05-19-03 @ 11:46 am EDT

The past few days, somebody systematically went through and read, or at least clicked on, every single part of Manitou Island. I literally sat and kept checking the stats up until they read the very last part, 110, a day or so ago. I'm pretty sure it was the same person returning every day, as each day subsequent parts of the story would be read, picking up where they had left off before, and unless somebody is a fan or is really, really curious they wouldn't take the time to do that.

Today I see the first three parts of RTMI have hits...too early to tell if it's them again or not, as that currently has fourteen parts.

Now, if this had been an offsite reader--a nonmember--I would not have minded or cared. I would have thought, great, somebody's taking the time to read the whole thing for a change. Because that's very rare.

The thing is, MI is still restricted to members only, as far as I can remember...RTMI is public, but not the first story. So it must have been a member here who was reading it.

Still, if they had checked out the first few parts, or a few nonconsecutive parts, without rating them, I wouldn't have minded or cared either. We all click items, browse them, then decide not to rate them for various reasons; it's only when I get an ABSURD number of hits and no ratings that I start to get miffed, and as this was only one to four views a day, it was not an absurd amount. Like I said, I believe it was just one person returning to check out the story.

That word right there, "returning," is what really DOES bother me. They took the time, over a period of about three or four days, to consistently return. They clicked through every single part of the story--that's 110 parts--that's a lot of clicking. I can't tell if they actually read it or not (frankly, I can't believe how fast the fans of the story have claimed to read the thing, finishing so many chapters each day--I could never read that fast, even if I did love the story!), but I honestly can't think of a reason why they would keep looking at every single part if they weren't interested in reading it. So without further knowledge to base this on, I assume that they DID read it, in its entirety.

And that's it right there. They took a substantial amount of time to read the entire thing...and didn't say a word. They didn't rate a single piece, and didn't send along a single comment. They must have liked SOMETHING about it, else they would not have subjected themselves to the torture of wallowing through the entire thing like that, day after day. So it must have been good to them, at least to an extent. So...why did they not send a comment? Even a general one?

I sat and waited as the few days passed, until they reached the end, and then hoped that maybe they would at least rate the folder and offer some words. I'll never understand the reasoning but there ARE people on this site who do not rate every part of a story when they read the entire thing. (Me, I just rate each piece as I go, so I can't miss any, but that's just me and not everyone else. I find it an annoying habit to rate only a few parts of a story when one has read the whole thing, but it's not the end of the world; at least these people offer SOME comments.) I just assumed that since this person was not rating or sending along comments on each individual part, maybe they were taking the time to read the entire thing first, to see if it was really worth commenting on, to digest it whole before sending me their opinion. I really did convince myself they'd comment as soon as they were done.

But that was a couple of days ago, and they have not stepped forward to tell me why they liked my story, or why, if they hated it, they decided to muck their way through it anyway. So I'm very confused.

I just don't understand why somebody would take so much time to read the entire thing, if it wasn't good enough for them to comment on it, even in general. I know that somebody will think I am being incredibly snotty for expecting reviews, when that's not the deal here. It's just...well, I said it already; why did they take all that time to read but not to let me know if they enjoyed it? Since they didn't comment, I feel as if I wasted their time. Like they are now sitting there thinking, "God, why did I READ that whole thing? It SUCKED! Four days of my life, WASTED!" Right now, the only reason I can think of as to why they chose not to comment was because it sucked so badly, and they feel so stupid for having wasted their time reading through to the end, that they are being too polite to want to tell me this.

Does that sound like a silly idea? Well, I'll admit it could be, but like I said, I don't have any other theories.

Except one. MAYBE it was somebody who has already R&R'ed the entire story. That is, one of the original readers, returned to read it a second time. If that's the case, then please ignore this ENTIRE entry. I just tend not to read things more than once unless they're REALLY good, and I never think of my writing as REALLY good, read-it-more-than-once-type material. See how much trouble I have even proofing my own writing?--it grows to bore me that much. So yes, I would find it hard to believe if somebody who had already read the whole thing decided to sit down one day and read it all again! Especially that quickly.

Well, now that my webmail seems to be receiving again, it won't let me log into my inbox anymore. I can get in there once in a great while, but like 80% of the time I get a "Busy, please try again later" or "We've encountered an error--please contact us" or "We're working on it" message. When I try one of my alternate addresses ending in @mail.com, it works fine. It's only that "2die4.com" one that won't work right. Why can't a professional webmail service keep their own domains working properly? It's been like this for days and they didn't even bother responding to my last request for tech support. I can practically imagine them all sitting in a little cubicle. "Do you think if we ignore her, she'll just go away?"

Maybe I will go away. To a different webmail provider.