I have been wondering for quite some time about a phenomenon that I can’t seem to get my head around. Maybe you can help me with this.
This blog has more than 1,500 pageviews on an average day (sometimes it’s 2,000, sometimes it’s 1,000, but it’s usually around the 1,500 mark), and my stories on average get three or four comments from readers.
There are some stories that don’t fit the pattern. When we’re looking at 2015 stories, there are some that stand out because they get a lot more or a lot less comments than the average story – and, frankly, most of the times I have no idea why.
Of course I won’t complain about stories getting lots of comments that I didn’t think were very special. I just accept that I was wrong... :-)
It’s the stories that didn’t get any comments at all that I’m thinking about, and I’d like to find out why. Is it just that these stories don’t hit a nerve? Are they badly written or repetitive or clumsily plotted or do they have a bad title or feature characters that you don’t care about?
Here are the 2015 stories that I’m talking about. As of today none of these got any comments from a reader:
Lucky Charms (Towel Boy II)
World of Payne: Welcome home
World of Payne: Thwarted plans
Dirty dancers
A little secret
Winning feels so fucking good
(I’m excluding the From stud to dud stories since you obviously weren’t very fond of those – even though I’m still very, very proud of them and I hope Chadfan and I will continue the saga soon.)
I’m asking for your help: Do you have any idea why nobody commented on these stories (neither positively nor negatively)?
More generally speaking: What makes you comment on a story, or what makes you not comment on a story?
And I have an additional request to those who read this blog and have never left a comment: It would be awesome if you took the time to tell me why you usually don’t leave a comment. (I’m aware of how ridiculous that sounds but I’m genuinely interested in your opinion. And this is the perfect opportunity to write your first comment! By the way, you don't have to log in or state your name or anything. You can comment anonymously... :-))
To be perfectly clear: It’s absolutely okay to read this blog and never leave a comment. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. I'm thankful for every reader who visits this blog. I’m just trying to understand what makes the stories mentioned above different from the rest.
Thank you very much!
23 comments:
I wouldn't take the lack of commentary personally, or a sign that people aren't enjoying the work. For all the talk about social media and new age content, most media is consumed as a one way interaction, so many simply don't think to comment or interact after they've consumed it. Further, for whatever reason, most people only comment on ANYTHING when they are either extremely satisfied or extremely dissatisfied. Laziness? Perhaps.
I think, even anonymously, it can be a bit embarassing to admit you're turned on by guys getting hit in the nuts.
Also sometimes I don't comment because the captcha system is super annoying and won't let me comment.
Once it asked me to click on all pictures of dining rooms and half the pictures were off screen where I couldn't see them!
Thanks for your feedback, guys! Both of you have some interesting points.
@anonymous: I really don't take it personally. And since I'm quite lazy myself I really can relate to laziness... :-))
@Carter: I tried to configurate the captcha but it seems like the setup for the captcha can't be changed... :-/
I like your stories but sometimes I don't comment or forget to but I read the winning feels so fucking good and I liked it
It's okay, I'll handle it.
:-)
I remember I was so nervous the first time I commented here.
I think my balls shriveled in fear.
For some reason I just never really think of commenting. I guess it seems like the regular people normally comment and they've already said what I'm thinking. While I like 99.99% of the stories here I could venture a guess as to what might set those stories apart.
Lucky Charms and the Wold of Payne stories involve younger characters and I know personally that's always kind of awkward for me when reading because the busting turns me on but then I remember the characters are minors and it feels wrong.
A Little Secret seemed more like an introduction to me than a full story. While I'm looking forward for that story to continue, it just didn't really feel like a stand alone story.
As for the others, if I'm not mistaken they are part of the Be Our Guest stories, and I never really get that attached to them because they are one time characters so I normally just read them and move on. Not sure why there is a difference between those and other Be Our Guest stories though.
I hope that makes sense and I didn't ramble on for too long.
Ditto to some of what Colton said. The World of Payne was a little weird mostly because the twins usually get busted but not in those stories since they were so young? Maybe your readers were sort of on the fence about that. Little secret felt like an intro. That's not bad, it just means we are waiting for the next part. I wouldn't comment on Lucky Charms bc I'm just not into anything that violent, but that's just me. Dirty Dancers and Winning... were both great stories, probably just didn't comment out of laziness. Def enjoy your stories though, so good call out to get more readers to comment!
Do you like getting suggestions for stories other than the Be Our Guest series? I would comment or give a suggestion, but don't necessarily want to be IN a story.
Thank you so much for your feedback, guys! I really appreciate you taking the time to tell me your opinion!
