Story Comments

As much as I think people OUGHT to make comments, I think that kicking them out for not commenting doesn't really help anything. They aren't hurting, anything, by jsut being drive-by readers, are they,? As opposed to being NON-readers, I mean. But perhaps, if they haven't made any posts, could you merely give them a short 'time out,' say for a week, giving them a note when they try to sign in, telling them why they've been temporarily suspended. We wouldn't be not asking anybody to post negative comments, or to comment on every story. But, say, one comment for every hundred read, would that be too much to ask?

No-one has suggested kicking anyone anywhere... have you actually read what I've posted in this thread?

Here's a second attempt to straighten out what was being proposed given that my initial post seems to have been interpreted in ways in which it was never intended. Firstly, it needs to be said this is merely something that is being thought about and who knows whether anything will happen at all. Anyway, on to the problem:

Now it's not being suggested that anyone has to actually do anything but it's a fact of life that the degree of commenting on stories read on the site is pretty abysmal. It has been suggested that this is typically the case for a blog but this site is nothing like a blog and the whole blog analogy simply doesn't apply. Even if it did, that's not what we want the site to be .. somewhere frequented purely by 'passive consumers' which seems to be the norm for the web in general these days.

I also take on board that quite often the reader of a story or stories may not want to comment or have anything to say. Again, perfectly understandable.

But, we have users on here who have read or viewed over 2,500, even 3,000 stories without even a single comment! I think that's quite a staggering statistic and more than a little depressing.

It's also not being suggested that anyone should be suspended, nor will that ever be the case. The only thing that is being discussed at present is simply having 2 different categories of site user:

1. Those who have viewed over 500 stories without a single comment OR who have viewed over 500 stories with a story to comment ratio greater than 500 to 1. (authors, admins and validaters would be exempt)

and

2. The rest.

And we are further suggesting that Category 1 users have a limit applied on how many stories they can view per day.

So, all in all a far cry from some of the things that are being suggested, and all we are asking is that people make at least 1 comment for every 500 stories viewed in order to continue to have unlimited viewing. And if they choose not to bother then that's fine too, they'll still have access to everything but they'll just have a limit to the number of stories they can view each day.

Hopefully, this clears up any misunderstanding.

Personally I don't think asking people to make the odd comment on what they are reading is too much to ask. There are some people who come on here and fly through dozens and dozens of stories in such a short period of time it is almost as if they are in a frenzy or think the library will disappear in the next 3 minutes. These people can not possibly be reading the stories, in fact I have no idea what they are trying to achieve and despite asking a few I have never managed to get anyone to explain this bizarre behaviour to me. These are often the people who don't make comments, after all they can 'read' another 20 stories in the time it would take to write 'I really enjoyed that, thank you' or suchlike. These are predominantly the people that would be subjected to what Febs is suggesting and I have no issues with these people having a lower limit than those that use the library as it is intended.

With a one comment for every 500 stories read minimum, it gives new users plenty of time to get used to the library and feel confident enough to write a few words and even if they don't, it isn't as if they will be banned, they will simply have a lower usage than someone who contributes more fully to the library. Think of it like a loyalty scheme, contribute to the facility and you get a little more out of it.

I did, but obviously not carefuly enough, nor completely. I was interpreting the viewing 'limit' in your earlier post as a 'hard' limit, beyond which a member wold no longer be able to view stories, which would have the effect of 'kicking' them. Had I botherd to read your next post (rather than jumping to the end to post) it would have been clear that that was not at all what you were suggesting. Mea culpa! Now that I understand (sorry that it just takes me a bit longer than most), I think it sounds like a great idea.

Is it possible, for people who maybe don't have time to write a comment, to have a rating scale for each story? Something as simple as a 1 - 5 rating with 1 equivalent to did not like and a 5 equivalent to Absolutely Loved? There can also be the option for additional comments. This would at least give the author some simple feedback. Just a suggestion.

It's not possible right now but I've made a note of it so maybe something for the future. Users only have to comment once every 500 stories viewed to maintain full member status although I would hope that they'd comment more often if they appreciate the site and the authors' generosity in sharing what they've written with others .. and I reckon it takes less than a minute to make a half decent comment so that's 1 minute of someone's time (at most) every 500 stories. If would take just as long to click or select a rating as it would to type "absolutely loved this".

I'm not crazy about the idea of a rating scale. If a bunch of folks think my stories rate a 2 out of 5 (or whatever), I really don't want to hear about it!

A personal note of appreciation (however brief) is worth about 20 times even the highest rating.

I agree, jefesse. If people hate my stories, I don't really want to know!

Seriously, it takes so little time to write 'Loved this' or 'Good story' I can't see that a 'rating' would be any quicker. And a personal comment, however brief, means much more.