This author needs validation (leaving feedback)

[Bay]

Every writer ever.​

So, comments/reviews. The lifeblood of every writer where they crave attention and wanting that peace of mind that their work is good. If we don't get any or little feedback, then that self doubt kicks in. Many people will say, "write what you want," but let's be honest, feedback is what motivates the author the most to continue writing.

After reading a story, do you often leave feedback, here and in other forums/sites like Archive of Our Own and ffnet, to let the author know what you think of their work? If so, what kind of feedback do you usually leave? Do you go for shorter stories, long chapter epics, a bit of both? You tend to go with just your favorite authors or you'll leave feedback to just about anyone?

If you don't usually leave feedback, why not and what would compel you to do so? For the writers, do you sometimes do the "scratch your back and I'll scratch yours" where you'll exchange feedback with one another, or you rather focus on your own writing? You think the reviewing culture is different here than in other sites, and if so why?

I've been seeing folks lately, here and in other places, mentioning how they're upset no one's been commenting on their works, so I'm interested on people's thoughts when it comes to the topic of leaving feedback.

In response to my own topic, I do try to leave feedback on whatever I read like 80 percent of the time as I know how it feels to be worried your work isn't getting attention. Sometimes it might be just a couple sentences saying I enjoyed this, sometimes a bit more detail what works or doesn't work. Lately though I'm balancing other internet and real life obligations along focusing on my own writing, so atm I'll be usually only following fics from authors I enjoyed a lot. I do feel very bad I don't have time helping the newer authors though.

(Yes, I more or less copy/pasted this from my own topic in PokeCommunity Forums, lol).

 

[roule]

i want to leave feedback on all the stuff i read, but i really don't know what i could say lol... i need to start doing it though

 

[Samayouru]

Oh god that title topic sums up how I feel about not getting reviews perfectly.

When it comes to reviewing, I try to detach my emotions from my inner critic so that I can give a fair and honest critique. I of course point out what I like about a fanfic, but also what could be improved upon, and try to give encouragement on how far they could take their skills.

I'm certainly no Yami Ryu, that's for sure.

 

[diamondpearl876]

If I read, I leave a review. Always. If a fic has no reviews from me, I haven't read any of it. The exception to this, for me, is finished fics from long ago whose authors have disappeared off the face of the earth, or if I contact the author personally so I can chat with them instead of leaving a formal review.

I've been following this rule of mine since I started reading fics around here and other forums several years ago, and I really don't plan to stop that. I'm older and life is busier, yeah, but really, no one is going to mind if three chapter updates have passed and then you review. Any comments are welcome. I don't feel that it's fair if I'm posting three fics (or even one) and I expect reviews without contributing anywhere else.

That being said, I'm much less inclined to check out fics whose authors I never see anywhere else ever. I guess that sounds kind of harsh, but it's really discouraging when you dedicate your time to someone who has no willingness to dedicate even a small fraction of their time to someone else, whether it's to me or another author on the forum.

On a related topic of what to post in a review... I think people get intimidated by the size of reviews. A lot of reviewers here are analytical and go very in-depth, but that's not necessary to make an author happy. If anyone looks at my reviews, they look long because of the quotes I put, but if you read my actual comments, they are not really that intense at all. At most, my reviews take ten minutes of my time to type up. What helps me is making notes as I read so I don't have to struggle to figure out what I want to say when it comes time to actually sit down and write comments for the author.

 

[Griff4815]

I don't read many stories, personally. It's not because I don't want to, but whenever I do, be it a book or fan fiction, I end up stopping halfway through a chapter with a huge urge to write my own stories. I'm a lot more of a creator than I am a consumer. On one hand, that keeps me focused, but on the other hand, it keeps me from networking. There's definitely a lot of stories that I'd like to read, but I find myself unable to get around to them.

However, I do sometimes read other peoples' stories, and when I do, I always make sure to leave a review. I'm not very good at reviews because I have trouble writing long, in-depth analyses on other peoples' stories. I do always try to leave my honest opinions on the plot, characters, grammar, and general things that tickle my fancy. As a writer who doesn't get a huge number of reviews (especially not when writing Digimon on a Pokemon forum xD) I know how important it is to receive thoughtful reviews about the content that you're putting out, so I always try to leave something when I get around to reading fan fiction.

