#longer fics and multichapter fics usually have lower ratios since people dont always finish reading them and are less likely to leave kidos

[jayjay-plus]

I already reblogged with tags earlier but just realized something

Yall who just check summaries/tags, thats great, but that does not work for me because i could miss something good just because the cover didnt catch my eye (cant speak for op obviously)

Once in a ships tag (usually within a collection unless it is a rarepair with a not overwhelming fic count) i sort by date published and methodically check every fic to decide whether or not to open it, starting with the oldest.

So of course summaries/tags are checked first, if i like how it sounds i open it.

For fics that sound neutral, vague or like something i wont like, i check other factors like kudos/hit ratio, length, and completion status to decide whether or not to open it.

Like even if a fic includes things i dont like I’ll probably still give it a chance if the other variables are promising enough. I can put my preferences aside for a particularly well written story, and i have loved many fics that i wouldnt have opened based only on the tags/summary

Once i do this i usually have a load of tabs open that i can browse when i want to read, like right now i have ~120 fics open on my phone for this

(my level of pickiness also depends a lot on the amount of content available, for niche tastes/rarepairs i just read it all)

Another AO3 thing I’m curious about, how do yall decide if something is good enough to read? Usually I follow a rule of 1 kudos for every 10 hits. One because it’s easy math and two it’s yet to fail me. Thoughts? Do you just go for it and pray it’s good?