Hi Nisha, I’m glad you took the time to create this account to comment on my work, much like the other folks who’ve done similarly to express their feelings about this piece I wrote.

I want to clarify something before I go any further: This piece is not complaining about Ao3 — I adore Ao3 as a platform and think it’s one of the best gifts fans could possibly have given to the community. This piece is commenting on the unintentional effects of platform design with an introduction that, yes, focuses on my personal experiences in early forum and live journal-based fandoms. Your mileage may vary in terms of how relatable these experiences where to your own, I never once claimed to be speaking for the collective. You are correct that I put a lot of stock in such things, because these experiences gave me a sense of community with my fandom peers. They are important to me.

I want to draw your attention firstly to your comments in response to my assessment on the kudos button. Ao3 first implemented it, as I stated before, in December of 2010. The language they used when introducing the kudos button is as follows: ‘We think this will be a great way for people to spread the love during the holiday season, when finding time to read fic in between family commitments can make it hard to leave long comments’ (Ao3 News December 2010). By the language utilized by OTW themselves, kudos are meant to be a replacement for a longer comments as a time saver. This language upon implementation further suggests to site users that it is acceptable to leave kudos as opposed to a longer comment (for whatever reason). The unintended consequence of this, which my essay highlights, is that the kudos button now tells readers that they’ve left feedback. They’re not encouraged to comment by the website because they have another way to provide the author with “feedback” that the website encourages them to use through making it a metric of worth that fanfiction can be sorted by.

My objection, as a writer, is that I don’t think kudos are good enough. This is a long-standing debate within fandom regarding Ao3, and the shift toward platforms which encourage ‘liking’ rather than engaging with a post in a more mindful way. I’m not going to rehash all the reasons why both are fine opinions to have. You aren’t going to change my mind about it.

As for the other thing, honestly dude. You’re welcome to get wildly offended that a fanfic author wishes their words were worth more to you than just binging on a Sunday afternoon. The last 40,000 word long fanfic I wrote took me nearly six months to complete, and here you are, cramming it into one afternoon. As much as it shouldn’t matter to me, because I, too, read quickly, it bothers me.

Your identity as a fan, as a reader, and as a writer is not being insulted in this piece. Your tone in the response was not appreciated, nor was the snide comment about Medium having an applause feature. I use this platform to share academic blog posts, I couldn’t care less that there’s an applause feature. I don’t use it.