So a while ago I reblogged this post about some discourse I’m not really familiar with, in a fandom I don’t really follow

so I feel like I’m not really in my lane here

But a LOT of it resonated with me.

this line in particular keeps haunting me:

—-

“And another thing that has happened a lot is I write a fic or a Tumblr post. It gets zero interaction, and I’m like “oh I guess no one is interested about that,” and then I see that someone has just reposted my fic/post in a discord and people are geeking out over it over there.”

—-

like… is this a thing people actually do??

bring up someone’s writing in a private chat to talk about it? positively? to geek out together about how much you LIKE it?

WITHOUT giving the actual author ANY indication that you like it??

…I mean… OP was able to find these Discord discussions, so I guess they can’t have been totally private…

…but still, it sounded like OP had to do actual effort to find them

and if so, that is F’d up

you have the energy to repost a thing and discuss it in detail, but you won’t put any of that into a comment the author will see?

And then you get frustrated when the author gives up and stops updating?

I’m honestly trying to understand! Is it a feeling of intimidation about interacting with someone you admire?

You can’t be too intimidated to even leave Likes or Kudos, can you? Kudos on AO3 can even be anonymous! You don’t even have to be logged in! It’s a single mouseclick! We’d rather have guest-kudos than nothing at all!

I know we go on about the importance of comments on AO3, and of reblogs on Tumblr. But even just Likes and Kudos are better than nothing. At least give some sign to let the author know that the thing they wrote was worthwhile to someone!

And otherwise don’t be surprised when people give up..

—