War on the "Trolls"

[BlackShanglan]

And everyone would have to sign a "no hard feelings and petty retaliation if I don't give you a 5" clause with me (in blood) before I read their stories. Because I will cast honest votes, and it will happen that sometimes it dents a perfect 5.0 score, knocking a toplist leader down from the top, or a competition leader down to second place. Not because I want to piss on peoples' parades, but because I thought the story deserved a 4 or 3, regardless of what others have voted before me.

If I hear one pouting complaint about that, then I'll never vote again.

Amen. I once had an author send me a PM pleading with me to read his contest story, then send me a series of interrogations about whether I was the person who voted at a specific time with a specific vote number. I found this extremely offputting; the clear implication - and indeed the author said as much in his PM - was that I was to vote a 5 or not vote. I think this both unreasonable and unethical. When I vote on a story, I vote on the quality of the story; it's an nasty business to go about trying to brow-beat people into voting up one's work. I'll confess to having a time or two when I did not vote at all to spare the feelings of someone whose company I enjoyed, but that group would not include people who attempt to harangue and harass others into aiding them to contest wins that they don't deserve. If the story can't persuade readers of its quality itself, it is a fault of the story, and that is not to be remedied by making oneself unpleasant to one's readers.

Shanglan

 

[cantdog]

The whole troll thing could be just a row of people with independent minds who all decided, by coincidence, to bomb every story and poem of Mat's all at once. But I think it's more likely it was deliberate. I also agree that it's likely it was malicious and spiteful.

I don't think I am confusing those people with someone who votes as they see fit for their own aesthetic reasons, or I guess, humanitarian reasons, in Shang's case, since he wants to save people from having to read a bad story.

On the other hand, if you are stubbornly independent and determined to vote as you please, maybe you ought not to confuse yourselves with trolls. When people complain about trolls, they don't mean you. Not only should we know that, so should you. This spirited defense of the need to vote free is not germane, really. It might be if the sort of 'reform' proposed at the top of this thread were actually in any danger of being implemented, I suppose. But the site is not going to buy that one.

 

[Guest]

If everybody is cool with only letting registered members vote (I wonder how many of the votes are by Lit members, and how many are by the visiting public), then I see no problem with this. It might significally reduce the total number of votes though.

And everyone would have to sign a "no hard feelings and petty retaliation if I don't give you a 5" clause with me (in blood) before I read their stories. Because I will cast honest votes, and it will happen that sometimes it dents a perfect 5.0 score, knocking a toplist leader down from the top, or a competition leader down to second place. Not because I want to piss on peoples' parades, but because I thought the story deserved a 4 or 3, regardless of what others have voted before me.

If I hear one pouting complaint about that, then I'll never vote again.

Liar....
My whole thought behind that is simply to make those.... less then happy with you people have to show that they are being dicks....

if you read one of my stories and it sucks then by all means give it the 1 or 2 it deserves..... but if I sit there and see that there are 25 votes on a story and the rating is a 4.86.... and then suddenly I see three or four 1s in a row.... then I am going to know that its just sour nasty grapes by those people

 

[Guest]

 

[Guest]

I have no problem with someone who gives me a one and leaves a comment (I reserve the right to delete it because I think you were looking for jack off material and stumbled on my NOVEL) that's not a troll. Dissapointed, Irritated, Annoying because they didn't view the catagory yes.

It's the 1s that pop up for no reason and no explanation that burn me. Come on if you hated it enough to vote a 1 or 2 you hate it enought to tell me why in a e-mail or comment. I have deleted comments that get somewhat "personal" in nature, but I'll leave ones that have at least a constructive value. Those are not trolls.

Bomb me with a one and don't tell me why... that's a troll.

Agreed.

 

[cantdog]

Probably Santa Troll. He knows when you've been bad or good.

 

[Synthia]

I thought the "Troll' question would get some response, but it's even more than I expected. The thread has gone off in several directions which is good in my opinion.

I should say Lit replied to my proposal to modify the voting system and raised several questions. One was the possibility of authors getting their friends and neighbors to all vote 5. My highest vote getter and highest rated story has 254 votes, and I don't have that many friends and neighbors.

I got back to Lit and raised the total vote level at which the "safeguard" mechanism would kick in, but requested isolated 1 and 2 votes on a high rated story be put on hold 'til they reached a certain number or percent. If they reached that level or percent, then all would be released. If not, they they would all be canceled, thrown out, deleted, or whatever.

As several people have suggested, it is a long hard road to get somethjing like this accomplished, but I know of no more worthy cause than to get rid of the Trolls.

We need to get behind something like this, guys and gals.

Synthia

 

[BlackShanglan]

... but I know of no more worthy cause than to get rid of the Trolls.

I think this must be where we differ. But then I am rid of the trolls already. Their power is something like fairy gold; drag it out into the light, and behold - it evaporates.

Nonetheless, best of luck in your endeavours.

Shanglan

 

[yui]

If everybody is cool with only letting registered members vote (I wonder how many of the votes are by Lit members, and how many are by the visiting public), then I see no problem with this. It might significally reduce the total number of votes though.

