I did a thing in the author notes
Since this involves my story so I'll label it as self promo so it doesn't get removed, but I may have accidentally made it impossible to know whether my readers liked my joke. So I write a progression fantasy and publish on royal road. My readers are absurdly quiet. I don't mean like, I wish they engaged more. I mean like all of book 2 so far, 100k words 64 chapters and not a single word. At some point it stopped bothering me honestly. I found it hilarious. My novel has cultivated readers who simply became monks who took a vow of Silence. That is the only reasonable explanation. So I founded the Monastery of Gatewalker.
I made an author note declaring my lurkers second-rate warriors, established the silent dao, created punishments for breaking their vow of silence, established a cave of lurking for repeat offenders, and gave readers permission to temporarily break their vows solely to discipline weaker monks who comment.
It is entirely meant as me making fun of myself and turning my readers complete refusal to engage or comment into something fun. Except I've now realized something. If they hated the joke, they'll probably say nothing. If they didn't care, they'll say nothing. If they loved the joke and understood it perfectly well, I specifically instructed them to say nothing. So I have somehow made my original inability to understand my readers silence even worse. I regret nothing. Screenshots of the entire author note attached
I just thought I'd share while I sit on my porch, drink my coffee and continue to ponder on the dilemma I have now created.