I think my readers are too obedient when someone must have told them, "Don't talk to strangers."

Pretty sure you could guess what this is about.

On this site, there are a lot of things you could do for whatever reason you could think of. If you're a writer then you write, if you're an editor (graphics, writing, etc.) then you edit stuff, if you're a reader then you read. However, if you're all of them then wow! Isn't that great? With that said, you can't expect other to be like 'you', too.

Although it could be frustrating for creators to not receive feedbacks/comments on their works, we can't really just force the readers/patrons to do so. They will eventually do that on their own though some might take longer than the others.

It's fine. It does not make your content any less than that of other creators who received more votes, more views, more comments, etc. on their works. What matters is that you get to express and do what you want.

I, myself, is guilty of these thoughts and actions as well. Too shy to interact with others and too silent for my favorite author's liking. Been there, done that.

That's why, when I had the courage to interact, I did. Recently, there was a story I read and left a comment there. Then the author replied, then I replied, and then the author replied again and it went on like that. We made the comment section our own chatroom. And that's funny because I don't usually do that with just anyone, especially to a stranger.

And here's the catch, I'm working on a story myself and since I'm a newbie, I expected to have my notification to be filled only with "New Story Update" or "New Comment Replies" but then I got a few, "New Story Subscriber" and woah, I smiled like an idiot for the whole hour. Then couple of nights later, there was a new notification like, "Someone Upvoted Your Story" or something like that. Hell yeah! I almost screamed if only it wasn't midnight and the neighbors are asleep so I had to keep it to myself instead.

That said, I didn't get a notification indicating "Someone Commented on your Story" for a few weeks. And the thought that crossed my mind was, "These readers are either too shy or too obedient with the reminder they probably got before, 'Don't talk to Strangers.'

Yeah, they really don't talk to strangers. I'm referring to the people in this community as strangers because aren't we? At first, at least. Even if you interacted before, you would still be considered as strangers to each other unless you add each other then get to know better and stuff.

So yeah, instead of getting frustrated with things like these, might as well look at these situations on a different light. I actually find this 'Don't talk to Starngers' thing, funny, when I think of the silent readers. Just laugh it off, don't think too much about it. Saves you the trouble of getting mad and grumpy.

You may want to receive validation from other people but what you need the most is a validation from yourself. And the only reason you need for that is because that is what YOU DESERVE and no one else can say otherwise.

- Ace [07/17/2020]