Listen up, silent majority!

I really try to comment on every story I read. When I first started on the site I was a bit frugal with my comments but I have tried to make amends not too far into being here. In part I think that has to do with being a contributor of stories and poems here and knowing how much I appreciate getting comments on my content.

With this being said I would have to say that I am perhaps happier with the number of views I get than the number of comments but on the other hand I can't see how there are instances like in the most recent batch I have a poem that has had 238 views ( which is actually quite a few for a poem...many readers choose to avoid reading them) and only have 3 comments! That's less than two percent.

I find that I have a core group of commenters and for the most part they too are authors here.

Anyhow, I appreciate each and every one of the comments I receive be they positive or negative in nature. I simply wish that more people would ring in.

I'm not sure I enjoy having my likeness to a goose being pointed out that explicitly, but otherwise I can only say amen: Authors are vain people and they thrive on feedback! Personally, I enjoy all comments. When a story is new, I am curious to see how others view it, and when a story is old, I am happy to see that it is still being read and appreciated. That several commenters point out the same feature, is actually quite helpful as it tells me that I have really succeeded with something (or totally blown it). I especially enjoy comments that discuss the characters as if they were real people. If you do it, all professors of literature will tell you that you are hopelessly naive, and all authors will love you! Don't be shy, give us what we want: More comments!

Alef just succinctly summarized what took this thread 6.5 years, 17 pages, and 163 posts to say!

Roseami

For most part, I was like you. But once I start commenting on a more regular basis I started to enjoy it. I hope you'll find out eventually. I also don't comment right away after reading a story. I like to give it some time and think about it and later post my comment.

About the commenting policy, though I never gave it much thought, I certainly like the way you think. May be it is a way to punish Naughty Readers.

Glagla

You see, there is the problem. While you can think about few thousand words, I think it would hardly go past few hundred words if I start to write. I'll certainly give it a try. Lets see what I can come up with.

Spankedjenny

I different way to tell the story and they are really enjoyable. I hope to join your regular readers/commenters when I can manage some time. For now, I have a busy schedule ahead.

Just like my stories are works of love - then my comments are signs of appreciation. I do not want or need comments that are written as an obligation! I have both written and received comments like "great story - liked it a lot" - and I hope they are meant as they are written.
Commenting as an obligation is worthless!

I'm looking forward to it A story doesn't have to be thousands of words. There are many outstanding contributions here of a few hundred words, that brings happiness to the readers. We all have to start somewhere

I would never suggest that commenting should be an obligation, but if you look at the latest loaded page, you will find that even the most commented stories have a view/comment ratio around 30, and that some very fine stories are faring much worse. If I only appreciated one out of thirty stories, I don't think I would bother coming here!

Alef

Alef, I have not commented on more than a small fraction of the stories which I have read on LSF during the roughly ten years I have been a member. And that is not because I don´t appreciate the stories, but merely because I most often cannot think of anything interesting (in my mind´s eye) to say. I merely do not wish to waste people´s time by means of writing something like "Good story, mate!". Well, this thread suggests that maybe such a comment would not be a waste of the reader´s and story author´s time. So maybe I should start writing more comments. In fact I will!

One shouldn't be too ambitious, I think. My comments are definitely not masterpieces of literary criticism, but I try to find something to say that couldn't be said of any other story. Sometimes it is about the style, sometimes about the plot, sometimes about the characters, and sometimes about an especially memorable formulation. Sometimes it is just utter nonsense. To some extent I think it is a matter of habit - to have the thought that one is going to make a comment at the back one's mind while reading the story. I usually find something that is worth a comment.

I do this, and find something to say about everything I read here.


When I come across phrases exceptional for their originality/humour/eroticism, I transcribe them from the original story into my comment, but I wish it were possible to 'quote' (i.e. copy and paste) these instead.