Stories I Suspect Have Been 1 Bombed

[lovecraft68]

My last one.

It got the crap kicked out of it on day one like I had never seen before.

Over the last few days its rebounded as most of the damage was the first day, but that's the first one I've had that's really taken a pounding (except for my one LW story, but that's par for the course over there)

 

[sr71plt]

It's XNXX.

Found it, thanks.

 

[ASIANDREAM]

I’m new here – so I don’t really expect high scores

But for my latest story – for a short while I had a score of 5 with 2 votes. I read another couple of stories than came back to my “Control Panel”. This was now a score of 3.67 with 3 votes!

So I guess that someone had scored this as 1

 

[sr71plt]

I’m new here – so I don’t really expect high scores

But for my latest story – for a short while I had a score of 5 with 2 votes. I read another couple of stories than came back to my “Control Panel”. This was now a score of 3.67 with 3 votes!

So I guess that someone had scored this as 1

Yep. And that's a typical progression. Happened to the chapter of mine that posted this morning.

 

[ASIANDREAM]

Yep. And that's a typical progression. Happened to the chapter of mine that posted this morning.

Well – it is the internet - I just like to think that there are some that like my writing – without being too worried about those that use “Tactical Voting” to reduce the scores of others.

 

[Darkniciad]

The good news is that if that 1 was malicious, there's at least a fair to middling chance it will vanish the next time the Lit vote sweeper rolls through. Casual 1-bombers don't take the time to figure out ways to avoid the sweeper, and their votes typically don't last long.

There's a better chance it will vanish when ( if? ) the monthly awards roll around to the month you published the story. Those strip a lot of votes, and seem to gobble up low votes in greater quantities, unless you have overzealous fans multi-voting for one reason or another.

 

[sr71plt]

Well – it is the internet - I just like to think that there are some that like my writing – without being too worried about those that use “Tactical Voting” to reduce the scores of others.

There were those two 5s, for starters.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

Here are the reasons I suspect any competent writer receives 1 scores:

A) The reader objects to subject matter and maliciously 1-bombs all stories of its ilk; much like the sad sacks who would troll the personals section of Craiglist and flag things as inappropriate.

B) The reader gets pissed because the storyline doesn't go in the direction they wanted. The comments I suspect accompany some of these 1-scores have been scary to me. Like, "He should have gotten her pregnant." Sorry, dear reader, but sometimes your idea of "taboo" pushes MY limits!

C) The politically correct police show up to 1-bomb a story others seem to like because the author did not use the correct, ultra sensitive code words for their characters. Hint: the F-word indicating male homosexuality should be treated with the same caution as the N-word for describe ethnicity.

D) Someone is holding a grudge against you, hunting you down to maliciously 1-bomb you. I've heard it said that participating in the forums attracts that sort of attention. Maybe it does, but I enjoy the give and take of the forums.

E) Not sure about this one, but perhaps some 1-bomb other stories in a category as a way to vote their story higher. Hopefully this sort of cannibalism between authors is the lowest form of 1-bombing.

As for myself? I'm an easy audience. As a writer, I appreciate the effort the author put into writing and submitting the story. Our motivations are as varied as story titles. If I don't care for a story, if it's poorly written, I'll typically opt-out of voting. I've given lesser stories 5 scores as encouragement. Most of the time, if I can't offer the author a 5 score, I'll choose not to vote. I'm pretty sure I've read something that was so full of drivel that I felt compelled to give the story a 1 score, but I can't remember the last time that happened.

Appreciating the value of scores, my system is to either offer a 5 or no score at all.

 

[2981notrohrm]

I get the feeling that a lot of 1-bombs happen while the story is still brand new. The latest installment of my Raven series started out at a hair above 4 but has steadily increased since then, as compared to the second installment, which has a red H but has been up for a while now.

Seems to me, new story = more exposure = more trolls = 1 bomb. Then as it settles into its defined category, the dedicated readers either love it or hate it.

 

[sr71plt]

Nearly all of the voting happens within the first two weeks.

