Meaning of Kudos

[littlemousling]

Poll #10088 Meaning of Kudos

This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 369

When I click the Kudos button, it most often means (one or more of) the following:

View Answers

Good job!
261 (70.7%)

I liked this!
339 (91.9%)

I finished this and didn't hate it!
60 (16.3%)

I ADORED this!
204 (55.3%)

I like clicking buttons and assign no meaning!
4 (1.1%)

None of these options apply
6 (1.6%)

This is a sort of follow-up to bethbethbeth's great Kudos/Comments poll here. There are a number of comments there discussing the various reasons people click the Kudos button, some of which may be more common reasons than others.

Feel free to expand on your answer!

Comments

[qem_chibati]

I am suffering from major insomnia/stress right now so writing comments, is hard compared to the umber of stories I want to read, and the amount of things I want to do.

I also do a lot of reading on the train, and typing on an phone can be seriously dodgy/ frustrating, or I'll have it typed out and lose it. :( so I kudos first to show I had appreciation of the story (and I only kudos stories I liked, maybe not unreservedly but at least a little) and Ill comment if I have the energy / something I explicitly want to say. Most of my comments tend to be short though.

I feel like I leave comments in about a 1:7 ratio to kudos.

Kudos actually got me reading a lot of fic again, which I like. I also have started leaving a lot more comments than before - partly because Im reading a lot again and...

It helped take away that element of stress, that I can just hit the button, that I can just leave something short, that I don't have to leave 50 tabs open, then have firefox crash. because copy pasting comments really depresses me if I have to resort to that, which puts me in a better mood - and when I'm in a better mood, I'm more likely to want to articulate my thoughts and want to leave a comment.

[ladysorka]

Kudos usually mean "I liked this" from me, but, under certain circumstances, they can mean "I adored this." Usually when I like something that much I leave a comment, but the older a fic is, the less likely I am to leave an actual comment. It doesn't matter how much I enjoyed an epic in fandom X that was written in 2002, odds are pretty low I'll leave a comment on it. But I will leave a Kudos.

[glitteryv]

I love both receiving and leaving kudos. The first because it lets me know that someone read my fic and liked it. The latter because it's my way of telling someone "I liked your fanwork but I: a)might not have the brainpower/spoons to leave a comment; b)I'm reading/watching this on my phone and don't have the patience to type up my (typically long and enthusiastic) comments; c)I'm reading/watching this very late at night. OMG, I ONLY HAVE X AMOUNT OF HOURS LEFT TO CATCH SOME ZZZ'S BEFORE WAKING UP FOR WORK".

FTR, I tend to leave comments solely on fanworks I really liked or loved. For one thing, I've got very limited time (once you factor out work and sleep hours AND add "free time", i.e. when I interact in Fandom/read or write fic/what-have-you) to leave comments on every fanwork I come across (which, when it comes to fic, is a lot.) In a way, I like to think that, because I don't leave comments on everything, those who get a comment from me will get an extra kick from knowing that I was seriously starry-eyed about my rambling on about their fanworks.

If I'm feeling totes \o/ about whatever I've enjoyed, I'll leave a Kudos AND a comment. It's like an additional tip of the hat to the writer/artist/vidder/mixer.

[(Anonymous)]

Just found out about this, wish I hadn't missed the poll. Truthfully, I don't give many kudos, because when I receive kudos I feel like they'll always just mean the "I finished this and didn't hate it!" option. Or maybe the "Good job!" option in a sort of condescending way. Because how can you adore something and not spend a minute writing an "I loved this!" review? AO3 could just put a poll like this at the bottom of the fic's page and it would be far better lol

[aquila_black]

