26 July 2016 @ 11:49 pm
LJ vs AO3 (vs other options): posting & reading habits  
I haven't posted much fic lately, but I'm trying to get things finished and I'm wondering: do people still post fic directly onto LJ these days or onto AO3 only and link to AO3 (or do something else entirely)?

When I'd finally finished updating my AO3 account I would still post directly to LJ but add a link to AO3, and link to both on my LJ masterlist. For posting fic I like that AO3 has the function to see hits and kudos, and I like the look of it, all clean lines and clarity. I think maybe you miss out on some comments though, because kudos are easier to give, and on comment conversations, which seem to flow better on LJ? But I wonder if i'm wasting my time if I post directly to LJ, because I think there's a trend towards reading more on AO3?

As a reader I've noticed I tend to opt for an AO3 link over any other kind. If one isn't available I'm happy to read anywhere else - stores are love - but other people's journal styles, for example white writing on a black background or a tiny font, put me off now I'm used to the AO3 layout. It's also much easier to bookmark things, find other things written by writers you've liked or works that they've liked, and to search.

I still really like rec lists though. If I see a rec list on LJ - or recs elsewhere, to be fair - by someone who's I trust to rec things I'll like, or if a rec list just looks interesting, I'll go through those fics regardless of whether they link to AO3 or anywhere else. But similarly I'll go through someone's bookmarks on AO3 if I like their taste.

So, posting habits and reading habits these days. What're people's thinky thoughts?
 
 
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[identity profile] kiss-me-cassie.livejournal.com on July 27th, 2016 12:43 am (UTC)
I've taken to just posting on Ao3 and putting a link elsewhere, for a few reasons.
1. I really like tracking the hits/kudos/whatever.
2. I have so few people I know on LJ anymore it's useless to post a full fic just here
3. Related, the comms I would post to aren't active (West Wing? HAH! MCU? Well, the Clint/Nat one is, but I have random other pairs/threes and I'm not confident enough to post at a bigger comm on lj. Or you know, anywhere.)

(Caveat here, though, is that I have very few followers ANYWHERE, get many fewer hits, many fewer kudos, and rarely get comments of any kind. So... ymmv, because you are a much more known and better author. *g*)

As for reading? I will cling to any rec lists I see (very few lately) and have taken to glomping onto favorite authors' bookmarks on Ao3 just to find new stuff.

Also, I tend to like wordy bitches, so there's a lot of longer fics from months ago still sitting in my to-read list on my email or elsewhere that I just haven't gotten to yet. (WHY DOES NO ONE WRITE FICS UNDER 5K ANYMORE? Oh, right, they do. I just like the wordy ones best. ;))
inkvoices: avengers:assassins hug[personal profile] inkvoices on July 27th, 2016 10:21 pm (UTC)
I'm leaning towards just posting to AO3 and linking to it from here. I used to crosspost/link on a couple of community LJ sites, but most of them have gone quiet and those that haven't appear to, again, trend towards linking to AO3. Although comment fic and kink memes appear to have one-stop shopping like when we do promptathon.

you are a much more known and better author HA that's a matter of perspective *grins*.

WHY DOES NO ONE WRITE FICS UNDER 5K ANYMORE? Oh, right, they do. I just like the wordy ones best. ;) Bwahaha, was just having a conversation with [livejournal.com profile] geckoholic the other day about how annoying fics are when they want to be long lol
jesterlady[personal profile] jesterlady on July 27th, 2016 02:29 am (UTC)
I do both. I do find myself liking to read on ao3 though. Love to be able to download fic and keep it forever!
inkvoices: avengers:natasha thinky[personal profile] inkvoices on July 27th, 2016 10:22 pm (UTC)
The only fic I've downloaded was because an author warned in advance that they were removing their works, and put up a downloadable PDF if anyone wanted their works before they went. But the amount of times I've gone looking for old links and been able to find fic, downloading sounds sensible! Hmm, another handy function of AO3.
jesterlady: PBsarafic[personal profile] jesterlady on July 28th, 2016 01:25 am (UTC)
Yeah, it's seriously the best feature. It makes it so easy because you can read everything all at once rather than in chapters so no need to copy and paste each chapter to have it all your own and read it whenever you want and there's no Internet!

