Story angst

[rivkat]

Briefly:

1. OK, fess up: which one of you was driving the red car in my neighborhood with the license plate “FANFIC”?

2. My husband sends notes to our kids, for future reference. Recently: “Dear Rivkid, It was very progressive of you to request ‘King & King,’ the same-sex-marriage fairy tale, for your bedtime story tonight. It would have been even more progressive had you not referred to the book as ‘The Two Queens.’”

But most importantly: I love feedback. I want to make it as likely as possible that people will leave feedback on my stories. So, what to do about crossposting? This is my first use of DW's poll feature, for a Very Important Poll.

Poll #368 Maximizing comments

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 69

View Respondents

Should I consolidate comments on story posts?

View Answers

Stay unconsolidated! For me, that creates the lowest psychological barrier to commenting on a story.
16 (23.2%)

Comment counts matter to whether I read a story post; thus, consolidation would be a good idea.
6 (8.7%)

Comment counts matter to whether I read a story post but I’m not reading on DW; thus, don’t consolidate to DW until the crossposter can display the number of comments.
3 (4.3%)

I like reading other people’s comments; thus, consolidation would be a good idea.
49 (71.0%)

I like reading other people’s comments but I’m not reading on DW; thus, don’t consolidate to DW until the crossposter can display the number of comments.
3 (4.3%)

Some other thing that I will tell you in (presently unconsolidated, though you have to answer the poll on DW) comments.
5 (7.2%)

Comments

[ignaz]

Okay, those first two items are making me giggle all over the place here at work.

As for the third, I had to deal with this suddenly yesterday afternoon when I went to post a story for the first time since opening my Dreamwidth account, and I realized I had no idea how to proceed. I ended up posting to LJ with comments enabled and linking from Dreamwidth with comments disabled. I made that decision because most of the fandom is still on LiveJournal and has accounts at LiveJournal and therefore were more likely to comment on LiveJournal.

[topaz_eyes]

Here from metafandom...

What I do for stories is post to LJ first then wait a while to see if anyone comments. If/when they do, then I import it here. That way all the comments get consolidated on one post. Seems to work.

[azurelunatic]

I don't mind split comments, but it would be nice if the crossposter offered a crosslink.

[cathexys]

Yes, that one. I've started crosslinking all my posts, and it's not really a lot of work...

It's easier for me, and I love it when I see others do it.

x-posting

[lilian_cho]

Thirded.

I include [ LJ | IJ | DW ] at the end of all my x-posts.

I'm insanely lazy, so going an extra step [Leave a comment at DW] would greatly lessen the chance that I comment.
If I have no DW account, that'll be a second extra step to comment with Open ID =/

Currently I'm x-posting all my drabbles but posting my fics only at LJ and DW.

/ends tl;dr explanation


P.S. As a reader, I do like reading other people's comments. However! I'm probably backward in the sense that I am more likely to leave a comment on a fic that doesn't already have seven pages of comments.

[rivkat]

How do I do that? I'll happily do so as soon as I get simple instructions!

[cathexys]

Oh, I just add a small "comment here or [link to alternate site]here"

Then I post it to both, check out the LJ one and type in the link in DW. Then I get the DW link and type it into LJ (that has to be last, because DW changes on both)

That's it. It takes and extra second, but when you check your comments on DW you can click over with one click to your post and comments on LJ and vice versa...

[rivkat]

Hmm. Opinion seems to be running in favor of consolidation on story posts, so I may end up with something simpler. I'm under the impression that DW can automatically add "comment on DW" to crossposts, but maybe that's wrong.

[cathexys]

No, that's correct!

I just have a lot of people who're still reading me on LJ, and since there are some negative sentiments about "forcing" people onto DW, I find it easier to keep comments open in both places...

[tehomet]

You're right, DW can auto-add 'comment on DW' or similar to all your posts if you wish. Have a look at the settings to add a customised footer to your posts if you wish.

[rivkat]

I've got it running on LJ now, though I have yet to think of one of those witty metaphor-type things that people sometimes use.

[gnatkip]

I love it when people do that too!

RivkaT: Your #2 gave me a huge smile, on a morning when I really really need it.

Ticky boxes made decision making difficult, but...

[facetofcathy]

I answered as a reader. I like comments all in one place. I love skimming through and seeing just how differently I interpreted something this time than most people.

As a writer, I would love to post only to DW and the AO3 just to save on the work, but I don't think that's very practical right now. I am considering putting only story headers on my LJ and linking to the other two places and just sucking up the fact that some people just won't read, but I'm going to save that for something that's a big draw, and a story too long for LJ post limits.

The sga_flashfic experiment in cross-posting via feeds had some interesting results. No one commented to the stories on DW via Open ID, which could just mean SGA fans all have DW accounts, but I'm not convinced.

[logovo]

While I sometimes enjoy reading comments and having them in one place is dandy, I believe that making people comment in only in one service will decrease the number of comments.

[rivkat]

I'm totally afraid of that! And yet the countervailing fear is that my story will "look" worse than it used to based on # of comments. Why so difficult? It's enough to make one long for the days of emailed comments.

[copracat]

I'd love to hear quantitative info on this. Not because I don't believe you, I just like numbers. I'm consolidating on dreamwidth, but 1) I'm naturally a commenter, not a commented on and 2) as many of the people I spoke to most on my flist are also active on my circle, there's no barrier to them commenting at all, so my data is not very informative. I find myself commenting more 1) on LJ so my LJ friends don't feel that I've 'abandoned' them and 2) on DW because I want it to have an active conversation.

I'd love it if people who are used to getting huge discussions in their LJs would provide some data!

