I Don't Know What to Thank People for Anymore! · 2:06am Oct 9th, 2014
Dear Loyal Watchers, Interested Visitors, and Confused Passersby,
Most of you know of my obsessive need to thank folks for Faving my stories, or for Watching me, or to reply to comments and the like... but now I have a real problem. To whit to whim: Do I thank people for placing my stories in their bookshelves?!
I had forty-three replies when I logged in tonight, and all but three of them were from people adding my stuff to their newfangled bookshelves! The problem is that I know that some of them are people who already Faved my stories, but others I don't know about and even though I really like the creative titles people are giving their bookshelves it gets hard for me to decide who is a new person who is using the bookshelves as a Faving system and who are people who are my old readers who are just trying to keep things neat and who is kinda in the middle and that makes it hard for me to thank people for investing in my works which is something that I really like to do and now I'm all confused and it's late and I feel like I haven't accomplished anything in the fandom today and I'm confused, scared, and a little gassy and I really, really, really, really, really, just want a little direction from you all because you know your opinion is important to me and I feel valdiated by it and I crave human interaction and a pony and for your input because you all know i love ou but not like that and I just need to go to slep and everything is turnning blue and oh gawd I can't breathe now what arg
just stick to thanking people for favorites and hope that they aren't sticking your stories in a "shit stories" bookshelf
That is a hard question to answer my friend, since I would think right now most of the new alerts you are getting are people who already faved your stories and are adding them to the bookshelves they just created, but there are new people who just found your stories and are adding them.
How about we thank you for writing such a damn fine story, man? You deserve it.
2519509
If that actually happens to people, my opinion of this fandom in general will plummet.
2519510
Yeah, you're right, Pal. I'd just hate to miss anyone, is all.
2519519
Understandable my friend
2519519 i'll try not to mention the complaints in blog posts i've seen about authors seeing their stories put in "shit stories" bookshelves. oops, i mentioned it!
2519513
The warmth of your presence is all the thanks I need. That any your Faves and Watch... but mostly the warmth thing.
I think the easiest thing for you to do is just take a few days off from being the nice guy you are as people sort out their bookshelves. After that, it would be the majority of your notifications should be new people.
After the first time a new update got double-digit favorites, I just shrugged and decided to save the thanks for new watchers. Of course, that's my opinion on the matter. I say do what you think is right.
...Of course, if you knew what that was, you wouldn't have posted this blog.
Maybe give a grace period—say, a week or so—and then resume the tanks for those who put your stories on flattering shelves?
Oh dear.
Breathe, TD. Breathe.
I shall let ye know some way when I add a story I have just finished to a folder. Worry not, dear TD.
Well, since there's still a default "favorites" shelf, thanking people for adding a story to that one seems obvious to continue, since it's what you've always been doing.
For people who have renamed their shelves.....that's a tough question to answer. I mean, you could always thank people again that you've already thanked before. But that might be annoying to some people (not sure why, but people are weird).
Or you could wait for some amount of time, so that people can move stuff around as they want. And then you can go back to thanking people who add your stories to their shelves after that, since by that point it would be more likely that they're a new reader rather than an old one cleaning house, so to speak.
2519524
Well... lovely.
And then the Descendant exploded.
Oh god...
I can only imagine what your feed looks like...
~Skeeter The Lurker
2519536 it hasn't happened to me yet though. which i'm slightly peeved at because that means i'm not a good enough writer to have trolls on my case. but at the same time i'd be okay with having my stories put in a "shit stories" bookshelf because i would completely agree. my stories are kinda shit.
Be chill, TD. The internet ain't going to stop rolling if you don't thank everybody individually for so much as looking at your story. You do a lot more to appreciate your fans than most authors, and that's great. Gone are the days where trying to contact your favorite author nets you a generic letter from their secretary, now authors like you can seek their readers. We won't be outraged if you don't feel like taking on a lot more clicking and typing just because they wanted to put your stories in their bookshelves. Do less. That time spent thanking us can be used on some much deserved lollygaging, or hey, maybe some more writing.
If you thank everyone for adding to library in addition to thanking everyone for adding to favs, you will thank at an ever-increasing, exponential rate until you become a being of pure thank.
2519538
You wouldn't believe the mess.
I hadn't even thought of how the bookshelves would affect you. Oh good lord, I'm laughing pretty hard.
Don't worry, Descy. I'm making all my bookshelves private while I'm reorganizing.
2519519
To be fair, I have a similar bookshelf. However, it will remain private since it's purely for my own organizational purposes. No need for it to be public.
Just become a raging narcissist like me, so that you feel your fics are gifts to the world and you don't need to bother thanking people and then you can feel guilty when people like The Descendant, who even you can tell is better than you, are so concerned about properly thanking their readers they actually make a blog post asking for help.
Don't die dessy! You can figure this out!
People are giving creative titles to their bookshelves? Didn't even occur to me, mine are still Favorites, Tracking, and Read it Later. I suppose I could aim for creativity, but it's probably better to leave that to the creative people.
