i haven't been active on here for six months guys

The weather reflected it, clouds swirling above, rain drenching everything in sight. Stephen had thought going for a walk would improve his mood, get out od the sanctum, change of scenery and what not. 

The rain was cool, a slight breeze brought along with it and it didn't touch him if he didnt want it too. 

Thats when he spotted you. 

Newspaper held over your head as you ran along the sidewalk. The rain coming down in earnest and you squeaked, suddenly and quickly changing directions for the shelter of the small awning of the building. 

There were only a few others that had ventured out and it had been easy to spot you, the shirt you wore a bright yellow, with white and music notes scattered over the front of it. 

It only took a few strides for him to take the spot beside you. 

"It really came out of nowhere huh?" 

"It was already pouring when I stepped out."

You laughed, the sound soft and warm. "Strange-"

"That is my name."

You looked up at him, shaking your shoulders slightly in an attempt to dry yourself. You narrowed your eyes at him. "No umbrella but dry?"

He grinned a bit smugly, placing a finger to his lips. "Magic"

You huffed, "magic would be drying me off-" a shrill noise escaped you as a circle of light swept over you and you stood dry as a bone. Reaching up you touched your hair which stuck out haphazardly. 

"Im sorry," he tutted, turning to fix your hair. He stilled as your small hand wrapped gently around his wrist.

Your eyes closed as you smiled up at him, "a magician?"

"Supreme Sorcerer" The smile that seemed to take permanent residence on your lips eased him. "You certainly don't seem to be bothered by anything I've done the last few minutes."

"Aliens sacked New York, the Avengers are a thing. People have powers when they freak out in their teen years…" you shrugged, "the world is full of wonders and too little time to be spent being afraid of it instead of awe."

He looked at you, watched as you reached up putting your hair in a bun, whisps of hair escaping and falling into your face. "May I buy you a coffee?"

You looked up at him, a little wide eyed and nodded, and there was that soft laugh again. The one he was sure that he could listen to for hours on end. "I don't even know your name!"

"But you said it when we first met" he answered quickly. 

You studied him, this man that towered over you. Eyes a kaleidoscope of colors, sturdy build, the corner of his lips turned up in a bit of mischievousness. You nodded, surprising him a bit. "Its pumpkin spice season after all."

He groaned softly but stepped out into the rain, holding his hand out for you. It did something to him when you reached out slipping your hand into his with a little look of glee when you remained dry. 

Yes. 

Because you do not and cannot know why someone isn't commenting, and "I know some people have crippling anxiety about commenting, but they can just come up with a script or send a heart emoji" doesn’t cut it.

You don't know why they're anxious. They could freeze up and have a panic attack at the idea of posting a comment at all. Some people have OCD and spend so long ruminating on making sure the comment is Right because Terrible Things Will Happen if it's Wrong that they're forced to give up. Maybe they have severe fatigue and/or chronic pain and they literally can't go through that extra step (hi, me).

Maybe they have PTSD from fandom harassment and they're afraid of bringing attention to themselves. Maybe they have PTSD for some other reason and it's blocked them from believing they could ever have anything to say that won't just piss the author off. Maybe they're ESL and they've been viciously mocked for their imperfect grammar. Maybe they have ADHD, and they seriously meant to, but then they lost track of it (hi again, me!).

Maybe they're simply still working up the nerve.

Guilting makes it worse. Much, much worse. All of it.

I legitimately stopped reading any fanfic for a few months because I felt so bad about how shitty I must be making authors feel, and it seemed better not to add to their disappointment if I couldn't summon up the energy or brain to comment.

How is that better?

And I have to say, in every single stat spiral I have seen (including mine!), the ratio is the problem, but what functionally happens is people discard kudos and hits as irrelevant.

"Only two hundred people kudosed out of x thousand hits! Everyone hates me!"

Another way to say that is two fucking hundred people liked it enough to leave you a comment reading "kudos! ❤"

and when presented as though this is a negative thing...without meaning to, you just swept two hundred people into the garbage and told them their positive feedback doesn't count.

Same thing with people who forget or are unable to kudos, actually— views are (mostly; see linked post) people who looked at your work. several people in the notes of the linked post up top go into why people who loved things may not kudos them, as well as breaking down why hits aren't an accurate measurement for reader engagement in the first place!

Most of your hits aren't people running away because they hate you. That's the sneaky hate spiral talking, and sneaky hate spirals lie to you. It's what they do. A majority of those hits are people who enjoyed it. We are throwing the baby out with the bathwater when we devalue hits, too, not just kudos.

To go by the OCD example from earlier, maybe they're working on a compulsive need to kudos everything they read. Or maybe they're just shy, or it's a really bad pain day and they only have enough spoons to read. Maybe they just forgot.