October was a pretty busy month. I can promise I looked at each and every one though, even if I didn't comment.

Thanks for looking, Leika. <:

I enjoyed seeing all of these. I really should comment more often though, you're right.

I wonder sometimes if perhaps I say / write so much on these things that people think that I've said all there is to say.

Or, perhaps it's a matter of people being intimidated, somehow..?

I hope you don't think less of me! I'm saying this, because maybe it's a common sentiment:

I sometimes want to look at a piece of artwork and not read the accompanying story. (Often times, it boils down to the fact that appreciating visual art can be done more quickly than reading a story.) If I've enjoyed the art but not read the story, I don't want to comment, because I feel like I can't say anything substantive about the submission without responding to both elements. So I'll tuck it away in my favorites for the artwork, but I won't comment, because I don't want to say anything for having enjoyed only half of the submission. x~x

I'd still appreciate comments about just the visual stuff, unless it's the person telling me I 'did a good job' on the artwork. If it's just someone mistaking me for the illustrator, then blech.

But otherwise, I'd welcome someone coming in to say something about the pic and then maybe mentioning they can't do the story. I'd take the time to attempt to entice them into reading it later, of course.. >__>

Okay! I know I'll personally keep that in mind from now on! People run around with all sorts of assumptions in their minds, y'know? I know on the most recent occasion, I didn't even consciously go through the thought process of, "I have not presently read the story, therefore I will not comment based on this rationale: ..." Instead, it was a split-second decision of closing a browser tab.

Some of it likely has to do with the time of year as well. I don't have data in front of me, but I would not be surprised if commenting drops in October across the board. People are gearing up for the holiday season. Stress is mounting. Most schools have midterm examinations in October. Cold/flu season is beginning, so people are getting sick. I would bet a small sum of money that commenting is consistently higher in, say, June than in October.

You make some good points! Although I didn't think that furries would be the type of people to get THAT into holiday prep that early. Then again, I was thinking you were talking about prepping for Xmas, but maybe you meant Halloween, which is the biggest holiday of the year for the furry community, I suppose!

And there's also Thanksgiving, I guess, but.. that's only the USA, and it's way at the end of November, so.. >__> *shrugs*

I looked at most all of what you posted personally. But I am chronically bad at commenting. But I have to say that mostly, I have noticed in the last several months that the rate of commenting has dramatically gone down. Perhaps it is "fatigue" or perhaps it is a change in the fandom, but either way, it was great to get to see the pieces you posted.

I'm glad you saw my stuff. I'm sure you were enjoying the CTF week most of all! :}

I half think that people only ever want to chime in on twitter now, and people who aren't on twitter, maybe they're on tumblr. Who knows. I guess instagram is a thing.. and I guess snapchat is also scratching that itch people may have had to respond in text to a suddenly presented bit of visual stimulus.

I began thinking this way about the lack of comments because I happened to look back at one of my journals wherein I announced my birthday was going to be the following day (or it was that very day).

That birthday journal, where I said like 6 words, got 60 comments. Although, I suppose birthday journals generate a really easy thing that everyone can say and no one has to feel bad about repeating it, but STILL, it shows there's a huge difference in the activity around here.

The birthday journal in question is only from March 2015, too, in case you thought it would be like.. 5 or more years old.

The amount of Lurkers on FA far outweigh the amount of commenters.

That being said, not everything is worth commenting on, and if everyone commented on everything, then comments themselves would lose worth.

True enough.

I do wonder, though.. if people have gotten into the habit of not bothering to comment on artwork when they know the poster is not the artist, and it's just a repost or something.

Aside from that, I bet everyone just thinks they're all busy, all the time.

You're not wrong when it comes to what you are feeling about posting art. More credit, traction, views, comments and appreciation are definitely lopsided to benefit artists/content creators.

Its not bad at all that they do get their due appreciation, but it has definitely always been the case that non-artists get less - and it seems to be becoming even more apparant.

Overall commenting seems to be much lacking compared to many years ago, and the little comments that do happen mostly happen on original submissions of big artists.

Even then however, I've noticed huge artists submitting really great works, new ideas, original concepts, and I love it, and give appreciation, but the wider community as a whole seem to prefer more simple minded things, and thus I feel bad for the artists.

