Reversing the Comments slide

The new Comments counter is very welcome. Like many authors, I value the comments on my writing very highly. After the once-every-500-views rule was introduced, the numbers of comments per month shot up. Since then it has drifted back down inexorably (see Stats – Comments), though the number is still way more than it used to be before June 2010.

What can we do to encourage more commenting? Identifying the reasons why readers do NOT comment, and addressing these, might be a start:
is it just laziness?
They're crap stories (kidding) ?
Fear of exposure somehow?
Fear of not giving a 'good' enough comment?
Fear of entering an exchange with the author?
Um ... laziness?

Could we reward commenters somehow? I reckon Sebastian would deservedly win the 'most-comments-in-a-month' prize 12 times a year!
Could we publish the Top Ten commenters each week/month? Publish (as a text perhaps?) a collection of the best (funniest, most appreciative, longest?) comments each week/month – these to be nominated by the authors whose work they are about?

Would authors be willing to sign up to a 'Have your own ideal story written for you' prize, whereby the periodically chosen Best Commenter (whatever method we use to determine that) gets to choose their favourite author and provide an outline for, say, a 2,000 word story featuring their favourite elements?

How else could we reward commenters?

"How else could we reward the commentators?" (Your spelling, "TheEnglishMaster"! You are evidently not really a "master of english". Sorry, now I was not nice!)

Well, if I leave a really good comment - could you send Eva Mendes over to me with a pink slip in her hand?

For me it would be Cote de Pablo holding a pink slip

I do like reading comments left on our stories, but I believe it should be by a voluntary basis only.

It's not just a problem with spanking stories. I write on straight fiction sites as well and it's the same old problem, very few comments per number of reads. I guess a lot of people don't feel like they have anything intelligent to say or maybe they just can't add anything that hasn't already been said by someone else.

I too have noticed the slide in commentary in the stats section. I hope it stops. I don't know why it peaked and then started to drop but maybe it's up to us to remind everyone that for many authors feedback is what keeps us going. It's true for me I guess. I like to entertain, all storytellers do--but if no one cares, why bother? It's like that old conundrum "if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it make a sound?"

I think we just have to remind our readers that feedback is important and is one reason that this site is the premier spanking story site on the internet. The interactivity here between readers and authors is found nowhere else that I know of. Let's keep it that way. If you like a story, say so.

My theory is that it rose rapidly at the time we implemented the "limited" account feature for those who hadn't commented on anything and that caused a peak. Subsequent to that fewer and fewer people would be placed in a position where they needed to comment so the monthly total started to drop over the next few months. Hopefully this will be the first month it drops no further.

My own view on comments is that given we tend to get around 5,000 items viewed each day the number of comments made is pretty abysmal but I'm not sure there's much more we can do about it. The web is such that the majority of people these days have probably got into what I would call a "passive consumer" mentality, merely soaking stuff up and rarely if ever contributing.

Never mind sending round Eva Mendes! It's Miss Thrashbottom who should be paying these "passive consumers" a visit! Not that it bothers me too much. I would much rather get comments from volunteers rather than those who have been conscripted into it!

"Well, if I leave a really good comment - could you send Eva Mendes over to me with a pink slip in her hand?"

Neither 'nice' nor accurate, galt!

A 'commentator' is a specialist in politics or sport, for example, who writes or delivers a commentary on events. A 'commenter' (my spelling) is simply someone who makes a comment, as here.

My username includes my nationality (English) and the old-fashioned word for a male teacher ('master') suggesting too a dominant person (Hey! This is a spanking library and I have pretentions to being a Top!). That I have a masters degree in the subject and have taught it for 30 years might also be seen as sufficient qualification to claim the name, not that it matters, at all.

And, like anyone, I'm still learning.

But woe betide whoever tries to suggest my SPELLING isn't right!!!!

It won't be Eva Mendes calling, it'll be Miss Thrashbottom, and the pink slip will be in YOUR hand, mate!

Sounds like I need to get out more as I don't even know who Eva Mendes is

.... I do know who Sam Mendes is though so that's something ...