. As a writer and a reader and a basically shy person -- leaving a comment is fraught. I've been in fandom for almost 20 years. In that time, I've seen so many expectations of commenting...
-- you should leave concrit, specific and helpful, so that the author knows how / what to improve.
-- you should only leave a positive critique, to boost the author and encourage her to write more.
-- you should leave a comment at least a couple of lines long, preferably mentioning 1 or 2 specific things in the story that you really liked. One- and two-word comments (like, "Beautiful!" or "Loved it!") are lazy and don't really give the author any helpful information about what was good.
-- one- and two-word comments are perfectly okay; at least the author knows you liked her story, and it didn't fall into a void.
... and there are some other iterations I'm forgetting. The thing is, if someone has been in fandom any time at all, they're aware of all these expectations, and a kind of paralysis may set in. They don't know what or how or how much to comment, so they default to kudos.
OR
The reader is so overwhelmed by the wonderfulness of the story that their brain kind of goes white-out and !*^$)%#@(%^$&!, and they can't express it, so default to kudos.
OR
The reader thought it was a nice story, that left them with happy feels, but nothing big or deep to comment about, but they want to let the author know they appreciate it, so kudos.
= = = = =
I think I've wandered from the question you asked, which was do you have any experience with encouraging repeat readers who leave kudos to leave short and simple comments?
The point I'm trying to make is -- everyone does fandom interaction at their individual comfort level, which changes with fandom experience / their real-life health and/or stresses, how much time they can squeeze out between home/work/kids, etc, and other factors that I'm too tired to think of. (It's midnight, here.) If they leave kudos, it's because they don't feel capable of offering anything more.
The thing is, your idea of "short and simple comment" may be 20 minutes of wracking their brain, worrying if they're doing it "right", or feeling that they're leaving themselves incredibly exposed and liable to be chastised for committing some horrible faux pax. Seriously, I've seen people say that leaving comments used to be a panic-inducing event for them. Obviously, those particular people worked through it, but there are probably many readers who are just beginning that journey into comfort.
Long story short (too late!) I don't think there's any gracious way to encourage kudos-leavers to leave comments instead. However gently you think you're sending the message, the receiver is likely to hear, "Kudos aren't GOOD ENOUGH!!! Why don't you express your appreciation PROPERLY and leave a decent COMMENT?!?!?" If it was me (back in the day), I'd have crawled deeper into my shell, and would never again leave a kudos on any of your stories.
For the suggestion 'if you'd like to, let's talk about what you like about the ship and characters in the comments -- if it was aimed directly at me, I'd probably panic, IE "Oh my god, what can I say, what if she doesn't agree, I don't want to make her feel bad, what if I was wrong when I thought the story meant xxxx?" Talk about being put on the spot; I'd never make a similar suggest to any specific commenter.
So that 'encouragement' left under a specific someone's comment would probably be very off-putting. BUT!!! If you put a similar encouragement in the Author's Notes that's a general invitation -- something like, "I love to chat about the characters and the ship; if you're interested, leave a comment and we'll go to town!" (or however you'd express enthusiasm) -- nobody feels put on the spot, and you might get some takers. But quite possibly not, because of all the points above. .
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Date: 2019-02-02 07:30 am (UTC)As a writer and a reader and a basically shy person -- leaving a comment is fraught. I've been in fandom for almost 20 years. In that time, I've seen so many expectations of commenting...
-- you should leave concrit, specific and helpful, so that the author knows how / what to improve.
-- you should only leave a positive critique, to boost the author and encourage her to write more.
-- you should leave a comment at least a couple of lines long, preferably mentioning 1 or 2 specific things in the story that you really liked. One- and two-word comments (like, "Beautiful!" or "Loved it!") are lazy and don't really give the author any helpful information about what was good.
-- one- and two-word comments are perfectly okay; at least the author knows you liked her story, and it didn't fall into a void.
... and there are some other iterations I'm forgetting. The thing is, if someone has been in fandom any time at all, they're aware of all these expectations, and a kind of paralysis may set in. They don't know what or how or how much to comment, so they default to kudos.
OR
The reader is so overwhelmed by the wonderfulness of the story that their brain kind of goes white-out and !*^$)%#@(%^$&!, and they can't express it, so default to kudos.
OR
The reader thought it was a nice story, that left them with happy feels, but nothing big or deep to comment about, but they want to let the author know they appreciate it, so kudos.
= = = = =
I think I've wandered from the question you asked, which was do you have any experience with encouraging repeat readers who leave kudos to leave short and simple comments?
The point I'm trying to make is -- everyone does fandom interaction at their individual comfort level, which changes with fandom experience / their real-life health and/or stresses, how much time they can squeeze out between home/work/kids, etc, and other factors that I'm too tired to think of. (It's midnight, here.) If they leave kudos, it's because they don't feel capable of offering anything more.
The thing is, your idea of "short and simple comment" may be 20 minutes of wracking their brain, worrying if they're doing it "right", or feeling that they're leaving themselves incredibly exposed and liable to be chastised for committing some horrible faux pax. Seriously, I've seen people say that leaving comments used to be a panic-inducing event for them. Obviously, those particular people worked through it, but there are probably many readers who are just beginning that journey into comfort.
Long story short (too late!) I don't think there's any gracious way to encourage kudos-leavers to leave comments instead. However gently you think you're sending the message, the receiver is likely to hear, "Kudos aren't GOOD ENOUGH!!! Why don't you express your appreciation PROPERLY and leave a decent COMMENT?!?!?" If it was me (back in the day), I'd have crawled deeper into my shell, and would never again leave a kudos on any of your stories.
For the suggestion 'if you'd like to, let's talk about what you like about the ship and characters in the comments -- if it was aimed directly at me, I'd probably panic, IE "Oh my god, what can I say, what if she doesn't agree, I don't want to make her feel bad, what if I was wrong when I thought the story meant xxxx?" Talk about being put on the spot; I'd never make a similar suggest to any specific commenter.
So that 'encouragement' left under a specific someone's comment would probably be very off-putting. BUT!!! If you put a similar encouragement in the Author's Notes that's a general invitation -- something like, "I love to chat about the characters and the ship; if you're interested, leave a comment and we'll go to town!" (or however you'd express enthusiasm) -- nobody feels put on the spot, and you might get some takers. But quite possibly not, because of all the points above.
.