You make some very interesting points, but speaking only for myself, as a writer I write because I need to write and I have to write and I was born to write, writing's the way I engage the world and explore my fandoms. But I post to interact with the community at large. That's why my fics don't all sit in a drawer once I've created them. I post them to find out what OTHER PEOPLE thought of my vision.
People use the Kudos button for a lot of reasons. I mean, wow, A LOT of reasons. One commenter down below listed about half a dozen reasons why she uses it. And I would be willing to go out on a limb and say that every person who uses the Kudo button has a reason for doing so--their ipad keyboard sucks and tapping a button is easier/faster, the author is too cool and intimidating to talk to, mixed feelings about the quality, adding the cherry on the top of the comment you already read, some sort of anonymous challenge fic, the fact that you finished the fic at all, kinky pairing that feels too personal to have your name attached to, you liked it!, you loved it!, you're adding to the hit count as a mini-rec, you're shy, you don't have the energy, you love the word kudos. Etc. I've seen basically a variation of every single one of those reasons given as a reason to use the Kudos button.
But if I don't have any of those reasons, and if I feel pretty confident that the author's going to like getting a comment--because no one has actually given me a reason to believe that authors prefer to get Kudos over a long comment except maybe for one person I recall who said it was awkward for her to get feedback praising stuff she might have done accidentally--then why should I see any value in me, personally, giving a Kudo when I can and will write a comment?
From wikipedia: "In the social sciences, a gift economy (or gift culture) is a society where valuable goods and services are regularly given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards (i.e. no formal quid pro quo exists).[1] Ideally, simultaneous or recurring giving serves to circulate and redistribute valuables within the community."
It's that last sentence that's the key. No, there's no explicit contract that if I post a story, that anyone's going to respond to it. But WE DO RESPOND. Across all of fandom, I can't think of one where authors routinely don't receive feedback on their work. The implicit assumption is that the author put time and effort and love into writing a story, and then generously and freely gave it to the web. We are not obliged to respond, there's nothing operating but the common social convention of "if you like it, tell the author". But if fandom is a social enterprise* then we act with "enlightened altruism", treating authors as we hope to be treated, giving the gift of our voluntary and uncoerced feedback in response to the writer making the courageous step of posting something instead of just leaving it in a drawer, or inside her head, safe from the world.
* I know some people have said that fandom isn't primarily social for them, that it's the the reading and writing of fics that's the main thing and "making friends" or having a dialogue isn't what they're looking for. I can state that I really haven't a clue how feedback works for them in a non-social context, since that does definitely seem very different and non-relevant to a gift-giving economy, so I won't speculate.
no subject
People use the Kudos button for a lot of reasons. I mean, wow, A LOT of reasons. One commenter down below listed about half a dozen reasons why she uses it. And I would be willing to go out on a limb and say that every person who uses the Kudo button has a reason for doing so--their ipad keyboard sucks and tapping a button is easier/faster, the author is too cool and intimidating to talk to, mixed feelings about the quality, adding the cherry on the top of the comment you already read, some sort of anonymous challenge fic, the fact that you finished the fic at all, kinky pairing that feels too personal to have your name attached to, you liked it!, you loved it!, you're adding to the hit count as a mini-rec, you're shy, you don't have the energy, you love the word kudos. Etc. I've seen basically a variation of every single one of those reasons given as a reason to use the Kudos button.
But if I don't have any of those reasons, and if I feel pretty confident that the author's going to like getting a comment--because no one has actually given me a reason to believe that authors prefer to get Kudos over a long comment except maybe for one person I recall who said it was awkward for her to get feedback praising stuff she might have done accidentally--then why should I see any value in me, personally, giving a Kudo when I can and will write a comment?
From wikipedia: "In the social sciences, a gift economy (or gift culture) is a society where valuable goods and services are regularly given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards (i.e. no formal quid pro quo exists).[1] Ideally, simultaneous or recurring giving serves to circulate and redistribute valuables within the community."
It's that last sentence that's the key. No, there's no explicit contract that if I post a story, that anyone's going to respond to it. But WE DO RESPOND. Across all of fandom, I can't think of one where authors routinely don't receive feedback on their work. The implicit assumption is that the author put time and effort and love into writing a story, and then generously and freely gave it to the web. We are not obliged to respond, there's nothing operating but the common social convention of "if you like it, tell the author". But if fandom is a social enterprise* then we act with "enlightened altruism", treating authors as we hope to be treated, giving the gift of our voluntary and uncoerced feedback in response to the writer making the courageous step of posting something instead of just leaving it in a drawer, or inside her head, safe from the world.
* I know some people have said that fandom isn't primarily social for them, that it's the the reading and writing of fics that's the main thing and "making friends" or having a dialogue isn't what they're looking for. I can state that I really haven't a clue how feedback works for them in a non-social context, since that does definitely seem very different and non-relevant to a gift-giving economy, so I won't speculate.