Yet another ratings thread... or is it?

[AwkwardlySet]

Anyone who has seen our interactions will know damn well that I tried my damnedest to be a friend to him.
But I failed.
¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Rumor has it he left to seek some therapy and hopefully recover from all the damage you caused. Being nice to him? What were you thinking?!

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Fair enough.

That said, wouldn't it be easier to simply rewrite your stories and resubmit, instead of starting from scratch?

Maybe I wasn't clear enough. Assuming I get my mojo back, I will reupload those same stories, edited and corrected of grammar errors and maybe with some added content in them. But not before I find enough motivation to write a couple of new chapters as well. I hope it works out.

 

[Djmac1031]

Maybe I wasn't clear enough. Assuming I get my mojo back, I will reupload those same stories, edited and corrected of grammar errors and maybe with some added content in them. But not before I find enough motivation to write a couple of new chapters as well. I hope it works out.

Wouldn't be the first time my comprehension skills have failed me lol

I wish you the best with your efforts.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

Rumor has it he left to seek some therapy and hopefully recover from all the damage you caused. Being nice to him? What were you thinking?!

In grade school I was nice to this mean girl that everyone hated... And she was nicer as a result. But it doesn't always work

 

[AwkwardlySet]

In grade school I was nice to this mean girl that everyone hated... And she was nicer as a result. But it doesn't always work

Ah, so you were attracted to violence even in those days... Interesting

 

[MillieDynamite]

It's hard to be friendly with a person going out their way to be unfriendly to others.

Anyone who has seen our interactions will know damn well that I tried my damnedest to be a friend to him.
But I failed.
¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Hum, well, I can't even see the quote of the day unless one of you posts on it. But it's been so long since I posted that it may not show even then.

His account is still around, but the last post is from two weeks ago. He also posted a threatening comment on his Quote of the Day post from an alt a day later; both the post and that alt have since been deleted.

 

[djrip]

I'm drawing no conclusions, just offering a date point. Although, Tilan showed me nothing but loathing, so I admit to some skepticism that Stacnash was their sock puppet.

Also, I don't think there is actually a rule against sock puppets.

I didn't think stacnash sounded much like tilan in their writing style. And it just seems weird to me to create another account and try to use a different style in it. But stranger things happen. They did interact and kind of back each other up a lot.

Anyone who has seen our interactions will know damn well that I tried my damnedest to be a friend to him.
But I failed.
¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

His account is still around, but the last post is from two weeks ago. He also posted a threatening comment on his Quote of the Day post from an alt a day later; both the post and that alt have since been deleted.

Well I caught myself up on the quote of the day thread... Seems to have gotten interesting right after I decided it was too boring to keep checking all the time. He... Really got butthurt over Scream, didn't he? It seems like that was a big trigger. Feels like he shifted from trolling to genuine anger right around then.

 

[NoTalentHack]

I didn't think stacnash sounded much like tilan in their writing style. And it just seems weird to me to create another account and try to use a different style in it. But stranger things happen. They did interact and kind of back each other up a lot.


Well I caught myself up on the quote of the day thread... Seems to have gotten interesting right after I decided it was too boring to keep checking all the time. He... Really got butthurt over Scream, didn't he? It seems like that was a big trigger. Feels like he shifted from trolling to genuine anger right around then.

Honestly? The QotD post read “Snitches get stitches.” I think he’s extremely mad that his little game got called out, and the mods made the right call to jump on him with both feet. I really do wonder if it was just that people had gotten so used to him being an abusive troll that they had just stopped reporting him, and the mods were like “Finally!”

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I didn't think stacnash sounded much like tilan in their writing style. And it just seems weird to me to create another account and try to use a different style in it. But stranger things happen. They did interact and kind of back each other up a lot.

I am 99% sure Stacnash isn't Tilan. It is glaringly obvious from the way she wrote, from Tilan's inital reaction to one of her reviews, and from the fact that Tilan would never ever praise so many authors as Stacnash did He is a LW guy through and through, yet most of the authors she praised were authors who wrote primarily in Lesbian Sex category. They are not the same person. Tilan just saw she was stirring shit up so he started supporting her inflaming reviews.

 

[Bamagan]

Honestly? The QotD post read “Snitches get stitches.” I think he’s extremely mad that his little game got called out, and the mods made the right call to jump on him with both feet. I really do wonder if it was just that people had gotten so used to him being an abusive troll that they had just stopped reporting him, and the mods were like “Finally!”

I put him on ignore on about my third day here. Makes things a bit more pleasant, although I suppose it limits the amount of abuse reporting one can do.

