Slow sad death of the commentariat?

Perhaps they just "liked" the title

Sounds a bit lefty to me. Better send round a couple of WPCs to check you out.

Sounds like you've got some One Direction-style fans, Rik - starry-eyed and blissfully uncritical....

I find the comments to be an important part of the library system. It always takes feedback to complete good communication. I appreciate reading almost all of the comments. If I find that the point I want to make has already been made and repeatedly so I tend to move on without leaving my own input. The only comments that I don't care for are the self-indulgent ones: "You should have pulled her panties down and spanked her until her ass was cherry red..." At that point I'm thinking, "Go write your own story or take a shower."

Well, I find nothing wrong with a commenter indicating alternatives or additions which he/she would have liked to read, as long as they're stated as mere personal preferences. ("Personally, I'd have liked the girl's brother to have been spanked as well, since I enjoy F/m maternal discipline accounts.")

From an author's perspective, I'll agree that being told what I "should have done" in my story, as though it was a 'mistake' not to have done so, isn't likely to impress me or influence my future writing, although I do at least consider sincere suggestions.

While commenting, I'll occasionally refer to agreeing or disagreeing with other comments, either specifically or generally:

"I'm in agreement with several other commenters that..."
"I disagree with bendover's belief about..."
"I'll agree with islandcarol on the matter of..."

So even if you're merely 'echoing' another commenter, I'd recommend stating it in cyberprint--it lets the author know that more than one reader felt that particular way, and it might encourage that commenter (should he/she happen to view your agreement) to continue commenting.

Very few people object to being agreed with, I've noticed... --C.K.

Hi I want to speak on behalf of the "Occasional Commentators" (how I dislike that label, that pops up every time I log on).

I absolutely adore this site when I have time to visit, maybe twice a month, however I'm no good with words, (either written or spoken) and envy, all the authors. Their ways of painting a scene with words, is awesome to me. So although I appreciate all the time and effort that has gone into all the stories, I get stumped with what to write in the comments.

Sometimes the only thing that comes to mind is a flaw that I have picked up in the storyline, and don't want my comment to be of the negative variety, on the other hand I don't just want to write "Great story" on every story I read.

So please be sympathetic, to those of us who aren't good wordsmiths, but really do appreciate the fantasy worlds that the authors draw us into.

From Bitty, who probably took as long a time to write and rewrite this as some of you do to write a short story.

Thank you Bitty...we realize you have made a great effort and done hard work to post here. I see that your wordsmithing is just fine, no problem there at all from what I read.

The good thing about comments is that they can consist of 2 sentences, unlike above where you composed 7 I believe. 'Occasional Commentators' is not a bad title and merely reflects a mathematical formula so do not let it bother you. Thanks again and we appreciate your efforts

CS

Hello,

I know that writers would like to know if i like their stories,
But it took me some time to get used tot the idea that i had to write a comment.
That fact slowed me down tot join this library but i found out that writing comments isn't as hard as it sounds.

On the other hand this policy may cause people who want tot join stay away due tot the fact that they have to write a comment.
I do not comment on every story i read but try as much as possible thanks tot the reactions i get.

That's ok sweetie. I still love you
I don't mind if someone points out a flaw in the storyline. It could be that I hadn't even thought of it. I like my stories to be as realistic as possible.

Some of these comments do confirm what I suspected about why some people comment quite rarely and why they're still valuable Library members.

As for flaws being pointed out, that's fine with me if they're real. One kind of comment that does annoy me (it occurs most often with challenge entries) is "I don't understand..." or "you don't explain..." when the matter actually is very clearly explained and the commenter has just missed it. Before commenting that something is unclear, I suggest going back and reading the thing again, or the relevant part anyway.