Really good artists who aren't as popular but still do amazing work are really not getting the appreciation they deserve, but traction seems to happen really fast if someone offers something the community of FA will love (like vanilla porn ideas that has been done a million times and appreciated just as much).

If you're worried about people not commenting on your uploads its probably because you are generally viewed as one of the more prolific "broken snakes" on FA. Most people who are fans of snakes expect coils, hypnosis and vore. Your name gets tossed around on some Telegram groups I am in a lot.

I don't think you can speak for everyone - I'm only saying this because what you just said seems really out there as a comment and could easily be percieved as offensive - I'd say Amethystine offers more class than the common degeneracy of typical snake things.

I did not intend offense, he is talking to me on Telegram and I explained further. I apologize.

Understandable, I didn't feel as if you said it to be nasty or anything, so I never thought you were being malicious.
Sorry for grilling you about it, but I understand you just wanted to share perception.

Broken snakes? Colour me intrigued! :}===<

I've got coils! D: I suppose the point is that I don't have a pile of artwork showing me using fat muscly loops of snakebody to entrap and constrict people, and thereby hypnotically seduce and consume them, as well, hmm?

To label a snake that doesn't engage in such tired cliches/tropes as 'broken' is a bit harsh, though I see how and why the term would be used. I'd prefer 'more original snake' or 'not-the-same-old-snake-business sort of snake'. (yes, I know no one is going to say those, I'm being obtuse)

Anyway, your explanation here only goes to show why I'm not getting commentary from vore/coil/hypno fans. Such a demographic doesn't make up the whole of the FA userbase, so anyone else out there who doesn't care about those topics in the same way won't be swayed by my identity as 'broken' (and they won't know of such a thing), so it wouldn't effect anything in terms of response.

I feel sorry for your poor fingers with all that writing, but I certainly enjoyed the content!

Don't worry, my fingers are fine (although maybe my joints will pain me in a few decades >__> )

Thanks for your kind attentions, of course. :}

I'm sorry you're disappointed. Doing that much writing in a month is really, really impressive and I'm glad you kept with it as a daily exercise.

Thank you! :}

It really was meant to be exercise, yeah, so I suppose I shouldn't ask for a lot of attention for what was essentially me going to the gym or taking a brisk constitutional every day, haha.

If nothing else, I hope I get better about making things, doing things, and keeping away from having a backlog.

Pretty awesome to do something you set out to do. I'm proud of you... and a bit envious.

I always fail at trying to do what you've accomplished here.

Thank you, Miss Koala.

You've set out to make a post every day in a month, or draw a thing every day, or similar things, before? O:

Yes, and I'm awful at it. XD

I checked on everything, sorry if I dont comment much! Usually i'm just bad at critique and just generally resort to stuff like hearts or whatnot >_>

So have some hearts.

I don't mind hearts! :} Even just doing that is like.. poking your head in and smiling, and once you've appeared in a room with a picture, metaphorically speaking, I could ensnare you with a response which could then inspire you toward an actual statement/substantive reply.

When I have something I feel is worth saying, I'll leave a comment. Otherwise, I don't like forcing myself to find something to say that's gonna sound like it's forced and not entirely true.

Fair enough! Thanks for the fave on that recent Ssskyfall submission, too. :}

My pleasure. You really should look into playing 007.

Fair play

Cheers!

That's some very good work Ame. I'm proud of you. You've demonstrated a great deal of commitment to producing and distributing great content for all of us here. Do try not to take the quiet in the comments too personally. Try to remember that we're expending our personal time here, which for many can be quite rare and precious. Submitting a lot of content isn't going to generate more free time for your watchers, so their responsiveness will be diluted over the larger number of submissions. We still love you, we're just spreading the love a little thin now because you're giving us so much to love!

Thank you, Ceph.

Good point about free time. What're you up to these days, anyway? I recall you retired from the service; did you get yourself a normal job?

