Wanted feature: concrit comments

[elf]

I've been considering what AO3 could do that's unique & different from other archives, rather than just "improve searches" and "more display options" which are indeed nifty goals, but I was trying to think of something different.

And I realized one of the reasons I sometimes don't leave comments is that I want to leave concrit/corrections, which some authors welcome, but it feels really really *weird* to say, "there's an obscene typo in paragraph 3, and also the dog's name was Indiana, not Illinois," and have that left in the comment stream for all future readers who would otherwise never know the author had a facepalm moment before fixing things.

I think I'd like something like screened comments, where the commenter could say "screen this thread." Mark it as "concrit" rather than normal-story-comment so it doesn't clutter the comment-stream, and so the purpose is obvious. I know I'd be more likely to leave critical comments for those authors who welcome them if it didn't feel like I was calling them out in front of all the other readers.

I could see there'd be options for abuse; people could leave hate speech in screened comments. But authors would have the normal option to report those; they're not much different from what people could do now.

I don't know if it's really feasible, or if there's some other way to implement it. I'd like features that encourage more feedback, of any sort; a section for "concrit goes here" for those authors who'd actively like it could be part of that. Because even with authors who avidly seek concrit and proofreading and some level of after-publication beta, it's hard to say "honey, your ESL is showing" in public, especially to a friend.

Does it sound interesting? Nifty? A feature we want next week? A horrible opportunity for vicious wank that I've somehow overlooked? This is in the "idle thoughts/brainstorm" stage, not an "I want to propose an official change" situation.

(FWIW, I'm not thinking of any particular stories or authors at the moment; I was going over some past entries in metafandom about concrit.)

Comments

[healingmirth]

I would love something like this, in either format you mention. I've taken advantage of peoples comment-screening settings in the past to point out typos and such.

I think my preference to implement it would be to have something like a discussion page (does wikipedia calls it a talk page? I can't remember) as a user option? One of the big conceit/picky-reader problems seems to be determining whether people even want to hear it. I've also seen from both authors and readers some confusion about when/whether to engage in conversations.

[stepps]

I wouldn't use it myself, but I can see how it'd be helpful for some. I doubt that it'd be used too much for abuse, when it can be reported.

[facetofcathy]

I would really like to be able to have my profile have a higher, ahem, profile on my user page, and then to be able to receive comments on it, like it's my own private news page. I have my email address displayed, but I don't think people like to email so much.

I'd love to be able to receive typo comments or have people mention formatting issues, but on no planet do I want concrit on my stories. But I'm not everyone! If I could say what I want on my profile, which I actually have, and if the culture of the archive could evolve so that readers looked at our profiles for our feelings on this, I think that would work.

If we as writers could set those comments to be screened or to display as suited, that would be awesome too.

[halfeatenmoon]

I love this idea because while I appreciate typo corrections in comments, it's always felt weird to just have to leave them sitting there on the comment page after I've gone back and fixed it.

[noracharles]

I like your idea of "concrit goes here", but I'd prefer it to be split up further.

Ideally, I'd like there to be modules with different titles that would appear when a reader clicks "comment".

Here on Dreamwidth, when we click "reply", we get three modules: we can pick the "Icon to use", we can write a "Subject" and we can write a "Message". I mention this, because more than one text box for the commenter can sound overwhelming and confusing, until you consider that it's the norm for many users of the AO3.

Anyway, I'd like for the author to be able to select one or more modules. They could have pre-defined titles, but with the option for power users to edit them. They should each have a "screen/unscreen" button.

So I might select the modules "Praise" (unscreened), "Typos, grammar mistakes, formatting errors and factual errors" (screened) and "Critique of characterization, flow, style and plot" (unscreened).

Then readers would know that I welcome all those types of comments, and that they won't embarrass me pointing out mistakes or things they didn't like, because I have set whatever I don't want to appear in public to be screened.

Another author might select only a single module "Comment" for the readers to use, because they find splitting it up silly and ugly.

[flamewarrior]

I like this idea a lot: I think a 'concrit goes here' thing that authors could turn on or off at will, but also the private message thing for typos, etc.

[tehomet]

I think that this is a great idea. I don't comment on AO3 at the moment because I'm the biggest nitpicker of all time and I feel bad about having my 'you put x number of commas in the wrong place' type remarks enshrined on the archive for eternity. :)

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