Ability to reply to reviews

[remotemind]

I received a review today on the first story I posted and would love to be able to respond in kind with, at the very least, a thanks or ask for suggestions from the reviewer. Fictionpress has that option and I have honestly found it to be extremely helpful when it comes to vague reviews or to pointing out what a reader did not notice before(i.e. the story summary states the characters are anthros but a reviewer complains about how the characters seem too much like animals).

I just personally love to start a conversation with my readers, find out what they think, what they'd like to see happen. I like for my readers to feel like they're involved in the writing process.

[Jadwin]

Oh, I totally second this!

[xax]

I would seriously third this-- I think reviewing your own stories for whatever reason is kind of tacky, and having some giant header at the start of every new chapter consisting entirely of replies to reviewers to be even worse.

I once saw a personal fanfic site with a system that allowed the author to add a 'reply' to any review on one of their fics, and it'd show up in the same 'review box' when you checked the review list, under the original review.

[Ginevra]

I would very much like to have this option. I do enjoy having a dialogue with my readers. I've tried both methods mentioned above and neither is satisfactory, especially when someone has taken the time to give some real constructive criticism.

For now, I've settled on replying within my stories at the top. I usually separate any particularly long winded replies so that those who aren't interested can go ahead and skip them easily (such as using a row of "*" before and after.)

But, like I've said, I'm not really happy with that method.

[Solaris]

I actaully like putting my answers to my reviewers in my Author's notes. It makes the reader know that I saw their post and either took their suggestion or thanked them for the idea with the story.

True some stories get a lot of reviews so a personal reply is probably can't be done but a general thank you to all the reviewers is a good one too.

This reply box will probably be considered in the future upgrade of the site. But for now, use Author's Notes to reply to your reviewers.

Beth

[Elvy]

Oh this would be wonderful! I vote with both hands for this feature!

[LearyGirl]

I too would like the chance to talk to those who review stories. It would be cool to be able to explain my thought process to some of the readers. For example one reader of my story said that the character was different then he was on televison.( Though Tommy has been a lot wimpier in Season 4) Well I acutally incoporated more of the real actor Denis Leary (who is by all accounts I have heard a very friendly, kind, and loving man) into the character in my fan fiction... ( I felt like softening the character a little would make the rape more devasting for him to experience ) So if we could post this kind of information along with a review then might help others understand more too. Edited September 19, 2007 by LearyGirl

[MysticSong]

I would also like to see a place to respond to reviews. Or barring that, the ability to send a private message to a member (like FanFiction.net offers) while still keeping the member's email hidden (if they so wish).

I saw one person said "use author notes to respond" -- but the story I want to respond to reviews for is complete! There isn't going to be any more author notes, so I have no way to respond to anyone which is quite frustrating.

I use eFiction for my website's fan fiction section, and when author's receive reviews, then can reply directly to the reviewer in that box, again keeping the e-mail address of both parties private if they desire.

I wrote to AFF's admin and got this reply back:

"There isn't a way to do this right now, but we're working on thinking

about just how to implement such a thing.

We have a "Suggestions" thread going over on the AFF Forums -- maybe it'll

push some more people to put more thought into review responses if you

join up over there and start chatting about it."

I hope even if just a few people are posting about it that they'll work a way out for this to happen -- I'm sure there's plenty of authors who aren't in this forum that would like the option. So here's my token "chatting" post --- I don't know about the person who suggested 'chatting' but I work full time and am a part-time grad student so I don't have a lot of time to monitor this conversation. Whether I make one post or fifty, I still want this feature to be added.

Cheers,

MysticSong

(AFF Pen Name: MysticSlave)

http://www.slytherinselection.com

[Acal]

I think the easiest way to go about this is to add the Email option that FF.net has, i find it frustrating when i want to contact and author or reviewer and theres no possible way to send a message because there is no function on profiles to send a message.

FF.net has the ability to block PMs so if you don't want anybody to contact you, you can block any PMs. This function of course doesn't allow you to know what the person's email is. I have my email in my bio because theres no space for displaying your email address to the public in your profile.

[lyiint]

I really think we need this option as well so I'm adding my vote to the growing list of those who want a way to respond to reviewers. I love talking to those who have read my stories and, as been stated before, its very frustrating to not be able to repond. Most other fiction sites have this feature so it would be great if AFF could do it as well.

