The Library of Spanking Fiction: Wellred Weekly


Wellred Weekly
Volume 1, Number 8 : June 3, 2012
 
Articles
Items of interest regarding all things spanking

Commenting: The Importance of Feedback
by Februs

Introduction
To those not familiar with the finer points of the LSF this article explores the attitudes of both readers and authors alike in regards to the process of providing feedback on library submissions via the comment facility.

We did originally consider asking one of our featured authors to produce an article relating to commenting on the site. In the end, however, it was decided that a neutral perspective might be the best way to approach it and since in effect I am neither an author nor reader (most of the time) I ended up inheriting the task. Having said that, I did write about 30 or 40 spanking stories in the very dim and distant past but they were all created for a specific individual rather than for a general audience. In general, I can't really say I've ever written anything where I've been interested in presenting it for public consumption in order to receive feedback.

Background
I think that it wouldn't be unreasonable to suggest that the most controversial aspect of the LSF, at least in terms of open debate, is that of commenting. A glance at our forum will certainly support this assertion. The site quite recently adopted the motto, LEGITE MULTUM, MULTUM SCRIBITE, RECENSETE QUAM PLURIMUM, hopefully translateable as something resembling 'Read lots, write lots but above all comment'. Clearly commenting or providing some feedback is seen as an important issue.

However, in the early days of the site in its standalone form, despite several thousand items being viewed each day, comments were few and far between with no more than around 10 a day being made. As more and more items got submitted to the library and the membership numbers swelled it was always assumed that the number of comments would begin to pick up but the reality was they hardly increased at all and then between the months of March and April 2010 they actually dropped, going from 361 in March to 321 in April. I should point out that this was despite the fact we had tried numerous ways of encouraging readers to comment, all of which were totally ineffective and basically ignored.

At this point I have to admit to being somewhat bemused on two accounts. Firstly, I'd generally failed to appreciate the importance of comments to the authors we were featuring. A little research on sites other than the LSF, however, readily showed that a number of authors had in the past become totally dismayed with the lack of feedback and effectively given up writing. Secondly, I hadn't foreseen the reluctance of readers to comment even when it was repeatedly stated how important it was to the authors of works they took great pleasure in reading.

The Requirement to Comment
After a great deal of deliberating we took the rather radical decision to impose a limit on the number of items that could be read in a 24-hour period by someone who had viewed over 500 submissions but made no comments. They could still use the site and still view stories, there was simply a limit to how many they could view in a day. In addition, we extended this principle so that unlimited accounts required a ratio of items viewed to comments made to be less than 500:1.

Asking someone to make a single comment once every 500 items viewed seemed an incredibly insignificant thing to ask, at least to me, so I was more than a little surprised at the reaction that followed. When I say reaction, I should point out that I am referring to the readers rather than the authors, who as far as I could make out, were generally in favour of it. Well, all except one who promptly requested we remove her submissions. A few readers merely grumbled but some were incensed and hurled personal insults, usually directed at myself. Based on the level of vitriol one could be forgiven for thinking they had been asked to donate vital organs rather than merely type a dozen words or so every other month. There were also one or two readers who tried to get round the system by making multiple comments of "Great story" repeatedly, in one case 87 times in a row and including comments on a large percentage of stories they hadn't even read.

Eventually things started to calm down and apart from the occasional attack from someone who had just realised they needed to comment for the first time. I believe that, all in all, we did the right thing and achieved the right balance. I don't, however, think we should be under any illusion that if we hadn't applied a limit, the rate of commenting would have remained abysmal.

One thing which was interesting to observe was that certain people commenting for the first time seemed to suddenly realise that it was actually an enjoyable activity, that no adverse effects were experienced and that they hadn't suddenly grown an extra head. It was also noticeable that with the site now having a much greater number of active commenters some of those reluctant to comment in the past seemed to find it a lot easier to comment themselves, it had become part of the site's culture.

I think at this point it may be worth considering a couple of aspects in regards to commenting, namely why are comments important and why is there such a resistance to make them amongst certain readers. I should of course point out up front that I am merely going to be expressing personal opinions and observations rather than making statements of indisputable fact.

