Readers, why do you read a story but not Comment?

[Former Member]

1 minute ago, Mikiesboy said:

in part  -  but maybe it is me.    maybe it's who and what i am, but my thinking is, if you want respect you have to show it to others first.  especially if you are new on a site.  

When I was homeless, I encountered way too many people demanding respect while not offering it first (or ever at all)! People hear the slogan, but don’t understand the context. I tried to be very respectful, especially when people were giving me something free (like a meal). I still don’t understand how people can complain when they aren’t paying for something.

[Former Member]

2 minutes ago, Marty said:

 

I suppose that's true enough. I suppose that the site could be set up to prevent the read count going up when authors read their own stuff.

 

But, then again, I suppose if they really wanted to artificially boost their read count they could just log out and read as an anonymous user...

Why bother? Just reload the page several times. Much easier with the same effect on the statistics.  ;–)

[Mikiesboy]

2 minutes ago, Marty said:

 

I suppose that's true enough. I suppose that the site could be set up to prevent the read count going up when authors read their own stuff.

 

But, then again, I suppose if they really wanted to artificially boost their read count they could just log out and read as an anonymous user...

seriously??   LOL Well i suppose it is possible. But why bother?

 

We've had changes at work recently and there is all this talk about how to manipulate the system to get a better customer satisfaction rating ... i just said, too much effort to cheat, it takes too long.  My Csat is 94 to 98% by me just doing my job properly.   So, my point.. come and be part of GA, write, read, comment, talk.. join in ... and see things get better.  And now, since i am repeating myself.. I'll just shut up. 

[Mikiesboy]

13 minutes ago, droughtquake said:

When I was homeless, I encountered way too many people demanding respect while not offering it first (or ever at all)! People hear the slogan, but don’t understand the context. I tried to be very respectful, especially when people were giving me something free (like a meal). I still don’t understand how people can complain when they aren’t paying for something.

being homeless/a street person,  means you are something to be wiped off ... very few ever show crap respect and that's what we were to waaaay too many people, droughtquake.  different kettle of fish altogether.

 

here no one knew my past until i told them..  and it was in my poetry... that's what i posted first.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Mikiesboy

[Parker Owens]

What happens to me is that I get interrupted or rushed in my reading - I get just a few minutes to read on many days. If I can, I circle back to pick up the thread of the story or poem and try to make a thoughtful comment. But I know that I am guilty of forgetting sometimes, which I regret.

 

Like @droughtquake, I've wondered why mine is one of very few comments - or even the only one - on a great piece.

[Marty]

19 minutes ago, Marty said:

 

I suppose that's true enough. I suppose that the site could be set up to prevent the read count going up when authors read their own stuff.

 

But, then again, I suppose if they really wanted to artificially boost their read count they could just log out and read as an anonymous user...

10 minutes ago, Mikiesboy said:

seriously??   LOL Well i suppose it is possible. But why bother?

 

I couldn't be bothered but, as my grandfather used to say "There's nowt so queer as folk."

 

(Actually he would usually continue that with "I sometimes think there's only two sane people in the world. Me and thee." Then he would give me a careful look and finish with "And sometimes I'm not even sure about thee!" 😂)

[Mikiesboy]

Just now, Marty said:

 

I couldn't be bothered but, as my grandfather used to say "There's nowt so queer as folk."

 

(Actually he would usually continue that with "I sometimes think there's only two sane people in the world. Me and thee." Then he would give me a careful look and finish with "And sometimes I'm not even sure about thee!" 😂)

hehe my maternal grandparents were English.. grandmother from Leeds and grandfather from Leicester.  

[Former Member]

15 minutes ago, Mikiesboy said:

We've had changes at work recently and there is all this talk about how to manipulate the system to get a better customer satisfaction rating ... i just said, too much effort to cheat, it takes too long.  My Csat is 94 to 98% by me just doing my job properly.

When I worked at Target, I used to get rated on how quickly I completed transactions at the check out line. At first it was difficult to get an acceptable score, but then I discovered a few tricks – getting things organized before starting the transaction made a big difference. And I discovered how to pause the transaction (I can’t remember the term used). I never worried about my score after that!  ;–)

[Former Member]

5 minutes ago, Marty said:

I couldn't be bothered but, as my grandfather used to say "There's nowt so queer as folk."

