Fewer Comments Than Usual?

[Britva415]

2.number of comments not showing on the category hub (which was always a little nudge to readers)

Did that change?

 

[RocketGrunt]

If you click on "More New Stories" it shows a whole week of stories from that category, and it shows you how many views and comments a story has.

If you don't click on More it only shows you 10 stories and the ratings, views, comments are all hidden. It only tells you if it has a Red H or not. So if something has an average rating of more than 4.5 and at least 10 total ratings, that red "H" symbol is shown to the casual viewer. Nothing else is.

The fact that you have to ask for a full week before it gives you more than 10 recent suggestions has very real consequences for viewership. For example: the Erotic Couplings gets a lot more than 10 entries a day. Today it got 29. So of the 10 stories that do appear without asking for more, only one of them has less than a thousand views (it's chapter 7 of a series, so that's its own thing). Of the 19 stories that you do have to click "more new stories" to even fucking see, NINE of them have less than a thousand views. Almost exactly half.

The new view is an absolute trainwreck for engagement. Unmitigated disaster.

 

[NuclearFairy]

I've noticed that the more followers I have, the more likely my new story is to get comments, the more stories I post, the more likely I am to get new followers.

My last story, was an outlier posted in a very low view high interaction category... But! The one before that had something like 3 comments before the day was over, which was far and away more than my first six short stories got.

 

[anthrodisiac]

I don't know if comments are that heavily moderated, at least not for everyone. Maybe they are moderated for anonymous users, but I typically see mine get posted almost immediately after submitting them.

I also think that an author's comments on their own stories go through pretty quickly.

Man, I'm waiting nearly 3 days for my comments to show up on someone's story. I'm pretty sure it's nothing to do with the fact I send all my feedback via pigeon, given how well it's worked for me over the last 100 years.

I can definitely see how that could be disheartening for a reader, or confusing. Maybe they think comments are broken and so they don't bother to leave them after that, not realizing there's a moderator and delay.

 

[PapaRomantic]

My entry for the Valentine's Day contest has more comments than favorites. That is extremely rare in my published catalogue. Not sure why.

 

[anthrodisiac]

My entry for the Valentine's Day contest has more comments than favorites. That is extremely rare in my published catalogue. Not sure why.

One word: cancer.

It's incredibly relatable and pervasive and emotional, which are all drivers of leaving comments. People want to tell you how moved they were, or share their stories. You bring up cancer, everyone wants to talk to you about it.

Having written a cancer book, I'm incredibly familiar with this phenomena. I had a stall at a book fair after the release and so, so many people came up to tell me their stories or stories of their loved ones. And they hadn't even read the book. I imagine someone is much more willing someone to open up if they actually read it.

 

[THBGato]

I've noticed that the more followers I have, the more likely my new story is to get comments, the more stories I post, the more likely I am to get new followers.

All true. But also, the more YOU comment on others' stories, the more comments you get. I've had a dozen or so comments from other writers that begin along the lines of "I checked out your profile after the lovely comment you left on my story and I'm so glad I did because this was..."

That's not why I comment so much, but it's a nice bonus at times.