Dear Fandom readers - an etiquette fail
AO3 is not goodreads. It is not the NYT bestseller list.
You paid no money to read these stories. They are, in fact, a labor of love, done on the off time in the off hours of people who are writing for the joy of writing and the joy of the story.
Your ratings are not appreciated. Not by other readers, who don't know you from adam. Not by fandom-savvy passerby.
And not, in fact, by the author. Who again: Wrote this for fun. In their spare time - around work, around family and friend commitments. Around the rest of their lives. Fandom clout almost never "pays off" in any monetary gains, in any form of physical or financial security.
So please stop "rating" us on something we do for joy.
Today, a fellow fanauthor shared this with me. It was not on any story of my own, but they understandably needed a moment to go "wtf" and process it all. With their permission, I now share this with you.
You won't find this comment on AO3 anymore, by the by.
I have... a lot of issues with this. First of all being something that would be a C-grade in any US school system is not a "Good Rating" for most folks, but many of my issues would be the same even in this commenter had rated this a 10/10.
It boils down to this:
Why are you grading us on something we all are here to do solely for fun and personal enjoyment? Why does it have to be good?
Why can't it just be a labor of love and of joy to be good enough for you, dear commenter?
Do I, as a fanauthor, want to write well? Sure! I do want to write good stories. But I didn't ask random readers to grade me on them. Not in bookmarks that I can easily check, and certainly not in my comments section. And I never will want them to. Every author I've talked to agrees. Is there someone out there who might want this? Sure. Most likely, even! The human experience and desires are broad and varied. But in my experience, if they do exist in Fandom, they're the vast minority. So please:
Don't.
This is a very often a no-payment gift economy! If you make yourself condescending down to the people writing free works for you, you may find that there's suddenly no more writing for you to read! 👀
I know the culture of fandom has changed to the point that I am not up on what The Youth are doing and haven't been for awhile. That said. I am just a person who likes the same TV show as you. Talk to me like a person, not like a service provider.