 

[JX Valentine]

I'm not very good at reviews because I have trouble writing long, in-depth analyses on other peoples' stories.

THIS SEEMS LIKE A GOOD PLACE TO BARGE RIGHT IN. 8D

The weird thing about a lot of the big-name fic communities (PC, Serebii, and probably BMGf—idk, I've only really glanced at threads whenever a link was thrown my way) is that folks get into this mindset that a review is a huge production in which you have to go in-depth and point out flaws and be analytical and whatnot. However, that's not true at all! That's a style but not the end-all, be-all of reviewing. However, it's understandable if multiple (or even most) people think that this is what reviewing is because of how prevalent that style has become.

However, the truth of the matter is you can totally be short and sweet. You can totally just point out one or two things you liked about a fic. You can totally skip the liveblogging-style of quoted reviews and the essays and what-have-you and condense your review down to just a paragraph of what you liked (or didn't). The important thing is saying something that makes it 100% clear that you actually read what the author is saying. And believe me, even just a tiny review that says, "Wow, I really like Character A. They're so intriguing because of [personality element]! I wonder if [theory about Character A] is true" is a huge help to the author because it tells them what stuck out about their work the most and entices them to engage in conversation with their readers.

Moreover, we're having a discussion about this on the Discord, so forgive me for stealing your point, Chibi Pika, but the other thing to keep in mind is that you (general you) don't have to be great at writing or teaching to review. It's not necessary to conflate beta reading with reviewing, and it's not obligatory to point out flaws if you don't feel confident that you can do so. A constructive review can be as simple as saying what you liked and being specific (but brief) about what that thing is and why you liked it. It's okay to not be an expert or to post positive reviews on a fic that would be ripped apart by a more critical author or to say what you're thinking in general, even if you're not that confident in your writing skills.

I know. Some of this might sound hypocritical of me to say because I haven't reviewed on Serebii in a while. It's something that I've wanted to change for some time, especially in light of the activity in this forum in comparison with another one I hang out on (specifically, the Nuzlocke forums). There, the reviewing culture is completely different. The main philosophy of the Nuz forums—which, really, should be a philosophy of fic communities in general—is that not only should you give reviews to receive reviews, but also, it's better and healthier for a community to take an active interest in other people's fics. And I say this should be a philosophy for fic communities in general because it's kinda true. The writerbase of a forum and the reviewerbase are not two different things; they're the same exact body. For that reason, the more people only focus on their own works, the less active reviewers become because, well, all (or at least most) of the reviewers are focused on writing instead.

Again, I know that sounds hypocritical. Lately, I've been reviewing mostly on the aforementioned forum—just short little bursts of what I liked, what I thought worked and why, maybe one or two bits of crit here and there. Reviewing's getting a lot easier for me (I used to do these giant reviews with quotes and everything, then essay-length stuff and whatnot), and I hope to bring that style over onto fics here later on this week/month to get the ball rolling. But yeah, to answer the question, I basically read everything (again, technically on the other forum, but I'm def going to start back up over here), and I try to review everything. It's just that I'm also well aware that part of the reason why I haven't really reviewed lately is because I kept getting stuck on, well, myself. Like, I felt like I had to say something profound too. But interacting on other communities and taking a hard look at what was going on here made me realize that people will effing love it if you say anything.

Tl;dr, tho, you can totally be short and sweet about what you have to say so long as you say something. ...that isn't just "plz rite moar" because that actually is against the rules, lmao.

(As a note, if your style is to do an in-depth review, and if you're consistent about it and most comfortable doing that, please truck on! Your style is valid too! I just don't want people to feel intimidated/obligated to do that if that's not their bag, yanno?)

 

[Chibi Pika]

Alright. We all know what this discussion is really about. I'm here to talk about all the reasons why reviewing doesn't happen, so that we can maybe figure out a way to combat it and breathe some life back into the forum.

Reviewing is hard.

A lot of us are fandom veterans. We have busy lives. Even finding time to write can be hard as hell. Reviewing can be even more time consuming. Assuming that we even find the time to read fics (some folks might not even be able to pull that off!) reviewing is a massive endeavor in itself.

