Amy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
brightknightie) wrote2023-01-06 07:55 pm
brightknightie) wrote2023-01-06 07:55 pm
Entry tags:
a possible side-effect of the HLH_Shortcuts author-guessing game
I love the annual ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
hlh_shortcuts exchange, which brings us fresh new HL stories every winter. Read this year's works. I've been reading in the event for many more years than I've been writing in it.
I worry, though, that its author guessing game can sometimes discourage newer players who couldn't possibly guess its effects, and might feel hurt while relatively few comments and kudos come in through the posting period and guessing game. Newer players might interpret this as their stories being rejected by their fellow players. I hope and believe that's usually not what happens.
Here's what I think I understand about what happens in this exchange, which makes it different from most events:
Back before the A03, the writers emailed their stories to the moderator, who then posted them herself, one by one, on the HLH_Shortcuts LiveJournal community, anonymously. People read the stories and commented (and you could comment on your own story there). At the end of posting, the community made a game of guessing who wrote each story. Then the moderator edited each LJ post to add the author's name and announced the winner of the guessing game.
When the AO3 came along, and then DW, the exchange moved. When you post your own story on the AO3,you can't comment on it or kudo it [per comments below, we can comment on our own AO3 stories! I never knew]. So if you choose to comment or kudo on all the stories except the one you wrote, you've revealed which story you wrote, by process of elimination. So folks who want to play (or just support) the guessing game will deliberately not comment on all the stories -- indeed, they may particularly choose not to comment on stories that they hope others will think they wrote!
This should all come around to a happy ending with folks coming back to comment and kudos on more of the stories after reveals. Often they do! Sometimes, though, this approach can seem to encourage less total interaction than an otherwise similar event might earn during an equivalent play period. No momentum.
Anyway, that's just what I think, myself. Many of you may know more; I could be misguided. I just would like everyone to know, in this exchange, silence may actually mean folks hope to be mistaken for you!
hlh_shortcuts exchange, which brings us fresh new HL stories every winter. Read this year's works. I've been reading in the event for many more years than I've been writing in it.I worry, though, that its author guessing game can sometimes discourage newer players who couldn't possibly guess its effects, and might feel hurt while relatively few comments and kudos come in through the posting period and guessing game. Newer players might interpret this as their stories being rejected by their fellow players. I hope and believe that's usually not what happens.
Here's what I think I understand about what happens in this exchange, which makes it different from most events:
Back before the A03, the writers emailed their stories to the moderator, who then posted them herself, one by one, on the HLH_Shortcuts LiveJournal community, anonymously. People read the stories and commented (and you could comment on your own story there). At the end of posting, the community made a game of guessing who wrote each story. Then the moderator edited each LJ post to add the author's name and announced the winner of the guessing game.
When the AO3 came along, and then DW, the exchange moved. When you post your own story on the AO3,
This should all come around to a happy ending with folks coming back to comment and kudos on more of the stories after reveals. Often they do! Sometimes, though, this approach can seem to encourage less total interaction than an otherwise similar event might earn during an equivalent play period. No momentum.
Anyway, that's just what I think, myself. Many of you may know more; I could be misguided. I just would like everyone to know, in this exchange, silence may actually mean folks hope to be mistaken for you!
no subject
I do think it's a mistake to go into the event expecting that everyone who participates will comment on everything, though. People have all kinds of reasons for what they read or don't that may not have anything to do with playing the guessing game.
And then there's people like me who get so slammed with things at the end of the year that the weeks that coincide with Shortcuts and Yuletide reveals are inevitably spent sick, making it hard to read anything -- nevermind expressing proper appreciation.
no subject
Yes, expecting that every participant would read everything in any such event -- never mind commenting -- could lead only to sadness. I hope no one is burdening themselves with that!
I do feel that people expect what they're familiar with, and that HLH_Shortcuts is not wholly like what most people are familiar with. I personally feel anxious when I don't know what's going on, and I have leaped to sad conclusions from time to time when I was left to guess alone. So I thought I would explain. If no one needed any explanation... no harm done, just me looking little silly! :-)