One-star trolls

[Gamblnluck]

I'm getting the full troll red carpet treatment now on Polly, in LW. Not complaining, not going to avoid publishing the rest of it.

The main problem for the lower rating (3.2 when I checked) is you did not go far enough into your story line itself. In LW, that hurts its acceptability. You set it up and have the MC, Polly, dreaming of the possibilities. Your writing is fine, but you cut it off. Then you are going to wait a week for the next submission.
Here is where the readers are: she might love her husband but is thinking. Does she? Then does she rub it her husband's face or keep it a secret? What is the real hook here? The angst. Guilt after the fact or just from her thoughts? Unlikely from the way you set it up, but possible. You did not even get that far.
LW is not conducive to that.
Then, after you get the hook, you have to get a reaction and then a resolution. What that is, is of course up to you and you will get flack either way. But most readers will like the story if that reaction/resolution is logical.

 

[CatPerson]

In my experience, the "Loving Wives" category on the site has its fair share of trolls who leave negative or unconstructive comments. However, I’ve also encountered a great number of genuine readers who truly appreciate and enjoy a well written erotic story. The positive feedback and engagement from these readers make it worthwhile. It’s heartening to know that there are many people out there who value the effort and creativity that goes into writing these stories, and their support and encouragement often outweigh the negativity from the trolls.

 

[oneagainst]

The main problem for the lower rating (3.2 when I checked) is you did not go far enough into your story line itself. In LW, that hurts its acceptability. You set it up and have the MC, Polly, dreaming of the possibilities. Your writing is fine, but you cut it off. Then you are going to wait a week for the next submission.
Here is where the readers are: she might love her husband but is thinking. Does she? Then does she rub it her husband's face or keep it a secret? What is the real hook here? The angst. Guilt after the fact or just from her thoughts? Unlikely from the way you set it up, but possible. You did not even get that far.
LW is not conducive to that.
Then, after you get the hook, you have to get a reaction and then a resolution. What that is, is of course up to you and you will get flack either way. But most readers will like the story if that reaction/resolution is logical.

I reckon you're spot on. Honestly, I'm just trying something out - it's an experiment I've run in other categories, such as You Will Show Me Everything in E/V, with breaking a story up with hooks into the next chapter. As @NoTalentHack has reminded me, they love a longer text, and this certainly could have been that. I'm just interested in the view data, and then I've got a longer story to publish afterwards in the the more traditional LW mold to compare against.

It's like the saying goes: come to Lit for the smut, stay for the data analytics...!

 

[Hypnobitch01]

Part of the scenery, unfortunately. Delete is your friend - there's nothing heroic about keeping all the bullshit commentary. It's like a dog turd on your lawn - would you leave it there?

Love this analogy

 

[SchnellFick]

Rofl. First vote after less than 5 minutes online is a 1. It's a 7k-word text. Don't you love it, when they don't bother reading it?

 

[Trionyx]

Rofl. First vote after less than 5 minutes online is a 1. It's a 7k-word text. Don't you love it, when they don't bother reading it?

Maybe they are just a ‘SchnellLeser.’

 

[Inkent]

Rofl. First vote after less than 5 minutes online is a 1. It's a 7k-word text. Don't you love it, when they don't bother reading it?

Yep. I've picked up on that too. I have trouble trying to write a short story, mine tend to bit somewhat longer but see in literally minutes, the one star merchants come out to play. I do read all the comments, I must be a masochist as it's the LW I mainly post in. What does amuse me are the ones that ignore the tags or any pre-work comments to tell me they've awarded it one star simply because of the storyline.

But the comments do spur me on to improve my work. Take out the fruit bats, there are useful pieces I will take away. Spelling, missing incorrectly used words pre-publishing ( i now have a little list of works I will check for) and criticism along those lines have made me really tighten my writing up. I do seem to have a regular anon hater pop up, and I've picked up their "style" so fairly confident it's the same person. Recently they referred to me as "the typist" in a monologue - it's a subtle dig trying disparage me as an author. I thanked them for recognising my skills as a typist, I expressed happiness that someone recognised I can now type at a speed to be recognised as an proper typist.

 

[lovecraft68]

Back when I paid more attention-and recently when a new story came out that I had the week off and decided to watch-it seems I have attracted a group of "lunch trolls"

Every new release I've watched takes a few one bombs between 12-1pm on weekdays.

 

[vividlyyours]

The lack of feedback seems to indicate someone just trolling our stories. The one-star ratings it almost immdiately, most recently within minutes of posting a 40,000-word story. The only two really negative comments I've received were one insulting my use of English (it's my native tongue and I write at about a 12th grade level) and one that said "couldn't happen, one star (well no shit, Sherlock. It's fantasy).

It's not about the insults, but low rated stories fall off the radar sooner and are skipped by many.

