Hey! Not sure if this is the right blog for this, but I have a question about responding to comments on Ao3. I usually respond to all comments I get, but this year was really stressful and for a while I didn't mentally feel up to answering comments. I'm getting back into responding now and was wondering: is it taboo to respond to a comment you got months ago? I want to thank the writer for their words, but at this point have I missed my window?
No taboo that I'm aware of! In fact, receivers seem to love any response to comments, regardless of how long they took to arrive!
If you're still feeling antsy about being "too late" to respond, consider this permission to respond to any comments you have sitting in your inbox, no matter how much time has passed!
Replying to Replies/Tags/Comments for Strictly Pleasure 15-16 & Choosing the Bear 3
If anyone wasn't aware, I kinda just threw out three updates for Strictly Pleasure and one update for Choosing the Bear!
Choosing the Bear Masterlist
Strictly Pleasure Masterlist
Choosing the Bear - Part 3
@vaya-writes
This is one of those cases where I am just writing without a huge plan, so I didn't even clock Zeke's little moment of gruff kindness as swoonworthy. 😅
I'm glad it is, though! As for whether he stays in Bambi's corner or not, only time shall tell. (Because I don't know.)
Strictly Pleasure - Part 15 & Part 16
@secret-fic-stash
The thought of readers smashing my characters together like dolls is such a delight. XD lol
@deltoroist
Since this is from 15, I'll just let you read 16 to find out. :3c
@jazzclubprincess
Aw, thank you! I'm hoping this strain of motivation and inspiration continues. I've missed writing and drawing.
@secret-fic-stash
I'm glad you're invested in them! We've got some bombshells to still drop on their acquaintance/relationship. :3
Disclaimer: these reviews are from 2017, don't seek out the people who wrote them. This is all for fun.
A guest with lame comments. Joy.
Okay but you are being a pain. Babe I was a literal infant just vibing.
Lmao okay and? You could have just left, I wasn't planning on missing you
Love,,, just go. "Best of luck" was an incredibly poor attempt at covering up your blatant rudeness. Try harder next time ig?
This was a Spider-Man fic where did Supernatural come from?? Not upset, just confused
Are you... encouraging a child to curse? Do you know how stupid that is? I was severely uncomfortable with swearing at the time and lived life how I was comfortable? Why would you?? I don't even?? And then you proceed to insult my writing by calling it annoying and cliche... and then pretend like you didn't just do that. And say I did a nice job on the last chapter. This comment is... wow.
Let me just wrap this up by saying that leaving comments like these isn't constructive or helpful. It's just rude. These days I'm able to look back on these and lose my shit laughing, but back then it really hurt. Don't do this shit. It's unnecessary and it's just annoying. If you don't like a story, just go?? No one wants to hear your schpiel. If it was bad enough that you need to talk about it, do so in private. Authors are people with feelings, you know.
Reader comments on ao3 make my life. They're a source of love and motivation and feeling like I'm good enough!! But I find the process of responding to them kind of taxing. Recently I've been trying to reply to comments once a week, but I keep failing.
I know that, as a reader, I do not expect replies from authors on my comments. But what do you think? I don't want to be rude! And I don't want people to think I don't appreciate! But I also feel like I can't respond. I'm looking at over a hundred comments in my email and I just know I don't have the energy/spoons/time to answer them when I'm trying to write a book.
Should I put an endnote like, "Every comment is read and appreciated and fueling more words, but I can't respond to comments"? Or does that seem assholish or smug or something?
I recently started writing fics for the first time and I’ve gotten a couple really nice comments on ao3 on my current wip but I didn’t know that I could reply to those comments. Now I want to start doing that and say thank you to them but I feel awkward considering a lot of those comments have been up for 5+ months. Any advice?
As your reader, I would be thrilled to my socks to receive a message from you, months or years later.