 

(Actually he would usually continue that with "I sometimes think there's only two sane people in the world. Me and thee." Then he would give me a careful look and finish with "And sometimes I'm not even sure about thee!" 😂)

Shouldn’t the @Mancunian be the one saying that? I’d read that the TV shows were named after a Northern saying – and the original, UK version is set in Manchester!  ;–)

[Mancunian]

13 minutes ago, droughtquake said:

Shouldn’t the @Mancunian be the one saying that? I’d read that the TV shows were named after a Northern saying – and the original, UK version is set in Manchester!  ;–)

 

You could have a point there, lol, it's a great city and I do enjoy going to Canal Street, where some of it was filmed, it's good atmosphere. 😁

Edited January 25, 2019 by Mancunian

[Marty]

1 minute ago, Mikiesboy said:

hehe my maternal grandparents were English.. grandmother from Leeds and grandfather from Leicester.  

 

Yea, as you probably guessed, that was my English (maternal) grandfather. I never knew my paternal (Irish) grandparents. My father's mother died when he was a baby, and his father before I was born.

[Myr]

10 hours ago, Talo Segura said:

What a huge difference! I stopped posting here, just look in from time to time to see if anything's happening, but nothing is.

Nifty is a different audience than Gay Authors.  Stories work there that don't work here and vice versa.  You should certainly post where you can get the best satisfaction for doing so!  I write FanFiction stories and get FAR more responses on FanFiction.net than I do on my own site.  So, I follow my own advice on posting where you get the response.  There are strategies for building an audience here (and other sites), but those take time and effort. 

 

Some commentary on views:

1. A "View" is a page load.  The story views number is All of chapter views plus the views of the Table of Contents page.
2. If a story has a lot of views listed, but when you look at chapter views and they are low, that means your story description/tags/genre attracted enough attention for someone to read the description, but didn't sell them on the story.
3. If you have a sharp falloff from chapter 1 to chapter 2 in number of views (after a few weeks), then you're chapter 1 failed to keep a reader's interest, or the posting time was bad and people missed it, etc.

8 hours ago, Mancunian said:

If an author doesn't respond to comments then readers will give up leaving them, maybe in some cases this is the reason for the lack of comments for some authors.

This has been our experience.  Authors that get the most comments and interactions are Authors that engage on other people's stories, on the forums, and with comments on their own stories.  This is a kind of sink or swim together sort of thing.

 

10 hours ago, droughtquake said:

You might try asking what your readers think will happen next. Try to turn it into a conversation. One author I follow used to ask questions designed to provoke a response.  ;–)

Good Advice!

 

7 hours ago, Kitt said:

I continued with my emogie policy till i found out the little hearts were disapearing after a while.

What do you mean?  Comments have not been removed from the system.  The built-in emoticons have not been touched.  Do you have an example of an "empty" comment from you where the emoticon has disappeared?

 

7 hours ago, Kitt said:

This author went off like a firecracker with a shirt fuse. He proceeded to dress me down publically in the comments telling me he worked hard on the story and how dare i be so nasty etc. He rambled on about how mean my comment was for several paragraphs.  He informed me, and the entire GA community what a horrid p rson i was.

This is not acceptable behavior and when it occurs and the staff is alerted, it gets addressed.

 

7 hours ago, Carlos Hazday said:

Y'all should realize the majority of views on a chapter or story are not from GA members; those 'readers' can't react or leave comments.

Carlos, your whole post was excellent and spot on.

 

1 hour ago, Marty said:

I think I saw @Myr comment somewhere that of the number of people actually using GA at any particular time, usually around 90% of them are not actually registered members, so that may go a long way to explaining why some stories may be shown to have been read an awful lot of times, but have few actual likes or comments.

 

In 2018, we averaged 16,000 Unique Visitors per week.  We averaged 1600 members signed in and visiting per week.  We averaged 1034 comments on stories/chapters per week. We also averaged 80 new chapters per week.  But yes, the vast majority of visitors are not logged in members and thus cannot comment.

[Mancunian]

There are many good and constructive comments on this thread, including the comments regarding respect which I'm sure many of us can take something positive from and learn. maybe if those of us that contributed can take that away from here and be more mindful that we practise it (that is not to say that we don't already) others will pick up on it and practise it too.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Mancunian

[Myr]

1 hour ago, Mikiesboy said:

Possibly you're right about the pattern ... but i'm not sure.  i part of it is.. well, i speak for myself here ... i put effort into this site and a lot of people on it. So do you, so do lots of people. i think you get out of it, what you put in .. and if you only come here to deposit your story, you may not get the attention you think you should.   If you come there and join in, read, comment and let people know you're here and interested, you'd likely get more attention.  That's just my opinion and my experience, here on GA.

