Quick and Easy Guide to Commenting on Ao3
Step 1: COMMENT.
Seriously, that is the biggest thing. Kudos are nice, but fundamentally are a mark of “Someone read this” rather than a specific comment.
DO NOT OVERTHINK COMMENTS.
As long as you are not a) insulting the work or the author or b) posting nonsense, you are fine! The author will be happy to recieve your comment, and they are just like you – not gonna misinterpret every little thing intentionally.
Examples of what not to comment:
a) “I hated this and you clearly have never read the source material.”
b) “My next door neighbor hates me”, “You should check out my Instagram for great videos!”
Don’t be a dick and don’t be spam. If you are talking about and being positive about the fic you read, you’re good!
K. Cool. Onto the guide!
Different ways to easily write and leave comments:
- While reading, if a line jumps out at you as very good, copy it to your clipboard. When you get to the end of the fic or chapter, paste it and react with anything from an emoji, a “lol” or “hahaha”, “screaming”, or a bit of analysis saying why you enjoyed the line.
- If no specific lines jump out at you, comments can be short and sweet “extra kudos”, “loved this”, “great fic”, “thanks for writing”, “this fic kept me company on my train ride, and I loved it!”. OR they can be a little longer, elaborating on what you liked “you captured the voices really well”, “I was on the edge of my seat”, “your descriptions are really rich, I could see the settings you described”. Or a mix of both.
- For an even shorter, but STILL WONDERFUL comment, drop a couple heart emojis. I know one person who comments a small string of heart emojis on every new chapter of one of my fics, and it makes me smile every time. NOTE: Limit yourself to 5 emojis. Do Not put a whole paragraph’s worth of them. It’s not getting any extra information across, and it’s not great for screenreaders, I understand.
- For a long comment, let’s say you really loved this work or this chapter. The two main kinds of long comment are the Live Reaction, which involves pulling a bunch of lines to quote back and react to in the comment (pulling them either as you read, pasting into your comment or a memo note, or after you’re done, going back through and pulling lines you remember standing out), or the Long Analysis, which involves explaining in some detail what you liked about the story and writing, predictions if it’s a wip, where your mind is going.
(That last one is what you should think about doing for your gift fic in an exchange.)
COMMENTS ARE LIFE. They do not have to be grand or long or difficult to write. You do not have to overthink them. But comments are what makes an author feel appreciated, feel like people are really reading their work. If you find an old fic or a wip or an abandoned wip, COMMENT. If you want to encourage an author to keep writing, comments are how to do it.
This author just wrote something for you for free, give them a comment.
I have a rule with myself that I comment on every work I read. Unless I really don’t enjoy it or don’t finish it, that work is getting a comment. It’s the least I can do.
And do not worry about “spam commenting”. If you are working your way through an author’s work, they will be very excited to receive your comments! Ao3 is an Archive, not instragram or whatever (I do not have instagram, so I don’t really know the etiquette there). There is no taboo against reading old works. In fact, you SHOULD read old works.
