musings on using squidgeworld

I dived into the tags on SqWA (I think that's the acronym) again recently, and now think I can articulate what it is about the archive that feels a little off to me.

There is not, to my experience, any readership on SqWA.

Naturally this isn't true to everyone, always. There are probably pockets of older users (as in, people that have used the site for a long time) active somewhere in there, and there are probably sporadic readers who pop in, read what they want, and pop out again waiting for new stories. The speed in which stories gets posted to the archive is 100% slow enough that that's achievable without being overwhelming.

But I can't see them. I can not, in fact, spot anyone. But that in itself isn't actually the main thing. It's kind of lonely, but it's not alienating.

But the new users (I know I'm pretty new myself; I certainly don't have a lot of legs to stand on here. But I am Trying™) who are cross-posting all their stuff from AO3 due to dissatisfaction aren't in turn actually reading anything on the site, and that is actually kind of alienating to me. It's a backup archive for them, and to be clear that is a fine and good thing to have. AO3 is not immune to bugs in servers just because they own the servers.

But it honestly feels kind of weird for me, as a reader, to browse through the archive. It doesn't feel like the authors using it are actually there; to put it another way, if I left a comment, would they even notice? Same for kudos.

I've gathered some stuff in my Marked For Later list and I do want to comment on them when I have the spoons, but I'm genuinely not sure it'd be welcomed. Like, comments are on, so they should be, right? But it doesn't feel it. It feels like I'd be imposing and wrestling myself into a space that I'm not welcome in.

Like, part of the appeal of SqWA for me as a reader (I'm a writer as well but honestly that's irrelevent to my current musings) is that I find stories on there I would never have known existed on AO3, simply due to the sheer volume of fics on AO3. It's actually feasible to just browse through all the works and go "interesting" a lot. That's fun! It's cool to spot fandoms I'm not even aware of, and see works I never would have been able to dig my way through on AO3.

But it does also feel a bit weird to read there. I guess another way to put it is; it doesn't feel as if the authors invite readers. (Again, obviously this isn't true for every author, or every work, or every... you get the idea) It's kind of hard to articulate, but it's overwhelmingly my impression that authors cross-posting their stuff from AO3 are using it in a very cold manner, a sort of "don't speak to me, don't look at that, I'm not here, this isn't for you" kind of thing. And I don't know where that comes from, but it makes me feel weird to read and try to engage with their stuff on SqWA.

Actually, I think I just hit the nail on the head; it feels like it's not for me. Like there's an invisible boundary going up and I'm not supposed to look at it.

And I think, after grumbling about it a little in my head, I might mainly be getting this impression from author's who do not say anything when they're very obviously cross-posting stuff from AO3. Like, a fic tossed up with a quick note "first posted on ao3" doesn't give me that impression; it doesn't feel closed off and remote. But a fic with absolutely no notes, where the author profile says they're cross-posting, or where it's empty but they've got a ton of fics posted very quickly, and they have no bookmarks or anything to indicate they're actually there... that does feel like a divide. A boundary. A sign saying "this is not for you, you don't get to enjoy it, go away".

And that's very odd, and sort of off-putting, to me.