In the process of reading a fic, do you review every chapter? Wait until you have caught up? Wait until the fic is finished? What are the cases you feel like leaving a review and what are the cases you do not?

 

I don't review.



If I know the author, or have easy access, I'll give them a running commentary/review as I read. Chapter by chapter, sometimes scene by scene if I'm friends with them. Review only happens when I'm current. For other stories, it's a "I'll know it when I see it," type situation. I'll review if it feels right to do so.

 

I see how it is.

 

Sorry if I'm being too honest, but don't you think that's kind of dick move? Don't authors live and breath on feedback?

 

Sauce is kind of a dick, yeah.


To be on topic, when I read on FFnet I tend to leave an overall impression review at the end, and chapter specific ones only if the person has asked for my impressions or if the chapter has something that I found worth commenting on, good or bad.

 

Sorry to break it to you but I'm pretty sure most people that read fanfiction don't bother reviewing.

Just because someone writes thousands and thousands of words doesn't mean they crave some form of validation.



*Sobs.*

 

I'll leave a review whenever I see something that sticks out and is worth commenting on.

 

I wait until I caught up and sometimes from that until the story finishes its current arc.

 

When I start disliking what I'm reading, I'll just exit out of it. No review.

If I like the fic enough to want to show appreciation, I'll review the latest chapter up. For the few on-going fics I really love, I'll leave a gushy review for each new chapter released. Sometimes when I'm bored and I see a good fic without a lot of reviews, I'll go through and review all the previous chapters. There's no method here-- I review on a whim, basically. And if I'd think it would make the author happy.

I only give constructive criticism if someone specifically asks me for it, and that's usually done through PMs/off-site anyway.

 

Numbers? It's a reality the average reader consider the number of reviews when choosing a story to read. Reviewing good stories more should help to raise the overall taste of the fandom.

 

I try to leave a review whenever I can but I often forget. Been trying to do better the last few weeks and nowadays I only don't leave any reviews if I either am reading the downloaded version on the train with no internet access or if there is really nothing kind to say, like I the very premise just turned me off and there is now way to improve other than scratching the whole thing and start anew, but those are rare though.

Otherwise, yeah, I usually leave one review once I finish the story and then I might write something about further updates if I have something to say about them but the chapter by chapter thing I only really do when editing/reading something for a friend.

@TheLazyReader so you only leave "that's good, update more" kind of reviews? Otherwise, the stories who aren't good might benefit from constructive criticism more than the stories that were already good.

 

Not at all. I do it exactly like you and always try to review if I read until the end of what was posted. I mostly try to be helpful with constructive things and only leave "that's good, update more" ones if I see the author has no intention of improving. What I meant by reviewing the good ones was just as you pointed: there's no point reviewing indie!Harry bash!weasleys if I'll only say bad things that the author will shrug off as flames or just ignore because they'll get thousands of others saying they're doing great. If the story is bad somehow, I review if they can actually improve from what I say.

 

I'm one of those weird people that think names should mean something, so I try to leave actual reviews rather than comments to the author. (I think if something is called a review but used solely for comments to the author it should be renamed)

This means I've only ever reviewed stories that emotionally moved me- so either completed stories I've loved and really enjoyed, or really shitty stories that piss me off in the first chapter or so about how shitty they are in clear obvious ways. In which case I give an actual review with an X/10 score and non-spoiler explanations about why it's bad for anyone who happens to read reviews.

This has really pissed authors off in the past, especially when moderators refuse to remove it because it's an actual review and not just flaming.

 

Fair enough. The plebs are willing to leave a word of encouragement though; perhaps, then, it is fair too that garbage should dominate the fandom.

 

Garbage dominates every fandom. Not just fandoms, the world in general. Thoughtless idiocy for the sake of it shouldn't garner merit. Just because these people leave these sort of reviews doesn't mean everyone should clap them on the back for their incentive and aspire to do the same.

One decent, well thought out review positive or negative is worth ten thousand messages of "lol, nice one. Update."

Don't be an enabler.

 

That moment when I become an adjective. ilu2

 

My point was not at all to enable review fishing. I meant reviewing stories with potential. How many authors started writing something interesting, but stopped half-way because all their readers were waiting for the last chapter to review?