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Coal All The Way

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That's why it's not comparable. Still, having it on your gifts page is the equivalent of putting it on a shelf in your corridor where you and everyone will always see it. I don't begrudge people for not wanting that.

I mean, not really. The only people who ever even look at your gifts page are exchange regulars who want to see how you comment or how many treats you have. That's it. Nobody else gives a fuck. Most people don't even look at to see their gift - they wait for the e-mail. And those comment obsessed exchange regulars will be able to see that you gave story x an enthusiastic, three paragraph comment and story y a one paragraph polite thank you.

And hell, maybe they'll use that to not give you something like story y.

But you see it yourself all the time?

I always wonder if the people who don't care just never or rarely go to their gifts page. But, like, if I genuinely dislike a gift, I don't want to see it every day, sorry.

DC

You scroll through your gifts page EVERY DAY???? Uhm, okay.

But even if I want to go by your metaphor, who is actually bothered by having a book on their bookshelf they didn't enjoy? I mean, I have tons of those that I read for college or grad school or got as gifts, and I read them and presumably at some point I may need them to to look up something, or I'll pass them along, or I'll burn them for warmth if the heating breaks during the next polar vortex, or one day I'll get tired of dragging around boxes of books every time I move and donate them or throw them away, but it's not like being aware of their mere existence on my bookshelf gives me hives or something.

CYRT

I frequently reread my old gifts. It's not always every day, but on average maybe 3-4 times a week?

But no, I wouldn't keep a book in the bookshelf I read and didn't like. Do people really do that? If I read a book and it's not my thing, I give it away. I would never keep it around. Of course they wouldn't give me hives, no, but their presence on the shelves would annoy me and always remind me of how much I hated reading them. I'm not someone who like decluttering, but things that actively evoke negative memories have to go.

nayrt

Three to four times a week is something I wouldn't have time to do if I wanted to, but I think it's awesome you like your gifts that much! I revisit mine maybe three to four times a year, maybe less. And not all of them, because a few aren't worth revisiting.

Btw, I don't keep books I don't absolutely love, because I don't keep much "stuff," period. If I don't love it or need it on the reg, I would never let it sit and take up space (and get dusty). I regularly give paperbacks to friends or Goodwill once I'm done even if I liked them a lot. So a lot of my books are ebooks, but the ones that are special to me or are reference that I prefer to pick up, they get my limited shelf space.

NC

I reread fic a lot, not just gifts, but if it's something I know I'm going to reread that much, I download it, and reread on my Kindle.

And I have a ton of books on my shelves I disliked. But they don't "evoke negative memories", I just didn't much care for the book. Most of the time, I barely even remember why. Sometimes, I can't even remember whether I liked a book or not, just that I know I've read it. The only books I've ever pointedly gotten rid of were the Orson Scott Cards and the Marion Zimmer Bradleys, and I didn't get rid of those for their contents.

I go there maybe half a dozen times a year? What on earth are you doing that you go there every day?

When I do go, I barely even notice the individual bad gifts, of which I have plenty. It's just a wall of text that I scroll past to find whatever I'm looking for. Most of them I've utterly forgotten about, because I've literally never looked at or clicked on them again after the obligatory thank you when I got them.

What on earth are you doing that you go there every day?

Like I said upthread, re-reading old gifts. I didn't realize that was so entirely unusual.

Rereading isn't unusual. Rereading the same few things every single day? Yes, that's unusual.

+1. I love my gifts, but I re-read them maybe every couple of months at most. There's no book or fic I love enough to re-read every single day.

AYRT

Oh, sorry, that was a misunderstanding. Obviously I don't reread the same gift fic every day or every other day. I just go to my gifts page and pick one to read every day or so. Each individual story, I don't read more than once every few months. Otherwise I'd get sick even of my favorite fics.

(And I had my account for a long time and am fairly active in fandom, so I have enough gifts - both in and out of exchanges - that rereading 4 or 5 stories a week would last me almost a year even if I reread them each only once.)

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