Would you try using polls to help encourage reader response?
Yes. I wanted to tell you that I thought this post was just fascinating and that I have decided to experiment with putting polls at the end of my own stories from now on. I wrote up a response post here: http://bauble.livejournal.com/71855.html
Since the story's only been up for about 12 hours and Kirk/Sulu is a rather rarepair, AND I'm a new author in ST: Reboot fandom, I don't anticipate a huge response. However, I think I'll get a lot more data when I post in SPN to deancastiel which has 3,000 members and probably many, many more lurkers.
Would you use polls after reading?
As a reader, yes, I would love a poll on pretty much all stories. This is true of stories where it sometimes feels awkward to comment on an "old" story even though as a writer, I know I like comments on old stories. This is also true when I read a story I like but have no response to other than, "I liked it."
I also sometimes read a story and run out of time to formulate a proper comment (and I almost never remember to go back to a story to comment if I don't do it right after I first read it), so a poll would be a good way to let an author know I read it. It's less than ideal, obviously, since I'm pretty sure most authors would prefer a comment to a poll check mark, but at the same time I'm sure most authors would prefer a check mark to no response at all.
What improvements would you suggest?
Hmmm, I'm not sure. In the poll I did, I took out the "disliked it" option since I highly doubt than any reader is going to want to pick that option since in a poll that is not anonymous. And to be honest, I'm not sure I even want to know that a reader disliked it because it would be far too tempting to look at the data, find their username, and PM them with a whiny message "WHY?" Naturally, that kind of confrontational and childish response is what the lurker is probably trying to avoid with their honesty in the poll--otherwise they probably would have just left me a comment with what they didn't like.
I also included a "LOLed at the fic" option because the fic I posted was meant to be funny as well. I might consider adding more options like this that evaluates whether the tone of the fic comes across clearly: ie, a fic that's meant to be sexy is sexy. I'm also considering adding a poll at the end of the each chapter of, say, a long fic to see whether there's a drop off in readership after a particular chapter or something.
What was the most awesome dinosaur ever?
The mighty T-Rex and their ridiculously tiny claws.
Is receiving feedback via poll as satisfactory as receiving feedback in other ways?
No, but I think a poll will capture responses by people who would ordinarily never leave me comments anyway. It's like comparing apples and oranges in a way--the people who always comment will continue to comment regardless of whether there is a poll or not, and the people who never comment won't comment under pretty much any circumstance, but may very well vote in a poll.
Of course, I believe most readers falls into a third category between those two extremes: people who comment under certain circumstances but don't comment under others (people who comment on, say, 25-75% of the fic they read and like). I have no idea how polling might affect the commenting habits of that group of people--whether it'll encourage laziness or spark guilt/a sense of obligation. Or perhaps it'll simply make some readers think I am a pompous ass demanding feedback.
I certainly don't think feedback polling will become a fandom norm for a multitude of reasons: it's too much work for some authors, some people don't have the polling function available to them, some authors are worried about the possibility of wank, etc. I know I have a group of consistent readers who tend to read my fic. I hope the polling will allow me to get a better idea of how big that group is and what its composition is--whether it's, say, 5% people that I talk to and am friends with with 95% lurker/readers, or a more even 50/50 split.
here from MF
Yes. I wanted to tell you that I thought this post was just fascinating and that I have decided to experiment with putting polls at the end of my own stories from now on. I wrote up a response post here:
http://bauble.livejournal.com/71855.html
And actually used a poll in a Kirk/Sulu PWP story I wrote here:
http://bauble.livejournal.com/72584.html
Since the story's only been up for about 12 hours and Kirk/Sulu is a rather rarepair, AND I'm a new author in ST: Reboot fandom, I don't anticipate a huge response. However, I think I'll get a lot more data when I post in SPN to
Would you use polls after reading?
As a reader, yes, I would love a poll on pretty much all stories. This is true of stories where it sometimes feels awkward to comment on an "old" story even though as a writer, I know I like comments on old stories. This is also true when I read a story I like but have no response to other than, "I liked it."
I also sometimes read a story and run out of time to formulate a proper comment (and I almost never remember to go back to a story to comment if I don't do it right after I first read it), so a poll would be a good way to let an author know I read it. It's less than ideal, obviously, since I'm pretty sure most authors would prefer a comment to a poll check mark, but at the same time I'm sure most authors would prefer a check mark to no response at all.
What improvements would you suggest?
Hmmm, I'm not sure. In the poll I did, I took out the "disliked it" option since I highly doubt than any reader is going to want to pick that option since in a poll that is not anonymous. And to be honest, I'm not sure I even want to know that a reader disliked it because it would be far too tempting to look at the data, find their username, and PM them with a whiny message "WHY?" Naturally, that kind of confrontational and childish response is what the lurker is probably trying to avoid with their honesty in the poll--otherwise they probably would have just left me a comment with what they didn't like.
I also included a "LOLed at the fic" option because the fic I posted was meant to be funny as well. I might consider adding more options like this that evaluates whether the tone of the fic comes across clearly: ie, a fic that's meant to be sexy is sexy. I'm also considering adding a poll at the end of the each chapter of, say, a long fic to see whether there's a drop off in readership after a particular chapter or something.
What was the most awesome dinosaur ever?
The mighty T-Rex and their ridiculously tiny claws.
Is receiving feedback via poll as satisfactory as receiving feedback in other ways?
No, but I think a poll will capture responses by people who would ordinarily never leave me comments anyway. It's like comparing apples and oranges in a way--the people who always comment will continue to comment regardless of whether there is a poll or not, and the people who never comment won't comment under pretty much any circumstance, but may very well vote in a poll.
Of course, I believe most readers falls into a third category between those two extremes: people who comment under certain circumstances but don't comment under others (people who comment on, say, 25-75% of the fic they read and like). I have no idea how polling might affect the commenting habits of that group of people--whether it'll encourage laziness or spark guilt/a sense of obligation. Or perhaps it'll simply make some readers think I am a pompous ass demanding feedback.
I certainly don't think feedback polling will become a fandom norm for a multitude of reasons: it's too much work for some authors, some people don't have the polling function available to them, some authors are worried about the possibility of wank, etc. I know I have a group of consistent readers who tend to read my fic. I hope the polling will allow me to get a better idea of how big that group is and what its composition is--whether it's, say, 5% people that I talk to and am friends with with 95% lurker/readers, or a more even 50/50 split.