This blog is a gift from heaven! Can I ask sth pls? Which is a better gauge of my writing, hits or kudos? For instance if I have a fic with about 13600 hits but only 420 kudos - a friend said that was good, but I think (even tho I love the kudos of course) it means out of the 13600 ppl who checked it out, only 420 deemed it worthy of kudos... So a staggering number deemed it not worthy. I tend to avoid gauging with comments because most ppl r intimidated by commenting. Thoughts? Thanks so much!
Thanks for the kind words about the blog! Β So glad you enjoy it. Β :) Β
Iβve spent a while trying to look at variousΒ stats of popularity myself, because Iβve been curious as both an author and a reader about what a typical fic receives, and what a popular fic receives. Β I think the answer here is unfortunately unclear; there is no one-size-fits-all way to measure popularity. Β A few observations on my way to trying to answer your question about kudos vs. hits:
TYPICAL NUMBERS OF HITS AND KUDOS ARE SMALL.Β
Most fanworks on AO3 receive far fewer hits and kudos than in the examples you gave:
As of Nov 2014, half of AO3 fanworks received 12 kudos or fewer. (90% had ~100 kudos or fewer.) Β
As of Nov 2014, half of AO3 fanworks received ~400 hits or fewer. (90% had ~2700 hits or fewer.)Β
TYPICAL NUMBERS OF COMMENTS ARE SMALLER. Β
Youβre right that the number of comments is far smaller βΒ as of Nov 2014, half of AO3 fanworks received one or zero comments. Β This is probably partly because of intimidation, as you note, but Iβve also learned that both authors and readers turn out to have complicated feelings about giving and receiving comments vs. kudos.
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