Story Comments - Do They Matter?

[ColorfulFun]

Oops, just figured out how to block anonymous comments, hooray

 

[ChuckandAndrea]

Fight back and write a story about them. That's what I did and it seems to be going very well lol.

 

[neuroparenthetical]

I'm humble enough to admit that I'm not really posting stories here for free. I'm hoping to get paid in emotional blow jobs.

Eons ago, I was in a couple of bands. I learned hard lessons then, and they apply to literary communities just about as well. It's not really about the music. It's about the hustle, and the scene. If you want lots of feedback - and especially positive feedback - the music (or the writing, in this case) has to be in third place.

Trouble is, working the scene is not my scene. It's exhausting. I just can't do it.

I guess what I'm saying is that I never really learned those lessons. They didn't penetrate. They didn't change my behavior. I'm still stumbling about, searching for that field of dreams where, if you write it or perform it, they will come.

I've gotten some views, though. Maybe "they will cum" is good enough?

 

[SimonDoom]

It's not really about the music. It's about the hustle, and the scene. If you want lots of feedback - and especially positive feedback - the music (or the writing, in this case) has to be in third place.

Trouble is, working the scene is not my scene. It's exhausting. I just can't do it.

This might be true of the music scene, but I don't believe it's true here. The problem for many in the music scene is that to get your music heard by a large audience you have to get industry approval, which acts as a gatekeeper. It's less true than it used to be, because of social media, which makes it much easier than before for a musician to have their music heard around the world.

That's not true here. There's no gatekeeper. We're all equal. You've got as much chance as any to attract the attention of readers and get a reaction.

 

[ElectricBlue]

That's not true here. There's no gatekeeper. We're all equal. You've got as much chance as any to attract the attention of readers and get a reaction.

Some categories, as you are well aware, give you an immediate advantage in terms of numbers, which far outweighs any inherent merit in the quality of writing.

I sometimes wonder what the playing field would look like if you took LW and I&T out of the equation. Very different, I think.

 

[SimonDoom]

Some categories, as you are well aware, give you an immediate advantage in terms of numbers, which far outweighs any inherent merit in the quality of writing.

I sometimes wonder what the playing field would look like if you took LW and I&T out of the equation. Very different, I think.

But that's not a gatekeeper. Everybody here is as free to write IT and LW stories as anyone else. I might quibble with the metaphor of "playing field." I don't think the presence of LW and IT stories makes it harder for writers of other stories to build a readership. Readership here at Literotica is, from what I can tell, Balkanized. Authors of anal stories are not competing with authors of incest stories. They have different readerships. If anything, you probably have more readers thanks to the IT and LW categories because they draw more total readers to Literotica, and some of those readers stroll over to other categories and find your stories.

The other thing to keep in mind about LW and IT is that while they draw many readers they don't do any better, and in the case of LW they do worse, in scoring, so they put authors of stories in other categories at no disadvantage in competitions.

 

[DanDraper]

The amount of comments don't necessarily suggest how well your story does, and there are some trolls out there who just attack you just for the fun of it. But the comments are still good to see if anybody truly enjoys your writing. And there are some people who could honestly tell you what's wrong with the story without being viscous about it.

Just remember, you can always delete the comments you don't like and you can always turn off the comments of those stories. Some writers here do that.



....

 

[BuckyDuckman]

There's nothing wrong with requesting comments at the beginning or end of your story. Asking at the end of the story feels more logical, but you do you. Of course, requesting comments doesn't mean you'll GET comments.

In addition to the fine suggestions you've already received, consider starting a Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or whatever social media account for your writing profile. A) You can promote new stories there. B) You might find a couple of fans who want to chat more about a story.

 

[neuroparenthetical]

This might be true of the music scene, but I don't believe it's true here. The problem for many in the music scene is that to get your music heard by a large audience you have to get industry approval, which acts as a gatekeeper. It's less true than it used to be, because of social media, which makes it much easier than before for a musician to have their music heard around the world.

That's not true here. There's no gatekeeper. We're all equal. You've got as much chance as any to attract the attention of readers and get a reaction.

