Voting Methods

[Jenny _S]

Specifically, what do the numbers mean to you?
Do you give a merely average story a rating of a 3 or a 4?
Do you take off points for things like mechanics and spelling?
Do you rate stories you might not finish reading?
Do you give 1's to really bad stories or just not vote?
Does content influence your vote, for instance, if you don't like the subject matter, or what happens to the protagonist?
What's your criteria for giving a story a 5?

---dr.M.

Mr. M.
Voting for stories on Lit is so easy for me.

1) Every story worthy of being posted on Lit is a 3. Working from that point.
2) If the story is well writing and flows well, makes sense and has few if any logic errors - Add 1
3) If the story touches an emotional response (not a sexual response) - Add 1
4) If the story has an abundance of grammatical or spelling errors or if the story stretches reality - deduct 1
5) If the story reaches a 1 vote - Press The Back Key.

With this method there are few 5's & 2's, no 1's, many 3's and quite a few 4's.

 

[Dirty Slut]

How to properly vote for stories at Literotica...

In as much as everyone who submits a story here should at least have a proper word processor, I believe that if there is a spelling or gramatical error the story should automatically get a -1 subtracted from the over all score that it would have had as we need to set that standard here. Also, since we are dealing with catogories that deal with an erotic nature, that too should be taken into account if it is posted as such. That said, here is how we should be voting:

A 1 vote: There is no such story posted on this site.

A 2 vote: A story is given this vote for no other reason than the bravery it took just for the author to submit it.

A 3 Vote: For a story that has no spelling, or gramatical errors. This is not to say that the story was average in content by any means as this is the jumping off point for where every story should be reguardless of content.

A 4 vote: This is a story with average, or slighty above average content, reguardless of cliches, plotlines, or whatever. You'd read it, maybe even enjoy it, but you wouldn't put it in a hardback cover.

A 5 Vote: This is the quintiessential must read story. It makes you forget that you are reading, or that the world around you is falling to hell in a handbasket. The author pulls you right into the story with them to the point that you are breathing the same air as the characters in it. And once you've finished reading it you wonder why it isn't in a hard bound cover made of kid leather in your personal library.

Rules To Voting:

Rule #1: If you open the story, then find that it wasn't the kind of story you were looking for, then it is okay to back out and not vote. This is the only time when not voting is the proper vote.

Rule #2: If after opening the story, you are so sickened by the mistakes in spelling, grammar, and repetion, cliche, or any such thing such that you just want to exit, then STOP. Stop reading that is, and go to the voting area, and give it a 2.

Rule #3: If you finish reading a story here at lit, then as a responcible human being, and especially if you are an author then vote before closing the last page according to the proceedures I've written for voting posted above these rules.

Note* By following these simple guidelines, all stories will receive the proper respect that they deserve here at literotica. To do otherwise is either cheating, slovenly, or worse, intolerable. By following these guidelines no one need feel that they have overly praised, or undeservedly trashed anyone. They have simply voted appropriately.

 

[A7inchPhildo]

Re: How to properly vote for stories at Literotica...

A 1 vote: There is no such story posted on this site.

A 2 vote: A story is given this vote for no other reason than the bravery it took just for the author to submit it.

That works fine except when it is a seasoned writer who is posting crap for the sake of a contest. A certain contest I do not favor because of the crap that it generates from talented writers trying to enter as many stories as possible, in a certain time frame.

Thinking a "1" and a letter of disappointment is true and realistic.
The response is a set answer I recieve, "I know but I do not have time to fix it right now I will when the contest is over." My thoughts are fine then you desrve a "1" for being ignorant.

Not you DS I like your stories, but you knew that. Just making sure others know too.

A "1" is not for the novice who does not know better, that I agree with.

 

[Dirty Slut]

Re: Re: How to properly vote for stories at Literotica...

That works fine except when it is a seasoned writer who is posting crap for the sake of a contest. A certain contest I do not favor because of the crap that it generates from talented writers trying to enter as many stories as possible, in a certain time frame.

Thinking a "1" and a letter of disappointment is true and realistic.
The response is a set answer I recieve, "I know but I do not have time to fix it right now I will when the contest is over." My thoughts are fine then you desrve a "1" for being ignorant.

Not you DS I like your stories, but you knew that. Just making sure others know too.

A "1" is not for the novice who does not know better, that I agree with.

It does work within the framework of my guidelines. Because if the story deserved a 2, but had spelling and grammar errors, then the -1 factor of the intro takes effect. LOL The thing to remember is that all stories posted rate at least a 2 for being submitted, and a 3 if there are no spelling and gramatical errors. Reguardless of what we personnally think of the writer we must all vote properly for each story. And that's why I set those guidelines. Crap is treated like crap, and so on.

