When do you all
not leave
feedback? I'm usually a huge fan of
FB, shaking my feedback pompoms and chanting the usual phrase, "Leave
it because the author deserves it and you know you'd want them to do
the same for you." Kind of the Golden Rule of fanfic. But lately I'm
finding that there are more and more times when I'm just not leaving
FB, even when I really like the story.
It's not about authors who
demand
FB, because I never left any for that type, it's when I read a good
story and then see page after page of FB, none of which has the author
ever replied to. It used to be that I'd leave FB anyway, but I just got
tired of saying something long and thoughtful and getting nothing but
silence in return. So now, even with authors I like, if I see that
they've got dozens of comments and have never responded after days or
weeks, I just move right along and never say a word.
I think
that readers should leave FB, but I also feel that authors have an
obligation to at least say a simple "thanks" for it. It's basic
manners, thanking someone when you receive something, and I find it a
little offensive when that's ignored. It's like the authors feel they
have a "right" to the FB, like they're owed it somehow and don't have
to thank anyone for what was theirs by rights. Now, maybe these authors
don't actually feel this way, but that's how it looks to me when I see
a fic with over a hundred FBs and zilch in the way of thanks from the
author.
Yes, I understand that an author might not have the time
to reply right away to that much FB, but after days or more than a week
has passed? At that point I think most of them are looking for an
excuse not to answer the FB. Kind of an, "Oh, it's been so long; no one
will remember they left FB and even if they do, they
really
don't expect me to acknowledge something that old, do they? Nah." And
if that's the case, then I don't feel like throwing my own FB into the
bottomless void of the author's indifference.
The other sort of
author that annoys me is the one who posts one big thank you note (to
the lists or LJ) saying something along the lines of, "I don't have
time/am too overwhelmed to reply to all the FB, so a big thank you to
everyone who said something nice!" Well, if you have time to work on
your next fic or make your next post, then I guess you do have the time
to reply to the FB. What you
really meant was that you didn't
want
to take the time. Okay, no problem. Next time you post a fic, I won't
make any demands on your precious time with pesky FB.
These
are things I notice happening in the very big fandoms. Back in the day
when Herc-Xena was a huge fandom, this kind of thing happened on the
lists. In BtVS-Angel, it crossed over from the lists and became a
problem on LJ. Now SG:A seems to be having a plague of it. It makes me
upset/sad because authors who I really like are doing it and that
alienates me from them, from wanting to read their fic.
It's
something that's been bothering for a while and I don't know if it
seems like a petty, nitpicky thing to anyone or everyone else, but it
just...gets under my skin. I love my fandoms, but lack of manners in
the fandoms has a tendency to make want to rant.
ETA: (And I just
knew
there would be an ETA on this one.) I know there are authors who reply
privately; I did the same thing on the lists myself. Thing is, at least
in my experience, the authors who do that have a reputation for doing
it, so you know you're not just sending FB into empty space. You know
you'll hear something from them one way or another, even if it is just
a "thanks" accompanied by a little smiley emoticon.
When I was
heavily into the lists, though, and now here on LJ, I've just started
developing little lists of people who aren't that way, who just simply
never reply. And what sucks is that some of them weren't always like
that. They'd send some sort of acknowledgment some way.