Whenever I publish when of my fanfics, it seems as if after a few days, they are no longer given any ratings or comments, while the views start to become less frequent. Why is it that case? My guess is that in the long run, my fanfics just don't resonate. Sometimes, I just don't get what does it take to have a fanfic that are really good and doesn't feel like a fad. I have seen other fanfics that were made around the same time as mine and they got a lot more ratings and comments than mine ever get. Even those that felt less, and incomplete made it to places such as Equestria Daily, while mine never make the cut no matter how good they are. Overall, it would be nice to know what it would take to make a fanfic that wouldn't feel like chewing gum that would be spat out after the flavor was gone hence feeling like a fad.

7717758
The problem is the site isn't as active as it used to be during its conception when G4 was relatively new. We used to have over I think 10K or more users back then, now we're just over 1K in people who have an account to rate and comment on stories. Unless G5, which I'm not certain if it'll regenerate the same popularity its predecessor did, the views and ratings will be low for stories that people publish on here.

Most written things have that happen, unless you've written some kind of ultimate, legendary, instant classic. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

7717758 Readers often look at the main page to see which stories are new.

But when your story is no longer on the newly published list, it falls out of grace.

7717758
Sadly, we all have this problem, the reduced number of users since the old days not helping things (there are 917 users online at time of writing, compared to thousands back in the glory days).

7717827
I just hope G5 brings the numbers back up. It would help us all in the long run.

7717758

it seems as if after a few days, they are no longer given any ratings or comments, while the views start to become less frequent

That's completely normal, and it happens with every story.

The thing is, when the story isn't seen--that is, it vanishes from the front page and there's no promotion going for it in other places (promotions and adding to bookshelves in groups, stirring some extra hype for it in blogs, and even giving it some off-site attention), then unless people randomly stumble upon your page or the story itself in someone's favourites, the story will be pretty much invisible to them. This is why your story receives most views/votes/comments after it (or a new chapter) has been published and then the numbers slowly taper off and slow down to a trickle.

Of course, if the story does well on the front page and stays there longer and/or if lots of people add it to their libraries/bookmark it and if you have a lot of active followers, then the phase of close attention on your story will take longer, and the tapering off phase will be less steep. However, regardless of how famous you are and how epic and eye-catching your story is, the attention on it will eventually cease till a new chapter, sequel or anything related draws focus to the story again. Sure, someone more popular/with a popular story may still receive more views or votes than you do, but compared to their story's heyday, it's still going to be a mere trickle.

7717836
Me too.

7717770

We used have over I think 10K or more users back then, now we're just over 1K in people who have an account to rate and comment on stories.

The site currently has over 368K existing accounts (A link to the site stats to back up my claims.). And while this number is padded out by inactive accounts and bot accounts that have to be yet removed, the number of active users is far greater than 1K. (Don't mistake this number for the number of currently active users. That one usually ranges from hundreds to something slightly over 1K, but that's just the number of people who are simultaneously active. It's not the absolute number of people who can be active on the site.) So it's luckily not so bad, even though it's safe to say people are not as active as they used to be.

7717758
I know the feeling. Some of my recent fanfics are still stuck between 200 and 500 views.

Then again, it's a bit difficult for me to top the majesty that is this:

EMy Tax Policy?

• MLP: FiM
• Comedy
• Slice of Life

Apparently, Celestia spent so much time training Twilight to wield the unlimited power of friendship, she had forgotten to teach her how to effectively run Equestria. Such as proposing a new tax policy.

• Twilight
• Celestia
• Luna
• Other

Leondude · 1.1k words  ·  122  12 · 2.8k views

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7717827
Yeah, the amount of users being online on average getting lower by the minute is one of the reasons I've taken a break from fanfic writing and focused more on my YouTube channel

If I had joined about a decade earlier when the show was still going on, would my fanfics have gotten more ratings, comments, and views than they do now, or would they just be pretty much the same and that is just a superstition?

7717908
That's impossible to say with certainty. If you started writing really really early on when there were just a few stories, then the fics would, at least for a while, probably get more attention simply because there wouldn't be anything else pony to read. However, as the stories started piling on and more and more people started writing (and wanted to be read, but didn't read themselves) and the fandom skyrocketed, then chances are the situation for your stories would be the same as it is now.

