What are "Views" as a story metric

[Duleigh]

I was surprised they didn't have subtitles with stuff like FF/m and the list of key words.

I let my tags do the talking for me when it comes to stuff like FF/m

A large percentage of my daily favorites come from old stories.

Dude - you have quite a catalogue! I am truly impressed. I'm coming off of a 14 year reality break and just recently started writing again. I'm finding that my older works from 2006 and 2008 are ignored compared to my releases over the past year.

 

[Bramblethorn]

1. Hot means the score is 4.5 or more and the story has achieved 10 votes or more.

I think there's now an "and the author has never switched off voting for that story" condition too?

 

[Sanzas]

I think there's now an "and the author has never switched off voting for that story" condition too?

Why would an author switch off voting?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Why would an author switch off voting?

To lock in a high score, to prevent troll attacks. The site allows it, but says if you do it, that story is no longer eligible for contest prizes.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Why would an author switch off voting?

Sometimes as an attempt to game the scoring. Scores will fluctuate a bit over time, so if you switch off voting when the score is relatively high you can lock in a higher number. (But doing this disqualifies the story from a lot of score-related things, in order to discourage that kind of gaming.)

Sometimes because the story is being targeted for downvoting as a harassment tactic.

Some authors find scores distracting or unhelpful (e.g. if you focus on them too much you can end up chasing the audience instead of writing the story that's satisfying to you) although those authors probably aren't worried by the loss of an H.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I think there's now an "and the author has never switched off voting for that story" condition too?

Not sure if a Red H can pop back up again if an author turns voting back on - which some people do, which is a bit odd.

 

[KeithD]

Not sure if a Red H can pop back up again if an author turns voting back on - which some people do, which is a bit odd.

Yes, you regain your stats when you turn it back on. After nine months of a concerted downvoting attack on my two publicized accounts last year, I turned the voting off. When I turned it back on everything came back with the stats (and applicable red Hs) I had when I turned the voting off.

 

[Duleigh]

Why would an author switch off voting?

I wrote an essay on veteran suicide and I turned off voting on that essay, I couldn't bear the thought of collecting votes on my brothers sorrows.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Not sure if a Red H can pop back up again if an author turns voting back on - which some people do, which is a bit odd.

I seem to recall that the answer recently changed to "no", but I won't swear to it. [edit: from Keith's reply, looks like I remembered wrong.]

Switching off and on could make sense if an author thinks the trolls have gone away, or if they find that the "New Stories" voters are tougher than the ones who find their works later.

 

[Sanzas]

I wrote an essay on veteran suicide and I turned off voting on that essay, I couldn't bear the thought of collecting votes on my brothers sorrows.

I could totally understand turning it off from the start---just not turning it off after, like, a few days or something.

 

[KeithD]

I could totally understand turning it off from the start---just not turning it off after, like, a few days or something.

If you turned it off because your list was being heavily trolled, that wouldn't be happening until it was demonstrated that your list was being heavily trolled.

But I guess the bottom line is that it doesn't really matter what anyone but the author and the site owners think about it--and the site owners enable it.

 

[K155]

I wonder what is considered a good view number? I've just started submitting and I want to give myself a target

Also, what would be a good cadence to publish new stories?

 

[alohadave]

I wonder what is considered a good view number? I've just started submitting and I want to give myself a target

Also, what would be a good cadence to publish new stories?

It's not something you can control, so track it if you like, but try not to use it as validation of your writing.

My one story in I/T blew away all but one of my stories in the first week it was up. Doesn't necessarily mean anything other than I/T is a really popular group compared to other categories.

You'll get most of your views in the first week while it's on the new list, after that they drop off a cliff.

As for cadence, whatever you are comfortable with and can sustain. Someone people go months between posting stories, some do a couple in a week. My average is every 3-4 weeks.

 

[K155]

Thank you for the reply!

It's not so much validation I'm looking for but rather... just knowing I'm on the right track. I just want to improve!

 

[SimonDoom]

I wonder what is considered a good view number? I've just started submitting and I want to give myself a target

Also, what would be a good cadence to publish new stories?

My recommendation to you is not to rely too much on what your fellow authors, like me, tell you (because we all have insufferably strong biases on this subject) but to do your own research.

Something to keep in mind about views: It depends wildly on the category. So much so that there's no basis for comparing stories in different categories. Stories in Incest, Loving Wives, and Illustrated get far more views than stories in other categories. It's not because they're better. It's just because there are larger audiences for them.

If you're curious and have a little time, check out the category hub lists. You'll quickly get a feel for what "normal" view numbers are for different categories of stories. Just keep in mind that view numbers for one category are completely incommensurate with view numbers for another category.

As far as "cadence" I'd say this: write at the pace that is most personally and creatively satisfying and don't put artificial goals and constraints on your writing. Keep writing, as steadily as you can.