And everyone would have to sign a "no hard feelings and petty retaliation if I don't give you a 5" clause with me (in blood) before I read their stories. Because I will cast honest votes, and it will happen that sometimes it dents a perfect 5.0 score, knocking a toplist leader down from the top, or a competition leader down to second place. Not because I want to piss on peoples' parades, but because I thought the story deserved a 4 or 3, regardless of what others have voted before me.

If I hear one pouting complaint about that, then I'll never vote again.

*clapping*

 

[elsol]

I have a better solution for trolls.

Someday, I will write a title so clearly brilliant, even a troll will have to click read the first sentence.

My first sentence will be so perfectly absorbing, they'll have to read the whole paragraph.

My first paragraph will be so completely consuming, they'll have to read the entire chapter.

My first chapter will be so superbly written, they'll have to read the entire story.

And I will have so changed their life (yes, their very lives) that by the time they get to the voting, they'll NEED to give me a 5.

---

But I'm not quite there yet... so first, I'll write stories good enough that all non-trolls give me 5's.

sincerely,
ElSol

 

[Boratus]

3 things

What I really hate is when a new story come up in a category where one of My stories is competing for supremecy and it's worth a 5. And I have to PAINFULLY click on that damn 5 and help it beat My Own Story!


When the last story I submitted got approved, it got trolled right away. A 1 as its very first vote. How annoying is that? it's since come back to 4.6 but damn! I must have my own personal troll just waiting for my stuff to come out!


Has anyone seen this? I read a story recently that had an H next to it but, in my opinion, fell well short of that score. However the author had turned both rating and feedback off. I believe that was just to maintain his position. How annoying is that?

 

[elsol]

What I really hate is when a new story come up in a category where one of My stories is competing for supremecy and it's worth a 5. And I have to PAINFULLY click on that damn 5 and help it beat My Own Story!

Don't compete.

Has anyone seen this? I read a story recently that had an H next to it but, in my opinion, fell well short of that score. However the author had turned both rating and feedback off. I believe that was just to maintain his position. How annoying is that?

Usually, I find that the story offers something I won't write about.

I write mind-control at times, but I won't ignore the moral question... thus anyone looking for escapism will always vote a story that doesn't deal with them issue higher.

It doesn't mean I will ever write a story like that though.

You might think its crap, and to be honest, it probably is.

But some people like to roll around in shit.

Edited to Add: I was in a porn video store and I found a section (I repeat, a SECTION) of videos about raw meat on women's feet. It cured me of being surprised by what people like in their porn.


Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[BlackShanglan]

Has anyone seen this? I read a story recently that had an H next to it but, in my opinion, fell well short of that score. However the author had turned both rating and feedback off. I believe that was just to maintain his position. How annoying is that?

The thing that always baffles me about manuevers like this is the question of who, precisely, they are meant to benefit. If the author thinks that the story is good, surely it's good whatever the score is. If the author thinks that the story is weak, isn't it rather confessing it to seek to artificially prop the score? I can't quite work out what this sort of thing is meant to accomplish. What's an 'H' worth if you know you had to fiddle the voting to get it?

Shanglan

 

[BlackShanglan]

Edited to Add: I was in a porn video store and I found a section (I repeat, a SECTION) of videos about raw meat on women's feet. It cured me of being surprised by what people like in their porn.

*laugh*

Beats my favorite example on the "gross" scale. But I still do fondly remember the gay-interest inflatable pool animal fetish site I found once. I think the part that really entranced me was the "gay" element; it had never really occurred to me until that point to try to determine the gender of an inflatable pool animal.

Shanglan

 

[elsol]

*laugh*

Beats my favorite example on the "gross" scale. But I still do fondly remember the gay-interest inflatable pool animal fetish site I found once. I think the part that really entranced me was the "gay" element; it had never really occurred to me until that point to try to determine the gender of an inflatable pool animal.

Shanglan

See but at least that has an element of cool to it.

Raw hamburger on feet as sexy?

For the most part, I think our sexual interests are caused by our experiences during our youth.

I can trace my 'foibles' back to certain things...

Bondage = Wonder Woman episode where she gets captured by Nazis and strapped to a torture table. I was VERY disappointed by her escape.

Mind Control -- the 'On-Think-Off-think' episode of Buck Rogers.

Butts -- Err, that's a cultural thing, I'm Latin. All the men talk about it so what can you expect.

--- But what the fuck makes hamburger on feet become a sexual interest?

Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[BlackShanglan]

Butts -- Err, that's a cultural thing, I'm Latin. All the men talk about it so what can you expect.

No wonder you're so far behind on your baby quota. Focus, man! (Edited to add: sorry, just realized that that was a reference to El Sol's joke on a different thread. I'm sure he recognizes the intent, but would hate anyone else to mistake it.)

--- But what the fuck makes hamburger on feet become a sexual interest?

