What's your most underrated story?

[THBGato]

It eventually recovered to 4.84, which leaves it safely off of the all time LS story list.

Ummm... have you looked at the LS top list lately? You used to need 4.87 to get onto page 5 (and even that wasn't guarrenteed). Now, there are stories in the top 10 at 4.84!

 

[MelissaBaby]

Ummm... have you looked at the LS top list lately? You used to need 4.87 to get onto page 5 (and even that wasn't guarrenteed). Now, there are stories in the top 10 at 4.84!

It's happened across the board. I have several stories that hovered around 4.90 for years that are all in the 4.80-4.85 range now.

 

[lovecraft68]

My biggest gripe is with visibility. If there are one hundred people on this site who would connect with my work, I want all one hundred to have the chance.

The issue with visibility is it varies on category, where your story might show up on the new list (at the top or down the bottom) a good title and clever tag line are a big help as well, so put some thought into them.

Consistently posting new material is also a big help. No matter who you are here, you're often only as good as your latest story, people may like your work, but they're here every day looking for a new fix and they're not going to wait around for a fav author.

Unfortunately, a lot of this depends on the readers, not all categories have as many viewing them. Looks like you do a lot in Mind control which is not widely read, but you've done some stories in other categories. If you have an idea that holds your interest in them, try as many categories as you can and get more new eyes to look at older stories.

The numbers are not all meaningless and I think we all look at them to some degree-it is how we get paid here in a sense-but there's a line between knowing your stats, always hoping they could be better, and getting bitter and angry over them and assigning them more importance than the actual work and using them as excuses as to why you might not be doing as well as you could.

Like anything else there is accountability in what we do here and its on us, not the readers. Some people it takes longer to get the base and hit their stride but its possible to do so, you just have to focus on doing that with your stories and effort.

Leave the stat hawking for the people who have given it far more importance that its worth.

 

[lovecraft68]

Ummm... have you looked at the LS top list lately? You used to need 4.87 to get onto page 5 (and even that wasn't guarrenteed). Now, there are stories in the top 10 at 4.84!

On this note, someone told me to look at the Mature top list because I have "place of pride on it"

The last time I looked I had a story at #10 (that was once number one but several years ago) and the next story I had was outside of 25 and another around 50.

When I checked after his post, I have #2/4/9 and the 4/9 were the ones that were around 25/50 and as you said, the scores on those two are 4.84 and there were a lot of stories between them with higher scores, then of course going by vote total as tiebreaker.

But it just seems a lot of stories took serious hits or no longer showing.

 

[lovecraft68]

This is probably going to come off as odd, but, honestly, none of them. I don't generally have any preconceived notions of where a particular story will land before I release it. (Except my most recent that releases in the morning. A Loving Wives story with a bet underway on what the score will land at by the end of the week post release. The current bet range is 2.5-3.4, my guestimate is around a 2.87 based on past experience and the subject matter at hand.) And in the majority of cases they tend to be fairly well received, which I'm still mystified by.

If I'm disappointed in any of them, it's the letter I wrote to my friends. I should've had voting turned off for that one as it was literally just meant to be a letter for my friends to find eventually, not a story to be rated. I just forgot turning off voting was a thing.

Though I'm sure the low-ish score is due to the fact that I expressed a sense of love for people other than my husband in the letter. Even if it's a different kind of love, how dare I, right?

I'm the same. I've been here long enough to have a feel of what works and what doesn't and an idea of where the score might fall, but learned a long time ago that what I think is a hit will fall 'meh' and stories I wonder why I'm writing will hit big.

Another thing not worth spending any energy on IMO. Roll the dice and see what comes up.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Ummm... have you looked at the LS top list lately?

I guess I haven’t

 

[lovecraft68]

It's happened across the board. I have several stories that hovered around 4.90 for years that are all in the 4.80-4.85 range now.

Maybe the site is cleaning up the fake fives as much as they are one bombs

Or, they're allowing more low scores to remain rather than assume they're all false.

 

[EdwardsOtherSide]

What's the story you've published that has the broadest gap between your opinion and the public rating?

Why do you like it so much?

Why do you think readers rated it lower than you would have?

I feel like my Confession stories fit this.
https://www.literotica.com/s/confession-the-first
https://www.literotica.com/s/confession-the-second
https://www.literotica.com/s/confession-the-third-intermezzo

I liked writing them, I inserted a fair bit of subtle humor, I enjoyed the tip of the hat to Lovecraft (I know, problematic but he is the fountainhead of modern horror). I think the location is underappreciated (Providence Rhode Island), and has a great mix of people and history for a story.

I think my writing & proofreading had a ways to go, but more than that, I think I annoyed Christians, especially in the first two.

Still working on another installment though. It is about me enjoying telling the story, more than what readers want (although I try to accept feedback well).
And the characters are nagging me. They want their stories told.

 

[old_prof]

Maybe the site is cleaning up the fake fives as much as they are one bombs

Except if you watch your scores on something that makes the top list with the hundred votes, it gets a handful of ones almost immediately. My last story to make the top ten took four 1's within two hours of getting there, which dropped it back into the 4.7's. My stories that hit the 100 mark with a score in low 4.8's do better long term than the ones that hit that mark with a core in the high 4.8's or 4.9's. I hope for something to hit the low 4.8's right now, which is unfortunate.

