I see my score is 4.18

[MillieDynamite]

Miss Scarlett, in the bedroom, with the butcher's knife.

See, you aren't even trying to speak in good faith.

Unless you're talking about something other than the Rust accident.

Who did he murder?

 

[MillieDynamite]

Alex Baldwin was careless, and there shouldn't've been live ammunition anywhere near the set. But that doesn't make him a murderer; he's guilty of manslaughter, possibly, but it was ruled death by misadventure. An accident, no more or less guilty than a person in an automobile accident that kills someone without malice, forethought, and not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

The fact they still have Baldwin on there, a long time drunk and abuser and now murderer, but then they condemn politicians says it all.

EDIT: Technically, it was ruled death by accident, absent any intent.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Alex Baldwin was careless, and there shouldn't've been live ammunition anywhere near the set. But that doesn't make him a murderer; he's guilty of manslaughter, possibly, but it was ruled death by misadventure. An accident, no more or less guilty than a person in an automobile accident that kills someone without malice, forethought, and not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

EDIT: Technically, it was ruled death by accident, absent any intent.

Yeah, for it to be death by misadventure, the misadventure has to be on the part of the deceased.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Yes, I knew that, but blew it when I typed it. Missadventure is falling off a rock, or blowing your brains out with a blank round by playing like you're shooting yourself, as in, Silk Stalkings. (That is Silk Stalkings, not silk stockings. Though I'm fairly certain, a few folks have murdered with silk stockings!)

Yeah, for it to be death by misadventure, the misadventure has to be on the part of the deceased.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

This is the playing field we're all on and its not a level one in many ways and there is no way to fix that.

I hear you on that but I kinda disagree. I agree that it's not level and I agree that there is no way to fix that perfectly, but there are things that can be done to improve the landscape, and they are some pretty simple things too - that is if the admin cared enough to try.

 

[MillieDynamite]

If only paid memberships could cast votes, maybe you're right! But then, who would write for here if they had to pay for the privilege?

I hear you on that but I kinda disagree. I agree that it's not level and I agree that there is no way to fix that perfectly, but there are things that can be done to improve the landscape, and they are some pretty simple things too - that is if the admin cared enough to try.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

If only paid memberships could cast votes, maybe you're right! But then, who would write for here if they had to pay for the privilege?

Who is arguing for a paywall? Not me.

 

[SimonDoom]

The system is a failure in promoting stories that are a cut above. Instead it promotes stories that are very average as a cut above. This is misleading, certainly not helpful to anyone (except to people who write averagely received stories want to falsely feel like they're awesome). It certainly does not help writers who do score really well yet are not separated from the chaff. So in that sense the system that we have is an epic failure.

How would the Site do this, do you think? I have somewhat more confidence than you do in the "ratings of the masses," but even if I were to concede that a democratic voting system elevates popular stories but not good ones, how would you improve it? I suppose the site could pick a panel of "well-qualified" authors to pick good stories, but it would be highly subjective and probably create a lot of grumbling about unfairness.

The system is also a failure in fairness, as some categories are super easy to score a hot rating and a few are much more difficult, and a bunch are somewhere in between. This is hardly fair to the niche writer who writes controversial stuff and is slanted heavily in favor of those who spam easy categories with formulaic pandering.

Problem 1 could be taken care of by changing the red H system, as we've discussed.

Problem 2 -- the niche writer -- is a bit different. No matter what the category is, there are ways to "write to the category" and dramatically improve one's chance of a high score, or to "challenge the category" and risk a lower score. I've done both, with highly predictable results. Almost every time I've "challenged the category" the result is a lower score. I'm fairly sanguine about that, though, because I find one can get readers who like one's story even with a mediocre score.

On the other hand, AwkwardlySet does not address any of these issues with his proposal at all. His only concern is fraudulent votes which he feels strongly is a major problem ruining the experience here. Well, fraudulent voting isn't that large of a problem. It's a problem, sure but it's not that large and it does not ruin the experience for the vast majority of writers here. It's an itch that we all must inconveniently scratch from time to time absolutely, but all in all its quite copacetic - no biggie. And let me be clear, personally as one of the least popular (very low profile) and most hated writers here, I'll put my bomb ratio up against anyone. If anyone should have their experience ruined by fraudulent voting it should be me, yet I find it a mere disappointment, no biggie. Furthermore, his proposal will not put much of a dent in fraudulent voting like he believes that it will. The occasional bomb-vote is not a problem. Co-ordinated mass downvoting is the real problem and that is usually done with multiple accounts anyways, so his system will not solve this.

