Response Etiquette

Follow your heart. Not sure there's an etiquette. I can't say it bothers me if I comment on someone's work and they don't respond in any way. It can actually be a little annoying to get an email saying someone else has commented on a story and I click through, sign in, scroll down and then it says 'Thanks'. It's nice to be thanked but the effort it took to receive the thanks... maybe not worth it.

What puzzles me is that there are people who not only never comment on anyone else's writing, but never even acknowledge comments - positive or negative - on their own writing. There's no rule that says you must read others and respond to comments - but it kind of goes against the spirit of the site if you don't do either. It's a community... at least, that's how I see it.

In each community the (western) world over, there are home-drinkers, pub drinkers, non-drinkers, social drinkers and anti-social drinkers.
Vive la disordre et attends la verite!

I think you should, yes.

More than that. I think if somebody is good enough to read and comment you should return the favour. I disagree with Alex about the one word comments. Sometimes it's hard to find anything at all to say about a piece, either it left you cold, or you didn't understand it, or you plain disliked it. On the other hand, maybe it was so good that it couldn't be improved in any way. By saying thanks, at least that person knows that it has been read.

Many of us are busy and don't have time to put in, only to take out. Well I'm sorry but that's just bullshit. If you can make time to post your work of art, then you can also make time to have the basic decency to do the same for somebody else.

As an example, last week, I read every single story (posted at the time) on the ABC X factor thread. I then went through the recently added and read and commented on a further thirty pieces. I never received one single comment in return, not one.

I realise that I'm a bad example because I post full novel chapters, often long ones. I totally get that if I've read six lines for somebody else, I can't expect them to read four thousand words of mine.

But, as an experiment, why don't you all try it sometime. Start at the first post and read and comment on as many of the recently added as you can in one sitting, and just see how many people have the good manners to return it.

There are a core of people on here who do read and comment for others, you know who you are,and this is certainly not aimed at you. A lot of other people are just plain selfish.

Rant over...(who trod on my good humour today?) Thank you very much for posting this spartacad, and I'm sorry for piggy-backing your post, it's something that I have to get off my chest every few months. This is the best writing site I've found, with the nicest people, but to work you have to give as well as take all the time, and so many people want the cake without doing any baking.

I agree with that sentiment, Richard. I like a bit of disorder in life.

I was a home drinker myself, and very anti-social in the sense of 'leave me alone'... but the thing is, if I'd gone into the offy and someone there had offered to buy me a can, I'd have felt obliged to thank them. And if I'd met someone there who was desperate for a drink but didn't have any money, I'd probably have bought them one. Then I'd have buggered off home alone to get drunk :)

Sooz - I basically agree with you... though I think everyone's circumstances are different. I'm finding very little time to write at the moment, so all I'm really doing is posting slightly edited/redrafted chapters of my already-written novel. As for reading, I do my best. Some days, I can manage time to read a dozen or so pieces and comment on a few of them. If they're longer pieces, it's fewer... and for very long pieces, I may not get very far if I don't engage with the style, characters, tone, etc. (like a lot of people, too, I hate reading from the screen). As for commenting, I certainly will if I think I have something constructive to say, or if I just want to tell the person how much I liked the piece - if I liked it! Just lately, I admit, I've been struggling a bit more than usual with time... but I still try to log in every day.

I post long pieces myself, though I'm conscious of the problems this creates, so I've been doing my best to not go above 2,000 words if I can help it, and I try to split my posts by a few days - unless they're much shorter. This isn't a criticism by any means (you've already acknowledged that you're a special case!), but one of the reasons I stopped reading White Phantom and Pedigree Crush With A Twist Of Passion - and I certainly liked the first two chapters of each that I managed to read - was that I simply couldn't keep up. Once I got about 3 chapters behind, I knew I couldn't do it - otherwise I'd never have the time to read anything else. I was pleased to see, though, that both novels had regular followers, because they were deserving of attention; you know what you're doing, and I can't think that publication for you is too far off (fingers crossed!) As I say... not a criticism. It just wasn't possible for me. It gets me down a bit, too, because I do like to try to keep up with everyone, and to give what I can to the site. It's given a lot to me in terms of encouragement, advice, friendship... and a community that lone wolves like me need. Without cyber-space, and work aside, I'd have very little contact with the world.

Hiya Stan, you're exactly the type of person that my post wasn't aimed at. Anybody who reads and comments regularly, and you're one of the core that does, is playing fair. People who comment on at least as many as they post are playing the game. The ones that get me are the people who post and never read for anybody.

I mainly use the site for back up because I'm guaranteed to lose thousands of words of something at least once a year. 40K words form my diary last year. Because of its sensitive nature I passworded it in Word. Like an idiot I used a flipping great sentence and managed to mess it up somehow (Twice). Those 40 thousand words are now locked forever in a word doc that I can't access.

