The Silent Comments

[Bamagan]

I expect I am not alone in noticing people who tend to bookmark/favorite our stories but never leave a comment or otherwise interact with the author. This is not a complaint thread, though, as I don't have any particular angst about that, and might even prefer it to certain alternatives related to toxic fans. Instead, I was wondering if anyone else finds themselves making up stories about the silent admirers based on their user names, avatars, or any other tidbits of information they included in their profiles. A couple of mine seem to pounce very soon after things are posted most days, and I've started imagining them as rivals at an auction for some reason.
Anyone else?

 

[Djmac1031]

An intriguing question.

But the one that puplexes me more is the Random Follower.

Its been weeks, maybe months since your last story published. And then, out of nowhere you get the notification: "SoNSo has started following you."

Excellent! LOVE new followers! Who wouldn't, right?

But then you start wondering: WHY?

They didn't Favorite a single story, let alone comment on one. Obviously they must have read SOMETHING they liked... but WHAT? Which story drew them in? Have the read more than one story? WILL they read more? Will they read your new ones when you publish?

THERE ARE SO MANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS.

 

[Bamagan]

An intriguing question.

But the one that puplexes me more is the Random Follower.

Its been weeks, maybe months since your last story published. And then, out of nowhere you get the notification: "SoNSo has started following you."

Excellent! LOVE new followers! Who wouldn't, right?

But then you start wondering: WHY?

They didn't Favorite a single story, let alone comment on one. Obviously they must have read SOMETHING they liked... but WHAT? Which story drew them in? Have the read more than one story? WILL they read more? Will they read your new ones when you publish?

THERE ARE SO MANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS.

That gives me a vague ambition of starting a new account and naming it, "NoOneYouKnowDefintelyNOTaStalker."

 

[AchtungNight]

I hope people are favoriting my stories to read again later. Of course, given that some people have thousands of favorites, I really can’t say.

 

[yukonnights]

Perhaps it's my doubts about the internet in general, but I tend to believe a good number of "so-called" Favorites are destined to be copied and presented to some web-site that makes a profit on the stories. No way to prove that, but I very rarely see any reason to add a story to Favorites. The exception would be long stories and Chapter style stories.

As to abundent flowing comments; I gave up on that hope years ago.

 

[ElectricBlue]

No way to prove that, but I very rarely see any reason to add a story to Favorites. The exception would be long stories and Chapter style stories.

As to abundent flowing comments; I gave up on that hope years ago.

Maybe the reader liked the story? Why seek a paranoid answer when a simple one will do?

And of course people won't comment when they've bookmarked a story. They've not read it yet.

I'm scratching my head on this comment. That's not the Yukon moose guy I once knew, he'd never be such a downer.

 

[oneagainst]

An intriguing question.

But the one that puplexes me more is the Random Follower.

Its been weeks, maybe months since your last story published. And then, out of nowhere you get the notification: "SoNSo has started following you."

Excellent! LOVE new followers! Who wouldn't, right?

But then you start wondering: WHY?

They didn't Favorite a single story, let alone comment on one. Obviously they must have read SOMETHING they liked... but WHAT? Which story drew them in? Have the read more than one story? WILL they read more? Will they read your new ones when you publish?

THERE ARE SO MANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS.

Top 50 story? Particularly niche story tag? Or, someone going through an author they follow who posts at least one story a week and seeing which authors *they* have on their follow list. I get about 2500 views a day across the back catalogue, distinct from whether I post a new story that week or not - there's a network effect at play here.

 

[Bamagan]

I hope people are favoriting my stories to read again later. Of course, given that some people have thousands of favorites, I really can’t say.

Yeah, I have a vague hypothesis that some people favorite nearly everything they open as a form of camouflage. Since it's publicly displayed information on profiles, there might be an incentive to try throwing grist in the mill of anyone wanting to analyze your patterns by giving them too much data for making valid inferences. I have been known to tag plants, furniture, and the sun as being me in various social media, in a likely vain effort to stymie their facial recognition algorithms.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Then you get people who bookmark them twice within five or ten minutes. And you're like, WTF, and of course, the number of s only goes up by one. What's up with that? And no, they don't comment and you don't even think they voted. But I guess a is a vote, but it doesn't move the needle at all.

 

[Bamagan]

Then you get people who bookmark them twice within five or ten minutes. And you're like, WTF, and of course, the number of s only goes up by one. What's up with that?

