#commenting etiquette

Person A

1) acknowledges you liked it - twice

2) acknowledges the author controls if there is more

3) offers their support if more is written (also the willingness to read more? Of my writing? Wow. I’m emotional)

4) exclamation mark with a compliment! Exciting!

Person B

1) one word

2) all capitals

3) demanding - it feels like you’re yelling at me

4) could not actually be bothered to say you liked it

Be Person A, not Person B, please! Fanfic authors are not your fic ATMs.

I know people always say they don’t know what to write in a comment but honestly? As long as you’re polite it’s a good comment!

Unless an author has asked for critiques, DO NOT GIVE THEM. I don’t need to know (nor do I care) that something took you out of the fic. It’s FICTIONAL. Use your imagination! Make it work!

But also: if I reply to all your comments so far, then you'll get six flavours of me saying th-th-thank you so much for reading <3 in a row and I'll feel self-conscious and—

what if I make YOU feel self-conscious. So no, I must approach you softly and subtly, as if you are a nervous deer and—

oh fuck, now that's ten comments in a row. No, eleven. And I don't want to interrupt you reading my fic with sending eleven versions of YOU'RE SO AMAZING TO LEAVE ME ALL THESE COMMENTS I CAN'T EVEN to your inbox so I'm just going to wait until you comment on the last chapter and then reply—

OH GOD please like my fic enough to get to the last chapter or this is going to be really awkward for both of us.

Oooh, another comment! SILENT HEART EYES BEAMING AT YOU RIGHT NOW and maybe this is a little creepy of me and someone should take away my internet and—

I’d like to preface this by saying: I am not being a bitch here. This is a way to keep my space safe and comfortable. If you want to judge, exit stage left.

hello again! If you're thinking of leaving a comment on my blog, I have some rules for this!!

this is posted on literally every single one of my fics. You can't miss it. It is also linked in my masterlist.

Do not comment anything horny at all. It just makes me really uncomfortable.

Do not comment anything hateful. This is a safe space for non-bigots.

Do not comment anything that could put down others in the community. ("Your writing is so much better than x,/x is so much better than you!")

that's pretty much it from me! Happy commenting!!

How do you feel about comments saying that your fic has given the commenter an idea/inspired them a fic of their own/prompted them to write something or solve a plot point in their own fic?

I mostly gauge etiquette by what I personally appreciate in comments or not (no concrit or unsollicitated advice, etc) but I'm not sure if opinions are divided on this one.

I love you. You are dear to all of our writerly hearts. We appreciate all that you do in encouraging our work! Especially when not everyone chooses to comment for various reasons (and no judgement from me personally I am not about guilting people into stuff)

But I have one request to make to all commenting-kind.

Please PLEASE I BEG YOU. If you are leaving a comment on something you enjoyed. Please EXPLICITLY say something positive about it. “I enjoyed this.” “Looking forward to reading more” “loved this” it can be utterly simple but it needs to be explicit.

I have seen many authors (and experienced myself) receive comments with a tone that is neutral at best and struggle with being able to tell if the person even liked it.

Worse yet, I have also seen people leave comments with character analysis that is overtly negative, as in, disagreeing with the character’s actions. Which by itself with no contextual “I enjoyed reading this character be an asshole” it just comes across like you are complaining about the writing or that you didn’t like how this character was written. Which is obviously not what you’re going for if you liked the fic.

Also please never ever ever leave a comment that is literally just pointing out a typo and nothing else. I personally don’t mind getting typo corrections (though be careful many authors do not like it) I would be seriously annoyed if someone felt the urge to comment because they had to correct me but apparently had no equal urge to say anything nice.

So please try to be explicitly clear about your enjoyment of a fic when leaving a comment. It also makes it much easier for the author to reply when they know you actually liked it. Please don’t assume we will know you enjoyed it because you are commenting, we get shitty asshole comments too.

AO3 was slow, so I went looking for the status update. Found this scorching take. My sympathies to all the authors who write for this person’s fandoms.

This isn’t English class. Quickest way to get an author to stop writing is to give them negative feedback or even what you consider “constructive criticism.” You never have to comment. Hitting the back button is quick and easy.

Today I got a comment on a popular story and a comment on an unpopular story.

The comment on the popular story asked if I was going to update this year.

The comment on the unpopular story had three sentences about what they liked and then said they hoped I continued the story. It also ended by wishing me a beautiful week.

I will be working on an update to the unpopular story tonight.