Story Comments

Someone has sent part one of a story in, with the comment 'I'll write more if I get some good feedback.'

Considering we have over 4,000 members and almost 9,000 stories, we get very few comments about the stories. Some people use this lovely free resource to read hundreds - even thousands - of stories and don't leave even ONE comment.

So please folks, if you have enjoyed reading a story, please do leave a comment about it. To do so couldn't be easier - just click the link at the bottom of the story window. It only takes a moment of your time. The authors will appreciate it and will be motivated to write more.

So come on, get commenting, or we'll set Miss Thrashbottom on to you

Thanks, flopsy

What a great idea - commenting on stories! You sure know my thoughts on that subject. I have always tried to comment regulary, but I will try to do so even more. Now... how about everyone else?

Just an idea - would there be anyway of tracking which stories you've commented on?

Goodgulf

Yes, click Latest and then My Comments in order to get the full list of items you have commented on with the most recent at the top of the list.

Further to flopsy's and Rick's posts, it's still being discussed but highly likely that we will introduce a viewing limit on those who have viewed literally thousands of stories but never bothered to comment on a single one. We willingly expend a huge amount of effort to make the library facility available and the authors very generously grant permission for their stories to be shared so I don't think it's asking too much for the occasional comment to be made by readers especially as it takes no more than a few seconds of their time.

Comments are an interesting thing. Yes of course they are appreciated - but its not easy to say something even if you do like a story.

I noticed with my own blog (http://voiceinthecorner.wordpress.com/) that although I get a thousands of visitors a day - and thanks for your support with that - proportionally the comments actually go down as the blog grows. I think some people are intimidated by a successful site like this one - which probably gets even more traffic than my own.

So personally I don't think we should stop people viewing stories just because they don't comment. In any case restrictions means less visitors and therefore means even less comments.

DJ Black (Library author)

This is an entirely different scenario and is also based on the overwhelming feedback that we receive from authors that would like comments. Also, unlike most bloggers, we're not focussed on how many visitors we get. I fail to see how asking someone to comment twice every 1,000 stories viewed is in any way unreasonable? In fact that could be as little as writing "Good story" or the equivalent twice.

Anyway, feedback is welcome, so thanks for taking the time to respond.

I agree, I wouldn't like to force anyone to comment. It's flattering when they do but if they don't, well at least they read your story. Of course its up to you and flopsy at the end of the day Februs, but speaking personally I would prefer people comment because they genuinely feel like commenting.

That's not at all what's being suggested. We can't force anyone to do anything they don't want to, nor would we want to. We can, however, implement different levels of user as is typically found on almost all forum sites. Users who bother to make a single comment every 500 story views would have one level and those that don't another or something along those lines.