Timothy M.

I did think of you and your fun emoticon comments, Kitt, and I was sad when most of the ones you left for me ended up empty after the great GA update. But since we were discussing newbie commentators, I decided my suggestion doesn't apply to you, so I went ahead. After all, you don't leave emoticons just to rack up comment numbers.

Then they win a tutorial on how to write meaningful comments.

I just (re)visited those blogs about feedback on stories. They are certainly very useful and have lots of good advice. However, I think they're more aimed at helping people who already comment on how to improve their feedback to authors. For newbies who are contemplating writing their first ever comment, I'd worry about them being put off and thinking 'I can never live up to that, and my comments won't be good enough.' If the goal is to encourage non-member readers to join GA and start commenting, maybe we should think of motivation? One month free Premium to the newbie with most comments in a month or with the most liked comment? Or maybe we could have a new blog with some of us 'experienced' commenters telling how we began and what we have gotten out of leaving comments and being active in the story topics. I.e. highlighting the multiple benefits of becoming an active GA member. Anyway, in order to not be completely I'll add that something which can make me skip commenting is when authors don't reply to comments. (it doesn't have to be at once, but eventually.) With the new option of liking comments that is the minimum response I'd expect, but unless the author gets tons of comments (like Mark Arbour), I'm put off from leaving a comment, if I don't get some sort of response. And of course, it's even worse if authors ask for comments at the end of each chapter or only reply to comments from their friends / admirers.

Hellooooo anybody here ? Hmm, I'll eat breakfast and check in later.

Such sadness, yet such warmth and beautiful memories too. I think it's great for him to think of the John of his youth and recapture those golden days.

Yay, no more nasty suit and plenty of sensory experiences coming up.

The like is for the evil aliens torturing the poor boy. I also hope the rescuers manage to sedate him, remove the suit and heal him.

You're quite right - I should have said ' just like writing takes practice and confidence, the same applies to giving feedback as a reader.'

Just to be clear, my answer above applies to chapter parts. I.e. I'll skip the sections or occasionally whole chapters where the detailed violence makes me feel That doesn't mean I will stop reading the story or give up on the author. In fact, I have a few favorite stories with such scenes. When I read them again, I simply skip those parts I dislike. A to Z by @Parker Owens is a good example, and another is Little Man by Mann Ramblings. I took this topic to be about what you skip in stories, and not so much about what makes you abandon stories and authors completely. My answer would have been quite different in the latter case. But I guess the topic can be about both.

I've only found a few authors on GA whose style or content I really didn't like, and as you say the best thing to do is move on and accept this isn't for me. This is particularly easy if they're established and popular and get lots of attention and positive comments, because then they won't miss me as a reader. Now that I have an easy-to-access full list of all the comments I've written, I've looked at some of the first comments I made on GA, and I cringe quite a bit. At the time I mainly commented if I got really annoyed about stories. Not surprisingly, most of the authors ignored my rants. After a while I learned to be politer and give positive feedback or at least constructive critique when commenting. Very few issues make me lose my temper now, and I mainly stop reading or send a PM. I guess my point is that just like writing takes practice, the same applies to giving feedback as a reader (or editor/beta). So those people who have upset you with snarky comments may simply be immature or insensitive or unaware. You should feel free to point this out and since other readers can now reply to your and their comments, you may find support in educating those people in how to be helpful rather than hurtful. If not, ignore them or, as a final resort, report the comment and ask to have it removed.

Did you remember to tick late publish for both the story and the chapter ? I think that may be necessary for the first chapter in a story. Also, you can NEVER edit a chapter which is in the post-publish queue or you will f*ck everything up. Any mistakes you've found will have to wait until the chapter is live.

Thank you for using one of my comments, Cia. I stand by every word.

Well, in your naughty santa story readers had to keep a sharp eye on the dialogue to be sure who was saying what. That was fun, IMO, and you certainly implemented the advice.

If the story is new for both sets of authors, I think it's fine. Like @Parker Owens and skinnydragon's characters meeting in a joint effort.

I usually skip graphic descriptions of violence. I'll skim detailed descriptions of scenery etc. but they have to be really long or badly written to make me skip them completely.

I hope the Infernal reporter will keep asking uncomfortable questions, lol. Good to see Tommy realize how much he misses his demon. Maybe with the shake-up by the new management, he'll be able to sneak off and visit. It will be interesting to find out what is behind the door.

I'm still about being called 'a popular author' in the question. That doesn't seem quite right. - and no, I'm not being coy. I can admit to being a popular GA member since I have many wonderful friends and a surprising number of followers. But that's not the same as popular author IMO. But thank you for the compliment.

Comments can also be left on the story as a whole, and I think that's the comment type we're discussing in comparison to reviews, and not chapter comments. I would like to encourage anyone who wants to write a detailed review of a story to send it to Renee so your efforts can be featured as a blog review and get the attention it deserves. Afterwards, a modified version can be added to the story itself as a review, including a link to the original blog review. This is what I do, and Renee always needs blog reviews.

To me the main difference between Reviews and Comments on the story itself, apart from the ability to give a star rating, is the fact that the author can reply to the comments but not to reviews. I can see your point @William King since I wouldn't find a review only saying 'I liked the story' particularly helpful. On the other hand, I agree with everyone else that people should be free to write as much or as little as they want to or are able to. The reward for a long or well-written review should simply be that more readers press the Yes Helpful button, which shifts such reviews to the top of the list.

As far as I can work out, none of us guessed who wrote the top 3 stories (based on the posted lists in the guess who blog). Congrats to the winners and well done to all the authors.

It was a great story even if I wanted to punch a few of the characters for their stupid behavior.

I guess there's no need to feel sorry for Eddie. He sure had it coming, but now I see what your mean about him having a back story.

Yikes - his identical twin or what ?

and in a complete and utter coincidence @jfalkon posts a story called Chickens.

Cool It really would be fun if more people participate. You can make a guess for one or two stories, if you prefer not to take the whole contest on.