I don’t follow you I just stumble across this repost but what’s the point of leaving comments/feedback if 99% of the time they never get a reply and/or the author ends up ghosting the story 💀 nobody forces anyone to put out the work they do but most of the time the energy that y’all want is mostly never returned.
I assume this is in response to my reblog of the post asking people to leave their comments on AO3. (For anyone who missed it, it's here: https://www.tumblr.com/burnishedvictory/739351436811534336)
The point of leaving comments/feedback is to tell the author you liked whatever it was you just read. The energy you're returning is the work they put into writing the fic you just read. If the author replies, that's a bonus, but not something I personally ever expect.
Some things to know about fics where the author doesn't reply to comments regularly:
There's about a 99% chance that the author read your comment and loved it. I don't know of any authors who don't love comments.
(Specifically, nice comments. Given that you felt it was okay to anonymously message someone you don't even follow such a blunt message, I feel the need to clarify this. No one wants critique, unless they've specifically asked for it. We do this for fun. If you don't like a fic, the back button is right there. Also, don't ask the author if/when they're going to finish an unfinished story. That annoys a lot of writers. (Not me, personally, but I have many writer friends who it really really annoys.))
Back to discussing fics where the author doesn't reply to comments! In my case, I have ADHD. For whatever reason, writing fic is something that my ADHD lets me do easily, but replying to comments is not. I would love to reply and still intend to, but then another day passes when I haven't actually done it. But my lack of replies doesn't mean I don't cherish each and every comment I get. I keep them in a separate folder and reread them regularly. I'd like to do that with all the comments I get, including not on AO3, but I am just not that organized (see: ADHD), so those comments get lost (which is exactly the point the post you're referring to was making).
I'm also chronically ill, and only have so much functioning time in my day. Other people work full time jobs, raise kids, etc. It becomes a question of priorities - do you want us to work on fics, or reply to comments? Sometimes we can't do both.
Finally, if you read the post you're referencing carefully, it's asking for people who are already leaving feedback in some way to (also) leave it as an AO3 comment. If you're leaving praise in a tag or a bookmark, throw it into a comment on the fic! If you're chatting about a fic positively with your friends, copy and paste the chat into the AO3 comments. (I'll even clarify this one - personally, if people private messaged me a chat like that, I'd be over the moon. I know there are privacy concerns with a chat like that, so you might not want to comment on AO3 with that specific thing. Very fair! But, like I said above, a chat sent to me like this would probably vanish into my memory, as I'm not organized enough to add it to my comments folder. It would be a very good memory, but not easily convenient to reread.)
For you, dear anon, if getting a response and the author finishing the story is that important to you, then I recommend only commenting on completed fics where the author replies regularly. No one forces you to comment, even on fics that you enjoyed that the author spent hours and hours working on. They are free for your enjoyment.
But consider how much energy you're bringing to the table to encourage the authors whose fics you love. Maybe your comment will encourage the author to open the file on a story that's been back burnered. Or if you tell an author about a specific part you loved, maybe that thing will show up in future fics.
Or, maybe, there will never be any indication that the writer even read your comment. But in that case, maybe the writer will get your comment and smile. Maybe they'll tell their friends and family about the lovely comment they got. Maybe your comment will make their day. And maybe you'll never get specifically rewarded for your comment, but you will put positive energy into the world, and who knows where that will lead.
