Incentivizing

[GlossyLatex]

Are we allowed to encourage reviews and story updates with omakes? Specifically, tangential drabbles that do not affect update times/length or the canon of the story?

Even if we can't use it for reviews, encouraging other authors to post/update strikes me as a noble endeavor.

[BronxWench]

Honestly, it's a very slippery slope.

The entire subject of trying to encourage reviews is fraught. Readers do not like to be pressured. They can be extremely sensitive to anything they perceive as a demand for reviews, even if that wasn't the intention of the author. We then receive emails and it becomes a rather unwieldly thing.

The other matter that is sensitive is the updating of stories. Authors often have things crop up in their lives that make updating a very low priority. It can be as dramatic as a job loss or a death in the family. It can be work or papers due at the end of the term. It can simply be a frustrating bout of writer's block. For whatever reason, anything that is perceived as pressure to update generates emails from the authors. We have even had flame wars erupt on review boards over update demands.

The long and short of it all is that we do not permit the use of incentives to encourage authors to update or readers to review.

[GlossyLatex]

I wouldn't see it as any way to leverage posts from specific authors. Rather than calling for any one person to work on their story, it would be asking any and all readers to post new content.

I must admit I am confused over the concern of how anonymous users feel in regards to an opportunity for extra content at the cost of a few seconds of their time. I myself have always made it a policy to review when I feel the need (usually when I really loved or really hated a story), I don't see this really changing that. It's not "review or get nothing", it's "review this specific story and in addition to my next update I'll throw in a bumper at the end in thanks."

I hope this doesn't come off as confrontational, but I would feel more uncomfortable to not say it. The areas of the site I frequent have dropped catastrophically in terms of participation over the last six years (mainly due to stagnation/age of the source material) and I really would like to have something to use to reverse that.

Edited April 6, 2013 by GlossyLatex

[BronxWench]

We have members who are readers but not authors, and that incentive would mean little to them since they do not post content at all.

As to the offering of a omake or chapter for a review, the authors who do not choose to do this may see this as pressure for them to do the same. For those authors whose schedules do not permit additional content or faster updates, I would be hard put to offer reassurance that their ability to garner reviews won't be negatively impacted.

With over 150,000 registered users in the archive, our decisions are based on the input we get from a majority of those members. I may understand your goal, but it is not something that we can allow.

[BronxWench]

We have actually gone back and discussed the notion of having omake requests within the archive. We think this can work within the parameters of a challenge or request.

Specifically, we would permit authors to include a link within their story to an omake challenge or request that is posted in the appropriate area of the forum. The Challenges/Requests threads are not locked, so anyone may post there without needing to register for the forums. Those threads are divided primarily by subdomain, and subdivided by specific fandoms within the larger categories as needed, and can be found here:

http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/index.php/forum/696-challengesrequests/

The challenge or request for the omake can be worded however desired, as long as there is no implication that chapters of the larger work will be delayed or withheld until the omake challenge is met. That is still not allowed, but as you have said, it may spark a bit of interest in a fandom that has quieted down.

[GlossyLatex]

Thanks!