 

[NoTalentHack]

I am 99% sure Stacnash isn't Tilan. It is glaringly obvious from the way she wrote, from Tilan's inital reaction to one of her reviews, and from the fact that Tilan would never ever praise so many authors as Stacnash did He is a LW guy through and through, yet most of the authors she praised were authors who wrote primarily in Lesbian Sex category. They are not the same person. Tilan just saw she was stirring shit up so he started supporting her inflaming reviews.

I have independent reasons for believing they were the same person, but I don’t want to share details. I would put the odds at about 90% that they were, partially based on comments made during a long flame war that the mods completely nuked the day before Tilan’s sockpuppets went away and he (probably) caught a temporary ban.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I never actually had a real problem with him. He is who he is and he made it obvious right from the start. I kind of adjusted my mind to take his posts from the humorous aspect and in that way, his incredibly pompous self-agrandizing style did deliver. The trick was never to take him seriously

 

[Bramblethorn]

There's a perfectly fair way to decide contests, toplists, etc. Get rid of voting altogether and just toss a coin to see who wins! (or the high-tech random-number equivalent) No more bias toward specific categories, or longer stories, or all the other things people grumble about here.

Sounds terrible, right? That's because "fairness" is only half the picture. The perfectly-fair system eliminates all those unearned advantages, but it also eliminates the advantages earned by writing a better story - the thing contests are supposed to be rewarding in the first place.

The best system isn't one that's perfectly fair; it's the one that finds the best balance between eliminating unearned advantage, and preserving earned advantage. The latter mostly means reducing random noise in story scores, which means having a large number of voters. There's already a lot of random noise in story scores; eliminating anon votes would exacerbate that, probably far more than any benefit in "fairness" that it would bring.

 

[SimonDoom]

I never actually had a real problem with him. He is who he is and he made it obvious right from the start. I kind of adjusted my mind to take his posts from the humorous aspect and in that way, his incredibly pompous self-agrandizing style did deliver. The trick was never to take him seriously

I came around to the view that what he was doing was a type of performance art, and didn't take it seriously, but I still think it's important for the Site to squelch petty, personal attacks, which he trafficked in all the time. Maybe he's kidding; maybe he's not, but the bottom line is that the constant attacks on people brought the place down. There's simply no cause for that. Each of us has complete freedom to get our point across without attacking the merits or motives of other individual authors, or of categories of authors.

 

[lovecraft68]

I am 99% sure Stacnash isn't Tilan. It is glaringly obvious from the way she wrote, from Tilan's inital reaction to one of her reviews, and from the fact that Tilan would never ever praise so many authors as Stacnash did He is a LW guy through and through, yet most of the authors she praised were authors who wrote primarily in Lesbian Sex category. They are not the same person. Tilan just saw she was stirring shit up so he started supporting her inflaming reviews.

SN is not Tilan, but they're also not female.
But I understand why many here would think that because its obvious the men here can't tell a man from a woman.

As for your OP, you do you, but if your complaint is not enough feedback, you're not going to get any at all when the stories are just on your PC.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

SN is not Tilan, but they're also not female.
But I understand why many here would think that because its obvious the men here can't tell a man from a woman.

As for your OP, you do you, but if your complaint is not enough feedback, you're not going to get any at all when the stories are just on your PC.

Well, I could hardly call Stacnash "it" She identified herself as a woman, and thus I've always used "she" and never really bothered myself what her true gender is, nor do I think it held any importance. I mean, how can I be sure you are a guy even? We are all projecting certain personas here
As for the feedback, you have a point, but the idea is to reupload the stories eventually along with some new stuff. Hopefully. I'd say that my stories have generated all the feedback they would get, as I can't remember when was the last time I'd gotten some new feedback on some of the older stories. I am trying to be positive about all this. Time will tell how good this approach I am taking is

 

[lovecraft68]

Well, I could hardly call Stacnash "it" She identified herself as a woman, and thus I've always used "she" and never really bothered myself what her true gender is, nor do I think it held any importance. I mean, how can I be sure you are a guy even? We are all projecting certain personas here
As for the feedback, you have a point, but the idea is to reupload the stories eventually along with some new stuff. Hopefully. I'd say that my stories have generated all the feedback they would get, as I can't remember when was the last time I'd gotten some new feedback on some of the older stories. I am trying to be positive about all this. Time will tell how good this approach I am taking is

The problem with what you want to do is that when you remove your stories and reupload them they start from scratch, so you lose the top list placings, the score etc...but because they're not new and people will recall already reading them you'll get even less attention than you got this time around so few will even notice the better editing.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Everyone says I write like a girl. Well, there is a reason for that.

