hidden comments, argh

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[lovecraft68]

This is a small rant. I just checked my e-mail account linked to lit, and someone had left me an incredibly nice comment after reading one of my stories. The trouble is that the comment was sent to a private e-mail account and does absolutely no good for story promotion. I wish readers understood how important their comments are in promoting stories and authors. Even the negative comments can have beneficial consequences if it inspires other readers to defend the author. If you are a reader of the stories, and feel so inspired, please help your favorite authors by leaving a small comment. a single comment can boost readership of a story or series tremendously. And if you were the person who left the message, thanks but kind comments can always be given in a public context. That's my rant.

I hear you! Invariably the best always come through e-mail. Occasionally i have even gotten a couple through a lit PM. Maybe it is that damn "anonymous" thing especially if it is an incest story.

My mini rant? Anonymous. We are all friggin' anon. My birth certificate does not say Lovecraft68 no one knows who I really am here so why can;t these people get a lit handle? I mean in the case of trolls I get it but I'm talking the average readers.

Try saying what you said in an authors note in your next story saying what you are talking about. In my last chapter I actually for the first time solicited feedback and votes. Whether it was coincidence or not that chapter got a dozen more votes then my last.

 

[PennLady]

Well, a number of anon comments may be left by people who don't have accounts. I read stories for probably a year before making an account, so many of my comments were anonymous. Also, a lot of people don't want anyone to know they've been to places like this. I remember last year (I think) I received a comment from a woman who said she enjoyed my stories, but even that private comment was anon and nameless as she didn't want anyone to know she read a site like this. I may disagree, but it's her right.

We have to remember that on this site the readers don't owe us anything (and conversely, we don't owe them anything). Since there are so few comments left at all, I wouldn't complain about private vs. public. I'd rather a reader send a private one than not comment.

It is nice when someone leaves a positive public comment, don't get me wrong. But the readers don't owe it to you to vote or comment or defend you -- or attack you.

And, I was curious -- is there anything to stop you from posting the comment yourself, as anonymous or with an explanatory note? You could remove any identifying info and post it.

 

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[estragon]

Surely, I Feel Your Pain

and frustration.

Yes, SA Penn Lady, no one owes us anything. And if we don't like the Literotica environment, we can try to find a "better 'ole", as the World War I cartoonist said.

However, if one's latest story finally breaks 6000 views (as my latest just did), doesn't get a single comment but does get a sub-4 rating, perhaps I might be allowed a certain level of frustration. I don't mean to put words in Surely's word processor (he can certainly tell his own story and has given ample proof of that ability), but I think that's what he's saying.

 

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[kromen]

It's been happening to me lately, but most of the comments were the constructive criticism that I requested, so putting out in public wasn't necessarily needed.

 

[Tyro999]

Not a writer, but not your typical Lit reader either. I don't read, generally, stories in LW, MC, NC/R, or, BDSM, unless they're by a writer who has a lot of stories under their belt, that I have liked, and therefore am willing to give one of their no-no stories a shot.

I comment on stories one of three ways. For a plain vanilla "great story, looking forward to the next chapter, keep it up!" I may not bother to take time to log in to comment amongst other comments in the same vein. If I'm adding a "but ..." to that, and appending a minor critical comment, I'll log in as Tyro999. But, in both cases, if I have something more to say, I'll go the private email comment route, since I don't publish either my real or my yahoo.com email addys on Lit. But I still want to ID myself to the writer.

Since you have told me, Surely, that you don't like the private email comments, I will restrict myself to the first two methods should I ever feel a need to comment on one of your stories.

 

[lovecraft68]

Well, a number of anon comments may be left by people who don't have accounts. I read stories for probably a year before making an account, so many of my comments were anonymous. Also, a lot of people don't want anyone to know they've been to places like this. I remember last year (I think) I received a comment from a woman who said she enjoyed my stories, but even that private comment was anon and nameless as she didn't want anyone to know she read a site like this. I may disagree, but it's her right.

We have to remember that on this site the readers don't owe us anything (and conversely, we don't owe them anything). Since there are so few comments left at all, I wouldn't complain about private vs. public. I'd rather a reader send a private one than not comment.

It is nice when someone leaves a positive public comment, don't get me wrong. But the readers don't owe it to you to vote or comment or defend you -- or attack you.