I agree. I don't think I have a high "bomb ratio," but I know for a fact that I've received plenty of 1 votes, and I don't see them as a big deal. It's the price you pay for an inclusive voting system.

 

[lovecraft68]

If only paid memberships could cast votes, maybe you're right! But then, who would write for here if they had to pay for the privilege?

This is something I mentioned a few times but most recently the "You just bought lit" thread about what you'd change.

Lit is free to an extent, you can sign up for a free id and for that can only read X amount of stories per month and you can't vote or comment, just read.

But if they charged a small amount for 'premium', let's say $4.99 to read unlimited stories and be able to vote and comment, well, you're going to get a lot less views, votes and comments, but it will eliminate the one bombing and nasty comments because you only get one vote and the comments are public so if its seen you have a pattern of excessive one votes and personal attack style comments, you lose your account.

Now a benefit of the site getting even several thousand people to pony up is a huge increase in income and some of that can be passed on to the authors in the way of bigger contest payouts and maybe some giveaways etc.

Would never happen, but you want a better class of membership, then charge for it.

This is why there are far less bad scores and nasty reviews in the paid market, people have to spend money to get the book so they're more likely to be interested not just bombing up and down the line and a pattern of nasty reviews will eventually get you in trouble.

 

[Voboy]

No matter what the category is, there are ways to "write to the category" and dramatically improve one's chance of a high score, or to "challenge the category" and risk a lower score. I've done both, with highly predictable results. Almost every time I've "challenged the category" the result is a lower score.

This is why so many of us are reminding y'all that no system is infallible, and that even "perfect" systems tend to have unintended consequences that bear out over time.

The system that cannot be gamed has never been invented; the will of humans to stack the deck in their favor is no weaker just because we're giving our efforts for free.

Whether it's categories or contest scores, if it can be gamed it will be gamed. So changing the system (which is a massive change, culturally) will ultimately generate the same complaints we're reading now.

 

[MillieDynamite]

It would be the only way to insure that multiple free accounts are used and that no one could use a VPN on free accounts couldn't disguise the voting.

Who is arguing for a paywall? Not me.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I'm not promoting for a paid site. I just think it's about the only to control voting in general. Or at least not allow someone to vote when they aren't logged in. The might still have a bagillion free membership.

This is something I mentioned a few times but most recently the "You just bought lit" thread about what you'd change.

Lit is free to an extent, you can sign up for a free id and for that can only read X amount of stories per month and you can't vote or comment, just read.

But if they charged a small amount for 'premium', let's say $4.99 to read unlimited stories and be able to vote and comment, well, you're going to get a lot less views, votes and comments, but it will eliminate the one bombing and nasty comments because you only get one vote and the comments are public so if its seen you have a pattern of excessive one votes and personal attack style comments, you lose your account.

Now a benefit of the site getting even several thousand people to pony up is a huge increase in income and some of that can be passed on to the authors in the way of bigger contest payouts and maybe some giveaways etc.

Would never happen, but you want a better class of membership, then charge for it.

This is why there are far less bad scores and nasty reviews in the paid market, people have to spend money to get the book so they're more likely to be interested not just bombing up and down the line and a pattern of nasty reviews will eventually get you in trouble.

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm not promoting for a paid site. I just think it's about the only to control voting in general. Or at least not allow someone to vote when they aren't logged in. The might still have a bagillion free membership.

Paid would be an ultimate solution-but no one would be happy with it. I mean, after 25 years of consuming awesome free content, you want me to pay $5 a month to keep you going?

The other equally non popular, but easier, solution is you cannot vote or comment unless, like you said, everyone has a handle and has to log in, and its one vote per story. Comments maybe more could be allowed because people will come back to a story every so often.

This would eliminate a lot of the bombing of top list stories, contest stories, personal vendettas etc, it would also go a long way in cleaning up the LW category because many of the anon there are too spineless to create even a fake name so scores would be up and horrible comments down. I'd say that would be the place here you'd see the biggest and most positive turnaround.

But I will always point out that since I've been here, I'm convinced the site gets a kick out of catering to and supporting the worst elements here.

