At least five one-bombs in the last ten votes

[TadOverdon]

It's about "why bother", if the stories are not getting to the audience to provide any ratings or comments for qualitative feedback? Without some kind of feedback, I could post my stories in my own recycle folder, and my writing would progress as much.

Kind of a good philosophical question about writing for which there's no one-size-fits-all answer, isn't it?

"I need only satisfy myself" and "No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money" are polar statements that don't answer, for many or at least for all writers, why we write and what we hope for from a readership.

Expectations are very individual.

There have been times and places in which writers, not necessarily writers of fiction for amusement, could expect little or no contact with their readers other than those they knew personally, and yet they seemed to write with the expectation of influencing the minds and hearts of strangers.

There was a fairly well-known popular fiction writer of the last century who said once that if he were stuck on a desert island with no hope of rescue, he'd be writing stories on banana leaves and throwing them into the ocean in bottles.

A way of saying, maybe, that his own sense of himself was of a man in a conversation with something. Some monks, I guess, are dead serious about talking to God.

 

[windar]

Thanks. The negative trolls on here are sometimes tedious. I've been rating more stories as I read them, and leaving some comments. One of the comments I've left on two different LW stories was giving them a 4 or 5 even when I didn't like them saying "I had some issues with your story (ie. grammar when it's really bad) and would give it a 3, but the 4 is to off-set the 1-bomb haters."

Today, I have a new anonymous comment to my LW story saying "3.39? Too high a score for this story. 1* to offset."

Definitely a hater tracking me.

And it's not about gaining confidence to post here. It's about "why bother", if the stories are not getting to the audience to provide any ratings or comments for qualitative feedback? Without some kind of feedback, I could post my stories in my own recycle folder, and my writing would progress as much.


I've looked at one site where you publish your series, and I'm considering trying that.

I think if you're looking for comments to make you a better writer, you are unlikely to achieve that. Most readers aren't going to take the time to dissect your writing in detail-they'll say "It sucks!" or "Great story!". You learn very little from either. And most readers have never written anything themselves, so they are unlikely to be of much help.

You know my opinion on voting, so ignore that as well. I have a bunch of my novellas on a pay site. Almost all are rated 4.5-5. Guess which one is rated 3? The one that outsold all the others and got a Platinum badge and a spot in the Hall of Fame. This is the God's honest truth. And on Reddit there are a number of people who have very much the same story!

So, why not format your story for Amazon (I don't think you break any of their rules against non-con) and see what happens? Worst is it doesn't sell. Best is it does and you can take the wife out for a nice dinner...

 

[MrPixel]

Noob here, so be gentle.

How do you know you've been "one-bombed"? Other than watching the score suddenly go down, even on stories that have been up for a year or more?

 

[NotWise]

Noob here, so be gentle.

How do you know you've been "one-bombed"? Other than watching the score suddenly go down, even on stories that have been up for a year or more?

The only way to tell for sure is to track your rating and back-calculate the votes. A lot of people seem to think that they're being one-bombed any time their score drops, but 2* and 3* votes can have large impacts too, depending on the score and total votes.

 

[KeithD]

Noob here, so be gentle.

How do you know you've been "one-bombed"? Other than watching the score suddenly go down, even on stories that have been up for a year or more?

You don't after the period in which there have been few votes and you check frequently.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Noob here, so be gentle.

How do you know you've been "one-bombed"? Other than watching the score suddenly go down, even on stories that have been up for a year or more?

If I say I have been one bombed, I don’t mean that someone gave me a one star rating.I mean there is some reason to believe the vote is not a sincere judgment of the quality of the story, but rather, a deliberate attempt to lower the score for the sake of lowering the score. How do you tell the difference? Usually you can’t, but when a story has a rating of 4.95 and then gets three ones in a row, for example, I think it’s fair to assume malice.

 

[MrPixel]

Thanks, all. I suspected it was something like that, but was reaching out to see if there was a hidden function in the author control panel to display vote history, something like a graph of vote counts versus date.

Sorry to interrupt!

 

[KeithD]

If you submit the same story to multiple sites at the same time, as I do, and you take into account atmospherics of all the sites, you can determine pretty closely if you are being specifically attacked on one of the sites from the comparative reception the story is getting across the board.

And if you've recently been gang banged on the discussion board of one of those sites and you suddenly are being dropped into the 2 and 3 range with you new stories, you can pretty much determine who is doing it too.

 

[rescatooor]

If you submit the same story to multiple sites at the same time, as I do, and you take into account atmospherics of all the sites, you can determine pretty closely if you are being specifically attacked on one of the sites from the comparative reception the story is getting across the board.

