Doing the math, the last 27 votes have averaged 1.888 on a story that had been at 4.92 for over a year.
Ouch!
Definitely highly suspicious. I suppose the concentrated effort of a troll with alts, or a small cabal of such, is probably the simplest explanation. Otherwise I'm not sure, unless a really bad 'similar stories you might like' link funneled your anti-audience toward it.
My point is more, complaining about a .03 or a .05 change is ridiculous, when you've got 1200 votes on a story. As the maths boffins show, that's just a shit ton of fours. That's a first world problem, if ever I've seen one.
Was it near the top of the toplist for the category? I'm assuming with that score that it probably was — and probably still is decently positioned. Only a handful of categories have 4.9s stretching for multiple pages, and most of them don't have that kind of vote totals.
I’m unreasonably blessed by the scores on my stories. The numbers I shared are for illustration only. My point was to let OP know they were not alone, hoping to encourage them to not take it personally.
It’s difficult to comment without sounding arrogant. Suffice it to say, the overall impact of whatever is happening has been significant. The story I used as an example was #1 for a while and won a Readers Choice award. Thanks to my new ‘friends’ it’s no longer top 50.
That is good to know thank you, I think I will wait and see unless it gets really bad but it does seem to be bouncing back slowly. I appreciate all the advice
No, I get it. Losing anything in the top 10 or so — never mind a #1 — is a gut punch. Now, some of that is going to be legitimate "liked it, didn't love it" 4s that accumulate in far greater numbers when you're holding premium real estate on the toplists. Those are more or less invisible with vote totals above 1k because the 5s that continue to come in keep them from moving the visible score. It's all in the decimal places outside what they display. Contest winners almost always take a beating in the same way, because they get featured. It's a blessing and a curse, but the blessing side always wins out eventually.
Trust me, plenty of people are using them as selection criteria. When you hit high on one of those lists, your readership jumps tremendously.
I don't use the top lists at all. I browse the new list every day and open tabs for anything I think looks interesting. So I don't see scores until I get to reading the story (and frequently not even then if it's brand new). The only real indicator I have is the dreaded red H.
Speaking as a reader, the thing about the best-rated and most-read lists is that there are only so many stories on them. They get either read or noped fast, and then I move on to other ways of looking for stories to read. I definitely use scores to help with picking and choosing what to read.
Top lists are something I rarely look at if at all. When away for a few weeks (like while I am on a cruise). I begin my catchup by looking at popular list for the last weeks. I too look at scores. If I see a low one out of normally high scores, sometimes I want to see why. Often it is obvious. I will admit my selection is based on category. If it is under 3.7 I won't consider even skimming. Other categories it is a 4 and then only if the story seems to be interesting. If it starts as a stroke story, I do not go further. I may look at comments. If the first three comments say, 'hot' I figure it is a stroke story. I want to see, 'well written', "great plot' etc.
Nope. That makes you critical enough to not waste your time on garbage.peaking as a reader, the thing about the best-rated and most-read lists is that there are only so many stories on them. They get either read or noped fast, and 5en I move on to other ways of looking for stories to read. I definitely use scores to help with picking and choosing what to read.
Maybe that makes me an ignorant fucking douchebag of a reader and nobody should even want me reading their stuff if I’m that shallow #inb4critics
Hope you don't mind me asking, but you gave your Twitter account to some Lit readers? Unfortunately, social media has gotten wilder, I think, and talking to people can be hazardous. I'm so old I don't even have a Twitter account and, thus, and I don't really miss what I never had. Anyway, it's enough of a challenge dealing with readers only on Lit. It's a judgment call between being too exposed and being a "gray man" who is not that well-known on-line.
As a reader I do. Fairly certain that was how I started. Wanda's Walking with Sam was number 3 in the top list (it still is) and I started with that. Every now and then, I go back to the top list and scan through and see if there's anything I haven't read. Think I've read all the top 250 in Lesbian Sex by now, except for a few stories tagged with personal turn offs.
Sure, you found it because of how high it ranked. But were you invested enough to bomb another story that crept above it? Would you bomb other stories to make sure it stays in the top 250?
