Hundreds of score votes the first day?

[AlinaX]

I'm in Beta, not Classic.

Views is just below the story's subtitle, on the left, in my view (android).

Okay, using Android I see what you see, but it's still only views, not votes.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Okay, using Android I see what you see, but it's still only views, not votes.

You're right, only the author knows the votes count.

 

[SimonDoom]

Okay, using Android I see what you see, but it's still only views, not votes.

I think the two of you may be miscommunicating.

There are only two ways I know of to find out the votes of another person's story. One is on the all-time scoring toplists, which show the number of votes for each story listed.

This other is if you navigate to the new story page for each category, and you move the cursor over the score. A box will pop up, showing the number of votes for that story.

I'm not aware of any other way to do it.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'm not aware of any other way to do it.

You're probably right - one area of the site to which I pay zero attention; the other (hover) tricky to do with an android cursor - or I've never tried to do it.

You'd think the story itself would show its own stats - but that's logical .

 

[Emirus]

I don't want to sound like I begrudge anyone their due accolades, because I don't, but too often people engage in unfair trickery to get accolades. I'd rather that a stop be put to that whenever possible.

I'm getting to the point of feeling like it's a waste of time for me to post my stories to Literotica if vote-cheating is so common; it seems I'd do better trying to get published and actually get paid for what I write. If I fail in that endeavor, I've made no less money than I'm currently making for posting stories here.

I don’t quite understand what you mean by, “too often people engage in unfair trickery to get accolades.” Are you referring to them getting a story in the red zone? If that’s the case they are only fooling themselves and wanting to falsely satisfy their ego. How can you be truly happy knowing your stories scores are higher than they should be because of your actions?

About eighteen months ago I tried an experiment whilst on holiday. I was going in lots of different places with free wi-fi so every time I voted for one of my own stories. All the votes were removed shortly after we returned home. So there’s something in the system to pick that up.

It wouldn’t bother me if the red zone was removed. The satisfaction I get is from the actual score. I only have two stories that aren’t red. One is on 4.44 which I’m quite happy with because it’s in Humour and everyone’s sense of what’s funny is different. The other was my second story, which if I was writing it now would be very different, and is 4.22 which, taking all things into consideration, I’m also happy with and shows more people liked it than didn’t.

Whether or not it’s worthwhile posting your stories here is up to you. It’s why do you write and post them here in the first place? Rather than comparing yourself with other writers as regards the scores you should perhaps compare yourself with you?

I don’t look at a story in a category I’ve written in and compare their score with mine. They’ve written a different story to me so why should the voting be the same? I don’t look at a story that’s scored lower than mine in that category and think, “haha, I’ve beat you!” What would be the point?

As for publishing somewhere else to try and get paid for it because you’re unhappy here perhaps ask yourself why you began writing and submitting stories in the first place? I know why I did and that’s why I’m still around.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I must be wrong, but I was under the impression that once you voted on a story - your own or someone else's - the programming wouldn't allow you to vote on it again.

 

[SimonDoom]

I must be wrong, but I was under the impression that once you voted on a story - your own or someone else's - the programming wouldn't allow you to vote on it again.

I assume he means that each time he voted anonymously from a different IP address. Literotica would have no way of knowing that all the votes are coming from the same person.

 

[Emirus]

I assume he means that each time he voted anonymously from a different IP address. Literotica would have no way of knowing that all the votes are coming from the same person.

But, as I said in my post just above, I tried that early last year and a few days later all the votes were removed. Unless it was just a coincidence my votes were removed and you can really get away with it by voting anonymously from different ip addresses. It’s an awful lot of work for little reward, even if you get away with it.

 

[SimonDoom]

But, as I said in my post just above, I tried that early last year and a few days later all the votes were removed. Unless it was just a coincidence my votes were removed and you can really get away with it by voting anonymously from different ip addresses. It’s an awful lot of work for little reward, even if you get away with it.

I assume the Site owners removed those votes on the basis of some separate criteria. Had you tried multiple votes from the same IP address, you would have been barred from the beginning. But what you did required a second level screening mechanism, the exact nature of which we don't know. At least, I think that's how it works.