The navy was kind enough to foot the bill for three years of college, and I completed that recently. It took a lot longer than I expected to for me to turn that degree into a job. It was actually just last week that I got an offer from a power plant in Ohio. It's not exactly where I would've wanted to live, but in the course of my search I've discovered that the scope of the work is far more important to me than the location. And really, the cost of living there is quite favorable. As such it would be a great place to start and I can make a decision about it later on from a much more favorable position.

Well, that's cool!

By 'the scope of the work', do you mean you like the idea of working in this place in Ohio because it's a really large facility that provides power to a lot of places? Or just that the job you'd personally be doing there is more important, even if the plant isn't all that big?

I mean that the type of job is more important to me than its location. Ohio isn't a state I would've picked out of a lineup, but I spent several months trying to find some job that actually made use of my degree. They were far rarer than I anticipated.

They always are, I'm afraid. >__>

Anyway, yeah, I'm glad you'll be able to get a job that uses your education as quickly as this. :}

Yeah, that's the point I was trying to get across. It took a lot of soul searching but I learned that getting a job in my field was what's important to me. So when I find a job after many months of searching that's pretty much exactly the one I'm looking for and they seem desperate to hire me, I kinda lose my affinity for closely examining the exact details of locale and such.

Dayum dude! Now THAT's dedication! Kudos!

Much obliged, Arterian. :}===<

Also, thanks for the faves on Ssskyfall: Point and Squeeze, and 'Writer of Wrongs'

heh not at all man! Ssskyfall in particular is an absolutely GORGEOUS piece! Like... WOW! Id put that on my wall. Heh, usually I like leaving a comment or two in art I like but oftentimes I dont know what to say XD

I'd put it on my wall too! I really should print out all the Ames Sond posters for real and put them up. If only I had a huge poster printer :P

I know this is a year-old comment and all, but I thought you might be interested to see that I was eventually spurred toward wall-art, with my Ames Sond collection.

https://twitter.com/AmethystineNaga.....49881518497793

Those pictures are a old now, there are some more posters up there, these days.

ALWAYS MOAR SNEK.

Personally, I am just really busy right now and just rarely comment outside of the theatre of my mind - I am hoping to be more active once I graduate in December, but for now I am usually reading/posting from my phone, and I feel like... the words, they don’t come as easily to me here than they do at the keyboard. ;~;

But for now, count me as one of the lurkers that loves reading your writings!

I see! That's okay. :}

You love my writing, hmm? What sort of thing? The more normal things, or the more kinky side of stuff? (If you don't mind me asking.)

Probably the more 'normal' things! Not that I don't enjoy kinky, but it's what I've read more of from you for sure (I intend to go back and read more, but with my current schedule, my time for pleasure reading is quite thin). Mostly the stories of Sond and what you've written for the twins. I'm also particularly fond of Hyst and Kazi. One might say I like character-driven and couple stories the best!

Character driven and couples-based things is basically all I have, when it's not TF fetish material, haha. :}

Haha! Well, that certainly works for me then~. >D

Congratulations! I didn't realize you were going to have to be writing so much when you started this. Especially since the size of some of the associated stories was staggering. I tried to comment regularly through the month, but, as you know, RL has swamped me to the point it was hard to keep up with you. I hope you can keep up on a slightly less frantic pace, which means I'll have to get off of my tail and provide you more content to work with. :)

Thanks so much, Menag. - I didn't HAVE to write anything, but I wanted to. I didn't want it to just be nothing but me reposting art all month long. You say some of the stories are staggering in their size, but I'd only say that 'Midnight in Eden' was really all that big. O:

I'll be posting once or twice a week moving forward, maybe. I still have a little over 50 things to put up, so don't think you need to give me more, but that said, I'll never say no to more marvelous Menagerie masterpieces! :D

(Just speaking for myself)
Maybe some people are shy or more simply... don't have anything to say?
I used to be more of a watcher some time ago. And the best I was doing at the time was just "faving" the various submission when I really liked them. I still considered myself pretty new in the fandom and didn't have anything to say in the comments and "faving" stuff was the way of showing support to the artist; also, if all you have to say is "oh I love your art" "Nice!" "Great artwork!" is it really worth commenting? It does show more appreciation and support but doesn't really add anything to the discussion.
Which brings me to this: commenting is a way to start a discussion. People comment to try to engage with the artist more directly and/or give detailed opinions/suggestions about the submission. And what can you comment if there's not much to say?
People may like some submissions; and that's it.
People may be here just for the porn.
People maybe don't want to engage with a random person on the other side of the screen.
People may be lazy and the internet tends to be a very lazy place in general.

