Author comments on own submissions

This is going to be slightly difficult to explain so please bear with me.

The site has three principal areas where you can make an input: the forum, comments on submissions and popup messages.

Over the last couple of years the comments and popup facilities have been substantially rewritten and they bear little resemblance to how they were originally. With these changes we've tried to tighten up on their use and one of the main areas of confusion has been in regards to authors commenting on their own submissions, usually in response to another commenter's remarks.

This is not a good idea for two main reasons. Firstly, although not necessarily obvious at the time, unless the person you are responding to revisits the comments page for that particular submission, which they have no reason to and very rarely do, they are not going to see what you've said. Secondly, we think the site looks cleaner and works better if the comments on a particular submission are all from readers rather than consisting of the kind of threaded dialogue which is found on forums. One other positive spin-off is that sending popups instead encourages interaction and dialogue between author and reader which we think is a good thing. All authors need to do to respond to a commenter from the comments page is click on the commenter's name and a popup form will be automatically displayed.

I think in the main most authors have accepted this and nowadays it seems, with very rare exceptions, to be working well.

There is, however, occasionally the need for an author to provide additional information on a submission which is of interest to everyone. For example, perhaps a number of commenters have failed to understand something of key significance about a story or there are some obscure references which in hindsight the author feels the need to explain. The comment system as it stands isn't really the ideal way to deal with that so I have made a couple of changes.

Where authors need to provide additional information on one of their submissions as described above they can now do so by committing on their own submission but their comments will now appear at the top of all the other comments in a special area identified as "Author comments". These comments won't count towards the comment count on submissions and it will only be possible for an author to make one of them on a given submission. They will, however, be able to edit the comment indefinitely though if they need to add to it or amend it. Once a comment has been made by an author on their own submission the "Add Comment" button will no longer be visible for them. All initial comments made in this way will need to be validated, this is nothing to do with the authors themselves, just a counter measure in the event that a spammer was able to gain access to an author's account. To see what this type of comment looks like you can take a look at the comments page for Spanking The Babysitter At Denny's by Grace Brackenridge

Over the coming weeks, possibly months, we'll try and go through all the existing comments and where authors have commented on their own submissions in response to an individual commenter's remarks will redirect those as popup messages to the person concerned. Comments which we come across that fall into the category described above (i.e provide essential additional information on the submission which is likely to be of interest to all) we'll convert into the new "Author Comment" format.

I hope authors in general will try and be supportive of what we are trying to do, which is make the site the best it can be and sometimes that involves the occasional upheaval and restructuring.

And lastly, please can we keep any responses strictly on topic. Over and out.

I agree, Februs. Right now it's the only time I use the comments section for my own benefit. To send a popup to the person only means that person will get it and word will not be spread throughout. I think it's an excellent idea.

B

Great! You seem to have developed the idea even further than when we discussed it a few days ago. I like the idea of the "Author's comment." There have only been a few instances where I've done something of this kind, but in those, this wold be a far better way of handling it. Most of my other self-comments have been of the sort you described - reaction to a comment that should have been sent via pop-up to the commenter. In some cases, it became a "comment" only because I forget to click on the commenter's name before writing the intended pop-up. In only one case did I make a snide remark, purportedly directly toward a commenter, which was really intended to be viewd by other readers. Fortunately, I've already had that one removed, being an early target of Februs' self-comment purge.

Keep up the good work, oh worthy code-writing one!

How am I going to pad my stats to catch up to Grace, Katie B, and all of the others at the top of the comments list on the stats page??? There goes my idea to write 3-5 comments for each of my stories

Seriously, though, I guess this explains why my comments number went down recently. I am someone guilty of commenting on my stories as a means of replying to someone's comment, mainly due to early ignorance of how to send pop ups. Now that I've finally figured out how to send pop ups, I rarely comment on my own stories, unless, like Februs said, it's to add needed information, such as supplying the text of the Blue Bird Wish to the story with that name. I guess I'll have to earn my comments the old-fashioned way - by writing stories worthy of receiving comments.

All the stories read in the library are worthy of some kind of comment. I don't think a lot of the readers read the forum here. I see a lot of authors mainly. Maybe it's something that needs to be posted on the home page for instance.

Like:

THIS IS THE ADMIN. WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE. LEAVE A COMMENT 'OR ELSE'

Yeah, that should do it.

Well, here's an argument for it: I just submitted a comment by mistake when I wanted to reply to the commenter. Please delete it - I've written it again as a pop-up reply.

I'm not sure, though, that I agree that if most authors are successfully self-policing in this matter, the judgement on the appropriateness of author comments needs to be taken out of authors' hands.

Members who have never commented or who have commented less than once every 500 views see an Announcement Banner encouraging them to comment (just below the 'Today' stats).

I wasn't aware that it had been?

When i visit the library, I usually start with looking at comments, that way i have found a lot of stories; but it is not always easy to see, what kind of story is commented. Therefore I have decided to change the way, I write comments, From now I shall start my comments like this: "This is an F/M story", and go on with my comment, so that other readers will know, what type of story, I am commenting.

I am not convinced that this is necessary yenz. All stories have synopses and content icons that tell people about the story and they can find the information they need from there, rather than rely on someone else's comments as a reading list.