I just want to give a cheer for the awesome feedback culture we've developed in this fandom.
There is another fandom I read in, but even though that show is in syndication and more easily accessible than L&C, the activity on its message board and fanfic archive site have dwindled significantly in the last few years, to the point where the only place to find new fic with any regularity is on fanfiction.net. Needless to say, the drek to quality ratio is pretty high, but every once in awhile, you can find some real gems. In fact, I found one this week which is so great that I was moved to leave a couple comments. I rarely do this on ff.net because I find the interface so frustrating -- limited space, limited formatting, author responses aren't allowed, etc. (It's this last one that really gets me -- no conversations with the authors? That's often the best part!)
In any case, on the most recent two chapters of this particular story, I left what I would consider to be scaled down comments -- a single paragraph of text listing a few of my favorite lines/scenes, pointing out a few areas where I thought the dialogue or plotting was particularly well done, and letting the author know I was eagerly awaiting the next chapter. Basically, what would be considered a relatively short, basic comment in an L&C feedback thread.
Well, yesterday, I got a private message from the author enthusiastically thanking me for my posts and saying how thrilling it was to get a detailed comment like that. She responded to a couple of my points, which was great, but then she added, "I hope you don't mind that I responded."
Can you imagine, a reader
minding being thanked for commenting?? Especially when the comment was 100% positive?
In any case, it just brought home for me how lucky we all are to participate in the L&C fandom, where detailed fanfic comments are the norm and give-and-take with the authors just adds more joy to the reading process. So ... yay us!
Kathy