Why do Most Readers Not Comment?

[Yorth]

This is something I found to be consistent across almost all novels. Chapters with thousands of views and no comments, stories that have been running for months but only have 3-4 comments.

 

[Nanakawaichan]

And no review

 

[Draconite]

Lazy cancer

 

[Owl]

Laziness or openly having to show your opinion. I've had readers write me direct messages before because they didn't want to openly comment and know that I, as a reader, am very nervous about openly commenting.
Also, I imagine a lot of readers have no account and don't feel like making one

 

[gogo7966]

Talking to people that i don't know, especially through text, is scary

 

[Yorth]

Talking to people that i don't know, especially through text, is scary

Just curious, do you find favoriting/rating a story easier than commenting?

 

[gogo7966]

Just curious, do you find favoriting/rating a story easier than commenting?

Yeah, but i usually don't like alot of stories enough to favorite them and i haven't bothered confirming my e-mail for rating

 

[kouk2002]

Personally I only comment when I have something to say. I have read novels and translations where they didn't want pointless comments like 'thanks' or 'XP' (never done that one myself). As such it became a habit.

I also think time and place affect it as well. I rarely ever comment when reading on my phone. The main reasons being it's a pain to type and edit, and that if I'm using my phone it's usually because I'm at work so I'm on my break or something. Being on my break means limited time, which usually means barely long enough to read a chapter or two while eating.

 

[binarysoap]

If you are an author and want comments, just literally ask your readers questions, and you'll see a lot more comments then usual. This assumes you have readers of course. Also, making it clear you read them and don't find them annoying also helps.

As a reader, I only comment if the author has complained about the lack of them and states they are fine with typo corrections/thanks for the chapters/first , or the very rare case where there is something to comment on. And yes, I have seen authors say not to give them unsolicited typo/grammar corrections, or complain about the thanks for the chapter comments so to be safe, I just don't unless the author says they want them. When the author asks the readers questions in the author notes, it gives the reader something substantial to comment on, and makes it clear that they want the comments so overly cautious people like me will actually make a comment.

 

[FriendlyDragon]

I know my readers usually comment on chapters with major developments. That's mainly it. Maybe some theory crafting at times, but for the most part just that. People just don't really like commenting unless there's a discussion.

 

[YuriDoggo]

Too busy binging to comment. Tho if you ask me a question that's not super open-ended (and i didn't ignore the author's note), I might comment.

 

[Kotohood]

Sometimes, I feel it's because the author is there, makes people feel bad about commenting.

 

[gaylolis]

because they rather give 1 star to a random novel without saying anything?

jokes aside, i think it's probably 'cuz they're lazy, don't want to get too much involved, or the author didn't really care or reply to the comments at all. like, if the novel had hundreds of chapters, it's kinda iffy if you want to share your insights at the beginning chapter but you'll end up getting ignored.

 

[AliceShiki]

As someone that likes commenting in most stuff I read... No clue, honestly! xD

 

[Sinpathy]

No issues on that front, most novels I've seen on Scribblehub are usually laced with comments. Comments are not a metric on how well you're doing, mostly. It's surely nice to have acknowledgement that someone is reading your craft, but I personally write to satisfy the thoughts in my head, not to fulfil any sort of superficial praise online. That is, of course, not to say that I am demeaning those who wish for comments on their chapters. Every author generally enjoy the company of their readers. That said, comments come natural if your story engages your readers. Overthinking can make you doubt your own creative work, and even your own motivation.

Like a user have mentioned, asking for feedback works. More often than not, your readers will respond to you. And well, for those that don't, they just don't want to stand out beyond being a simple consumer.

 

[theauthorokelley]

This is something I found to be consistent across almost all novels. Chapters with thousands of views and no comments, stories that have been running for months but only have 3-4 comments.

Do you talk to your waiter and say thanks for the meal, heres what I liked about it? Just saying a lot of people have the same sort of mindset.

 

[Ace_Arriande]

"Why do most readers not comment?"

Because this is the internet and at least 90% of people are lurkers. Whether you look at Reddit, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, whatever, things are always going to have more views and likes and whatnot than they have comments. That's... kinda just how the internet is. Everywhere. Even if you ask people to comment, the vast majority are still not going to comment.

 

[YuriDoggo]

Do you talk to your waiter and say thanks for the meal, heres what I liked about it? Just saying a lot of people have the same sort of mindset.

This is a bad analogy. This is more like if a note came with your receipt with something like "How could we have done better?" or "What did we do well so we can keep doing it?" as a prompt.

 

[CL]

"Thank you for the chapter," is a common comment. Do you all count those?

 

[ddevans]

My assumption is that readers who don't comment are bots. I have no idea what percent of these kinds of non-interactive metrics are bots, so for all I know they all are.