Why does nobody review fics anymore?

[matt0044]

I at least wanna inspire like Nostalgia Critic level derision. Am I just a big bore?

 

[Negrek]

Unfortunately, review culture has declined a lot since the early naughties, possibly in part because the internet as a whole has shifted towards quicker/more immediate forms of interaction (e.g. leaving likes on posts) or simply scrolling through activity feeds. This particular community is also made up of mostly adults who have a lot of responsibilities vying for their attention besides reviewing fic.

We run a number of review events here to give people the opportunity to get feedback on their work. In the near term, I'd keep an eye on the Catnip Circle thread and sign up the next time someone runs a round; canisaries has been talking about doing one in the near future.

 

[K_S]

review tag's an option too, and requires no wait.

Review Tag

And done, reviewed chapter three to unglue the tag. Your review spiteful! I'm greedy and want attenion. I've got two options Transversal headcanons Or Couch's gift fic, a new path drabble

forums.thousandroads.net

 

[NebulaDreams]

I at least wanna inspire like Nostalgia Critic level derision. Am I just a big bore?

I'm not sure why you want to attract 'Nostalgia Critic level derision', is that the attention you want for your story? Coming from a former Nostalgia Critic fan and someone who has struggled with the lack of commentary sometimes, it's important to remember you have to write a story for yourself, not for some imaginary reviewer. I feel like you're already being hard on yourself when fic writing should be first and foremost about having fun. Be cringe, be free.

It is hard to get people to comment on fics, especially if your audience is small. That can't really be helped, just try and get your story in the hands of people who like your tropes. Also keep in mind that the more you put into this community, the more you get out of it, and you'll gain more momentum as you become more established. Not to say that you should just review other stories for the sake of reciprocity, but it's not the worst way to go, especially in a close knit community such as this where everyone is busy and starved for interaction.

It is tough if you've just started putting out stories, especially if you haven't had feedback before and don't know how it'll be received. Hopefully the Catnip Circle will be a good start for you. If it helps, I would be interested in giving the first chapter a gander since I like Pokemon POV stuff, though I can't promise when. I'm participating in the Catnip Circle too, so perhaps my roll will be for your story!

 

[matt0044]

I'm not sure why you want to attract 'Nostalgia Critic level derision', is that the attention you want for your story? Coming from a former Nostalgia Critic fan and someone who has struggled with the lack of commentary sometimes, it's important to remember you have to write a story for yourself, not for some imaginary reviewer. I feel like you're already being hard on yourself when fic writing should be first and foremost about having fun. Be cringe, be free.

It is hard to get people to comment on fics, especially if your audience is small. That can't really be helped, just try and get your story in the hands of people who like your tropes. Also keep in mind that the more you put into this community, the more you get out of it, and you'll gain more momentum as you become more established. Not to say that you should just review other stories for the sake of reciprocity, but it's not the worst way to go, especially in a close knit community such as this where everyone is busy and starved for interaction.

It is tough if you've just started putting out stories, especially if you haven't had feedback before and don't know how it'll be received. Hopefully the Catnip Circle will be a good start for you. If it helps, I would be interested in giving the first chapter a gander since I like Pokemon POV stuff, though I can't promise when. I'm participating in the Catnip Circle too, so perhaps my roll will be for your story!

The NC bit was in reference to somebody getting outraged over my story. It would be harsh and probably in poor faith but at least I inspired some sort of emotion in somebody. I do well to be cringe and, by proxy, free but I still wanna know if my creations mean, well, anything at all.

I’ve been at it for this on other platforms but only on FFnet did I at least get a token few “Neat” comments before a lot of PMs wanting to illustrate my five came in. All of them trying to fleece me for money at outrageous prices with guilt trips a plenty.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Big agree with what Neb said—don’t be afraid to put yourself out there! Stuff like introducing yourself in the intro thread and saying what your stories are about can also help, so that folks know if your story’s something they’d be interested in (otherwise they’d have no way of knowing it exists, y’know?)

But also, like the others mentioned, we run review trades pretty regularly and those are some of the best way to connect with other writers and swap feedback.

 

[matt0044]

Big agree with what Neb said—don’t be afraid to put yourself out there! Stuff like introducing yourself in the intro thread and saying what your stories are about can also help, so that folks know if your story’s something they’d be interested in (otherwise they’d have no way of knowing it exists, y’know?)