Very well said!  I agree.  I, personally, try to make sure I comment on everything I read.  Further, if I'm reading a completed story, I try to make sure I review it as well.

 

 

[Marty]

1 hour ago, Marty said:

 

I couldn't be bothered but, as my grandfather used to say "There's nowt so queer as folk."

 

(Actually he would usually continue that with "I sometimes think there's only two sane people in the world. Me and thee." Then he would give me a careful look and finish with "And sometimes I'm not even sure about thee!" 😂)

56 minutes ago, droughtquake said:

Shouldn’t the @Mancunian be the one saying that? I’d read that the TV shows were named after a Northern saying – and the original, UK version is set in Manchester!  ;–)

 

I was actually born in Stockport - now part of Greater Manchester. 
 

 

43 minutes ago, Mancunian said:

 

You could have a point there, lol, it's a great city and I do enjoy going to Canal Street, where some of it was filmed, it's good atmosphere. 😁

 

Before I moved to Ireland I would often park my car when shopping in Manchester in a run down area near the old canal, and then afterwards take a stroll along the deserted canal. I used to think of it as my own wee oasis next to the hustle and bustle of the city. I might occasionally have come across a lone fisherman, otherwise it was just a spot where I would unwind and lose myself in my own thoughts for half an hour or so before heading back to the hurly-burly of city life. I was actually quite sad when I revisited it on holiday around the time they were redeveloping it and saw all the frantic activity taking place...

Edited January 25, 2019 by Marty

[Mancunian]

10 minutes ago, Marty said:

 

I was actually born in Stockport - now part of Greater Manchester. 
 

 

 

Before I moved to Ireland I would often park my car when shopping in Manchester in a deserted area near the old canal, and afterwards take a stroll along the deserted canal. I used to think of it as my own wee oasis next to the hustle and bustle of the city. I might occasionally have come across a lone fisherman, otherwise it was just a spot where I would unwind and lose myself in my own thoughts for half an hour or so before heading back to the hurly-burly of city life. I was actually quite sad when I revisited it on holiday around the time they were redeveloping it and saw all the frantic activity taking place...

 

Unfortunately the canal walks have deteriorated but the overall atmosphere in the bars is still good, especially in the summer where you can have a drink sitting next to the canal enjoying a good atmosphere in good company meeting and making new friends. It's something I've enjoyed in the past with friends and family and still do, sometimes I go on my own just to bask in memories, although my drink is always non-alcoholic for medical reasons.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Mancunian

[Former Member]

4 minutes ago, Marty said:

Before I moved to Ireland

An e-friend of mine (who I met on a different site) was born in east Africa, but his family moved back to the UK when the country they were living in achieved independence. He has travelled all over the world (apparently on a UK passport) including Mexico, US, Australia, and even Mongolia. But because of Brexit, he recently discovered that he’s officially an Irish citizen!  ;–)

[Marty]

4 minutes ago, droughtquake said:

An e-friend of mine (who I met on a different site) was born in east Africa, but his family moved back to the UK when the country they were living in achieved independence. He has travelled all over the world (apparently on a UK passport) including Mexico, US, Australia, and even Mongolia. But because of Brexit, he recently discovered that he’s officially an Irish citizen!  ;–)

 

That, sadly, is often the case. And it's not just a recent thing, the case of the famous actor and comedian (and British Army war veteran) Spike Milligan maybe being a good example. 

 

I've a nephew in England who has taken out an Irish passport as a result Brexit. He often works in Europe, and is concerned that he may lose the right to work there after Brexit. He was able to use the grandparent rule to get Irish citizenship.

[Kitt]

2 hours ago, Myr said:

What do you mean?  Comments have not been removed from the system.  The built-in emoticons have not been touched.  Do you have an example of an "empty" comment from you where the emoticon has disappeared?

 

This is not acceptable behavior and when it occurs and the staff is alerted, it gets addressed.

I began noticing the missing emogies around the time of the sight upgrade.  The slot stating I had commented was still there, but the 👍or what ever I had left was gone and the box blank. I tried to go back and replace them, but I simply did not have time to do that and keep up with reading and editing.

