Thank you to those who took the time to leave feedback on the blog through the Annual Review Poll! It’s extremely helpful to know what’s important to you and evaluate whether or not I am currently capable of making the changes that were suggested. Please read below to see what will be added, altered, or remain the same – at least for now – as we begin our second year of the blog.
Blog Navigation
Overall, the navigation system received positive feedback from the poll; no one recommended any changes. However, I was recently approached about perhaps creating an additional way to sort the blog and this is something that I am considering as we move forward. I will keep all of you updated on any changes that are made.
Blog Events
When asked which events participants would like to see repeated, the Tag a Day Event, Holiday Events, and Author Appreciation Day were the most popular. They were followed by the Episode Collection Events, Fic Preference Poll, and Twelve Days of Christmas Event.
At this point, the Holiday Events and the Episode Collection Events will definitely continue. I already have those entered into this year’s schedule. There is quite a bit of planning and time that go into the Tag a Day Event and Fic Preference Poll, but depending on how things go I am also considering bringing these back.
Author Appreciation Day is incredibly important to me; I simply do not think that fic writers receive the credit they deserve. I am planning on making this an annual event, although it may be slightly different in form this year as I have a bit more time to plan it.
Someone also suggested perhaps highlighting authors in a feature or set of frequently asked questions, if authors are interested. I will be evaluating the interest in this as we move forward, as well as considering ways in which this could be different from what other blogs have done in the past. If you have an opinion or recommendations concerning this, please feel free to send me a message.
Blog Tags
While Battle Couple, Domesticity, and First Time were by far the most requested thematic tags, all of the votes cast will be taken into consideration as I continue reading and reccing fics.
A few participants left requests for tags that are not currently being used on the blog, but only Magic Use, Shadow World Politics, and Slice of Life will be added to the Tags Index page at this time. I have already gone back through the content from February and added them to the appropriate recs.
The tags that will not be added at this time are Alternate Universe – Modern Setting, Canon Divergence, and Not Safe for Work, but I feel that I have good reasoning behind each of these decisions. The same results that could be found in the Alternate Universe – Modern Setting can be found in the Human AU genre tag that is currently being utilized on the blog. Similarly, Canon Divergence fics can be found in the
genre tag. I also feel that the fics that would be tagged as Not Safe for Work can easily be distinguished by their rating (Mature or Explicit) and/or thematic tags (Physical Abuse, PWP, etc.). However, this last one I am a bit more willing to compromise on if there is a lot of demand for it. If you have an opinion on this, please feel free to message me.
Social Media
Far more people follow us on Tumblr than on Twitter. However, it was important for me to gauge the reception of our newest platform.
Overall, Twitter followers seem to be pretty happy with our presence at this time. However, several suggestions were made about how we could use the account a bit more frequently.
One participant recommended doing polls to see what kind of recs followers would like to see. This is an excellent idea and I think it may help more of a substantial link grow between our Twitter and Tumblr accounts. While the polls may not be posted frequently, I’m definitely willing to try it and see how it goes. They also added that tweeting more personal information about my day would be nice as well, so followers can get to know me a bit better. I’m not making any promises, as this is not necessarily my forte, but I’ll take this into consideration as well. Thanks for your suggestions!
Another participant requested more recs be posted to Twitter. Unfortunately, it takes too long to read fics and create one set of recs for Tumblr for it to be feasible for me to recreate and queue them for Twitter. However, another participant recommended sharing quotes in order to share insights into recced fics. I believe that I can make a compromise between these two suggestions. Instead of posting a full rec to Twitter, I am considering including title, author, memorable quote, and a link to the Tumblr rec. I’m not sure that I would be able to include every single rec in this system, especially during longer events, but it would produce more content for Twitter followers. I will keep this in mind as we move forward. Thank you both for taking the time to leave feedback!
Malec Fic Library 