 

[Lifestyle66]

The lack of feedback seems to indicate someone just trolling our stories. The one-star ratings it almost immdiately, most recently within minutes of posting a 40,000-word story. The only two really negative comments I've received were one insulting my use of English (it's my native tongue and I write at about a 12th grade level) and one that said "couldn't happen, one star (well no shit, Sherlock. It's fantasy).

It's not about the insults, but low rated stories fall off the radar sooner and are skipped by many.

Even worse is when some A-hole posts a long comment criticizing your story, saying how wrong you are, and their own rant is cluelessly inaccurate!

I had one know-it-all say how WRONG my story was about Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), because their gynecologist balances their hormones. In REALITY, my wife (and others I know) have been going to various health spas for YEARS for quarterly treatments which cause their emotional nine-to-ten week plateaus and higher energy levels.

But the know-it-all troll's comment detracts from the readership, when people see that comment in the category page.

 

[PrivateFirstClass]

The lack of feedback seems to indicate someone just trolling our stories. The one-star ratings it almost immdiately, most recently within minutes of posting a 40,000-word story. The only two really negative comments I've received were one insulting my use of English (it's my native tongue and I write at about a 12th grade level) and one that said "couldn't happen, one star (well no shit, Sherlock. It's fantasy).

It's not about the insults, but low rated stories fall off the radar sooner and are skipped by many.

This was what made switching my latest chapter of my new series from Exhibition/Voyeur to LW such a disappointment. I expected lower ratings and nasty comments, but not downvoting the other chapters. One of my writing friends—who writes amazing stories—can't bring himself to post because the rewards are so weak. I'll persist, but while "release day" used to be a joy, now it's just a disappointment.

 

[Plathfan]

This was what made switching my latest chapter of my new series from Exhibition/Voyeur to LW such a disappointment. I expected lower ratings and nasty comments, but not downvoting the other chapters. One of my writing friends—who writes amazing stories—can't bring himself to post because the rewards are so weak. I'll persist, but while "release day" used to be a joy, now it's just a disappointment.

Allowing anons to read and comment is one thing, but why let them vote? Those who consistently rate one-star should be banned.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Allowing anons to read and comment is one thing, but why let them vote? Those who consistently rate one-star should be banned.

The majority of stories on lit are of legitimate 1-star quality. That's okay, because lit was designed to let anyone of any skill level have an outlet and this is a good thing. However, that means that the average story here is of poor quality. if the stories are rated with a rubric based on professional literacy (instead of amateur fap factor) the vast majority would indeed score a 1.

So my question is: under your proposed idea, how many legitimate 1s could a reader give before getting their account banned?

 

[Plathfan]

The majority of stories on lit are of legitimate 1-star quality. That's okay, because lit was designed to let anyone of any skill level have an outlet and this is a good thing. However, that means that the average story here is of poor quality. if the stories are rated with a rubric based on professional literacy (instead of amateur fap factor) the vast majority would indeed score a 1.

So my question is: under your proposed idea, how many legitimate 1s could a reader give before getting their account banned?

3 per day, and 1 per author.

 

[SimonDoom]

Allowing anons to read and comment is one thing, but why let them vote? Those who consistently rate one-star should be banned.

Let's unpack that, because there are different issues.

The obvious answer to why anonymous readers should be allowed to vote is that, according to the site, they make up over half the votes, and the site, selfishly, has no interest in preventing those who read its stories from voting. It's not going to do that. Ever. It's said as much. And that's a rational position from the site's point of view. I would adopt the same position if I owned the site.

The second answer is that there's nothing about signing up for this site and adopting a name that makes you a qualified voter. Why NOT let anonymous voters vote? I've been writing stories for seven and a half years and have never once felt there's anything wrong with anonymous voters voting. Before I signed up for this site I was an anonymous reader and voter for over 10 years. Being anonymous made me no less qualified to vote on stories.

It's curious that you take the position you do, because you appear to be contributing under the name "Plathfan" anonymously. You have no published stories under your name. If you are an author, you're hiding behind the name "Plathfan" to contribute here, so it's ironic that you are so opposed to anonymous voters. You opt to be anonymous.

On to the second issue, one-star voting. Why should people who give stories one star be banned? The site gives people the option of giving stories one star. Implicitly, it's perfectly OK to give one star. Let's say I decide as a reader to vote on a percentile basis, and give 1s to stories I believe are in the bottom quintile. That's perfectly legitimate, isn't it? How can one argue otherwise?

I almost never give 1 star, because I have a strict rule of never casting a vote unless I've finished the story, and I almost never finish a story if I hate it. But if I did finish stories I didn't like, I would regard many stories at Literotica as deserving 1 star simply because they're clearly in the bottom quintile compared to other stories. That's a perfectly fair basis for voting. The whole purpose behind scoring is to provide information to potential readers so they can make informed choices about the stories they read.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

3 per day, and 1 per author.

That's arbitrary and ridiculous.

