Frustrated with my story ratings

[pink_silk_glove]

I judge my ability to entertain readers by their feedback. And why publish our stories at all, if not to entertain readers? Like I said, writing is only part of the achievement. If you don't care whether or not people enjoy your stories, just leave them on your computer when you've finished writing.

Just because someone downvotes me doesn't mean that many people were or weren't entertained. I've also never claimed that I don't care if anyone enjoys my stories or not. I may not care if a certain individual or another enjoys my work or not but certainly I write to be read. I've stated this many times. I'm also on record many times in this forum that the writing experience is merely a means to and end, that end being the reading experience that is created, so I'm not sure how that argument pertains to anything that I said.

I also think you're doing the readers here a disservice by claiming that they "barely know or care about the finer points of prose".

Of course you would. I fully expected you to.

 

[StillStunned]

Just because someone downvotes me doesn't mean that many people were or weren't entertained.

And I'm saying that, disregarding hate votes, a higher score indicates that a higher proportion of the readers were entertained. Low ratings are a perfectly valid expression of someone's opinion on the story. Remember, this discussion began with someone saying how someone had been bombing their stories and dragging down the scores.

I've also never claimed that I don't care if anyone enjoys my stories or not.

You might want to check whether your account has been hacked, because a while back someone was using it to claim how they were the only author here who didn't give a shit about ratings.

I may not care if a certain individual or another enjoys my work or not but certainly I write to be read. I've stated this many times. I'm also on record many times in this forum that the writing experience is merely a means to and end, that end being the reading experience that is created, so I'm not sure how that argument pertains to anything that I said.

Like I said above, disregarding hate votes, the score is the measure of how well an author has succeeded in writing something the readers enjoy.

Of course you would. I fully expected you to.

Meaning...?

 

[pink_silk_glove]

You might want to check whether your account has been hacked, because a while back someone was using it to claim how they were the only author here who didn't give a shit about ratings.

Like I said, you believe that ratings tell you how good you wrote and I don't.

Like I said above, disregarding hate votes, the score is the measure of how well an author has succeeded in writing something the readers enjoy.

No, actually. The score is very unreliable in that regard. You say so yourself that the scores are full of hate votes and political votes and the like, which I wholeheartedly agree, and since they are all lumped into the score and cannot be separated out, it is extremely rare to single out a 1-bomb or 2-bomb from a legitimate 1 or 2, and is certainly not worth the effort to do even that. So, no the score is not at all a reliable means of determining whether readers enjoy you, whether you connected or certainly whether you wrote well at all.

Meaning...?

Figure it out.

 

[StillStunned]

Like I said, you believe that ratings tell you how good you wrote and I don't.

No: I'm arguing that they indicate how well I *entertained*. Like I already said above, a high score means that readers enjoyed the story *for whatever reason*. That might be my writing, but it could also be the subject matter, the plot, the kink or the mother's hairy pussy. A low rating indicates that most readers didn't enjoy it *for whatever reason*: it's too long, it's full of mistakes, the characters are unlikable, it's not their kink, or the mother shaves.

No, actually. The score is very unreliable in that regard. You say so yourself that the scores are full of hate votes and political votes and the like, which I wholeheartedly agree, and since they are all lumped into the score and cannot be separated out, it is extremely rare to single out a 1-bomb or 2-bomb from a legitimate 1 or 2, and is certainly not worth the effort to do even that. So, no the score is not at all a reliable means of determining whether readers enjoy you, whether you connected or certainly whether you wrote well at all.

And this is what I said in the first place. A hate vote hurts because it isn't a reflection of how well we've achieved our aim of entertaining.

Figure it out.

No, you felt the need to imply something about me. Don't chicken out now.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I also think you're doing the readers here a disservice by claiming that they "barely know or care about the finer points of prose". There are plenty who appreciate good writing, and who aren't afraid to highlight poor writing. Not everyone who reads stories and leaves a rating is a stereotypical basement dweller who only cares whether the mother's pussy is hairy.

I have a gut feeling though, that such readers are more to likely rank a story on a more genuine one-to-five scale, than those fucktards who say, "I think your story is shit and I don't like it, even though you made it quite obvious what category it was in, but I read it anyway," and gave you a one, or worse, didn't read it but jumped to the end to give you the one.

I tend to think there's a fair correlation between one bomb trollers and their literary appreciation skills, I really do.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I have a gut feeling though, that such readers are more to likely rank a story on a more genuine one-to-five scale, than those fucktards who say, "I think your story is shit and I don't like it, even though you made it quite obvious what category it was in, but I read it anyway," and gave you a one, or worse, didn't read it but jumped to the end to give you the one.

