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[PBAnnie]

I posted a story last week. Very good response. Currently stands at 4000 plus views with nine responses. Very good for the stories I post. I posted the second one yesterday. Cratered like the Chicxulub. No response, views at one-tenth of the previous. I don't even know if anyone knows the story exists. I've had crashes before but this is the deepest. If I scratch my head over this any further I'd take the skin off.

Two weeks ago I submitted two erotic poems that were both published on July 25. One poem has been getting about twice the views of the other, even though the other is currently getting a slighly higher rating and was the first of the two to receive a comment. They both show up in the "new poems" area when I access Lit with a web browser, but only the poem with the higher number of views shows up in the general list of "new poems" using the Lit app for Android. In the app I have to specifically go to the erotic poems section first and choose "new poems" for it to show up.

You may be getting a similar thing going on with your stories. Also, last Saturday or Sunday there were 192 stories published, compared to the 80 or 90 that usually get published each day. It's possible that your less-popular story got lost in one of the larger story dumps. If your stories were published in different categories, that could also be a factor.

 

[PrevertOne]

Drop Off

I don't think there was a major story dump yesterday, Wednesday. It could be that Android thing you're talking about. I'm used to working on a desktop so I rarely take things like Android into account. The stories were the first and second part of a series, in Scifi / Fantasy. I expected maybe some drop off, but not this much.

Two weeks ago I submitted two erotic poems that were both published on July 25. One poem has been getting about twice the views of the other, even though the other is currently getting a slighly higher rating and was the first of the two to receive a comment. They both show up in the "new poems" area when I access Lit with a web browser, but only the poem with the higher number of views shows up in the general list of "new poems" using the Lit app for Android. In the app I have to specifically go to the erotic poems section first and choose "new poems" for it to show up.

You may be getting a similar thing going on with your stories. Also, last Saturday or Sunday there were 192 stories published, compared to the 80 or 90 that usually get published each day. It's possible that your less-popular story got lost in one of the larger story dumps. If your stories were published in different categories, that could also be a factor.

 

[FactorySlave]

I've posted a couple of parts to a rather odd dystopian story called Slavery 2050. I'm about to publish part 3. I've had no comments online, but that's OK. It's not to everyone's taste. I don't comment on stories either.

 

[RWesson]

I was talking to another author, someone who has been posting stories long before I started, and they said there's just not that many readers knocking around any more. Most stories don't get that much reaction (views, ratings and comments), apart perhaps from a handful of incredibly popular writers.

I don't know if other people agree; is this place just not what it used to be?

Which makes me wonder as to what "good" reader numbers are.

20 days in, my first story is only 12.8K. The first few days, that seemed like it would be a lot. Now, not so much. It has comments from up to 3 readers (plus a response and a thank you to one of them). It has a decent score, but it's about 1 in 120 readers scored it. Less than one in 4000 commented.

And that was a "big" category.. I'm dreading thinking about how much work one story I have in the works for sometime in October or so will fare. Its plot outline is already 7 word pages (and still incomplete), but it will be nearly impossible to categorize. Seems like a heck of a lot of work if no one wants to read it.

My next story will tell 5he tale, though, as it's my first dive into the piranha pool of LW. At least it's in the traditions of some of the popular writers!

 

[RWesson]

This is absolutely true. Out of the blue I had four anon comments all with a similar format on four older stories and all in one day. I figured someone stumbled onto my stories and felt compelled to comment. Didn’t vote, though.

odd, since it is so much easier to vote than comment.[/QUOTE]

I comment, normally anonymously, about 1 out of every 10 stories. I always vote 5 star if I love a story, but 8f it has problems, sometimes I don't, because I would vote lower than the number. A Tory I would think should be, say, a 4.5, I can't vote for. If I vote a 4, I >lower< the score, but I don't think it's quite good enough for a 5. Choose whatever numbers you want, but the lack of .5 star increments is brutal for stories in the 4 plus range.

 

[gordo12]

My next story will tell 5he tale, though, as it's my first dive into the piranha pool of LW. At least it's in the traditions of some of the popular writers!

Alright! Going to leave me your worldly goods?

 

[NotWise]

Which makes me wonder as to what "good" reader numbers are.

20 days in, my first story is only 12.8K. The first few days, that seemed like it would be a lot. Now, not so much. It has comments from up to 3 readers (plus a response and a thank you to one of them). It has a decent score, but it's about 1 in 120 readers scored it. Less than one in 4000 commented.