That was never true for local live scenes, and it's not true for the fractal explosion of internet mini-scenes, either. I guess maybe I shouldn't have left it implicit that I was comparing Literotica to those, instead of to the big show. That's my bad.

The local live scenes and internet mini-scenes are all about the hustle and working the social angle. To whatever extent Literotica's anon-facing tools for finding and reading stories don't facilitate that kind of engagement in the first place, I think that's why it's so rare to get both votes and real feedback from user comments.

I don't know if there's any analogue here on Lit to the big problem in the big show: everybody wants to hear the shit they've already heard. You might argue that's similar to the category Balkanization, but I'm not convinced.

Sorry if I'm rambling. My point remains: I sure would like to feel more of an intimate (no, not like that,) personal connection to the people reading my stuff.

 

[windar]

That was never true for local live scenes, and it's not true for the fractal explosion of internet mini-scenes, either. I guess maybe I shouldn't have left it implicit that I was comparing Literotica to those, instead of to the big show. That's my bad.

The local live scenes and internet mini-scenes are all about the hustle and working the social angle. To whatever extent Literotica's anon-facing tools for finding and reading stories don't facilitate that kind of engagement in the first place, I think that's why it's so rare to get both votes and real feedback from user comments.

I don't know if there's any analogue here on Lit to the big problem in the big show: everybody wants to hear the shit they've already heard. You might argue that's similar to the category Balkanization, but I'm not convinced.

Sorry if I'm rambling. My point remains: I sure would like to feel more of an intimate (no, not like that,) personal connection to the people reading my stuff.

Yeah, I have friends who play in local bars and half the audience at least is there primarily because they know people in the band.

On the free site where I regularly post my stories, I have an intimate connection to the readers. It's a smaller site that doesn't have 500,000 stories. You may have fewer readers (though I wonder how many "viewers" at Lit are actually readers, rather than clickers. If they don't comment, or at least vote, it's hard to say, and even votes don't necessarily indicate that they read it). That's impossible to do here for a number of reasons:

1. Comments are largely anonymous. It's hard to have a relationship with an anonymous commenter.
2. Comments take hours to appear.
3. There are no alerts regarding comments on the story side. So it could be days before you see the comment and the commenter will not know if you responded to their comments unless they go back to your story, which, probably, few do.

The size of the site is what it is and while bigger isn't necessarily better, some people like that and some don't. But 1-3 above could be easily fixed if the site owners chose to do so. In fact, they have already been "fixed" here on the boards.

 

[JuanaSalsa]

Sorry if I'm rambling. My point remains: I sure would like to feel more of an intimate (no, not like that,) personal connection to the people reading my stuff.

I'm humble enough to admit that I'm not really posting stories here for free. I'm hoping to get paid in emotional blow jobs.

I totally agree on these points. I write stories for myself, but I post them for the feedback. In the absence of connection to the audience and feedback, what is the point of posting them, right?

You can play the game to maximize your endorphin rush of feedback, but it does take a lot more organization and work than I'm willing to invest. It would mean having a separate account for similar types of stories. I would have an account where all my sweet romances go and a separate account for my quick kinky strokers and a separate account for my dark non-con and horror erotica. I would develop a rhythm of posting so that stories come out on a predictable schedule. I would personally reply to every comment. I would write commenters suggestions into the next parts of the story. I would invite commenters to participate in the story making.

Doing all those things would significantly increase followers, commenters, and interaction. But, then, at some point you're not connecting about your stories anymore, your core truth. Instead, you've become a performer who is a reflection of your fans. It is a thing that can happen to all artists, when art becomes a livelihood instead of a hobby. And, some people get more sustenance from positive feedback than money, and would do all these things just for that. I'm sure there are some people who do all those things just because it is who they are, but I think that's a rare person.

 

[KeithD]

I write stories for myself, but I post them for the feedback.

It may be because I wrote for the marketplace, where nearly the only feedback you get is anonymous dollars (or not), before I submitted to Literotica, but I don't post stories here salivating after specific feedback that is rare and/or coming from an unknown source in relevance/expertise. I don't have to go beyond sharing to titillate/entertain unknown others, if the story does, to be satisfied and to spend more time writing than looking for strokes or someone else's idea of "development."

