Forum / A reader's paradise

Gone
Jan 14, 05:09pm

Are there any plans to extend some of the functionality of Fictionaut to enable wider readership participation? I realise full membership is required to post and that makes sense but it would be lovely for a wider audience of pure readers to be able to comment / fav without signing up. Simple integration with Facebook and / or other social media logins might facilitate this.

Gone
Jan 17, 09:12am

Thanks Marcus. It just feels (as do many literary magazines) that whilst writers understand the need to sign up and trade their details for the ability to publish, the reader is a very different beast. I think too many sites for stories only ever attract other writers (not to diminish the loveliness of peer reviews). Attracting adventurous readers would mean not putting barriers in their way.

Gloria Garfunkel
Jan 17, 10:19am

When writers comment on each other's writing there is some accountability to be civil, polite, compassionate. When you open comments to everyone it deteriorates to sites like Every Day Fiction where you have people being overly critical and snide with no accountability whatsoever and it's very demoralizing. I anonymously blogged for six years and had both experiences. I had six different blogs at different times and the tone of the comments was different on each but I felt I had no control over it. It was just the sum of the particular commenters and learning to stay away from certain subjects that attracted the most destructive readers.

Gone
Jan 17, 10:57am

I can understand that but there are ways to deal with it. Facebook integration means comments aren't anonymous but even extending comments through other systems can still give control to the writer so that we can remove comments.