[IntHellsing]

The following phrase is what is known as beating a dead horse, but I also would like to be able to respond to reviews.

I feel that the ability to communicate well with the people who are reading your stories is a very valuable tool for an author, but author notes just aren't sufficient, particularly in instances where people continue to review your story after it's completed.

[Guest Jaxxy]

I feel that the ability to communicate well with the people who are reading your stories is a very valuable tool for an author, but author notes just aren't sufficient, particularly in instances where people continue to review your story after it's completed.

We're all about getting our Authors and Reviewers connected -- and the whole AFF Community -- this is why we've been focusing so much on improving our Forum for the last three months. It's more than a first step, and lots of work's still going into it every single day. Once the Yahoo! Groups were taken from us, getting Members back in touch was the first promise from me -- at least that much has been achieved! And, just in case anyone reading this was unaware, we have restructured this Forum so that each Fandom has its own well-divvied-up discussion area. For the time being, we hope you take full advantage of this feature to discuss your Stories.

Still, I do see that more direct, never-leaving-the-Archive contact-ability would be ideal -- that's why some of these other sites have had it for time out of mind. This site, when it was designed by the founder and her techs, did not originally have the capacity for that ability, however. What our present-day techs have to contend with is how and where to "hook in" coding that would get you your better interactivity. Yet, with so many other fixes and improvements going on every day (some you don't even notice on the user end, but they do improve the efficiency of the site vastly), this new option must wait in line behind numerous other things.

The good news is that there has already been administrative discussion concerning this, even before any current Staff was aware of this thread. We're much closer to implementing such a plan with the upgrade the Forum saw a few weeks ago, actually, because now that the Forum is no longer of a version from the Dark Ages (it was thirty-one versions behind until the beginning of this month!), it's much more possible for the coding of the Archive and the Forum to communicate with each other. As a result of that, perhaps sometime soon you'll be able to send and receive PMs even while reading or working only on the Archive, if the Archive allows.

When we finally do address this issue, though, don't be too surprised if the solution takes a different form than you expected. We're creative and resourceful folks, and if we find we can't climb over a mountain, we're well versed at finding our way around it.

I'd be shocked if anyone was more excited about getting this site into absolutely immaculate form that than we are. It's really a matter of repairing some very, very old problems deep in the site first... and, in fact, we've already begun a total site rewrite. This'll take a while!

When we're done, though, you simply won't believe your eyes. In a good way!

[lyiint]

Everything sounds very exciting and I can't wait to see all the new things you have in store for us. I'm sure all of us look forward to all the new innovative idea's you come up with to work in our requests. Thanks for all your hard work.

[Masamune]

this is one of those features that you can probably already 'get' yourself by looking up a reviewer's name and messaging them.  

but, for simplicity's sake, I too would like to see a function built into the Review system where people (at least whoever's story it is) could reply to that person regarding their review.  It'd be a good addition.

of course it goes without saying you'd only be able to respond to people who reviewed under their account name...

[kokiden]

I'm glad I saw this thread. I've been wanting a way to reply to kind reviewers as well! I'll try the author notes, but will look forward to future upgrades to the site.

[goofball]

Everything sounds very exciting and I can't wait to see all the new things you have in store for us. I'm sure all of us look forward to all the new innovative idea's you come up with to work in our requests.

yep, I do! I love answering my reviews so this will be really cool! *doing a happy dance*

Thanks for all your hard work.

yep again, thank you from me as well!

[DemonGoddess]

*sighs*

You guys misunderstood something methinks. Yes, we are looking to do some integration between two very different versions of software, as to the member tables. However, that may not be something that is entirely doable. Don't know yet, we will have to see. IF it ends being something that can be done, one would be able to use the forum to message and mail while being logged in to the fiction portal, as one would then be logged into both applications.

As to replying to reviews in the review board, we have so many OTHER things that just flat out need to be fixed and/or replaced as far as functions, that core usage takes a much higher priority than anything else.

[Harley Quinn hyenaholic]

I would like this option too. I bet I'd get more reviews if I replied to questions.

I'm just concerned that we'll get run-off gits from FF.net replying with flames.

[DemonGoddess]

I would like this option too. I bet I'd get more reviews if I replied to questions.