 

[ktmccoll]

At the risk of looking like an anal score-keeping dweeb, here is my observation: I agree with the overall sentiment that the initial few days see either one-bombs or more critical scoring. Of the 30 stories that I have on Lit, only 6 have seen the score decrease from week one, one remained the same, and 23 have seen increases after the first week. The biggest increase was .60 over several weeks. That said, I've come to realize that a single well-meaning and sincere comment is worth all the scores you might get.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

At the risk of looking like an anal score-keeping dweeb, here is my observation: I agree with the overall sentiment that the initial few days see either one-bombs or more critical scoring. Of the 30 stories that I have on Lit, only 6 have seen the score decrease from week one, one remained the same, and 23 have seen increases after the first week. The biggest increase was .60 over several weeks. That said, I've come to realize that a single well-meaning and sincere comment is worth all the scores you might get.

I agree. The scoring system is nice. I've spent last year entering all of the contests and watched most of my stories rise in scoring after the contest was over. (Which leads me to suspect less than fair gamesmanship during the contests, but oh well.) I have a few stories that I think are under read and I'll admit, I think a couple of my red H's were earned more because the content appealed highly to a certain sort of Lit reader. I'll take it. All in all, though, it's the typically story of judging art: who really can? As authors, I think we bare a bit of our souls in any story we write. Unlike most of our readers, we're risking huge rejection. Personally? I'd rather not vote than toss out a 1-bomb. And I think I'm good about passing out 5 scores for stories that might have some flaws. But then, I've always been an easy audience.

 

[Bramblethorn]

At the risk of looking like an anal score-keeping dweeb, here is my observation: I agree with the overall sentiment that the initial few days see either one-bombs or more critical scoring. Of the 30 stories that I have on Lit, only 6 have seen the score decrease from week one, one remained the same, and 23 have seen increases after the first week. The biggest increase was .60 over several weeks. That said, I've come to realize that a single well-meaning and sincere comment is worth all the scores you might get.

The votes you get in week 1 are mostly from the people who found your story on the "New Stories" page. A lot of them will never have read your stuff before, so they're trying it out to see whether they like it.

The votes you get after that - a lot of them will be from people who found your story because they already read something else of yours, liked it, and went looking to see what else you'd written. I'd expect those to be more favourable.

 

[sr71plt]

I'm afraid that a lot of those "later" regular readers of your stories don't vote them. They read them and may even like them enough to send you an e-mail on them. But they haven't voted them. I get quite a few e-mails from regular readers commenting on a story they've read from my back file and I go check up on it and the numbers haven't changed. I suppose I could beg them to go back and vote, but I don't operate that way.

 

[stevieraygovan]

I apologize if someone has already mentioned this, but the other obvious reason for 1-bombing has to do with people protecting their ranking (or perhaps their favorite author's ranking) on the Top Lists. As soon as a story reaches 100 votes and pops up at or near the top of such lists, it will often get 1-bombed into oblivion. When it was flying below the radar and people were voting for it strictly on merit, it earned a 4.87 or whatever. Then, upon its appearance atop that category's Top List, suddenly everyone decides that it's a crap story and it's bombarded with awful scores?

It's simply a case of people shooting down the competition. It's nearly as predictable as death and taxes.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I apologize if someone has already mentioned this, but the other obvious reason for 1-bombing has to do with people protecting their ranking (or perhaps their favorite author's ranking) on the Top Lists. As soon as a story reaches 100 votes and pops up at or near the top of such lists, it will often get 1-bombed into oblivion. When it was flying below the radar and people were voting for it strictly on merit, it earned a 4.87 or whatever. Then, upon its appearance atop that category's Top List, suddenly everyone decides that it's a crap story and it's bombarded with awful scores?

It's simply a case of people shooting down the competition. It's nearly as predictable as death and taxes.

There could be some merit to that, because I've felt the same way. However, get enough readers/votes and it will offset that.

