Hm.

[serai]

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How interesting.

I just popped over to AO3 to look at my stats, and found something interesting: among all the chapters of High Contrast that I've posted, the last one I put up - Erik - has gotten the highest number of page views...by at least double. It's up to 74, but the highest any of the others has gotten has been around 30.

I wonder why? There's nothing terribly extraordinary about that fic, it's really a piece of connective tissue rather than a story in itself. [ETA: (And there's no sex in it, so it can't be that.) I mean, something is getting people to read this fic, but I can't figure out what, LOL. Is there some kind of C/Z feed out there I've never heard about? Did my C/Z break some kind of tipping point somewhere? Is it the LACK of sex? Unanswerable questions, ARGH LOL.]

So I'm really curious to know how people hear about fics up at AO3, because I've been puzzled by how the hits shake out over there. The piece I've posted that's counted up the most readings has been Bargain, a drabble I wrote back in '03 when I first started on LJ, and the only thing I've ever written off Pirates of the Caribbean. (Though I must admit it was pretty good, I'm surprised it's up to over 500 hits now.) After that, a slash fic I wrote off the Star Trek reboot, and then that Hawaii Five-O thing. It's odd the way these things go, isn't it? Just can't predict what people will like!

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Comments

[addie71.livejournal.com]

That's a good question. I've never figured it out either. I do know that some of the fic I find are because they've been rec'd by others. The new F/S fic I find is because someone told me about an RSS feed that shows all new F/S fic posted there. Other than that, unless you are following a particular author, I don't know how people find the fics there. 'Tis a puzzlement.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested in that feed. Haven't read much new stuff in LOTR lately. Where is it?

[addie71.livejournal.com]

To be honest, it doesn't update much anymore, and the links drop off after a while, but here it is: http://ao3-frodosam-fics-feed.dreamwidth.org/

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I will check it out. I have an account opened at Dreamwidth, but I've never done anything with it. Just didn't like the options over there.

[lbilover.livejournal.com]

In my experience, it's fandom and amount of sex that determine the most hits. People like smut, and if it's in a popular fandom, they like it even more. :-) There are writers who used to write LOTR RPF brilliantly, but those fics have relatively few hits compared to more recent stuff they've written in newer fandoms. Abundantlyqueer comes to mind. It's not that the newer stuff is better, imo, just that LOTR RPF is no longer very popular.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

See, that's directly contradicted by what I'm seeing in my list - of the three getting the (relatively, LOL) massive counts, only one has sex in it. And the first fic I mentioned hasn't got much of anything in it. It's just fucking weird.

I'm not trying to figure out how to write for hits, or anything like that. This stuff is just gonna go as it goes. It's just frustratingly fascinating for me, since there's no way to figure it out really without asking everybody who reads my stuff. The fact that feedback at AO3 consists almost entirely of "kudos" makes it really impossible. (Does anybody like that "kudos" thing? I know I don't. It's FB invasion, in my opinion - just another version of those lazy FUCKING "like" buttons.)

[lbilover.livejournal.com]

Well, nothing is 100%, but in my own experience and from reading a number of discussions about AO3, stories with sex and/or kinks do the best in terms of hits within a given fandom.

I'm with you on kudos. Definitely not a fan. I try, if I like a fic, always to leave a comment.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Maybe they were trying to eliminate the problem of abusive feedback. No, then the only real remedy would've been to eliminate commenting at all, and they haven't done that. I honestly think it's either lazy thinking or jumping on the FB bandwagon without actually linking to FB. (THANK THE GODS they didn't go for that. I'd never have posted a word there if they had.)

[lbilover.livejournal.com]

You'd be surprised how many people love being able to leave kudos. I think there's a big cultural difference between those of us who started out on LJ and those who started out on Tumblr or FB.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess. Sad, isn't it? I think the reason I really hate it is that it treats the writers as vending machines - push the button enough times and another fic will pop out. It's fucking disrespectful, in my opinion. And a huge reason why LJ worked so well for fandom writers in the first place. Being FORCED to leave a comment in order for anyone to know you're even there is a godsend to the people whose stuff is being read. Good or bad, at least we know what the commenters are thinking.

[lbilover.livejournal.com]

I think the reason I really hate it is that it treats the writers as vending machines
Truer words were never written. Some of the comments I've read on Fandom Secrets and elsewhere are appalling. The sense of entitlement that is pervasive in fandom now makes me sick. I guess back in the early days we were all so appreciative of writers sharing their work and wanted to let them know. Now it's 'what have you done for me lately' and 'how dare you expect feedback'.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

AHAHA. *snort* Let them try that crap on me. I'll be like "and you are WHO, exactly? *cold stare*"

Incredible how spoiled and bratty some people can be. LOL.

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

What creates hits on Archive is always funny to me! Of course, I do find that in general, the most crazy, AU, mpreg, smutty fics iwth kinks galore will naturally get the most hits. But after that, it's very odd. My fic with the highest hits right now is a Bilbo/Thorin very mild rather vanilla slash piece. Makes sense with lbilover's theory because The Hobbit is way hotter a fandom than LOTR is right now and that's a popular pairing. However after that, my LOTR fics with kinks or non-con with traditionally unpopular pairings come a close second! Like my second highest hits thing was a kink fest thing I started for a friend that involves non-con, mpreg, butt plugs, an unpopular pairing, etc. One of my most popular fics on Archive is a gentle, non-graphic mpreg. So mpreg is very popular on Archive, it seems. Probably if a person wrote a steamy, smutty mpreg with non-con and slavery and butt plugs in a very hot fandom with the most popular pairing, it would probably have an enormous amount of hits! :))

I do disagree with you guys on kudos, though. While I abhor facebook and everything to do with it, I do like getting notifications almost every day about kudos on various fics. It really makes my morning! I do think that some of those same people would be too lazy to leave actual feedback and thus I would never hear from them. Although I personally try hard to leave feedback if I read a fic, I don't mind if others don't for me. I'd rather get a kudos than have complete silence and not know whether anyone is reading. But again, that's just a personal thing. I TOTALLY get and respect why one would not like the kudos thing!

[serai1.livejournal.com]

But the archive has unique hit counts, so we already know how many people are reading. The kudos serve no purpose other than to take away the impetus to actually say something. For me, I'd rather they didn't exist. I can see how many people are reading; getting lazy kudos is less helpful than getting only comments, because those kudos are of no use to me as a writer. All they tell me is "I can't be bothered to leave a few words". I don't think it's helpful to writers to encourage that kind of attitude, frankly.