Question about voting?

[davidwatts]

Yes, there certainly are a few excitable boys who respond to some of the offerings in the Loving Wives section. Then again, many of those stories seem to be written to inflame that very same audience, so I think that in many cases the author is pleased with the responses. I've only been around here for a few months but I've got a pretty good idea on how to incite the masses, even with my modest skills.

I wrote an incendiary throw off for the loving wives section a couple of weeks ago called 'Yesterday's Gone'. It was just written as a humorous answer to most of the bilge in that section, which is totally dominated by sniveling white husbands watching their wives get humped by exceptionally well endowed black men of impeccable virtue. Each story is the virtually the same, only the degree of husband whimpering and the outrageousness of the homeboy's endowment vary slightly.

'Yesterday's Gone' is probably still up there in the most comments section for the last 30 days totals. It got raves from the people you refer to, and slammed by the other cult who adore the cuckold tales. Most comments and votes than any other story of mine by far, and I'll bet every vote was a 1 or a 5.

Racists in our midst in Literotica? You bet, and plenty of every hue I imagine. If you want to get techinical, most of those Loving Wives stories are racist anyway, since they imply that black men are only worth being around to screw, ala Mandingo. Certainly not fit to build a life around, or even have a conversation with that doesn't involve the sex they just had or are planning to have. Reverse the colors of the characters in most of those stories and see how racist they seem then.

Back to taille's suggestion, it might indeed be a good idea to limit the voting and commenting to registered people. That wouldn't restrict it to just writers, and just registering is painless in itself.

Then again, most of us take the anon bombs with a grain of salt, and even with amusement at times. Ignorance can be fun too on occassion, and who among us hasn't shaken their head in wonder or dismay at a few of these people.

 

[dreampilot79]

Wishfull

After looking at your pic... I pondered for a while...

Yer right begging may be good... but is it votes I should be begging for?

The real horror would be...... what if I begged for something not a vote.. and got it... now having a score posted could truly damage a poor frail male ego!!!

 

[dreampilot79]

Just to be a touch serious.....

Who cares what vote number is? After realizing that there are some among us who aren't voting on the merit of my contribution, but rather on themselves, the vote tally seems to mean much less to me.

Some vote on our submissions (in fact the vast majority) but some vote for several reasons other than that.

1). out of selfishness... to bomb our scores to elevate their own. I take that as a compliment. Someone thought our writing was a threat to their creative talent.

2). Because the came here to be offended and not to enjoy. The fact that they bomb us in either votes or comments is a compliment to us. We have touched whatever it was that they came to be offended by.

3). damn I forgot what I was gonna say 3 was... oh well!!!

To recap my feelings... 2 and 3 votes hurt because they might just be real. 1 votes hurt the numbers but are really compliments. 4 votes say we done perty good.

5 votes... well I for one know that I haven't written the perfect story yet so I figure it's prolly a true 4.5 vote anyway.

 

[taille]

only allowing registered members to vote and post feedback would take away a lot of crap from anonymous '1' votes to anonymous '5' votes, idiotic feedback and pinpoint problem users.

It would give the site administrators ammunition to get rid of problem members and keep the site honest and enjoyable for the authors and readers.

I find literotica to be a fantastic web site and this is the only real complaint I would ever have about it.

 

[dreampilot79]

A simple question for you all. I've entered a story in a contest for the first time.

I read the other submissions and contemplated voting. The question is, is that ethical? Is not my vote colored by my participation?

 

[cloudy]

A simple question for you all. I've entered a story in a contest for the first time.

I read the other submissions and contemplated voting. The question is, is that ethical? Is not my vote colored by my participation?

I would go with what feels right to you.

I've entered the last two competitions, came in at 2nd runner-up in the last one, and I read, vote and PC as much as I can on other author's entries. We usually have a contest support thread on the AH, and if I don't have time to read everyone's entries, I at least read those by regular contributors at the Hangout.

My voting hasn't ever been colored by a desire to win a contest....in fact, I can't even remember the last time I gave a story less than a vote of 4, simply because if its worse than that, I'm most likely going to back click before I even get to the end.

However, if you feel that your vote would be influenced by the fact that you also have a story entered, then you either need to 1) refrain from voting, or 2) stop taking it quite so seriously (I would choose this one).