Thanks for the kind comments about Crush and Phantom, obviously full novels aren't going to get much attention, I understand that, and I'm grateful to the people who did take hours of their time to read for me. My comments were about making the site better in general and was purely meant for the people who post and never comment for others.I think it's the sheer egotism that some people think that people should flock to their posts and that's the sum total of their input. It's one of the few things that really annoys me. I wouldn't even mind if I read something and the person came to my work and said that they didn't have time to read mine but would leave a comment on somebody else's shorter piece instead.

I agree with you about the community, last year I moved away from my hometown and I live in Manchester now, where I don't know a soul. Sometimes I can go several days where the only conversation I have is with my pets. I used to be a party animal now I'm just a cat lady. So I'm one of the lucky ones in the respect that I do have a lot of time on my hands to spend reading and writing.

'I used to be a party animal now I'm just a cat lady.' There's no such thing as 'just' a cat lady!

So... you're a cat lady and I'm a lone wolf. Don't get scared if you hear me howling at the moon at nights!

Regarding your diary... I'll bet there's someone on this site who knows a way for you to get in there. If not, have you tried Googling for an answer? I've been amazed at the number of strange questions I've typed into Google... and found what I'm looking for!

Also, check out

http://pcsupport.about.com/

The forums are excellent. Those people have saved me a fortune in giving me answers to everything from changing BIOS settings to sorting software conflicts - and I'm just a layman, not a geek!

HEY... try this:

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/tp/word-password-recovery....

Oh I wish, I've tried that. I've even asked some big tecchie guy in the office, and Peej, my best mate, is pretty good with computer stuff. Apparently once a Word Doc is passworded it's one of the hardest codes to break if a complicated sequence is used. I found several sites on the net that offered to 'try' and decode it for a fee. Peej said not to bother because all they'd be doing is trying the same things that he had.

But I've kept hold of the locked doc, just in case, one day.

The sentence I used is: What is the greater force, Guilt or love. I have tried every damned combination of letters and even pressed two keys together. But whatever I did, I did it twice because you have got to confirm password. Only me.

I think that abctales is a wonderful site because I don't feel comfortable in any class situation. I exercise on my wifit,take my exuberant hound Henry on a walk through our lovely countryside then onto some gardening; I| also returned a lost dog today (all whilst still wearing my nightie (tucked inside my jeans of course) now I'm sitting down tapping away at my magic keyboard but still having no time to get properly dressed BUT it is Sunday. You will have realised by now that I love casual; this site is brilliant. I enjoy logging on in the mornings, time permitting, reading what others are writing. I don't always comment but perhaps I should.
Esther

The usual suspects comment as much as they are able. I know there's a couple of people's long stories I haven't been able to finish as the stories were still in progress but I hope to get back to them at some point. Was recently on a site where I only received thanks for free will feedback and none for the ones allocated which I found really peculiar. Well, I decided to limit my participation accordingly for that and other reasons that just weren't on the level as far as the patterns I picked up on were concerned. Some folks really try here spartarcad and we have preferences, naturally. I've seen remarkable changes in people's work since I've been on Talers. Helped me deal with aspects of my writing I might otherwise not have touched too. Whole of human nature on display here.

I think it's nothing less than polite to respond to all feedback, positive and negative. And it's most certainly okay to disagree with positive :) Your piece, after all...

And I think Sooz's 'rant' is spot on.

http://www.ukauthors.com

Yes, I agree with Sooz if I post a piece of my work then I try to comment on at least two or three pieces of other peoples work. Sometimes though I can't do it immediately so I might have what I call a reading session. I also always reply to comments though not always immediately.

I think also that it is important to do the above because if one needs help as I recently did fellow Talers responded magnificently by coming to my aid.

I thanked them in the comments box after my updated version but now think I should have thanked them in the forum which I now intend to do.

Just to make it clear, I'm not saying I'm ever annoyed by people commenting on my stories. On the contrary, I'm enormously grateful and I do endeavour to say thanks when people do comment.

What I was saying that I personally don't feel the need to be thanked when I do comment on other people's stories. I assume they would appreciate it. I can understand why some would like to be thanked though.

For what it's worth I think it's pretty harsh to dismiss as bullshit those people who post their own stories but don't comment much/at all on other people's. I feel I probably fall that side of the line and don't comment as much as I would like to but time simply doesn't allow. Everyone's circumstances are different and mine unfortunately involve working full time (in a office where ABCTales is often barred as being offensive or containing nudity) and fortunately looking after two small children. I barely have time to write anything myself let alone comment that much on other people.

We all do what we can depending on whatever else is going on in our lives and we should all be free to do so without judgement.

Sorry for my rant but that really got to me, for some reason. I'll go and do my chores now.

See, different people, different opinions, that's what makes the world go round. I stick by mine, I think anybody posting an item should then read and comment on at least one piece themselves.

I also think there's a world of difference between people who don't comment a lot and don't comment at all. I was referring to the latter.

Like Moya, I tend to do a crop of them at once, rather than every day.