What to do with my ever increasing hate on silent readers

SakeVision

Sama/kisama
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The hatred is making you powerful...it makes you stronger.....gather your anger and weaponize it! In time, all the silent readers will call you...master.
 

irei1as

Active member
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Aug 1, 2021
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To leave comments is a form of communication. I'm quite sure some of these silent readers here are kinda anxious about it so showing that love to the story can be hard. Kind of like an inverse hedgehog paradox or something.
I don't know... it feels like that. Maybe I'm just imagining things.

Anyway, I'm a silent reader myself, but not for any special cause. I just went with leaving a favourite if I liked the chapter. No need to leave a mediocre comment that makes the chapter feel worse as a whole.

But fine. I might as well leave a comment on the few stories I read for a while.
I'll take it as a challenge. Even if it's just a "thanks for the chapter".
I hope it doesn't end feeling annoying to those writers.
 

Armored99

Harem-phobic
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Jun 27, 2021
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299
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83
Just as a sidenote, readers do need an account to vote in polls so 'guest' readers who aren't signed up on SH can create views but not poll responses =/
So what I'm getting is, this issue with such low responses is lack of people making accounts.

Should we start a campaign to get readers to create accounts or something?
 

KiraMinoru

Untitled Generic Member
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Jun 22, 2020
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a

There is your comment, I might mixed it up with some other letter once in a while too ~ As a bonus, this would make the comment section look increasingly garbage - removing any remaining possibility of a proper comment, not just from silent readers but also the talkative ones :)
If you make it any more annoying, well, most readers are gonna jist read something else.

Yeah it is not a good idea...
I never said it was a good idea. It’s obvious that would be a result. However, the reason I said X chapters is because it is a setting the author can choose to enable themself and they can set specifically how many X chapters is.

What this does is it acts as an indicator to the author the people that actually care enough to continue reading the fiction based upon how low they set that X chapters at. It’s more of an ego thing for the author showing hey at least people want to read it enough to put in the energy to drop that “a” comment. And is it really much different than a eating cookie blob comment which is all too common?

Another option that could be implemented is if the comment was dropped on a ‘payment comment’ there could be a checkbox option to hide those comments directly above the comment area if people really want to. You could also go a bit further by simply running a grade level readability formula on the comments to sort them out in case there were genuine comments from the ‘paid comments.’ In such a way it would even be possible to nullify ‘paid comments’ from the trending algorithm.

The other benefit to this ego type system to an author is that it could potentially provide them motivation to continue their work. This is in the case where there are people who genuinely enjoy their work but they’re all silent readers. A lot of stories end up getting dropped just because the author becomes demotivated from the lack of interaction where it becomes like they’re talking to the void for tens of chapters without a single response. A comment goes a long way on a psychological level for an author, even nonsense or a single letter response to some is treasure to them. A single sound, even if just a grunt, is all it takes to make a person feel like they’re not alone in the world. As they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

Authors are fickle creatures at their core.

One last benefit is that it can establish a mindset in readers who have become complacent to the fact that they’ve received everything absolutely free for all this time. Someone took time to write this, they aren’t asking you for money as a payment, but to at least say something that lets them know you’re there if you enjoy it enough. Being thankful should go both ways. Thanks for the reader for spending the short time to read the work and thanks for the author spending X times as many hours of their days to write it.

So naturally there are both pros and cons to every idea. To simply write it off without actually analyzing and exploring the idea to the full potential is short sighted.
 
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CupcakeNinja

Pervert Supreme
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But of course. I wholeheartedly agree that I need more toxic readers. I didn't even understand that my novel is shit cause everyone was trying to be nice.
say what you will, but when they got an opinion they sure do share. When you can incite THOSE sensitive cunts, that's when you know you've done good.
it's too much work to comment on stuff in any meaningfull way so why bother
...Its a comment. You're telling us your thoughts, not writing a dissertation.
Honestly he is correct, managing to get a copypasta level reply telling him to shove it up his ass coz he was too slow to update stuff is when you know you have some genuine fancults starting.

I think the word I was looking for is Apathy - I(as in your average reader) dont care enough - Get me something to care for - It can be through pissing me of, having a waifu/husbando/char I am really invested in, something unique, weird plot, idk.
i made a new novel recently that i think will accomplish triggering people even more than just me being a lazy cunt. You know those "no one believed me, now its too late" type of novels where every heroine is kinda a bitch and jumped to conclusions, only to regret it later? That.

I expect to get quite a bit of comments talking about how awful some of them are.

Nah, people won't read your novel. A fair share of users here would like to pitch in with advice or review, gloss over your chapter. They would love to flex their skill as an author or try to flex their sense of humor. They would try to encourage you with sweet words and all the other little things. Actually reading your work? Most probably, not gonna happen.
i actually did read some dude's work recently, cuz i promised and so i had to. KInda regret it, cuz while its not bad in itself the guy isn't a native English speaker and it shows. Very simplistic writing style, and a lot of "he said, she said"s that got kinda annoying to see after a while and just irritated me every chapter.
 

