However, the forums on the fanfic site have an activity that seems to help prompt more comments. They formed a society for concrit writers. The group has a huge amount of fun that’s viewable to all forum users, but you can’t post there and join the fun chats and things unless you’re a member. To become a member, you have to write a certain number of rich, concrit-laden reviews yourself in a literate and coherent manner.

Otherwise I have no suggestions, but always did enjoy the reviews, even if they were in the OMG THATS KEWL vein. Who doesn’t like the occasional pat on the head?

>I rarely comment on stories I read. I think it’s
>because it takes me a long time to digest them.

Non-fiction I frequently feel the urge to respond to immediately. Not so with fiction. I think Justine’s right – it takes a little longer to digest art than opinion.

- John

Some of the places where I have seen people comment on stories have been a bit snarky and it was the same people commenting over and over again. Neither option appeals too much to me. When I want to hear some analysis on a story I check the places that review fiction.

I can’t see myself being moved to comment online unless it is to ask for clarification, and then I would probably e-mail the person anyway. I might write a line on my blog saying “this is neat!” but that’s about it.

I can see how a rating system might be useful (just like a poll) to do a year end review and tell readers what the favourite stories of the year were.

Anyway, there you have my opinion!

:0)

The reason I bring this up is thus: any trunk story by an established author will get some ink in Locus or other critics, but we don’t see as much of that for online magazines, especially considering at this stage of the game, online magazines are still waiting to have the pull of a dead-tree magazine. Sometimes you’ll see a phenomenal story from an online mag in an anthology or YB tome, or at least a mention. But how often do we see a Locus write up on an online story? Probably more often than not these days. Which is great news. I don’t agree that the format of the magazine reflects the quality of the work. Some of the best-loved stories of our times were printed in pulps or scribbled out on velum, pressed out in clay, and travel to millions as intangiable pieces of data via electronic pulses.

What’s my point? If critics aren’t diving into what is offered on the web as far as fiction goes, they are missing out. Comments can allow for some of that niche to be filled, but it can be a tad rude, or worse, writing up a professional style critique just a few inches below the original text. There ought to be a disconnect, a place where works can be discussed without looking like an attack. That’s why criticism appears in magazines like Locus, and not on the pages following the original text.

Plus, not everyone likes the chorus of opinion that follows, sometimes “Sweet story!” is enough, but sometimes it’s hard to say. We feel we should offer up more, to describe the level of emotion something has made us feel, but in the end that too falls flat. Or we feel ridiculous and fannish for our opinions.

Then we are left with silence.

I know when writing reviews for various sites that I am perhaps overly conscious of the fact that the author of the work being reviewed is staring over my shoulder. Word will get back to them. They have friends and a fan base and, if I’m unkind or ‘wrong’, I’ll be hearing from them in a manner that might negatively affect my own traffic.

In the old days – no such worries. This is not necessarily a bad thing – if I’m going to pan something, I’m more motivated to do it for what I think are the right reasons – reasons I can defend.

But I do suspect that the potential presence of the authors curtails meaningful commentary, as does the fact that the commentors themselves have intentions of submitting works to those same markets.

I say this in fully hypocrisy and knowledge that when I write about stories on my blog I get linked by the writer and sometimes a simple thanks for writing about the story…so what I do on the blog is the same as what the comments on a story would do.

If I didn’t blog about fiction, I might be more inclined to directly write about the stories on the provided forum, but I have another thought.

I’m not the sort of person who wants to be the first person to comment on something and if there are no discussions ongoing I am less likely to start one. For me, the lack of that discussion community is keeping me away from being part of a discussion community.

Weird.