Slow sad death of the commentariat?

Hey, we made the 2000 with a day to spare! Well done us!

Most writers don't mind minor flaws being pointed out. I think it's when people get nitpicky that they get their backs up a little. I remember Eric Flint (creator of the 1632 series) speaking at a convention. His series deals with a period in our history, so occasionally mistakes can be made, and he genuinely doesn't mind getting emails from people pointing out significant incongruities. He'll often accept them with 'yeah, we messed up' on the other hand if someone points out that a button on a coat is described as being round when they were really square or something like that, then his attitude is very much 'get a life.'.

I do not come here all that often. But most of the stories I read I also comment on. With and without my winter coat.

These kinds of comments bother me too. Sometimes readers do tend to skim and miss things, especially with challenge entries, but my concern is that I haven't explained it nearly as well as I think I have.

I'm so glad the world didn't come to an end! Thanks to everyone who offered their comments.

I don't know about the number of comments being in any kind of serious decline; however, it does seem that it has been taking longer for new stories to get verified. While I will sometimes browse for genres or authors, or use the "Lucky Dip", my main preference is the new material, especially the verified ones, so I can have an idea what a story is about, who the characters are, etc., before I decide to read it. I try to comment of most of the stories I read now, but I find I have to wait longer and longer for a new batch of verified stories.

You could always volunteer to help with the verification, because it is mostly done by volunteer library members. That would help speed up the process a bit.

There are only a handful of validators, and we do the best we can. Actually, I am happy that we are just about caught up. We are only human, only volunteers, and we do have lives! And, yes, it is obvious that the number of comments have decreased.

Why? There are thousands of perfectly wonderful stories here. The older ones are just as good as the new crop, if not better.

Wholly concur with what FiBlue says about the older stories. I often use Lucky Dip and almost always find some gems I'd missed. And of course they've all been validated, so you can check on content before opening them.

The validations do seem to have been catching up. I understand how time-consuming it must be; I may well volunteer as was suggested.

Regarding my statement about new vs. older stories, I do in fact read the older ones. My entry point tends to be the new stories, that's all.