...To the Mirror-Mirror 2017 challenge!

What is the Mirror-Mirror 2017 (#mm2k17) challenge?

Simply put, it's to encourage readers to comment more and authors to reply to their readers more and to get rid of the author aggravation of "why no comments?" and the reader aggravation of "but the author doesn't care, so why should I?"

If you want a TL;DR, scroll down for the challenges.

Recently, I've seen a lot of authors and a lot of readers complaining about something that is sort of a mini Catch-22.  It basically goes like this:

Authors complain about silent readers, and about receiving "update soon!" comments with precious little else to indicate that they are actually subscribed to and reading the story and not just posting a couple of words to gain karma points.

More than upvotes and subscribers, comments – decent comments with what the readers like, think could be improved, or with anything else about the chapter (or chapters) the readers have just read – are the lifeblood of any author writing a story.  It shows them that the people subscribed are actually reading their story, and that they care, and that they are enjoying it.  The majority of authors on this site find "update soon" comments and large numbers of silent readers dispiriting.  Writing chapters takes time – if a chapter is about 1500-2000 words long, it'll take somebody who sits down and works solidly at it and doesn't need to go back and edit or pause to think about things (or to get on with school work, job work, eating or sleeping or other things life throws at them) at least a couple of hours to write, but will most likely be spread out over the course of days or weeks depending on what time they can nab.  To get little to no feedback on it, or a two-word comment that seems to dismiss all that hard work, does not incentivise writers to write.

But there's a flipside.

Readers complain about authors too – the ones who don't reply to comments and the ones who keep asking for or demanding comments (and especially those who hold chapters to ransom for a certain number of comments or don't reply to the comments they've asked for).  Yes, there are an awful lot of silent readers – but if you're getting more than between 10-20% of the number of your voters commenting on every chapter, you are doing phenomenally well; that's rare on any writing site – and the vast majority of site users access AFF via mobile devices.  Typing long comments on a phone is irritating.  Sometimes they don't know what to say.  But it's really disheartening to comment (especially multiple times) on a story and never to receive a reply from the author, because that equally looks like the author doesn't care about their readers.

Here's the mirror-mirror part.  Silent readers and authors who don't reply to comments.  Silence on both sides.  "Update soon!" comments and "I want X comments before the next chapter!"/"Why don't you guys ever comment?" (Author never replies).  Aggravating to both sides.

As an author who responds to every comment she receives, I've had a lot of silent readers who've started commenting, and who have started commenting regularly or commenting on other people's stuff, and I have readers who regularly comment on every chapter of mine.  A lot of them have told me that the reason do so when they otherwise wouldn't is because they know I'll respond.  They like it because a lot of authors don't respond.  In fact, I've seen a lot of authors request comments that they then don't respond to.

What can we do about it?

If my experience is anything to go by, it's this: readers will be more likely to comment on a chapter if they know that the author will read and respond to their comment.  They are more likely to comment on further chapters if they receive a response, too.  Authors are more motivated to update quickly when people comment, particularly if lots of people comment.  If the author responds to those comments, people are more encouraged to comment next time.

So challenge yourself to one of these for the year, and stick #mm2k17 on your profile to show you're participating!

1. #mm2k17 standard challenge

For readers: I pledge to write a (minimum of a) three-sentence comment on at least one story per week.

For authors: I pledge to respond to up to at least three comments I receive on one fic per chapter I post.

2. #mm2k17 mega challenge

For readers: I pledge to write a (minimum of a) three-sentence comment for every chapter of a story of my choice.

For authors: I pledge, on all my fics, to respond to up to at least three comments I receive for each chapter I post.

3. #mm2k17 ultra challenge

For readers: I pledge to write a (minimum of a) three-sentence comment for a fic each day or so I'm reading on AFF.

For authors: I pledge to reply to all my comments on all my fics from this point on.

The more people that join in, the bigger a difference we can make!  So go on, pick yourself a challenge, and then share this post – copy and paste it into your own blogpost, or copy and paste the challenges onto your profile, or, if you're an author, mention it in an a/n or on the foreword of your story and link back to a blog post about it.  Put the hashtag on your profile and encourage everybody to join in!  The more visible this is, the more traction it'll gain and the more it'll (hopefully) make a positive impact on both the readers and the writers of this site.

(P.S.  If you have the facilities to upvote comments, whether you're an author or a fellow reader, please do so for the comments you think are worthy as it will encourage people to write those types of comments!)