But...why?

I want us to all stop and take a good long moment to think about that. I mean it. Why is reviewing time-consuming and difficult? Obviously, the solution here is not to magically make our lives give us more free time (though I doubt we'd say no to that!) Wouldn't it be better if reviewing wasn't hard? Well this is where a lot of discussions might go into tips on how to review more effectively. Stuff like taking notes down while you read, getting a clearer idea of what you like or dislike, ect. And while those are great! I'm here to blow your minds with a little secret I stumbled across last year:

The secret to reviewing is to stop reviewing.

(I'm going to take this moment to say that if you're one of those amazing lovely badasses who can both (a.) consistently find time to comment on other people's fics AND (b.) be amazingly in-depth and critical and helpful, then THAT IS AWESOME AND COOL AND YOU ARE AN INSPIRATION TO US ALL. PLEASE CONTINUE BEING AWESOME.)

But for a lot of people that's not feasible. Not everyone has to be like that to keep the community going. I sure as hell can't pull that off. Not with my schedule. I know a lot of other people in a similar situation. But where did we even get the idea that we have to do that? It's not necessary! Posting long, in-depth critique is great and all, but...you don't have to do that!

So...why did it get to be like this in the first place? If we don't need to do that, then why do we all think we need to do that? Here's what I think the reasons are:

#1: The pressure to be critical

We have a reputation to uphold. We strive for quality, which means we want to push others to do the same, which means that it's not okay to let flaws in a story slide. And this is all well and good--content creators should always strive to be the best they can be, after all! But being critical is hard. It takes a lot of time to sit down and analyze what really works about a story. But there's nothing worse than saying "hey this part was bad" and not giving a concrete reason why. So our reviews end up becoming a five-paragraph essay with a thesis statement and accompanying evidence and then they take all week to write and then we don't want to do them anymore because ugh.

#2: The pressure to live up to the ideal of what a reviewer should be

A lot of us have been here a while. We've seen those amazingly helpful, in-depth, critical reviews. And we all wanna be like that, deep down. After all, if you're not helping the author grow, what good is your review? It's useless, meaningless. You might as well not even post it.

That's bullcrap.

You're taking the time to tell an author what you thought. Even if it's short, even if it doesn't feel like it offers anything they don't already know, so long as you're letting the author what you personally thought, then that is always meaningful. Destroy the voice that tells you otherwise.

#3: The risk of embarrassment

Few things are more embarrassing then getting all fangirly over a story and then having someone else come in and tear it to shreds. There used to be a lot of reviewers who made it their job to go around shredding authors who got too comfortable with their work. And while there is something to be said about getting a cold dose of reality in the face that can be amazingly motivational and eye-opening (and lead to a LOT of improvement in a very short amount of time) ...I do think it left its scars on our community. The ripples from it can be felt even by people who weren't around for that era. There's always that fear in the back of the mind that someone's gonna appear out of nowhere and say "this fic is bad and you're all bad for liking it."

When was the last time you saw that happen around here? I...can't really say that I have in like...years. But even if we take away those hypothetical individuals who shall not be named, there's something else going on here, I think...

If you've been a writer for a long time, there's an expectation that you'll have quality tastes in fiction. Quality authors don't fangirl over mediocre newbie fics. It's just...not dignified. This goes double for members of the community who are held up to a standard of expertise or authority (I know for a fact that I'd be 8000% more self conscious about looking like a dork if I had any authority around here.) Even if no one's gonna judge, you just...kind of feel like it's something you're not supposed to do? People seem far more keen to do it in private! Even I caught myself doing that "Well I don't have the time to be critical right now, I'll just shoot the author a VM letting them know I liked their chapter." Except...why can't I just do that in their thread? Because that's not a review and their thread is for reviews.

The secret to reviewing is to stop reviewing.

We need to be enthusiastic about each other's stuff. We can't just post our own fics and expect other people to comment if we don't get out there and get involved. And that's why I want to tear down all the things that hold us back. Reviewing is hard, but it's useless to say, "too bad do it anyway you selfish jerks," when the real solution is, "hey why don't we just make this easier for all of us."

