on Kudos & extended metaphors

[xparrot]

So AO3 now has a button so you can give "Kudos" to a story. I like it - I like getting comments more, but just knowing someone not only clicked the link to one of my stories but read it and enjoyed it is a nice ego boost.

I've always felt that posting a story online is a bit like going up on stage and doing a one-person performance in front of a completely dark and silence audience - you might have some idea of how big the playhall is, but you have no idea how many seats are actually filled, and until you're done you don't know if people were breathlessly hanging on every moment, or whether they got up and left halfway through. I've been posting fic online for over a decade and I still find it intimidating - will anyone like it? Am I making a total fool of myself? Is my piece (worst of all) boring?

Getting comments is always amazing and encouraging to me, knowing that someone out there in the dark was moved enough by what I did to respond. It's like getting a rose thrown on stage (or occasionally a rotten tomato, or a dictionary - but at least I know the seat wasn't empty!) Getting kudos, now, is more like someone offering a standing ovation - it's not as marvelous and personal a gesture as a flower, but it's still awesome.

So, since there's no easy way to respond directly to kudos, consider this my bow - a huge thank you to everyone who takes the time to read & kudos my stories!

(That being said, if you don't care for Kudos yourself, I strongly suggest writing feedback to AO3 on your feelings - we're a user-designed archive, but it's easier to know what users want if everyone tells us!)

Comments

[snarkydame.livejournal.com]

That's actually a very cool metaphor. And yes, I agree. Kudos aren't as awesome as an actual comment, but they're still nice to get. Now, if they were all I EVER got, or if I got more than the few I have, they might start to annoy me just because the email notification is always the same, and never really says anything -- but until that time, I'm okay with them. :D (and I wouldn't be surprised if the AO3 team tweaked things so people could opt out of notification or something.)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

The busy AO3 coder beavers have heard our cries; kudos notifications will be turn-offable as of next archive update! I might be turning them off - it's more fun for me to go to the site and have the new kudos surprise me than to keep getting the emails. OTOH I've been getting them on older stories, which is cool - nearly everything I've posted has some hit counts but no comments, as is the norm for old work; it's nifty to get kudos and know that someone's still enjoying them! ^^

[trystings.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I suck so hard at leaving comments. I do leave them, especially if the story or art blew me away, but it takes me forever to write a few coherent sentences, and it's always a watered-down version from what I was thinking when I was reading the fic. I suffer from severe commentblock.

So, Kudos! :)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yeah, comments for me depend a lot on mood - sometimes I'll be inclined to write mini-essays and sometimes I'll struggle to come up with anything to say even when I really liked a story. So kudos are great for that, when I wouldn't be leaving a comment otherwise...