Voting and Comments

[Bramblethorn]

Take Romance. If you provide two perfect saintly characters and give them a happy ending, you told it 'right' and you will get 5. There are countless ATROCIOUSLY written stories in Romance that score 4.75 and up simply because they write two shallow cardboard (boring!) characters who end up living happily ever after. If you write any hint of infidelity in your Romance characters or if you do not deliver at least a 'happy for now' ending, you can basically kiss you your Red H goodbye. It's political.

Romance definitely does have strong expectations about what kind of story is told, but HEA/HFN is not quite where the line is. I have a solid H on a Romance story that focusses on one character's slow sad death from dementia.

I think the expectation for Romance is more that the story will affirm a relationship. Being cynical about love, now, that would be a killer.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

If you don't include the 0,

This is the one that counts on lit as the site does not permit a vote of 0. In reality the votes are from 0 to 4 stars plus one extra star. Mathematically it's called an offset. We always get one star for free.

True, to find an actual mean would require some serious number crunching. The mean would also vary considerably from category to category. I would guess that in most categories the mean would be somewhere between 4.2 and 4.4 but I could be off. In LW perhaps it's 4 or less (I don't hang out there enough to know).

 

[GlennJenko]

I've been a reader on literotica for many years, but have only recently posted a story - My Stepdaughter's Yoga Class - now up to Chapter 8.

It includes many a favourite fantasy and all the first 7 have been voted HOT (above 4.5). I have a couple of readers who vet before I post, and they felt Chapter 8 was the hottest of all, and I was aiming for that with 8 votes with a 4.8 average. But then next morning checked, while I had the magic 11 votes (above 10 for a HOT rating), my score had dropped to only 4.09. I spoke to my two readers and they reckon that someone had dropped a vindictive 1 star bomb vote to tank the ratings. They said it had happened to a few other writers they knew of and agreed with me, they didn't see the point of it. If you don't like a story, you generally don't read beyond the first half page - so what's the point in rating it, since you haven't obviously read it. I personally would only rate a story I had finished, so they would generally get a 4 or 5 star rating (usually 5).

So I wondered if other literotica writers had found the same? Also, while I had two good comments on the first two stories in the series, there's been nothing since. So if you read them and enjoyed them, I'd love to hear from you. Also, if you felt the 1 star tanking rating was unfair, 5 star reviews to lift it would be welcome. I'm up at 4.33 on 18 votes, so some higher voting has come in, but that 1 star rating damage can hold things up for a while.

I say all of this because some hot stories where I was looking for continuation suddenly trail off with no follow on. And it makes me wonder that with a continuation of lack of comments and ratings trailing off, some writers simply get discouraged. After all, they are providing a free service, no payment, so comments and ratings are the only scant reward.

As the others say, do not fret. 4.33 and even 4.08 are still really good scores. E.g my latest story is sitting at a 3.72 at time of writing, while my first is 4.26, so you've got both beat even with that 4.33. And I could only dream of getting that red H next to one of my stories, and you've got 7 - so kudos to you, my dude.

Also take solace that even after a potential one bomb you're at 4.33, so you're clearly doing something right.

EDIT: I just checked and on my screen you're at 4.5 for part 8 now, so you're back in the H zone.

 

[THBGato]

It's all relative to categories, isn't it?

I've only published in 3 categories, but my highest score in Non-Erotic quite a bit lower than my lowest score in Lesbian. I don't think there's a qualitative difference between the writing/plotting in those stories, so I think it is just down to the differing expectations of readers in different categories.

As a result, as others have said, you need to adjust your own expectations. A rating that would leave me feeling a little glum for a Lesbian story would delight me if scored by a Review.

 

[Lifestyle66]

This is the one that counts on lit as the site does not permit a vote of 0. In reality the votes are from 0 to 4 stars plus one extra star. Mathematically it's called an offset. We always get one star for free.

True, to find an actual mean would require some serious number crunching. The mean would also vary considerably from category to category. I would guess that in most categories the mean would be somewhere between 4.2 and 4.4 but I could be off. In LW perhaps it's 4 or less (I don't hang out there enough to know).

IMO, the LW category probably has between 0.8 to 1.0 lower average than others.

I base that opinion on using the average of the last 25 stories posted on several different categories when I looked into it about two years ago. But it might have changed over time.

BTW: My latest story in LW is at 2.77, and I'm quite happy with that! The story I'm most proud of is at 3.36, but it has over 107,000 VIEWS and 1,400 votes!

 

[TheWritingGroup]

For some reason, my first story on Literotica seems to have gotten two pre-emptive one-bombs as the very first votes, even before anyone had heard of me or read any of my stories. (They were so fast, I assume they were posted without reading it.) I was upset, trying to figure out what I had done that was so terrible.

