The Death of Real Engagement in Fandom –– Speaking to The Ether
You know what’s shitty? How increasingly high is becoming the number of people who engage passively in fandom. Yes, it’s true that us fanfiction writers share our stories rather than write them for others. And it has nothing to do with reach. People are reading fanfiction, I’d bet my ass and say they’ve been reading it now more than ever. I see stories with thousands of hits (mine included) and just 1-2% of that is converted into comments. Every time we update, hundreds of people come back to read, but rare are the ones who stop to say something.
Our sense of community is dying––and at a fast rate. But what everyone needs to understand is that while we create culture, we also nurture and maintain its quality.
Now I don’t know if this is a generational thing (I’m nearly thirty), but likes and views (kudos and hits) don’t make a writer’s heart beat faster with excitement. We spend countless hours pouring our passion, doing research, writing, rewriting, pulling the hairs on our heads for free because we want to contribute something to our community, we want to share a glimpse into our inner world.
Stop with this cringe culture. Honey, no one knows what you look or sound like. I understand engaging can seem a bit socially daunting, but to maintain our culture, it needs to be a two-way street. The internet is an international space and any author who fucking complains about receiving comments in different languages is a fucking idiot who does not speak on behalf of our community!
Yes, not every author replies, but they read. Don’t stop leaving comments just because you didn’t get replies, it’s not about starting a conversation, it’s about giving back when you’ve received. It’s a thank you to someone who gives you an extraordinary gift! It’s common courtesy. Not only that, but it’s an international value we all share, independently of our nationalities, political, ideological or racial backgrounds.
Please, let’s condition (in the sense of accustom) our community back into engaging. Not everything is a lost cause. Let’s bring quality back into our game, it has to be nurtured in order to be sustainable!
The amount of times I refresh my email for over a week after I publish a chapter is borderline pathetic. So here’s my rant.