 

[stevieraygovan]

Here's the thing, though. Shooting down a story as soon as it pops up on a Top List ensures that it will fall from the list, which in turn means that it falls out of the public eye. It needs to remain at or near the top of a list in order to gain any real legs, and that possibility is removed when it's not allowed to remain where people can see it. A story that has amassed a sufficient number of votes can withstand a bit of protectionist 1-bombing, no problem. A thousand-vote story won't be damaged by a few assholes trying to knock it down. A hundred-vote story cannot withstand such attacks. Any story can only build the requisite safety net of votes by remaining near the top of a list for a decent while, where people can see it and continue to vote on it long after the initial two-week honeymoon phase has come and gone. Far too many stories are never given that chance, and it's absolutely intentional.

I'm hoping that it's merely the fans of those authors who engaging in such vindictive practices. I would hate to think that the authors themselves are doing it.

 

[alwayswantedto]

<deleted>

 

[stevieraygovan]

alwayswantedto, see, the thing for me is the point about a story gaining legs. I have long loved your stories, and yours have always shown on the first page of the Top List for your particular genre. Because of this, your stories have also managed to stay in the public eye long enough to acquire a massive amount of votes, making them impervious to 1-bombing.

You made it through that initial phase where trolls and/or protective jerks can prevent your story from ever being seen by a sufficient number of people to acquire the requisite vote total. Your stories are safe now. They aren't going anywhere. People will always be able to see them just by checking out the Top List. That's the goal. The idea isn't necessarily to 'win' or 'compete' here; rather, it's for our stories to be read by the most people possible. Remaining on the first page of the Top List is the only way to ensure this.

Because the majority of my stories aren't in that same genre as yours, I often haven't been able to avoid the Morality Police and the protectionists keeping my stories off of the Top Lists. Either these people kill it as soon as they see my name appear, or they're unaware of the story until it shows up atop a list and then they kill it. Only my one stab at an incest piece gained enough votes quickly enough to develop any legs. (Knowing that the incest genre has such an enormous and avid readership, that was the exact rationale my buddy offered to convince me to write an incest story.) Otherwise, most all my others were never given the opportunity.

The protectionist thing really became obvious when one of my stories finally earned enough votes to land atop the Ex-Voy category's Top List...only to be summarily shot down with more 1-bombs/crappy scores in its first few days there than it had garnered during its entire time on this board. This has happened to at least three other stories of mine, and in each instance the damage was sufficient to knock those stories from the front page. As a result, they all went on to languish in hopeless obscurity. Of course they did. How could any new readers ever come to know about them?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I apologize if someone has already mentioned this, but the other obvious reason for 1-bombing has to do with people protecting their ranking (or perhaps their favorite author's ranking) on the Top Lists. As soon as a story reaches 100 votes and pops up at or near the top of such lists, it will often get 1-bombed into oblivion. When it was flying below the radar and people were voting for it strictly on merit, it earned a 4.87 or whatever. Then, upon its appearance atop that category's Top List, suddenly everyone decides that it's a crap story and it's bombarded with awful scores?

It's simply a case of people shooting down the competition. It's nearly as predictable as death and taxes.

That's whats happening. You gotta wonder howcome the one bombers leave them alone. Well, theyre the one-bombers.

 

[stevieraygovan]

They leave them alone until they become aware of them or, in that example, the story becomes a threat.

Like I said, I just hope it isn't the authors themselves who are pulling this crap as a means of protecting their rankings. That would truly be pathetic.

 

[sr71plt]

That's whats happening. You gotta wonder howcome the one bombers leave them alone. Well, theyre the one-bombers.

I keep noting this in the themed contests. It's sort of the elephant in the corner of the room in those contests.

 

[lovecraft68]

alwayswantedto, see, the thing for me is the point about a story gaining legs. I have long loved your stories, and yours have always shown on the first page of the Top List for your particular genre. Because of this, your stories have also managed to stay in the public eye long enough to acquire a massive amount of votes, making them impervious to 1-bombing.