By the way, I just came back from my vacation. I currently have something like 340+ submission notifications. I seriously want to catch up with all of them, but I don't think I'll be commenting down each one of those XD

Yes, the majority won't be commenting, of course, but I was just remarking upon how the vocal minority I used to see talking has shrunk considerably.

Also, only saying a simple compliment like 'Nice!' might seem like it couldn't possibly add anything to the discussion.. but if the right person does it on the right submission, I might see them there and say to myself, 'Oh, it's mister G, I know he loves X, I'm going to ask him about X' - and then that might spark an actual bit of real talk.

I wonder if I would have done better if I separated the art and the stories, so that someone wanting just art would just get a picture, and then would not feel like they had to worry about skipping over the story.. and then people who actually want to read would find reading material in real story posts.

Ah well! I'm not that concerned, I was just curious.

I really do think it's mostly the fact that there's so much more going on these days. Other social media things. Everyone's on twitter or FB or instagram or tumblr or snapchat, etc, etc - or is talking to all their friends on Telegram or discord or whatsapp. I know there were IMs in the past, but it's just.. with the community growing as much as it has, and everyone always connected all the time, there's bound to be more things for each individual to look at, all the time.

In any case, I really do appreciate how much you've commented this month, thank you Prostap. Good luck with your 340+ subs! O:

You're welcome!
Now, about those subs... yesterday I was too tired and decided to look them today and now they are 370. If I don't do something about it quick enough I may never catch up with them! XD

You just need to do one or two more each day than what is posted, each day.

Ie: if 50 things are posted every day, you just need to do 51, and the backlog will reduce by 1 per day. :P

With 370 subs it would take a year to finish the backlog though XD
*trying to rush all the subs*
(I actually almost halved that number) ;P

I know, I was mostly joking about that slow rate. :>

Still, doing half a day, that's good!

I didn’t read all the stories, but I just expect artists will have stuff not to my taste some times.

I was really wondering if you were burning out at that pace! Hope you’re still having fun with it ^-^

I don't think I'm burnt out, but we'll see if I manage to do anything in the next few weeks, I guess. Haha.

You're a posting machine! I was talking about this with various people - the lack of commenting in general.

I know I only commented on a couple myself. :-X

I was such a machine, anyway... >__>

Congrats on getting through all of that and keeping up with it! I have most of it still in my queue to get through. I'm just six months behind on FA stuff so expect to see a few comments from me at some point!

And how could anybody get tired of awesome snakes! I just cannot imagine such a thing.

Dominus tecum

Thanks! I'll look forward to you catching up to October. Do you think you'll remain 6 months behind, or are you slowly getting back to the present after some kind of set back?

And as for how someone could get tired of snakes: I don't know, it's just sort of a theoretical thing, nothing based on reality. >___>

I vacillate between 3 and 9 months behind most of the time. I'll be almost caught up and then I'll have five million things keep me away from the site for a while and next thing I know I'm way behind again. I do tend to clean out stuff I know I don't care about right away, but anything I want to actually take a closer look at can stick around for months before I get to it.

Indeed! There's never enough snakes! Thank you for your efforts to correct this imbalance!

Dominus tecum

I do my best. :}===<

In my defense, I was out in the middle of the Atlantic for the entire month and couldn't get on FA. Also, I've always been really bad at leaving comments and such, so I will endeavor to fix that in the near future.

What were you doing out there? O: I hope it involves mermaids! >:}

Oh gods, I wish. I was assigned to a US Navy carrier, so we were out there training and preparing the ship for its next deployment. Thankfully, I am now land based so no more loss of interwebs. That assignment was far too stressful for me, so I'm glad to be assigned to "shore duty" instead.

I will say that if there were mermaids involved, I would have totally gone swimming with them, regardless of the consequences.

I will say that if there were mermaids involved, I would have totally gone swimming with them, regardless of the consequences.

Glad to hear it! A man after my own heart. :}