 

[KeithD]

I assume he means that each time he voted anonymously from a different IP address. Literotica would have no way of knowing that all the votes are coming from the same person.

If he used the same computer, they would, wouldn't they? Don't they identify the individual computers being used?

 

[RejectReality]

If he used the same computer, they would, wouldn't they? Don't they identify the individual computers being used?

There are some extra ( extremely simple ) steps necessary. Just moving to a new location shouldn't allow you to cast a second vote exactly as you cast the first — even anonymously.

 

[SimonDoom]

There are some extra ( extremely simple ) steps necessary. Just moving to a new location shouldn't allow you to cast a second vote exactly as you cast the first — even anonymously.

That's what I thought. I assumed Emirus had taken steps -- what steps I don't know -- to make it appear that he was voting as a different person. So the original screen failed to catch that and it let the votes go through. But the sweep system, later, eliminated those votes.

 

[lovecraft68]

I think we;ve reached witch hunt status, any well received story must be the benefit of wanted or unwanted multi voting, none can be legit.

We've also reached the point where the forum should be called the Karen hangout

 

[SimonDoom]

I think we;ve reached witch hunt status, any well received story must be the benefit of wanted or unwanted multi voting, none can be legit.

We've also reached the point where the forum should be called the Karen hangout

I think it only becomes a witch hunt when the hordes gather with their pitchforks. That hasn't happened here yet. You have somebody offering a question and others responding. A few are suspicious. Some are skeptical.

I don't see any solid of evidence of wrongdoing, and I don't see any significant numbers of thread participants who do. There's some speculation.

I don't think we've quite reached witch-hunt status.

 

[RejectReality]

That's what I thought. I assumed Emirus had taken steps -- what steps I don't know -- to make it appear that he was voting as a different person. So the original screen failed to catch that and it let the votes go through. But the sweep system, later, eliminated those votes.

The controls you can put in place to prevent multi-voting before the fact without causing undue frustration to normal users are limited.

What can be put in place will mitigate accidental double voting, some poor attempts at automated malfeasance, and computer illiterate folks. Anyone with the barest knowledge of how the internet works could get around it with almost zero effort.

That would only allow them to cast the multiple votes, though. Escaping detection by the sweeps so they stick is a whole different animal.

I honestly don't see anything in the OP that strongly suggests fraud. Looks like a story that did extraordinarily well to me. It happens. An early H, a good title and description, high placement on the main new story list, getting attached as a recommended story on something else that's wildly popular... Could even be an author who — while new here — has a following from elsewhere that they're bringing with them.

 

[Emirus]

That's what I thought. I assumed Emirus had taken steps -- what steps I don't know -- to make it appear that he was voting as a different person. So the original screen failed to catch that and it let the votes go through. But the sweep system, later, eliminated those votes.

I used the same phone every time but logged on with a different ip address and didn’t go straight to the end of the story. It could be all those votes coming in a few days from the same town are what triggered a sweep.

I would imagine Laurel and Manu, if they are reading them, are having a good laugh about these comments.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

Resurrecting an old thread to give an update:

I can’t be sure but my story Hayin' Time appears to have been the original story in question considering it checks all of the boxes (timeline, approximate number of stories, followers, posting time, scoring, the mostly skipped sex scene (there were several complaints about that!), and the time jump at the end).

By the time that contest ended, the story had around 28k views, almost 1,400 votes, and a score of about 4.86. Being in the Romance category, that was roughly 1 vote per 20 views, similar to what was noted on the original post (though this is all from memory and may be off a little).

The reason for the update is that four years have passed and the story remains on of my more popular, though the score has since fallen to 4.83 on over 52.6K views and 2057 votes, maintaining a ratio of about 25.6 views per vote. My experience in the Romance category over a number of stories since then (that are hopefully better written than this one) is that 1 vote/15 to 25 views is fairly common in the initial run but this falls off over time due to passersby, rereads, etc. I sometimes see similar ratios in Mature, but most stories in other categories are between 1:30 and 1:100.