DS

 

[A7inchPhildo]

I understand now what you mean. Sorry us southerners can be a little slow. That makes sense thanks for the clarity.
I am just a little easier to give a 5 to a novice than I am to a seasoned writer. My scale changes as to what my expectations are. A "1" sill means "Why did you post this?" in my mind, and a 5 means "You really impressed me all around". 2,3,4 are the grey areas.

 

[Dirty Slut]

Being consistant...

I understand now what you mean. Sorry us southerners can be a little slow. That makes sense thanks for the clarity.
I am just a little easier to give a 5 to a novice than I am to a seasoned writer. My scale changes as to what my expectations are. A "1" sill means "Why did you post this?" in my mind, and a 5 means "You really impressed me all around". 2,3,4 are the grey areas.

One of the first things every author looks at after posting their stories is what the voting average is, and then they look at how many views it has. Every author alive thinks that their first work is a masterpiece, and has a hard time taking even helpful critique, let alone abrasive critics. And as we all know the whole world is a critic. Now most seasoned authors already know this, so, they try to go easy on the newbies to encourage them to master their craft, and keep writing. The truth is, not everybody can write, and write well. Just learning to show instead of tell can be an overwhelming obstical for some. And however it is for them, if they can't write, or are unwilling, or unable to learn the fundamentals of writing then they shouldn't write at all. That aside, there is no better gauge for knowing how well your story is appreciated than by an honest voting system such as they have here at lit.

Unfortunately there are those who will, and do corrupt the voting system by not voting properly, (See my guidelines for voting above.) or just not voting at all. The author is left then with nothing but feedback, or the hope of feedback as their only alternative to figuring out reader's responces to their work. What makes the voting system corrupt is, and I'm sorry to say this, but it's true,: THE PRIZES, or if you will the very fact that a contest concludes by the voting average on who wins the prize=cash. In fact I'd bet real money that if there were no cash prizes that the voting here would be more realistic, and rightious. Great stories would rise to the top, instead of somewhere buried below piles of crap.LOL

In my opinion:

Also, to my way of thinking a 1 vote is no vote. If I ran this place I'd fix it so that a 1 vote on a story cancelled out a 5 vote on the same story. That for every 1 vote that is deleted a 5 vote would get deleted. In this way snerts, and those trying to corrupt the voting system would be cancelled out of the voting averages here. That means that if there are more 1 votes than 5 votes that the story really is crap, and deserves a lower average. Like wise if the 5 votes out number the 1 votes the story must be good, and there will be fewer spiteful 2 votes. Thus the author of the story will have a more realistic idea of how all those viewers thought about their story because the voting average will be more precise. Of course this is only my opinion, and opinions are like assholes, everybody has one. The problem with my opinion on the voting system is that it is right on target. And so I take a lot of flak because of it.

DS

 

[A7inchPhildo]

As cute as ever and still fiesty,

I agree the contest skew the voting system. I gave up on the votes a long time ago. That is why I do not even post under the same name. I submit stories under that other name and it just remains dormant. I do not even care who reads them I get enough feedback and that how I know it is worth while writing.

I do vote because I hope to encourage others to write. Some especially newbies look at votes with a heart breaking aspect. Currently I am and have been helping others via email with writing. You know the ones who want to write but just have no ability to write. That can be very daunting, but I am not going to just say you suck. I was there once myself.

I learned that the voting system does not work because of 1s and 5s it is broken because of the 200k names that do not belong to anyone. It is quite simple to up the votes on any story. If you look at the top stories and figure out the number of votes and the number of days you will see how this works.

Lets say I post a story and it is fairly good in the course of 3 months if not tampered with on average I would expect to see about 140 votes.