Of course, the treatment my novel that came out last week has gotten, ratings-wise, may have cured me of watching them as closely, which may be a blessing for me long term.

 

[NotWise]

Ummm... have you looked at the LS top list lately? You used to need 4.87 to get onto page 5 (and even that wasn't guarrenteed). Now, there are stories in the top 10 at 4.84!

The same thing happened (is happening) in Romance.

 

[YmaOHyd]

The same thing happened (is happening) in Romance.

Every category, I'm pretty sure. There are only fifteen or so stories above 4.85 sitewide that have enough ratings to be stable there.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Maybe the site is cleaning up the fake fives as much as they are one bombs

Or, they're allowing more low scores to remain rather than assume they're all false.

Yeah, could be either or both.

It might just be my stuff, and I haven't crunched any numbers because numbers just aren't my thing, but my subjective impression is that my older stories are getting a larger stream of views and votes lately. I don't know why. Maybe because I haven't written much lately, so people are exploring my catalogue. Maybe it's a wider trend that no one has paid attention to yet.

I have come to the unpopular conclusion that the primary reason story scores decline over time has nothing to do with plots other than trolls, but is simply regression to the mean. More voting could lead to a steeper regression.

It doesn't really matter, for the same reason that Nigel Tufnel's amps aren't louder because they go up to 11. My top listed stories are in roughly the same placement they were in before, only the numerical signifier has changed.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Except if you watch your scores on something that makes the top list with the hundred votes, it gets a handful of ones almost immediately. My last story to make the top ten took four 1's within two hours of getting there, which dropped it back into the 4.7's. My stories that hit the 100 mark with a score in low 4.8's do better long term than the ones that hit that mark with a core in the high 4.8's or 4.9's. I hope for something to hit the low 4.8's right now, which is unfortunate.

Of course, the treatment my novel that came out last week has gotten, ratings-wise, may have cured me of watching them as closely, which may be a blessing for me long term.

I just experienced that with my Valentines story. The 101st, 102nd and 103rd votes were all 1 bombs.

This isn't anything new, though. Queen of the Roller Derby hit the 100 vote mark with a 4.99 score. 99 fives and one four. By the next day, it was in the 4.80s. It's just something we have to live with.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I just experienced that with my Valentines story. The 101st, 102nd and 103rd votes were all 1 bombs.

This isn't anything new, though. Queen of the Roller Derby hit the 100 vote mark with a 4.99 score. 99 fives and one four. By the next day, it was in the 4.80s. It's just something we have to live with.

It took me a while, but at some point, you have to start taking it as a compliment. The fact that someone finds you so threatening to their sense of how things should be, that they will take time they could use on other pursuits, trying to keep your work down and someone else's, up. Because in some cases, these stories that are kept in the top 5 are by writers who haven't been active here in years.

 

[lovecraft68]

Except if you watch your scores on something that makes the top list with the hundred votes, it gets a handful of ones almost immediately. My last story to make the top ten took four 1's within two hours of getting there, which dropped it back into the 4.7's. My stories that hit the 100 mark with a score in low 4.8's do better long term than the ones that hit that mark with a core in the high 4.8's or 4.9's. I hope for something to hit the low 4.8's right now, which is unfortunate.

Of course, the treatment my novel that came out last week has gotten, ratings-wise, may have cured me of watching them as closely, which may be a blessing for me long term.

I'm aware, we've all been through that, but a lot of these changes involve some older stories which makes me think the site is doing something different with the sweeps.

But let me explain something. For a long time contest winners could place in first with a 4.87, the last couple of years that won't even get you third which tells me the sweeps are cutting too deep and inflating scores because again, not every low score is a fraud.

This site goes through swings and maybe now we're going to back to lower and more realistic scores. Again a lot of the movement I'm seeing is hitting stories that have been around for some time and I don't think this is some site wide concerted troll attempt, but perhaps they have modified sweeps.

The last part of your post is important. People need to stop freaking over this all the time and letting it affect your experience here. We all deal with the same ups and downs and there's no point in squealing about the 'injustices' of lit scoring.

Because what it comes across as for some here is pure arrogance "How dare my story only be a 4.85 instead of the 4.90 its worth" like get over it. Because of course the people who might still have that score don't deserve it

 

[lovecraft68]

Yeah, could be either or both.

It might just be my stuff, and I haven't crunched any numbers because numbers just aren't my thing, but my subjective impression is that my older stories are getting a larger stream of views and votes lately. I don't know why. Maybe because I haven't written much lately, so people are exploring my catalogue. Maybe it's a wider trend that no one has paid attention to yet.

I have come to the unpopular conclusion that the primary reason story scores decline over time has nothing to do with plots other than trolls, but is simply regression to the mean. More voting could lead to a steeper regression.