That story has now struggled back above 4, but it took a long time.

Note to the OP: admins do go through and "sweep" away what they think are invalid 1-votes, so your score might rebound. I wouldn't be shocked if that's what happened to "Coffee With Blushes".

-Annie

 

[MillieDynamite]

But the mean and median aren't the average score; they are the midpoints of scores. The average is the average vote.

This is the one that counts on lit as the site does not permit a vote of 0. In reality the votes are from 0 to 4 stars plus one extra star. Mathematically it's called an offset. We always get one star for free.

True, to find an actual mean would require some serious number crunching. The mean would also vary considerably from category to category. I would guess that in most categories the mean would be somewhere between 4.2 and 4.4 but I could be off. In LW perhaps it's 4 or less (I don't hang out there enough to know).

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Romance definitely does have strong expectations about what kind of story is told, but HEA/HFN is not quite where the line is. I have a solid H on a Romance story that focusses on one character's slow sad death from dementia.

I think the expectation for Romance is more that the story will affirm a relationship. Being cynical about love, now, that would be a killer.

I agree with that. There are a lot of little rules in Romance that will kill any positive reactions the more that you ignore them. There are many boxes to tick and leave them unticked at your own peril.

Your characters must be fully deserving of love and happiness. Usually in every way possible. Characters who make choices that lead to their own unhappiness run a risk of not being respected and therefore not deserving of the happiness.

All strife and conflict endured by the characters must come from external sources and from no fault of their own because these characters are perfect and do not in any way deserve such strife or unhappiness. Almost every Romance story on lit goes to great lengths to ensure this. Most Romance characters are educated and professional (nurses, teachers, businessmen) and any characters who are not have some other perfectly noble challenge (husband cheated on her and left her high and dry with three kids, etc). This way, how can we not respect them?

The characters must do everything right in the relationship. Their ultimate motive is a committed relationship. Even if they are tentative about that commitment (been hurt before, etc) in their heart it must be clear that that is what they want.

Any bumps in the relationship must be from external sources. The characters do not ever fuck up unless they are tricked by some spiteful cardboard villain that creates a 'misunderstanding'.

And the big ones, a positive ending confirming the commitment and absolutely no infidelity by our main characters.

If you break two or three of these rules, you will have a difficult time getting a Red H. If you tick them all you basically get an instant 4.7. Romance is a very judgmental category. It is terribly political that way. It is probably the most 'cookie-cutter' category. Template Romance. Just plug in any setting and any two characters and tick all the boxes.

 

[MillieDynamite]

That is why Romance has nothing to do with real life.

I agree with that. There are a lot of little rules in Romance that will kill any positive reactions the more that you ignore them. There are many boxes to tick and leave them unticked at your own peril.

Your characters must be fully deserving of love and happiness. Usually in every way possible. Characters who make choices that lead to their own unhappiness run a risk of not being respected and therefore not deserving of the happiness.

All strife and conflict endured by the characters must come from external sources and from no fault of their own because these characters are perfect and do not in any way deserve such strife or unhappiness. Almost every Romance story on lit goes to great lengths to ensure this. Most Romance characters are educated and professional (nurses, teachers, businessmen) and any characters who are not have some other perfectly noble challenge (husband cheated on her and left her high and dry with three kids, etc). This way, how can we not respect them?

The characters must do everything right in the relationship. Their ultimate motive is a committed relationship. Even if they are tentative about that commitment (been hurt before, etc) in their heart it must be clear that that is what they want.

Any bumps in the relationship must be from external sources. The characters do not ever fuck up unless they are tricked by some spiteful cardboard villain that creates a 'misunderstanding'.

And the big ones, a positive ending confirming the commitment and absolutely no infidelity by our main characters.

If you break two or three of these rules, you will have a difficult time getting a Red H. If you tick them all you basically get an instant 4.7. Romance is a very judgmental category. It is terribly political that way. It is probably the most 'cookie-cutter' category. Template Romance. Just plug in any setting and any two characters and tick all the boxes.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

But the mean and median aren't the average score; they are the midpoints of scores. The average is the average vote.

Mean is the average vote. What us common folks call the average (adding up all the scores and dividing by the total number of scores) actual math people call the mean.

Math lesson for the day ...

Here's some data: 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 (22 items totalling 83)

The mean is 83 / 22
Mean: 3.77

The median is the one in the middle. With 22 items, you would sort them small to big and count to the 11th item. Since there are an even number of data, we would use halfway between the 11th and 12th items. They are both 4 so ...
Median: 4

The midpoint is halfway between the lowest and the highest. In this case ...
Midpoint: 3

And then there is the mode. The mode is the most common value in the data set. In this set there are 10 5s and the next most is 5 4s, so ...
Mode: 5

 

[pink_silk_glove]

That is why Romance has nothing to do with real life.

