Hereβs the thing: authors know when they get a rec on an older story. Thereβs a telltale uptick of kudos (with a 10-15% comment rate if youβre lucky) in your digest email.
The thing is, thereβs no way to know where these people are coming from. In the before, when fandom was more in the corners we all knew about, you could search LJ or a message board or whatever social bookmarking site we were using. You could join the community and participate.
You could get a little dopamine hit by seeing someone tell their friends why they loved your story.
Anymore, those recs are hidden in discords, or in tiktoks or instagram slideshows that you canβt search for. Theyβre inaccessible, not discoverable unless youβre already there. You may never know why 27 people left kudos on an old story of yours, what they liked and found in your writing. You just get the thumbs up and a kinda lonely feeling, cause these could be your people. You could like them, maybe. You could be friends.
But youβll never find out why they stopped by, or what people are saying about you behind your back, and thatβs sad.
So thank you to the people who still do public rec lists on this webbed site. You are my sunshine, and Iβm appreciative of all of you.
yousharknotpass
gummygunk
tangentwithtanner
prguitarman
snowghoul
romaincrisis
