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Why People No Read Fanfiction and Write Thoughts?

The Wordsmith

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just wonder why people do no read other fanfiction and leave comments and talk about them here? On other websites people read other people fanfiction not just write they own.

Thank you.
 
I personally do read and leave comments myself, but it takes time to to do the reading itself, and then a longer time still to write thorough, constructive comments on what the author is doing well and what the author can improve on.

I think there's not been a lot of reviewing activity lately overall, possibly because of the busy holidays or something else, but there are definitely some reviewers floating around right now still.
 
Ok thank you. I notice that many fanfictions on this website do not have many statements written in review. That is sad. I wish many more people read other fanfictions.
 
My issue is that I have a hard time articulating my thoughts in a constructive and meaningful way, which is why I don't review stuff often. I could spend hours writing up my thoughts, only to delete it all and start over, repeat that process a few times, etc. I do feel bad about it sometimes, I should at least let authors know that I've read and liked things instead of just hiding in the shadows.

I'm not even certain I did a good job with my compulsory reviews from the last awards season. I don't feel like they were helpful, and I'm not sure if that will change this time either.
 
I do not speak good English but I believe many fanfiction writers want talking on they fanfiction even if it is short. Simple saying that we read they work is good enough. I think too many believe that response on fanfiction need to be long and complex. A simple thank you, good job is good and better than none. It is shame that the administration here believes that response to fanfiction needs to be very long like lecturing or school lesson telling what exact is wrong and right in detail. "Review" as you call it can be short and gives the writer good feelings to know that people are reading. Maybe then people don't give up on writing and this website will be happier and strong. I think constructive and long words on fanfiction is still good but does not need to be mandated by administration. Please just people say they opinions without mandate. Thank you.
 
I only say because I hear everyone say that they no talk on other fanfiction because they cannot be long. I saw in rules that say "reviews" need to be long and constructive like lesson and cannot be simple. Please change this rule administration. More authors will be happy.

If many people say they no give "review" because of need to long and complex because of mandate then there is a problem. Little words for author to encourage is better than no.
 
I think you may be a bit confused there. Reviews written for the Review Game have to be of a reasonable length, because the Review Game is all about giving a review to get a review. There's no rule against giving short reviews in general.
 
- On a similar note, avoid making overly-general comments. I cannot count the number of reviews I’ve received where people have told me “certain scenes” need improving but didn’t elaborate. If there are scenes you think need improving then just say what those scenes are: there is no word count to reviews, so you can say as much as you want. The less you give away in reviews the less helpful it will be to the author.

I think people think "review" need to help author like a school lesson like with grammar or other technically things. But why can't you just say hi good job, I am reading.

The rules have good intent but I think make people too lazy to follow because sometimes they have no enough time to say more than thanks good job. Too many rules about this. No need to tell people how to talk in a place like this. People saying wrong things about my fanfiction is more good than nothing said.
 
There's no rule that reviews have to be long!

Giving solid feedback is encouraged, but by no means does every response have to be incredibly in depth. Back when I started writing, pretty much every comment was only a couple sentences long, but almost no stories went without a response. Over time, the standard changed so that reviews became more comprehensive. I think the average review these days is much more helpful than before, but you're right. It comes at the cost of there being less reviews. That sucks. We try our best to tell people who say "I can't review" that they can leave it at "Here's what I liked, keep it up." In fact, I encourage it heartily when the alternative is doing nothing.
 
Thank you. I think is important to tell fanfiction author that you read even if no time to say something long and complex.

Why did standard change to now have to be long reviews?

I even think saying the bad parts of a fanfiction should be allowed. Truth is better to author than no comment.

Now that I learn there no rule against short comments I think people say they don't comment because they can't think of long comments is being selfish if they want comments on they fanfiction but never comment return. Why selfish? We all friends.
 
A clarification: the thing you quoted was from an article on how to write reviews. It is by no means a rule. Everything in that article was meant as advice for people who want to write really good reviews. I can see how that might be confusing.
 
