A rant about certain types of readers

Author

12

Well-Known Member
Messages:
137
Likes:
111
Points:
86
Blog Posts:
3
Clarification: I have a pool of regular readers who are lovely. They've been following the story I'm translating for some time and regularly leave comments that are engaging and enjoyable. This rant is not about them at all.

It's about a subset of the lurkers-turned-commenters (L-T-C) and first-time readers (F-T-R). Nothing wrong with those two sets either. But a subset of readers have a serious case of spoon-feed-me mentality. Or something else that makes them leave comments that make me go: whut?

Example 1: a reader commented on one chapter, asking me to update more often. In my reply, I left her a link to the schedule and named the link ‘Schedule is here.’ Hours later, she asks me in the next chapter: ‘when do you update?’

Example 2: L-T-C X left me not one but two comments in the same post asking where the latest chapters could be found. The post itself had a paragraph directing readers to where the latest chapters could be found. Moreover, in my reply to yet another L-T-C (Y), I had copied and pasted said paragraph. The reply was above X's second comment. How did she miss that?!
It's not over yet. She ran back to the former site and left a third comment asking when the latest chapters would be out. I actually had a laugh at that one because it was still me she was asking.

I could go on but you get the picture. The thing is, my blog went 'live' officially about 17 days ago and has a grand total of 7 posts and 5 pages at time of writing. The first published post was a welcome post that talked about:
- what I was translating from scratch, why and when
- why the chapter numbering had changed after moving from former site to new site
- where to find the page of contents on the new site
I don't write posts to waste people's time. The welcome post was meant to welcome readers and familiarise them with the new layout. It was 454 words long and written in plain English with no more than two ideas per paragraph. Yet I have readers asking me about the same things I talked about in that post. It makes me question if they're genuine readers or just people very keen to get the latest chapter links (would-be scrapers? plagiarising intent?)

If you were a genuine reader who has been following the story for some time, you'd have no problems understanding why the chapter numbering has changed, or seeing that despite the chapter number skipping, the flow of the story is logical and clearly linked to the previous chapter. Only people who don't read would ask what happened to chapter xx or where the latest chapter is coming out. If you don't read, then what do you want the latest chapters for?!

Or could it be they have the most abysmal reading skills? Anything longer than 140 words is ignored? Yet somehow they "read" every chapter that averages about 1100 words on a weekly basis.

Or do they feel entitled to have every single one of their questions answered, no matter how illogical? Everything is laid out for them but they still want to be spoon-fed?

Comments

    1. 12 Aug 12, 2017
      Arigatou gozaimasu. Ganbarimasu...(y)
    2. SoShy Aug 12, 2017
      Gambetta ne~ Ouen suruyo~
    3. 12 Aug 11, 2017
      :D Thanks for the advice! I've put up a quick guide so will see how that goes. Anyhow, I just wanted to vent here so I won't be too shirty the next time I get another similar comment.
      Thanks for responding. Your comment about going straight for the chapter made me realise that if I want to continue enjoying having a blog and interacting with readers, I'd be better off making like a duck and letting more things roll off my back. :LOL:
    4. m7vpc Aug 11, 2017
      How often are you gonna update your blog?

      Thanks for letting us know. That's funny what's been happening. But I get it, since multiply this by 100x and it's just pure annoying.

      Personally, if I was a first timer, I wouldn't have looked at the welcome page and I'd go directly to the chapter. I don't waste my time on that. I recommend if you are having problems like that, post your schedule and your chapters for the week on the chapter release page. That's what I've seen some translators do.
    5. 1amdude Aug 11, 2017
      maybe they didn't realize your welcome post. clicking the link on NU will directly jump to the chapter page, right?

      edit :I checked. the chapter are not updated on NU yet. I guess there's people who just don't bother reading those welcome page.
    6. 12 Aug 11, 2017
      :p I admit I have no patience with such readers. I've just finished putting up a short guide with links for new readers visible in the sidebar. Let's see if that reduces the number of 'whut?' questions. So much for not wanting to spoon-feed these readers. :blobpats:
      m7vpc likes this.
    7. XenoRaku Aug 11, 2017
      Welp very few people are gifted with the thing called patience
      those type of readers are just annoying as hell for me like they think that authors/TLer do it full time it's not like they have a life or anything right?
      m7vpc likes this.
    8. 12 Aug 11, 2017
      Thanks for replying ;). I've realised people don't read the welcome post even though it's on the same page as the chapters. My beef is with the subset of readers who came from the old site where announcements were posted and links given. They land on the welcome post and still ask questions that have already been answered in the welcome post.

      To be clear, they're entitled to not read such posts, ask silly questions etc. But I'm also entitled to be critical of what seems to me to be sheer can't-be-botheredness and spoon-feed-me mentality.

      Anyway, just a rant. :p
      m7vpc likes this.