#comment day

[comment-day]

It's already Comment Day in some time zones, so it's time to release the stats form!

This is just an optional bonus, but if you are commenting on fic today, we thought it would be a fun idea to release a form to collect some basic info about the fics, so we could get some stats!

If you want, once you've commented on a fic, you can fill out this form! All the questions are optional, and should hopefully let us get some fun graphs. There's a place to rec the fic you commented on, too! And you can fill it out as many times as you want, for as many different fics as you comment on!

[annabtg]

So, I did @comment-day yesterday - went through some fics I'd been wanting to read and left long and detailed comments to the best of my ability! It was a wonderful way to pass a Sunday, highly recommended!!

Here's a list of the stories I read, so you can enjoy them as much as I did :D

just before dawn by @gigglesandfreckles-hp

when resiliency shatters by @kay-elle-cee

one last by apalapucian

The Mountain Tomb by @nought-shall-go-ill

Christmas Kisses by @uncertainwallflower

Between the Desire and the Spasm by uncertainwallflower

Slipping Away by @yallthemwitches

Not a Bang, But a Whimper by yallthemwitches

Legilimens by yallthemwitches

[wazzappp]

@rokhal happy comment day!! I’m not so good with writing so I thought I would contribute to the celebration of fic writers by drawing some stuff!

Can not BELIEVE it took me so long to notice the ‘anime girl running late to class with a piece of toast in her mouth’ refrence in ‘Wrong Universe’ its so fucking goooddddddddd.

‘Totally Awesome Automotive Diagnostic Tool’ might be my favorite fic from you of all time. Idk why but this particular moment just stood out to me it’s so silly but also has like. A weight to it? Congrats Robbie you’ve made a friend so incredibly blunt with his words you can’t hide from your magical-ness anymore lol.

Couldn’t let the ‘Van Helsing shows up and fixes the problem’ idea for ‘Curse of the Heretic’ go away lmao. Also thank you so much to @spikershoyo for helping me with the translations! Gabe saying ‘Get ready to be kicked back into hell you son of a bitch’ was an absolute necessity to get just right XD

I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your fanfic. It’s become so integral to my understanding of Robbie’s character that it’s just canon for me at this point. I haven’t met a single person in this fandom that hasn’t not only read but LOVED your writing. What you make genuinely helps keep the love for Robbie going. I hope you know how much we all love and appreciate it <33

[lisbeth-kk]

Comment Day!

Just remembered that it’s Comment Day today, September 15. I have commented on 5 fics so far. What about you? Go give your favourite author/fic some love, or read something new and leave a comment. It means so much to the receiver.

[totallynotmeems]

today is comment day!!! i will be participating, and free feel to participate with me!!! @comment-day

[noelevangilinecarson]

Friendly reminder that tomorrow (Sept 15) is Comment Day! Don't forget to leave a comment on your favorite fic or a bunch of fics!

[jewel-shard]

It is officially the 15th on AO3 servers....

[comment-day]

Some Resources To Help With Commenting

If you have ever gotten a comment full of pull-quotes, you know it is a joy to get as an author. You get to know exactly which parts of a fic stood out to someone! Which lines made them keysmash or delve into character or made it all click! Amazing!

If you've ever tried to write one yourself, you know that scrolling to the bottom of the screen to get to the comment box again and again is an exercise in frustration only matched by repeatedly closing your hand in a door while the fire alarm goes off. So. Here are some resources to help with that!

(Note: The high-tech versions below are for Ao3, but they replicate functionality Wattpad already has built in— you can comment line by line on that site! The low-tech resource linked below should work for any site that allows you to leave comments.)

The High Tech:

There is an amazing use script written by @ravenel which gives you a comment box that floats on your screen, which is detailed below.

It can be intimidating to install a use script, so @bourbon-ontherocks wrote a tutorial about it here:

For people who use Ao3 site skins, here's the code to make an Ao3 site skin and add a bookmarklet that turns having your comment box at the bottom of the screen on and off. Bonus: this will also work on mobile!

Here is an alternate Ao3 comment box that lets you open a box, type your commentary in the moment, and then send it down to the comment box at the bottom of the page, and then close it again! Includes an update by @aidaronan which was designed to work on mac and firefox!

The Low Tech:

Honestly I have been meaning to install one of these cool scripts, but I keep putting off installing them, so I just use my notes app. I open up a new note, and on my computer I put it behind my browser window so I can click to it, and on my phone I just keep it so that I can swipe across apps. So Then I copy-paste the quotes I want, dump them in the notes app, and put my commentary below! Simple, fast, and fantastic for when you are stuck on the bus for an hour.