But also, like the others mentioned, we run review trades pretty regularly and those are some of the best way to connect with other writers and swap feedback.

Problem with review trades is… I don’t like reading for homework compared to what I choose. I was… that kind of student. : P

 

[Nekodatta]

Others already have said something, but when in doubt, I've learned that the blame of a surprising number of things on the state of the internet now can be blamed on social media lol
Fandom was more tight-knit before social media became commonplace, and more of an actual, well... "Community". Now fanfic and fanart are treated more as any other "content" (which I personally hate as a term applied to fan works) to just simply scroll through and "consume" because there's a bajillion other similar ones to get to.

Then there's been a sort of "demonizing" of comments by a vocal minority of writers that pretty much made a lot of readers literally afraid to comment because "what if they angry at me for saying X about the fic" and so on.

And the introduction of likes/kudos further discourages interaction because "hey, I left a like to show I liked the story, same thing really?" when it's not really comparable.

That said, writing hoping for attention is setting yourself up for a lot of stress and disappointment, and is never worth it. The first fan of your story has to be yourself: are YOU happy and hyped to talk about your story?
But most importantly: do YOU also read and comment on other people's stories? Hoping to get attention to your story but not wanting to actually interact with the community goes back to fandom losing the whole part that should make it a "community".

I've found my best "readers" in communities of other writers, because with them I can actually discuss my story and theirs and get excited about them.

 

[matt0044]

Others already have said something, but when in doubt, I've learned that the blame of a surprising number of things on the state of the internet now can be blamed on social media lol
Fandom was more tight-knit before social media became commonplace, and more of an actual, well... "Community". Now fanfic and fanart are treated more as any other "content" (which I personally hate as a term applied to fan works) to just simply scroll through and "consume" because there's a bajillion other similar ones to get to.

Then there's been a sort of "demonizing" of comments by a vocal minority of writers that pretty much made a lot of readers literally afraid to comment because "what if they angry at me for saying X about the fic" and so on.

And the introduction of likes/kudos further discourages interaction because "hey, I left a like to show I liked the story, same thing really?" when it's not really comparable.

That said, writing hoping for attention is setting yourself up for a lot of stress and disappointment, and is never worth it. The first fan of your story has to be yourself: are YOU happy and hyped to talk about your story?
But most importantly: do YOU also read and comment on other people's stories? Hoping to get attention to your story but not wanting to actually interact with the community goes back to fandom losing the whole part that should make it a "community".

I've found my best "readers" in communities of other writers, because with them I can actually discuss my story and theirs and get excited about them.

I… tragically don’t read Pokémon fics as much as I should since some… aren’t for me. I can’t explain it but I write mine because I can’t draw.

But you are right about the state of the web and how I’ve been enabling it too. It’s not a quick fix but I hope to change this about myself.

Even so, all fanfic is a cry for attention however small. I see nothing wrong with asking for acknowledgment.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I think one thing that's made reviews less prevalent is that reviews are seen now as needing to be only positive and if you have anything critical at all to say, even if it's pointing out a typo, it's seen as "harassment".

Concrit being prevalent made it feel like a community where people helped each other.

 

[matt0044]

I think one thing that's made reviews less prevalent is that reviews are seen now as needing to be only positive and if you have anything critical at all to say, even if it's pointing out a typo, it's seen as "harassment".

Concrit being prevalent made it feel like a community where people helped each other.

Honestly, I wanna be the sort of writer that triggers the anti-woke crowd and gets me doxxed by racists. It’s a badge of honor by this point.

 

[Nekodatta]

Honestly, I wanna be the sort of writer that triggers the anti-woke crowd and gets me doxxed by racists. It’s a badge of honor by this point.

But why would want that kind of negative attention? Sounds needlessly stressful to me.

 

[Dragonfree]

Honestly it sounds pretty unlikely that the anti-woke crowd would go after a random person writing Pokémon fanfic. Most of them are after attention and engagement; going after popular media gets them clicks and views and comments. If they wanted to go after 'woke' Pokémon fanfic, there are literally hundreds of thousands of Pokémon fics, so why would they go for any but some of the top five most popular in the fandom?

In general, negative attention can sound cool and like you could feel righteous about it in the abstract, but it's not actually any fun to be harassed by internet strangers, and I dearly hope you never have to experience that.

