podfic feedback: how (when, why) do you do it?

[lomedet]

Amplirecathon is making me think about podfic, feedback, and me. Or, more accurately, about how much I love podfic and how that love is in no way represented by the amount of feedback (read: very, very little) I have left for podfic readers or the authors of stories I have discovered through podfic.

My process for listening to podfic goes something like this: I download a story from the archive or from a link on a podfic community. I close the download tab. I load the story on to my ipod. Then, hours or days later, I listen to the story as I'm riding on or waiting for a bus. Or maybe doing dishes or folding laundry. In any event, I listen to the story when I am far away from my computer, and even if I'm not physically so far away from my computer, I've already clicked away from or closed the page which tells me where I can leave feedback for the author or the reader. And I am lazy, so I don't usually think about going back to look for it when I have the opportunity.

I am contrasting this process with that of reading fanfic, where if I am moved by a story when I finish it, I can click a button and let the author know how I feel right then and there.

So, I want to know: what do y'all do? Have you come up with a successful strategy for leaving feedback that doesn't feel unduly labor-intensive? Have you given up on direct feedback in favor of recs? If you do go back and leave podfic feedback, does it feel strange to do so at a remove from your immediate response? Am I missing something totally obvious that will make my feedback-leaving life ten times easier?

Comments

[anatsuno]

I do NOT want this comment to come across as scolding in any way, because, god knows I'm not very good at this myself. BUT! I have at least an idea for a process: if we make a special set of bookmarks (in your delicious account if you have one, with the firefox extension Read it Later if you use it, in your local bookmarks in the browser - any way that makes sens to you!) for 'podfic I'm downloading and haven't commented on yet', then we'd have an easy list to go back to, search through for the podfic we cant to leave feedback for, and comment on. This bookmarking for the future commenting can easily be done at the very same time we download a podfic -it's just a matter of creating new habits, right?

so far I tend to download + say thank you when I do, and then later, gush in my journal or in comments or in recs. I have rarely gone back to specifically comment on a podfic, though I did do it in a couple of instances - but I am not happy about that. I think my bookmarking idea is something I will implement soon.

[lian]

good idea. fwiw, I find myself in a bind over the amplificathon fics. I can't know if the readers track their reveal posts, and I doubt anyone the comm's readers rarely come back to check for (interesting) feedback, so where should I leave it? :/

Is there a kind of, er, etiquette for that? Most authors don't have emails in their profiles either, so it's not as if i can always mail it either.

[winkingstar]

Well, I can't speak for everyone, of course, but for my own podfics, I track all the posts I make to various comms. I figure that if I want the feedback, I should keep track of it.

Also, as an archivist at jinjurly's audiofic archive, I try to be thoughtful about choosing which post to link to on the archive entry. The default option is the amplificathon entry, but if the reader has a clear preference for one main post, I'll link to that one. So, for instance, I know a few readers who post to various comms but always link back to an entry on their own journal, and in that case I have the archive entry link to the reader's personal entry. I do this without really thinking about it, though, so I don't what the other archivists do. I can bring it up to the group, though, because I feel we should be consistent about that.

Er, short answer: check the feedback link on the archive entry. :)

[winkingstar]

You can also PM the reader or leave a comment on one of their more recent posts. As long as you specify what you're feedbacking, I think that feedback anywhere would make the reader happy.

[lomedet]

You didn't come across as scolding at all, and I think the idea of a special set of bookmarks is most excellent. Maybe this is what will finally inspire me to set up a delicious account...

What I don't think there's a way to replicate is that moment of finishing a story and leaving feedback with your/our immediate emotional response. That might be okay, and gushing in my journal (and maybe linking the author/reader?) could stand in for it, I guess. Or maybe it'll even be better to have some distance from that first reaction when we're leaving feedback. It's something I'm pondering, anyway.

[darkemeralds]

I think I was really answering your question when I posted my comment below.