Blatant Self-Promotion of Story Hours?

[Plane Sailing]

I love seeing reader feedback of *any* kind in my own and other peoples storyhours. Those who give me feedback are typically one-liners, but then again I'm not writing on the epic scale and skill of some of the better known storyhour authors, nor do I plumb fascinating philosophical depths - it's just the account of a typical D&D campaign (although possibly one with a worryingly high mortality rate )

I dislike seeing a post that just says "bump", as though being near the top of the listing is important or something, especially in threads that I like reading.

Just personal opinions here.

 

[Morte]

Feedback, commentary, questions, answers, advice, praise, jokes, gossip, interesting tangents: fine, excellent, wonderful.

The word "bump" and nothing more: burn 'em at the stake.

Some people take out subscriptions to SH threads they like so they'll be notified by email when there's a new post. Imagine how pleased they are when they come and find the word "bump".

If you're going to post, post something that somebody (not necessarily everybody) might be glad of reading. Even if your sole purpose is to bump the SH, make it worth reading and that'll be fair exchange for the readers' time.

[I'm not really this grumpy. Just undiplomatic.]

 

[Droid101]

Feedback, commentary, questions, answers, advice, praise, jokes, gossip, interesting tangents: fine, excellent, wonderful.

The word "bump" and nothing more: burn 'em at the stake.

I hereby change my view, and agree with Morte.

 

[Nifft]

I like players posting in story hours. I prefer player-driven story hours, actually, with the DM dropping in to bump it every now and again.

Someone just typing "bump" to keep a story on page one forever? Shoot 'em. Player or DM or just another reader. There are a lot of story hours here. Don't bump stuff more than once per week at the most.

-- N

 

[the Jester]

I think that feedback is the water that lets a story hour grow, keeps it alive and keeps it flowing.

Even a simple 'bump' is feedback- it shows that someone is reading, which is important; nothing motivates me more than seeing some feedback from others, than knowing that someone not in the game is reading.

I have no problem with bumps, though I prefer it when there's some kind of comment, question, etc other than just 'bump' involved.

 

[Darklone]

I'm bumping a lot... not in any SHs though where I play (because there aren't any here).

I don't see players bumping SHs in the way that you describe. And I do like to read players POVs or comments about the story. It's all a matter of post quality, I guess.

 

[Silver Moon]

I have always enjoyed reader and player feedback. It helps to show that the efforts are appreciated.

My current Western Story Hour is from a Play-by-Post game, so the players comment in the out-of-game thread for it rather in than the ENWorld Story Hour. On the other hand, the game has been so fast paced (we're averaging around 200 posts a week) that I've been able to keep the story on the first page of this forum just with new chapter updates, so haven't needed any bumps.

 

[LordVyreth]

Speaking as someone who would kill to get any reader feedback for his story hour, I have to say that the more feedback, by players and readers, the better.

 

[Piratecat]

This is a great opportunity to remind folks that:

(a) even a note to say "I really liked this!" or "How did you handle this?" is a huge gift to a storyhour author

and

(b) if people are finding their SHs cluttered by comments, drop me a line at "kevin AT kulp DOT org" and I'll temporarily give you rights to delete unneeded bumps and comments.

 

[ledded]

Feedback is the fuel for many Story Hour efforts; most folks have day jobs that write these, and while many make it look easy, I know for myself that comments (for good or ill) from people who are reading mine help me to shove that fat, lazy slob that is my muse off of the couch and put him to work in the few hours I get to do it.

I personally havent had a problem with people just tossing a 'bump' into mine, most people at least comment in some way, and irregardless of how I may quip or joke I take every single last comment seriously, because one of the reasons I post a SH is to make myself a better writer.

Pimping or promoting a Story Hour is one of the ways that people actually hear about it also. Putting a link to it in a sig, mentioning it in another forum thread, or merely posting in a story hour itself if you are a well-known member of these forums has a great effect. There are many Story Hours I would have never seen had they not been in someone's sig or been mentioned by them in a thread that I participated in. Piratecat was nice enough to post a couple small, succinct comments in my Story Hour when it was first getting off the ground which not only made me feel that I was at least not completely wasting my time and everyone's bandwidth, but I also credit with drawing several folks into taking a look at it (thanks again, PCat ). Things like that were especially helpful for me because I was writing something that was so far removed from what the average reader of Story Hours seemed to prefer that I worried that no one would ever notice it.

I like to see the interactions between the characters/players in the story and the author also, some very good conversations about playing and fun tangents can come from that. Sure, pure self-aggrandizement and bumping for the purpose of just keeping a story on page one might be annoying, but I've rarely ever noticed it, at least to levels that it bothered me in any way. I guess I probably just ignore it if I'm actually interested in the story, or I don't read stories that it is a major issue in.

And as par as quid-pro-quo, I am honestly more likely to check out a story hour if the author has posted a comment in mine, but not *just* because I feel like I need to return the favor. Admittedly, I will read a story hour if someone has read mine, but I wont post something unless I feel like there is something I honestly need to say. If that's bad, than color me bad, but that just happens to be part of the dynamic for how I follow stories/threads is sometimes, and when I read something I enjoy I like to give encouragement; there are a lot of good stories on these boards and several have faded away because people frankly didnt appreciate them.

So I can see how self-pimping by an author or the SH's players can get out of hand or annoy someone, but without some of it I probably would not have found some of the best stories on these boards, and helped encourage those little-known 'fringe' authors to post further efforts in other Story Hours.

I could post a couple of good examples of this phenomenon, but then I'd be pimping

All that being said, maybe I should start a thread asking how people most often find out about a Story Hour that has become their favorite. Or search for one, I'm sure this has come up sometime recently and I just dont remember.