It's fair to complain about fandom spaces dying and everything but writers here are getting less and less interested in engaging in talking with people, like doing requests, answering the askbox like I have sent thirsts and ideas for some writers that I like here and only one of them responded 2 days ago (I sent it like a month ago) 😵💫
man .... see, I don't know what to do with messages like this
there are several aspects to this, right?
first of all, how are you engaging with writers? I don't know you, so this is not an accusation at you, just a general thing that needs to be considered. do you read people's rules? if they take requests? if they explicitly state that they don't? are the messages you send polite? do you show interest in them beyond just getting your thought out there? also - sounds like you send the same idea to several writers? if you do, many of us kinda hate that, because it makes us feel like content farms. lol
secondly, do you also interact with fics that are being posted?
or are you only milking authors for responses to your headcanons - when you could also post those yourself and start a conversation like that?
I think you have to remember - I and all the other writers on this site, we are ADULTS. with jobs. 40 hours a week, man. I also have other hobbies and friends. do you know how long it takes to write a fic? (again, kinda /gen because I don't know if you're a writer). a long fucking time. depending on who's writing it, also.
what we do here is write fics that we want to read and we CHOOSE to post these things. mind you, that we don't have to. us writing things does NOT depend on anyone reading things. I have countless 35k word documents flying around, all written over the last few years, from fandoms you haven't even heard of that have never seen the light of day.
so we post what we write, and you get to read it. sorry if that sounds entitled but that's literally what it is. it's always been that way. I have seen exactly, what, 3 people on my kofi, and all of them have been friends. so much for that. and that's okay. I do this for free because I want to. but the bare minimum of that is to have people respect and be aware of this fact.
if we then, on top of writing, choose to open our ask boxes, choose to interact, choose to spend time on headcanons and ideas that aren't our own (and it takes time!!! even a simple ask!! we gotta sit and think and write it all out, man! it takes time away from writing our fics), then that is a bonus. not a requirement.
AGAIN, if you want your ideas to be seen, why not make your own blog? genuinely? why do you put the responsibility of being seen on someone else? if it's that important to you, you should post them. and I mean that so genuinely. why?
every writer can decide how they want to engage, and if someone not doing requests is a reason for you to say "well, that means it's okay they get less interaction" then I think you gotta think about that one again. because saying "thank you" and "can you do this for me" is not the same. or if you think writers have to earn interaction on things being consumed for FREE by doing more free labour then you should try posting yourself and see how that goes. or learn a little bit about this system called capitalism that has invaded all of our brains apparently.
we're not asking to be treated in any special way, except as someone who posts cool shit for other people who enjoy the same thing. that's all