Furthermore, there's also the question of whether or not your stories would be able to sway a large amount of people and create their own trend/subfandom, which is far easier to do in a budding fandom then in one so large as we currently have. If I were to bet, I'd say that stories like Fallout: Equestria would still do well if published nowadays, but there would be far less spin-off fics for them and they would be far less well-known.

7717868
Same. I've moved a lot of my operations to dA for this reason.

7717911
You're probably right about that. I will admit that I can be narcissistic at times, but I do feel as my fanfics don't get the appreciation that they should, and I do feel a bit jealous about that. In some ways it always feels almost like when a new movie comes out and everyone wants to see it especially on its first weekend when it's still something new, though I'm one of those who can wait a bit before seeing that movie assuming that I want to see it. However, there are still times where I wish some of the fanfics that I did or will do in the future would have more resonance, but I'm sure that there are many others who wish for that as well. Since you brought up Fallout Equestria as an example, I will admit that before I even started my first fanfic, there were already a number of fanfics that had Megan Williams, who is a G1 character, interact with ponies from G4. At least I managed to make mine original even if some of them involve already used cliches. Then again, this is a place where there is no such thing as ideas that are done to death just as long as the fanfic itself is original. On a side note, I still wish that there would be a comeback for Megan, and I will always feel G4 as that missed opportunity, though I would still be alright if later generations in the near future will bring her back even if it has to be a rebooted character.

7717847
Wait, so the stats that appear on the bottom left side of the site isn't actually the real number of users that are online at the very moment? Currently, there are 1,158 users who are online now. Man, I feel like an idiot.

7718230
It is, but that’s not the number of people who have an account to rate and comment on stories. The thing is, this number doesn’t tell you the sum of people that can be active. If the number shows 1,500 online users one day and 1,500 online users the following day, then nobody guarantees that there are just 1,500 users that can be active on the site as a whole. If all of these people are different individuals, then the site in these two days saw at least 3K active users.

7717847
Interestingly enough, the amount of newly registered users was at an all-time low during the Season 8-Season 9 era according to the stats. Meanwhile, more and more people have come to the site ever since the show ended, so it's highly probable that we simply have more readers than writers on the site nowadays. The new users that have registered in April and May of 2022 seem to be comparable to the Season 3-Season 4 era. And with way more fics on the site now compared to 10--or even 5--years ago, each story is getting less views because there's so many more stories to read nowadays if that makes any sense.

7718324
I'd say that yes, many new people came to the site after the show ended. (There was a huge influx of new faces in forums during that time, many of whom indeed had yet to write anything.) Though I'd be also careful about any numbers in this regard, since it was also around that time that non-human accounts (read: bots, company accounts, and stuff) started to put up en masse. And this issue still remains, I'm afraid. Just take a look at the recently registered accounts. How many of them are actual people?

7718153
Speaking of DeviantArt, I've been focusing on that too and...well...let's just say the content on my DeviantArt helped with my recent YouTube success.

7718338
Nice.

Perhaps you guys are right. I shouldn't fret if my fanfics aren't big after the first few days especially when it's pretty much the case for everyone else. In the end, it's the quality of the fanfics that matter, not the quantity such as how much in ratings, comments, or even views. Then again, I do know a good number of members who have been here a long time and have barely made any fanfics despite that. Still, it would be nice if some of the fanfics I made got a little more, but that's probably just me saying that. Maybe if I did first come here about a decade, I probably would have been one of the first to do a fanfic that had Megan Williams interacting with G4 characters, because it seems as I when I started my first fanfic, I felt a little iffy as I was doing something that felt as if it was done to death. However, it seems as long as the story itself is original it can still be something good even if the idea has been repeated. As for that movie analogy, it always gets me why so many prefer to see it on the first weekend, but I guess just like new fanfics, most always like to see a movie when it just comes out and talk about it online via social media and/or message boards. Overall, I just hope that saying this won't start making others feel less about the fanfics that I either already did or will do in the near future.

If any of my fanfics were actually the first in something, would that have given any of them a boost or would the results had been the same?