Yello peeps of the AFF community! Lyn here bringing to you a blog post with the focus to bring your attention towards something.

If you’re someone like me who frequents the Social section of the website, the you most likely have stumbled upon certain blog posts and discussions made in the past, and even very recently, bringing up the topic of activity of this new generation of user. As well as talking about how inactive AFF has become in the recent years.

Now, I’ve been on AFF for six years now. The site was created in 2009, and I joined in 2011, so I was basically around within the first few years of the sites debut. I will say, that when I take notice of what peeps say, AFF was definitely pretty bumpin back then, and I guess it’s safe to say that it was at its peak starting sometime around 2012 moving onward, then it kinda has decreased I guess around a year or two ago according to what others seem to be saying. I’m not sure how not as active it is now, but I can definitely say that I have seen a fair share of friends and writers that I’ve come to like, come and go from this site, so that is certainly something that has effected it.

So, with that point, comes the point of feedback on stories. Up to this point, I’ve seen quite a lot of talk, like I said, where writers and even some readers have brought up the point of having not that many comments on their stories in ratio to the numbers of, say, subscribers. Because it clearly shows that although stories are getting plenty of reads, in comparison to how many of those readers are actually saying anything about what they’re reading is lackluster and that . So, the problem here is silent readers.

Believe me when I say that there was a time when I used to be a silent reader (that is truth for a lot of us), but now I try my best to comment on every story I read a good amount of times. I’m gonna just come straight forward here and say that I love getting comments, and I really mean love LOVE getting comments on my fics, like plenty of the other writer peeps do and have voiced. Don’t get me wrong when I say that subscribers and upvotes are kinda whatever, ya know? I mean I very much appreciate getting them too, in fact getting an upvote means even more than subscribes since they seem to be such a special thing that’s handed out. But all in all, comments are what definitely get the greatest reaction from me and do make me really happy. When I log in and see the alert than go to read what someone has said, whatever it may be (nice, funny, critisim, etc. // I love when a comment makes me laugh) it fills me up with a warm feeling inside, it really does. And doing the same back to another writer on their story feels just a good, especially if they respond back. I can’t speak for everyone, but I can assure you that there are many of us out there like myself who will respond back to you, like having conversations, and hearing what you have to say; those convos can even lead into something bigger!

Anyway, the point of this is, I’ve notice how there is like this movement about this going on recently (like I said earlier, I like to creep around in the social section – que Exo’s Monster) which you can see got started by this blog post here (original blog post link) and more peeps have been following through with it. So, I decided to put my hand into this as well. Also, made by the same person, they’ve recently started like a community thing to help bring writers together so that they can share feedback and help each other out, that sorta stuff (link) so go join if that interests you!

So, since I jumped in, why not you! Let’s all try and do our best to at least try and be more active and make AFF an even nicer and warmer place for all. Don’t be a silent reader, support your favorite stories and writers by commenting on their stories, and maybe try talking with them and expressing your love for their stuff, cause I know that for some of them, it can be tough to continue on without that feedback (and I mean actual feedback guys!) and there have even been cases where they quit because of it. Let’s not let that happen!

[EXTRA NOTE] Some other points I wanted to make based on observation of what others have said:

• When making a comment saying you liked a story, try not to just simply say you liked it, make sure to give reasons as to why. Whether it be the genre, characters, something that happened in the chapter, anything! Let them know what interested you.
• Get involved with the author notes yo! I know some authors, like me, will leave notes at the end of the chapter, sometimes talking about the story or leaving a question for their readers. Why not answer them or see the perspective that they may have noted.
• Try not to do stuff like “update soon” comments. I know there are those who don’t mind them (like me) but I also know quite a few writers who get pissed at comments like these. Telling someone to update soon can be see as a way of being like “hey, I like this a lot, pliss update soon” but actually expressing out the like is SO much better, and there’s also no guarantee of a quicker update.
• DON’T BE AFRAID TO REPEAT! This one actually kinda frustrates me. I’ve seen countless of times where peeps say they don’t comment because they are afraid to bring up a point someone else has already, but there is ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. If I see peeps bringing up a similar point, say multiple peeps say how they liked a certain thing, that let’s me know that “hey, lots of peeps like this, so now I know that it would be a good idea to include more of it” or whatever, that type of thought. So, don’t be afraid to comment something just because another person has already done it, it’s ok to say the same thing. It shows us authors something about the formula of our story, whether it be bad or good, and we can roll with it.
• We aren’t doing this for money mind you lol. I didn’t really care to bring this up since it’s not something that has come to my mind per say, but I’ve noticed how peeps talk about all this writing is being done for free, so I thought I’d just list it anyway for them.

I’m sure there is plenty of other areas that I could’ve tackled, but that’s all I got to say. One last thing for you all:

SPREAD THE WORD!