I'm just concerned that we'll get run-off gits from FF.net replying with flames.

We get that anyway unfortunately, even without the ability to reply to a review. You have a couple options of course to begin with. First is to delete the flame from your review board. YOUR story, you do not have to put up with that kind of bs. Second would be to report the flame, and as long as that user is logged in, we can do something. We cannot about the anons a this point in time. The anons you just gotta delete. Down the road though, we will be able to do more.

I may not write, but it irritates me no end to find reviews in a section where obviously the content is not something for everyone's particular reading tastes. I mean jeez, click a slash category and then flame the stories BECAUSE they contain slash?? That happens all over, but it's obvious what that flamer is doing isn't it? Another particular favorite of mine is where an author CLEARLY states the story is AU, and gets flamed BECAUSE it's AU.

[Harley Quinn hyenaholic]

Reminds me of the time I had to delete an entire story because some dickwad had posted so many identical flames that I couldn't even get into the review section to delete them all.

What pisses me off is not flaming a story because it's slash (because a lot of slash is repetitive suckage anyway), or AU, (because AU isn't an excuse to destroy worlds with Mary Sue) but revenge flaming. Flaming a story because somebody told you your fanfic didn't rock quite as much as you wanted me to say it did. I'm not CERTAIN it's happened to me before, but it may well have. And some people use it as a threat.

"HOW DARE YOU SAY MY FANFIC ISN'T PERFECT IN EVERY WAY! OTHER PEOPLE SAY IT'S GREAT! DO IT AGAIN AND I SHALL PUT 200 COPY/PASTE FLAME REVIEWS ON YOUR STORY, EVEN IF OTHER PEOPLE LOVE IT!"

Edited March 29, 2008 by Harley Quinn hyenaholic

[DemonGoddess]

jeeeez.

Revenge flaming????

Something like that ever happens to you (or any other user for that matter) again (if it's here) I can get into the review board if you cannot and DELETE all that crap. That, and I can turn it over the pertinent info to those who would take care of flaming on the archive and have things taken care of on that end as well.

[Bargle5]

A bit late joining in on this topic, but what the hell.

I've found people answering reviews in their story really annoying. Distracts greatly from the flow of it.

I answer reviews in the reviews section. I try to make sure and address the specific person I'm responding to so it doesn't end up looking random.

The answering a review as an addition to the review would be nice if doable. It works that way for the stories I have on Sycophant Hex and is a nice feature.

A related question. Would it possible to have a link to the reviews for a story in each chapter? Like we do for the 'author', 'review fic' and 'next chapter' ? As it is now, if you want to read the reviews for a story, you have to either go back to the category listing for the story and go from there or go to the author's fic list and go to them that way.

[archangelm127]

Even though this thread is old, I just wanted to add another endorsement of the idea of being able to post a response to a review. I'm picturing something along the lines of the way Newgrounds does it--the author of the piece can post a single reply, which appears below the review in question and indented.

As it is, I've been leaving replies to people's comments on my writing blog, although I don't know if any of my reviewers have actually seen my replies. I also email them when possible.

After reading some of the admin replies from this thread, though, I should keep track of the relevant parts of the forum in case anybody posts about my stories. ^^

[DemonGoddess]

Okay, the current software does not and will not ever really be able to support review replies. IF we ported that in, it could easily make other parts of the old script not function right. So, what we've opted for is to have that as an option for the new software in development.

[MorbidFantasy]

I agree with OP about the inclusion of a review reply mechanism, but if it's not technically feasible, I guess we'll have to make do with what we got.

Here's how I try to keep in touch with reviewers:

If the reviewer has written stories on AFF I tend to review their story, give my input and thank them for reviewing my stories while I'm at it.

For some of my longer stories I include a snippet at the beginning of each new chapter where I could respond to reviews that I found to be constructive, as well as ask for ideas and suggestions from my readers. I find it a really big motivation to continue writing due to all the positive support I get. I understand that some people would think that this breaks the flow of the story, and I do try marking the point where musings end and story begins very clearing with Chapter name and a line of asterix.

Emails: less common but I've actually struck up long term email conversations with a few of my readers. I think if, as an author you would like to be able to respond to your reviewers ask them to leave their emails in the review so you could reply.