Absolutely. It's a fantasy, a perfect dream world where all is right in the end. Nothing more, so don't fuck with it or you'll get downvoted.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Median is the midpoint of the set.

That's not true. The median is the median, the midpoint is the midpoint.

The median is the one in the middle. With 22 items, you would sort them small to big and count to the 11th item. Since there are an even number of data, we would use halfway between the 11th and 12th items. They are both 4 so ...
Median: 4

The midpoint is halfway between the lowest and the highest. In this case ...
Midpoint: 3

 

[TarnishedPenny]

That is why Romance has nothing to do with real life.

Dear Millie,

On this site, very little has any connection with ‘real life”.

Women are all weightless sylphs with DD cups, men are all walking legs askew due to the mass of their packages, PMS and ED are unheard of, nobody is ever tired or has a headache, altruistic billionaires lurk around every corner, women can all get off with a minute’s light kissing and men invariably last for hours.

It’s all fantasy and Romance is probably the most realistic theme here.

 

[MillieDynamite]

LOL if you say so!

Dear Millie,

On this site, very little has any connection with ‘real life”.

Women are all weightless sylphs with DD cups, men are all walking legs askew due to the mass of their packages, PMS and ED are unheard of, nobody is ever tired or has a headache, altruistic billionaires lurk around every corner, women can all get off with a minute’s light kissing and men invariably last for hours.

It’s all fantasy and Romance is probably the most realistic theme here.

 

[MillieDynamite]

People arguing over math, who'd ever thunk such a thang!

 

[Lifestyle66]

People arguing over math, who'd ever thunk such a thang!

It's all that "New Math", a sort nebulous thing about getting an answer which is close enough.

I'll just shoot for a rating near that middle-thingy, somewhere between 1 and 5.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Okie Dokie with me karaoke...

It's all that "New Math", a sort nebulous thing about getting an answer which is close enough.

I'll just shoot for a rating near that middle-thingy, somewhere between 1 and 5.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Fine. It's the middle element of an odd numbered set, or the average of the two middle elements in an even numbered set.

Happy?

I take no pleasure in you throwing a tantrum, if that's what you mean.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

 

[Lifestyle66]

Math, New Math, and Common Core.

It's funny how the exact same opposition to New Math happened with Common Core

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Math#Criticism

I heard every one of these when Common Core went mainstream.

Sorry, but I'm old. And "old math" was good enough for me.

I had a good chuckle when my Calculus teacher came to me in first period study hall (when I was a H.S. senior, a long time ago) to show me a problem he had, not getting the answer to a Calc 2 problem at an evening course he was taking at a nearby university. He thought I'd be interested in seeing what was in store for me in college. Two hours later, I went into our high school Calculus class and showed him the answer.

In my experience, math is something you easily get ... or you don't. But some continue to find innovative ways to hammer a square peg into a round hole.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

You aren't worth arguing with.

No one is worth arguing with when you're wrong.

An argument implies two opposing opinions. I am not opposing your opinion with anything. You (and Millie) had posted factual inaccuracies which were misleading and confusing. I simply corrected them. The definitions of the terms mean, median, midpoint and mode are not at all subjective. There is no varying opinion on this. Your statement was simply false. No big deal.

Now I wasn't here to argue or to put you in your place, but since you're being a bitch by trying to take the faux high road (a passive-aggro backhand to my face), I have no problem giving you a smack right now. Especially since you've been a condescending righteous asshole to me on more than one occasion in the past. I'm not surprised. When I smack I don't pretend that I'm not because unlike you I'm not a coward.

So what's it gonna be?

Curtain #1 ~ a condescending eyeroll or some other passive-agg comeback (because you got nothing real to say)?

Curtain #2 ~ a pathetic and foolish double-down?

Curtain #3 ~ the only thing that might surprise me, an apology (that I don't need but would certainly accept)?

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Okay.

Curtain #1 it is.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Sorry, Dave and Millie, but I must bow to Pink on this one.

As old as I am in my math education, I can get away with setting the ratings bar near the middle-thingy. (It's like wearing track suits or pajamas out in public and farting any time I want!)

 

[pink_silk_glove]

And as we speak someone has just downvoted six of my stories. My stories often go weeks between votes, so for six of them to all go down within an hour means that someone reading this thread is a petty coward. Nice work!

 

[Lifestyle66]

And as we speak someone has just downvoted six of my stories. My stories often go weeks between votes, so for six of them to all go down within an hour means that someone reading this thread is a petty coward. Nice work!

WELCOME to the club!

(It's happened many times to me, thus "F the Red-H", the middle-thingy is my goal.)