You made it through that initial phase where trolls and/or protective jerks can prevent your story from ever being seen by a sufficient number of people to acquire the requisite vote total. Your stories are safe now. They aren't going anywhere. People will always be able to see them just by checking out the Top List. That's the goal. The idea isn't necessarily to 'win' or 'compete' here; rather, it's for our stories to be read by the most people possible. Remaining on the first page of the Top List is the only way to ensure this.

Because the majority of my stories aren't in that same genre as yours, I often haven't been able to avoid the Morality Police and the protectionists keeping my stories off of the Top Lists. Either these people kill it as soon as they see my name appear, or they're unaware of the story until it shows up atop a list and then they kill it. Only my one stab at an incest piece gained enough votes quickly enough to develop any legs. (Knowing that the incest genre has such an enormous and avid readership, that was the exact rationale my buddy offered to convince me to write an incest story.) Otherwise, most all my others were never given the opportunity.

The protectionist thing really became obvious when one of my stories finally earned enough votes to land atop the Ex-Voy category's Top List...only to be summarily shot down with more 1-bombs/crappy scores in its first few days there than it had garnered during its entire time on this board. This has happened to at least three other stories of mine, and in each instance the damage was sufficient to knock those stories from the front page. As a result, they all went on to languish in hopeless obscurity. Of course they did. How could any new readers ever come to know about them?

Good points. When someone has amassed well over a thousand (and in awt's case thousands) of votes it is not so easily brought down.

But for stories like my SWB series that still has a lot of chapters with 85 to 95 votes once one hits the top list it is easily taken down by a couple of bombs.

I had one chapter that was a 4.88 for months and only gained a new vote once every few weeks. The second it landed on that list with a 103 votes it was dumped to 4.7

Its obvious they are not seeking me out as an author, but as a "usurper" to their authors position on a top list on a free site.

And I do believe it is the fans not the authors, except for one incest author who I know eggs his fans on to do it, but now has to sit there in frustration as "Threads the Island" sits there with thousands of votes and can;t be trolled down.

By the way enjoyed your classic series. I'd name it, but anyone who is an incest fan here knows what it is. A true must read in the category.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Good points. When someone has amassed well over a thousand (and in awt's case thousands) of votes it is not so easily brought down.

But for stories like my SWB series that still has a lot of chapters with 85 to 95 votes once one hits the top list it is easily taken down by a couple of bombs.

I had one chapter that was a 4.88 for months and only gained a new vote once every few weeks. The second it landed on that list with a 103 votes it was dumped to 4.7

Its obvious they are not seeking me out as an author, but as a "usurper" to their authors position on a top list on a free site.

And I do believe it is the fans not the authors, except for one incest author who I know eggs his fans on to do it, but now has to sit there in frustration as "Threads the Island" sits there with thousands of votes and can;t be trolled down.

By the way enjoyed your classic series. I'd name it, but anyone who is an incest fan here knows what it is. A true must read in the category.

It amounts to the same thing if your friends & family are messing with your competition. A war is forced on you.

 

[stevieraygovan]

lovecraft, you just described precisely what happened to four separate stories I've had that jumped to #1 the instant they earned their 100th vote: almost nothing but good scores to that point, albeit only a very slow trickling of votes after the first couple of weeks (perhaps no more than one per month), immediately followed by a slew of awful votes the very moment it hit the Top List.

Thankfully Laurel runs those occasional sweeps, otherwise my current one on the list would likely already be buried back on page seventeen by now.

I hope you are correct about who is and isn't pulling that crap, and I thank you for your kind words. Since you've read my lone incest story, you're probably aware that I have left it hanging for a few years now. I know it needs a final chapter. As it happens, I have finally begun work on it just this very morning. Once it's finished, I then hope to tackle the final two chapters of the Summer saga.

My apologies for taking so long to get to that seventh chapter, but real life in the form of Stage IV cancer tends to put a damper on things like writing hobbies. Now I'm under a time crunch to get these things finished before I no longer can, so I've taken the attitude that the time is now. I hope like hell to get them written, edited and submitted in the very immediate future.

And hey, then I can sit back and watch them get plungered by the Usual Suspects! Joy joy!