Anyone notice less comments on your stories over the years?

[EvelynEden]

This question is purely one out of curiosity from something I've seen recently- possibly. I could be entirely wrong, the memory is a funny thing.

So I started on lit around 2015 and popped in every now and then over the years till now. I don't have a huge collection and I've dabbled over the last few years, is what I'm getting at.

I've never had a huge following, I'm too fly in fly out for anything like that- so I suppose maybe those with the large followings haven't experienced what I am talking about- but one thing I've noticed since being back is that there just isn't the same volume of comments (I think) and emailed feedback. I remember I used to get a lot of emailed feedback and the comment section was a little heavier than now.

That doesn't bother me so much, what bothers me is that I don't know if what I think is happening is actually happening, or am I noticing things that aren't there? Has anyone seen this at all?

Sorry for the ramblings, it's like so late and I can't sleep, so you poor souls are my victims.

 

[SimonDoom]

I've been publishing for a little over three years, and I've never received that many comments. On average I get about 1 comment for every thousand views or so, but my most popular stories, curiously, have even fewer comments per view than that.

My understanding, from what others have said, is that the Favorites feature, which was implemented some time before I started publishing, cut down on the number of comments.

 

[NotWise]

This question is purely one out of curiosity from something I've seen recently- possibly. I could be entirely wrong, the memory is a funny thing.

If there is a pattern, then it's probably completely individual.

I joined here a couple months after you. I typically don't get many comments and have had very little feedback via email, but the feedback may be increasing rather than decreasing. My most-commented story was published last summer.

My tendency to more views, votes and comments may result from increased name recognition, especially in I/T. If you continue to publish regularly then the trend you see may reverse itself.

 

[KeithD]

I don't get many comments; never have. What surprises me are the comments I get on stories posted ten years ago that they seem to think were posted yesterday. I sometimes get e-mails on unidentified stories and when I ask, it was posted in another lifetime and most certainly isn't in my mind now.

 

[gordo12]

This question is purely one out of curiosity from something I've seen recently- possibly. I could be entirely wrong, the memory is a funny thing.

So I started on lit around 2015 and popped in every now and then over the years till now. I don't have a huge collection and I've dabbled over the last few years, is what I'm getting at.

I've never had a huge following, I'm too fly in fly out for anything like that- so I suppose maybe those with the large followings haven't experienced what I am talking about- but one thing I've noticed since being back is that there just isn't the same volume of comments (I think) and emailed feedback. I remember I used to get a lot of emailed feedback and the comment section was a little heavier than now.

That doesn't bother me so much, what bothers me is that I don't know if what I think is happening is actually happening, or am I noticing things that aren't there? Has anyone seen this at all?

Sorry for the ramblings, it's like so late and I can't sleep, so you poor souls are my victims.

Ahhh, welcome to the world of insomnia. It's an ugly companion.

The comments used to be instantaneous. I could read a comment thread and respond to the story or other comments. If I made a mistake I could instantly re-comment and fix it.

Then they got put on moderation. Now it can be days before they get posted. I have to go back if I want to see it or any reaction.

With the new page you have to go through so many clicks to see the comment thread that I can't be bothered. I saw a story with 220 comments. Am I going to click thru 44 times????? I think not! Did someone else deal with what I was going to comment on? Don't know and I'm not going to make the effort to find out.

So now it's almost no comments from me. I suspect comments will die under the new page structure.

 

[KeithD]

Then they got put on moderation. Now it can be days before they get posted. I have to go back if I want to see it or any reaction.

Yes, since the delayed-posting of comments set in I've had a couple of instances where a new story got such an obnoxious comment that I wanted to counter it immediately to try to prevent it from side railing the new story. With the new delay in a responding comment, I now am more likely to just deep-six the offending comment.

 

[RejectReality]

People obviously prefer to use the favorite listing as a silent form of approval rather than drafting a comment.

I was tracking both my own numbers and themed contests on both sides of favorites being introduced for a couple of years. There was an unmistakable pattern that as the number of favorites increased, the number of comments decreased. Not long before I stopped tracking contests, the two numbers reached equilibrium, and favorites have run away with the race ever since.