Like Simon asserts (avoiding the phrase Simon says ... oops), why would the site give the option to vote 1 and then not allow it? It's like a restaurant having an item on a menu and then denying and chastising the customers whenever they chose it. "You chose the pineapple pizza? Eww, how dare you? Hey everybody, this idiot just tried to order the pineapple pizza, hah! No pineapple for you!" It's just silly.

 

[Plathfan]

I've been writing stories for seven and a half years and have never once felt there's anything wrong with anonymous voters voting.

No offense, but you don't seem like the sensitive type to lose sleep over ratings.

There's an issue with one specific category whose poisonous arrows reach far.

I can feel the pain of those who dared to be exposed to LW and see their entire series affected; others apparently cannot.

 

[SimonDoom]

No offense, but you don't seem like the sensitive type to lose sleep over ratings.

There's an issue with one specific category whose poisonous arrows reach far.

I can feel the pain of those who dared to be exposed to LW and see their entire series affected; others apparently cannot.

No offense taken. You're correct. I have a thick skin. I've had stories bombed and it makes absolutely no difference to my ability to achieve my goals as an author.

I understand the frustration that LW authors feel about the venom directed their way, but I've been participating in these conversations for over seven years and I see no solution that isn't worse than the way things are now.

 

[PrivateFirstClass]

Getting rid of the Hot tag probably would curb some of the down voting by people who don't read the stories or authors who create anonymous accounts to downvote others (to make their stories look better, I guess).

But, yeah, the fundamental problem is that the idea of voting for things on the internet turned out not to produce useful results for the vast majority of places that implemented it. I suspect a better mechanism would be something that measures pages read (but how to assess shorter stories?) and time spent on a page, but that would probably require software developed for ad tracking or something.

I wish I had confidence that I, by writing better stories, could influence how much of an audience I had. My sense is that I need high ratings to get enough view to have my stories suggested to others at the end of stories, so the 1-star bombing actively hurts building an audience. Whereas, my sense is that actually writing well won't impact engagement very much. (Sense being used because I have no metrics to judge this reliably).

I kind of wish I didn't care, but if I didn't care, why would I bother posting?

 

[SimonDoom]

Getting rid of the Hot tag probably would curb some of the down voting by people who don't read the stories or authors who create anonymous accounts to downvote others (to make their stories look better, I guess).

Yes. I have to amend my previous answer: getting rid of the red H, as it exists now, is the one indisputably rational improvement one could make to the current scoring system. The red H serves no useful purpose except as a bauble that authors have come to enjoy and rely on, so they don't want to let it go. Depending on the category, it can mean that your story is in the top 10% or that it's around the median. It's worthless as signifying quality.

I would replace the current system with a per-category percentile system. Say, give red H's to the top 20% of stories in each category. That would mean something.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

No offense, but you don't seem like the sensitive type to lose sleep over ratings.

There's an issue with one specific category whose poisonous arrows reach far.

I can feel the pain of those who dared to be exposed to LW and see their entire series affected; others apparently cannot.

So it's about feelings then. Anyone who hurts an author's feelings should be banned. So writers like myself and Simon (as you clearly state) don't matter since we have thick skin. Any writer who does not have thick enough skin should be protected from downvotes.

Perhaps it would be a whole lot easier for everyone involved if you just grew some thicker skin?

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I would replace the current system with a per-category percentile system. Say, give red H's to the top 20% of stories in each category. That would mean something.

Certainly not perfect (what system would be?) but obviously miles better than what we have now, completely agree.

 

[Plathfan]

That's arbitrary and ridiculous.

Like Simon asserts (avoiding the phrase Simon says ... oops), why would the site give the option to vote 1 and then not allow it? It's like a restaurant having an item on a menu and then denying and chastising the customers whenever they chose it. "You chose the pineapple pizza? Eww, how dare you? Hey everybody, this idiot just tried to order the pineapple pizza, hah! No pineapple for you!" It's just silly.

Stuka type?

 

[PrivateFirstClass]

Yes. I have to amend my previous answer: getting rid of the red H, as it exists now, is the one indisputably rational improvement one could make to the current scoring system. The red H serves no useful purpose except as a bauble that authors have come to enjoy and rely on, so they don't want to let it go. Depending on the category, it can mean that your story is in the top 10% or that it's around the median. It's worthless as signifying quality.

I would replace the current system with a per-category percentile system. Say, give red H's to the top 20% of stories in each category. That would mean something.

I was just on an art site I participate on. People can give positive reactions, but not negative ones. That feels as effective in sorting out what work people might want as the Lit 5-star system without the negative feelings of 1-star bombs. The comments tend to be much nicer, too, although that might be audience driven.

I used to stick with "hot" stories in reading, but came to realize ratings had very little predictive ability on whether I'd enjoy a story or not.

 

[RejectReality]

Like-only systems immediately transform into even more of a popularity contest completely divorced from the writing than what we have now. Drop a few risque pics and/or flirtatious posts on a fairly regular basis, and whatever word salad you cough up will absolutely bury everything else on the site.