 

[JuanaSalsa]

It may be because I wrote for the marketplace, where nearly the only feedback you get is anonymous dollars (or not), before I submitted to Literotica, but I don't post stories here salivating after specific feedback that is rare and/or coming from an unknown source in relevance/expertise. I don't have to go beyond sharing to titillate/entertain unknown others, if the story does, to be satisfied and to spend more time writing than looking for strokes or someone else's idea of "development."

Ok, then why do you post stories on Lit?

It sounds like you share to "entertain uknown others" but how do you know you've entertained them? Personally, I am not so confident to make that assumption without some sort of feedback.

Someone once suggested to me that "thousands" of people have cum to my stories. I found the idea ridiculously over reaching. After all, only a small handful of people have actually said they got that kind of satisfaction from my writing. But, when I look at the numbers of views/votes logically, they were probably right. Yet, that is not knowledge that is real or satisfying without some one pointing it out to me - i.e. the reader.

 

[KeithD]

Ok, then why do you post stories on Lit?

It sounds like you share to "entertain uknown others" but how do you know you've entertained them? Personally, I am not so confident to make that assumption without some sort of feedback.

Someone once suggested to me that "thousands" of people have cum to my stories. I found the idea ridiculously over reaching. After all, only a small handful of people have actually said they got that kind of satisfaction from my writing. But, when I look at the numbers of views/votes logically, they were probably right. Yet, that is not knowledge that is real or satisfying without some one pointing it out to me - i.e. the reader.

I answered that in my post: "don't have to go beyond sharing to titillate/entertain unknown others, if the story does, to be satisfied."

I initially posted stories here for storage outside my own systems. That's why I post them to other sites as well, so if one site goes down, I don't lose them.

It's fine to me if others have other reasons for posting their stories here. I don't think I've ever challenged anyone on what motivation they have to do so. I think there's too much telling others what they should do and write here anyway.

I don't give strangers I know nothing about much credence on story quality on feedback, this Web site is a sieve as it concerns letting trolls do hate tap dances on the stories just for their own amusement, and this is the last stop for most of my stories--most have been in the marketplace for a couple years already. To the extent there's anything that should be fixed in them, it's a few too many years late to worry about.

 

[JuanaSalsa]

I don't give strangers I know nothing about much credence on story quality on feedback, this Web site is a sieve as it concerns letting trolls do hate tap dances on the stories just for their own amusement, and this is the last stop for most of my stories--most have been in the marketplace for a couple years already. To the extent there's anything that should be fixed in them, it's a few too many years late to worry about.

When I say "feedback" I don't mean editorial comments. I mean sharing ideas and knowing there are other people in the world who think like me, or that my stories connected with them. That's the kind of feedback that I enjoy getting.

 

[KeithD]

I have comments turned on. I've had someone trashing the voting on my stories since November, so I've turned that off. I'm still posting at least one story a week, so I guess I've learned to be OK with the level of feedback I get. And I don't concern myself with what others are doing in this regard.

 

[ElectricBlue]

3. There are no alerts regarding comments on the story side. So it could be days before you see the comment and the commenter will not know if you responded to their comments unless they go back to your story, which, probably, few do.

??? I get notified of all comments left against my stories, on my Control Panel.

True, the commenter has no idea whether they've been read, and it's completely up to the author as to whether they respond or not.

If someone asks an explicit question, I'll reply with a comment of my own, on the principle that if they asked, they 'll possibly come back to see if there's an answer.

 

[windar]

??? I get notified of all comments left against my stories, on my Control Panel.

True, the commenter has no idea whether they've been read, and it's completely up to the author as to whether they respond or not.

If someone asks an explicit question, I'll reply with a comment of my own, on the principle that if they asked, they 'll possibly come back to see if there's an answer.

Yes, but you have to go to the control panel, unlike here on the board where the little bell lights up when someone responds to a comment of yours. And of course the commenter gets no notice that their comment was responded to. It's simply not set up for dialog. And it could be if the site really wanted dialog between writer and reader, which it seems is not a priority.