Well if I want to ensure that story maintains a high score what do I need simple math says I need a percentage of 5 votes to out balance any low votes. If you did not know I will tell you you can't vote on your story twice as a user. However as a new user you can. the same as with clearing your cookies as an unregistered visiter.
So the person clears the cookies votes a 5 on a particular story then votes a one on the competitor. I am not saying that a story can not have 1000 votes in a short period of time but in my opinion some of the top stories are not that good to have over a 100 votes period. If you watch the stories that are good in the list with less than 50 votes over a weeks time they start to fall fast. Because a 1 does a lot of dammage to 50 votes and very little to 800 votes.
I can not make a conclusion based on the over voted stories because who knows maybe the general Public likes them and every one voted? But if you chart all the top stories with 50 votes or less as soon as they become a threat you will see them plumit in ratings. Droping well below the 4.0 mark then they stop. Why because at this point for the honest person it is very hard use of percentage again to over come the 1 votes. This will be followed by the author whining, "The one bandit got me."
I will admit I wasted several months proving to my self the feedback is all you really have. In fact I hate a story to soar because I know it will end up with a lower overall rating in the end.
It is no secret I submit under a differnt name than I post. If you have a trail blatently obvious and you piss off one of these. I call them "Highly Talented Voters" you can guess what is going to happen. Don't believe me, try it for your self. I mean really I know what I have seen and whatever people want to believe makes no difference to me.
I would rather believe my stories suck but the people who send feedback seem to like them. My stories do have fairly good scores so I am not crying they should be better by no means in fact I rate them lower than they score. I am just saying the ratings are worthless after day 5.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I like the contests. Granted my view may be terribly skewed as I only entered one and placed in it, but it was fun and I didn't notice my works getting bombed with ones any more severely than those I write that make the top list do. Frankly, there will always be those who simply wish to ruin someone else's happiness just to make their own miserable existance seem less so. Low voting trolls and senders of hateful Anonyamous feedback will be there no matter how you try to deal with them. It's just the way people are wired.

It's a shame that you and Jenny and some of the other excellent writers have chosen to drop out of the contests. In a sense the trolls have won by lowering the overall quality of submissions for the contests by pushing good writers to the point of avoiding them. I suppose it is true that some people's competitive natures will drive them to win, even if doing so involves cheating, low voting and any other tactic that gets thier story to the top. That too is human nature.

I suffer from nearly daily migranes that have made it impossible for me to hold a regular job. I am now caught up in the beauracratic BS of applying for disability. I have no income whatsoever and am living now by robbing from my carefully set up savings and retirement plans. The 50$ prize I got in the Hallowen contest may seem pretty trivial, but in my case it meant the difference between Raman and Spam and real food. My folks are happy to help out, but that money meant the world to me because it was something I earned on my own merits. It wasn't a hand out. I am and shall always be greateful to Laurel for offering these prizes.

-Colly

 

[fiery_jack]

Re: Re: Voting Methods

Every story worthy of being posted on Lit is a 3.

That's the way i look at it when i start reading, also adding and deducting points as i go along. If i get to the end and the story's at a 1, i'll look at it as a whole and try to find something that bumps it up another notch, even if it's just the emotions i feel. If there's nothing, then it gets a 1.

Having said that, i only bother with stories of three or less Lit pages, and once gave a 4 to a poorly told tale with mistakes scattered throughout, just because the concept was so appealing.

 

[Dirty Slut]

Re: How to properly vote for stories at Literotica...

In as much as everyone who submits a story here should at least have a proper word processor, I believe that if there is a spelling or gramatical error the story should automatically get a -1 subtracted from the over all score that it would have had as we need to set that standard here. Also, since we are dealing with catogories that deal with an erotic nature, that too should be taken into account if it is posted as such. That said, here is how we should be voting:

A 1 vote: There is no such story posted on this site.

A 2 vote: A story is given this vote for no other reason than the bravery it took just for the author to submit it.

A 3 Vote: For a story that has no spelling, or gramatical errors. This is not to say that the story was average in content by any means as this is the jumping off point for where every story should be reguardless of content.

A 4 vote: This is a story with average, or slighty above average content, reguardless of cliches, plotlines, or whatever. You'd read it, maybe even enjoy it, but you wouldn't put it in a hardback cover.

A 5 Vote: This is the quintiessential must read story. It makes you forget that you are reading, or that the world around you is falling to hell in a handbasket. The author pulls you right into the story with them to the point that you are breathing the same air as the characters in it. And once you've finished reading it you wonder why it isn't in a hard bound cover made of kid leather in your personal library.

Rules To Voting:

Rule #1: If you open the story, then find that it wasn't the kind of story you were looking for, then it is okay to back out and not vote. This is the only time when not voting is the proper vote.

Rule #2: If after opening the story, you are so sickened by the mistakes in spelling, grammar, and repetion, cliche, or any such thing such that you just want to exit, then STOP. Stop reading that is, and go to the voting area, and give it a 2.

Rule #3: If you finish reading a story here at lit, then as a responcible human being, and especially if you are an author then vote before closing the last page according to the proceedures I've written for voting posted above these rules.

Note* By following these simple guidelines, all stories will receive the proper respect that they deserve here at literotica. To do otherwise is either cheating, slovenly, or worse, intolerable. By following these guidelines no one need feel that they have overly praised, or undeservedly trashed anyone. They have simply voted appropriately.

PS: This posting was getting buried so I thought a repost was in order.

DS

 

[Sabledrake]

Fair enough ... henceforth I'm following DS's system!

Sabledrake