some-stars: lauramkaye: rpepperpotshipssciencebros: fin...

lauramkaye:

rpepperpotshipssciencebros:

fineillsignup:

emilyenrose:

things that always make me happy: serial commenters. there are three types

1) reading a longfic chapter by chapter, leaving an increasingly emotional comment on every chapter, descends into keysmashes near the end: outstanding

2) read one fic by accident, clicked the author name, now working steadily through the backlog and commenting on everything, I wake up to an AO3 inbox full of enthusiasm: precious beyond words

3) the longterm serial commenter whose comment begins with I don’t even know this fandom but because they have followed me from somewhere else: stunning. humbling. magical.

these are all *chef’s kiss* and I want to add one more:
4) left a comment a while ago, comes back and leaves another comment on the same fic, telling you that they’re coming back to reread the fic: angels. blessings. lifesavers.

OK but real quick here: how many times can I comment on the same fic before it gets creepy???

IT NEVER GETS CREEPY

when you return to the same fic every few weeks or months and leave a new comment, what you’re telling the author is “this work that you created is so rich and of such high quality that i can reread it over and over again and every time i get something new and wonderful out of it.” i literally can’t imagine any feedback that would make me happier than that.

please, please, please let’s fight this weird social media concept that positive feedback on fanfic is the kind of social interaction you’ll be judged for or graded on. please kill the notion that leaving (polite, positive) comments is annoying or intrusive or “too much.” we used to email feedback to each other! we would sit down and write a five paragraph essay about how much we liked someone’s story that they posted on their personal website four years ago, and then we would send that essay directly to their inbox! and they would be DELIGHTED and sometimes they’d write back and you’d become friends!

(this is still a good way to meet people in a new fandom, btw–not the email part, but leaving feedback, ESPECIALLY detailed feedback, until you become a positive familiar face makes people more inclined to interact with you–follow you on tumblr, participate in your ask memes, reblog your fic–and then you get invited to someone’s discord server and there you are. it’s hellishly hard to make friends on tumblr but leaving comments helps get the ball rolling.)