#bookmark comments

@mariagvogel

People do realize that the authors on ao3 can see the public bookmark comments that readers leave, right? 

Listen: I’m all for bookmark comments. I get wanting to leave one, either for yourself or for other people. Just know that if you leave it set to “public”, then everyone, including the author of the fic, can see it. I just got a rude bookmark comment from someone, so just for funsies I went to their page on ao3. They haven’t written anything themselves, but have a long list of rude bookmark comments, all of which are public. The one on mine says “Very case heavy and not at all light-hearted. Also in first person POV which is decidedly not my favourite.”

Lol. The fic is tagged with, among others, “Reichenbach Return”, “drama”, and “first person POV”. It’s also 152,000 words long. So yeah, I would rather HOPE that it’s not light on plot in general, and the POV warning is right there in the tags. Deciding to read a first person POV for 152K words and then complaining about it at the end is a bit like going for a seven-course dinner and then complaining that you don’t care for food. DUDE, YOU SIGNED UP FOR IT. YOU COULD HAVE BACKSPACED OUT OF THERE ANYTIME AT ALL. But you didn’t. Instead, you chose to leave a dickish comment about my fic. Publicly, so that you could be sure that I would see it. And that anyone else who happens to click on the bookmarks could also see it. You didn’t leave it as a comment on the fic, where the author would have the power to, say, respond, and/or invite you into a dialogue about the story, about the stylistic choice to have written it in first person POV, etc. You just wanted to be a dick. 

This and tags on tumblr are my fav things to read for fics… I really love it! All the commenters are lovely and amazing. Thank you to them.