It doesn't really matter, for the same reason that Nigel Tufnel's amps aren't louder because they go up to 11. My top listed stories are in roughly the same placement they were in before, only the numerical signifier has changed

I don't pour over my numbers. I'll watch a new story the first week but after that I don't run up and down my list and wonder if anything changed or download my stats every day like some do.

Scores do seem to trend down over the years and I don't know if its trolls or maybe some people working through your file just don't think the story is worth a five. I know the top list gaming has always been ridiculous and I just got taken out of a #1 spot after two years by the same fans of one story that always ends up back on top, Author has been absent for years, its just some over zealous fans.

I saw a bump up in the Mature top list I hadn't looked at in a long time but someone made a comment here about where I stood so I checked and was surprised to see two that were outside the top 25 now in the top ten but with the same score so some stories took a cut for that to happen. My stories are both over ten years old so maybe whatever is going on is hitting newer works as the site figures after a period of time the score is probably where it should be.

But we can all guess whatever, not like we'll ever know what changed. That would take communication.

 

[MelissaBaby]

But let me explain something. For a long time contest winners could place in first with a 4.87, the last couple of years that won't even get you third which tells me the sweeps are cutting too deep and inflating scores because again, not every low score is a fraud.

This site goes through swings and maybe now we're going to back to lower and more realistic scores. Again a lot of the movement I'm seeing is hitting stories that have been around for some time and I don't think this is some site wide concerted troll attempt, but perhaps they have modified sweeps.

There may be another factor at work. When I started writing here in 2017, I saw few authors self promoting on social media. But that took off, especially on Twitter, then on Reddit, Bluesky and I assume, other platforms. Some authors were promoting relentlessly, pushing their stories and campaigning for votes every day.

With the shambles that Twitter has become, I think that social media campaigning is less of a factor now, and may account for at least some of the scoring rise and decline of recent years.

 

[lovecraft68]

There may be another factor at work. When I started writing here in 2017, I saw few authors self promoting on social media. But that took off, especially on Twitter, then on Reddit, Bluesky and I assume, other platforms. Some authors were promoting relentlessly, pushing their stories and campaigning for votes every day.

With the shambles that Twitter has become, I think that social media campaigning is less of a factor now, and may account for at least some of the scoring rise and decline of recent years.

Its possible but advertising on those sites is also asking for trolling from random trolls because you don't have to register here to vote, so it may be a wash. Again, unless someone reaches out to you and says "Hey, say your post on....and I voted" no one knows.

What I can say and have seen in the past with the Cabin and see again now is a clique voting from the forum and maybe the site has begun to take that into account as well. I've been saying this a lot lately because it seems scoring is become more and more of a bitchfest here, but cheerleading is also problematic, not just trolling and its high time something gets done about that. Forum members like to comment that "oh, well that author's base just fives them all the time" which can be true, but its never a problem when a forum super star runs in here yammering about a new story and then people here gush over it in comments and lay fives on it.

I do nothing to promote my work, I don't even have a link in my sig. I've done fine. Maybe more people could learn from my approach of here's the story and leaving it there other than begging for attention.

 

[NotWise]

Maybe the site is cleaning up the fake fives as much as they are one bombs

Or, they're allowing more low scores to remain rather than assume they're all false.

I can only speak for the Romance top list. There the drop is not caused by the site cleaning up fake fives. There appears to be a systematic attack. It's happened in episodes since November (or possibly October) of 2024. When it happens, I get a sky-high number of votes on my story on the top list. It drops back to normal between attacks.

There's an attack going on now as near as I can tell, and it's been going on for weeks without significant interruption. So far this month I've had just 12 votes added or removed on all of my stories combined (I haven't published anything since last summer), and seven of the twelve are on one nine-year-old story.

The story has enough total votes that I can't tell exactly what's been voted, but they're 1* to 3*, and probably not often 1*.

Some votes were also removed. Two of the seven votes on that nine-year-old story were removals, but both of the votes removed were high votes. More generally, maybe one vote is swept for every five votes, and while low votes are common during the attacks, the votes removed are both high and low votes. They seem random.

I'm no longer a fan of the sweeps. I've always thought they were necessary, but then they became a necessary evil. Now I'm wondering about their effectiveness, which makes them just evil. At their best, the sweeps are a very blunt instrument.

Happy Super Bowl Day, y'all.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Hardly any of my stories get to 100 votes. Accredited Sadist reached 100 two days ago, after 2.5 years, which meant it was at no.21 on the BDSM all-time list, with 4.85, same as all the stories above it. As people above have noted, the next three votes were 1s, which knocked it to 4.82 and off the list entirely in 24 hours. So much for any extra visibility from the list!

Most of my stories get roughly what I expect - 750 words or category-straddling stories carry a big penalty. Some are under-rated in the sense of few people actually rating them - the Gay Male audience don't bother clicking those stars much. Turkish Delight had lots of views, a decent score, but under 50 votes, for example.

I'd hoped more people would read (or at least click on...) Last Christmas, which didn't get many views despite the Christmas contest. Probably because I put it in BDSM as the least-wrong category, though the kink is more of a background vibe. I think it's my best-constructed story out of all of mine on this site.