Winter 2010: Favs 218, PCs 1158
Earth Day 2011: Favs 148, PCs 607
Summer 2011: Favs 542, PCs 829
Halloween 2011: Favs 758, PCs 1126
Winter 2011: Favs 928, PCs 1306
Vday 2012: Favs 658, PCs 931
Nude 2012: Favs 595, PCs 610
Vday 2014: Favs 945, PCs 683

 

[KeithD]

People obviously prefer to use the favorite listing as a silent form of approval rather than drafting a comment.

They also often use it instead of hitting the 5 vote button.

 

[RejectReality]

Here's a few more demonstrative numbers from my own tracks.

Nov 2010: Favs 160 ( Avg 1, Med 0 ) PCs 974 ( Avg 6, Med 4 )... Avg votes 97, Avg views 20k
Aug 2012: Favs 812 ( Avg 4, Med 1 ) PCs 1523 ( Avg 9, Med 6 )... Avg votes 214, Avg views 30k
Feb 2014: Favs 1891 ( Avg 9, Med 3 ) PCs 1977 ( Avg 10, Med 7 )... Avg votes 329, Avg views 41k
May 2014: Favs 2189 ( Avg 10, Med 3) PCs 2010 ( Avg 10, Med 7 )... Avg votes 339, Avg views 42k
Dec 2019: Favs 8636 ( Avg 33, Med 14 ) PCs 2805 ( Avg 10, Med 7 )... Avg votes 514, Avg views 59k

That's early adoption, about the time of the first increase in the # of favorites you can list, the last time comments outnumbered favorites, the very next track where it flips, and then today.

I'm still getting about the same number of comments as I always have, but in light of how much my other numbers have climbed, comments are stagnant while everything else is rising far more quickly.

 

[KyraSaden]

I think the new moderation system really slowed down commenting. It's not as gratifying to leave a comment if it doesn't post instantly and you have to wait 1-2 days for a response. The comments section used to encourage discussion and sometimes debate, but now? It's kind of a stagnant place and most comments are either a quick and dirty "Nice story! Can't wait for more!" or "When will you post next?" These are both still nice, but I miss the days of more involved speculation.

I do think writers with a large following--especially if they write multi-part stories that are heavy on the romance and/or world-building--still get more involved comments at a higher volume, but it takes time and effort to cultivate that kind of audience. Popular authors who post one-off stroke stories ridiculously frequently also get a lot of comments, but mostly of the, "Great job! I got soooo hard again!" variety. If most of what you post tends to be one-off stroke stories, the chances of acquiring the kind of audience that likes to leave long, introspective, story-centric comments is really, really low.

 

[JamesMiehoff]

I'm not sure if it is the favorites or the smartphones. On the android at leas, I have not found a way to comment. You can rate and your can favorite, but you can't comment.

They need to redo that app.

James

 

[BelleCanzuto]

I'm not sure if it is the favorites or the smartphones. On the android at leas, I have not found a way to comment. You can rate and your can favorite, but you can't comment.

They need to redo that app.

James

Yeah, I looked into it and immediately decided against getting it. But it does seem that they're doing a lot of upgrading, and Manu said it's on their list. I guess we gotta just be patient...

 

[RejectReality]

Even if they redo the app to bring it in line with the capabilities of the main site, it's still not going to get widespread use. It's never going to be an "official" app available in the stores, because it's considered porn and unacceptable.

The only way the app is going to gain market share is to have features not available on the desktop/mobile version of the site that are enticing enough to cause people to overlook the warnings their devices are constantly throwing at them, and the difficulty of installing an unofficial app in the first place.

 

[ElectricBlue]

That doesn't bother me so much, what bothers me is that I don't know if what I think is happening is actually happening, or am I noticing things that aren't there? Has anyone seen this at all?

I joined Lit in 2014 and after the first year adopted one vote per hundred views and one comment per thousand as my rule of thumb. That's not changed much. Some categories are more responsive, some less, and I'm tending to drift more to those categories where the response is marginally more than minimal. But it's still tumbleweeds.

I still get pleasantly surprised when someone comments on or faves an old story - and my back catalogue is still picking up views and scores, which means I'm getting read as an author, not just for the most recent story.

 

[SamScribble]

Am I the only one who wants to change Evelyn's original question to fewer comments rather than less? Comments are countable.

