Comment Whoring

[teyla]

Everybody hates comment whoring, y/y? I've often tried to figure out why this particular kind of trollish behavior is so despised in fandom, and I think I might have just found another aspect.

You only comment whore if you are in the habit of comparing comment counts and using comments to judge the quality of someone's writing. In short, comment whores make fanfiction into a competition.

Thing is, anything gets comments. People might give something a lot of comments because it's really that good, or they might give it a lot of comments because it provides mindless distraction on the quality level of daily talk shows. Comment counts are one of the most unreliable factoids to consult when it comes to judging the quality of someone's writing.

By making it about comment counts, though, comment whores enable the mindset of 'It doesn't matter how good my fic is, as long as I get comments!'. Writing stuff that provides mindless distraction is easier than actually producing something well-written, so due to this mindset, the badfic count increases. So does the number of unfinished, never-ending WIPs - because what better way to get comments than to post each chapter separately and make people beg for the next part? - and so does the number of thoughtless and pointless less-than-500-words fic^(*). In short, if getting comments is more important than minding and increasing the quality of the writing, fandom gets spammed with badfic. Therefore, people who make it about comment counts are met with a lot of hostility in fandom.

Do you agree? Disagree? Were you going 'well, duh!' reading this? Let me hear your thoughts on yaoi! :)

^(*)Please don't interpret this as me saying that anything under 500 words is badly written, or that people who post their fic in several installments are always out to get more comments. That would simply not be true. There are people who do it to get more comments, though, and in my experience, good drabbles and vignettes are a rarity.

Comments

[jdr1184.livejournal.com]

I think it is hard not to pay attention to comments when you post stories, especially in the beginining. Let's face it, when you spend time writing something, it's nice to know that someone else read it and enjoyed it. When I don't get very many comments, it does make me wonder if the story sucks. Generally, I tend to pay more attention to the type of comments rather than number. The story I am most proud of (one I struggled with big time) got far less comments than some of my quick dialogue only fics and my smut. That being said, I got less comments, but there were several really thoughtful comments that I loved hearing. I am happy getting any comments, but I treasure the ones where I know the person reading got what I was trying to say.

My thoughts on yaoi: *Points to icon*

[loz]

Yes, I'd say that's true. I'd also say that lots of comments aren't necessarily any indication of quality or time spent on crafting quality.

Conversely, sometimes people don't comment on things that they think are 'too good' --- where they can't think of anything to say other than, "that was good" and feel that comment would be banal.

Comment whoring is also just so rude.

[callmeliterator.livejournal.com]

You know, I never thought about it, but I never read comment whore fics. I think it stems from my early days of trawling through ff.net where I quickly learned NEVER to click the fics with the words "plz r/r" in the summary, because those fics were inevitably terrible.

Also, yaoi? I recently convinced a MALE friend to read it, so we know how much I like it. :D

[nemesishamartia.livejournal.com]

On yaoi? Heh, anywhere, anyhow, anyway at all :D

First, my own experiences with above topic:
I do like getting comments -- who doesn't? But comments like 'great story', while gratifying, are sorta like... k thanks, Nems, moving on now. I like it when I get thoughtful comments. I do a bit of comment whoring, but with everything in life, I tried to inject some of my dry humor into it. I may've fallen short of the mark entirely, but I'll let you guys be the judge.

Dr. House is being forced would like to take this time and space to remind you that "puppies shouldn't be kicked, Chase is a whore, and reviews are love. Can I have a week off Clinic duty now?" Dr. Wilson would like to add, "Favorite lines are much appreciated, I'm told. Ditto for concrit."

Other people's comment whoring:
If it's said in a funny/amusing way, it makes me smile. If it's clever, I'll probably say so. So if someone posted a cute little poem about comments, heh, I'll probably like it. I'm a simple guy like that.

