Tricks for attracting *Comments*...

My problem is that the stories I really grove on I don't ever think to comment on because I'm too into the moment, but the ones I hate I just can't get past my rage to leave something cogent and helpful...

 

Funatic added a suggestion to a suggestion I posted that could help with this. The ability to like comments left on your stories like we can do here in the forums.

 

While that would be a nice feature, I will say that my general experience has been that once someone's commented, they are much more likely to comment again. The greater issue is creating an atmosphere that invites that first comment.

That being said, anything that helps with involved reader retention can't be a bad thing.

 

Maybe if the comment section was moved to the bottom of the chapter instead of off to the side. It may be that where they are located has them getting the outta sight outta mind treatment.

 

It is even worse on mobile as we have to open the side menu to see the comments.

Also the comment icon on the bottom of the page should have numbers to indicate if there are comments on this chapter and push people to go see what other readers have to say about it.

 

something I have seen work well is having a short term poll, one of the threads on gamer got like 50 comments doing that. Mind you that story is super popular but I have seen other stories get quite a few by doing the same thing.

 

Well, I suppose one way to do it is to comment more on the principle of "what you give is what you get"...
I'm going to try to make a point of commenting on stories I like in the hopes of people doing the same for me.

 

I'll just nod along with the rest of the authors here.

 

This is probably the right answer. To pile on, once casual readers see that comments are a thing that get noticed, they'll want to be part of the fun.

As frustrating as it is to get hundreds of thousands of views and four comments, it has made me appreciate the rare feedback even more.

 

I just started a very small "test" with 5 samples, and now i feel like a spammer fishing for attention ;-)

First i checked who bookmarked one of my chapters the last few days, without leaving a comment or using the like button on the story at all.
Then i proceeded to write a slightly personalized message (user name, and citing the chapter in question), and asked politely to consider using the thumbs up button on chapters they like, so that i can see what my readers like, and that i would of course appreciate any kind of feedback via comment or personal message.

I'll let you know if this approach results in any feedback!

 

Results after around 11 days:
1 out of 5 messages: The reader replied and said that he will leave a thumbs up in the future.
4 out of 5 messages: No reply.

Additional comments: None.

Conclusion:
l I'll leave it at this, an one time experiment. And i wont bother innocent readers with personal messages again ;-)

 

I've done much the same experiment with people who liked chapters in a game mode story but didn't comment on the current chapter and got simmilar results. Personal messages don't seem to work.

 

It worked once for me. When I just started writing one guy was bookmarking every single chapter I added to a story I was working on. Each time I was seeing 20 notifications and half were bookmarks.

I Messaged him asking if he didn't confuse the like and bookmark buttons. He told me that he did, went back to like the chapters he had bookmarked and ever since I removed bookmarks from the things I get notified about.

 

I've also have been doing an experiment where those who give a thumbs up or bookmark my stories I have began following even the virgins who 0 in all stats. Out of them I have 8 new followers out of roughly 30 that had responded. For me its not so much comments, but gaining future readers.

 

I dunno if maybe this hasn't already been stated cause it's super obvious and everyone knows the big reason why this is, so if that's the case, feel free to ignore me, but...I think maybe the reason why we don't have a lot of comments is cause people who haven't signed up to the site aren't allowed to? I'm sure there's a reason for that, but when I first came to this site, I definitely lurked. I rarely put effort into signing up for sites I go to, much less a porn site, and I eventually gave in cause I wanted access to the story maps.

But maybe if there was some sort of system in place for people who aren't members to comment? Some sort of guest account based on IPs (The comment writer's name would show up as 'guest14563', for example). I'm sure there's a huge pool of people who don't want to take the extra step to sign up who are, nonetheless, still reading the site regularly, and if they had an easy and anonymous way to comment, they would. I'm sure we'd have to deal with a lot of trolls, too, but that's the price we'd pay to not have near total silence.

 

Anonymous comments would be cool with me if authors were given the ability to delete them/opt out.

 

I'd rather the silence. Almost every other site would rather the silence. The reason is very simple: ability to silence. There's too many tricks to getting around IP bans. If everyone behaves, that's just fine. But if someone's misusing the system and exploiting the tricks, then the staff is constantly working to rectify the issue. Even my precious report button doesn't help us since we'd then need to interpret much more than a recurring handle. There's simply too much work created through moderating anonymous actions. And increasing the number of staff doesn't change that (assuming CHYOA's at the point we can consider increasing the number of staff). Thus, every administrator, before long, admits that anonymous actions are gigantic problems. At that point, they have to either disable the option completely or force users to relinquish some levels of anonymity with registration. And before someone calls "foul," let's remember our most infamous troll still skulks around LitErotica, CHYOO, and CHYOA motivated and hampered by his stupidity, and the second most infamous was in all probability just one person using multiple accounts who surrendered upon figuring out the plan would never work again.

It's not worth it. The increased efforts to silence the trolls don't produce a high enough return.

 

Bring in guest comments gives noise that authors crave, but the you have trolls who take advantage of the system already. Opening up a flood gate for noise and robots may please no one.
While I agree with SmutMaster on the early days of lurking around the site before signing in to gain access to the map. I also agree with Kaitou1412 silence is best when it comes to comments. Give the trolls bait and they will bite harder then they are now.
I am pleased with the constant updating of the site it does worry me that if you open it too wide you will lose authors who have potential or are extremely great writers who have been brutalized by comments that are anonymous.
I am for the idea of opening the story map to the public and am against anonymous comments.

 

I doubt that the comments of people who didn't even bother to register would give you anything meaningful ...
You'll probably just end up fishing for trolls.

Also i suspect that there are a lot of people who did actually register, but never commented or liked anything...

 

I think we'd definitely get some good, useful, encouraging, or or fun comments if they were publicly allowed. Tons of people *hate* registering for stuff, in an age where everybody and their mother is asking you to sign up for this site or that loyalty program. Its overwhelming and annoying.

Doesn't make the people that read here but aren't registered dull or trolls.

Many people also like sharing opinions.

Im not saying that admin should allow public comments, or that there cant be a downside, but there's no reason to dismiss the advantage.