New ownership would be the only way I think we'd see any major changes here as far as all the things that get discussed. But who knows if even that would happen? Laurel and Manu get tired of doing this maybe they choose to close up shop rather than see anyone else run their baby. I could have sold my comic shop; I had fair offers for it and I could have walked away with that money, but I couldn't see someone taking over what my wife and I built over 8 years. Maybe the same happens here.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

How would the Site do this, do you think? I have somewhat more confidence than you do in the "ratings of the masses," but even if I were to concede that a democratic voting system elevates popular stories but not good ones, how would you improve it? I suppose the site could pick a panel of "well-qualified" authors to pick good stories, but it would be highly subjective and probably create a lot of grumbling about unfairness.

We've already discussed it in this thread and we both seem to agree. The 55th percentile bar for Red H is too low. 4.5 is too low. Raise it. This obviously would not rate higher quality pieces as Hot! but it would raise properly popular pieces (pieces that most people like) as Hot! That is a significant improvement. This change would take Manu 30 seconds to implement.

Of course this would kill the Hot! ratings in a category like LW, but then again, we seem to be in agreement that the Hot! rating be defined by percentiles within category would vastly improve everything. Not perfect, nothing will be, but vastly improved.

The only ones who would grumble (read: bitch whine cry stomp and shout!) would be the writers with 4.6 stories (rightly) losing their Hot! rating, even if they could still get a second or third tier warm rating.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Unless you are standing in for Tilan, why don't you show me where exactly have I said anything that was about fixing my own scores, especially in the last couple of months, as you say?

https://forum.literotica.com/threads/story-score-percentiles-lw-versus-the-rest.1626720/

Pretty much every post that you made form page 4 on, shows that this is your personal crusade to protect your own scores. Most damning is the idea that you argue that those who opt out of unregistered voting can still be eligible for contests vs those who allow unregistered voting. You want to disallow unregistered voting to keep your score up, than means that you want to win the contest against other stories that don't.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Like I said, who'd fucking want to write here if is a pay site and the writers have no benefits from those payments? I have no need to know who votes what way. Nor do I want be burdened pay for the dubious privileged of to publish sans financial compensation of some sort. At least on that other site (LOS backwards) we have the links to their purchase site to reap some rewards. But I like here the way it is, even with one-bombs, hateful comments from strange people, and not enough harts or red H's. I appreciate those I do have though and that we link to our Amazon page.

Paid would be an ultimate solution-but no one would be happy with it. I mean, after 25 years of consuming awesome free content, you want me to pay $5 a month to keep you going?

The other equally non popular, but easier, solution is you cannot vote or comment unless, like you said, everyone has a handle and has to log in, and its one vote per story. Comments maybe more could be allowed because people will come back to a story every so often.

This would eliminate a lot of the bombing of top list stories, contest stories, personal vendettas etc, it would also go a long way in cleaning up the LW category because many of the anon there are too spineless to create even a fake name so scores would be up and horrible comments down. I'd say that would be the place here you'd see the biggest and most positive turnaround.

But I will always point out that since I've been here, I'm convinced the site gets a kick out of catering to and supporting the worst elements here.

New ownership would be the only way I think we'd see any major changes here as far as all the things that get discussed. But who knows if even that would happen? Laurel and Manu get tired of doing this maybe they choose to close up shop rather than see anyone else run their baby. I could have sold my comic shop; I had fair offers for it and I could have walked away with that money, but I couldn't see someone taking over what my wife and I built over 8 years. Maybe the same happens here.

 

[Voboy]

Like I said, who'd fucking want to write here if is a pay site and the writers have no benefits from those payments?

Amen. Making this a paid site would destroy everything about it.

I have no need to know who votes what way.

This right here.

There are a number of people who routinely complain about these things, but the overwhelming majority of writers seem not to care all that much. I certainly don't GAF about who's voting on my stories, though there are times when I'd appreciate a n breakdown for my own purposes. But even without that breakdown, I've learned to live with the system as it is.

 

[SimonDoom]

At least on that other site (LOS backwards)

Shit Outta Luck -- erotic stories for the downtrodden and depressed

 

[MillieDynamite]

Feels that way sometimes, don't it?

Shit Outta Luck -- erotic stories for the downtrodden and depressed