Does it bother you if the stories you are publishing are above 4.0 or 4.5 rating but there is hardly any comments on your story?

[HectorBidon]

It turns out that the number of comments I've received on my own stories is just about the same as the number of comments I've left on other people's stories.

 

[KeithD]

No, it doesn't bother me if there are few or no comments on my stories.

 

[alohadave]

If you get comments, it means the reader has actually read the story?

Scrolled to the end at least.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I feel that comments and favoriting are the best way to learn how good or bad your story is.

Same as with ratings, favorites and comments are a sign that readers liked your story. It is not necessarily a sign of a good and well written story. I know many authors would love to have some objective way to measure how good they are, myself included, but this is not it, and it's unlikely that it will ever be so. Enjoy the feedback and be your own judge of story quality.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

If you get comments, it means the reader has actually read the story?
Favourites mean nothing.
Scores are wonderful.
But I think we all thrive off comments?

I disagree that favorites mean nothing.

I wish there was a metric that measured how many times the same reader went back and read a story two or more times. Based upon comments I have received, this has happened frequently with some of my stories but there is no way to measure it other than through the comments.

Others have probably experienced this as well, especially with stories that are part of a "universe" where readers might go back and refresh themselves every time a new installment gets published.

Favorites are also what help get stories placed in the Favorite Stories section here.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

There's also a definite drop in the number of ratings on stories submitted after 2016. Far more than can be explained from simple age and the slow accretion of ratings over time.

I think there's a twofold effect:

1. Lit is getting more traffic from authors, so more stories are being published, so stories rotate out of new quicker
2. Lit readers have changed in behavior. Whether this is due to the site design changes, or due to the use of mobile devices, or simply newer readers not having the same drive to leave ratings for content... that I can't say
.

It would be interesting to see some actual rigorous statistical studies of behaviour.

I'd say there is something to what you are saying. Some really old stories have an unusually high number of reactions from readers that can't be explained through story quality. I wouldn't dare to guess the reason for the change in behavior, as it is likely to be a very complex combination of many factors. I would dare to presume that comments not being instant anymore contributed to that change to an extent. Does anyone know how long ago instant comments were terminated?

 

[AwkwardlySet]

You have written some long series, though. From my experience, individual chapters in a series get few comments, then you get a lot of them on the last chapter when the series concludes.

My experience is similar to an extent. I do find that some impactful chapters get decent numbers of comments regardless of their place in the series. But on average, yeah... I'd say endings, especially if done right, do tend to bring most comments.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

My experience is similar to an extent. I do find that some impactful chapters get decent numbers of comments regardless of their place in the series. But on average, yeah... I'd say endings, especially if done right, do tend to bring most comments.

I'm curious if anyone has a guess for how the time frame between chapter postings might influence the voting and comments on the chapters.

I know that the one time that I had delays in posting chapters for a story I received several comments complaining about the delay.

However, if readers are able to zip through one chapter after another, this likely discourages their feedback until the end. Thoughts?

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I once published two 10k words chapters in the same series with only a day or two in between. To this day the chapter I published first stands as the only story I've written that has 0 comments, regardless of its high 4.80 score and a good number of votes on it. The fact that the following chapter was the series ending (of a sort, but not really) probably didn't help.

 

[CiaoSteve]

Most of my stories have very few comments. I only have 6 stories which reached double figures for the number of comments, with my most commented being 21 comments from a total of 24k views. I don't worry about it... it must be that the reader is so engrossed in what I have written that they don't have the time to comment.

 

[Fl_maledad]

I think it’s amazing that you all write these stories. As a reader I appreciate you taking the time and putting yourselves and your minds out there for people like me to enjoy. I try to always give positive feed back. Thanks for making literotica a place to lose myself in fantasy!!

 

[Grendelpuppy]

I would be elated to get a 4.0 with zero comments.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I love getting comments and I wish more people did, but even as a writer, I don't comment on every story I read. I rate them but don't always comment. But lately, I've come to understand that being followed or my story being favorited, is the same thing really. It says, "I liked your stuff enough that I want to know every time you publish." Or, "This story was so good that I want to check it out again at a later date." To me, those are some really great comments, even if they are implied rather than spelled out. It puts a smile on my face every time.

 

[CoyoteHoward]

I feel that comments and favoriting are the best way to learn how good or bad your story is.While having your stories consistently above 4.0 or even HOT is good...I feel a bit disappointed that my new stories arent gathering any comments.

