Readership on AO3 vs. Fanfiction.net
Jan. 21st, 2016 09:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingI just finished a multichapter fic that I've been serializing over the past month on AO3 and Fanfiction.net (FFN). The story is about a crack pairing in a relatively small fandom, and it's 100% self-indulgent. Still, it's always nice to know that I'm not just talking to myself, and I've been thinking about the differences in readership across the two sites.
In the 35 days since I started posting the fic, it's gotten 220 views on AO3.
To give a comparison, it's gotten 2,491 views on FFN.
As the above sceencaps indicate, the story has gotten more kudos on AO3 than story faves on FFN, but it's gotten more reviews on FFN than comments on AO3. This is primarily because the interface of AO3 facilitates leaving kudos (which is as easy as clicking a button), while the interface of FFN facilitates leaving reviews (which are expected to be short, usually no longer than a sentence). Based on my experience with this story, FFN seems to net more exposure, while AO3 produces more interaction.
What I'm interested in are the anonymous readers. Six of the nine reviews on FFN are from unregistered users, and 20 of the 25 kudos on AO3 are from guests. I suspect this is partially because of the nature of this particular pairing (which people might not want their usernames associated with) and partially because a lot of us read fic on our phones and work computers (meaning that we don't sign in to our accounts).
My hypothesis, however, is that many of these anonymous readers are coming from Tumblr, which is where fandom seems to have converged. I'm therefore wondering if perhaps Tumblr itself is starting to become the preeminent platform for posting fic.
When I showed this data to a friend of mine, she offered the reasonable assessment that AO3 and FFN function primarily as archives, while the main benefit of Tumblr lies in exposure. This is true, of course, but I don't think it's the whole story. The model of fandom I've seen emerging in the past twelve months is skewed toward more of a "media mix," and Tumblr excels in supporting the associated interactions. I will probably write more about this later, but for now I think it's safe to conclude that (a) each platform has its benefits, and (b) Tumblr is not killing fandom but facilitating it.
In the 35 days since I started posting the fic, it's gotten 220 views on AO3.
To give a comparison, it's gotten 2,491 views on FFN.
As the above sceencaps indicate, the story has gotten more kudos on AO3 than story faves on FFN, but it's gotten more reviews on FFN than comments on AO3. This is primarily because the interface of AO3 facilitates leaving kudos (which is as easy as clicking a button), while the interface of FFN facilitates leaving reviews (which are expected to be short, usually no longer than a sentence). Based on my experience with this story, FFN seems to net more exposure, while AO3 produces more interaction.
What I'm interested in are the anonymous readers. Six of the nine reviews on FFN are from unregistered users, and 20 of the 25 kudos on AO3 are from guests. I suspect this is partially because of the nature of this particular pairing (which people might not want their usernames associated with) and partially because a lot of us read fic on our phones and work computers (meaning that we don't sign in to our accounts).
My hypothesis, however, is that many of these anonymous readers are coming from Tumblr, which is where fandom seems to have converged. I'm therefore wondering if perhaps Tumblr itself is starting to become the preeminent platform for posting fic.
When I showed this data to a friend of mine, she offered the reasonable assessment that AO3 and FFN function primarily as archives, while the main benefit of Tumblr lies in exposure. This is true, of course, but I don't think it's the whole story. The model of fandom I've seen emerging in the past twelve months is skewed toward more of a "media mix," and Tumblr excels in supporting the associated interactions. I will probably write more about this later, but for now I think it's safe to conclude that (a) each platform has its benefits, and (b) Tumblr is not killing fandom but facilitating it.
no subject
Date: 2016-01-21 03:43 pm (UTC)I attempted to get around this problem by creating a separate tumblr blog that was only for fanfic and fanfic announcements (ahistoryoflies.tumblr.com), and I gave it a tag system and a special index page that made it easy to navigate even after it hasn't been updated for ages. I have also stuck google analytics on it. The results? Whenever I post something to ahistoryoflies.tumblr.com, if I tag the post in a manner that non-followers will find it, I drive a lot of traffic (including anon readers) to fic. But after a few days, the initial tumblr announcement post does nothing. From there on, the people who find the fic seem to be finding it through google search or through systematic searching of my fannish accounts.
Tumblr is not killing fandom but facilitating it
I think this depends on who you ask. ;)
no subject
Date: 2016-01-21 05:34 pm (UTC)I will write a full response later, but I just wanted to drop a quick note and say OMG SENPAI NOTICED ME. I followed you because of your fandom meta (and your good taste in Final Fantasys), and now that you're leaving comments on my Dreamwidth I am dying of happiness.
I just thought you should know.
no subject
Date: 2016-01-23 11:31 pm (UTC)Let me add a bit more anecdotal data to the pile.
I don't think Tumblr performs very well outside of Tumblr, if that makes sense. Unless a post was reblogged by a high-traffic user, my experience is that it is indeed difficult to find through a search engine. Tumblr is also difficult for a non-registered user to navigate, as what appears on a search for any given tag is limited to the "top" three dozen posts, with these posts determined according to fuck knows.
For a registered user (especially a registered user with XKit), though, Tumblr is extremely useful. The tagging system especially is a godsend. For someone like me, who will suddenly become obsessed with one specific thing, tag browsing (on a specific blog or on Tumblr as a whole) can kill an entire weekend. I don't think I'm the only one who does this, since a number of my old posts will periodically be reblogged and get a handful of notes. Sometimes I wake up to find that a post from a year or two ago will have gotten more than a hundred notes overnight.
Of course, the tagging system isn't perfect. It seems that, if a post doesn't initially get a minimum number of notes (and I'm not sure what this number is), then it won't appear on the tag. Still, sometimes posts with no notes will appear on a tag if the poster's blog is associated with that tag, but I'm not sure how a user comes to be associated with a tag.
In terms of Tumblr killing fandom, obviously it's subjective, but I don't think that statement can be justified from a broader perspective. If "fandom" as a whole is an organic movement revolving around unlicensed creative responses to entertainment media, then the surge in participation facilitated by Tumblr has not hindered anything. If "fandom" is more narrowly defined, however, then I could see several interesting arguments being made concerning the gradual disappearance of older online cultures.
If there were more hours in the day, I would love to put together a collection of "Tumblr is killing fandom" essays, if only to see if there's any concordance in opinion. I bet there's already a number of links on the Fanlore Wiki
or maybe there's a tag on Tumblr.Sorry for writing a five-paragraph essay. I just... what even is Tumblr, anyway?
no subject
Date: 2016-01-21 10:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-23 11:07 pm (UTC)I dip in and out of Tumblr, and I'm currently in an "out" phase. Like Twitter, Tumblr demands too much of my attention and emotional energy.
Still, I like my comics and fan art, and I vastly prefer Tumblr to DeviantArt as a delivery system. The way I've got things set up right now, I subscribe to the RSS feeds of a handful of Tumblr blogs on a separate feed reader. There's a bit of a lag (which seems to differ by individual Tumblr blogs and can at times exceed 24 hours), but with this method I can get most of the content I want while largely ignoring all the bullshit on my dash. I've considered using XKit, but it seems like too much trouble... and I don't really care all that much.
no subject
Date: 2016-01-23 11:33 pm (UTC)