A deliberate "1"

[~hellbaby~]

When you have a story with a high ranking, such as 4.91, after it reaches ten votes, you can almost count on at least one troll hitting it with a one-bomb. It could be somebody who is envious or just nasty or it cold be somebody else who has one of the top ranked stories on that list and wants to hurt the competition. It works well, too. If you have ten votes, all fives, and a troll sees that and dops a one-bomb, the average falls to 4.64 for eleven votes, which is not bad but also not usually one of the top ranked stories. If you get thirty more votes. each one of five, your ranking will be up to 4.90 for 41 votes. That's how much a single one-bomb can do.

I know, it killed the score, it was the 11th or 12th vote. I'd rather not have it voted on than behit like that but it hasn't been there too long and it will even back out. It gets me mad though.

 

[mack_the_knife]

I submitted my attempt at a repair, mainly got argued against on two points -

People wish to be able to 'punish' poor authors (isn't that a lot like trolling?).

It might confuse people because the averaging system is pandemic on the net.

Attempt at a fix.

I will defend the idea no longer, as it will not help me in the least, I simply presented it as a way to stop trolling, yet keep all existing scores.

Unless it gets serious discussion, I won't be speaking more on the subject of Scoring and Trolling.

 

[silverwhisper]

james: yes, it would indeed require registration. but what if it was treated like an amazon review? basically what i'm suggesting is that reviewers get graded on their feedback by other readers such that it mitigates the weight of their (the reviewer's) votes.

or perhaps more simply, b/c it would probably require a lot less coding, perhaps a simple 0/1: did you like this story? then a percentage of yes to no might carry a bit more weight.

it's just that there's often a poor signal: noise ratio w/ anonymous voting w/ as many variables as we have here, you know?

ed

 

[intriguess]

this is why i rarely vote

i vote for the following reasons

1. someone asked me to look at their story and tell them what i think

2. the story is crap (and I can manage to finish the whole thing)

3. the main female character does something completely out of character (for instance there was a story where the author kept building how the woman was strong independent and had a tendency towards dominance and in the end she gives up everything for a good fuck by someone she can't stand)

I do not vote on stories if I can't stand to finish them, if they are part of a series and I missed a section, or if the category is outside my interest

my two cents and vote...*smile*

 

[Guest]

Actually, it could be "peaked my interest", depending on context. If somebody had a low level of interest in something, and something happened to increase it drastically, or "peak" it, you could say the event "peaked my interest" in whatever it was.

_______

Well, Box, most wouldn't because it's not idiomatic.

In general, one says: "BDSM piques their interest," or "The bulge in his pants piqued her curiosity."

In general, one does not say: "BDSM peaked their interest," or "The bulge in his pants peaked her curiosity" without hesitation and confusion for the reader.

The verbs pique and peak have very different meanings, so they have to be used in the context intended for our everyday and common understanding in writing or speech. In fact, if "peak" was the intended verb (at the apex), the sentences above should be completely recast and remove any implication with the expected use of "pique" (provoke; arouse).

A newspaper reporter, for example, would have recorded "piqued" on his/her notepad had davekoko2005 annunciated the phrase above during his recitation of his story at a book reading club, and there would have been no reason for the reporter to go up to dave later to ask, "Did you mean "peak" or "pique"?

Okay, the horse has no pulse and has stopped breathing . . .

With that said, does that deserve a "1" for davekoko2005's story? Certainly not.

Manxy

 

[Boxlicker101]

Although the troll bombs are annoying, they do not always stay there. I just submittede a poem and after I hit "submit", I looked at the submission to be sure it was correct and, while I was at it, I looked at some of my other rankings. It was clear that Laurel hasd cleaned off some of the recent one-bombs. Some of my stories that had been rated lower that I thought they deserved were suddenly higher. This has happened before; periodically Laurel does some housecleaning and eliminates the votes that obviously do not belong.

So, Hellbaby, that one-bomb that was dropped on your story might have also been removed.

 

[JamesSD]

Although the troll bombs are annoying, they do not always stay there. I just submittede a poem and after I hit "submit", I looked at the submission to be sure it was correct and, while I was at it, I looked at some of my other rankings. It was clear that Laurel hasd cleaned off some of the recent one-bombs. Some of my stories that had been rated lower that I thought they deserved were suddenly higher. This has happened before; periodically Laurel does some housecleaning and eliminates the votes that obviously do not belong.

So, Hellbaby, that one-bomb that was dropped on your story might have also been removed.

My one-bombs from a couple days ago also were recently removed.

 

[PAUL C]

lots

i did try to count the number of 1 votes my top listed stories received.

after 65 the thought occured to me that perhaps they were telling me something.

 

[PAUL C]

hence

hence.

i seldom publish here anymore.

 

[babylez]

getting trashed

i don't know about all the other genres, but there are some homophobic types that are always bashing the lesbian stories. i think it's actually worse than that, i think they vote their ones multiple times. i've gone from high to low in literally the blink of an eye as well. other seasoned writers have told me it's just the hazards of posting on this website.

 

[Boxlicker101]

i don't know about all the other genres, but there are some homophobic types that are always bashing the lesbian stories. i think it's actually worse than that, i think they vote their ones multiple times. i've gone from high to low in literally the blink of an eye as well. other seasoned writers have told me it's just the hazards of posting on this website.

I agree with you, especially about lesbian stories but a person can only vote once on a given story, at least from one computer. If that person borrows another computer, they can vote again anonymously. I believe there are some women, possibly lesbians, who vote low on any lesbian story written by a man. Not all lesbians, but some. I believe that some gay people vote negatively on any story that portrays gay people as having casual gay sex. If a story is about a woman cheating on her husband, some men will vote negatively on that and vice versa. Trolls tend to feel justified in voting the way they do even ifauthors disagree.