I feel slightly guilty for not having time to read all the comments before I leave a comment (so apologies if this has been said before) but it's this or nothing, so ... I wish there was an anonymous version of kudos. Or for that matter, reviews. There are stories that I want to be able to leave positive feedback on, without having to (potentially) explain having read. This is taking into account the person I was as a teenager, who was a lot less comfortable in fandom and a lot more lurk-inclined than I am now, and it's taking into account the fact that a lot of things, while they aren't downright illegal to be writing or reading, are certainly looked down upon by society at large; feared with an irrational sort of ferocity. For example - I read an excellent story that contained the rape of an underage character. It was well characterized, uncompromisingly portrayed, and thoroughly canon-based (the story acknowledges this happened, it just didn't happen onscreen). Given my physical location, though, I hesitate to give the author feedback about the fact that they wrote an amazing story. Or better said, I hesitate to put my name to such feedback publicly, despite the fact that they deserve support and encouragement for tackling a tough topic and handling it well. I'm sure I'm not the only person who's run into this, in one form or another. Suggestions would be welcome.

[zebra_in_dream]

If it's a seldom occurrence, you could log out. If you do it more often, you could use a second browser.

You can comment and kudos without being logged in. Caveat is, it doesn't work for works which are restricted to archive users.

[aquila_black]

That's really helpful, thanks! I didn't know I could do that.

[ex_mek82]

I'm not a fan of the feature at all. It gives me too many mixed signals.

At the very least, if there's going to be no way to disable them altogether, I'd like to have some sort of toggle so only registered users can leave them, like signed reviews on FFNet.

[littlemousling]

The idea behind this poll was exactly that: to find out just how "mixed" a Kudos is, as a symbol. Given that 90% of respondents most often use it to mean "I liked this" (and half to say "I adored this!")--it doesn't seem very mixed to me, actually. It seems to be a pretty universal positive.

[melusina]

It seems to me like a lot of the dislike around Kudos is based on 2 premises, neither of which appear to me to be supported by any data:

1. The one you've debunked with this poll (that Kudos mean so many different things that they're meaningless).

2. Kudos "replace" comments, because people who otherwise would have commented leave comments instead (in fact, the data I've seen from AO3 indicates that people have left MORE comments since the Kudos feature was introduced.

I doubt debunking these notions is going to suddenly change the way people feel about Kudos, but I wish they'd stop using these ideas as rationalization for their dislike. . .

[melannen]

There also seems to be this premise that, unlike kudos, if someone leaves a comment, the author will know exactly what they really thought of the story, because comments are a source of inerrant truth.

And that's so inaccurate I don't even really know where to start with debunking it.

[qem_chibati]

I know I've left a lot more comments because of kudos, than I would have done otherwise.

I've had a couple of negative run-ins with some authors based on reviews I've left, (And I'm a squee only reviewer, pretty much.) so in order for me to leave a comment I need to be in a very positive mood, leaving no feedback tends to make me feel more negative about myself.

I'm very much of the belief that comments are much more about the people who left them, than the actual story.

[qem_chibati]

Just turn kudos alerts off then.

[ex_mek82]

I do. But I still would like a feature to turn off anonymous kudos, though. =/

For what it's worth, half the time I _do_ check out an author if they leave a kudos while signed in.

[littlemousling]

Do you dislike guest Kudos because you interpret Kudos as something other than praise, or for another reason? I'm not sure I've seen your POV before, and I'd like to understand it better.

[greedy_dancer]

I admit I used to believe uploading my fic to AO3 would lead to NO MORE COMMENTS EVER, because sometimes I use kudos as "the easy way out". The fact is that I think I'm a pretty good feedbacker, generally, and I tend to comment on most things I read on LJ/DW, even if to say "Hey I liked this, thanks for writing," or "this was hot, well done!" But those are the comments that I replace with kudos on AO3. When a fic blows my mind or really hits a kink/trope/button for me, I will leave a comment, no matter if it's on AO3 or on journals.

I still upload my fic to journals FIRST though, to get that first flush of comments. Then I upload to AO3, and it's true that fics on AO3 get many more kudos than comments. But that might be a self-fulfilling thing, since people most likely to comment - my friends and people who know me - might have read the fic already.

It's really interesting to read this poll because I had no idea how differently people interpret their Kudos. To me, as an author, they were always taken as "thanks for writing" / "I liked this but didn't love it". I can understand why this uncertainty as regards the "intensity" of feedback intended in Kudos might make some people dislike them. I wouldn't interpret Kudos as "heyyy clicky" or "I hated this" or whatever, and there's a consensus from the poll that Kudos express something positive. But there's no way of knowing HOW positive it is. Depending on the person it could be "I read this, thanks!" or "I liked this" or "I adored this" and you have no way of knowing.

