I agree that most fiction ends up unfinished. This is the likely fate of any story, including anything posted on Glowfic. Even professionally published fiction is not safe from this, due to the propensity to write books as trilogies or something; and sometimes authors die (Berserk) or commit a crime (Act-Age).
That said, I am flabbergasted at the notion that you’d check a fiction, see that it was last updated <7 days ago, and immediately bring the hypothesis that “this is likely to be dead” to conscious attention, even if you then reject it.
I think this attitude sets bad incentives for authors (and translators etc.; this is a common reaction to manga scanlators, too), and makes it more likely that works will indeed not be finished. So I want to strongly push back against this, and say instead: Yes, most fiction will not get finished. It’s the responsibility of the reader to take this risk into account, when they decide whether to start reading something. (Especially when it comes to free fiction—the dynamics for Patreon-supported stuff etc. are imo different. And especially especially when it comes to something like Glowfic, which is more like people publically roleplaying in text, than like webfiction where authors often commit to a regular update schedule.) Do not push for updates, nor support a culture which does.
Well, what I actually saw was that it was updated many times over at most a couple of days and then nothing for about a week. I hadn’t, at that point, looked at the times of the earliest postings and noticed that they were months earlier.
So what I saw at that point—and what I thought others might likewise see—was a flurry of activity followed by a gap. And that seemed like possible evidence of dead-ness, which is why I checked further and decided it wasn’t.
Your last paragraph seems to be reading things into what I wrote that I’m pretty sure I never put there. I completely agree that if a reader prefers to avoid reading things that get abandoned in the middle, it’s their responsibility to look. That’s what I did. I found (1) reason for initial suspicion that this might be such a work and then (2) excellent reason to drop that suspicion, so I said so. Neither did I push for updates nor suggest that anyone else should. (In case anyone else took what I said as some sort of encouragement to do that: Do not do that! It’s rude!)
Fair enough! Insofar as I read something into your original comment that wasn’t there, I think it was due to my interpretation of the language? When I hear something described as “dead” or “abandoned”, that sounds like assigning blame to the author, as if they didn’t fulfill a responsibility or duty; but I understand that this interpretation was not intended.
To be clear, I would still bet at 2:1 odds that the story won’t get finished, simply based on base rates for web fiction (possibly the base rate for unfinished Glowfics is even higher?). All the while stressing that I don’t mean that as blame, and that it’s entirely fine for anyone to decide that a free fiction project is no longer worth their opportunity cost.
I agree that most fiction ends up unfinished. This is the likely fate of any story, including anything posted on Glowfic. Even professionally published fiction is not safe from this, due to the propensity to write books as trilogies or something; and sometimes authors die (Berserk) or commit a crime (Act-Age).
That said, I am flabbergasted at the notion that you’d check a fiction, see that it was last updated <7 days ago, and immediately bring the hypothesis that “this is likely to be dead” to conscious attention, even if you then reject it.
I think this attitude sets bad incentives for authors (and translators etc.; this is a common reaction to manga scanlators, too), and makes it more likely that works will indeed not be finished. So I want to strongly push back against this, and say instead: Yes, most fiction will not get finished. It’s the responsibility of the reader to take this risk into account, when they decide whether to start reading something. (Especially when it comes to free fiction—the dynamics for Patreon-supported stuff etc. are imo different. And especially especially when it comes to something like Glowfic, which is more like people publically roleplaying in text, than like webfiction where authors often commit to a regular update schedule.) Do not push for updates, nor support a culture which does.
Well, what I actually saw was that it was updated many times over at most a couple of days and then nothing for about a week. I hadn’t, at that point, looked at the times of the earliest postings and noticed that they were months earlier.
So what I saw at that point—and what I thought others might likewise see—was a flurry of activity followed by a gap. And that seemed like possible evidence of dead-ness, which is why I checked further and decided it wasn’t.
Your last paragraph seems to be reading things into what I wrote that I’m pretty sure I never put there. I completely agree that if a reader prefers to avoid reading things that get abandoned in the middle, it’s their responsibility to look. That’s what I did. I found (1) reason for initial suspicion that this might be such a work and then (2) excellent reason to drop that suspicion, so I said so. Neither did I push for updates nor suggest that anyone else should. (In case anyone else took what I said as some sort of encouragement to do that: Do not do that! It’s rude!)
Fair enough! Insofar as I read something into your original comment that wasn’t there, I think it was due to my interpretation of the language? When I hear something described as “dead” or “abandoned”, that sounds like assigning blame to the author, as if they didn’t fulfill a responsibility or duty; but I understand that this interpretation was not intended.
To be clear, I would still bet at 2:1 odds that the story won’t get finished, simply based on base rates for web fiction (possibly the base rate for unfinished Glowfics is even higher?). All the while stressing that I don’t mean that as blame, and that it’s entirely fine for anyone to decide that a free fiction project is no longer worth their opportunity cost.