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

[anatsuno]

I leave Kudos when
- I liked the story & am out of spoons to make words
- I liked the story & am out of social spoons & don't mean to create a possible 'chain of obligation' (re-using terminology from an earlier comment thread in this post)
- I liked it and finished it but w/ caveats, & consequently don't feel like commenting positively while leaving out the caveats (I don't give crit to people unasked anymore, so listing caveats is not something I will do)*
- I'm rereading and already left a comment and don't feel like leaving another
- I'm downloading podfic I haven't yet listened to

I leave comments when
- I liked it and have the energy to say so in words, even non-specific words
- I have something specific to say or gush about
- I'm rereading and haven't left a comment before
- I'm rereading and want to say in words how much I like it, again
- I finally listened to the podfic and want to say thank you / comment on it

What Kudos NEVER means from me
- 'I finished this and didn't like it'
- 'I don't like this enough to tell you so in words'**
- 'I guess you deserve _something_ for all that work/time'(ugh dismissiveness)
- I am adding to your Kudos count bc I know people use that as a rec.
(when I want to rec something I bookmark it and mark it as rec on AO3; I also bookmark it on Pinboard, and I might even rec it someplace else)


* and ** seem related but they're not similar; my unwillingness at a given moment in time to side-step the stuff I didn't enjoy while leaving a positive comment is an inability _of mine_, it doesn't mean that I rationally weigh a story as "deserving of a comment above Kudos". This is NOT a ranking in story value, but a ranking in my own abilities to express myself in a socially acceptable way, and those two things are VERY different.

I feel like I had other things to say but I am running out of articulatedness, apparently. :)

[jain]

I'm downloading podfic I haven't yet listened to

I'm curious about this reason for leaving kudos. (I'm not a podfic listener myself, so I have no idea what podfic culture is like.) Is it simply because you want to encourage the production of podfic that you leave kudos automatically? Or is the reason more complex than that?

[anatsuno]

Podfic receives very, very, VERY little comments in general. We're talking a ratio of hundreds of downloads to one comment (there's no way to know if a downloads is equal to a listen, or to ten listens, or what; we have no clue). This is partly because listening happens away from the point of download (in time and often in space too), so what slowly happened is that some people have gotten into the habit of leaving a comment to say 'I'm downloading this, thank you', which is a minimum thing where you get to express that you're happy that that podfic exists, that the podficcer did the work, and that you're anticipating listening to it. Then, you come back later - or you don't - to give actual, post-listen feedback.

This culture/habit has evolved on sites with comments but no easy button, like LJ/DW (many, MANY people don't do it; I don't want to make it look like it's super prevalent… but some of us have the habit, sort of, now)… And on AO3 the Kudos button is a handy way to replace that essentially phatic comment of 'yay, downloading!' that is not really proper feedback.

[jain]

That makes sense. Thanks for explaining!

[anatsuno]

sorry, I failed to answer your direct question, which would be a yes, I want to encourage podfic getting produced :) And also I want to give as much feedback as I can to people who I know from experience don't get enough of it.

[glitteryv]

+1 to all this. :)