Cecropiacrown - FengQing Hell

everyone has a ship thats just: theyre perfect. they hate each other. theyre married. they havent spoken in 15 years. they have date nights three times a week. theyre divorced. theyre pining, its unrequited. its requited. theyre starcrossed. theyre meant to be. theyre doomed by the narrative. they love each other. theyve never held hands. they wont stop making out at parties. they cant look each other in the eye

PSA: It's normal for fics to only/mostly get comments when they're first posted! I've been posting fics on AO3 for several years, and the pattern is consistent: a bunch of kudos and some comments over the first few days, and then it slows down to a trickle of kudos and rarely any comments at all.

Let's look at one of my fics on an old account. It has close to 2,000 kudos as of today, and every comment is positive. Obviously, lots of people think this fic is great! Now, let's look at how the kudos/comment ratio plays out over time.

Over the first 2 days after posting this fic, I received about 200 kudos on it. I also received 8 comments. That is about 25 kudos per comment.

Over the next 9 days after that, I received about 200 more kudos. I also received 5 more comments. That is about 40 kudos per comment.

Over the next 4 years after that (there's no easy way to break it up further), I received about 1,600 more kudos. I also received 10 more comments. That is about 160 kudos per comment.

As you can see, people were about six times as likely to leave a comment with their kudos in the first two days after this fic was posted, versus leaving a comment once the fic was "old". This is just one example, but I've posted many fics over the years and it's very consistent: people might comment if they see a fic when you first post it, but if they see it later, they mostly just stick to the kudos button. It's obvious that they're reading the fic and enjoying it enough to let you know they appreciate it... but for whatever reason, they avoid the comment box.

Now, is this how it should be? No!! If you're reading this, please take this as your encouragement to leave comments regardless of the age of the fic. AO3 is not Instagram. Authors love getting comments, and if for some reason someone doesn't, AO3 gives us lots of ways to deal with that, including completely turning off the comment section. If the comment box is there, please take that as an request to leave a nice comment, no matter how old the fic is (yes, even if it's THAT old). Here is a great post that can help guide you.

But if you as an author are not getting comments anymore on your old fics, you're not doing anything wrong. That's just how it goes.

headcanon that transmasc Xie Lian gave himself magical top surgery but not magical bottom surgery because having neither titties nor a penis makes him the most aerodynamic martial god he can possibly be send tweet

and then there would have passed a pleasant slash fanfiction, had the authors misogyny not been immediately unveiled