as the crazy person with over 3,000 fics on AO3, who just hit over 2,000,000 hits, i have done… The Math
roughly 5% of readers leave kudos.
0.27% of people leave a comment.
truly, i GET that a lot of people, especially younger people who grew up on youtube and are living on tiktok, see “opening the page and viewing with their eyeballs” engagement in itself. but a) it’s not, for fanfiction, that’s not how it works; and b) “engagement” does not build a community – interaction builds a community.
if you like someone’s fanfiction, and you want more of that fanfiction, please react to it in some tangible way. leave a kudo. leave a comment. let the writer know that you didn’t open it, see the first sentence, and decide it was garbage. let the writer know that you aren’t a bot that trawls every webpage for AI content. let the writer know that their work is appreciated.
the point of fandom is to be a community, not a content engine. if people stop feeling like people are being reached with their work, they stop creating work for that fandom and move onto the next. there’s a lot to be said for the way binge-model TV is killing fandoms prematurely… but there’s a LOT to be said for the way infinite-scrolling consumption is killing fandoms prematurely.
if everyone binges a show on friday and feels weird about reacting to fics posted longer than a week ago/doesn’t react to the fics they read at all, that fandom is dying out in about a month, max. even though there are probably a lot of people who would love to discuss it with someone or create more work or finish and post a WIP or whatever. because no actual community is created by consumption alone.
reading a fic is only step one.
reacting to a fic is the crucial step two of the equation.
step three is the fandom proliferating! and you getting more stuff to enjoy!
the point of fandom is to be a community, not a content engine.
#OH FUCKING STOP #it’s the way when shauna in the dream wakes up alone and afraid the first person she calls for is tai…. #also jesus fuck tai holding shauna when she couldnt abort bc she was too scared to die…. #tai holding shauna when the baby dies anyway…… #IM THROWING UP
#it’s the way theyre the only two yellowjackets to have children #and they may turn out to be awful mothers but they are so good at taking care of each other specifically… (via @chasingfictions)
