#llf comment project

Hi there! I definitely wouldn't say I'm an expert when it comes to AO3, but I find the fandom culture around AO3 to be really interesting, so I do talk about it a lot, haha. I've only been posting works there since 2019, though, and I'm sure folks who have been doing so for longer or have volunteered as tag wranglers or on the policy & abuse committee, for example, would know a lot more than I do. <3

But I'm really sorry to hear that you only get kudos and no comments on your fics! That really sucks. :( Like you said, you have no idea what those people actually think about what you made—just that they consumed it.

Honestly, I'm not sure I'm a good person to ask about getting readers to interact because I post both fanart and fanfics, which isn't super common, at least among people I know. I'm pretty sure that most of the folks who comment on my works followed me from Tumblr to AO3 back when I used to post art here. If I wanted to share nsfw images, I could only post cropped versions of them on Tumblr, so I would sometimes do that and link to the full image over on AO3. I suspect that's a big reason why I even have subscribers on AO3, haha. My writing certainly isn't better than that of plenty of people who also write for very niche ships and don't get as many kind comments as I do.

I also started out in my current fandom making art and writing about more popular characters until I quickly shifted focus when I found some that I like much more 😂 But I'm sure that quite a few people found my stuff because of those old works, and some of them probably stuck around.

Speaking of popular... This isn't something I do because I'm only motivated to make things that I like, but of course, there's always the 'write stuff for popular ships/characters' option. :/ Even now, when I happen to include fan favorites in my fics or art, all kinds of people come out of the woodwork to comment on them. And because I'm a contrary ass, that then makes me not want to create works featuring those ships or characters XD;;; But anyway, that is one option, haha.

A friend recently told me that they started asking little questions in the notes of each chapter of their fics, and that seemed to encourage readers to respond in the comments, so maybe that would be a good thing to try? I haven't tested it, so I can't say.

One thing I have tried that I think has made a difference is adding a blurb in the end notes of my works that I got from @longlivefeedback! They have a great template that you can customize and try out if you like (just make sure to read the bug fix part about curly/smart quotes versus straight quotes, since the curly quotes will kill your html).

One tried and true method to get more people commenting on your fics, of course, is to get to know people who also like the fandom/characters/ships you write about. Read some of their stuff or comment on their art or just chat about headcanons etc. And maybe they'll check out what you wrote.

(My caveat to this would be: do not do this with the sole purpose of getting someone to comment on your fics. I've had plenty of people do this to me, and it was so transparent that they had no interest in me as a person, but just wanted me to draw their OCs or scenes from their fic, or reblog their art, etc. Trying to manipulate someone like that just for your own gain is such gross behavior, and of course, I'm not saying you would do it, but it's common enough that I wanted to mention it 😓)

Okay, unsurprisingly, this got very long and rambling, haha. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful, but I hope you get more folks interested in your writing!

Yes. Please feel free to use our LLF Comment Project template in your author notes.

Hi @snarky24,

I just tried updating the author notes and even added the "Long Live Feedback Comment Project" tag to a fic of mine and the "Updated" date did not change.

I think the "Updated" date only changes when you add a new chapter to your fic.

Thanks for your ask @firecoloredwaterrr,

The LLF Comment Project template does already have a link to a post about the LLF Comment Builder which is very similar to the page the sidebar takes you too. It's this part here:

<a href=”https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/post/170952243543/now-presenting-the-llf-comment-builder-beta”>LLF Comment Builder</a>

You are free to swap out the URL in quotation marks which I've bolded above with the link to the page if that's what you want, or if you want to link to, say, the gSheet directly, you can replace the URL with this one:

"https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lOqWGDNquHxr23l84ASKn-vdSLFrHop4giVOYDkKnWI/edit#gid=547831518"

Concerning modifying the template for links or whispers, an author is always free to modify it as much as they like. So, feel free to go wild on personalizing the template!

I'll post this ask and leave it to people to respond in the notes.

You are free to use the LLF Comment Project template on your fics, no prior conditions necessary.

Hi Nonny,

Sorry this sat in our inbox for so long... We are on hiatus dealing with #real life and when I finally decided to peek into our long neglected inbox, I had to chew on your ask for a bit. So, if you ever see this ask again, thank you for your patience 🙏

Now on to your actual ask... You mention that you feel bad about using the LLF Comment Builder to ask for comments and kudos as a writer, but do you actually mean the LLF Comment Project?

The LLF Comment Builder is a tool to help readers write comments, kinda like training wheels for the novice commenter and hence, no input from an author is necessary.

The LLF Comment Project is a template for authors to use in the Notes section of their fics on AO3 and is aimed at helping authors ask for feedback without having to worry about sounding entitled, pushy, ungrateful, etc. It looks something like this:

In both of these cases, I do want to stress and make clear that these were created with the intention of being helpful and to facilitate communication both ways i.e. for readers to better express themselves in comments and for authors to better express themselves when asking for feedback.

While your ask indicates that you see the usefulness of these tools, you also seem to be torn about using them. Please do feel assured that there is absolutely no pressure to use either of these tools. If they make you uncomfortable for one reason or the other, please do feel free to decide they are just not for you and put them aside.

I may be misinterpreting you, but there also seems to be a second, deeper issue in your ask that is troubling you: the act of calling attention to yourself. It seems like even if these LLF tools did not exist, you might still feel bad or shy about asking for feedback on your work and you point to “a lot of writers that get comments without asking for them” as a source for insecurity.

First, there probably are a lot of writers that get comments without asking for them. But there are also probably a lot of writers that get comments by asking for them. It’s really hard to say why some works get comments and some don’t as there could be a million different reasons why. Maybe the author has been writing for so long that they’ve built up a rapport with their readers. Maybe a fandom is just chatty. Maybe the author asked for comments through their twitter/tumblr/pillowfort post when they were promoting their fic. In any case, it’s probably best not to compare yourself to anyone else, and to just find the level of attention that is right just for you.

Speaking of which, you mention feeling shy when calling attention to yourself. As someone who always goes a bit deer-in-the-headlights under the spotlight, I understand that calling attention to yourself can be a scary thing and our brains can come to view it as something disingenuous, attention-seeking, and To Be Avoided At All Costs(tm).

Hi Anon,

I am (taking the liberty of) interpreting your ask as more of 'will you be analyzing the data from the LLF comment template' and unfortunately the answer is: no, not anytime soon :(

This blog is run by two mods and is technically/officially still on hiatus. We've both been caught up with irl stuff and 2020 has been...well...2020. However, I've been trying to get back into the fandom swing of things recently and thought that one of the easier things to tackle is to clear out the inbox of this blog somewhat.

I've had minimal communication with the other mod about LLF (don't worry, they're still around, we just haven't talked much about LLF) and as the LLF comment project is much more their baby, I'm not sure what their plans are for it.

Still, like you, I'd be interested in seeing if we can see anything from the existing data but unfortunately I think I am lacking in the programmatic hard skills to get the data from ao3 and into something like an excel sheet that I can then analyze.

If anyone out there has the know how on how to get the data from tags from ao3 (some webscraping technique or something maybe?) and is interested in working on an analysis of this, I'd be happy to help out and/or work with you on this - feel free to send in an ask if yes :)

In any case, thank you for your ask, Anon, and if things change and inspiration strikes, we'll be sure to share any results or analysis on this blog!