schmevil

fluterbev wrote an interesting post about feedback as currency. She's got an excellent look at how different the writing-feedback equation looks from the other side. Some writers view feedback as payment for a job well done. Bev says:

And few readers ever seem to express their giving of feedback in terms of it being payment. Fanfic is freely available on the net, and anyone can read it. Why, unless they have a particular investment in doing so, should readers pay for it terms of feedback? And if stories are read via fanzines instead of on the net, the reader has already paid a monetary sum to read it, so why should they pay again by sending feedback?

musesfool posted her views on feedback. Vic says:

But the fact of the matter is, no one is under any obligation to read, to finish, to like, or to comment on any piece of fan work they come across. It's really awesome that people do, and it can encourage writers/artists to produce more stories/art/whatever. But an obligation, as in, I created this and you must pay for it now since you read and enjoyed it? No. (The exception being gift exchanges where the fic/art/vid etc. was created for a specific person, often to their specific requests. Then there is an obligation, as there is with any gift, to say thank you, at the very least.)

And there's lots of talk about how we do this for free and don't get any compensation yada yada, and I... don't know that that's necessarily true. I get the compensation of knowing I wrote a story, I made a thing that didn't exist before, and 99% of the time, it's a thing that makes me happy. I post that thing because I hope it will make other people happy. Sometimes, it really does. Sometimes... not so much.

destina has a list of 23 Reasons Readers Don't Give Feedback. I like these ones:

22. Because they don't see your story as a gift to them, and they bristle at the notion they are somehow obligated to thank you in return. In fact? They probably think their feedback to you is the gift. And who's to say they are wrong? Not me.

23. They see writing feedback as a chore. Certainly writing a story can be a chore sometimes, for some writers; why would writing feedback be any different? If fandom is supposed to be about having fun, it makes no sense to do what doesn't make you happy.

There is so much confusion about the writing-feedback equation. Personally, I read so much more fic than I write and only feedback a tiny percentage of what I read. The reasons for that are aptly covered by those posts, but writers, make no mistake - you will never find a Unified Theory of Feedback, and you will never, ever find a reliable way to compel readers to post more feedback. And you should seriously stop trying. There's nothing more loathsome imo than attempts to make what is by nature a gift (produced freely, for free) into an obligation. You can't add on after the fact, a moral imperative to feedback, when it wasn't in the initial contract - you posted your fic openly, online, and perhaps requested feedback, but didn't require it. Therefore, you cannot position feedback as payment, obligation or imperative. It must be as much an unlooked for gift as the fic itself. I say must, because those demands for feedback-or-no-more chapters will always get some response, but are imo ultimately corrosive to the writer-reader relationship. Not only must the reader perform on command, but now the writer must too - having received feedback s/he must produce that next chapter, or renege on the fannish contract. And that's just fail.

Bev says that the reader isn't obligated to write feedback, unless s/he's personally invested in doing so, for whatever reason.

I am personally invested in writing feedback. I may not have been writing much of it lately, (for reasons that are unimportant at this juncture, or however the quote goes), but I enjoy giving feedback. I really like talking about fic. There aren't many places in fandom, particularly eljay fandom, where it's cool to talk about people's fic. There's some sort of invisible line between general meta, and discussing individual stories, outside of the writer's own forum. Comment threads are probably the best place on eljay to have in-depth fic-talk. I also really like talking fic with writers - finding out what went on behind the scenes, what their process was, that kind of thing. So feedback? Is win win for me.

As I said, I haven't been writing much feedback lately, but I've come into some free time and I'm setting a challenge for myself. Back when I was posting on Fiction Alley Park, we had this club where you set yourself feedbacking challenges, and then posted on the challenge thread, when, where and to whom you fbed. If it was more generally interesting fb, you might repost it for other people to read. The point was to a) generate fic-talk; b) share your appreciation with the writers; and c) engage in a little community development by getting some multi-directional conversations going. Oh yeah, and have fun. I don't know if this club still exists - it's been years since I posted at FAP - but while I participated, it was great.

I'm declaring the month of May to be my personal Feedback Challenge.

My goal is to write 30 pieces of feedback of 100 or more words, exclusive of story quotes.

I will post about my progress in this journal and tag the entries 'may feedback challenge'.

I might reproduce the fb here, if I think it would make for an interesting discussion, after asking for permission (as a courtesy) from the author.

This challenge isn't about paying fic writers back. It's about sharing my appreciation for their hard work, and indulging my interest in talking about fic.

I would be delighted if other people set themselves a Feedback Challenge, because I want to hear what other people have to say about fic. *I have a tiny flist, so if you think this is an interesting idea, or you think your flist would be interested, please R+R pimp.*

ETA for clarification: you set the terms of your own challenge.