With regards to the general topic, I think a lot of it is, as Negrek brought up, that we're all adults these days with a lot of stuff going on in our lives other than reading fanfic. Communities have also moved into social media and real-time chats more than forums. Getting reviews is either a matter of posting on sites where there are a lot of readers - people who spend a lot of time reading fic as a hobby, who will tend to skew younger, etc. - or participating in communities in a reciprocal way. Review trades of various kinds are the most explicit way to get people to read your fic, but the other way is just befriending and forming connections with other people, showing interest in their work, and participating in community discussions in a way that might spark people's interest in what you're writing. When people don't have a huge amount of time for reading, they'll generally prioritize reading stories they've heard about that sound particularly interesting to them, or stories by people they like and have been having positive interactions with (including people who've read and reviewed their stories), not just something picked at random from the forum thread list.

Review events like Review Blitz are a good time for getting reviews, since while that's going on people will prioritize reading and reviewing more in their schedules for a bit - but it still tends to be the case that people pick which fics they read on the same basis: stories that have especially piqued their interest from what they've heard about them, or stories by people whose work they want to check out because they're friendly with and/or feel indebted to them, so community participation still tends to be key to getting reviews there. Blitz itself does have some themes that might give bonuses for certain types of fics, and now has a "heat bonus" that encourages reviewing people who have been putting out a lot of reviews for Blitz themselves - but that also comes back to participation.

All in all, outside of sites with a big surplus of readers compared to writers, you can't really expect to just drop your fic somewhere and have it get reviewed without any intention of reading other people's fics yourself - it goes without saying that if everyone thought like that, no one would ever review anything! So all in all, try to form connections and give back to others.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I'm not even sure what saying "concrit is good actually and we should bring it back" has to do with getting hate from bigots...

 

[matt0044]

I'm not even sure what saying "concrit is good actually and we should bring it back" has to do with getting hate from bigots...

It has to do with how most reviews of popular media revolve around bigots getting butt hurt over women doing things.

 

[matt0044]

But why would want that kind of negative attention? Sounds needlessly stressful to me.

After my time in fandom, I see it as a badge of honor. I don't have to respond to them. Them talking about me and knowing my work sparked a sort of discourse would make me feel like my art is worth... something.

 

[FlareTheBlitz]

Yeah, I'd argue it's because people are scared to see exactly HOW people react to their work. I can relate: I've WANTED to write something and put it out there for the world to see, but there's that little voice in my head that says "What if they say it's crap? What if they say I should never write again? What if..." and so on. Because let's be honest, a lot of writers seem to be self-conscious about their writing.

However, I STILL believe that posting your work is still at the end of the day a GOOD thing. Even if like two people read it or you get a bad apple who gives you a mean review, it's STILL something that YOU did. YOU put your work out there, and that takes guts. And you're not going to become a better writer if you never let people read your work and critique it.

(Oh no... I wanna post a fic here now... )

EDIT: I just realized that I made the wrong point, whoopsie! Anyways, I think I'll keep this post here because I feel like others really need to hear it.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

It has to do with how most reviews of popular media revolve around bigots getting butt hurt over women doing things.

Right but that's not concrit in any way whatsoever so I still don't know what the connecting thought is here. Concrit is something that bolsters fan works by fans helping fans. It isn't harassment at all.

 

[133TFR33k]

Yeah, I'd argue it's because people are scared to see exactly HOW people react to their work. I can relate: I've WANTED to write something and put it out there for the world to see, but there's that little voice in my head that says "What if they say it's crap? What if they say I should never write again? What if..." and so on. Because let's be honest, a lot of writers seem to be self-conscious about their writing.

However, I STILL believe that posting your work is still at the end of the day a GOOD thing. Even if like two people read it or you get a bad apple who gives you a mean review, it's STILL something that YOU did. YOU put your work out there, and that takes guts. And you're not going to become a better writer if you never let people read your work and critique it.

(Oh no... I wanna post a fic here now... )

EDIT: I just realized that I made the wrong point, whoopsie! Anyways, I think I'll keep this post here because I feel like others really need to hear it.

Post it I won't call it crap. Promise.

 

[matt0044]

Right but that's not concrit in any way whatsoever so I still don't know what the connecting thought is here. Concrit is something that bolsters fan works by fans helping fans. It isn't harassment at all.

I guess I just want to know if my story was good enough to illicit any emotion beyond, "Cool beans, man..."