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Leave feedback for a fanwork. Or multiple fanworks. It can be as simple as I liked this to a detailed list of all the things you loved about the fanwork. The key is to leave some sort of feedback.
Hits, Kudos, Comments, Bookmarks. Four units of engagement with fanwork, on a kind of progression from least to most involvement. (At least on AO3.) The hit says there was something about it that drew you there - a clever title, a liked pairing, a good user of a tag, or a recommendation from someone else. Hits get recorded every time the page is loaded, though, so they're not really a good way of measuring success. They're great if you want to convince someone your work will get lots of eyeballs.
The kudo says "Not only did I read this, I liked it." Which is sometimes exactly the sentiment you want to express, nothing more, or is the only thing you can do based on your energy levels. A kudo is a one-time thing, though, and so is better about measuring impact, but it often fails to indicate the depth of the feeling. Kudos come to those who liked it a little and to those who have accepted it as their headcanon forever. And sometimes your kudo count is more a function of the size and virulence of your fandom - I wrote a pinch hit that was an extended riff on the idea of one character proposing to another. Good story, but it was in one of the megafandoms of the time, which have it a lot bigger exposure that it might have had otherwise. It's still got the highest count of hits and kudos of all of my works, as a consequence of there being so many more fans that it might be exposed to.
Then there are comments and bookmarks, which seem to rule the interaction scale as a duopoly. Bookmarks can be either, "I intend to read this later," "I totally recommend this, people who follow me and think I'm interesting" or both. AO3 tries to help disambiguate the two, allowing a bookmark to be marked as a recommendation, but I'm not sure how many people use it, or go back and change from bookmark to rec when they're done, if they think it warrants it. A comment I picked up from somewhere days that the truest measure of impact for a work is the bookmark count, because that means someone wants to come back to it. If we were going solely by bookmark count, as of this post, my Yuletide fiction for this year would be winning "Beat Work Ever."
And then there are comments. The freetext box that allows someone to express their exact feelings for a creator, which can ruin the gamut from a reserved uptick of the lips to full-resonance squee about what's been done. Is the most-commented fic the best one? How do you value squee versus amount? I write for exchanges, so works that go well often have the recipient beside themselves with joy, along with a sampling of other comments that are often complimentary, if not quite as full-throated. What is to say what the best work is, if it works exactly right for the recipient?
Comments have the additional benefit of being interactive - an exchange that can make the work better by providing useful context or the difficulty of making the work come together. Comments indicate someone took enough time to compose something thoughtful on the work you have put out, even if that thought is "YAAAAAAAAAAAAS!" *kermithands* Since it's tangible feedback, the creator tends to enjoy comments the most. It's the surest sign that someone read it all the way through. And yet, plenty of works exist with only few or no comments, despite hits and kudos. And the ease in which we consume works and can make them convenient to ourselves sometimes makes we forget to give the feedback we want to.
Comments help the struggling feel like the work they've made is important and good for people. Comments help the famous remember that there are people that want to talk with them, instead of just praise their work. Comments are a really good way of helping yourself come to realizations and dig deeper into a work, if you want to. They're quite powerful things, and we should leave more of them. Like everything else, creators sometimes move on, and sometimes they are torn from us long before we are ready for them to go. Tell the people you admire that you admire them. Leave comments on works now, instead of assuming you'll get back to it later. Increase the happiness and the thinky-thoughts now, if you can. Because there's always going to be new works, new exchanges, new fandoms. Be mindful of where you are, and take that moment to appreciate what you have done and finished.
And then, if you are so moved, leave a comment.
Hits, Kudos, Comments, Bookmarks. Four units of engagement with fanwork, on a kind of progression from least to most involvement. (At least on AO3.) The hit says there was something about it that drew you there - a clever title, a liked pairing, a good user of a tag, or a recommendation from someone else. Hits get recorded every time the page is loaded, though, so they're not really a good way of measuring success. They're great if you want to convince someone your work will get lots of eyeballs.
The kudo says "Not only did I read this, I liked it." Which is sometimes exactly the sentiment you want to express, nothing more, or is the only thing you can do based on your energy levels. A kudo is a one-time thing, though, and so is better about measuring impact, but it often fails to indicate the depth of the feeling. Kudos come to those who liked it a little and to those who have accepted it as their headcanon forever. And sometimes your kudo count is more a function of the size and virulence of your fandom - I wrote a pinch hit that was an extended riff on the idea of one character proposing to another. Good story, but it was in one of the megafandoms of the time, which have it a lot bigger exposure that it might have had otherwise. It's still got the highest count of hits and kudos of all of my works, as a consequence of there being so many more fans that it might be exposed to.
Then there are comments and bookmarks, which seem to rule the interaction scale as a duopoly. Bookmarks can be either, "I intend to read this later," "I totally recommend this, people who follow me and think I'm interesting" or both. AO3 tries to help disambiguate the two, allowing a bookmark to be marked as a recommendation, but I'm not sure how many people use it, or go back and change from bookmark to rec when they're done, if they think it warrants it. A comment I picked up from somewhere days that the truest measure of impact for a work is the bookmark count, because that means someone wants to come back to it. If we were going solely by bookmark count, as of this post, my Yuletide fiction for this year would be winning "Beat Work Ever."
And then there are comments. The freetext box that allows someone to express their exact feelings for a creator, which can ruin the gamut from a reserved uptick of the lips to full-resonance squee about what's been done. Is the most-commented fic the best one? How do you value squee versus amount? I write for exchanges, so works that go well often have the recipient beside themselves with joy, along with a sampling of other comments that are often complimentary, if not quite as full-throated. What is to say what the best work is, if it works exactly right for the recipient?
Comments have the additional benefit of being interactive - an exchange that can make the work better by providing useful context or the difficulty of making the work come together. Comments indicate someone took enough time to compose something thoughtful on the work you have put out, even if that thought is "YAAAAAAAAAAAAS!" *kermithands* Since it's tangible feedback, the creator tends to enjoy comments the most. It's the surest sign that someone read it all the way through. And yet, plenty of works exist with only few or no comments, despite hits and kudos. And the ease in which we consume works and can make them convenient to ourselves sometimes makes we forget to give the feedback we want to.
Comments help the struggling feel like the work they've made is important and good for people. Comments help the famous remember that there are people that want to talk with them, instead of just praise their work. Comments are a really good way of helping yourself come to realizations and dig deeper into a work, if you want to. They're quite powerful things, and we should leave more of them. Like everything else, creators sometimes move on, and sometimes they are torn from us long before we are ready for them to go. Tell the people you admire that you admire them. Leave comments on works now, instead of assuming you'll get back to it later. Increase the happiness and the thinky-thoughts now, if you can. Because there's always going to be new works, new exchanges, new fandoms. Be mindful of where you are, and take that moment to appreciate what you have done and finished.
And then, if you are so moved, leave a comment.
