Malicious voting

[StillStunned]

That works for some, but for me, the feedback is more important than any writer's ego I may have.

Me too. I'm essentially an amoeba.

 

[Bazzle]

That works for some, but for me, the feedback is more important than any writer's ego I may have.

I just wish when I got a 1, 2 or 3 the WHY they are downvoting...it would be more beneficial than the praise of 5*

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I just wish when I got a 1, 2 or 3 the WHY they are downvoting...it would be more beneficial than the praise of 5*

Agree. There's an algorithm that decides which votes are bogus, maybe apply it to all votes at the time they're given, and if they fall outside the parameters, require a comment. I'd vote for that.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Silk used/uses the quote trick here and there, never gets heat for it, which is what I meant when I said if its someone's friend its fine.

You piqued my interest so I had to take a look. Yeah, there are many quotes-stories.
Authors are such vain and selfish creatures.

 

[Bazzle]

You piqued my interest so I had to take a look. Yeah, there are many quotes-stories.
Authors are such vain and selfish creatures.

I'm guessing titling a story -1 selfish pig would do the same thing?

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Silk used/uses the quote trick here and there, never gets heat for it, which is what I meant when I said if its someone's friend its fine.

Please elucidate for those of us in the cheap seats.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Please elucidate for those of us in the cheap seats.

In ASCII the capital A is 65, B is 66 and so on ... computers use that to sort alphabetically. The " mark is 32 or 33 or 44 or 48 (I don't recall), so if you title your story beginning with a " it will be first alphabetically.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

There is a solution to 'downvotes.' It's simple, yet at the same time, the solution sticks in my throat. Don't allow comments or voting on a story. To me, this is an excise in the 'kiss principle.' But I'll be doing this going forward.

Almost everybody is okay with negative feedback so long as the positive outweighs it. If you block voting and comments that means that you are so terrified of negative feedback that you are willing to sacrifice all positive feedback to avoid it. It's one thing to write to be loved, another entirely to write not to be hated. You will have a very lonely existence here if you do.

Go ahead and do that if you want, but just know that writing brave makes one a better writer. Writing scared does nothing for your skills.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

In ASCII the capital A is 65, B is 66 and so on ... computers use that to sort alphabetically. The " mark is 32 or 33 or 44 or 48 (I don't recall), so if you title your story beginning with a " it will be first alphabetically.

Thanks. didn't make the connection in the context.


FWIW, I'm a 30 year plus veteran of the software wars. I think there are quite a few of us in here. Perhaps one day Manu will decide to accept the hep a lot of us have offered, most for free. But that's a different thread.

 

[Agent0069]

Yeah, don't you just hate it when you are going for a perfect "1"-scored story, and then some arseorifice just has to sneak in a single "5", and then your perfect average score is ruined forever?! Disgusting, I wish there was a way to prevent something like that!

 

[mirafrida]

You piqued my interest so I had to take a look. Yeah, there are many quotes-stories.
Authors are such vain and selfish creatures.

In the recent crime story event, I had started my story name with a digit (6:09 to Sweetwater) - with no motive in mind, beyond a somewhat frivolous callback to "3:10 to Yuma"

But then, after I'd submitted it, it occurred to me 'oh hey, it's going to be first in the list!' (for whatever that is worth anyway)

Sadly, however, when the list was posted, Laurel had alphabetized it as if the digits had been written out (six oh nine...) Oh well, easy come easy go ...

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

In the recent crime story event, I had started my story name with a digit (6:09 to Sweetwater) - with no motive in mind, beyond a somewhat frivolous callback to "3:10 to Yuma"

But then, after I'd submitted it, it occurred to me 'oh hey, it's going to be first in the list!' (for whatever that is worth anyway)

Sadly, however, when the list was posted, Laurel had alphabetized it as if the digits had been written out (six oh nine...) Oh well, easy come easy go ...

Should have quoted 6:09…

 

[lovecraft68]

Please elucidate for those of us in the cheap seats.

If you put a title in quotes as in "My friend's hot mom"

The quotes get the story listed first because they come before A alphabetically, so it gets more looks being at the top.

'Scouries' aka Lit's version of Satan who was blamed for all ills, did this with a couple of stories and called out for gaming the system, etc. Another author did it, and not a peep.

No ill will meant towards Silk, but it just proves the point. It's not what someone does, its who that someone is.

He had two stories he was always pimping and they had huge numbers for the time and everyone said the numbers were gained by him faving himself and voting with endless sock puppets.

I have stories with numbers that eclipse his, as do others, so if we got there for reasons other than 'gaming' then why couldn't they?

Because the game was to set up a fall guy for everything wonky here.

Or, going back to RR's comment, if someone's story climbs, they must be cheating or their fans are doing it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

There is a solution to 'downvotes.' It's simple, yet at the same time, the solution sticks in my throat. Don't allow comments or voting on a story. To me, this is an excise in the 'kiss principle.' But I'll be doing this going forward.

I had a look at the comments on some of your stories. Seems like most of them are positive. A few with some criticisms, but even then it's often mixed with positives.

Are the negatives really bad enough to be throwing out all the rest?

 

[RejectReality]

If you put a title in quotes as in "My friend's hot mom"

The quotes get the story listed first because they come before A alphabetically, so it gets more looks being at the top.

'Scouries' aka Lit's version of Satan who was blamed for all ills, did this with a couple of stories and called out for gaming the system, etc. Another author did it, and not a peep.

No ill will meant towards Silk, but it just proves the point. It's not what someone does, its who that someone is.