[identity profile] meatball42.livejournal.com on July 27th, 2016 05:01 am (UTC)
I pretty much just post on AO3 these days, though in the back of my mind there's a faint promise that 'of course I'll crosspost... sometime.' I just posted a full multi-chap to LJ because I wanted to post chapter by chapter on AO3 and I needed to have technically posted the whole thing for the bang, but I'm confident no one will read it on LJ because, once it's all posted on AO3, that's when I'll advertise on LJ with the AO3 complete link as well. I sort of assume everyone else is like me, where if I see an AO3 link I'm set, but if I see just an LJ I'll double-check if the summary is good enough to be worth it; because I hate having too many tabs open and the Mark for Later button is just right there... of course my Marked for Later is now 99 pages long, so perhaps I ought to reconsider this plan. Still, that's 99*20 tabs I don't have open, right?

Trufax about reclists though. Even with all that ^, if I see a reclist with LJ links I'll hit em all.
inkvoices: avengers:assassins hug[personal profile] inkvoices on July 27th, 2016 10:24 pm (UTC)
I used to be the other way around - took me ages to crosspost my old fics onto AO3. But I like to have complete archives!

Interesting. I still have multiple tabs when on AO3 and fic surfing though.

Rec lists <3
[identity profile] kiss-me-cassie.livejournal.com on July 27th, 2016 10:34 pm (UTC)
I have, currently, 8 tabs with fic open and another two with author profiles (which are open because I want to peruse more of their fic to determine if I need to subscirbe.) So yeah, this does NOTHING to deter my multiple open tab issues. hee

You people with the organization skills and time to archive... GAH. I have all my old West Wing fic from under another username archived on a dreamwidth account and my fic under my current name moshed up on here and Ao3 with no rhyme, reason or good organization. :(
inkvoices: avengers:assassins hug[personal profile] inkvoices on July 27th, 2016 10:56 pm (UTC)
Nope, no it doesn't *grins*.

I couldn't do that. Actually, just thinking about that gives me a twitch :p I HAD to organise my AO3 because it was driving me up the wall lol.
[identity profile] meatball42.livejournal.com on July 27th, 2016 11:17 pm (UTC)
Yeah, that would drive me crazy too. I mostly just ignore the pile-up and then every few months have a mass-organizing session (which is today- it feels so good!). Actually... that's how I do a lot of life things.
[identity profile] meatball42.livejournal.com on July 27th, 2016 11:15 pm (UTC)
The complete archive thing is why I still post on LJ and update my masterlist there, even if I'm lagging (less after today!). The idea is that all the fics I've written can be found either on ff.net or LJ, for the ease of... someone, someday, presumably.

And yes, I do still have multiple tabs :) but I try to keep it down.
endeni[personal profile] endeni on July 27th, 2016 12:09 pm (UTC)
As for reading habits, I tend to mostly download stuff from Ao3 on my ebook reader (or other places if the fic isn't available there). And I do think most people prefer using Ao3 these days. Still, I keep posting fic both on Ao3 and on DW/LJ (plus I drop a link on tumblr too), mostly because there's never enough back-up, you know?
inkvoices: avengers:natasha thinky[personal profile] inkvoices on July 27th, 2016 10:27 pm (UTC)
That's two people who've said that they download - which is not something I thought of people doing - and I figure AO3 is easier for that. I back things up on my laptop, but good point! Decisions, decisions... (I might just post this next fic only on AO3 and see what happens.)
snickfic[personal profile] snickfic on August 6th, 2016 09:51 pm (UTC)
I've switched to reading on AO3 for everything all the time. I like that the basic interface/formatting/appearance is always the same, and the download button is handy for stuff I don't feel like reading right away. And when I post, I just post to AO3 and then crosspost a link to LJ/DW.

I think this change is partly because my most recent fandom is so thoroughly AO3 - there's no hockey RPF presence on LJ, and very little on DW.
inkvoices: avengers:assassins hug[personal profile] inkvoices on August 7th, 2016 07:26 pm (UTC)
That seems to be the trend. I posted my recent fic straight to AO3 and crossposted to LJ, and I don't think it's made a huge difference (other than in my complete-archives little sould *grins*).

Do you think as a general rule new fandoms are more tumblr or AO3 inclined? I'm still in MCU which has a foothold in LJ and DW, but AO3 hadn't quite taken off when MCU started being a bigger thing.
snickfic[personal profile] snickfic on August 8th, 2016 04:01 am (UTC)
I think that is definitely the case, yeah. Even new ships in existing fandoms can end up being Tumblr/AO3 focused. As far as I can tell, Sam/Dean fandom in SPN still operates primarily on LJ, even if they cross-post to AO3, whereas D/C fandom is strictly Tumblr an AO3 these days.
inkvoices: avengers:natasha thinky[personal profile] inkvoices on August 9th, 2016 07:53 pm (UTC)
Huh, interesting!