 

[XerXesXu]

But, then, at some point you're not connecting about your stories anymore, your core truth. Instead, you've become a performer who is a reflection of your fans. It is a thing that can happen to all artists, when art becomes a livelihood instead of a hobby. And, some people get more sustenance from positive feedback than money, and would do all these things just for that.

An interesting observation. It would explain a lot.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Yes, but you have to go to the control panel, unlike here on the board where the little bell lights up when someone responds to a comment of yours. And of course the commenter gets no notice that their comment was responded to. It's simply not set up for dialog. And it could be if the site really wanted dialog between writer and reader, which it seems is not a priority.

True that. But how hard is it to go regularly to the Control Panel? I go there before I wander across to these forums.

The reality is, here on Lit, comments are rare - I personally think that's the readership, not the platform. But I agree, it would be good to be more interactive, but I think there are more fundamental issues to attend to, like how to keep a twenty-two year old website functioning at all, given the high volume of content and the high number of readers (most of whom are probably anons, not even registered users).

It's fine to bitch and moan, but I don't see anybody sending money, which is what is really needed.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

To answer the OP's question, Yes, comments do matter.

I'm old, retired, and write to submit here just to keep from being bored out of my skull. I'm set financially, so I don't need money. So the comments I get mean a lot to me. I'm averaging nearly 10 comments per submission (290 comments and 30 submissions).

My last story (in three parts) took nearly six months of research and writing to produce, and the first comment I received on the last part, which dropped yesterday, made the whole effort worthwhile. The commenter said:

God almighty, Candy, you certainly know how to kick the crap out of our emotions.

which was exactly what I wanted to do to the reader. I've been on cloud nine since seeing that comment and now I am supercharged to go and write my next story.

 

[SimonDoom]

I totally agree on these points. I write stories for myself, but I post them for the feedback. In the absence of connection to the audience and feedback, what is the point of posting them, right?

It's important to recognize that "connection to the audience" and "feedback" are two totally different things. The reality of publishing a story, whether in the real world or here at Literotica, is that only a small fraction of those you connect with will ever give you feedback. I'm OK with that. I derive satisfaction from knowing that there are people reading my story even though I'll never get feedback from them. I use the stats Lit gives me to get a very, very rough sense that there are people out there who enjoy my stories even though they never let me know. I find it enjoyable to know that.

 

[dmallord]

There's a direct corrolation between asking for votes/comments and getting more votes/comments. It helps to leave a small note at the end asking for this.

I had to think about this statement for a couple of seconds. I ask for comments and votes and helpful notes about things to improve in all 38 of my submissions. I just looked at my numbers. Just over 460,000 views, 7,816 votes, and 182 comments. Some of those are mine in response to questions. My highest story comment number is 20. Nearly all my stories have single-digit comments. Lots of one commenters. Three have no comments.

So asking, begging even, for comments seems not to have any noticeable response from readers of stories.

I've become nonplussed about comments - but I do like those that put a grin on my face for a good story told!

And as someone said, I am happy with the 20+ Red 'H' designations!

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Thanks lovecraft, but I'm not looking to change my style or the nature of the tales I like to tell. I write what I feel appropriate to the story, not to win any popularity contests. Just looking for input to improve within those parameters

Your scores are good, so that might mean the readers can't find much to complain about. Comments are often complimentary, but more often than not they'll point out mistakes, either with the way you told the story, or things like spelling or missed words. Just keep writing, and you'll get more dedicated readers that hopefully will provide more comments.

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

Comments are fantastic, as are votes and favourites. Given the low view numbers on my first story, I’m kind of stunned by the numbers I’ve received, based on what I’ve read in this forum about average interaction rates based on views.

Even better, though, are the interactions I’ve had with writers who I’d been reading for months before setting up an account, some of whom were direct inspirations to get off my ass and start writing again. It’s honestly a bit humbling.

These interactions are one of the big reasons I decided to start publishing here rather than on commercial platforms, which I did for awhile but found unfulfilling. Having my work found by people who get it, and hearing people’s thoughts on my work, are worth infinitely more than the pocket change that the vast majority of writers on Amazon or Smashwords make, at least for me.