Does anyone else feel the same way?

I feel the same.

 

[KeithD]

There are just too many variables here to get excited about comments. This isn't a literary critique site. This is a erotica (including porn) story site. Presumably lots of readers come here for a sexual buzz off the content of the stories, not to consider them as works of art. If you're putting faith in the relevance of even those who do comment, you are presuming more than you should in terms of using either ratings or comments to gauge your writing expertise.

 

[Britva415]

If the first comment is abusive, that sometimes encourages others to compliment

me: *spams own uncommented stories with anon flames

 

[Trionyx]

Occasionally I’ve seen people drop comments but the vote number doesn’t change. Until recently comments were held back making it difficult to assess this but on older stories where the number of views and votes is low, I’ve seen it happen. It seems easy to drop a vote so why not vote if you go to the trouble of writing a comment?

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'm curious if anyone has a guess for how the time frame between chapter postings might influence the voting and comments on the chapters.

I know that the one time that I had delays in posting chapters for a story I received several comments complaining about the delay.

However, if readers are able to zip through one chapter after another, this likely discourages their feedback until the end. Thoughts?

None that I can see. A chaptered story has a life in the category front pages based on the number of chapters (obviously). But once it's up and every chapter is published, and it's thirty days later, that early run is irrelevant. Comments are more based on the story itself, not the timing.

I don't see folk "saving it for the end" - I reckon they comment as a chapter takes their fancy.

I also think you can get a rough idea if a chapter has had a higher "read twice" effect, if there's an upward spike in views, compared to the chapters each side.

 

[KeithD]

Occasionally I’ve seen people drop comments but the vote number doesn’t change. Until recently comments were held back making it difficult to assess this but on older stories where the number of views and votes is low, I’ve seen it happen. It seems easy to drop a vote so why not vote if you go to the trouble of writing a comment?

There are folks who favorite a story but don't vote on it. Apparently they think that one response covers everything.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Readers have no idea how obsessed writers are with ratings; I certainly didn't know. I am still amazed every time.

If one would like their readers to rate and leave a comment, they should add a note at the end of the story politely requesting their feedback.

It doesn't work.

 

[ronde]

I view it all as "feedback".

Votes are typically the easiest feedback option for users and a mechanism that most readers are familiar with (ratings). The votes-per-view ratio is also a metric that can be used in addition to the actual score itself.

Favorites are an indication that the reader has enough interest in the story to "keep it on their shelf"

Followers are readers that have expressed some degree of loyalty to the author, though not necessarily for one particular story.

Comments are the hardest for most readers to provide. They typically need to have much stronger opinions about a story for them to put the effort into finding the words that they want to share.

Make readers either love or hate the story and you'll get comments. Otherwise, learn to measure different forms of feedback or ignore all of it.

I would add one more piece of advice. The very best way to get votes, comments, followers, and favorites is to write and write a lot as long as the writing is fairly good. I don't mean submit something every day. Just keep submitting on a somewhat regular basis. It almost doesn't matter what genre you write in, if you write enough, you'll develop a following and that following with give you all of the above.

 

[Zootonius]

A lot of my early stories has comments along the lines of "you need an editor." Now that I have an editor, the typical number of comments are fewer.

 

[Codoc24]

I published my first story about 6 months ago and in the first 10k views, I had around 10 comments. I now have 27k views and only 1 more comment. Rating is 4.7. I published Part 2 of my story about 7 weeks ago. It has over 10k views and only 1 comment. Rating is 4.76. The comments for Part 1 were generally favorable, so I am a little surprised so few comments on Part 2. Not that it bothers me a lot. Still, it would be nice to get a few comments.

 

[djrip]

I don't see folk "saving it for the end" - I reckon they comment as a chapter takes their fancy.

If I'm binging a series all at once, I sometimes wait and comment at the end. Volume of comments suggests many do the same. But more often I sprinkle a few here and there along the way saying stuff like 'oh it looks like this might happen, but I hope not! Ok, better keep reading and see...'

In my imagination, the writer enjoys hearing about my reactions along the way as I navigate their twists and turns.

 

[lc69hunter]

I have only published one so far (a lot in the works) down in Reviews and Essays a score of 3.51/154 views, 32 comments (I deleted one), but 19 favorites. Considering the topic I am not disappointed