It's wonderful to win, don't get me wrong, but it's not that big a deal that it should be such an issue.

 

[dreampilot79]

Cloudy

I don't take it that seriously. It would be nice to win, but I consider any vote of 4 or better to be winning.

Actually for me, the only vote I cast is a 5. If it's good enough to get me, I vote for it, otherwise I don't

I'm a tough grader though. I don't even believe that I should be voting for most of them that I do. There aren't many things in life (not even my own writing) that deserves a perfect grade.

Problem is the H is between a 4 and a 5. I do rather wish I could vote a 4.5

You can't so such is life.

I'm sure though that your writing m'dear cloudy would always deserve a 4.9 or 5.0

 

[maggot420]

Cloudy

I don't take it that seriously. It would be nice to win, but I consider any vote of 4 or better to be winning.

Actually for me, the only vote I cast is a 5. If it's good enough to get me, I vote for it, otherwise I don't

I'm a tough grader though. I don't even believe that I should be voting for most of them that I do. There aren't many things in life (not even my own writing) that deserves a perfect grade.

Problem is the H is between a 4 and a 5. I do rather wish I could vote a 4.5

You can't so such is life.

I'm sure though that your writing m'dear cloudy would always deserve a 4.9 or 5.0

I feel almost the same way. I have never given anything a vote lower than a 5.0 because I figure if I liked it enough to read it all the way through it deserves it. Sure there are some stories that are better than others but even the ones that didn't knock my socks off were at least good enough to encourage the author to write even more and perhaps even better stories in the future.

Having said that...everything I've read from Cloudy has always deserved a perfect 5.0 in my book

 

[cloudy]

Cloudy

I don't take it that seriously. It would be nice to win, but I consider any vote of 4 or better to be winning.

Actually for me, the only vote I cast is a 5. If it's good enough to get me, I vote for it, otherwise I don't

I'm a tough grader though. I don't even believe that I should be voting for most of them that I do. There aren't many things in life (not even my own writing) that deserves a perfect grade.

Problem is the H is between a 4 and a 5. I do rather wish I could vote a 4.5

You can't so such is life.

I'm sure though that your writing m'dear cloudy would always deserve a 4.9 or 5.0

Flatterer.

I think I sounded a lot harsher than I meant to in my previous post, and if so, I apologize. Sometimes the translation doesn't survive well on the journey from brain to fingertips.

I agree with you to a point....if a 5 implies perfection, then no one would ever deserve one. Goodness knows I'm a helluva long way from perfect. That said, I don't think that a story that deserves a 5 has to be perfect. If it engages my interest to the point that I'm disappointed when it ends, and the writing is above average, then for me, anyway, it's a 5.

I'd love for you to keep that wonderful opinion of me, and you too,
maggot420, so do me a favor, and don't read any of my earlier stories.

 

[dreampilot79]

Having just submitted my first contest entery, I was nearly destroyed!

After the first 7 votes were counted, my score? 2.3.. ouch. I never had much of an ego. I don't think i'm pushing the quality of even Mr. Twain let alone the great bard but I didn't think it was really horrible.

After another 40 votes.... my faith is partially restored. At least half the early voters were competing for the roll of the troll in the next Harry Potter movie.

I got at least one very negative public comment. Actually I appreciated it. At least I had some clue why I was being dumped on.

On to voting. After a touch of reflection, I think that perhaps anyone voting a 1 or a 2 should be required to either leave a comment about WHY they felt it was so bad, or have a seperate pull down box with a few choices of why. I rather thought that the main purpose of voting was to provide feedback to the author.

You learn more from your failures than your successes. BUT ONLY if you understand where you failed!

I can't learn how to improve if I don't have any clue WHY someone dumped a 1 or a 2 on me.

I would suggest requiring some form of identification but that seems futile. Anyone playing troll to dump on another writer either for personal reasons or to elevate the relative merit of their own story, would just (if they don't already) get a seperate troll membership seperate from their writing handle.

Oh well, so much for venting.

 

[taille]

I would suggest requiring some form of identification but that seems futile. Anyone playing troll to dump on another writer either for personal reasons or to elevate the relative merit of their own story, would just (if they don't already) get a seperate troll membership seperate from their writing handle.

