How do you not freak out over votes?

[SimonDoom]

Go to Works, click on the story, click on the comments icon (the speech bubble doo-dad), there's the bin.

https://www.literotica.com/my/#/works/stories/published

I clicked on the comments icon and the comments appear. I don't know what you mean by bin.

 

[SimonDoom]

Go here. Scroll down to the story and click the comments icon (two speech bubbles). That will get you to the list of comments (if a comment isn't showing up on your story, you can see it here). Click on the trash can icon on the right to delete.

OK, I got that. But I think it's weird that this option doesn't appear when you open the story first, go to the bottom of the story, and review the comments. This is not intuitive.

 

[writer4hire69]

I definitely obsessed over ratings and like many coveted that bright red H next to my story. But this thread did help alleviate that a bit. Over a 4 is definitely a great accomplishment.

I will say though, one thing I am obsessing a bit over is the lack of comments. I know it’s way more effort for a reader to leave a comment than vote, but I do wish I got more words of encouragement or people saying the liked the story or what parts they liked even.

 

[nylonpunkie]

Comments are like gold dust to me, I get so few of them that I'd welcome even negative, insulting ones.

I confess I don't understand the rating/views system at all.

 

[KeithD]

Those who have works in the marketplace know that the rarity of commenting on Literotica is no worse than any feedback received other than sales numbers in the marketplace. There's no more pressure to comment here than there is in the marketplace.

 

[Jugg_Head]

Deleted

 

[SimonDoom]

Comments are like gold dust to me, I get so few of them that I'd welcome even negative, insulting ones.

I confess I don't understand the rating/views system at all.

What don't you understand?

A "view" is logged every time someone clicks on your story, regardless whether they read it through or not. No one really knows how to estimate the number of reads based on views, except it seems safe to say the number lies somewhere between the number of views and the number of votes.

Your score is the average/mean of all 1 through 5 star votes given to your story. Anyone can vote on the story.

 

[MohanSingh]

I base it more on feedback than votes. If people really like a story they will let you know.

 

[SpindleTop]

Know what your readers want!

I confess I don't understand the rating/views system at all.

What don't you understand?

I’m sure that nylonpunkie fully understands the mechanics of how view counting and the ratings calculations work, but I suspect their confusion (shared by many authors, including myself) is why some stories attract the ratings and view counts that they do. I can’t be the only one who has looked at some of the Hall of Fame stories and asked “why on earth did this score so highly?” or “why did so many people read this instead of that?”

There isn’t a single answer, but here are some thoughts:

• People who vote (and comment) on stories are not necessarily representative of the readership as a whole!

• Authors (especially those that post here) are definitely not representative of the readership!

• Readers who visit a particular category have expectations as to what they want to read and they will rate a story that satisfies those expectations more highly than one that doesn’t (even if the latter is a better story when judged purely on its literary merits). Meeting the expectations of the category readers is important - see (among several other very good ‘how to’ guides) https://www.literotica.com/s/how-to-break-the-literotica-toplist . In some categories it’s very difficult to please everyone (and average scores are consequently lower across the board), but others have a more homogenous readership (in terms of their wants/expectations/demands) and scores tend to be higher.

• The subtitle or tag line, is really important for attracting potential readers, but it mustn’t misrepresent your story. So if you promise the reader something, you have to deliver - and if you don’t you will get punished in the voting! (I think successfully delivering (or not) on the implicit promise you've made to the reader at/before the start of the story is vital for a good score!)

• Longer-established authors tend to develop fan bases (which extend beyond their Followers) and tend to get more reads and votes (and higher scores) because of this.

• Voters who might potentially give you a lower score, tend to get bored and stop reading longer stories (especially those longer than five pages), so if a reader does make it through to the end, they’ve done so because they’ve enjoyed what you’ve written and will therefore give you a better score.

• Everyone gets ‘one-bombed’ - it’s a fact of life - but the sweeps will remove dodgy votes.

Anyone got any other thoughts?

 

[SimonDoom]

I’m sure that nylonpunkie fully understands the mechanics of how view counting and the ratings calculations work, but I suspect their confusion (shared by many authors, including myself) is why some stories attract the ratings and view counts that they do. I can’t be the only one who has looked at some of the Hall of Fame stories and asked “why on earth did this score so highly?” or “why did so many people read this instead of that?”

