I think a big reason people are so averse to commenting on fics these days is that media form elsewhere on the internet is getting shorter and shorter. You watch a ten second video on tiktok, get the dopamine hit, and immediately are supplied with another ten second video just like the first. There is no cooldown period. No pause between highs. And that's what people are accustomed to now. You finish a fic, think "holy shit that was amazing, i need more of the same," and immediately move on to a new fic after (maybe) taking the half a second required to mindlessly smash the kudos button. It's like getting off a roller coaster and immediately getting back in line, except there is no line and you don't even have to get out of the car. Just pause at the loading dock for two seconds, and you're off again, riding the high.
I'm guilty of this too - I'm certainly not perfect. But something I've started doing is including a mandatory cooldown period of five minutes after finishing a fic I liked. That gives my brain enough time to savor the joy it just experienced, and to process it enough to put into basic words if I so choose. And I find that I'm much more likely to leave a comment when I take this cooldown time instead of just closing the tab and zooming into the next fic, skidding through the ao3 search like a junkie whose next hit is across town.
And you know what happens when i comment? At the very least, i make a writer's day. At most, I wind up with a friend for life. I've met some of my best friends because I've taken the time to cool down after reading a great fic. And not to sound like a boomer (or millennial - my teenage piano student has informed me millennials like me are the new boomers) but maybe y'all should try the cooldown period thing too. Not just on ao3. Try it everywhere. But especially ao3.
And that's how I met one of my best friends 😘
