lolmac | No Hit, Herlock

Entry tags:

egregious egotism

No Hit, Herlock

Well, I had a truly rip-roaring month on fanfic.net: I posted my very first Stargate fics -- two of them, totaling exactly 139 words (one sexy drabble and a silly joke item 39 words long) -- and observed with fascination that Stargate fic readers tend to behave like starved sharks when there's words in the water. I blew well past 1,000 hits for the month, which is phenomenal for me, especially considering that I haven't been doing this for very long.

And then, three days ago, a screeching halt. One hit a day. My over-inflated ego withers and sobs.

Is it just me, or did anyone else suddenly get flatlined? Given how well we know that ff.net never has technical problems, and is always timely with its acknowledgements of any glitches, and works speedily to resolve any technical issues . . . ("Wow, sarcasm. That's original . . . ")

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This is the first I've heard of it, because I'm not familiar with that site...did you post the URL on the fan forum? I didn't know about it *hint hint*, or I would have posted it for you. E-mail me !!

Your slathering, blathering fan & fiend,
K@

Still can't find the URL for your SG-1 stuff.

Can I have a hint? Starving here...

Thanks! Squeeee

Oops, sorry about that!

OTP: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5415269/1/OTP
(you've already seen that one -- you were partially responsible for it!)

One Hand For the Ship: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5462960/1/One_Hand_for_the_Ship
(and yes, the pun on the word 'ship' is completely deliberate)

Also, here's the link to my ff.net profile:
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1445566/MacBedh

The profile includes a list of all my stories, including all the lovely Macness, the drabbles, the SG-1, and the crackfic.

Erm. Considering all my stories are posted in a teeny fandom, and I haven't posted anything new in months, my hits are pretty erratic. But they looked ok for Wed and Thurs, although Friday I only had 2 hits.

Could be Mercury in retrograde or something. (I have no idea if it is, but it's a good standard excuse for everything.)

Merc is direct... but sounds like somebody "fixed" something...

Yes, they 'fixed' Storymarks, and they've been 'improving performance' in some parts of the world. They do occasionally announce that they're working on 'enhancements', but they never acknowledge the existence of problems, so users never know if they're aware or working on it. The author interface was completely unavailable for a week at one point (which means no new material could be posted), with no acknowledgement from TPTB. You could hear the shrieks of ficcers in withdrawal around the globe.

I love the smell of sarcasm in the morning! lol

Oh yes. It persists! There must be a goblin or a glitch in the system.

I LOVE IT!! Do you have that in an Extra-Large??

K@

I have only the 100x100 lj icon that 'Beth made for me, but I'll bet that she's got a larger version on hand, or can make one. She's marvelously crafty that way! :-D

I must go beg & plead!!! I SO need that some days for my desktop.

Today would be one of those days...

Thanks!
Squeeee
K@

Thank you for the XL pic!! The kids got a big kick out of it too. The way my computer is acting up, it is now my desktop background. I hate my computer, and it returns the favor tenfold.

Tired today, but will go do something. Really...zzZzzz...

More! Starving! Love them! Longer please!

My hits/reviews for my written work come and go. I'm actually surprised when I get a new one for any of the stories I've posted on ff.net.

I'm not the type of person to leave a review for people I don't *know* unless something really strikes me as off the holy crap -- you should be a writer for the show. And -- considering how picky I am when it comes to what I'll read from beginning to end -- it doesn't happen very often, especially in today's story market.

Don't let the lack of hits/comments get you down. Feed back is great -- it helps us improve our work and gives a good ego stroking (I know mine's perfectly flat after the personal tragedy of last night...). I think in today's over clocked world, however, people are more apt to read and move on than stick around and *pay* the author with a review. There are just too many hip new shows to watch on the DVR and more foo-foo caffeine filled coffee beverages to drink. As long as I can make a few people happy -- even if they're just within my group of fan fic friends -- than my job is done. Anything more is just like whipped cream on the pie.

BTW, I didn't know you wrote SG-1 too...

I know a lot of people either don't like to leave reviews or posts, so I've finally learned to not take that personally any more when I post cartoons on the fan forum. I try to look at the number of hits, and draw some degree of comfort from that. Besides, trust me, if they *didn't* like something you did, you'll sure hear about it!!

I have to join so I can leave a comment, so I figured it was just better to e-mail you, Beth. Squeee
K@

Emails or reviews, comments, whatever, it's all good!

There is a slight added benefit when comments are added via the ff.net interface -- stories with more reviews often draw more readers. Given how much fic there is in the Pit (as some folks call ff.net), some people don't bother reading anything that doesn't have what they consider a critical mass of reviews (even though, in some fandoms, there are pages of unreadable stories with hundreds of reviews that all say 'OMG this is so awsum pls uppdate soon omg!')

To date, I have only received one genuinely negative comment, and the comment and its context left me entirely unaffected, except for feeling deep disgust at the commenter. At present, I even have anonymous comments permitted on ff.net -- a true sign of naïvité -- so I think you can actually leave a review without having an account.

This was hits, not reviews -- reviews run few and far between, except for the handful of deeply appreciated and cherished people such as yourself who leave a comment on pretty much every item as it posts! If I haven't made it clear before this, I adore you for that (as well as many other virtues).

I can't say I'm happy about the low level of commenting, but I recognise that it's just the way things are. Usually, I console myself that although I'm not getting reviews, at least I'm getting hits, which means people are reading. If they're reading, I can at least visualise them enjoying.

Which was why having the hits drop to near zero, and stay there for three days, threw me for a loop. At least a few other people had pretty much the same thing happen in that same week, although not on exactly the same days; so I'm left wondering if it was a glitch or not. I posted the newest chapter of Reverb yesterday, and was very happy to see hits register on it. (And also happy to see hits register from the other pieces; possibly a backlog of untallied hits finally came through from the flat days.)

Prior to writing, I had no idea just how much feedback could mean. Having finally learned the hard way, I've worked my way up to saying something about most stories I like, even if it's brief. Of course, now I find myself getting annoyed on the occasions when I leave a longer, more thoughtful review and receive no response . . .

As for the SG-1 fic: the two shorts were my first attempts, and they're both bad jokes, mostly at the expense of the hardcore shippers. Of course, I love ship, but I'm dreadfully promiscuous about it. It was definitely eyebrow-raising seeing the hits spike! There were, again, very few reviews, but there's really not that much you can say about a crackfic that's only 39 words long!

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No Hit, Herlock

STORIES!!!

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Your icon...avatar..whateverthehell it is...

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UFB

Yay!!

Hit or miss

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