Getting the Most Out of Mibba's Comment Swap

As a staff member, I know one of the most common questions users have is, “How can I receive feedback on my work?” The comment swap feature, with user support, is an excellent answer to that question. In this article, I’d like to offer tips on how to get the most out of the comment swap feature, and how to give the most back to the Mibba community.

Leaving a Comment

When leaving a comment, the first step is to address what you’re reading. If the story is short or a one-shot, this is pretty simple, as you can easily read the entire story. If you receive a long, chaptered story, it will be necessary to narrow down your reading selection. Starting from the beginning of a story is always an easy option. You can also pick random chapters from the middle. The story author may appreciate getting comments on a less read part of the story. When commenting, it's helpful to let the author know what you did read, so he or she has a context for your comment.

After reading the story, comment on what stands out to you. Were the characters well developed? Was the setting very detailed in a particular paragraph? Did you see a reoccurring grammatical error? Did some of the dialogue sound forced? Specific comments like these are most helpful to an author, and show you truly read the story. Including a quote from the story to emphasize your point is always helpful, and provides the author with concrete feedback. Commenting generally on the topic of a story, the genre or fandom is not sufficient for a comment swap.

Many users are concerned about how to comment on a story that is either a genre they dislike or a fandom they dislike. When a situation like this arises, it’s important to remember that regardless of a genre or fandom, all stories have the same core elements, such as setting, characterization, word choice, imagery, etc. When you dislike the genre of the story you’re given in a swap, try to focus on the core elements with your bias against the genre aside, and you will still be able to give the author a solid, helpful comment. I, for example, may dislike love stories, but I can still compliment the author on a well-developed setting and suggest a word choice change.

Troubleshooting

In order for your comment to successfully let the system know you have completed the swap, you must do the following:

1. Your comment must be at least 200 characters. If you do not leave a long enough comment, you will have to leave another comment to complete the swap.
2. You must actually click on and read a chapter of the story. Looking at the summary and layout is not enough.
3. You must legitimately read at least part of the story and leave a comment specific to that story. Users who leave generic comments will be banned from using the comment swap system.

Right now, the comment swap feature is new, and in a beta phase. This means you may run into glitches in the system. If you have successfully completed all three of the steps above, and your comment is not registered, please leave a post in this thread explaining your problem. Include a link to the story you left your comment on, and a staff member will help you. Because this is a new feature, it’s very important for users to inform us of any problems, so that we can correct them.

Features to Come

As previously mentioned, the comment swap is in beta phase, and we have plans for more features in the future, thanks to suggestions from our users. A sampling of these new features include:

• Comment Swap for Poems
• Option to select genres, in addition to ratings and types.
• Story reassignment time: If your story is not commented on within 24 hours, a new user will be asked to comment on it. On the flip side, if you recieve a story you do not wish to comment on, you'll recieve a new story in 24 hours.

If you have any additional suggestions on how to make the comment swap feature most effective, please visit the comment swap thread on our forum to share your ideas.

Happy commenting, Mibbians.