@Orion:
I'm glad you liked the "Winning feels so fucking great" story! :-))
@Carter:
Oh dear - I hope your balls have since returned to normal... :-))
@Colton:
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! This is very helpful!
Maybe you are right: Younger characters (like in the two "World of Payne" stories) rarely appear in my stories. I thought I'd mix it up a bit and explore the twins' youth. But I understand the "awkward" reaction, and I guess that means there won't be any more stories featuring younger characters.
"A little secret" is an introduction of sorts. I'm planning on writing little episodes featuring our dorm buddies. Usually, when I write an introductory story like that I want to find out whether the setup is interesting enough to warrant more chapters. So when there are no comments I (mistakenly?) believe there's no sense in writing sequels. But that may be a wrong conclusion...
And I get what you're saying about the "Be our guest" stories. It's tricky. On the one hand I really want the story to be a personalized gift for the reader who suggested it. On the other hand I always hope it appeals to all the other readers as well. I guess that works sometimes, and sometimes it doesn't...
Anyway, thank you very much, Colton!
@anonymous:
Thank you for telling me your thoughts!
The "Lucky Charms II" story was more brutal than my usual stories, and I had a great time writing it with my friend Nicholas. I wasn't sure what to expect when we published it. I guess I thought there'd be people who love it and people who hate it. So I was a bit disappointed when there was no reaction at all. But maybe my expections were wrong...
As for suggestions: I'm always very grateful for ideas! I can't promise I'll write every story (there are a lot of unfinished drafts on my computer, unfortunately) but I'm always interested in new ideas and suggestions! Just leave a comment here on the blog or write me an email (alex@ballbustingboys.org) so we can discuss your ideas!
I never comment - It's really difficult to type with only one hand (wink wink)
I completely understand! My stories are written for one-handed consumption. :-))
I comment fairly regularly on your stories, especially if i really like the plot or if I have an idea for a sequel. In my case there are some characters I find really hot (especially Ben, David, Parker) and others that do nothing for me (cal, Brandon, Jimmy).
I'm also not a huge fan of gay-sex stories or busting-to-cum. Each to his own I guess.
Anyway, keep up the great work!
Thanks for your feedback! I promise you I'll keep trying to mix up gay-sex stories and busting-to-cum stories and ballbusting-only stories (but I do realize that there have been a lot of stories featuring cum and sex lately).
Btw, I can't tell you how happy I am that some of my characters have really connected with my readers. After all, some of them have been around for almost eight years and more than 50 stories - and still, it seems, they are good for even more stories! That makes me feel really good as a writer! :-))
I think what's most likely, especially given the number of page visits by the day, is that dudes probably forget all about commenting once they blow their loads. Heh, gotta catch breath, cleanup, maybe revisit a favorite part, etc... by then commenting probably isn't very forward on the brain. I intuit that as the highest likelihood, but in that you're doing exactly what you set out to do, so mission accomplished.
Though since you bring it up, genuine thanks and appreciation for this site and your great work. Definitely amazing and you should definitely hear that from your fan base more often. But again: Men, who've just cum all over the place... Heh but yeah, big thanks and keep it coming and don't doubt that you're great at what you do. Dig it, man.
-Corsair
Thanks for your feedback, Corsair! You may be on to something... :-))
Btw, I tried to send you an email a while back but I got an error message. I have a little question so maybe you could send me an email with your new address?
Eh. I don't think people are too "embarrassed" to comment. Could have something to do with how one goes about commenting. The majority of us would comment anonymously. I'm looking into commenting more myself.
Personally part of the problem is the website. I actually have some buddies in real life that follow this site - but the site's comment approval "I'm not a robot" is glitchy. It glitches on A LOT of devices. Perhaps others notice it too. I know in my circle of friends my laptop (firefox) has a hard time with it. My boyfriend can never get it to work on his iPhone, and my friends says it won't work on his samsung. Sooo ... I don't know it maybe that.
I look forward to commenting more as I FINALLY got my laptop to stop glitching with the site.
- Brian
Thanks for your comment, Brian! Unfortunately I can't do anything about those technical issues. :-/
What's ur contact email again? Tried to pull it up but couldn't find it...
-Corsair
It's alex@ballbustingboys.org :-))
Hmm, that's what I thought, but I'm also getting an error returned in my inbox. Email me: houseofhunk@gmail.com
That's strange... I'll send you an email...
I got your email, but still couldn't reply. I tried several times and received an error message of permanent failure to send. And now my email account is temporarily disabled. Heh, dunno what the issue is, but I have an email in to gmail support about it.
Standby...?
Actually, if you still have your tumblr, message me there at my new page: http://houseofhunk.tumblr.com/ask
-Corsair
That is very strange. I've sent you a tumblr message.
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