Do you vote for your own stories?

[TarnishedPenny]

Valid point.

 

[Defluer]

I do wonder how the candidates' spouses and kids vote, though.

I mean... Considering it's partly their financial future, I hope they vote Pro Spouse! The kids... If they're old enough, I guess whatever they want. But if they could get that kind of data, it would be interesting to see.

 

[Sanzas]

I mean... Considering it's partly their financial future, I hope they vote Pro Spouse! The kids... If they're old enough, I guess whatever they want. But if they could get that kind of data, it would be interesting to see.

I know of one case where the siblings took out an ad against their brother candidate!

 

[RelentlessOnanism]

I always vote for my stories. I favourite them too. But then I am particularly vain.

 

[Defluer]

I know of one case where the siblings took out an ad against their brother candidate!

I don't have siblings but if they were anything like some of my cousins, or my uncle! Nope!

 

[Euphony]

I do wonder how the candidates' spouses and kids vote, though.

I'd vote Dad if only to avoid the losing moping and get him out of the house.

 

[SimonDoom]

I don't think there's anything "wrong" with voting on one's own story, but before drawing a close analogy to voting in elections, we might pause and consider what the purpose of voting on a story IS. If you see it fundamentally as competitive--wanting your story to rate as high as possible relative to other stories--OK. That's a valid purpose. But that's not important to me. The main two purposes of voting and scores, to me, are a) letting me know what others think of my story (in which case my vote is not helpful), and b) conveying to readers in general what readers in general think of a story, to assist them in choosing a story (in which case my vote arguably is not helpful, because it's biased and it's always going to be a 5). I'm motivated to vote for my story in unusual cases where I think my vote might, just might, edge it over 4.5, the magical number to get my story more visibility because of the red H. If I think there are enough votes or the score is either high enough or low enough that it won't matter, then I don't bother.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'm motivated to vote for my story in unusual cases where I think my vote might, just might, edge it over 4.5, the magical number to get my story more visibility because of the red H. If I think there are enough votes or the score is either high enough or low enough that it won't matter, then I don't bother.

EB looked at Simon's post carefully. This admission looked a bit like an acknowledgement that there is information contained within a Red H, because why else would you do that? "More visibility" = information provided for readers. Which is why writers want Red Vs, despite all their furious denials. He went back to his cornflakes.

 

[Djmac1031]

Which is why writers want Red Vs, despite all their furious denials.

I personally have never denied wanting the Red H. I don't CRY about it when I don't get one, or blame One Bombing Trolls, but I certainly won't deny being happy if I see that H pop up.

It's one of the very few indicators enough people actually read the damn thing AND liked it enough to earn a mark that might draw more readers attention. Hence more readers. And maybe they read your other stuff.

Which is what we all want, right?

 

[SimonDoom]

EB looked at Simon's post carefully. This admission looked a bit like an acknowledgement that there is information contained within a Red H, because why else would you do that? "More visibility" = information provided for readers. Which is why writers want Red Vs, despite all their furious denials. He went back to his cornflakes.

One can simultaneously, and consistently, believe that red Hs have a positive impact on reader views AND that they add nothing objectively useful to the number score. They're like colorful but non-substantive advertising in that sense. One can also believe that whatever useful element they have is offset by the mischief they cause. That's my view, as well. As long as this is the system, I will play it. But I think the system would be improved without the red H. I might personally be worse off without it, because most of my non-750 word stories have red Hs and I'm sure they help draw readers.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Which is what we all want, right?

Exactly. I'm just stirring Simon's possum, because he knows it too.

Carry on .

 

[Bramblethorn]

I know of one case where the siblings took out an ad against their brother candidate!

Oh, I remember that one. There were a LOT of siblings, too. He sounded like a real piece of work.

I don't think there's anything "wrong" with voting on one's own story, but before drawing a close analogy to voting in elections, we might pause and consider what the purpose of voting on a story IS. If you see it fundamentally as competitive--wanting your story to rate as high as possible relative to other stories--OK. That's a valid purpose. But that's not important to me. The main two purposes of voting and scores, to me, are a) letting me know what others think of my story (in which case my vote is not helpful), and b) conveying to readers in general what readers in general think of a story, to assist them in choosing a story (in which case my vote arguably is not helpful, because it's biased and it's always going to be a 5).

On the latter: that bias is only a problem if some stories get the authorial 5 and some don't. If everybody 5-stars their own story (once and only once!) then they're competing on an even footing. Given the choice between "we all get to vote on our own stories" and "we're not supposed to, but if you cheat on that code, nobody will know and your stories will get a slight edge", the former seems better for both readers and non-cheaty authors.

It's also not large compared to other sources of bias - e.g. for a while I had an email list of people who'd asked to be notified when I had a new story out, and I assume those people would've been more likely to vote 5* than the average reader.