I was directed to this interesting discussion via vriddy and thought perhaps I could contribute a perspective as someone in a huuuuge fandom who does “just consume content” in many instances? This is just an assortment of random, rambly thoughts, too, though, not meant as a pushback and also in no relation to your situation in the huge fandom given that I don’t even know it. :)
When I read fic, it is indeed not with the primary goal to engage with the author about it afterwards in my mind. I mostly read stories when I either have to pass time (during a commute etc.) or when I’m exhausted, sad or similar as a way to cheer me up; in both situations I usually don’t have the means (either technically or mentally) to finish my reading with leaving a comment on the fic. Added to that are that yes, for the vast majority of fic, I indeed don’t have any thoughts to share, and that I’m a heavy, heavy multishipper with like 98765 pairings I’m interested in and reading for so that I’m in a perpetual state of “catching up” to the amount of fic that has been published. xD I do save fic which are important enough for me that I do want to leave a comment on them no matter what, and am horribly behind on that collection (the phases of “energy so low I can just read fic” vs. “energy high enough that I can write comments on them” are absolutely not distributed evenly XD). Right now I’m still trying to internalise and apply the belief that “a small comment, even if what you want to leave is a 1k-praise and dissection of the story, is better than no comment at all”, but it’s definitely an uphill battle, and of course a simple “I loved sentence XY” doesn’t really lend itself to starting a longer and bigger conversation.
However, I also feel like the norms – or rather lack of norms – around how one should behave in the ao3 comment section play a part as well. I did have absolutely riveting conversations based on ao3 comments (though those admittedly all fizzled out eventually because at some point I just don’t have the time and energy anymore to sit down and write another 3-4 hours long reply, no matter how much I enjoy the conversation). I’ve also had long, detailed comments I’d written that just got a one-line long “I’m very flattered you enjoyed so much haha, thank you” response. Or instances where, when I excitedly replied to a response by an author that told further ideas about their story based on the things I had mentioned in my comment, I just received radio silence. Or the classic of an author just don’t responding to comments at all. And I don’t want to single out any of those authors and tell them they “did fandom wrong” in any way! I think many people satisfy their needs regarding talking about fandom on other platforms like Twitter or Discord (which, totally their right and good that it works for them, though it sucks for those of us who can’t handle these places) these days. But… over time, such experiences regarding comments just add up, making one in turn wary about how and where to spend one’s time and energy (especially if those are really limited goods).
That just as an excursion inspired by your last two paragraphs, haha, hopefully it wasn’t too boring or completely off-topic from what you wanted to get at. ^^° Regarding the discussion in the other comments above, I actually agree with many of the aspects about the change in fandom that occurred/is occurring: Prevalence of Ko-fi/patreon/fic commissions PEW!, Discord/Twitter UGH!, pressure that everyone needs to promote their fics on social media to be ‘successful’ and ‘drive engagement’ YUCK! X’DD Though as others have pointed out before, if everyone can just do fandom the way they want to without being bothered by those who do it differently, everything’s fine and peachy. Where spaces are shared, expectations differ wildly, and it feels like one’s the sore thumb sticking out in a landscape that’s totally different from everything you envision, is when the disappointment starts to happen…
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I was directed to this interesting discussion via![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
vriddy and thought perhaps I could contribute a perspective as someone in a huuuuge fandom who does “just consume content” in many instances? This is just an assortment of random, rambly thoughts, too, though, not meant as a pushback and also in no relation to your situation in the huge fandom given that I don’t even know it. :)
When I read fic, it is indeed not with the primary goal to engage with the author about it afterwards in my mind. I mostly read stories when I either have to pass time (during a commute etc.) or when I’m exhausted, sad or similar as a way to cheer me up; in both situations I usually don’t have the means (either technically or mentally) to finish my reading with leaving a comment on the fic. Added to that are that yes, for the vast majority of fic, I indeed don’t have any thoughts to share, and that I’m a heavy, heavy multishipper with like 98765 pairings I’m interested in and reading for so that I’m in a perpetual state of “catching up” to the amount of fic that has been published. xD I do save fic which are important enough for me that I do want to leave a comment on them no matter what, and am horribly behind on that collection (the phases of “energy so low I can just read fic” vs. “energy high enough that I can write comments on them” are absolutely not distributed evenly XD). Right now I’m still trying to internalise and apply the belief that “a small comment, even if what you want to leave is a 1k-praise and dissection of the story, is better than no comment at all”, but it’s definitely an uphill battle, and of course a simple “I loved sentence XY” doesn’t really lend itself to starting a longer and bigger conversation.
However, I also feel like the norms – or rather lack of norms – around how one should behave in the ao3 comment section play a part as well. I did have absolutely riveting conversations based on ao3 comments (though those admittedly all fizzled out eventually because at some point I just don’t have the time and energy anymore to sit down and write another 3-4 hours long reply, no matter how much I enjoy the conversation). I’ve also had long, detailed comments I’d written that just got a one-line long “I’m very flattered you enjoyed so much haha, thank you” response. Or instances where, when I excitedly replied to a response by an author that told further ideas about their story based on the things I had mentioned in my comment, I just received radio silence. Or the classic of an author just don’t responding to comments at all. And I don’t want to single out any of those authors and tell them they “did fandom wrong” in any way! I think many people satisfy their needs regarding talking about fandom on other platforms like Twitter or Discord (which, totally their right and good that it works for them, though it sucks for those of us who can’t handle these places) these days. But… over time, such experiences regarding comments just add up, making one in turn wary about how and where to spend one’s time and energy (especially if those are really limited goods).
That just as an excursion inspired by your last two paragraphs, haha, hopefully it wasn’t too boring or completely off-topic from what you wanted to get at. ^^° Regarding the discussion in the other comments above, I actually agree with many of the aspects about the change in fandom that occurred/is occurring: Prevalence of Ko-fi/patreon/fic commissions PEW!, Discord/Twitter UGH!, pressure that everyone needs to promote their fics on social media to be ‘successful’ and ‘drive engagement’ YUCK! X’DD Though as others have pointed out before, if everyone can just do fandom the way they want to without being bothered by those who do it differently, everything’s fine and peachy. Where spaces are shared, expectations differ wildly, and it feels like one’s the sore thumb sticking out in a landscape that’s totally different from everything you envision, is when the disappointment starts to happen…