So what do you comment?

What kind of commentary, you ask? I will be honest, a lot of the time the commentary is me going OH NO or keysmashing after lines. And that's also okay! I have been told so by authors before!

I know I have personally gotten comments where commenters did delicate character analysis after lines and those comments are in my treasured forever box, and I also have comments where someone went OH NO OH NO AOHNFDIOFNDISJFODISJIDJSIOFD YOU DIDN"T AUTHOR NO and I also hold them dear to my heart all the same. The author gets to know the reaction a work got from their reader! And that's fantastic!

The point of the pull quotes comment is showing the impact a work is having on you as you go through the work, section by section, and sometimes that's a digression about how this line made you think about the characters relationship and how he DESERVES THIS HAPPINESS, and sometimes it's responding to a heartbreaking line with twenty weeping emoji. The impact of opening up a comment email and seeing 10 lines of quotes of your own work will hit whether you have thoughtful commentary or you are rolling yourself into a little ball like an octopus and tumbling across the screen (ordinary standard unhinged comment I have left on the works of writers who make me feel Like That).

Go forth! Comment in detail! Let the authors know which lines made you go "oh no" out line in the kitchen as you made soup! Let them know about callbacks that you just realized and now you figured out the whole mystery! Let them know about how this one bit was so cute you had to step away from the computer for a sec! Let them know what you thought!

[wazzappp]

@kermit-coded HAPPY COMMENT DAY!!!

I’m not very good with words, but I wanted to find a way to contribute on a day of celebrating fic writers. So I thought I would draw for you instead! I know we’re not really in the same fandom anymore, but I really respect your dedication for writing. You work so quickly and you make so much content. I’m sure whatever fandom you contribute to is just overjoyed to have you there.

To celebrate, I drew your boys Shatterstar and Rictor! I’m pretty sure their outfits contradict timeline wise, but I wanted to use your favorite design for Star and I thought it would be funny to contrast that elaborate battle gear with Julio’s more relaxed attire lol.

I’m so glad to know you, and I wish you the best!!

[northern-passage]

we go through this every hurricane season but the way people will find any excuse to point the finger at the victims of natural disasters and say cruel shit like "fuck around and find out" like it's not horrifying having to leave behind your home and all your belongings and potentially your pets with the full knowledge that there might not be anything to come back to after... ignoring that there are people that don't have a car or the money to evacuate, ignoring disabled people who have no way to get out, ignoring people that can't find places for their pets to shelter, ignoring people that have medical equipment that can't be moved or replaced, etc... and even if someone stays behind solely because they want to, they still don't deserve to suffer.

as someone who worked extensively in disaster response previously, it is not easy to "just" evacuate, and the relief that comes afterwards is intentionally difficult to obtain. and already the forces that be are trying to spin this narrative that the victims are at fault, to put the blame on them so that if (probably when) people are forced to resort to looting (because the aid never comes) everyone will nod and agree that they're all bad people and deserved it... rather than acknowledging the fact that there was no attempt to make the evacuation accessible and safe for everyone, no guarantee that aid will be waiting for them when they return to a home that has been swept away... no empathy for the fact that these people's entire lives are potentially destroyed with no safety net to catch them.

[comment-day]

Commenting on Fanfic Themes

Remember when you were in literature class and your teacher was droning on and on and ON about themes, but the only thing you could think of is-

Understandable! Especially when you weren't interested in the book or short story (I'm looking at you "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin).

And if you had a teacher that sucked? Yeah, can completely see why you would snore through the whole explanation of why themes are important. I certainly did!

But at the heart of it, themes are such an important part of all writing! Even fanfic! It's basically just asking yourself the question "What was the story trying to say?" or "What was the point?"

And every story has them, even Fanfic. And you will find that pointing them out often helps you convey to the author what you loved about the fanfic.

Reading a story about a lonely kid getting a dedicated group of found family? Maybe a theme of that is how blood isn't the only kind of family. Or that loneliness is only temporary. Or that the world gets better.

Reading a story where two men who loathe each other fall head over heels in love? Maybe the story was saying that first impressions aren't everything. Or that people change for the ones they love. Or that you can't let pride get in the way of being vulnerable.

So, here is a very simple format for how you can comment on the theme of a story, without having to write a five paragraph high school essay!

