It's lovely to see discussion still happening on LJ.
dugindeep has posted a
discussion on leaving feedback on fanworks and about fandom in general. Worth a read - some interesting thoughts have been shared.
Hope you are all well. I know I am guilty of not posting anything lately but I am enjoying my hiatus. The play is keeping me busy *g*. I'm looking forward to S12 now - I miss seeing my boys on the screen. <3
(and it's lovely to see you! Whatever season 12 brings, I love the fact that out little show is getting a 12th season!!) ♥
It looks like lots of people are keen to discuss - it's something that's been missing from LJ for a while.
Thanks for the discussion. :)
So much pretty... *iz shallow*
That's going to be my new outlook next season! Enjoy the pretty! (I'm missing it ;D)
I think that the issue of feedback is something which affects every fandom the most when it is waning. I saw this with the Buffy fandom, for example, which had already peaked by the time I joined LJ. It took about three years but there was a sharp decline thereafter in both volume of content and most especially volume of feedback.
People are still writing and posting though, and just this year I have read some excellent long fics created within the last few years. I was sad to see some fics that posted over months receive under 10 comments when they concluded. It seems really unfair but just reflective of the smaller number of people finding and reading. The only reason there tends to be a lot of feedback is because massive numbers of people are reading (or looking), not because those who are reading are feedbacking more. Also, it's inevitable that people feel more enthusiasm in the early years of a fandom than later on, for a variety of reasons.
I think though that the suggestion that the use of Tumblr or AO3 is somehow eroding feedback is less true than the fact that LJ's general lack of use is eroding feedback. For example, despite writing meta, and despite it being anywhere from 3-10 years old, I was surprised to discover both comments and feedback to it over the last few months since I archived them at AO3. (I tried linking some of them at Tumblr with no response though). Pretty much every week someone has been leaving a kudos, and occasionally a comment. Someone even asked to cite one of my posts in an academic paper.
However I would be amazed to receive any feedback on those same pieces here at LJ or DW, and in fact stuff I've written only in the past few months has attracted hardly any notice. There's actually far more chance to discover these works over at AO3 since, as we all know, finding anything on LJ is difficult and it's not an easy system to figure out for passerby. By comparison AO3 has been designed to be highly searchable.
It could be because these works are older, but I find receiving a kudos on them rewarding even though comments to meta discussion are even more important than feedback to creative fanworks because meta is a form of conversation -- one that goes nowhere if there is no response. I expect it's because I know someone found something of value in reading it and was thus glad to find it. And as a reader I've found the kudos (or like) button invaluable either because I had nothing specific to say, or because what I did have to say would likely be considered problematic.
And that's one thing that I couldn't help wondering about with SPN because I think it's hardly any secret that the fandom is extremely contentious and one can never tell what someone else will choose to pounce on. So I can't help thinking that all those likes and kudos may be (in the end) far more welcome than people voicing their thoughts.
Considering SPN is now coming into its 12th season it's hardly surprising the vigour that was once around has (particularly LJ) has all but disappeared. Though it's interesting that when something grabs the fandom (maybe this current discussion or something that's highly contentious) there is suddenly a lot of vigour. There's no doubt that returning to the days when someone would receive 10 pages of comments on a fic are long gone, but I think it's nice for fandom to remind itself that fic is still being written and comments are still valued - whether it be on A03 or LJ.
Honestly, I find it impressive that there's still so much fanwork production for SPN this far along even if the location for much of it has shifted. I'll be curious to see what happens when the canon finally closes, and whether some people will come back to it.