Then it becomes a matter of knowing whether you as an author prefer knowing people have generally (but vague) positive feelings towards your story, or if you'd rather hear nothing from people who read but don't want to/can't comment for whatever reason.

[greedy_dancer]

Hmm, I keep thinking about this and now I'm wondering if the people who say "kudos = my story wasn't even worth a comment??" are people who usually have the time/spoons to leave "I liked this" comments. And might just not be aware of how many people are simply not able to do that, thus transcribing "I don't have the spoons but I liked this" to "I don't even like your story enough to comment 'properly'".

It really comes down to realizing that yeah, 5 of the kudos might replace "yay, read this" comments you would have otherwise gotten, but they add a greater number of "I read this and probably liked it at least a little" from people you wouldn't have heard of anyway. So there IS a loss, somewhere in there. To me, the gain is greater though. (And yet I'm willing to go without those "yay" reactions from spoonless people when I first post to journal without crossposting to AO3. Comments still feel like a greater reward to me, something that I think is inscribed in our fannish culture right now. I never said I was coherent in my feelings on the subject >.>)

[oaktree]

I use it as a "like" button à la facebook. I'll never leave kudos on a story I didn't much care for, and certainly not on a story I outright disliked. I usually leave kudos (rather than a comment) if I'm pressed for time, low-energy, or don't have any thoughts about the story that could be communicated better than "I REALLY ENJOYED THIS."

I'm more likely to comment on stories at livejournal or dreamwidth, simply because I'm more used to the journal environment, but I've left comments on stories at AO3.

[elsane]

I only leave kudos if I liked and enjoyed the fic. I do try to comment on fics I adore madly, but sadly I don't always read on platforms that make it easy for me to comment, and so kudos spill over to things I adore as well.

[franzeska]

I guess it might occasionally mean that I finished and didn't hate it or that I adored it, but probably only if I'm feeling super burnt out and/or charitable, and the author would never have gotten more than a kudos out of me anyway.

Usually, if I have something with content to say, I'll say it. When I have inane and vague positive things to say ("Nice. Write moar."), I'll leave kudos.

If I find out an author is a hostile asshole who hates kudos and thinks that a perfectly normal word that is in the dictionary is too confusing for them to understand, I'll intentionally avoid their fic. Life is too short!

[arcanetrivia]

"I finished this and didn't hate it" sounds a little... damning with faint praise... but yeah, sometimes "kudos" is a way of saying "You managed to get me to read this all the way through and it was OK", which may be lower on my scale than "Good job/I liked this", but is at least higher than things I click away from.

If I get to "I ADORED this", then I'm in leaving-an-actual-comment territory, even if it's just to leave that vague squee or uselessly quote back favorite lines.

[navaan]

This poll and the comments are really interesting to me. In the beginning I didn't know how to feel about the kudos button, because it seemed to much like a "like" button, but I've come to love it with a passion.

I tend to leave comments when a story really blew me away or touched me on a deeper level - or quite frankly when I have something to say and want to communicate.
If I left a comment on everything I read that I liked, I would never find the time to read everything I want to read and probably would never write another fanfic again. my fandom time is limited.

As such the kudos button is a very convenient way to send some positive feedback. Two RL friends of mine told me that for years they were reading fanfiction, lurking on communities, but were never into active fandom, had no journals or other accounts. Now they both love the kudos button, because it allows them to leave feedback without de-lurking.

As an author I appreciate every kudos someone leaves for me. It makes me happy that someone still finds older stories and like them. That is nice and makes me feel good - just as much as any comment would. It never occurred to me that people might assign a negative meaning to it (and the poll seems to indicate that most people don't).

I'm not sure if it's important, but when searching fic I don't look at the kudos or comment or hit counts on any platform. What's popular in fandom does not have to be what I like or what I'm looking for after all.