Seriously? I'll take an incredibly ill-informed stab at it based on a delightful mish-mash of 19th century sources. Krafft-Ebing suggests that some people have symbolic sexual desires. A man who enjoyed slicing gashes in women's garments, for example, he might term an "idealized" or symbolic sadist; the desire was really to cut the woman, but it was transferred to her garments. Personally, I'd worry about the hamburger on feet people. It sounds like a sublimation of the desire to maim or mutiliate, or at least to degrade.

Could be wrong. Just a hunch.

Shanglan

 

[elsol]

No wonder you're so far behind on your baby quota. Focus, man! (Edited to add: sorry, just realized that that was a reference to El Sol's joke on a different thread. I'm sure he recognizes the intent, but would hate anyone else to mistake it.)

Ahhh... second mystery solved.

I guess that would be an extra long swim for my baby-makers.

First they have to swim out of her ass, make a left (or is it right) at gate, and then swim into her pussy to find the egg.

Shit... I'm getting tired just thinking about it.

Seriously? I'll take an incredibly ill-informed stab at it based on a delightful mish-mash of 19th century sources. Krafft-Ebing suggests that some people have symbolic sexual desires. A man who enjoyed slicing gashes in women's garments, for example, he might term an "idealized" or symbolic sadist; the desire was really to cut the woman, but it was transferred to her garments. Personally, I'd worry about the hamburger on feet people. It sounds like a sublimation of the desire to maim or mutiliate, or at least to degrade.

Could be wrong. Just a hunch.

Shanglan

Oh... that sounds much better than my explanation.

I figured momma dropped meat onto her feet when baby was crawling around.

I wonder if this guy would say that a guy wanting to get into a girl's butt is actually a 'symbolic gay dude'... that would also explain my lack of babies.


Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[BlackShanglan]

I wonder if this guy would say that a guy wanting to get into a girl's butt is actually a 'symbolic gay dude'... that would also explain my lack of babies.

A possibility but not a certainty. He was writing in a time when quite a lot of things - masturbation, for instance - were seen as grave degenerate perils to health and mental ability, so he might just have written you off as a perverse degenerate interested in defiling your partner. Such an interesting little world he lived in.

My personal favorite was the man with the wig obsession. The wife was a bit taken aback - especially given that the long, elaborate wigs he wanted her to wear only seemed to keep their charm for about a fortnight before a new one was required - but she was game enough to keep trying. We're told in a masterfully droll little note that "The result of this marriage was, after five years, two children and a collection of seventy-two wigs."

Shanglan

 

[minsue]

... so first, I'll write stories good enough that all non-trolls give me 5's.

sincerely,
ElSol

I think that's the opinion already held by many...that all "non-trolls" give them 5's.

 

[elsol]

I wonder how you bring that up in a conversation.

'Honey, can you wear a wig while we do it?'

And I thought

"Babe... I really want to fuck you in the ass." was awkward.

Although, I have to say it's so brutally funny to watch a guy wrangle with wanting his girlfriend to do him. I said I would have the conversation with her if he wanted.

He said 'Absolutely not!'

*snap*

Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[elsol]

I think that's the opinion already held by many...that all "non-trolls" give them 5's.

*ssshhh*

Shattering illusions isn't nice.

Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[cantdog]

What I really hate is when a new story come up in a category where one of My stories is competing for supremecy and it's worth a 5. And I have to PAINFULLY click on that damn 5 and help it beat My Own Story!


When the last story I submitted got approved, it got trolled right away. A 1 as its very first vote. How annoying is that? it's since come back to 4.6 but damn! I must have my own personal troll just waiting for my stuff to come out!


Has anyone seen this? I read a story recently that had an H next to it but, in my opinion, fell well short of that score. However the author had turned both rating and feedback off. I believe that was just to maintain his position. How annoying is that?

Yeah. I got a one on the very first vote. He left a PC. The said the writer of the piece was a sick motherfucker. His criterion for the story was not liking/disliking a story, not yes/no great literature, not is it kinky in my particular kink, not sexy/flat, but the writer himself, regardless of the story. He could peer into my mtherfucker and behold that it was a sick motherfucker.

Mine has not come back yet.


As for your number three. Some people allow voting (she must have allowed voting or she would have no H) but you can't talk to them, whether by PC (which is the rating you speak of) or by feedback. There are reasons to do this. Some writers try to troll-proof themselves a bit by that method.

They post under a psudonym different from the one they use on the boards here. Their theory is that the majority of malicious votes are cast in retaliation for some imagined slight on the forums; in other words, that all trolls live right here. So you can't find their stuff under their name, and they don't really ever check their messages under a name used only to post stories with. They might have four or five names to post stories under, just to keep the public at bay. Male names and female ones, ones just for the Romance cat or just for the Incest cat.

Many are the strategems.

 

[Recidiva]

I just realized I once got two fives first off in the voting. I should have turned the voting off. Damndamndamn.

Naaah.

 

[Guest]

 

[Boratus]

One other scenario I found amusing (not a troll exactly) was when I released Chapter 7 of My Fair Slut. One reader wrote back saying that it wasn't long enough and she had to wait too long to read it so "All your other stories geot 5s but this one gets a 1!"

I didn't realize I was writing to please her specifically. I'm so naive!