I still think only members should be allowed to vote and maybe a comment should be required.

If the site wants to get complicated then have weighted voting. Any account with a published story counts for 60% of the vote, other members count for 30% and unregistered readers count for only 10% (maybe even lower). And record members names with their vote and run regular queries to see if there are any irregularities.

The only problem with changing the voting scheme is all the coding work required and recalculating the existing story votes.

 

[Tanuki]

I think they should drop the highest and lowest vote out of every 10, or something. That would reduce the effect of trolls.

My new story has 9 votes, all 5s, I know I'm going to get bombed very shortly.

 

[Tanuki]

I still think only members should be allowed to vote and maybe a comment should be required.

If the site wants to get complicated then have weighted voting. Any account with a published story counts for 60% of the vote, other members count for 30% and unregistered readers count for only 10% (maybe even lower). And record members names with their vote and run regular queries to see if there are any irregularities.

The only problem with changing the voting scheme is all the coding work required and recalculating the existing story votes.

That might be putting too much emphasis on the score.

Personally I wouldn't care about the score, if people would leave feedback! But nobody does, so the only clue you have to whether people like your story is the vote.

 

[taille]

true, what is the point of a score when it can be tampered with so much.

I use the score only to help point towards a good story and possibly the author's other works.

If I were an author I may see it as an indication of being popular or appreciated but otherwise, like you implied, it's not very useful.

 

[davidwatts]

I agree that the feedback is much more informative and rewarding than the voting. The problems with the voting are numerous, which is why I suggest people not put too much importance into it.

Many voters seem to score writers on the content rather than the writing. I got one-bombed relentlessly over a story because people complained about the violent end of some characters and the cheating aspect of the tale. All this despite the fact that I put a huge disclaimer at the top of the story - "DANGER DANGER Contains gratuitious violence etc." You would think that people offended by those topics would take the advice and avoid the story, but no, they read it and are offended, then troll away.

There are also a couple of writers who are very prolific and score remarkably well in the voting, but are functionally illiterate. These are people that seem to be from english speaking areas yet haven't got even the slightest grasp of the language. We all make mistakes, and I still gringe at a couple of glaring screw-ups of mine that got through.

These stories, however, are riddled with simple errors (to instead of too, stop instead of stopped...) yet voters seem to reward them and encourage them to keep it up, instead of suggesting they take their time, or get an editor. Why? The main reason seems to be that they keep updating their picture in the bio.

I doubt whether the folks that run the show are going to go through an elaborate retooling of the voting system. I know that they do go through and weed out some of the one's, because of the way the vote numbers and scores change from time to time, which I appreciate.

 

[TiberiusM]

Voting the rates!

I'm not confortable with voting at all. Or perhaps it's the 4.5 standard for the "hot story" rating.

It takes a lot for me to want to vote a perfect 5 and yet a story I feel is hot but not perfect is punished in the "hot story" rating by a 4 vote. I wish I could vote a 4.5 !

This is a statement that I agree with whole-heartedly! Should the 4.5 be dropped to a 4.0 or should "hot" be dropped altogether?

Oh well! nothing is perfect.

 

[TiberiusM]

Is it my imagination or are there a group of people who are misusing the "Top Stories" to make sure their stories stay on top?

No system designed for human usage evades those who would abuse it. Gee! Isn't human nature wonderful?

 

[TiberiusM]

contest voting

A simple question for you all. I've entered a story in a contest for the first time.

I read the other submissions and contemplated voting. The question is, is that ethical? Is not my vote colored by my participation?

That is a question that requires an honest answer regarding each person's integrity. The answer to that will, in each case, vary.

Tough call!

 

[Boxlicker101]

Re: Voting the rates!

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by dreampilot79
I'm not confortable with voting at all. Or perhaps it's the 4.5 standard for the "hot story" rating.

It takes a lot for me to want to vote a perfect 5 and yet a story I feel is hot but not perfect is punished in the "hot story" rating by a 4 vote. I wish I could vote a 4.5 !

This is a statement that I agree with whole-heartedly! Should the 4.5 be dropped to a 4.0 or should "hot" be dropped altogether?