So when I say the secret to reviewing is to stop reviewing, I mean we have to throw out all those preconceived notions of what a review should be and just let ourselves enjoy things, and let ourselves TELL people we're enjoying things. It's okay if your review doesn't look smart. It's okay if you don't think the forum will judge it to be useful or insightful. None of that matters. At the end of the day, it's about sharing your thoughts and feelings, and ultimately connecting with each other. That's the only way we're gonna foster a sense of community. By connecting. And creating a culture of connection can only benefit everyone.

BUT SERIOUSLY if insightful analysis is YOUR JAM by all means keep doing what you do DO NOT LET ME STOP YOU. ;D

~Chibi~;249;;448;

 

[bobandbill]

Interesting topic.

I'd like to say more but I am at work. But also I am reminded on my own inactivity here (sorry) and, well two birds one stone:

The weird thing about a lot of the big-name fic communities (PC, Serebii, and probably BMGf—idk, I've only really glanced at threads whenever a link was thrown my way) is that folks get into this mindset that a review is a huge production in which you have to go in-depth and point out flaws and be analytical and whatnot. However, that's not true at all! That's a style but not the end-all, be-all of reviewing. However, it's understandable if multiple (or even most) people think that this is what reviewing is because of how prevalent that style has become.

However, the truth of the matter is you can totally be short and sweet. You can totally just point out one or two things you liked about a fic. You can totally skip the liveblogging-style of quoted reviews and the essays and what-have-you and condense your review down to just a paragraph of what you liked (or didn't). The important thing is saying something that makes it 100% clear that you actually read what the author is saying. And believe me, even just a tiny review that says, "Wow, I really like Character A. They're so intriguing because of [personality element]! I wonder if [theory about Character A] is true" is a huge help to the author because it tells them what stuck out about their work the most and entices them to engage in conversation with their readers.

+ Chibi Pika's post.

The best way to address these mindsets and change them is to lead by example. We (as in anyone in this section, including me) should try out more short and simple reviews of stuff we read. Maybe a reviewing event to help with that, but I don't feel that's necessary.

 

[Kutie Pie]

I don't leave reviews much anymore because I'm just lazy . But I also just don't read a lot of fanfics much these days, at least not Pokémon fics. Even then, I just don't really know what to say, let alone feel like I need to leave a review. If I feel like I have something to say, then I'll say it, I just have to get on it right away. Do I feel a little obligated to leave big-ass reviews? Yes, but I've had to learn to tone things down, which I think is what killed my motivation to read and leave reviews.

I mean, yes, I'll admit that I get way too harsh for my own good, but I still try to balance it out with actual critique. When I see great potential, I want to see it, and will basically attempt to push the author in that direction. That's probably the other thing, I'm a little too pushy when I'm not unfiltered at times. And that's actually kinda mentally (and sometimes emotionally) exhausting, so when I hit my limit, I just get lax and then I'm like that for maybe three years or so, I dunno.

But yeah, I've been seeing a lack of reviews flowing in on this site. In my case, it's because I'm not updating regularly and my works are also pretty big, and that intimidates readers (had someone on DA recently tell me that). The shipping fic section is also rather dry, has been for the last few years I've noticed, which I think is odd--but then again, I don't really pay much attention anymore. (Although with this past Shipping Oscars, it was actually a much smaller list than last year's--so I'm totally not crazy at all.) I guess things are just about to dry up here, newer writers aren't drifting in in droves like they used to. FFN and the like are still very active, so you'd definitely have a better chance there than here, but as stories are constantly being updated every day, and every hour, if you're not writing for something popular or don't have a consistent schedule, you're going to get lost in the crowd very easily. And FFN unfortunately, that I can tell, doesn't have a great way of advertising yourself. You're just a faceless writer as are everyone else unless you end up on TV Tropes for various reasons.

...so uh... what were we talking about again xD?​

Though I think I have to parrot Griff in saying that I'm more of a creator than a consumer. Think that sums things up, actually.

 

[JX Valentine]

I don't leave reviews much anymore because I'm just lazy .

I guess things are just about to dry up here, newer writers aren't drifting in in droves like they used to.

