What will make you unsubscribe from a story?

[NickRowler]

Anyone who's work shifts over into a poorly thought out political cartoon. I find them cringy and I hate them. Even if I agree with their politics, I still hate them. If you want to have a political message, at least build an interesting story around it and address it indirectly.

[Llyrel]

^ Yep, these, pretty much. If a creator is constantly complaining about lack of subs or demanding that subs interact with them a certain way, I'm out. Stuff like "don't you dare just comment with stuff like 'nice work' or 'good job', if you don't post a full blown review with an in-depth analysis of all the events on every single one of my chapters you're not trying hard enough and therefore you better not read my story at all" irks me to no end. Sometimes people simply have no time to leave a comment, other times they're just shy and don't know what to say, sometimes a language barrier can get in the way (I lost the count of how many times I wanted to joke about this or that funny scene only to give up because I was afraid it might be misunderstood and resorted to a simple "love the chapter!")... and creators policing how others should interact with their content -unless we're talking about unwanted critique or negative feedback- sure are no help.

Also yep, being an ass in general is a huge nope: that includes racist/homophobic content, but also -again- treating your readers like crap. I legit saw a comic creator once (not on Tapas) lashing out at a reader who dared to express what they would have liked to see in the future for one of the characters. It wasn't a request, it wasn't a "demand", the commenter actually made sure to shower the creator of that comic in compliments... yet this creator took it almost as a personal offence and started throwing ridiculous accusations at their commenter (while actually letting all of their own hypocrisy and discriminating behavior shine through). And since every time I came back to reading that comic I couldn't stop thinking about that episode... I gave up on the story as a whole.

[HGohwell]

I lost the count of how many times I wanted to joke about this or that funny scene only to give up because I was afraid it might be misunderstood and resorted to a simple "love the chapter!"

Omg I feel this. I'm British, I have such a dry sarcastic sense of humour and I've had so many problems of people not understanding my humour over the internet because I can't get across the tone in typing, so even when I want to make jokes I have to stop myself in case it comes off as rude when I'm just trying to interact.

We all want novel length reviews, people leaving in depth comments makes me so happy, but I will take a love heart just as much. We all want more subs but lashing out at readers/other authors/other works just makes you look like an asshole who doesn't appreciate the people who are reading. I've always said, I'd rather have a small readership who genuinely loves my work than a big readership that just skims it.

[JoshRaid]

I whine on my wall sometimes about the number of reads I got on certain chapters. Is that the kind of thing that will turn you off to my story?

[cherrystark]

I unsubscribe if I can't bring myself or can't remember to keep reading their story. I don't want to be an empty sub. I also unsubscribe if they post a lot. Mentally, I can't handle tons of notifications. I see notifications as a way to let me know about my own work or something I need to address (like chats, email, a conversation I'm involved with, etc.). But when I'm getting double notifications that they've updated their story or a notification that they just wanted to talk about their lives, I'll unsubscribe. *This was more a problem on Wattpad than here, but it's still an issue I have trouble with.

tHE STORY IS SPINNING ITS WHEELS. tHE PLOT IS INCOHERENT. iT FOLLOWS TOO MANY TROPES AND CLICHES WITHOUT USING THEM FOR ANY EFFECT OTHER THAN SHORTHAND (TROPES ARE NOT BAD BUT THEY HAVE TO SERVE A PURPOSE).

Me too. I might sit down and read what they've posted up until that point but I'm convinced that some writers stretch out their story on purpose, (like throwing in the unnecessary female MC gets kidnapped by bad buy only to be rescued by the male MC even though the story had zero foreshadowing to justify the arc.)

[Legendofgenii]

I don't think I have so far.

I'm quite loyal. Even when I get to the end of a comic, or it's on long term hiatus I don't usually unsubscribe. I might cry a little.

[Llyrel]

Well, from what I could see you never accused your inactive subs of not interacting enough and were just stating the facts, aka that you only had a few active readers and/or that you got no views on a certain episodes. Those are the kinds of complaints I can get behind ('cos let's face it, probably everyone of us has complained about the lack of views at some point :'D). Plus, you did give a shoutout to readers who actually interacted with you!

The kind of complaint that puts me off is the one where a creator is directly accusing inactive subs of ignoring their story on purpose, of "damaging" them, of "not trying hard enough" and stuff like that, like their story is the center of the world and their readers have got nothing else to do in their lives other than reading and commenting on a story as soon as a new episode is out. That is the kind of stuff that irks me, not simple complaints. Hope I clarified things a little bit!

[Crusoe]

A story needs to have some interesting characters with depth and differences. If the characters don't evolve from a bland stereotype and characters start looking the same or all having the same motivation, then I'm done. I don't want to be reading about your girl powered, red haired protagonist if she's not going to have a personality beyond sassy, thank you very much.

