Hey, guys, so I've really been wondering about this lately and wonder if you can help me.
I'm pretty new to
Middle Earth, fanfiction, and the Internet in general, so I don't know the answer to this question. Have any of you been on FFNet/AO3 (either recently or a long time ago)? If so.... Is it just me, or does it seem like nobody wants to interact with other
authors and readers anymore? Is it just the LoTR community that's dead, or is it across the board? Why does it seem like you have to all but wring reviews out of people? Hopefully someone smarter than me knows the answer...🤦🏼♀️
For me, it's not about knowing my story is popular, or about being on everyone's favorite list. I simply want community and life. I simply want to know that I'm part of a world wide group of people who get excited about writing the what-ifs and gap-fillers of (especially
Tolkien's) published material. Didn't it used to be normal for authors to reply to reviews and messages, and didn't people used to make friends on fanfiction sites?
I hope someone knows more about this than I do, because I'm disappointed. After wanting to post LoTR fanfiction for several years, I finally got involved, only to find that the fandom has seemingly become a ghost town. It makes me really, really sad.