Oh well! nothing is perfect.

I like the idea of the red "H" and I try to have as many as I can. For that reason, I consider there to be a big diference between a score of 4.49 and 4.50 but very little between 4.50 and 4.51.

When I vote, I rate a story on a scale of 1 to 100. A story that rates a 90 out of a possible 100 is very good but not perfect. This translates to 4.5 out of 5 and I round up to 5. There has never been a perfect story written and there never will be.

Dreampilot, if you enter a story into a contest and you think it is worth 90 out of 100 go ahead and vote a 5. If you think it is worth 70 to 89 out of a possible 100, vote it a 4. Or, vote less if you want. During a contest, I think we all vote on our own stories and there is nothing unethical about it as long as your vote is honest. Honest voting on other stories is ethical but one-bombing them is not.

 

[davidwatts]

eureka!

I just happened to check my submittions page to see how things were going, and I think I can safely say that I have achieved a new height (depth?) of being trolled.

I had a new chapter of a story that going into Friday had gotten a 4.91 with eleven votes. That translates to ten 5 votes and one 4. It wasn't that good believe me, but anyway...

I checked today and now it has a 4.07 with 14 votes. I did the math and to my amazement, the three most recent votes had to have been all one's!

Top that!

 

[SexyNoises]

I just wanted to add my two cents worth here since I have recently taken to submitting my own stories.

I've posted stories of mine to other sites during other times in my life and these sites haven't had voting as an option. The thing they did have was feedback. So I am use to feedback and only feedback. This helps me to say that the only thing that is important to me, when I place a story, is my readers comments. I don't care about the voting. When I log on to submissions..the only numbers I read are how many people have read my story. That is all that matters numerically.

I write because it's an out for me. I enjoy it and it makes me happy. I write because I want others to feel a bit of the pleasure I get from writing. When they read what I have written and feed back their feelings to me..that is what makes me want to keep submitting.

I don't believe if you truely write because it's your desire and your love, that you need to be ranked. I don't feel we need voting at all. We should be happy enough with what our "fans" have to say and how we help them enjoy themselves.

As for the monthly prizes and those who enjoy them (and I am not knocking you for enjoying the chance to win). If a number is needed in order to win then let it be the number of people that have read the stories or the number of comments posted. This would eliminate the vote and maybe make things harder on the "trolls". They sure wouldn't wanna comment on your story for risk of giving you the "vote" in that way. And if they would base it on how many people read each story well then the "trolls" help just by clicking on the title right?

OK so I think I am done commenting now

I just wanted to say what was important to me about this site. It's not my rank..it's the chance to share, the option to seek editing help and the ability to know how my work impacts another. What more can you ask for if you do it for the love of doing it.

 

[taille]

As a reader the voting number is only important when I want to find a story that has been recognized by others as "hot". I only use this rating to ensure that there's a good chance that it will serve it's purpose and turn me on.

Would it be safe to say the objective of the current system is to provide feedback for the writers and rankings for the readers?

 

[dreampilot79]

Sexy Noises

As for me, writing for here is just for fun. I used to write professionally (if tech writing is professional writing). Haven't done that in a while and I miss the writing. It's just fun. I have to admit to a lack of serious editing now though. I just let it fly, read it once and submit it.

The longer I think about it though, the less the numbers mean to me. There is no definition of what the voting should mean.

This may be an exageration, but some readers vote on the "wank factor" of a story and if every other word is mis spelled (damn I can't spell at all) it's fine, it gets a 5 while a well done erotic tale without any detailed description of inserting part A into part B (and maybe C-Z) gets a 2 (or a 1 bomb). Other voters look at it like I did at first. You really have to earn a 5 and a 4 is really hot. Great writing prevails.

Somewhere I read one definition that said a 4 was average and any story that was good enough to read all the way through deserved a 5. That being the case, all stories should get either a 5 or a 0. The winner then would be the one with the fewest 1 bombs. (Would that mean you were a threat to someone else?).

Taille

I like the comments/feedback much more than the numbers. The H is nice to see, but I've read a few bombs with H's and some very good ones that didn't rate. Somehow I figure those have something like 4.49's.

Having said that, it sure is nice to see that H for one of your stories.