I'd keep thanking people, but possibly give it a few days or so to settle out, I suspect there is a lot of reorganization going on at the moment.
2519568 Off-topic, but I love that Sunset avatar so much. Dat smile.
2519575
She's kind of the cutest.
2519580
Baconhair is the best.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/9/28/730837__safe_animated_equestria+girls_edit_sunset+shimmer_rainbow+rocks_spoiler-colon-rainbow+rocks_faic_sunset+screamer_bopping+shimmer.gif
I, personally, have been seeking out all the stories I upvoted that aren't on my favorites list. So I've generated roughly 80 messages' worth today, including at least one of yours. No need to thank me for that. I did nothing new.
I say just post on everyone's wall saying "Hi, you're awesome."
Everyone on Fimfiction.
You're already a being of pure thank, dear. Don't beat it into the ground
I can't imagine what you're seeing in the notifications, except to note that I'm getting a goodly number of the things myself and if I'm gettin' them you must be absolutely buried. I think we'll give you a pass, though I'm not sure what you'll do once the initial wave blows over.
And I will feel quite miffed if nopony puts my books in a 'shit stories' bookshelf. Surely I am a big enough deal after writing more than Shakespeare, therefore I can see the laws of statistics prove once again that there's one in every crowd
I was wondering how you'd respond to this... especially since you try for something personal every time. Good luck!
One of my stories was added to a bookshelf called 'Presumed Abandoned' and I was like, "...thanks, I guess?"
Breathe Descendant! Breathe!!!
...Sorry?
I took ...RainbowBob's (I think it was he) advice and private-listed all of them before I started, but I dunno if it worked or not...
If you haven't seen any from me, disregard this, but it is a FimFic update after all; it would be out of character for the mods to get it right on the first go.
I just added all your stories to my new fav list.
HAHA!
SUFFER!
SUFFER THE NOTIFICATIONS!
I don't know how much detail the notifications give you, but all I did was transfer everything from my Favorites list to my Tracking list. That was all I used my Fave list for; I've never liked the idea of keeping all my actual favorite fics on the Fave list, as I worry I'd offend some author by not Favoriting X story. So there's no need for thanks, citizen!
I can just see the hair springing out of place as I read this blog entry. It'll all end in an ill-advised magical solution and a royal intervention, I can tell.
Step One: Calm Down and Breathe
Step Two: Take a Few Days' Rest for Reorganization to Happen
Step Three: Devise new solution/Back to thanking Favourites
Creatively named shelves.... Well I just realized how hectic that can be for you but please Keep Calm.
I can't tell whether all of the misspellings and grammar quirks are strategically placed methods of expressing anxiety or actual mistakes.
I mean that second paragraph only has two sentences, but the expression of the longer sentence leads the reader to read it all in one go without stopping.
Jeez you write good.
If I could add this to a "Well written blog posts" shelf, I would.
Darn it, man, calm yourself! I was pleasantly surprised to simply get a thanks from an author at all, so there's no obligation to cover everything.
You should probably treat it case by case.
If you get added to Favorites give them thanks.
If you get added to something simple like stories or adventure let it ride.
If you get added to GREATEST STORIES OF ALL TIME give them thanks and a cookie.
I just added a couple of yours to Should Reread.
2519594 How are you finding them? I want to do the same, but I have no idea where to start looking.
2519619 Having one of mine that is not dead, (and I say it's not dead constantly, it's just slow to update) added to somebody's "dead" shelf actually annoyed me more than adding it to a "shit" shelf! I'd figure anybody with a public shit stories shelf is just trolling, but the dead thing is just a huge pet peeve.
2520017
Just browsing through groups.
It is every bit as tedious as it sounds.
2519553
That's... nasty?
*watches TD pass out*
>.>
<.<
*rummages through his pockets for loose change*
I think you'd better leave off thanking people for bookshelving you, or you won't have any time to read, write, or eat.
Do it in character as an actual raven.
Were I you, after regaining consciousness, I'd pass on thanks whenever I saw that my story had been added to the generic 'Favourites' library. Spare yourself wear and tear on your time and soul. And f you ever feel guilty about the prospect of a reader slipping through the cracks, just remember that they've just read one of your stories. They're going to be perfectly chill with the whole universe and aren't likely to be shaken out of that anytime soon.
2520343
Flapping in people's faces, cawing, and pecking at their eyeballs is only rarely an appropriate way of expressing gratitude. Not all of TD's readers might appreciate it.
Tell you what, I'll do what I was contemplating, and make sure I comment when I add ongoing stories to my favorites shelf. Then you can thank me there.
EDIT: especially since you don't get notifications from us paranoid parrots who mark their shelves as private or unlisted. I didn't stop favoriting your stuff, I promise!
How do you view bookshelves that people added your story to?
Anyway, don't worry about it. Most people don't go as far as you to thank, so it'd just be you going the extra mile.
I would suggest waiting a few weeks to allow your current crop of followers and the like to get their affairs in order and then thank new people after that time.
Hot damn, talk about the lack of punctuation and the longest sentence I've seen.