Reversing the comments slide, Part II

Thanks for these numbers Februs. Could you SQL for just this year and since last May in those categories when the 'Big Push' started?

It's official at 2683 and still a few hours to go. On to January and hopefully another record month. Congratulations to Staff, Writers, and readers all!

And a very Happy New Year and pervy 2011 !!!!!!!!

If you were to force feed me anything with coffee in it, I would tell you whatever you want to know as fast as I could, as I despise coffee and will do just about anything to avoid it. However, for some of the B&J's cinnamon buns ice cream, I would drag the torture session on as long as possible, and you might need to bring more than one pint

Nope, never had any of that; but I'm willing to try!

Guy

There is a lady who reads our stories religiously and comments on them. a very long time ago she was told off by someone in a yahoo group for saying the same thing over and over. The fact was she did. But the other fact was that she took the time to say it each and everytime.
Now her comments have gotten more involved and she does much better at it. For a while she wouldn't say anything. She wrote to me back then and asked if I was offended with her comments. I told her absolutely not, how could I be when she took time from her day to not only read but say something?

Now most people just want comments to make them feel good about what they have written. It gives a "high" of sorts when someone you don't know tells you they liked what you wrote and yes I love it too. I preen and glow for hours.

When someone reads and does not comment I take that to mean they did not like it and then I fret.
Whlst here we have had our six stories read nearly 700 times and only eight comments were posted. Very bad average and it makes me feel badly.

For those who read and don't comment that is what it's like for a lot of writers. We fret, we wonder why, why bother writing why bother posting? We all write for ourselves yes (or at least I think we do) but we also write for you. The least anyone can do is let us know in twenty words or less if they liked it.

I comment on every story I read if I have a positive comment to make. If I like a story I will give a favorable comment. If I read a story and don't like it, I don't comment at all. I don't want to give negative comments. Is this method good for the group? Would people rather have negative comments and the reason why? I know getting negative comments will up the comment count but I don't think that number is as important as hurting someone's feelings because I don't like their story.

Don't feel bad. With some 60 stories here, I often go weeks between comments. That's just the way it is.

Without a doubt, comments are one measure of your material's popularity, but only one. Why do some writers get more comments than others? Perhaps there is something about their stories that just invites comment, or perhaps different authors attract different types of readers, I don't know.

Anyhow, I am perfectly content with the acceptance of my material here. I submit that you should be also. Go find something important to obsess about.

Smile Caleb!

Guy

Yes for goodness sake Caleb!! I mean be reasonable for once and SMILE when you are told to!!

I'm with spankdaddy on this one. I comment on stories that delight or grab me in some way and its my way of saying kudos to the author. I would never, in a public forum like this, be critical of another author's work. That said, I do have strong feelings about many of the stories I review here. If anyone would like to know what I do think of their story, I'd be happy to tell them and give a little constructive criticism, but privately only. Email or use the popup thingy. I promise to respond.

In evaluating my own work, I use two metrics--comments and favorites. Stories that "sell" get some of each--flops, not so much. I find that "reads" are largely irrelevant. A read is only a click. You don't know if that person actually read it or skimmed the first paragraph and went on to something else. I find it very encouraging that more and more folks are commenting these days. I've dropped out of boards where people just read or downloaded stuff and never said anything.

Yes, me too. I don't worry a lot about comments as I write for myself more than anything. However it's nice when you feel you have struck a chord with someone and that there is a degree of empathy between the reader and the writer. Having said that, you will probably think I am a complete hypocrite as the first thing I do when I come on to the library is, check to see if I have any new comments!! Pathetic really!