Oh, well, put it down to my advancing years. And that school that I went to - where the Masters all wore gowns and daily caning was compulsory.

 

[NotWise]

Am I the only one who wants to change Evelyn's original question to fewer comments rather than less? Comments are countable.

Oh, well, put it down to my advancing years. And that school that I went to - where the Masters all wore gowns and daily caning was compulsory.

I won't cane Evelyn for her choice -- unless she offers her round butt in an especially inviting way. I doubt anyone misunderstood what she was asking.

Maybe she could have said "less commentary" rather than "less comments." Would that have pleased your demanding Masters?"

 

[SamScribble]

Maybe she could have said "less commentary" rather than "less comments." Would that have pleased your demanding Masters?"

Some days it seemed that nothing would please those persnickety bastards, NotWise.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

Ahhh, welcome to the world of insomnia. It's an ugly companion.

The comments used to be instantaneous. I could read a comment thread and respond to the story or other comments. If I made a mistake I could instantly re-comment and fix it.

Then they got put on moderation. Now it can be days before they get posted. I have to go back if I want to see it or any reaction.

With the new page you have to go through so many clicks to see the comment thread that I can't be bothered. I saw a story with 220 comments. Am I going to click thru 44 times????? I think not! Did someone else deal with what I was going to comment on? Don't know and I'm not going to make the effort to find out.

So now it's almost no comments from me. I suspect comments will die under the new page structure.

Sorry to learn others get to stare into the dark too, hoping for sleep.

You’ve been here much longer than I, but are you aware of your Lit activity page?

It shows all comments on your stories as they get posted, among other things.

 

[gordo12]

Sorry to learn others get to stare into the dark too, hoping for sleep.

You’ve been here much longer than I, but are you aware of your Lit activity page?

It shows all comments on your stories as they get posted, among other things.

Yes, and what you see there would have previously covered 2 days instead of 6 weeks. Not to mention that those comments were pretty much all great job for known writers, or the odd feedback for a new writer that asked. There have also been long periods between my comments since moderation kicked in.

A lot of those are also my responses to commenters on my own stories.

But my real beef is the lack of ability now to see what other comments are being posted. If the author responds to a comment I make or another reader responds that doesn't show on that panel. For that you have to return to the original story. With the new page blocking a show all for comments and posting them 5 at a time it's beyond my desire to spend the time.

Discussion . . . forget it! Comments . . . forget it!

 

[MelissaBaby]

https://media.giphy.com/media/13lssQ2RK5NXnW/giphy.gif

 

[gordo12]

BTW I've brought up the comment situation based on the workings of the new page several times on the feedback Manu has requested.

While he has responded to me about other issues that one has been IGNORED. I have a feeling it's not going to be addressed. I could be wrong but around here the only time they listen is when there's a new format coming.

At the moment the new page loads 5 comments at a time. There is no way to see all. For stories that generate a lot of comments you have to click and click and click.

If the comment situation is a concern to you, you need to get over on those feedback pages and start making some noise. If it stays the way it is I predict commenting will die and probably pretty swiftly.

 

[KeithD]

https://media.giphy.com/media/13lssQ2RK5NXnW/giphy.gif

Yes, I wince each time someone posts to it.

 

[KeithD]

At the moment the new page loads 5 comments at a time. There is no way to see all. For stories that generate a lot of comments you have to click and click and click.

It loads (often slowly) only fifty entries at a time too, which isn't a problem for most authors but it certainly is, compared with the old "scrolling them all" feature, for those of us with extensive listings and is what led me to abandon the sr71plt account and open a new one.

 

[gordo12]

It loads (often slowly) only fifty entries at a time too, which isn't a problem for most authors but it certainly is, compared with the old "scrolling them all" feature, for those of us with extensive listings and is what led me to abandon the sr71plt account and open a new one.

Sorry, I'm talking about the new reading the story page. It only loads 5 comments at a time.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

Am I the only one who wants to change Evelyn's original question to fewer comments rather than less? Comments are countable.

Oh, well, put it down to my advancing years. And that school that I went to - where the Masters all wore gowns and daily caning was compulsory.

No you were not. I have that same impulse in grocery stores, when so many of them have express lane signs that read "10 items or less". But I've learned that most people don't care, and I keep my pet peevishness to myself, most of the time.