My assumption is that bookmarking automatically adds a story to favorites, or vice versa, but that some users manually toggle both.

 

[MillieDynamite]

It's just confusing when it happens.

My assumption is that bookmarking automatically adds a story to favorites, or vice versa, but that some users manually toggle both.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Then you get people who bookmark them twice within five or ten minutes. And you're like, WTF, and of course, the number of s only goes up by one. What's up with that? And no, they don't comment and you don't even think they voted. But I guess a is a vote, but it doesn't move the needle at all.

Probably somebody who favourited and then accidentally clicked again and unfavourited, so they had to re-favourite it?

 

[MillieDynamite]

I don't know.

Probably somebody who favourited and then accidentally clicked again and unfavourited, so they had to re-favourite it?

 

[madelinemasoch]

I have someone who favorites almost everything I post, but when I checked their profile after their most recent favorite, I only saw one on there, and it was from a long time ago. I don't know what's up with them.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Using the as a bookmark then deleting it after they read it.

I have someone who favorites almost everything I post, but when I checked their profile after their most recent favorite, I only saw one on there, and it was from a long time ago. I don't know what's up with them.

 

[Euphony]

Anyone else?

Nah.
I'm terrible with favs/follow curation on Lit. I just don't trust the bones of this place if it's important and use other, non-public facing organization.

And as humans do, I see through my lens and assume others don't always place much stock in the onboard tools either.

I'm sure there are some interesting use cases tho. People are wild. The wildest of people read here.

 

[madelinemasoch]

Using the as a bookmark then deleting it after they read it.

Good to know they've read all my stuff except for B&W chapter 5 (the best part), I guess.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Well, if they miss the best part, that's on them.

Good to know they've read all my stuff except for B&W chapter 5 (the best part), I guess.

 

[lovecraft68]

An intriguing question.

But the one that puplexes me more is the Random Follower.

Its been weeks, maybe months since your last story published. And then, out of nowhere you get the notification: "SoNSo has started following you."

Excellent! LOVE new followers! Who wouldn't, right?

But then you start wondering: WHY?

They didn't Favorite a single story, let alone comment on one. Obviously they must have read SOMETHING they liked... but WHAT? Which story drew them in? Have the read more than one story? WILL they read more? Will they read your new ones when you publish?

THERE ARE SO MANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS.

Your story could have showed up in similar stories, or maybe they were cruising through a too top list or searching for a certain tag.

From there, I wonder if they'll stick around or it was a quick book mark so they wouldn't lose the story and just unfav. Seeing we don't get that notification(used to years ago) we have to guess. Unless you're one of those people who are constantly monitoring their fav total.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Using the as a bookmark then deleting it after they read it.

This never happens, I'm sure. Each and every one is pure and true and heartfelt, just like all the views are new distinct individual readers...

 

[SyleusSnow]

I only check how long a new follower has been on Lit and how long their favorites list is already. Hundreds? Meh... they're a collector. Only a handful and they've been on Lit forever? That's meaningful. A story of mine is the first they've ever favorited, or I'm the first author they've followed? Woohoo!

I've also seen readers (many, lately) who click and unclick Follow several times, or favorite and unfavorite a story many times. Some are accidental, but some it seems are readers indicating "thumbs up", since the site doesn't provide a feature like that.

What really bugs me is when a reader favorites a story for real but doesn't leave a vote. Grrrrr.

 

[Bamagan]

This never happens, I'm sure. Each and every one is pure and true and heartfelt, just like all the views are new distinct individual readers...

 

[intim8]

But then you start wondering: WHY?

I have found authors to follow from reading the top rated stories of a category, or even the random spinner. If I get to a story by any means, including new stories, that I really like, I will check their submissions page and see what else they have. If others are good, I might follow them.

Also, I've followed a few writers I checked out after coming across them here in the forums.

When I first got on here, I followed somebody who hadn't put a new story up in years.

 

[madelinemasoch]

Well, if they miss the best part, that's on them.

Upon a second glance, it's actually 4, not 5, which is much less exciting.

 

[AchtungNight]

I've also seen readers (many, lately) who click and unclick Follow several times, or favorite and unfavorite a story many times. Some are accidental, but some it seems are readers indicating "thumbs up", since the site doesn't provide a feature like that.

What really bugs me is when a reader favorites a story for real but doesn't leave a vote. Grrrrr.

I’ve turned off voting thanks to downvotes and imps who use them excessively. But if Lit ever wants to go to a no negatives format I’ll turn them back on.