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There are, honestly and all kidding aside, a number of factors, I believe. One is going to be the definition of "constructive criticism." Some authors think that anything that tells them their story isn't perfection is a flame. They do this for the lulz, and not necessarily to improve, and those readers who like to encourage authors to improve on their craft and offer honest, thought-provoking feedback aren't welcome to such writers. On the flip side, there are those people who think they're being constructive, when they're really serving to be destructive in the terms they use to tell the author there is a need for improvement. Another factor is the "something for nothing" mentality. It permeates our society, so it isn't really any surprise that readers wouldn't think twice about not letting an author know that they read the story. Liked or not, they read it. I tend to think of it this way: "hits" are the number of times someone checked the book out in the card catalogue, read a few pages, and put it back on the shelf. The "hits" mean nothing to me. The reviews, on the other hand, tell me quite a bit. They can tell me that the story was good, that it needs improvement, that it's total fluff, etc. As I am one of those who doesn't write, I can tell you that I also look at the names of the reviewers. If I recognize the names as people that read fluff fic, whose names I only see reviewing fluff pieces, and they rave about the story in their review, I'll generally leave it alone. I'm not usually in a fluffy mood. There are those rare occasions when my brain can't handle much more than fluff (say, when I had the flu), and those are the times I'll read those pieces. The 'least loved' stories in the archive - but the most read - are generally oneshots. People read them, and -let's face it- 'fap' to them, and close the browser window. Sometimes, the readers leave TMI reviews (IMO) but at least they're giving the author some feedback about what was written. I can honestly state that another reason readers may not leave a review may have to do with their age. DG, at the beginning of this year, had to do a massive sweep through the archive to nuke underage reviews that weren't getting deleted when the accounts were being removed for minors (details here). Being completely underage aside, younger adult readers won't necessarily leave one either. They're not at that point yet where they realize that the authors don't have to write - and even if they do write, they don't have to post it for anyone to read. Sharing it is completely up to the author of the piece. I'll be completely forthright: I'm appalled at the lack of reviews. I understand not having a great deal of time to leave a massive review - and most authors don't want that anyway. They just want "I liked such n such" or "I didn't like thus n so" and a reason as to why a reader felt that way. But one thing that I think keeps a good number of people from reviewing a story is not knowing what to say. Particularly if it's a very well-written piece. Readers tend to think that on a completed story, or on something that's by well-loved authors, they can't offer feedback. (Especially if they didn't like something that well-loved author did - heaven forbid you read SS/HG 'ship in HP and not like an aspect of a story by one of the big names that write in that genre.) The bottom line is that I wholeheartedly agree - reviews support the authors. Sadly, a lot of authors don't have tough skin and throw tantrums in their author's notes. (Yes, we've seen this - I see it on cleanup quite a bit.) Not knowing how an opinion is going to be received can sway the choice of the reviewer to leave it. Just as all of the authors in the archive take a chance on putting their work out there for scrutiny, the reviewers take a chance on leaving their opinion of the work. But I think it's a chance that should be taken, given that the author put him/herself out there first. All a reviewer is being asked to do is respond to the author's effort. After all, if you took the time to read it, telling the author you did so won't hurt.

My personal favorite are the stories which are utter trash and get loads of reviews. Why? Because all the authors "buddies" review to up the count. Are the reviews meaningful? Nope, not at all. In those stories, you'd be LUCKY to see actual concrit that either hasn't been deleted by the author, or caused an attack of the reviewer by the author and his or her little friends . When I go through the archive looking to actually read something in a fanworld I'm unfamiliar with, I'm more likely to read something with many hits and little or no reviews, than to read something with smaller hits/reviews ratio. When I actually have the time to read, I do leave a review.

Gonna add this here... another factor depends on the age of the fandom. The older fandoms (Inuyasha falls in here as it's an older anime and the manga is done-it'll probably see some resurgence when The Final Act finally finishes being dubbed and hits TV in the states but won't last long) don't get the reviews, period. They have their die hard fans but are not the 'trending' fandoms where people congregate and leave a multitude of reviews. This goes for most sites when it comes to the older fandoms, not just AFF. It also depends on the size of the fandom. The smaller ones get very little 'love'. As Rogue said, it's a trend across all sites with this but will add that you're lucky to get what you do. I post on a couple sites that make AFF look like the Garden of Eden for reviews. They get hits, likes, follows, whatever you want to call fav'ing but no reviews and that's how it is for all authors there. So, just keep that in mind. It might not be a massive amount you get but as long as you get one or two it's better than so many stories on other archives or even excellent ones in the small archives here on AFF To expound on something Rogue said... so many authors have actually seriously hurt the review counts of others by tantruming, throwing fits, review whoring and other appalling things that many are afraid to review for fear that they will be on the receiving end of such things. We see this all the time working in the archive and in other places. So people aren't going to 'put it out there' and have someone and their fans attack them (yes, that happens quite a bit, more than most authors realize). There are many other factors involved but those are the big ones and my thoughts on them...