Are comments back in fashion?

Good man Hotbot. Keep it up.

Geoffrey Stirling.

I am at war with myself. Part of me is ready to make comments that would make a person with tourette's jealous, but I was also brought up with the adages "if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say it" and "better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool, than open it, and prove it."

AAAH - Comments, the eternal struggle!
We have discussed this issue many times and it remains a mystery in many respects. I remember my early days here when I doubted my ability to make a reasonable comment, fearing ridicule, but I soon learnt it doesn't need to be A* quality, just a note to the author in appreciation of their story, a query, even a suggestion, or a constructive criticism.
I get ridiculously excited every time I get a notification of a comment, some are more affirming than others, but I appreciate the effort taken by the one who comments. I also love the pop-up response that prompts further contact.
There has been an increase in comments recently, very likely due to people having more time to show appreciation.
I still get extremely frustrated when I see that readers are viewing multiple stories, especially serials, but clearly not reading any of them! I can see why a quick scroll may give insight as to whether someone is interested enough to read fully, but not to such excessive extent!
Well done to those who comment, encouragement to those who don't, but thank you for reading to everyone.

I've been wondering myself sometimes. It happens that some of my series' get read in roughly two minutes, all ten parts, which doesn't really make sense to me. In that time you can only manage to skim through the spanking sequence in at most two or three of the parts, if you skip the plot almost entirely, if you even have time to locate the spanking part that is. So why even click the rest of the episodes? I mean, how can you in a few seconds make out if it is a story that might interest you? And if part one to nine didn't seem worth reading, why click part ten?

Having said that, I love, absolutely adore, comments and it's of course wonderful to get many views. It just seems odd to me that some people, as Elorac points out, obviously aren't reading the stories they click, yet they keep clicking plenty of stories from the same author in a matter of minutes.

But, comments; they are my lifeblood and give me the ideas I need for sequels and new stories. In return I always try to comment on everything that I read, even when it's stories that I don't like. In those cases, I try to find the qualities in them that might appeal to others and comment from that aspect. A story can of course be very, very good even if I don't happen to enjoy it. To be honest, I guess it is more often that way around, because I feel some times that my personal taste is a bit off target here.

I'm really, really glad that the comment ratio is going up again. I have however the opposite experience, as the number of comments on my new stories is steadily declining.

I often wonder if I am commenting too much, giving away too much of the plot or coming across as trying to guide the author.

Good Show, hotbot. I am sure the authors appreciate your comments. I too as others have stated respond to comments under my author name, Cherry Red. It is important that comments on everyone's stories to be made to keep the library a flourishing enterprise.

Cough...splutter... Not possible, sir.


Most readers don't read a story's comments first, and if they do they deserve every spoiler they get!


Guide away, sir. We can take it; in fact, we welcome it.

opb

I get unreasonably excited whenever I get a comment. I am thinking of having a flagpole installed in my front garden so I can run up a flag on each occasion.

OPB, it is cool when you get comments. I try to thank everyone that comments on one of my stories.

Occasionally I may leave a story because I don't care for it. I probably don't comment.

I occasionally want to read a story twice or even three times before I comment. I like to think that the writer gets a more thoughtful comment that way.

As others here have so elegantly stated, I appreciate each and every comment I receive. Writing is often a very lonely occupation. Just knowing that people are reading your work makes it all worthwhile. Please keep the comments coming.