Sorry for confuse. I just say that people who say they do not comment on friends fanfiction because they cannot think of long comments are lying and instead be lazy and selfish because administration say no rule exist. If you want comment on you fanfiction why you no comment too. All you say can be short that you read and make fanfiction writer feel good. Is that difficult too much?

People say they no have time to comment but you have time to comment on other parts of Bulbagarden? No, you just lying. Time is what you choose. Do not be selfish. Help friends.
 
As a former mod and writer in this section I'd like to weigh in a bit on this question. While I have not frequented the workshop much since my time here (circa 2010), I'd hazard a guess that standard practices haven't changed all that much. Even back in the day there were only ever a couple active fics that received active commentary from readers, with most posts simply being chapter updates. The forum format is rather clunky for hosting fan fiction, but we do try.

Consider this though: Any kind of online media is always going to get a small amount of comments compared to readers. It doesn't matter if it's a youtube video, a blog, a news article, or even a fan fic. You may get only 1% of viewers to make a comment about what they thought of the work. With how small the core Workshop viewership has been since, well, forever it's tough to get frequent, lengthy discussion about fics in-thread and maintain that practice. It's not necessarily a bad thing, especially if readers make use of the Like button. This is just the reality of how online media works. In some respects it's how all media works. ~90% of all patrons of a work will find some level of satisfaction with it, but satisfaction does not generally provoke online conversation, mostly because of the additional effort required for it. This was my experience every time I wrote fan fiction and even most recently when I started making videos for Bulba's Youtube channel.

Fan Fiction is especially dicey because there are a lot of unknowns involved in any conversation about it. Because it's a work of fiction that is in the process of being written most people are going to patiently wait to see what unfolds as the author tells it. In video game discussion you already have all of the details presented for you and it's much easier to form a whole opinion and discuss it. Again, this is just the nature of the beast as it were. This means most comments you'll find will only be critique of story structure, grammar, etc. but I've found most people don't post those in thread either. I mean, some due, but sometimes readers, as stated above, aren't even entirely sure how to say what they find could be improved.

Hopefully this provides a helpful response to the question.
 
No one is obligated to leave reviews, but it sure is good common courtesy to -- if you want to pretend to call yourself an active member of this community and hangout in chat -- that you at least make the effort to review more.

Reviews should very absolutely be allowed to be short and sweet with their comments (even just: "This is awesome!") . I think it helps those lurking readers who never review because they don't feel like they can come up with any grammatical suggestions or technical writing pointers. Or maybe they are just really shy people who simply want to let the author know he's got a loyal reader .
 
As a writer, albeit one that hasn't posted any works here on Bulbagarden outside of URPG in years, I'd rather have no reviews than reviews that just say "it's great" or "this is awesome!" It's not to say that I wouldn't appreciate those reviews because I certainly would, and I'm not against them as a whole. Do I like them? No. Am I going to complain about them? No, not really, except maybe in posts like this where we're discussing this kinda thing. I understand people may not want to get super in depth with their reviews (or maybe don't have the time to), or just want to show that they're reading the story, and that's fine with me, even if I don't like it.

For me, I like to give reviews that are like the ones I like to receive. I like to receive reviews that tell me what the reader liked and/or didn't like about the story, and if possible, how to improve upon those things. I like it when readers tell me what I'm already doing good so that I don't have to worry so much about that and can focus on where my flaws are in that story rather than focusing on what's already good. Reviews that just say "that's good!" or "this is awesome!" don't really help with that at all. What was great about it? What was awesome about it? Surely the whole thing wasn't great or awesome, and I'd rather know what that reader thought about the parts that were good or awesome.

Of course, the super simple comments are ones we just have to accept will happen, and there's not much we can really do about them other than ban them completely in the section, which would do more harm than good and isn't really worth. (And it's certainly not really something I'd like to see, even if I do dislike the super simple comments.)
 
It takes time to read, more time to consider, and even more time to think if I have anything relevant to say.

Plus, I'm still new here. How would you like it if you've been writing fanfiction on here for years, and some random person with less than 20 posts says they don't like your story?
 
Please note: The thread is from 7 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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