So, uh, just so you know, but you just explained why newbies don't want to drift in. Like ... put it this way, KP. If you decide to be lazy about reviewing, then you're not actually contributing to fixing the problem. The problem here is silence. It's not the fault of the newbies. It's our fault for not reviewing. So to say that the forum is going to die and then not want to do anything about it for a reason you've just admitted ... that's sorta not okay.

I'm sorry, guys. I just had to say it. The reason why is because it's possible to have an active community on a forum. The Nuzlocke forums, for example. However, if we continue to nurture the apathy towards reviewing, then we can't create an open, welcoming community. That is to say, if no one reviews, people get the impression that nothing happens in the forum, that there's no reason to post, and thus, they don't feel the need to join in. Thus, if there is to be any hope in revitalizing the site, we need to take an active interest in the community as well.

And I also apologize to KP, but this really, really needs to be said.

(I mean, bnb is right as well, and I know I shouldn't be one to talk. But, like, there is still hope for us ... if we're not lazy about it.)

 

[Samayouru]

So, uh, just so you know, but you just explained why newbies don't want to drift in. Like ... put it this way, KP. If you decide to be lazy about reviewing, then you're not actually contributing to fixing the problem. The problem here is silence. It's not the fault of the newbies. It's our fault for not reviewing. So to say that the forum is going to die and then not want to do anything about it for a reason you've just admitted ... that's sorta not okay.

I'm sorry, guys. I just had to say it. The reason why is because it's possible to have an active community on a forum. The Nuzlocke forums, for example. However, if we continue to nurture the apathy towards reviewing, then we can't create an open, welcoming community. That is to say, if no one reviews, people get the impression that nothing happens in the forum, that there's no reason to post, and thus, they don't feel the need to join in. Thus, if there is to be any hope in revitalizing the site, we need to take an active interest in the community as well.

(I mean, bnb is right as well, and I know I shouldn't be one to talk. But, like, there is still hope for us ... if we're not lazy about it.)

This. I don't think it's a lack of fanfics that's the problem, it's just that right now, this place doesn't look very active. I am seriously considering doing more reviews and such so that we can get a little bit more activity going. Admittedly, part of why I kept coming back to the fanfic forum was to see what people like Yami Ryu had to say about new fanfics, and see her separate the men from the boys, so to speak. I guess you could say part of it was to do with the schadenfreude phenomenon - people like seeing other people getting put in their place, and at the same time they also like when someone leaves a good impression on reviewers. I personally don't think we need to be like Yami or Farla (I don't think anybody could ever even try to be those two), but yes, a more active reviewing community would be very welcome in my opinion.

Pardon me if I'm going off topic, but I do remember that at one stage there were several community projects going on at once which a lot of people were interested in. Of course, you had the Fanfic Awards, but there were other things like Author Interviews where users could send their questions to the person who hosted the interviews to ask the interviewee all about their fanfics or even stuff about themselves. It was what turned authors who had achieved legendary status and appeared to be giants compared to viewers into perfectly normal people. Perhaps it might be worth considering if it would be a good idea to revive events like this as well as reviewing more frequently? I'm sure it would draw attention and it would give newbies a good idea on what our community is really like.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Admittedly, part of why I kept coming back to the fanfic forum was to see what people like Yami Ryu had to say about new fanfics, and see her separate the men from the boys, so to speak. I guess you could say part of it was to do with the schadenfreude phenomenon - people like seeing other people getting put in their place, and at the same time they also like when someone leaves a good impression on reviewers. I personally don't think we need to be like Yami or Farla (I don't think anybody could ever even try to be those two), but yes, a more active reviewing community would be very welcome in my opinion.

THIS OH MAN THIS.

Like...I am not proud of this, but I feel like it needs to be said, in order to properly move past it. I absolutely did this. In fact, during my first big hiatus, the only thing that kept me occasionally coming back was loling at badfic threads that got closed.

Want to know what finally broke me out of this? There was one member in particular that posted a crapton of closed threads in 2008, to the point that I literally associated their username with badfic. Coming back years later, seeing one of their threads not get closed immediately, wondering what was going on, and then seeing that, holy crap, they'd pushed through and become a half decent author in my absence.

...That was eye-opening. That was the moment that I realized the forum was evolving, but I'd stayed the same. I actually have a lot more fondness for the 2012 era as a result. It might not have been quite as active as previous eras, but there was a lot more positivity around. The Review Exchange and the Review Game flourished. Lots of new authors were joining the fold.

