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

[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.