Comments - a sad decline

Commenting is hard. We're asked to be meaningful ... but what's that ..... and it's hard. To me meaningful means some way to improve the story and it's telling. I hope I said it is hard.

I have a personal goal of commenting on every story I've read so far. I have a way to go though.

That said, I dislike just saying "A nice story" but sometimes that's all I have for a comment.

Due to my font size being set fairly high (24pt+), I do a lot of scrolling in the reading pane (pop-up) which slows me down too.

I don't think you necessarily have to suggest improvements, Virginia, although suggestions are always welcome. Mentioning that you really enjoyed this or that aspect is fine, or saying that such and such a point wasn't quite clear, or that you didn't see the final twist coming... etc, etc. Just something that shows the story made an impact, for good or bad.

I agree with Phil. I'm not looking for suggested improvements necessarily or detailed critique. I just want to know if people generally enjoyed the story or not. It's more about forming a connection (and, if I'm lucky, a friendship) with other members who enjoy/view spanking in the same way I do.

As a couple have pointed out it's not really a big decline, just a slight downturn. I honestly think it may be a seasonal thing. I belong to another forum (not a spanking one) and like here the majority of people there are from the northern hemisphere and when it's spring and summer over there the amount of comments on the various topics and articles seems to drop a bit.

I must admit I haven't been in to read as much as I use too. Life happens and I simply haven't had time. I do try to check on the latest submitted each week and read those as I can. I was only able to read 12 this week and 2 of those were series which I read straight through. When I do that I only comment on the last entry, otherwise I would say, "good, still good. still really good, and so on" That is bit redundant even for me. Authors, please don't feel unappreciated.

I do not worry about my comments being "meaningful" or instructive on how the story could "improve." If I had to worry about such things I believe my comment total would be around 65 total for the entire 4 years I have commented on site.

At times I have commented on my feelings after reading a story and those feelings were not positive, but those are 'my' feelings alone and have nothing to do with the story itself or the author. I generally pick one point about a story and stick to that as things can be long. I think comments of all types are appreciated by every author and by commenting one can make great friendships on site although you may never actually meet in person.

I believe back in previous years when there were 4 admins they had much more time to get more new stories out to the site quicker. Now with the pressures of the world we only have 2 admins and they have a great deal of work to do besides approve stories for publication.

Don't worry about the comments going up or down, just read lots, write lots and comment more as our motto states and every one will be happy. When I say "more" that could mean hundreds of comments per year or perhaps ten more over the year compared to last year, depending on each persons ability.

Most important is that we all have fun folks. I know I do.

CS

The context, in regards to being asked to comment meaningfully, is....


So, "meaningfully" simply refers to not saying "good story" every time, which is what certain individuals did when we first introduced the requirement to comment every so often.

Yeah. I'm not too concerned. I remembered the numbers from 2010 and before as I was reading this thread and the campaign that njrick and others started on the forum to get the numbers up. At that time 2700 would have called for wild celebration and many empty bottles in the site waste cans.

Personally I just try to set a good example. I do not feel a literary critique is the way to go and I say 'nothing' to stories that don't do it for me. However. When I like a story I say so and hopefully in a constructive way. Comments have always been the coin of the realm here and our writers want and need the feedback.

I was unemployed when I first discovered the LSF so had lot's of time to read and comment. Having been back in the saddle for 32 months causes me to regard time spent here as a treat vs the daily affair of yesteryear. But as the third or fourth person to hit the 1,000 comments mark I feel I can ask all others to follow suit. Do it! It's good for ya!!!
Grin!

I wouldn't be too worried. There are lots of reasons that could be at play; but most likely it's that people have things going on in their busy 'real lives' which take time away from their spanky pursuits. That's MY excuse anyway, but this thread inspired me to just leave a few comments of my own this morning!