"I noticed the theme of _______ throughout this story. When Character did _______ it really highlighted the theme of ________ and I thought it was a really nice touch."

Let me show you an example.

"I noticed the theme of loneliness throughout this story. When Tommy was in a room full of people at the big party, yet was thinking about how he couldn't connect to them, it really highlighted the theme of loneliness and I thought it was a really nice touch."

Congrats! You have now commented on a theme of the fanfic! And I can guarantee it made the author's day. It's really that simple.

"But wait, what if that wasn't a theme the author intended and I just look dumb!" My friend, high school cannot hurt you here. You will not be graded on picking out the correct themes from a piece of fanfic. You aren't trying to be the smartest person in the room and make up groundbreaking theses about Shakespeare, you are just picking out what you loved. You are just saying how the story spoke to you! There is no right or wrong answer. Not even the author's intent can change the way it made you feel.

[wazzappp]

@moosemonstrous HAPPY COMMENT DAYYYYYYYY!!!

I'm so sorry its so late. I swear this comic was fighting me every step of the way I don't think it likes being written by people that aren't you jkdslafjd

I really wanted to make something special for you because not only are you an incredible author, you are an amazing friend. Thank you for sharing your WIP's with me. Thank you for listening to my latest insane AU ideas. Thank you for sharing little parts of your life with me!!!

Your Amareyes fics are what really got me onboard that ship. I kinda knew about it and thought they were cute but your fics really made me realize the delightful POTENTIAL they have!!! You opened up a whole other avenue for something to enjoy!!

The way you encourage other people in this fandom just by interacting and sharing enthusiasm is inspiring. As someone who wasnt very involved in interacting with fandom as a whole, your behavior really helped to encourage me to reach outside my bubble and meet some of the incredible people that I know today.

So thank you thank you THANK YOU!!! For being such an amazing person, author and friend. I hope you like this little Pacific Rim AU comic!!

[thatbuddie]

people telling you they reread your fic is the biggest compliment you could ever receive. there are thousands of stories out there begging to be found, to be explored, but your story meant so much to someone that they came back to it eagerly, they went over every word again. to love is to return and loving a fic is rereading it. thank you to all readers and rereaders <3333

[comment-day]

How To Embed An Image In An Ao3 Comment

Sometimes, an image is worth a thousand words. You've read a fic, and the only way to respond to it is with a picture. Maybe this is a scribble you drew in the notes app on your phone, maybe it's art you drew with actual artistic talent, maybe it's a meme you just looked up, maybe it's a meme you just made. But you have your image, and you want to put it in someone's comments. How do you do that?

Ao3 comments support HTML, so to embed an image you need an image link to where the image is hosted somewhere on the web, and you need a bit of HTML code. First thing, the image.

You can use a site like Imgur to host your image, or a private tumblr post, or a fandom image host like Squidge Image Hosting. The important thing is that you want the actual image URL, and not the link to the page that the image is hosted on. Let's say you put your image in a private tumblr post, it would look something like this to get the image link.

You want to right-click (or control-click, whatever works on your screen) to get this dropdown menu, and go down to Copy Image Address. That drops the URL into your clipboard. And then you copy this code:

<img src="YOUR IMAGE URL" alt="DESCRIPTION OF YOUR IMAGE" border="0" width="Max-width 95%" />

In order that's the code that tells the HTML which image to pull off the web, a description that will work for screen readers, telling it that it doesn't need a border, and a bit of code that will keep the image from running off the screen if you grabbed a big image. You put your image URL in that bit of code and write a fast description, and then bingo, you're ready to post your image!

Oh god though, you're on mobile, that all looks awful: quick tip! If you host your image on images.squidge.org, they will do the html for you. It's free fandom image hosting as long as you're over 18. Upload your image, and then scroll down on the page, and there's a convenient button with the HTML just done for you already.

Scroll down to HTML and hit the copy button, and then just paste that into the Ao3 comment box, update the image description (cause it'll just have the title there) and you're good to go!

Go forth and decorate the world with images!

[totallynotmeems]

Just commented on a bunch of my favorite fics for Comment Day. I encourage y'all to do the same! Comments are everything to us writers.

[comment-day]

Ao3 Collection!

We decided to take a step further and set up an Ao3 collection to bookmark fics we comment on! If you are on Ao3, you can bookmark to this collection as well!

Comment Day Collection

To bookmark a fic to the collection, when you bookmark a fic just add CommentDay2024 in the collections field of the bookmark!

Go forth and bookmark, if you want!