What I notice about chaptered fics is that they have ridiculously short chapters. I mean, sometimes, there's a definite point to having a short chapter, and I respect that. But usually it's just like, heh, TEASER! Or, COMMENTS AND I'LL UPDATE!!! A lot of the ones I've seen could be one post without hurting the story -- would probably help.

And a lot of people post the second they've completed a part without bothering to read it or see if they wanna add to it. And that usually just sucks.

Pointless less-than-500 word fics: JESUS, I've seen SO MANY. Most of them are totally implausible and pointless. Their only saving grace is that they're short, so the misery isn't prolonged.

I think a better test of how good your fic is if people remember it and search for it. You know, if two years later, people are still going, "OMG, that was a GOOD fic."

[euclase.livejournal.com]

I knew you would post about this after our chat. ;)

My feelings on comment counts are mixed. I love when people get comments, but I hate getting them myself, and sometimes it's REALLY hard for me to accept comments as praise because I know they're so unreliable. I therefore have trouble reconciling why people think comments are so important--I *know* why people want them (approval, acceptance, all that stuff we talked about), but it still drives me crazy, because it doesn't prove anything, as you say. I personally would rather people just went on their way and didn't comment on anything I had to say at times (I AM SO AWFUL FOR SAYING THAT *facepalm*), and I've had to work really hard to accept that they will, so comment whoring seems sort of sad. I wish we all had more self confidence, but the internet isn't built for that.

I guess... it's hard for people to detach from that? To NOT cater to an audience? And people take it too far and think it's a sign of value to get comments, so they do anything they can to get them?

[wheatear.livejournal.com]

I think most people do want comments. It's nice to be popular, right? And you post fics for people to read, so it's a bit disheartening to get no feedback at all because it seems like no-one's reading. So I don't mind writers saying something like 'Feedback is appreciated!' and I do that myself sometimes.

I don't think comment whores are hated just because their attitude increases the amount of badfic, though that may be part of it. I think it's mostly because it's seen as rude to be so demanding. Tactics like demanding x number of reviews before updating just smack of entitlement and most people don't like authors who think they are owed reviews by their readers. The more of a comment whore you are, the more it seems like you're not bothered about writing a good fic and all you care about is popularity. That puts me off as well.

[hibernia1.livejournal.com]

Okay... I would lie if I said I don't like to receive comments when I post stuff (I'm strictly speaking of stories now - although of course I like comments on personal stuff, too, but that's a different thing altogether). But I'm not gonna ask for them. If people like my stories, it's nice of them to let me know. If I don't get any comments at all, I wonder if it was really that bad (mostly because I never, ever comment on stories I don't like or even hate, I mean, who am I to discourage anyone, so I happily assume other people follow that policy as well which is silly because maybe that's not the case at all). When people get in my face too much with their asking for comments (and this seems to be happening more & more), I don't even read their stories, because I don't want to comment because someone asks for it, just when I feel moved to do so. Fandom should be fun (yeah!) and I don't want to feel forced or obliged or anything to leave comments. As for WIP's, some of my very favourite stories are or were WIP's, but usually have or had fairly longish chapters, and I did/do comment on them because I love them, they make me smile, so why not let the author know so? I'm not sure that the comment whores increase the amount of bad fic - is there more bad fic now then before, I'm not really sure. You could have a point there, though. And also, it's not the quantity of comments that count, but what they say. "Good story" is a bit... it's not saying much. Why is it a good story? Is it happy, sad, in character, funny, uplifting, hot?

I was going to make a point, but I'm not really doing it, am I? This is just a bunch of random thoughts. Sorry... And yaoi = love!

[lf2871.livejournal.com]

I'm in the habit of writing shorter stuff myself. I seem to work in little scenes, so i find short fic works better.

I try not to pay attention to the amount of comments I do or don't get. I won't post anything I don't think I've done my best on so I try not to let stuff shake my confidence - sometimes easyer said than done i'll admit.

I can't abide 'Comment whoreing' though. If I like something I will say so, If not I won't. No 'please comment!' is going to make me change my made, and would put me off reading fic.