 

[Goldeniangel]

I've seem to have picked up some trolls who insist that all my stories are the same and that the same people comment on them every time; i guess they don't notice that they're one of the people. i think trolls just do it to feel better about themselves, make themselves feel superior. I have noticed that there are those who are registered under a name and so you can go to their bio, but they haven't written any stories; they just leave mean comments. some people just suck.
*hugs*
angel

 

[Boxlicker101]

I've seem to have picked up some trolls who insist that all my stories are the same and that the same people comment on them every time; i guess they don't notice that they're one of the people. i think trolls just do it to feel better about themselves, make themselves feel superior. I have noticed that there are those who are registered under a name and so you can go to their bio, but they haven't written any stories; they just leave mean comments. some people just suck.
*hugs*
angel

Different trolls are motivated by different reasons. On thing I have noticed is that most of them remain anonymous when they post a PC or send an email. Most of them don't even do that, just drop a one bomb. I have had criticism that was signed but it was always honest criticism and I have no problem with that. I've never before heard of a troll who left his name, even a non-writing member.

 

[Knight_Errant]

Ok, I'm a newbie... how do I?

View feedback on my story?

View the votes history?

Thanks! This is a great community.

 

[Boxlicker101]

i did try to count the number of 1 votes my top listed stories received.

after 65 the thought occured to me that perhaps they were telling me something.

How do you count the number of one votes? Sometimes, just after a story has been posted, I can track its progress every few minutes but I can never keep up with the votes for very long, even if I thought it was important enough, which I don't.

 

[Boxlicker101]

View feedback on my story?

View the votes history?

Thanks! This is a great community.

The feedback is in the form of public coments (PC) or email or personal messages (PM) to you. Be sure you click on the bubble that says to allow PC and to allow email and PM to you.

 

[Knight_Errant]

hmm

From the comments above it seemed that you could see a summary of votes somewhere. I.E. how may 1/2/3/4/5 votes you had gotten.

Also where are my public comments listed at? With the story?

 

[Boxlicker101]

From the comments above it seemed that you could see a summary of votes somewhere. I.E. how may 1/2/3/4/5 votes you had gotten.

Also where are my public comments listed at? With the story?

I have never heard of a summary of votes. I believe it would be easily possible to keep one and make it available but I don't believe this has ever been done. I know of only one way you might do this: Keep careful tabs on the voting on your stories. Mulltiply the votes times the average and, when another vote comes in, multiply again. The difference in the two results is what the most recent vote was. Personally, I think this is more trouble than it is worth, so I won't do it for any length of time.

At the end of every story, if the author permits it, readers can vote one through five. Below that, is a placve to leave PC. You have to mark the story to allow these, though. To check on this, go to your index and look and see if yu have done so.

 

[LaJovena]

I have written a few pieces with a, romantic theme or ending, and then someone dings me because I write a little pure, recreational smut---or one of the characters is a jerk or an ass hole.

"Where was the romance? Oh, gee, he was just using her for sex, that's not very nice! She's a bitch. Oh my God, she cheated on her nice husband, that's not a very good story." and on and on.

Today, I posted a story with this warning, to discourage those readers who are put off by unprotected, unmarried kinky and nasty sex.

This is a nasty story. There’s no love, no romance and little tenderness. The participants do not, ‘make love’---they fuck. They do it in every orifice; there’s ATM and fucking during menstruation. There is no BDSM, but the sex is not gentle---be warned.

Ooooh myyyy.....

 

[jtmalone70]

**********

 

[LeBroz]

The votes really don't mean all that much to me. They're nice and a good form of passive feedback, but otherwise, they don't tell the author much. On the other hand, the personal comments feedback tends to have the potential for being more in-depth. Whether or not it actually is becomes another issue.

I think most of my stories, at some point early on after being first submitted, have hovered in the 4.9+ range. But, of course, it doesn't take too long before that slowly begins to plummet. Now they usually drift around 4.8+.

I think the problem of One Bombs could be easily solved, to some degree anyway, by requiring the voter to sign in before they can cast their ballot. The name of the voter appears by the vote they cast. And this information could, instead of being stored on the Lit website, be immediately emailed to the author, as is done already with personal comments.

I won't say this will entirely eliminate malicious voting and personal comments, but it should definitely give the voter pause to consider: their name will appear by their vote and comment. Doesn't mean they can't give negative feedback, however. It simply means they won't be able to hide behind the convenient anonymity any longer, thus making malicious voting a less appealing option.

I also have two of my stories on another website where the person voting has to be a member of the site. As a result, I think, the scores my stories recieve there do appear to be generally more accurate than what they get here on Lit. And, since there's no prize money to be won on that site, there's really very little practical reason for malicious voting, unless your ego really demands your story out-performs all others.

Something, I believe, really needs to be done with revamping the voting system on Literotica. It's much too easy to abuse and, as a result, you really can't always depend on a story's score to accurately reflect its quality - something I know is inherently subjective, but would be less ambiguous, were the rating system even reasonably revised and modified. That way, everybody wins. The authors get more accurate feedback and the readers can look at the score of a story with more faith.

Good points all; this problem crosses all elements of Lit. It's at its worst with poetry, bdsm, & other fetishes where stories receive fewer votes/comments. As for a solution to this problem - - - well, we'll see what develops.

 

[hurricane64]

Well, Vieux Carre just got hit with a one-bomb. It happens.

Part of why I write here is to improve. The voting helps gauge how I'm doing in that respect but other than that, I don't worry too much about it. No matter what you write, someone is not going to like it. And I definitely am not going to get uptight over some petty shenanigans conducted by someone with nothing better to do than troll.