 

This particular author bugged out shortly there after and has not been active in the longest time. 

[Thorn Wilde]

3 hours ago, Mikiesboy said:

Possibly you're right about the pattern ... but i'm not sure.  i part of it is.. well, i speak for myself here ... i put effort into this site and a lot of people on it. So do you, so do lots of people. i think you get out of it, what you put in .. and if you only come here to deposit your story, you may not get the attention you think you should.   If you come there and join in, read, comment and let people know you're here and interested, you'd likely get more attention.  That's just my opinion and my experience, here on GA.

This is what I did as well. Introduced myself on the forums, joined in many topics, got to know people, made a discussion thread for my first story, and the readers came. Not saying it would work for anyone, but it did work for me.

 

2 hours ago, Mancunian said:

 

You could have a point there, lol, it's a great city and I do enjoy going to Canal Street, where some of it was filmed, it's good atmosphere. 😁

I love that show so much. SO much. Never bothered trying to watch the American one, I would have just tried to compare the two.

 

2 hours ago, Myr said:

Nifty is a different audience than Gay Authors.  Stories work there that don't work here and vice versa.  You should certainly post where you can get the best satisfaction for doing so!  I write FanFiction stories and get FAR more responses on FanFiction.net than I do on my own site.

Same. Well, ArchiveOfOurOwn in my case, I prefer it to FanFiction.net, but that’s where I primarily post my fanfic. I post some of it here as well, as some people do read it, but I don’t expect to get the comments and likes here that I do there. Different audiences.

[Former Member]

On another site (non-Gay), I got so upset about something someone posted on their Forum that I had to register there just so I could refute the statement. I’m sure that’s no surprise to @Carlos Hazday! I was active there until the site shut down.  ;–)

 

Here on GA, it was kind of the opposite. There was a story I liked so much that I had to Comment. So I was forced to Register.  ;–)

[Thorn Wilde]

2 hours ago, droughtquake said:

On another site (non-Gay), I got so upset about something someone posted on their Forum that I had to register there just so I could refute the statement. I’m sure that’s no surprise to @Carlos Hazday! I was active there until the site shut down.  ;–)

 

Here on GA, it was kind of the opposite. There was a story I liked so much that I had to Comment. So I was forced to Register.  ;–)

Hah! That's how I ended up on Topix back in the day. Can't remember what it was, but someone made such a stupid comment I just had to reply. Met a bunch of cool people on there, too, but quit posting eventually.  /off topic

[GanymedeRex]

I try to comment somewhere in the story.  If the story is very poorly written or truly awful, I won't comment. I think where someone puts out 5 chapters and there are hundreds of view and no comments, that's what is going on.   That's because I want to be nice to the person who put forth a good effort who doesn't have the skills, in all likelihood to succeed.  Now, if there is something to work with, I might include a constructive comment.  Most of the time, I leave positive comments regarding aspects of the story I really enjoyed.

[Thorn Wilde]

It occurs to me that I should probably at some point answer the question.

 

I almost always comment, but sometimes I just don't have the energy or the will to do so. Simple as that. If I'm reading a completed story I'll comment on the chapters where I have something to say. I know how good it feels to receive the kind of validation that a comment can bring (us writers are vain creatures, aren't we? ) so if I can possibly think of something to say, I generally will. But again, sometimes I just don't have the energy to engage, so I stick with leaving reactions. I know others do the same, and I think that's fair. 

[Mikiesboy]

25 minutes ago, Thorn Wilde said:

It occurs to me that I should probably at some point answer the question.

 

I almost always comment, but sometimes I just don't have the energy or the will to do so. Simple as that. If I'm reading a completed story I'll comment on the chapters where I have something to say. I know how good it feels to receive the kind of validation that a comment can bring (us writers are vain creatures, aren't we? ) so if I can possibly think of something to say, I generally will. But again, sometimes I just don't have the energy to engage, so I stick with leaving reactions. I know others do the same, and I think that's fair. 

i don't personally think it's vanity which is an excessive need to be praised, no more than i think that where i work or here at home.  everyone wants to know they are doing a good job. At work, i can tell because they pay me and my numbers are high.  At home i know when my Husband says, thanks for the great meal, or i love you. So comments and reactions are the only way we know there that things are good, or are working.