And, I was curious -- is there anything to stop you from posting the comment yourself, as anonymous or with an explanatory note? You could remove any identifying info and post it.

I understand why people would not want others to know they surf this site. My wife has an account here -you may have seen her in the AH, she occasionally follows my threads and busts my balls- but she mostly surfs the personals looking for an occasional cyber role play.

She manages a doctors office, volunteers at a shelter for abused women (hates rape stories more than me if that is possible) and is a certified life coach who is on the local public speaking circuit. So needless to say her being on here would be frowned upon.

However having said that a "lit handle" is still Anonymous, unless your name really is Pennlady, you set up a toss away e-mail address and pick a name. No one knows who you are. But I do understand people have different levels of paranoia.

On your other comment I personally would feel that it would be cheesy to paste the person's comment and post it myself. I also think that if that reader comes back and sees it he may get pissed off that I did it. I mean he must have had a reason to send privately in the first place.

I do have mixed feelings on them "owing" us something. I can only speak for myself, but if a person is writing a series that I enjoy and they are working hard and getting those chapters out and providing me with entertainment then the least I can do is at least vote and occasionally send an encouraging word. This was my approach before I started writing and I make it a point to do it more often now that I know what type of work goes into stories.

Another thing that keeps comments down is that I know a lot of authors will delete critical ones. I mean if some one says "You fucking suck!" i can see it but constructive ones should stay.

I am currently involved in a minor "fued" with another author. Apparently a zealous fan of both mine and his series mentioned my character in a comment in his story (that he would love to see the two characters fight) Personally I think that was a little tacky but I have no control over people and I am sure this was just an enthusiastic fan as the rest of the comment was very positive.

The author got jerked and yanked the comment and e-mailed me to not plug my series anonymously in his comments. I ignored him which is for the best. But he is the type who comments on others comments within his own story and some people posted that they think his fight scenes are dumb and he then said his editor writes them for him.

I think I put that in a thread recently asking about other people writing your stuff and is it write with no credit given. he took a lot of heat in following comments and deleted all of them. I have since gotten several snooty e-mails from him and he posted crap about my series on his blog.

I've been a good boy ( I also don;t need revenge trolling) however in the chapter I am submitting this week I am posting in my authors note that all dialogue, sexual intercourse and scenes of violence are all written by yours truly.

So at the end of the day maybe comments are not always the best of things. Look no further than loving wives for that crap.

 

[PennLady]

lc68 -- I think you have to look a little deeper than the fact that our usernames are (mostly) anonymous. There are probably people who don't want their family/roommates/whatever to go onto their computer and stumble onto these pages, and at that point the usernames wouldn't matter. That's actually how my mom found out I write this stuff; she was on my laptop and I hadn't cleared my cache. She typed something, clicked to quickly and ended up at a stats page. (Serves her right, yes? ). So, yes -- someone on another computer won't know who I am. I think people are more concerned about real life people finding out.

I wouldn't post a private comment publicly unless I cleared it with the sender, and if I couldn't, I wouldn't. It was just a suggestion.

estragon -- Yes, you and SurelyW are surely entitled to the frustration. However, there's not much to be done. :-/

I still feel the readers don't owe us comments or votes, although I actually do agree with lc that if they are entertained, it'd be nice to know that. But you can't force it. I mean, they aren't asking you to write, so it's not necessarily fair to expect them to comment even if you do. I suppose it's a little like passing someone playing music in a subway or whatever. You didn't ask them, and if you just walk by, there's no need to drop a tip. If you stay and listen it's different.

I leave almost all comments with my username; there'd have to be certain circumstances for me not to. On the other hand, if I was that concerned and still wanted to put that comment out, I'd send it privately.

 

[lovecraft68]

lc68 -- I think you have to look a little deeper than the fact that our usernames are (mostly) anonymous. There are probably people who don't want their family/roommates/whatever to go onto their computer and stumble onto these pages, and at that point the usernames wouldn't matter. That's actually how my mom found out I write this stuff; she was on my laptop and I hadn't cleared my cache. She typed something, clicked to quickly and ended up at a stats page. (Serves her right, yes? ). So, yes -- someone on another computer won't know who I am. I think people are more concerned about real life people finding out.

