much attention to the commenter (feeling like you're standing out by saying something, maybe).

As was pointed out to me in my own LJ, after I had a mini meltdown regarding the failure of my fic to get comments: people are weird about commenting. Sometimes there's just no rhyme or reason.

[squonkfan]

maybe a box of chocolates?

Oh, God. Totally Forrest Gump-ing Yuletide now.

IKWYM about leaving comments in other forums. There's some uncomfortable sense of being unfashionably late to a party. It is goofy, because as authors, we all know there's nothing that can brighten a day more than receiving an unexpected comment after we'd thought they'd all dried up!

[janus_74]

Also wanders by from the yuletide community :)

Good post. It was my first yuletide too so it was interesting to have it all go down at the same time as an archive move. What I got from Astolat's post (I think it was that one) is that it was either move to AO3 or don't have it at all. Which would have been sad.

Like your comment musings too :) I think that Yuletide commenters are way more willing to leave a comment than in other places. The size of the fandom probably has a lot to do with the numbers...or so I think :)

[squonkfan]

What's funny is if you take something like that Back to the Future story written for me: that fandom had over 30 offers and exactly one request, by yours truly. To me, that means the fandom isn't popular per se--it's just that everyone has seen the movies and feels like the characters are pretty easy to get a handle on (which, hrmph. Not so much). But this fic is most definitely getting a lot of hits and recs, and the comments were pretty steady last time I checked. I don't think this is the first story people are reading, and it's not in the most popular fandom. In this case, I think probably it's just a really good freaking story. Occam's Razor, and all that. :)

[janus_74]

Yeah, I think some fandoms are easy to read casually. But good stories and recs are also helpful.

[magic_at_mungos]

*wanders in from yuletide*

I could also be that web browsers have closed and coming back to it or authors coming back to read comments as to hits to comments.

[lizardbeth_j]

From the Yuletide comm, too:

I wrote four fics this year, in middling-size fandoms and popularity, so on that sample size, I can totally confirm your observations on comments. There was a flurry at first, and then a small second wave caused by a rec, and then it all kind of dried up. I do know from past experience that there's usually another wave around author reveal, because people look for their friends, and/or people are reminded to go back to the archive and look for some more stuff.

I also suspect with hit counts showing (which is a new thing), there might be a temptation to join the herd and not leave comments, accounting for the slide in the ratio. But I don't know, that's just a feeling.

[franzeska]

I've gotten a steady trickle of comments on one of mine, but it's in one of those movie fandoms everyone on the planet is familiar with, and my story is fairly short, so I suspect it's just more likely to attract people regardless of quality/genre/whatever than a lot of yuletide fic.

[squonkfan]

*eyes you suspiciously*

Are YOU my mommy Yuletide author?

Hmm, I wouldn't have called that fic fairly short, though. But maybe you just put that in there as a red-herring...?!

That's it, I'm hiring a PI.

[franzeska]

Ha ha ha. No, no. I really did wander by from blogsearching. My recipient appears to be offline for the duration.