Comment Fest Wrap Up

[darkravenwrote.livejournal.com]

Hello, lovlies?

What happened folks?

Okay, so I know the poll was last minute but did we get some wires crossed somewhere? It's been brought to my attention that 'comment fest' in this fandom is a prompt based event that already exists. I apologise, because I really didn't know that before the event.

Assuming we were to call it something else, e.g Feedback-A-Thon to prevent this confusion, would you guys all understand what was going on a bit better?
Or now that you know this was supposed to be an event where you're required to give feedback (leave comments) to creators based on daily themes, do you just not like the idea?

Can I have some feedback please?

On the up side, although the event crashed and burned here it went really well in the other fandom I ran it in (although this was only a test run and some changes need to be made. For example, some people said they didn't have enough time to read all the stuff they wanted to in one day.)

If you could leave your thoughts?

Comments

[swissmarg]

I didn't participate in this, but as a long-time observer, I was also confused at first what participants were supposed to do. As you said, 'Comment Fest' is known to me as a fest where people leave prompts in the comment section, then anyone can fill the prompts with drabbles.
I think what would have been most helpful (other than calling it something else, lol) would be to put at the top of the Guidelines something like 'This is a fest to encourage leaving comments on fanworks. To participate, all you need to do is leave a comment on someone else's fanwork.' Because I had to read pretty far down in the guidelines to find anything that actually said people were supposed to leave feedback or comments on other people's stuff.
It's a great idea, though, I hope it works out next time!

[darkravenwrote.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply :)

Along with name change, that's a rely good point! I think if i'd know about the name confusion thing I might have written it differently? I don't know. Anyway, good point. That'll definitely be rectified if the event tries for a rerun in the summer.

Thanks again. It's really appreciated. :)
x

[khalulu]

In addition to the name change/clarification, I think a longer time-line would help. Because you're asking people to try new fics of types they might not normally read, but recs are not built into the fest, so someone has to go and find a fic of that type that they might enjoy, which means research. Yes, there are a ton of fics out there, but the sheer number of them makes it hard to know where to start. Also, people may not have time for fic-reading that day, or may already have a back-log of fics from a fest they are following that they want to read, that do not fit that category. I like the idea of reading new types of fics, but for me fests are helpful mostly as things that inspire writing of fics - by me, or by others which are then collected in an easy-to-find place. So writing comments is more a private thing that I do as a result of reading things, than something I participate in a fest to do.

[darkravenwrote.livejournal.com]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. This was absolutely a test run, so everything you say is absolutely important.

Timescale wise, someone on the other fandom suggested giving say 3 themes and giving people a whole week to comment and report back on them. Do you think this would work better and having a longer fest?

I absolutely understand about commenting being a private thing. This event wouldn't be to everyone's taste. As I'm in a lot of fandoms, I've noticed over the years that (perhaps except on fest locations, eg around LJ) commenting isn't as common as it is elsewhere. Which I think is a real shame sometimes, because I've heard of (and am someone myself) who's been very demotivated to share things online because you get it into your head that no one likes your work. Which is kind of where the idea came from, that it would be nice to encourage the practise. But again I'll say it isn't for everybody, so people absolutely don't have to participate if they don't want to and they won't be judged for it.

I really appreciate you taking the time to come and tell me your opinion. It'll definitely help shape the next test run if we decide to go again.
x

[josephinestone.livejournal.com]

say 3 themes and giving people a whole week to comment and report back on them. Do you think this would work better

I think this would have helped me a lot actually. I read during that time, but not the right things on the right days. I kind of read things that come up on my feed as they come up. Like with the drabbles one - I was like, I read drabbles all the time - but I think I was just too tired that particular night.