The Importance of Commenting
I personally think there are a number of reasons why it's important to comment occasionally when using the site.
  1. Perhaps first and foremost I believe it is simply courtesy to the authors who, in a world dominated by commercialism, are offering something for free and merely asking for a little feedback in return. Typically, when being offered something for free it's customary to say thanks and thanks in this case is simply making a comment now and then.

  2. If one wants to take a less altruistic view of things then it's clear that many authors are inspired and motivated to write more if given some feedback and conversely may decide not to bother if they keep writing things which get little or no response. So it's in the interest of readers who enjoy an author's work to let him or her know.

  3. In addition to the synopsis and content icons generated by the validaters for library submissions the comments provide useful additional information to enable would-be readers determine whether an item is going to be to their liking or not. They also bring recently commented items to the attention via the Latest Commented list which is frequently used by readers when choosing what to read next.

  4. Comments from readers bring the site to life and allow us to feel some sense of community in that there are others out there with a love of spanking fiction who are willing to express themseves and make their views known. Without them it'd all be a rather impersonal experience.

  5. The majority of authors tend to respond to comments they receive so the act of commenting encourages dialogue between authors and readers.

The Resistance to Commenting
Over the last couple of years we have noticed that some readers will go to extreme lengths to avoid commenting. For example, a not atypical scenario is to find that a reader who has viewed in excess of 500 items but never commented will then logout and submit a new registration rather than simply leave a quick comment on something. In some cases, we've had individual readers make over 15 attempts at registering a new account rather than simply comment! Given the relative amounts of effort involved it does suggest there is something unusual at work here.

One could argue that perhaps the nature of the web itself is partly to blame in that it very much lends itself to, and reinforces, what I would describe as a "passive consumer" mentality, the internet equivalent of the couch potato. There is certainly no shortage of spanking sites to passively consume with literally hundreds of blogs available for viewing. It's also true that a great many of them struggle to get comments. I notice that the bloggers acknowledge this phenomenon in a positive way with their annual Love Our Lurkers day but I have to say I'd personally be more in favour of a Give Our Lurkers A Virtual Kick Up The Backside day!

A look at some of the reasons given for reluctance to comment appears to reveal a number of myths or maybe 'convenient excuses' would be a more accurate description:
Fawning
One myth seems to be that comments have to be favourable or fawning in order to be acceptable. I'm not entirely certain how this view has originated but from reading various forum posts the consensus seems to be that critical comments are just as welcome as positive ones so long as they are constructive. It seems that authors simply want to know what the readers think of their submissions, both the good and the bad.
Detailed analysis
Another myth is that comments have to offer some great insight or a detailed review which of course many would find find onerous or at best struggle to produce. The reality is that one doesn't need to be a professional critic nor does one need to write a small thesis each time one comments. If you read a story and find you greatly enjoy it then all you need to do is say why in effect. Of course, if you found that certain themes in the story resonated with you in particular then it shouldn't be hard to write more.
Frequency
"I find it hard to comment on every story" is another myth we've encountered. Commenting on every item read would be nigh on impossible as well as likely to give rise to innumerable meaningless comments but the reality is that readers are only being asked to comment a minimum of once for every 500 items read. How hard can that be?
Feeling uncomfortable
"I feel uncomfortable at revealing aspects of my kink." No-one need ever reveal anything of a personal nature when commenting if they don't want to. Comments can of course be made from an entirely objective standpoint if preferred. In addition, those commenting are doing so with a pseudonym (user name) amidst a community of people who presumably all share variations of the same kink.

Of course, attitudes to commenting can be taken to extremes and authors obsessing over the total number of comments they've received I don't see as particularly healthy. Not every submission needs to receive dozens of comments and personally if I was interested in getting comments on something I'd written I'd much prefer to have a handful of meaningful or insightful comments rather than a whole pile which didn't actually have much substance.

Conclusion
Well I suppose the good news is that, irrespective of the motivation behind their creation, at the time of writing we have amassed over 71,000 comments on a total of 19,000 acquisitions and those certainly make using the site a far more interesting and rewarding experience for reader and writer alike. I'm equally sure that this feedback has resulted in a number of authors writing a lot more than they would otherwise have done and perhaps also inspired them to keep writing. I think it's fair to say that, along with the forum, all those comments have helped to transform the site from being primarily just an archive into a lively and supportive community where authors and readers can interact, share views and generally communicate with each other about their shared love of spanking fiction.



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