Sabruness

Cultured Yuri Connoisseur
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Dec 23, 2018
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i think it just comes down to the story, it's content and the makeup of the readership. Some of the novels i read, i comment quite regularly and the novels easily get tons of comments.
some i read, i comment when something interesting comes up (like a plot twist) and some i dont really find the 'whim' to comment.
 

JM_Webb

Paladin "Enthusiast"
Joined
Jul 3, 2021
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110
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I'm definitely a writer who really likes reading comments. I want to answer questions about my world, and talk about the cool stuff I wrote, and it's definitely frustrating that I only really have one reader who comments. Now, I really like this reader, but dang, I would really appreciate a "thnx" comment, or something from a silent reader. Would make my day.
 

EternalSunset0

Well-known member
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Nov 7, 2020
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I think most of us like the comments, reactions, and such. It's just that there's really nothing we can do about it. No offense intended, but "waging a war on silent readers" or intentionally trying to manipulate them into commenting (as I've seen in the thread) kinda leaves a bad impression, and it will more than likely backfire.

I am not sure, but if a silent reader saw this thread, it could actually have an opposite effect on him, and the more he would not comment.

How many readers do you have? What I do instead is to check my statistics every few days, and when I've seen my readers increasing, I just send a private message to a random new reader or two, thanking them and/or trying to start a conversation to see what their thoughts are or possible areas of improvement.

Of course, this only works if you're like me who gains like a reader or two a week or something. But it feels like a more amicible solution if you really want someone to talk to about your work.

On another note, I apologize in advance to the people I have DM'd out of nowhere on the main site :blobspearpeek:
 
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D

Deleted member 45782

Guest
Do more people join ScribbleHub to read or to write? Do those who write read much or mostly focus on their writing? Gives you some thought what your fellow SHers are like. That, and believe most are lazy. Just as I am. To comment, I need to sign in. Why bother when I can just read as much as I want without the extra step of logging in? I also agree with someone. Look at online classes. How many willingly interact if they don't need too?

Some also may not bother to comment, bc if they do, there's also a chance they could offend the author too.

Probably bc I'm not too focused on writing, so don't feel as much the pain of no one commenting. I plan to just write for myself first, and tweak what's necessary to improve my writing before asking others. Cause idk even when I'll start. XD

Besides I can log in thu just to comment on chapters say "Nice" or "Cool" for any story, but it wouldn't be a meaningful comment then right? It just makes you feel good, even thu i may or may not read the story or like it.
 

K5Rakitan

Level 34 👪 💍 Pronouns: she/whore ♀
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Go to writing.com to get comments on your writing. They have a gift point system where you can earn points by reviewing other works and offer points to other people to review your work.
 

Ddraig

<First Dragon of SHF> <Pokemon Goddess of NuF>
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Dec 23, 2018
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I never said it was a good idea. It’s obvious that would be a result. However, the reason I said X chapters is because it is a setting the author can choose to enable themself and they can set specifically how many X chapters is.

What this does is it acts as an indicator to the author the people that actually care enough to continue reading the fiction based upon how low they set that X chapters at. It’s more of an ego thing for the author showing hey at least people want to read it enough to put in the energy to drop that “a” comment. And is it really much different than a eating cookie blob comment which is all too common?

Another option that could be implemented is if the comment was dropped on a ‘payment comment’ there could be a checkbox option to hide those comments directly above the comment area if people really want to. You could also go a bit further by simply running a grade level readability formula on the comments to sort them out in case there were genuine comments from the ‘paid comments.’ In such a way it would even be possible to nullify ‘paid comments’ from the trending algorithm.

The other benefit to this ego type system to an author is that it could potentially provide them motivation to continue their work. This is in the case where there are people who genuinely enjoy their work but they’re all silent readers. A lot of stories end up getting dropped just because the author becomes demotivated from the lack of interaction where it becomes like they’re talking to the void for tens of chapters without a single response. A comment goes a long way on a psychological level for an author, even nonsense or a single letter response to some is treasure to them. A single sound, even if just a grunt, is all it takes to make a person feel like they’re not alone in the world. As they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

Authors are fickle creatures at their core.

One last benefit is that it can establish a mindset in readers who have become complacent to the fact that they’ve received everything absolutely free for all this time. Someone took time to write this, they aren’t asking you for money as a payment, but to at least say something that lets them know you’re there if you enjoy it enough. Being thankful should go both ways. Thanks for the reader for spending the short time to read the work and thanks for the author spending X times as many hours of their days to write it.

So naturally there are both pros and cons to every idea. To simply write it off without actually analyzing and exploring the idea to the full potential is short sighted.
You know what, fair enough, I didnt realize the ego point.
 

CL

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 30, 2020
Messages
507
Points
133
There is something I am curious about: how many of those silent readers are bots? I know for a fact that we've received spammers sending invitation mail through actual accounts. That's proof enough they exist here. :blob_hide:
 
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