I don't think it's impossible to recapture the spirit of that era. But it's gonna take effort. And that means those of us most adamant about making the change also have to lead by example and make the change.

Because the interesting thing is that not all of us have to do it, just enough! I understand that there's always gonna be real life crap and some users just can't review no matter how badly they might want to. I can't fault that! But so long as those that are able take charge, that'll improve the atmosphere and benefit everyone as a result.

~Chibi~;249;;448;

 

[Kutie Pie]

Admittedly, part of why I kept coming back to the fanfic forum was to see what people like Yami Ryu had to say about new fanfics, and see her separate the men from the boys, so to speak. I guess you could say part of it was to do with the schadenfreude phenomenon - people like seeing other people getting put in their place, and at the same time they also like when someone leaves a good impression on reviewers. I personally don't think we need to be like Yami or Farla (I don't think anybody could ever even try to be those two), but yes, a more active reviewing community would be very welcome in my opinion.

THIS OH MAN THIS.

Like...I am not proud of this, but I feel like it needs to be said, in order to properly move past it. I absolutely did this. In fact, during my first big hiatus, the only thing that kept me occasionally coming back was loling at badfic threads that got closed.

Yeah not going to lie, I miss reading the badfics on Serebii, or even troll fics. Sure, we encourage quality, but there was something rather rejuvenating about seeing something laughably bad (or purposefully trollish) sneak in from time to time, something that would've been more welcome on FFN but never would've gotten its day in the limelight unlike here. There's a much noticeable difference in attitude from years ago compared to today when it comes to fics, much more variety, much more spirit. I missed the Hero of Truth fiasco, but I was here for Interrupt and his lulzy attempt at "Hurricane of Darkness", and his refusal to get better. My reviews were harsh and (in hindsight) nearing Yami Ryu-levels, but as frustrating as it was, I still wanted to help someone get better, and I was reading around a little at the time, though his weird postings in the Author's Café (where I'm honestly more active when it comes to the fics on the forums, but even the Café's activity has dwindled) was what caught my attention the most. Once he left, I eventually moved on elsewhere and just forgot to go back to read more things--though I think it may have been out of boredom, this was just before the rules had their update.

I don't submit fics directly here anymore anyway, and since I'm just not reading a lot of Pokémon fics these days, I don't have ideas, I just like giving thoughts here in the Café lol. I was hoping that we'd have gotten new blood in here by now to replace us veterans, but activity on these forums as a whole didn't go up much after X/Y nor even Sun and Moon (or at least not in places we would've liked), so it's probably just a case of forums not adapting and meeting up to people's needs. So I dunno.

 

[JX Valentine]

I was hoping that we'd have gotten new blood in here by now to replace us veterans, but activity on these forums as a whole didn't go up much after X/Y nor even Sun and Moon (or at least not in places we would've liked), so it's probably just a case of forums not adapting and meeting up to people's needs. So I dunno.

While it's true that Serebii, bluntly put, is a bit behind the times as a whole, that's not necessarily the only (or even major, imo) factor in how quiet the fic community is. That is because there are a lot of folks among the vets who also don't feel like giving back to the forum.

I mean, I'd hate to be blunt about it, but I feel like as vets (or staff, yeah), we have the responsibility of trying our hardest to maintain activity. We can't simultaneously complain about the activity and then never give back. There is literally no review fairy or activity fairy that will magically make activity happen, and we can't always rely on the possibility that someone else is going to do it. That's just not how forums work. We have to actively give back to the community in order to make it grow.

And I say that because, first off, we're getting off-track with the thread, and I'd like to get us back to talking about reviewing, why it's important, why we do it, what we review, and just, in general, reviewing, and second off, because the idea of not feeling like giving reviews but acknowledging that there is no activity on the forum really concerns me. It's just plain important to recognize, going forward, that we—all of us—create the activity in a community to keep it going and that so long as Serebii is still running, we can at least make an effort to get our corner talking again. By recognizing that, we can at least engage in self-reflection, address why we don't review without placing the blame on other content creators (or lack thereof), and figure out what we can do to make things active again (assuming that's a thing everyone wants).

