Customer Satisfaction Survey

[aggienaut]

   One of my favourite things about livejournal is the feedback one gets about one's writing (/photos / drawings). This feedback comes not just in the form of actual "I liked this" or "this was crap!!" comments, but more commonly in the number and variety of comments themselves. I write to be read and constantly aim to improve, so I'm constantly taking note of all forms of feedback that I can. In fact as you may or may not recall this very livejournal started out as an experiment in gauging people's reactions to varying different variables in entries.

   One generally assumes that comments are indicative of people enjoying an entry and/or finding it interesting. When you get no comments and just hear the crickets chirping, it's time to be worried.*

   After posting the link to the completed drawings about my day yesterday I got exactly two more comments all day. This is way below par. To better serve you we here at Emo-snal are interested to know why that was.

* or your audience might have died, as happened with the oriented-towards-people-from-real-life emosnail before my embracing the anonymous masses here. The friends-list of Emosnail, once veritably spinning with entry turn-around, is now a slow trickle, and entries I post over there more often than not get no comments at all. That low of a turn out is extremely unusual, so I'm curious if you all hate my drawings and I should never do it again or something.

[Poll #1520866]

            

Bee from one of the cartoons, coloured, and, just for Stacey, bee butt!

See also, my new icon!

Comments

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

I couldn't figure out what was going on in half of them but I don't think that was necessarily a weakness.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Haha they're MEANT to be incomprehensible! Well, the one where I ride a bee is. :D I think what would really help me a lot would probably be if I could distinguish one stick figure from another better. All I had to go on was making my boss' stick figure much bigger than the others. (:

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Also! Hey! Sometimes all I get on a whole comic is two comments!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Also I enjoyed it so much I've made a resolution to try to draw something every day now!

[purlav.livejournal.com]

I didn't respond to the poll as my answer wasn't quite there. I normally skim LJ entries at work, during breaks, or lunch. If there is a largish post under a cut, I tend to skip it, and just look at it later at home if it grabbed my interest. I saw your initial post & comic (cute) while at work, and saw that you'd be posting more. I had the intention of going back to look at the rest later at home. I noted your later post that pointed back to the first post (again at work) and planned on checking back that evening. I never got around to it, forgot, life got in the way, etc. I rarely post comments on entries anyway, so if I had gone back to look at the post, which I need to remind myself to do (again), I still probably wouldn't have commented. I'm fairly certain this comment will not help you in any way whatsoever as I can't give you feedback on more than the 1 comic I did see, which I did like. (Yay for rambling thoughts after a too long day at work!)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Haha thanks for the this comment (: Yeah that happens to me with comments themselves. I check my email while at work, see I have comment notifications and can't resist reading them, but am not about to go jump into lj while at work and by the time I get home I forget to respond to the comments :[

[crysania4.livejournal.com]

The bee is CUTE!

I have to admit that I sort of skimmed it. I'm totally not a comic person and so the whole thing sort of went over my head. lol

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Aw thanks (:

And thanks for your feedback (:

[abe-lincoln666.livejournal.com]

The "Didn't hate it, but had no comments forthcoming" option summed my reaction up.

Sometimes, even if I really enjoy reading something, I just can't think of a relevant comment. Sometimes, a piece has already said enough all by itself, and it feels kind of silly to comment on it; almost like further comments or discussion might actually diminish whatever the piece had to say in the first place. I generally avoid commenting if the only comment I can think of is, "Hey that was cool" or "Boy, you said it!"; mostly because I don't think comments like that really add to the discussion or lead anywhere.

On top of that, I just started reading your journal a few weeks back, and I generally make a habit of just keeping quiet and learning about the culture of a journal or community before throwing in my own two cents.

Also, I don't think you should take a lack of comments as a sign of disapproval or a means to measure the effectiveness of a piece. When I post stuff in my journal, I try to think of the journal piece as being akin to starting a conversation in a bar; sometimes I'll get a positive reaction, sometimes I'll get a negative reaction and sometimes I'll get no reaction at all. The presence or lack of comments often doesn't really say anything about the piece itself; it might say more about the people who are listening/reading.

That's just the chance we take, every time we open our mouths in public; even when we know what we're talking about and communicate our ideas effectively, there's no gaurantee that any given idea will spur further discussion.

[purlav.livejournal.com]

You have a very valid point. I will sometimes post a question or mention a topic that I expect will generate a lot of comments, but get no response at all. Other times I'll post something entirely random and unimportant like "I just had tea!" and I'll end up with 20 comments on it within 10 minutes. *shrugs* People are weird!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Thanks for taking the time to write so thorough a comment!

Yes I know what you mean. I often read entries and I know people like comments and feel like I ought to comment it so they know a read and liked it but.. yeah it feels silly writing a comment if you don't genuinely have something to add to the conversation.

I try to keep in mind that comments do NOT necessarily exactly equal the degree to which an entry was read and enjoyed. I think they do provide a very rough idea, since people do tend to comment to things they find interesting (which really is the goal of an entry if you care about comments). And also though it's just hard to divorce one's mind from the "if I don't see it it's not there" of there being readers who don't comment.

[jfargo.livejournal.com]

This is a comment. You're welcome.

;)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

ahahaha :D

[liret.livejournal.com]

I only had two comments to mine, too! I figure people just don't click on anything with a lj cut. But I didn't even bother to post my second batch, because it doesn't seem worthwhile if no one is going to look at them.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Aw I didn't notice you posted them!

But yeah it's such a downer when you put effort into posting something and just here crickets when you posted it, perhaps a tumbleweed blows by. ::ponders ideas pertaining to a cartoon illustrating this::

[troubleagain.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry I didn't comment. I did enjoy them.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Thanks (:

[beki.livejournal.com]

I thought they were neat, but I don't comment on most of the stuff I read. I've not had much time to recently.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

yeah I know how that goes. (: thanks

[sushimustwrite.livejournal.com]

I think we need more bee buts.

Bee Butts!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Careful what you ask for, I love my cross references :D

The "original" bee butt was in this picture, wherein, when I asked Stacey if she thought it or a very similar picture was better, she voted for it based on that it had a bee butt. (:

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

HEY! Partners this week?

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

I have to go to sleep but I am still interested in working with you for this week's LJ Idol if you are not already spoken for! I have ideas! Let me know!

[geordielass.livejournal.com]

you bee is so damned cute. :)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Aw thanks! (:

[goddessofchaos.livejournal.com]

"Never saw it" is closest to the correct answer for me! I did see that you'd made the post, but my internet at work was super-slow yesterday for some reason, so I skipped over posts that had pictures and am only now coming back to them today.

I think it was a fun post :) And your bee is super-cute :D Also, the phrase "bee butt" amuses me more than it probably should, lol!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Haha aw thanks! (:

Maybe I should make the bee butt into an icon as well. hmm.

[http://users.livejournal.com/__rosieposie/]

If you don't have a partner for LJ, would you like to be partners?

[http://users.livejournal.com/__rosieposie/]

Oops, you already have one. Can I claim dibs on you for the following week if we require partners again? :)

[amanda.livejournal.com]

This is the first time since the middle of last week that I've been on LJ - and I read most recent to oldest entries on my friends page. I'll get to that entry eventually, most likely....however, I'm not a big commenter, so there's every chance that even though I might like an entry or be moved by an entry, etc etc, I won't actually comment. ;)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Ah well.. thanks for the comment here! :D

[painindesire.livejournal.com]

your comics are adorable. i should do something similar.... muahahahhahahha

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Comics about your love life? Yes!