Of course, Rivka, that mostly relates to discussion, not to feedback, which is what you were asking about. That I don't know. I try to comment wherever the writer makes commenting available. It's easier if that's on the story. I'd post the story once where comments were collected and every other thing would be a pointer to that post or website page. People have been signing on to website pages and forums to leave feedback all this time. DW isn't making anything different there. Do people leave feedback at ffnet, at AO3, at Yuletide? Sure they do. If you want to get every possible comment then you need a thorough strategy. It's marketing, after all; if it were easy I'd be well rich.

[copracat]

I meant to add, people are used to seeing no comments on the pointer post, such as those at fiction announcement communities.

[logovo]

I'm going by feeling here and several posts of people saying they don't want to comment on DW, which to be honest I still don't get. I'm hoping they're really a tiny percentage of readers. Also, this attitude I've seen outside of my flist, which tends to have been around longer than LJ has existed.

[thirdblindmouse]

I like conversations that happen in comment threads, so I direct all my comments to DWth, but I manually edit the entries cross-posted on LJ to add a direct 'comment on Dreamwidth' link so that commenters from LJ don't have to do extra clicking. I eventually expect to not have to do this, and for cross-posted entries to show the number of comments so far.

[rivkat]

Yes, I think I'd definitely manually edit to say "comment on DW" so as to make it one-click. That is in practice the same as "comment on LJ," though I think there's still a bit of a psychological barrier for some.

[amalthia]

You're on my list to read no matter how many people comment..so for me it honestly doesn't matter if you consolidate or not. The issue that I'm interested in is if you plan on posting your longer fics as single files in DW? Though, that's not what your post was about.

Also, I normally pick whichever is less work.

[rivkat]

Good to know! I usually prefer to post the longer fics as full files on the AO3 and my own site, because I enjoy the rhythm of serial posting, though I know you hate it (sorry!). I do make full files available, I swear!

I think that disabling comments at LJ with a link to post comments at DW is not actually more work--in either case people have to click one link--but I also think that the psychology matters, and it may seem like more work to click over to DW from LJ. Or did you mean "less work for the poster"? Because I am so greedy for comments that I will do extra work to get them.

[amalthia]

I kind of forgot that you do post single file at AO3. Sorry! long day. I think I'm mostly trying my best to encourage posting to DW for those that aren't posting to archives or websites. But you're kind of already doing that once your story is completely posted so um no need to preach to the choir here. I swear, I probably wouldn't have mentioned it but tons of driving today I don't think my brain is working so great.

As for the more work, I was thinking for you. :) not the commenter. Really people either hit the link to the other site or hit the link to leave feedback. The only thing I've read that made sense for why that may not be a good idea has to do with habit. One of my friends pointed out if she doesn't see the Leave Comment she doesn't look farther for another alternate link to leave feedback. So that is something to keep in mind if you are going to try and direct people to another site to leave feedback.

But yeah, for my part I'll support whatever choice you make. :) Hugs.

[cleo]

Here via metafandom:

I've been angsting about this consolation thing too. Right now, I crosspost fic and icons and leave comments open on both LJ and DW. I'd like to consolidate, but I feel like it might turn people off to commenting, if they were going to. So, I shall leave things as they are for now.

[lambourngb]

I will read you no matter where you go. I will most likely comment via DW because i have more icons there.

To make it more confusing though, because I have two habits- I love reading other people's comments, and if the story is immensely popular and posted on LJ & DW, I would probably read it on LJ because there are plugins to expand comment threads for Firefox/LJ, and that don't exist on DW. Yet. If you do consolidate on DW, and get 5 pages of comments, I don't know I could wade through everyone's thoughts with the tiring click, go-back, click, go-back...

Unless I'm blind and there is an expand all thread function for DW- if so, please someone point it out! :)

[turlough]

(*waves to OP* Hi! Here through metafandom.)

It's very simple to get the Expand All Threads Greasemonkey script to work on DW too. This entry tells you how.

[shalom]

I don't care where I comment; what's important to me is that the author gets to see my comments. I also like reading others' comments and while it's nice to read them consolidated, I know that some people only want to comment in their journal of choice, and not be "forced" to comment in DW. (Not an issue for me, but it seems it is for some others.) If consolidation is to reduce the volume of comments an author receives, then it's less about my wanting to read everyones' comments, and more important (to me) that the author doesn't have their comments reduced.

(And HEE to the FANFIC license plate....I followed someone the other day with SHMOOP...the pic is in my journal on 5/5.)

[annabeth_roses]

I'm greedy for comments too, but personally I don't judge a story based on how many comments it has (I mean whether to read it or not). That does make me worry, though, that my own stories get fewer comments because people see they don't have that many and think it's a bad story, and then they don't read it. Eh.

Personally, too, I'd like to be able to comment either place. I have accounts at both so it doesn't really matter, but wherever I happen to be reading at the time it seems easier to just click the 'post comment' link.

Incidentally, your child made me laugh really hard.

Oh, and the other thing I was going to say was to agree with lilian_cho that I tend to be less likely to leave a comment if the entry has pages and pages also, simply because by that point I feel like whatever I could say has already been said by someone else better.

[percysowner]

I love reading other peoples comments, so I vote for consolidation. I got a DW account so that if the majority to fandom moves here I could have my Reading circle set up and I didn't have to find my lj friends. But I'm so used to reading at lj that I often forget to come to DW. I don't want to miss the insights of your other commentators so please consolidate.

[percysowner]

After reading the comments, I need to add that if you have a simple link that says comment on DW, that works fine for my purposes. I tend to comment in spurts, and often a comment by another poster will set me off and then I post like a little bunny. So as long as I can get to all the posts I will be a happy camper. I don't care where I am reading them from.