(I can't say I'm doing a good job of writing up to my own reading standard lol, but that's how it is)

[HGohwell]

The kind of complaint that puts me off is the one where a creator is directly accusing inactive subs of ignoring their story on purpose, of "damaging" them, of "not trying hard enough" and stuff like that, like their story is the center of the world and their readers have got nothing else to do in their lives other than reading and commenting on a story as soon as a new episode is out. That is the kind of stuff that irks me, not simple complaints.

I think this is the really important distinction. No one is saying don't get frustrated by your lack of growth or readership, just don't be a dick about it. There was a thread a while back on inactive/empty subs and there was a difference between saying "empty subs can damage your popularity because of how the algorithm works" and "omg I hate these readers who don't interact with me wtf you're ruining my work!!!" just like there's a difference between "huh I thought that episode would get more of a response" and "why aren't you people commenting is it because i'm not generic romance with no soul???". A lot of it is about tone and presentation.

[Toastbuster]

The obvious answer I think is that I’ll unsubscribe if I feel like I’m not really liking the story as much as I thought I would. First of all, I don’t want to keep getting notifications for a story I’m not keeping up with, and second I don’t think it’s fair to the creator for me to be subscribed to their work and then not interact with it. To me that just feels like fake support.

I’ll also drop a story if the author is constantly going back and editing things. Like, I really don’t care that you fixed a typo, stop sending me notifications. I get that people mess up sometimes but you should be proofreading your work BEFORE you publish it, not after. Idk maybe that seems petty but it’s a huge pet peeve of mine lol

[Llyrel]

Omg I feel this. I'm British, I have such a dry sarcastic sense of humour and I've had so many problems of people not understanding my humour over the internet because I can't get across the tone in typing, so even when I want to make jokes I have to stop myself in case it comes off as rude when I'm just trying to interact.

Exactly! I also tend to be quite sarcastic and the struggle is real. Different brands of humor + cultural differences can truly make for a lethal mix when it comes to online interaction if you don't make yourself clear enough D:

Also YES about wanting people to read/interact with your story, care about it and leave long, well thought out comments, fan theories and whatever! We all love them and we all get upset when the page/chapter we worked so hard to make doesn't get any feedback. That's perfectly understandable! You worked hard on your story and want that work to be recognized, nothing wrong with that! But to throw a fit and throw accusations at your readers? That's the best way to make me nope the hell out of a story.

[Kylano]

When a character flip flops so rapidly just to make sure (typically) she gets with the main character, who will usually be the prince, or whatever character essentially stalked her, invaded her business, pushed himself into her life "romantically". I find it rare nowadays to have a character, especially in this new rebirth trend going on, who will say "I'm not getting involved" and gasp, maintains that position for the entire time.

How many people could get burnt on a stake, or beheaded, or thrown into a dungeon, and not have this mad need for revenge against the perpetrator? Maybe that's just my personality, but I sure as heck would never fall in love or go anywhere near someone who caused me such pain before.

[cherrystark]

I’ll also drop a story if the author is constantly going back and editing things. Like, I really don’t care that you fixed a typo, stop sending me notifications. I get that people mess up sometimes but you should be proofreading your work BEFORE you publish it, not after. Idk maybe that seems petty but it’s a huge pet peeve of mine lol

I admit that I do go back and proofread after I post but I do run my chapter through an editing program before I do. I almost never send notifications when I update typos because if I wouldn't want to get a notification on a typo, I doubt any of my subs would like to get those notifications.

[domisotto]

One thing that bothers me here is that when you edit chapter, you can select to notify the subs, and some people do. I won’t unsub, but, dude, that’s excessive!

[domisotto]

Lol, I am so on board. I am always paranoid that people don’t read my stories because I don’t have abusive-possessive leading men. But I would love to write a good enemies-to-lovers, and I mean equal rivals to lovers kind of thing.

[cherrystark]

I rarely click the notify option when I edit and those edits are generally super duper minor. I'll only unsub if the notifications are a constant, daily thing.

[Kylano]

Right?! I'm so glad I'm not alone in this. I'm not a fan of the age of princes/princesses and the exhaustive research involved, or I swear I'd try to write my own version. I mean, what's wrong with falling in love with the "side" character that likes the person for who they are, instead of the "main" character who is suddenly so interested because they were only ignored instead of loved at first sight?

[Kura]

Back to back to back to back to back to back to back sex scenes in a story not advertised as a smut/porn.

Why even attempt to introduce me to a plot in the summery when you're going to completely forget about it and just focus on banging upon banging upon banging? Just put the description as 'It's just sex. I want my OC's to bang. That's it, that's the story. Enjoy =)'

[DasIstWunderblyat]

It always tempt me to unsubscribe people who make multiple announcements a day, and the announcements are kind of "Still working for the newest chapter, it will be late," or sometimes sharing some meme "This remind me of (insert character), what do you think?" Save those for your Twitter, and stop clogging my notification and giving me false hope somebody is reading my series

[JoshRaid]

Unfortunately, that tends to be me going back and editing. I'll try to work on that.