I tend to think there's a fair correlation between one bomb trollers and their literary appreciation skills, I really do.

The bigger point is that if you want to judge your story by it's score, all you get is a score - 4.27 or whatever. The site will not break down the votes telling you how many are 5s, 3s or 1s, and even if it did there is no way for us to tell which of those votes are legit reads and genuine responses. They're all lumped in. Which makes that 4.27 or whatever, completely unreliable.

 

[SimonDoom]

The bigger point is that if you want to judge your story by it's score, all you get is a score - 4.27 or whatever. The site will not break down the votes telling you how many are 5s, 3s or 1s, and even if it did there is no way for us to tell which of those votes are legit reads and genuine responses. They're all lumped in. Which makes that 4.27 or whatever, completely unreliable.

That doesn't follow, logically. I agree that if a story has a small number of votes-- say, under 50-- then the chance of a few nasty random votes influencing the score is high enough that it makes the score have less predictive value as to its quality. But among stories with enough votes, it's safer to assume that all stories suffer from some amount of random, nasty downvoting, which means everybody is subject to the same scoring process and the same risk of random downvoting, and therefore scores provide at least some basis for comparison.

If in your personal, subjective experience as a reader you find that scores have no predictive value in terms of letting you know if you will enjoy the story, then you are entitled to your opinion, and it's as valid as anyone else's. As a longtime reader (20 years) at Literotica, I find this is NOT the case. I find scores have significant predictive value as long as I control for various non-quality factors that influence scores, like the category, or the length, or whether or not the story is a chapter in a long series. Once I control for these factors, I am very confident as a reader that, while scores are a highly imperfect measure of quality, I'm more likely to enjoy a story with a score of 4.7 than a story with a score of 4.2. A story with a score of 4.7 is more likely than a story with a score of 4.2 to have qualities that I appreciate in a story: 1) better grammar, spelling, and mechanics, 2) a more enjoyable prose style, 3) more creativity, 4) more character development and buildup.

Your experience may be different. But unless you have read many, many Literotica stories you don't have a data set from which to make any generalizations about what scores do or don't mean. I DO have a large data set of stories read based on 20 years of reading that enables me to make predictions with confidence to satisfy my own tastes even though my predictions may have no relevance to the tastes of others.

 

[lovecraft68]

This is another argument that can go on forever because both sides do have a point.

The lit readership is huge and varied. There are people here who do not pay attention to the intricacies of grammar and just go by was the story hot, or entertaining/worth their time.
Then there are some who are more literary and do take points off for shoddy grammar or inconsistencies etc...

But in both cases, there is neither a right or wrong, each person here votes based on their own criteria and we can't force them into boxes.

Now, of course hate bombs are another story, but that can be attributed to a certain type most of the time, and that's a troll.

Median score on this site is slightly over 4. 4 out of five, meaning vast majority of votes are positive, yet we still have this bitching and moaning session from time to time about how awful readers and therefore ratings are.

 

[Tom_Brown]

EDIT: Thank you for all the responses. Had never posted here before, so was a bit scared in case I incurred the wrath of the forum. lol. I'll read your replies fully later and reply when I can.

---

I've only posted 2 stories so far, but both times they received 4's to start, which made me feel motivated to keep writing. I'd have ideas in my head already, and I'd be excited to— and then the 3's start swarming in. It's like people see the high ratings and want to see what all the fuss is about, then get snooty about it not being up to their heightened expectations, and they can't leave well enough alone, so they start lowering the ratings by a mile. And it's really discouraging and kills my motivation.

Also sucks considering that in the case of my 1st story, there was a long stretch where it maintained a high rating, then only after a while did the ratings plummet. It's like, come on, just let me have this.

Clearly, the first people to read my works are the ones who have shared interests. Everyone else? They just want to see me fail, they don't care about the content.

I never was an erotica writer, to be honest. I'm a poet who dabbles in flash fiction and some longer works of prose. When it comes to my stories here, I want to capture an experience, a moment, just like in my regular writings. But I guess people don't like that here. I guess they want something super long to jack/jill off to. I also have a super niche fetish most people seem to find bizarre and don't understand, so that probably works against me, too, if they can't relate. But that still shouldn't be a reason to just tank my ratings.

I dunno. I'm tired and depressed and thought I'd found an outlet here. Guess not :\

I wish there was a way to filter out those who are just mean from giving low ratings on stories that they don’t even read!

I’ve had guys comment “I saw that this was a wife-sharing story and instantly gave it a 1. I’m not gonna support you wimps writing about your wife’s fucking real me , so that you can get off!”

It sucks.