There isn’t a single answer, but here are some thoughts:

• People who vote (and comment) on stories and not necessarily representative of the readership as a whole!

• Readers who visit a particular category have expectations as to what they want to read and they will rate a story that satisfies those expectations more highly than one that doesn’t (even if the latter is a better story when judged purely on its literary merits). Meeting the expectations of the category readers is important - see (among several other very good ‘how to’ guides) https://www.literotica.com/s/how-to-break-the-literotica-toplist . In some categories it’s very difficult to please everyone (and average scores are consequently lower across the board), but others have a more homogenous readership (in terms of their wants/expectations/demands) and scores tend to be higher.

• The subtitle or tag line, is really important for attracting potential readers, but it mustn’t misrepresent your story. So if you promise the reader something, you have to deliver - and if you don’t you will get punished in the voting! (I think successfully delivering (or not) on the implicit promise you've made to the reader at/before the start of the story is vital for a good score!)

• Longer-established authors tend to develop fan bases (which extend beyond their Followers) and tend to get more reads and votes (and higher scores) because of this.

• Voters who might potentially give you a lower score, tend to get bored and stop reading longer stories (especially those longer than five pages), so if a reader does make it through to the end, they’ve done so because they’ve enjoyed what you’ve written and will therefore give you a better score.

• Everyone gets ‘one-bombed’ - it’s a fact of life - but the sweeps will remove dodgy votes.

Anyone got any other thoughts?

Ah. You are probably right. I misunderstood.

The reasons you've listed are all good, based on my observations. There are a few others I can think of.

Some categories have far more readers than others. My incest stories have about three to four times as many views as the average of my other stories. Some categories have relatively few readers.

Randomness plays a role. Sometimes, for whatever reason, your story won't get many views. It may be because a random bombing attack drove the score down and it dropped off the new story list before it had a chance to revive, and the bad score drove people away. I've often wondered why my Story A has a higher score than Story B in the same category, with similar kinds of content, but has far fewer views. Randomness plays a role.

Getting on toplists and favorites lists definitely helps, because it means more people will see the title of your story.

Publishing more stories helps. The more your name is out there, the more readers will see your name and click on your stories. My overall view titles definitely start to drop off if I haven't published in a while, but when I publish new stories, especially in popular categories, all my stories get more views.

The key is, one way or another, getting eyeballs on your stories, however that happens.

 

[SpindleTop]

Randomness plays a role. Sometimes, for whatever reason, your story won't get many views. It may be because a random bombing attack drove the score down and it dropped off the new story list before it had a chance to revive, and the bad score drove people away. I've often wondered why my Story A has a higher score than Story B in the same category, with similar kinds of content, but has far fewer views. Randomness plays a role.

Yes, absolutely - I couldn't agree more! Being on the receiving end of a series of 'one bombs' within half a day of the story being published can do permanent damage - especially when the vandals prevent the magic red H from appearing within the first 24-48 hours! (Having a large list of Followers and other fans will help to compensate, but for a new author it's a demoralising experience!)

 

[KeithD]

I base it more on feedback than votes. If people really like a story they will let you know.

Well, no, not most of them. They'll just leave without commenting--most likely not voting either. Most people just read and leave, even when they loved the story. Sorry, but this is the reality. Most people buying a book don't track down the author to comment one way or the other after reading it no matter what they thought of the book.

Authors torture themselves in expecting more direct reaction than they are going to get.

 

[SimonDoom]

Well, no, not most of them. They'll just leave without commenting--most likely not voting either. Most people just read and leave, even when they loved the story. Sorry, but this is the reality. Most people buying a book don't track down the author to comment one way or the other after reading it no matter what they thought of the book.

Authors torture themselves in expecting more direct reaction than they are going to get.

I completely agree with this, which is why my philosophy is that what you ought to strive for is not nice comments or high scores but just getting eyeballs on your stories. The more people that read your story, the more will like it and appreciate it. Most of them will never let you know, but you can be confident that some will like it.

I'd rather have a score of 4.55 knowing that five thousand people read and enjoyed my story than a score of 4.85 and a contest victory knowing that five hundred people read and enjoyed my story. Of course, I'll never really know what the numbers are, but I think the principle holds, nonetheless.