What's going on in the rest of the forum is, in other words, the concern of the mods in their respective corners (or even the higher mods and Serebii). In the meantime, there are still members of this community, and we can still attract people only interested (or at least mostly interested) in fanfic if we work together and communicate with each other.

So for now, back to the topic at hand: what would make you want to review again, considering the above?

 

[The Great Butler]

Pardon me if I'm going off topic, but I do remember that at one stage there were several community projects going on at once which a lot of people were interested in. Of course, you had the Fanfic Awards, but there were other things like Author Interviews where users could send their questions to the person who hosted the interviews to ask the interviewee all about their fanfics or even stuff about themselves. It was what turned authors who had achieved legendary status and appeared to be giants compared to viewers into perfectly normal people. Perhaps it might be worth considering if it would be a good idea to revive events like this as well as reviewing more frequently? I'm sure it would draw attention and it would give newbies a good idea on what our community is really like.

I do want to say that this has been on my mind for a while too. While I'm not in a position to be able to directly do such things (as far as I know) I think bringing back more 'event' type things, such as what you named, would be helpful.

I know I would be happy to look at these things and consider doing my part to help.

 

[PhalanxSigil]

So, here's my take on this issue. I guess I'm sort of part of the problem, as I've been absent a lot over the years. Now, this is mostly due to overwhelming college work, and especially thesis this year, but admittedly, part of my inactivity stemmed from the issues Chibi brought up earlier. I didn't have a whole lot of time to read fics, let alone write the lengthy, in-depth reviews that I like to make, and I probably could have made a little bit of time for this.

The point I'm trying to make is this: if we want more people to start posting/reviewing on the site, we can't only depend on things like events to bolster posts (even though it's definitely a nice tactic). Read something, even if it's just skimming, and leave something on what you read. A comment, a critique, even just a quick compliment on what you liked, it's more than enough to motivate people to continue posting, or even leave a review/comment themselves. That's how I started contributing to this site, and take it from me, it's a good way to get people hooked.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Something just occurred to me recently, and I'm gonna write down my thoughts on it before I forget. It does have to do with reviewing, but it's a little different than what we've talked about before, both in here and on the discord.

The Completed Fics Section

I don't think I've ever so much as posted in there. But it's not from a lack of interest. I've wanted to. But I never have, and I think I've figured out why.

The Competed Fics Section makes no friggin' sense.

I mean...just look at it. It's got like...half of its fics stickied but half of them not? I know that's a holdover from when old threads got pruned off the forum, but that doesn't seem to be a concern anymore? The time frame of stickying is really confusing too, because none of the new fics are stickied, but also a ton of old ones from 2004 aren't either, so it makes the chronology of the forum wildly disjointed and hard to follow. Also it means the same fics appear at the top of every page and you have to scroll down a mile to see any others. Every time I set foot there, I'm hit with the overwhelming urge to reorganize everything, which I obviously can't do cause I'm not a mod.

It's confusing.

And while the competed fics forum is supposed to function like an archive of honor, it almost feels like banishment. And the reason is--once something gets put there, it's hard to figure out why you should even post on it.

Let me explain. We're currently attempting to break away from the idea what reviews must have concrit in order to exist. Well, obviously, there's no point offering concrit on a completed fic, especially if it's old and the author has left the forums. You'd just look like a fool. And I think we know that, which is why we never post there (and why you literally could not post there for several years. I had to PM my review of Fall of a Leader to Dragonfree!)

But I think posting in the Completed Fics section could still be valuable for a totally different reason.

Writing a review with the intent to persuade others to read it! I have never posted in the completed fics section, but I have read others' posts there! To give a concrete example: Pi's review of Foregone Conclusion persuaded me to read it. Straight up!

It makes zero sense to criticize an old work whose author has likely improved since then, but it makes all kinds of sense to gush about a completed work in an effort to persuade others to read it!

Since I've been stuck in the mindset of "reviews must be helpful" I've never posted there. What if we explicitly made a statement about the completed fics section that reviews should be intended for other potential readers there? We could kick it off by having a few of us post there to kinda show how this would be done, and then maybe have a few of the reviewing events that we've been talking about in Samayouru's thread specifically involve the Completed Fic forum!

