Story Statistics

[IvorKnightly]

Question about how story stats are recorded/reported for Contests: I've been checking my stats almost daily, mostly to see if I have any comments from readers. While doing this I noted discrepencies in the stats. For example, on Oct 22 my story had an average score of 4.32 from 19 votes and had 5 hearts (favorites). I noted a few days later the score had gone up to 4.37 for 20 votes. When I looked today I see my score is still 4.37 but now shows only 19 votes (1 vote lost but still same score?). Still at 6 hearts in being listed as a favorite, but my Latest Activity in Control Panel shows 10 people had selected my story to a Favorite list as of Oct 25 (2 days ago). Are the stats reporting paused during the Halloween contest? That seems plausible so as to keep the winners secret

I also noted that the number of my story's views is reported as 7004 in Control Panel but shows 7156 views when I looked at the stats in My Stories - Control Panel just seconds later.

Just curious.

 

[TheLobster]

What you see in My Stories is the accurate number (for any statistic). Other pages always lag behind, because the site employs a convoluted and opaque caching scheme where individual pages are only refreshed every so often.

The vote count going down indicates that some illegitimate votes have been removed; this is commonly referred to as "sweeps". Since you only check your stats about daily, it is quite possible that you lost more than a couple of votes, bringing the total to below 19, and then gained a few more that bumped your final score to what it had been before.

Voting is never paused during contests. The winners are simply after the final sweep of fraudulent votes, which happens at some random time on the preannounced date.

Hope that helps!

 

[Writer61]

Question about how story stats are recorded/reported for Contests: I've been checking my stats almost daily, mostly to see if I have any comments from readers. While doing this I noted discrepencies in the stats. For example, on Oct 22 my story had an average score of 4.32 from 19 votes and had 5 hearts (favorites). I noted a few days later the score had gone up to 4.37 for 20 votes. When I looked today I see my score is still 4.37 but now shows only 19 votes (1 vote lost but still same score?). Still at 6 hearts in being listed as a favorite, but my Latest Activity in Control Panel shows 10 people had selected my story to a Favorite list as of Oct 25 (2 days ago). Are the stats reporting paused during the Halloween contest? That seems plausible so as to keep the winners secret

I also noted that the number of my story's views is reported as 7004 in Control Panel but shows 7156 views when I looked at the stats in My Stories - Control Panel just seconds later.

Just curious.

1) there can be a lag between what is on the LCP and the stories list (but you seem to be indicating the other way around)
2) especially during contests votes may disappear due to 'sweeps' removing questionable votes
3) it is also possible that a reader has chosen to remove their vote

 

[anthrodisiac]

Still at 6 hearts in being listed as a favorite, but my Latest Activity in Control Panel shows 10 people had selected my story to a Favorite list as of Oct 25 (2 days ago).

I'll also add, on top of everything else, that the "TitSucker42069 has Favorited your story!" doesn't necessarily mean they actually favorited your story. That notification also appears when they add it to a list, which does not show on your story as a favorite. It's confusing, I had the same issue when I started out. Not every favorite notification is an actual favorite, sometimes it's just CumBuck3ts going, "I'm gonna add this to my 'Yep, I came' list."

 

[TheLobster]

Not every favorite notification is an actual favorite, sometimes it's just CumBuck3ts going, "I'm gonna add this to my 'Yep, I came' list."

In which case it sadly doesn’t mean much, as it’s (literally) a drop in the bucket.

 

[RoyalAuthor]

Occasionally I click on names I see appearing on my activity list often to see what they're reading of mine. You'll see your story on some list "5 stars" or "Read again" and it almost feels better than a simple favorite.

And then you'll see one on a list called "Hot Garbage" and it cuts pretty deep lol.

 

[PennameWombat]

Per the "<Some User> has added your story to favorites" notification on your activity feed and the Favorites (heart) count on My Stories.

As mentioned, this notification shows up if <Some User> actually does a Favorite, or simply adds the story to a personal reading list. The My Stories Favorite count is only actual Favorites.

But if you download your statistics (the 'downarrow' icon on My Stories), the CSV file (spreadsheet format, Excel, Sheets, etc. can read) will break out Favorites and Reading List counts.

Users adding stories to Reading Lists is what it is. Some users have hundreds if not thousands of stories saved. Others fewer. But as authors, the notifications and count differences can be confusing unless you know about this.

 

[NotWise]

Per the "<Some User> has added your story to favorites" notification on your activity feed and the Favorites (heart) count on My Stories.

As mentioned, this notification shows up if <Some User> actually does a Favorite, or simply adds the story to a personal reading list. The My Stories Favorite count is only actual Favorites.

But if you download your statistics (the 'downarrow' icon on My Stories), the CSV file (spreadsheet format, Excel, Sheets, etc. can read) will break out Favorites and Reading List counts.

Users adding stories to Reading Lists is what it is. Some users have hundreds if not thousands of stories saved. Others fewer. But as authors, the notifications and count differences can be confusing unless you know about this.

I don't think we're notified when someone adds a story to a list, but it seems like we were for a while.

My most recent story shows 10 favorites, but I've been notified 24 times that someone added it to favorites. That probably isn't 10 favorites and 14 lists, because the story page shows that the story has been added to 43 lists.

I think what happened is that 14 of the 24 people who favorited the story temporarily bookmarked it, then dropped it. The old UI would show when someone dropped a story from favorites. It happened frequently. Now it doesn't tell us.

 

[anthrodisiac]

I don't think we're notified when someone adds a story to a list, but it seems like we were for a while.

My most recent story shows 10 favorites, but I've been notified 24 times that someone added it to favorites. That probably isn't 10 favorites and 14 lists, because the story page shows that the story has been added to 43 lists.

I think what happened is that 14 of the 24 people who favorited the story temporarily bookmarked it, then dropped it. The old UI would show when someone dropped a story from favorites. It happened frequently. Now it doesn't tell us.

I got notifications when I added one of my own stories to a list that it had been Favorited, but this was also a couple months ago.

Okay, just tried it out right now, and yep, adding a story to a list that wasn't Favorites says it was Favorited. When people add it to private lists, it doesn't show as a favorite, so I wonder if the list count on the story-side includes those private lists, which is why the number of mislabeled Favorite notifications doesn't match the number of lists the story is on, as shown on the story itself.

 

[RejectReality]

Someone adds your story as a favorite, you're notified of a favorite, your favorites for that story tick up by 1.

Someone adds your story to one of their public lists, you're notified of a favorite, ( even though it wasn't ) your lists tick up by 1. ( if you download the statistics, because it's not available in the online view )

Someone adds your story to the reading list or a private list, you're not notified, your numbers don't change.

 

[IliCatX]

There has clearly been some kind of "sweep" going on over the last couple of days, as the ratings for many of my stories have gone up while the number of votes has decreased. This is a good thing, because it was really frustrating when a new story would gather almost nothing but 5s, only for its rating to suddenly plummet due to a bunch of 1s.

 

[ElectricBlue]

There has clearly been some kind of "sweep" going on over the last couple of days, as the ratings for many of my stories have gone up while the number of votes has decreased. This is a good thing, because it was really frustrating when a new story would gather almost nothing but 5s, only for its rating to suddenly plummet due to a bunch of 1s.

It's the tail end of the Halloween Contest, so there will be more sweeps. Even if you don't have a contest entry, we all benefit, as the sweep trawls through the whole story data base, including older stories, so far as I can see.