 

[mirafrida]

I have several stories where there is a long-term significant gap in the view count between the numbers appearing on my control panel story list and on toplists on which the stories appear. The gaps are NOT the result in delays of counting by a few days--they are much more significant than that. Again, I have no clue why. For instance, I have an incest story that I published in May of last year, and the number on my personal story list is about 11,000 more than the number that shows up on the 12-month toplist. At the rate that the story gets daily views that's a gap of over 100 days. That makes no sense to me.

I had a story on the monthly top list that consistently rated lower there than in my dashboard. Lower than it had ever actually been rated, in fact. I did the math and figured out it was calculating the score based on "N+5" ratings (that is, if 20 people had rated, it was using 25 as the demonitor, effectively giving me 5 votes of 0).

I PMd Manu but didn't get a reply. The month is over, but even if it were to ever rise to 4.8, my guess is it wouldn't appear on the top list, as it's probably still screwed up in the database...

 

[SimonDoom]

I had a story on the monthly top list that consistently rated lower there than in my dashboard. Lower than it had ever actually been rated, in fact. I did the math and figured out it was calculating the score based on "N+5" ratings (that is, if 20 people had rated, it was using 25 as the demonitor, effectively giving me 5 votes of 0).

I PMd Manu but didn't get a reply. The month is over, but even if it were to ever rise to 4.8, my guess is it wouldn't appear on the top list, as it's probably still screwed up in the database...

There are things about this site and the way it tracks its statistics that are puzzling. For instance, I have a story that I published last fall that just recently entered the top 250 list for most-viewed stories in the past 12 months. But the views shown in that list are ten thousand views lower than the views shown for that story on my personal control panel. What accounts for that? I have no idea. I've encountered this phenomenon a few times and inquired about it before but never received an answer. There's an element of mystery about the numbers at this site.

 

[alohadave]

There are things about this site and the way it tracks its statistics that are puzzling.

I've seen several of my stories get multiple new votes without the score changing. And I really doubt that's because of sweeps.

 

[K155]

My recommendation to you is not to rely too much on what your fellow authors, like me, tell you (because we all have insufferably strong biases on this subject) but to do your own research.

Something to keep in mind about views: It depends wildly on the category. So much so that there's no basis for comparing stories in different categories. Stories in Incest, Loving Wives, and Illustrated get far more views than stories in other categories. It's not because they're better. It's just because there are larger audiences for them.

If you're curious and have a little time, check out the category hub lists. You'll quickly get a feel for what "normal" view numbers are for different categories of stories. Just keep in mind that view numbers for one category are completely incommensurate with view numbers for another category.

As far as "cadence" I'd say this: write at the pace that is most personally and creatively satisfying and don't put artificial goals and constraints on your writing. Keep writing, as steadily as you can.

Thank you Simon, I appreciate the insight

 

[ElectricBlue]

There's an element of mystery about the numbers at this site.

Yep. Every slice of "site page" data connected with a story (even the story's own stats up the top) seems to lag the master data (which I reckon is the Control Panel, which I know - from self tests - updates in real time), by all sorts of different periods.

I reckon most of it aligns with a 24 hour server refresh cycle, but I suspect some data only gets pulled up when someone clicks into wherever it is, and gets calculated then. It's like stores camps when climbing Mt Everest, you always have to go back to the last one, or there's base camp, but it's further away.

 

[SimonDoom]

Yep. Every slice of "site page" data connected with a story (even the story's own stats up the top) seems to lag the master data (which I reckon is the Control Panel, which I know - from self tests - updates in real time), by all sorts of different periods.

I reckon most of it aligns with a 24 hour server refresh cycle, but I suspect some data only gets pulled up when someone clicks into wherever it is, and gets calculated then. It's like stores camps when climbing Mt Everest, you always have to go back to the last one, or there's base camp, but it's further away.

Here's the thing that totally baffles me. For some of my stories (not all) there is a permanent gap between the number of views shown on my "My stories" page or on the data set I can download every day, on the one hand, and the views shown on the lists. The gap does not change. It is not temporary. In the case of my story "Mom-Son Club" dating back to last November, the gap is 10,000 views. That's a lot! I've had a few other stories show similar kinds of gaps. I don't get it. Somehow, 10,000 views have been permanently lost in the counting system used by the lists. The lists appear to have a different method of adding up numbers.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Here's the thing that totally baffles me. For some of my stories (not all) there is a permanent gap between the number of views shown on my "My stories" page or on the data set I can download every day, on the one hand, and the views shown on the lists. The gap does not change. It is not temporary. In the case of my story "Mom-Son Club" dating back to last November, the gap is 10,000 views. That's a lot! I've had a few other stories show similar kinds of gaps. I don't get it. Somehow, 10,000 views have been permanently lost in the counting system used by the lists. The lists appear to have a different method of adding up numbers.

I think RejectReality or NotWise have said the same thing, which suggests there's been some kind of historical "data slice" gone on, and there are two separate data-pile baselines.

I must admit, I don't look that closely, but my Followers count is always different in story metadata compared to the CP - and you'd think they'd eventually fall into line. I'm not sure if they've ever been the same.