And that was a "big" category.. I'm dreading thinking about how much work one story I have in the works for sometime in October or so will fare. Its plot outline is already 7 word pages (and still incomplete), but it will be nearly impossible to categorize. Seems like a heck of a lot of work if no one wants to read it.

My next story will tell 5he tale, though, as it's my first dive into the piranha pool of LW. At least it's in the traditions of some of the popular writers!

The ratio of votes to views and comments to views don't seem far out of line.

For I/T, 12.8K views is a pretty small response. For comparison, my last story in I/T (back in May) reached 12.8K views the afternoon after it was published and it's at 39.2K views now. That story isn't a contest story, and it doesn't have a lot of views compared to some other I/T stories.

There are a lot of conditions that can keep readers from viewing your story. For instance, there may have been a very large number of stories published that day. If your story was far down the list in the I/T hub and the New list, then maybe readers just didn't dig that deep.

 

[RWesson]

Alright! Going to leave me your worldly goods?

What worldly goods? If you read CCF1, you'll see I'm a well fed starving doctor with 3 mouths to feed. Actually, no, CCF1 ends before the third.

 

[RWesson]

The ratio of votes to views and comments to views don't seem far out of line.

For I/T, 12.8K views is a pretty small response. For comparison, my last story in I/T (back in May) reached 12.8K views the afternoon after it was published and it's at 39.2K views now. That story isn't a contest story, and it doesn't have a lot of views compared to some other I/T stories.

There are a lot of conditions that can keep readers from viewing your story. For instance, there may have been a very large number of stories published that day. If your story was far down the list in the I/T hub and the New list, then maybe readers just didn't dig that deep.

Probably because it's my first piece, and no one knew who it was. Plus, it's title is a bit odd (Clinic Case Files 1) so you have to take a leap of faith. It's also not a stroke story (not sure any of mine will be, TBH, even #4, which will have scenes of infidelity, lesbianism, Group Sex, incest, and maybe an interracial scene if the story can get finished. And what the he'll category do you put a monster like that in?)

CCF2 will definitely be in the fetish category, though. It began before CCF1's beginning, and went on over COVID, only ending in May 2021. But that's the luck of the draw on interesting cases that I can get permission from the people involved to fictionalize for their privacy. In CCF1, one character had to be almost completely fictionalized, to replace the real person in that situation (Bill, for the record), and he came off to me as the weakest, and flat. I had to invent reasons that explained why he wasn't there that didn't match truth, so shoehorning in an appropriate wedge to hold the place of the real person.

CCF2 has a different issue, in that I'm not "in" on the husbands fetish and it's community. I needed to take a lot of care to make sure others in his community won't be able to identify him, while keeping as much of the details right as I could. Some factors from the last few sessions that would be spoilers made it difficult as well, as the husband was wary about the story, so consent to write it as slow.

But 'Butter Pecan" should be a fun ride when Lit finally pushes it out into LW in the next couple days, and it's almost completely fictional.

 

[dmallord]

Guilty. I mean yes. I have a tendency to look at comments others have written before I add a note. Kind of seeking affirmation that what I thought about a story is not just a lone wolf note. I don't leave notes for things I would rate less than three or even a rating for that matter [in my opinion only]. I recognize the sweat and labor poured into writing and the courage it takes to post it. So I never poke a pin in that writers balloon. Bad Karma for me and that brave soul, also.

That said, I believe there is another reason there are few comments: paranoia. Mine and maybe some anons also seem to believe they can read only and not be traced if they are lurking in the shadows. Write something and it seems the feeling is they have left a fingerprint that can be traced back to their origin. Crazy the way the Internet tracings/hackers can get at you - you know?

 

[rescatooor]

Guilty. I mean yes. I have a tendency to look at comments others have written before I add a note. Kind of seeking affirmation that what I thought about a story is not just a lone wolf note. I don't leave notes for things I would rate less than three or even a rating for that matter [in my opinion only]. I recognize the sweat and labor poured into writing and the courage it takes to post it. So I never poke a pin in that writers balloon. Bad Karma for me and that brave soul, also.

This is why it kind of sucks that it takes a while for comments to get approved. If it takes for the first comment 5-6 h to go online, it might mean we miss out on a bunch of commenters just because they're afraid of being the only ones.

I should put it on my Literotica checklist to put a disclaimer on each new story asking everyone to rate and comment with a reminder that you can do so anonymously. There seem to be so many people who won't comment unless you ask them to.