This would also mean that you have no choice but to be short and sweet when posting there because getting lengthy and critical is literally pointless when the author is long gone.

I also kinda sorta wish there was some way to separate one-shots from chapter fics, but I can't think of any reasonable way to do so without making an entirely separate archive. :/

But yeah, tl;dr, reorganizing the Completed Fic forum, stickying an official statement about what the forum is even for and what a review should even be there, and holding some review challenges centered around it would make me 800% more likely to post there.

~Chibi~;249;;448;

 

[Kutie Pie]

^^^^^^^^^
All of this.

I think Chibi Pika has said everything that needed to be said about the Completed Fics section. I remember when it was first opened for reviewing, and I had thought, "That's... kind of stupid." Even if you were to get rid of the postcount for it (but apparently it would've "messed with the current postcount" which is why it's still implemented there), I honestly don't see the point of having it open for anyone to leave a comment if it's not going to be seen. But making it so that only a review can be posted as a way to persuade others to read it makes better sense--except that it's still going to be posted at the very end of the thread anyway. And I don't know of anyone who automatically clicks to the last post of any given thread they haven't already been in, so it'd be pointless to leave a persuasive/critical review if hardly anyone's going to read that review.

So... maybe that calls for a stickied thread of its own to have people post those persuasions in, with links to the completed fics. It'd remain at the top so it'd be the first thing people see before they scroll through the hundreds of titles (which are now no longer in chronological order thanks to them being stickied for some reason, I don't get why that happened) to find something to read.

 

[JX Valentine]

As a side note:

I think Chibi Pika has said everything that needed to be said about the Completed Fics section. I remember when it was first opened for reviewing, and I had thought, "That's... kind of stupid." Even if you were to get rid of the postcount for it (but apparently it would've "messed with the current postcount" which is why it's still implemented there),

Regarding the post count ... kinda? The reason why post count is disabled there is because back in the day, there used to be this weird system in which threads were copied to the forum, not simply moved. (Consequently, I suppose in that sense, yes, your post count would end up jacked up because all of a sudden, threads are counted twice, but still.) We migrated to the moving system eventually, but a lot of the old settings were never changed because when it comes to specialized forums with complex settings, it's often not just a simple matter of hitting one button, sad to say.

Regarding why it was opened (for the sake of clarification), it was actually opened because a lot of recent fics were moved to Completed that people still wanted to comment on—stuff like Cutlerine's annual offerings, for example. Opening it was one step towards avoiding invoking that feeling that recent fics were thenceforth banished into the ether, so to speak.

That said, with regards to reorganizing Completed, I'd be okay with that, to be honest. In fact, that's kinda what I've been trying to move towards, but the problem is that the process involves "archiving" (read: creating a navigable index of fics that tells people exactly what's in Completed, as a title won't be able to help you figure out what you do and don't want to read) and destickying fics. This is a problem because there are literally hundreds of threads, many of which are lengthy chapter fics from before my time. (Thus, I have no idea what they're about or how to summarize them or tag them.) That's why I say opening Completed wasn't quite exactly as simple as, well, hitting one button. D: For that reason, efforts on cleaning up Completed has been stalled as of late, but I would certainly be all right with help! If anyone is interested, feel free to check out this thread to see what's been done so far and how things are formatted.

That said, could we implement the system Chibi suggests without cataloguing every single thread that's already there? Probably! But that depends on whether or not folks would want that. Operating without a catalogue means you're digging through hundreds of threads without knowing what they're about or whether or not they'll suit your fancy, and whereas that system definitely works for the main forum (because you're reviewing fics over there for a completely different reason), I'd imagine that if you want to dig through fics of yesteryear to gush about, you'd want a handy list telling you what each one is about, amirite?

 

[The Great Butler]

I definitely agree with the idea of revamping Completed Fics according to the ideas laid out.

I actually forgot about the Completed Fics Catalog. That's something we definitely should get working on again, but I think I have an idea for how to get that going: I think the size of the project is what is keeping it from getting done. It's an intimidatingly huge thing. Maybe a more practical way to do it would be to organize a few people to work on it in chunks broken up by a certain parameter, cataloging all of the second half of 2009 as a random example.