Reasons why people don’t comment on fics
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| Title: | reasons why people don't comment on fics |
| Creator: | ao3commentoftheday |
| Date(s): | September 13, 2018 |
| Medium: | Tumblr post |
| Fandom: | Panfandom |
| Topic: | Commenting |
| External Links: | https://ao3commentoftheday.tumblr.com/post/178033488464/reasons-why-people-dont-comment-on-fics |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
reasons why people don't comment on fics is a tumblr post by ao3commentoftheday made on September 13, 2018. The original post sparked some discussion, and has accumulated over 7,800 notes.
[ao3commentoftheday]
- enjoyed the fic but didn’t have anything to say
- worried that a general “I love this!” wasn’t a good enough comment
- not a native speaker of the author’s language
- so overcome by emotions after reading that words were impossible
- reading on a device where commenting is difficult
- intended to come back later and didn’t
- intends to come back later and hasn’t yet
- doesn’t have an AO3 account (+ doesn’t know about the guest option or isn’t comfortable using it)
- was going to say something but another reader already commented it
- not enough mental/emotional energy to try to craft a ‘good enough’ comment
- worry about bothering the author
- shy / social anxiety
- reading fic before bed and fall asleep
- reading fic while sick and in a haze
- interrupted while reading the fic and thought they finished it/commented but whoops!
- didn’t like the fic / didn’t finish reading
[ao3commentoftheday]
Just to be clear, this was in no way meant to be a call-out post on readers. It was intended to explain to writers that there are dozens of reasons why people don’t/can’t comment. Writers tend to assume commenting is a binary: if you like the fic, you comment and if you don’t, you don’t. I wanted to show that there’s a lot more to it than that.
[han-pan]
I support this list so much. It really bothers me that there is this pressure in fandom that readers who don’t comment are TRASH and shouldn’t partake. But the are so many reasons someone may not comment and I wish people believed this.