There's an implication here that it's my responsibility to expect any kind of response as fair game
So, there's two elements here - authors should be saying what they want rather than expecting readers to guess each time, and as you say, plenty of comments are by people who don't know what they're doing, which means their ability to tailor their comment to what the author wants only goes so far. Someone else mentioned the variations of "update!/write more!" and that's something I've seen people rage about because they choose to read it as meaning "I don't care about all the work you've already done!" I remember when I was a really young I'd say "write more!" on one-shots, which apparently is the most infuriating of all because it's complete, you idiot, you didn't even read, god why do I even bother. I meant, "I love this so much and I bet I'll love whatever else you write so I hope you post more stories."
Obviously it's frustrating if all you get is "update!" when you want to hear what they thought...but yelling at people for what they did say usually doesn't make them open up to you more. So in that way, good god do authors need to get better at expecting a range of responses because yes, I sure would've communicated my point better by actually writing, I love this so much and I bet I'll love whatever else you write so I hope you post more stories. but I was twelve and still processing that fanfic existed and I could say things about it, and also I didn't know how to type and full sentences take a long time when you have to find each letter. Even if someone said they didn't want "demands to update" in their author's note, I didn't mean it as a demand so why would I think the author would hear it as one? It's not even that authors should feel obligated to talk someone through that kind of thing. An eyeroll and ignoring it is perfectly reasonable too. But raging, or abandoning a story, or outright deleting a story while raging and calling out the person by name as the reason so all the other disappointed fans would dogpile them over losing the story, as happened in... I think it was a Harry Potter author? Or maybe Inuyasha? It was a while ago. But over getting a comment saying "update!" Authors should know they'll get some comments they don't appreciate. They shouldn't be forced to say thank you anymore than readers should be forced to thank authors for stories they didn't appreciate, but it's the nature of communication that people are going to say stuff that's badly worded, useless, or outright wrong.
Comment on Curing the Comment Drought
Farla on Chapter 1 Tue 21 Apr 2020 04:20AM UTC
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