 

[Mastered_again]

Everyone says I write like a girl. Well, there is a reason for that.

Thank goodness for that

 

[SimonDoom]

The problem with what you want to do is that when you remove your stories and reupload them they start from scratch, so you lose the top list placings, the score etc...but because they're not new and people will recall already reading them you'll get even less attention than you got this time around so few will even notice the better editing.

@AwkwardlySet these are good points. I think you'd be better off leaving your stories as they are and moving forward focusing on making your new stories as good as possible. If you get rid of them you may lose more than you can gain.

Accentuate the positive.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I agree.

@AwkwardlySet these are good points. I think you'd be better off leaving your stories as they are and moving forward focusing on making your new stories as good as possible. If you get rid of them you may lose more than you can gain.

Accentuate the positive.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

The biggest reason for my low motivation by far is the lack of readers' feedback

After a quick look through your story list, I'd say the amount of feedback you're receiving is typical in the categories you write in (lesbian and sci-fi/fantasy). I would even wager to say you get more feedback than most.
Also your scores are very impressive.

I want to take some time and work on my old stuff and maybe reignite some of the passion in the process and hopefully write some new chapters, so when/if I decide to publish them again, it will be with corrected mistakes ( as far as I am able to do it ) but also with some new content and scenes in the old chapters and I hope to publish several new chapters as well.

Revisiting stories is a fantastic idea. I will go back from time to time, and edit my older stories not necessarily to publish but just as a creative exercise, and by doing it I often myself remembering why I love writing fictional smut

There's only one reader that owes you anything at all. That's you

 

[TheSpleen]

ready and waiting to troll people, it's human nature, it's as old as the interwebs.

This. It was also a thing before the internet, except that it needed dedication. They had to get off their ass and mail the troll letters at a post office. I think a prominent sportsperson got a troll letter in the 80s that kicked up an FBI investigation.

When I was just a reader, I must shamefully admit that I had no clue of the importance of commenting.

I always voted high on stories that held me to the end, and I sometimes gave 5 stars if a story was rated too low IMO, but at first I also didn't appreciate the importance of a positive comment.

I get why the OP would want time away, but wiping everything does have downsides when chances are that the break isn't permanent. It might help if the site had an option between all and nothing. Some kind of 'hibernate' function where writers could turn their library invisible without losing comments and faves. It would give them that feeling of separation and if they came back, they'd reactivate their account and it's business as usual.

What are your thoughts about this? It feels like such a simple solution. Not a perfect one by any means

I won't disagree as strongly as some others, but I do think that if the site enabled registered-only voting, they should go all the way. Only registered users would be able to read stories. Unregistered users could read the first 10 or 15% but couldn't finish it, vote or comment. The "teasers" might get some anons to create accounts who otherwise wouldn't. The downside is it would probably involve an overhaul of the site. I'm not a programmer so I can't judge how big an investment that would be.

Something else to consider about reuploading edited versions from scratch is that readers who remember the old versions might report the new versions as plagiarized.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

The problem with what you want to do is that when you remove your stories and reupload them they start from scratch, so you lose the top list placings, the score etc...but because they're not new and people will recall already reading them you'll get even less attention than you got this time around so few will even notice the better editing.

I agree and I am quite aware of this. But I don't mind it. If I can get my writing motivation back, I am hoping to attract enough feedback and followers with my new stories. This is basically an attempt for me to continue writing rather than leaving all of my series unfinished, because I do feel an urge to get the stories out of my head, while still not having enough motivation to actually start typing. This is an experiment of a sort, I guess. I will let you know the results.
Also, I want to say that I truly appreciate the fact that so many people are trying to give me friendly advice. They are not falling on deaf ears even though I have always been a stubborn bastard.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

After a quick look through your story list, I'd say the amount of feedback you're receiving is typical in the categories you write in (lesbian and sci-fi/fantasy). I would even wager to say you get more feedback than most.
Also your scores are very impressive.

Revisiting stories is a fantastic idea. I will go back from time to time, and edit my older stories not necessarily to publish but just as a creative exercise, and by doing it I often myself remembering why I love writing fictional smut

There's only one reader that owes you anything at all. That's you

Thanks for the kind words

I don't know which scores you are seeing right now as the bombing is ongoing, but these were my scores prior to the bombing

They aren't bad at all, I guess, but I would gladly settle for lower scores if that meant getting much more insightful comments. It is what it is.