Replying can be pretty neat. I don't mind one bit.

Thanks a lot for your repl... opinion :D <3

Some artists never reply to any comments.

This can be because FA is not their 'main site', so they don't pay attention to their posts here. Or, they may have made a decision that their time is better used on other things [which is a fair thing to think, if they get a LOT]

They sometimes make it known that they READ all the comments, but cannot reply to them all.. so they don't reply to any, just to be equal and fair.

Other artists will reply to everything.

Some people only reply to the comments that are insightful enough, or that actually 'require' responses.

I don't expect a reply to every little thing that is said on a picture, even if it's nice to get a reply. I know I have left a lot of inconsequential comments, and I imagine people in general do not expect to get a reply when they say something as simple as 'This is awesome' or 'Pretty!' or whatever. Those don't need replies, they can just be read and appreciated in silence, I believe.

I see, nice stats review:)
I wish I could reply to everything, tho sometimes it's just has to be a 'like' icon to click :D

This is quite an extended answer, I'll agree with it.

I'd say somewhere between a quarter and half of artists respond to at least *some* comments, but almost nobody responds to absolutely every top-level comment. It's mostly a personality thing, rather than anything to do with how famous or obscure they are. If a particular post gets LOTS and LOTS of comments then it's unlikely that any specific comment will get a reply, but it may still happen.

thank you! What's your personal feeling about getting a reply?

It always feels nice to get an actually personal reply, at least for me, because I feel like the artist has taken time out of their busy life to respond to little ol' me.

If the reply is instead kind of boilerplate, that is, something pretty simple (e.g. just "Thanks!" and nothing more) or repeated (e.g. saying nearly the same thing to most messages), then it doesn't feel as good, but it's still a nice gesture.

This is exactly how I think, too!
Thanks a lot for the proper answer <3

I can give some perspective on the artist side personally. For me, I very very rarely respond to comments. For the most part the reason is a lot of comments have nothing for me to respond to. I do appreciate and read all the comments, but when its mostly yknow just saying they like the art, I don't really have anything to respond to. I just don't have the energy to put generic thank you on each one of em every time.

Most of the comments I do reply to are usually ones that are more question oriented or substantive with something to actually respond to (or are meme reply chains). There's also this like mental tick where if I start replying to comments it stresses me out as it makes me think I need to reply to everything so I tend not to.

hi!! Thanks for the reply :) I shall agree - as long as I don't have a lot of comments, I'd rather reply than not.

Like other people seem to be expressing, I reply to comments if I feel there is "something" to reply to. The things I often reply to are comments about lore, implications of the narrative within a picture, or if I think there's just opportunity for a joke. But I don't reply to every "nice work!" type comment, though I do appreciate them.

heloo! Thanks so much, I see logic in your pov, so less time spent on the repeating the same reply is unnecessary!
And yeah, even a comment to a work doubles somene's other with the same words - it's still 100% appreciated <3