#on commenting

[evilwriter37]

Just got a really great comment on Ball, Chain, and Dagur which has been abandoned for a while, and states it in the title.

People who read abandoned fics and find joy in them regardless are the real heroes.

[annabtg]

Commenting is not only a mood and inspiration booster for the authors! Knowing that your favourite writers look forward to your comments is its own reward. ;)

Now go and become your own favourites' favourite! :D

[eastwindmlk]

I need to reply to my AO3 comments but how am I going to marry all of them?

[lunapwrites]

Someone just blew through LTL in like 2 days and left me several comments and I'm ???? 😭😭😭

I really needed that. Just for like. The outside perspective away from the self-critical artist hole where everything I've created before sucks and everything I will create from now will never be as good again. I know on a logical level that this is silly but sometimes it's nice to just. Hear it. Especially from a person who pretty much just saw the piece in the window and went "hey, neat! I like that!"

I write for me but then that also means that I'm trying to write to my personal standards and I'm a filthy perfectionist who will never be satisfied. And then if I don't/can't write it's only me I'm disappointing. Which is a bad road to go down.

Anyway, thanks Internet stranger. I'll probably respond properly to the comments when I have time but also ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[kasienda]

So you reblogged a post recently about how you should never give unsolicited cc on ao3 fics and I 100% agree but I want to hear your thoughts on something.

Once several months ago I read a fic where the main characters were very misogynistic and the narrative was justifying their misogyny. I went into the comments and there were a few other people who pointed out the misogyny in the work. I replied agreeing and said it was kind of uncomfortable. The author replied basically saying "don't like don't read".

Ever since then I've wondered if I was being a jerk for making that comment. Is unsolicited cc justified if the author is misogynistic? Or should I have just ignored it and moved on to a different story? I've been wanting to ask someone else for a while now but I've felt kind of guilty about it

Hey anon!!

I don’t know if I’m an authority on this topic, but I’ve actually been in similar situations, and here are my few thoughts.

1) I don’t think the rules are different when I come across stories that don’t agree with my values. And I think that criticism will still come off as rude. And I think it’s up to YOU to decide if it’s something you care about enough to not care if it’s rude or not. And if it’s something you care about then, I don’t think you need to worry about hurting that author’s feelings. It’s definitely not worth your guilt for days or longer after the fact. Like it’s a can I live with being rude? Can I live with myself for NOT saying something even if it is rude?

2) on the other hand, saying something in the comments is not really going to change anything. There’s lots of people who are prejudice in some way and that’s always going to come out in their artwork. That’s the world they live in in their head. And hearing from a stranger on the internet is not likely going to change their minds or make this person suddenly reflective and self aware.

I have learned (by making a lot of mistakes! Haha!) usually that if I’m reading a story that I don’t like because the author and I clearly have very very different values, that I’m better off just not engaging. I hit that back button. Because if I do say something, and the author responds we usually just get in a back and forth and I get all worked up and angry, and they get all worked up and angry and double down, and it’s just not worth it.

Now I have made an exception before when it felt like the writer wasn’t aware of how it was coming across, and would want to know. But even then, I don’t phrase it as criticism! I usually say something like, “omg! This is so good! I have so many feelings! I can’t believe character x didn’t respect character Y’s no!! I can’t wait for Y to kick them into the sun!” And this works because a lot of the time the author DID mean to write it that way and this comes across as me engaging with their story instead of criticizing the story! And if they didn’t intend for x to be unlikeable in that scene, well, now they know that it landed that way anyway!

I will tell you that if someone has already commented about my issue, and the author has responded defensively or reflectively, I don’t need to say anything.

It also helps me to remember that stuff I find awful is always going to exist! Always! And it being awful is not a reason for it not to exist! Because there’s someone out there who is going to find some of my stuff just as awful! (I’ve even heard from some of them!). My comments and values are not going to stop that kind of stuff from existing. I respond by creating stuff that I wish existed instead. I call that spite fic! Haha!

I also want you to know that I’ve messed up before, I’ve been rude on purpose before (usually in defense of writers, but not always), I’ve apologized for my impact before when something didn’t land as positively as intended, and I’ve not commented on stuff that I abhored before. I’ve done it all! And from that, I’ve learned how I want to engage with fic and fandom. And I have gotten to a point where I almost never comment criticism to a writer I don’t know. But it wasn’t always this way. I LEARNED that by doing it other ways and it blowing up in my face. Mistakes are awesome like that because they are the biggest opportunities to learn.

So if you take one thing from this, I hope it’s this - your guilt is not needed. If it was a mistake, learn from it and move on. But only you can decide if it was actually a mistake or not.

[0nelittlebirdtoldme]

Once in a blue moon i wander back into my ao3 inbox and feel terrible dread when i see all the comments i never got around to reply to. Please know that I read and appreciate and love every single comment I get, but sometimes life happens, and now i am like.... 50 replies behind and that stresses me and ahhhh

Anyway: forgive me. I love you all

[tracingpatternswrites]

I received another glorious comment on the toxic jegulus and I'm just so grateful that even though it's absolutely not for everyone, the people who do find it seem to really like it. I've had some of the absolute best comments on that particular fic and it makes me so grateful.

Receiving a sweet comment on a fic really is the best feeling and I appreciate everyone who not only takes the time to read but also to comment. You are the best.

[annabtg]

The OP's tags are just as excellent as the rest of the post:

when ao3 is back up i want all of you to leave comments on the fics you were interrupted from reading, the fics you were looking to find, the fics you were thinking about re-reading, and the fics left open in your tabs for months now.

when ao3 is back up, i want you all to show some love to your favourite writers, favourite fics, or even just the 600 word one-shot that brought a smile to your face that tuesday three weeks ago.

when ao3 is back up i want you all to remember that comments and explicitly voiced appreciation are what keep writers going.

[victusinveritas]

[jandjsalmon]

Fun Story to Share.

I got my (now 18-year-old) daughter into Ao3 back in 2021. I taught her she should always comment - even if the fic looks old or abandoned or whatever. She did.

Well - she got this email this morning:

The fic was written in 2014 and essentially abandoned.

Bethy read and reviewed in 2021 (and was actually the only person who had commented at all).

Today in 2025 - the final chapter was posted by the author and this was her reply to Bethy’s comment.

———

Never question whether a fic is too old to comment on.

[trekscribbles]

This week, I read a fic that was around 20 years old, which had originally been posted on the author's personal website and which she added to AO3 a few years ago. She listed her email address with the fic, so after I finished reading, I sent her an email saying how much I enjoyed the story, how much I appreciated the work and effort she obviously put into it, and thanked her for uploading it to AO3. She responded the next day and thanked me for my message, then said she had a few more stories in the same series that she hadn't gotten around to uploading. I checked this morning--she added a 35,000 word novella and thanked me in the summary.

👏 comment 👏 on 👏 old 👏 fics 👏

[annabtg]

Okay, I won't name and shame, but I've been reading a story and I came across a comment that went like "this story is so good, unlike these other stories I've been following lately where this and the other bad things happen" (they didn't name the stories but the things were very specific, I suppose I'd recognize them if I'd read them).

PLEASE DON'T DO THAT.

A story's comment section is not the place for bashing fics. Talk about the story you're reading without putting down others. And if the stories you're following take a direction you don't like, drop them.

[opera-ghost]

[marisatomay]

What are you even supposed to eat for dinner

[lrndvs]

compliments from girls go hard