He had two stories he was always pimping and they had huge numbers for the time and everyone said the numbers were gained by him faving himself and voting with endless sock puppets.

I have stories with numbers that eclipse his, as do others, so if we got there for reasons other than 'gaming' then why couldn't they?

Because the game was to set up a fall guy for everything wonky here.

Or, going back to RR's comment, if someone's story climbs, they must be cheating or their fans are doing it.

Because it no longer works, and hasn't for more than a decade. ( Nearly two ) First, the landing page was eventually randomized back when clicking a category took you to the story list instead of a Hub. Then, when the hubs were created, the order was changed so numbers precede punctuation, even though few view the full lists anyway. Quotation marks ( or other punctuation ) no longer gain you any advantage whatsoever. There's nothing to call out.

Back when he did it, if you clicked on the most read category on the site, the first thing you saw were his two stories for about a year if I remember correctly. That was simply taking advantage of something nobody else had caught onto, which worked very well for him, until it was changed because he was exploiting it. It was everything else he was pulling on top of that that was truly below board.

And I said "if every other story on the toplist is falling and one is rising". Again, different thing entirely.

 

[Bamagan]

I had a look at the comments on some of your stories. Seems like most of them are positive. A few with some criticisms, but even then it's often mixed with positives.

Are the negatives really bad enough to be throwing out all the rest?

I turned off comments as well, but the ones that prompted me to do so can't be found on my stories anymore. Might not be applicable to the person you were responding to, but absence of evidence et cetera, et cetera.
And for me, yes. It's nice to hear that people like a story, but I have no interest in hearing anything from people who assume that abuse and criticism are synonyms. Denying the latter a venue for their screeds is more satisfying to me than almost any amount or type of praise.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

I just noticed most of my scores went down dramatically too. A curse of mild urinary incontinence to the 1-bomber!

 

[lovecraft68]

I just noticed most of my scores went down dramatically too. A curse of mild urinary incontinence to the 1-bomber!

Trolls ghost here. They see a thread like this, and they run off and target those who post in it.

I wouldn't rule out it being just anon ghosters either which is sad, but true.

 

[THBGato]

This is still going on. As far as I can tell, somebody is systematically down-voting the Lesbian top list. Two weeks ago you needed 4.93 to get in the top twenty. Now 4.90 will do it.

Of course, all this means is that it's slightly different JC McNeilly or OneHitWanda stories occupying the top slots. So nothing has really changed.

Weirdly though, I've found it strangely reassuring. I used to have stories at 4.93 and in the top twenty. I'm not going to pretend that wasn't a source of pride for me: of course it was. BUT I also used to worry about them, wondering if my stories were universal enough to stand the test of time and stay there on their own merits.

Now that they've dropped I feel a strange sense of relief. It wasn't anything to do with the stories, and nothing to do with me, it's happening to everyone. As PSG said on another thread, the stories haven't got better or worse. So, thank you troll, for helping me get over my preciousness about my scores.

 

[designatedvictim]

According to my (limited) experience you get a 5 if someone loves it, a 4 if someone likes it and maybe a 3 if someone sees substantial problems in the story.

You get a 1 for personal reasons.

While I'd normally agree, I have to toss out that I've only been registered for about eight weeks, first chunk published on 9/22. One of my recent parts, when new, went from a 5/2 to 3.67/3. I'm too new to have a personal anti-groupie!

 

[lovecraft68]

While I'd normally agree, I have to toss out that I've only been registered for about eight weeks, first chunk published on 9/22. One of my recent parts, when new, went from a 5/2 to 3.67/3. I'm too new to have a personal anti-groupie!

In addition to personal trolls, there are also category trolls who will bomb anything on the new list.

It is also possible-although people hate to think it-that someone could have legit disliked your story enough to give it a low score.

 

[designatedvictim]

It is also possible-although people hate to think it-that someone could have legit disliked your story enough to give it a low score.

Heavens! Say it isn't so!

You're right, of course.

Still, when I dislike something, I just move on. Going to the (minimal) extra effort to 1-vote someone would probably drive me to comment on it, too.

But that's just me.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Someone seems to be 1-bombing us. A bunch of Writing Group stories have suddenly dropped a significant fraction of a point in the past few days. Timing matches Annie angering another Forum participant ....

-Rocco

 

[onehitwanda]

Most of the top list in Lesbian Sex has dropped 0.02 / 0.03 in the last month or so. I am curious what's going on because things were static for a long time before suddenly starting to taper a month ago. (And I'm not just talking about *my* stories; everything seems to be catching it)

It's really weird.

Edit: just looked at Romance for the first time in a long time. Same story there; stories I remember being solidly 4.94/4.95 are now 4.92 etc.

I wonder if Lit's implemented some sort of outlier trimming that is forcing everything inwards towards the mean?

@Bramblethorn I choose you! Use your discrete logarithm power!

 

[Plathfan]

Most of the top list in Lesbian Sex has dropped 0.02 / 0.03 in the last month or so. I am curious what's going on because things were static for a long time before suddenly starting to taper a month ago. (And I'm not just talking about *my* stories; everything seems to be catching it)

It's really weird.

Edit: just looked at Romance for the first time in a long time. Same story there; stories I remember being solidly 4.94/4.95 are now 4.92 etc.

I wonder if Lit's implemented some sort of outlier trimming that is forcing everything inwards towards the mean?

@Bramblethorn I choose you! Use your discrete logarithm power!

They improved the sweeps to remove multiple 5 bombs as well?