I wouldn't post a private comment publicly unless I cleared it with the sender, and if I couldn't, I wouldn't. It was just a suggestion.

estragon -- Yes, you and SurelyW are surely entitled to the frustration. However, there's not much to be done. :-/

I still feel the readers don't owe us comments or votes, although I actually do agree with lc that if they are entertained, it'd be nice to know that. But you can't force it. I mean, they aren't asking you to write, so it's not necessarily fair to expect them to comment even if you do. I suppose it's a little like passing someone playing music in a subway or whatever. You didn't ask them, and if you just walk by, there's no need to drop a tip. If you stay and listen it's different.

I leave almost all comments with my username; there'd have to be certain circumstances for me not to. On the other hand, if I was that concerned and still wanted to put that comment out, I'd send it privately.

Never to old to be busted by mom eh?

Sign of the times. Years ago it was that pile of dirty magazines that parents would find. Now it's bookmarked pages and links.

 

[AlmostAlice]

Aren't comments at the very end of the story? I agree that comments, any at all, really motivate the writer to write more, and sometimes better, but I don't understand how comments can help story promotion. By the time the comments are read, the reader will have read the whole story already. And as I recall the Lit index does not show how many comments a story has.

Or am I missing something here?

 

[sr71plt]

Aren't comments at the very end of the story? I agree that comments, any at all, really motivate the writer to write more, and sometimes better, but I don't understand how comments can help story promotion. By the time the comments are read, the reader will have read the whole story already. And as I recall the Lit index does not show how many comments a story has.

Or am I missing something here?

There's a page at Lit. called "Feedback Portal," where all comments register and travel through. The theory is that some readers will read comments in the Feedback Portal and then click to the stories from there.

 

[Darkniciad]

There's a page at Lit. called "Feedback Portal," where all comments register and travel through. The theory is that some readers will read comments in the Feedback Portal and then click to the stories from there.

It's not just a theory. I actually do that.

As often as not, I'm reading because of a rotten comment I saw in the portal, though. Some troll comments just have an air about them that says the story is actually worth reading, and the commenter is jealous/bitter/whatever.

Found quite a few gems that way.

 

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[AlmostAlice]

Interesting! I did not know about this feature. I will definitely be checking it out.

 

[PennLady]

Aren't comments at the very end of the story? I agree that comments, any at all, really motivate the writer to write more, and sometimes better, but I don't understand how comments can help story promotion. By the time the comments are read, the reader will have read the whole story already. And as I recall the Lit index does not show how many comments a story has.

Or am I missing something here?

Others have pointed out the Feedback Portal (which I don't use). I'd also say that if someone reads a story, then the comments, they may be willing to then try other stories by the writer. Maybe.

 

[bronzeage]

I prefer email comments. A reader is more likely to go into more detail and sometimes ask a question. This can lead to very interesting conversations.

 

[PennLady]

I prefer email comments. A reader is more likely to go into more detail and sometimes ask a question. This can lead to very interesting conversations.

I don't know about preferring email comments, but I agree -- when someone takes the time to write and ask a question, I enjoy responding and the ensuing conversation. I also always try to send a thank you via person's profile page if I can for public comments.

 

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[sr71plt]

Really???? I always wondered what to do about this, but didn't respond to their private e-mail. I usually just respond on the public board with a quick thank you or to answer a question. If the comment makes me feel uncomfortable in some way I simply leave it alone. Do other authors send messages to readers that comment, and are they well taken?

I rarely respond to a public comment to Lit. I almost always respond to an e-mailed comment when a valid return address is given. I'd not respond to ones that just want to zap or argue--but those are rare (and almost always anonymous anyway).

 

[PennLady]

Really???? I always wondered what to do about this, but didn't respond to their private e-mail. I usually just respond on the public board with a quick thank you or to answer a question. If the comment makes me feel uncomfortable in some way I simply leave it alone. Do other authors send messages to readers that comment, and are they well taken?

There's no hard and fast rule. I just like to do that, especially if they asked a question. I don't always hear back, but then I don't expect to.

 

[talismania]

I always respond to e-mail feedback, because it suggests the reader is open to hearing back from me.

I'm basically shy and less likely to respond to public comments, but I've done so a few times when the commenter was helpful and sounded approachable. Otherwise I assume the reader just wanted to leave a note, not talk to me.