And if you've recently been gang banged on the discussion board of one of those sites and you suddenly are being dropped into the 2 and 3 range with you new stories, you can pretty much determine who is doing it too.

Who are you accusing?

 

[windar]

Who are you accusing?

FWIW, I have never voted on a story here or made a public comment.

To my mind, saying anything bad about a story on a free site is like criticizing the cooking down at your local soup kitchen. Unless the chef asks you directly for feedback, in which case you can say that maybe there was a bit too much salt, but you enjoyed it anyway...OTOH, if you go to a restaurant and paid, you can go on Trip Advisor and be honest. But even there, vindictiveness is wrong...

 

[rescatooor]

FWIW, I have never voted on a story here or made a public comment.

To my mind, saying anything bad about a story on a free site is like criticizing the cooking down at your local soup kitchen. Unless the chef asks you directly for feedback, in which case you can say that maybe there was a bit too much salt, but you enjoyed it anyway...OTOH, if you go to a restaurant and paid, you can go on Trip Advisor and be honest. But even there, vindictiveness is wrong...

I do leave comments. But I like to think I am not mean. It doesn't seem like my comments have ever been read that way.

I try to remember to leave a disclaimer that comments are welcome. Sometimes i see my comments (the ones i receive) getting remover anyway by moderators, presumably. That or I'm nuts.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I do leave comments. But I like to think I am not mean. It doesn't seem like my comments have ever been read that way.

I try to remember to leave a disclaimer that comments are welcome. Sometimes i see my comments (the ones i receive) getting remover anyway by moderators, presumably. That or I'm nuts.

Usually, if you get a notification that you have a comment, and there is no new comment visible, it was removed because it was spam.

 

[rescatooor]

Usually, if you get a notification that you have a comment, and there is no new comment visible, it was removed because it was spam.

I mean, the thing is I saw the comment, read it, felt good that someone thought my despicable character so real they wished them hell, and then suddenly all traces of it are gone.

 

[KeithD]

Who are you accusing?

Why do you keeping asking such questions?

 

[rescatooor]

Why do you keeping asking such questions?

Because I take your claims seriously.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Noob here, so be gentle.

How do you know you've been "one-bombed"? Other than watching the score suddenly go down, even on stories that have been up for a year or more?

As others have said, if you watch the rating change each day, you can determine how many 1's etc it takes to average to the score.

Then there are the comments on three of my stories today:
"This wasn't worth the 5*'s so many gave. So I'll offset it by giving it a 1*."
"3.39? Too high a score for this story. 1* to offset."
"Stupidity abounds in this category. 1* for this rubbish."

When I posted my Loving Wives story last month, the ratings came in rather fast over the next day. With 28 votes, quess how many 1's it takes to average 1.57 with 6 people adding it to their favorites? If those six who favored it gave me two 3's and four 4's, I got twenty-two 1's.

 

[KeithD]

Because I take your claims seriously.

That doesn't make it any of your business. And, sorry, I just think you're being hostile.

 

[rescatooor]

That doesn't make it any of your business. And, sorry, I just think you're being hostile.

What is a threat to you might be a threat to me. After all, I come to this discussion board. But if everything is a threat to you, maybe I shouldn't take your claims seriously then.

 

[KeithD]

What is a threat to you might be a threat to me. After all, I come to this discussion board. But if everything is a threat to you, maybe I shouldn't take your claims seriously then.

As Rhett didn't really say, "Frankly, Miss Scarlet . . ."

 

[rescatooor]

As Rhett didn't really say, "Frankly, Miss Scarlet . . ."

Yes. I'm sure you don't.

 

[KeithD]

Yes. I'm sure you don't.

Go bait someone else--on some other Web site. I see no reason why you feel the need to engage in such crap here.

 

[SamScribble]

Five one-bombs in the last ten votes? In my experience, it's often ten one-bombs in the last five votes.

 

[rescatooor]

Go bait someone else--on some other Web site. I see no reason why you feel the need to engage in such crap here.

I do not know what makes you be so hostile. I merely asked you questions, you refused to answer, and then I agreed with you.

 

[Comshaw]

I do not know what makes you be so hostile. I merely asked you questions, you refused to answer, and then I agreed with you.

KD works under the delusion that he and only he has a lock on what is right and wrong here in Lit story land. It's like arguing with a tree stump. My advice? Save yourself frustration and aggravation by doing as I do: use the ignore feature. It is your friend.


Comshaw

 

[KeithD]

Yes, please. Both of you.