What is more important, views, ratings, favorites or comments?

[TxRad]

You are talking about stories on Lit, right?

You talk of art and artistic paths but writing is not art. It is an art but of a different kind.

Writers who write what they want don't worry about landmines if such even exist. They think of how they want the story to go or they follow the lead of the characters. In my case, I slap a title up and start writing. I may have a picture as an incentive for the story or I may just have an idea wandering around in the back of my head. It's not rocket science and there is no big underlying philosophy to it.

Sorry but you don't understand authors at all.

 

[ElectricBlue]

If you are true to your art and artistic path and still get a lot of followers and flattering statistics, I'm truly happy for you, but that won't change the fact that you write formulaic stories that conform to a low common denominator, and avoid stepping on landmines.

That also raises a very important question: how much does the ranking system train the writers?
If we take Pavlov's experiment as an example, who is the real target of the experiment, the dog who presses the button or the person who feeds it?

Have you read any of my content, or are you just making sweeping statements?

 

[TxRad]

Just sweeping statement most likely. That and being argumentative.

 

[jsmiam]

The other common answer/suggestion (I’m surprised it hasn’t been said yet) is to produce. A steady flow of stories builds your base and each new story triggers at least a person or two who likes your story enough that they read all your others too. That has a cumulative effect too.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Okay, what's the formula? We are talking erotica after all, so there are some fairly obvious, "well, duh," tropes; but what's this underlying philosophy that makes your stories so much better than anyone else's here - which is what your posts are basically saying.

And now I'm curious. Which stories?

 

[MajorRewrite]

I created a single Unified Response Score that combines views, ratings, favorites per view, comments per view, favorable comments to negative comments ratio, comments that include “one of the best” wording percentage, and lunatic comments that I deleted percentage.

One score to rule them all.

 

[Voboy]

If we take Pavlov's experiment as an example, who is the real target of the experiment, the dog who presses the button or the person who feeds it?

You seem to be confusing Pavlov with Skinner...

Actually, even if you are, I'm still not sure what your point is.

 

[Djmac1031]

To me, it's a combo of ratings and Favorites.

Views only tell me how many people clicked on it. Doesn't mean they liked it or even read the whole thing.

Ratings tell me people read it and liked it enough to click the stars.

Favorites tell me the person read it and enjoyed it enough to want to save it to possibly read again.

I've been at this over a year now, but my audience is still comparatively small compared to others.

But generally my work seems well accepted by those who read it, whether they comment or not or simply just take that extra moment to rate it.

And that's all I can hope for, really.

I don't get too many Hate comments, thankfully. I have had some negative critiques but if I feel they're sincere and not just being an asshole to troll I'll leave them up. Sometimes the advice they offer is actually useful.

Other times it's just a complaint that the story didn't go the way they wanted / expected. And that's fine, they're entitled to their opinions on it even if I disagree with their assessment.

 

[Djmac1031]

My highest VIEWED story has 56.5K views.

While I'd LOVE to believe 56 THOUSAND people read my story, I don't see that as realistic.

It currently has a rating of 4.73, with 963 votes.

That seems like a far more believable number to me, or at least something more tangible I can hang my hat on. I definitely know those people read and liked it.

131 people liked it enough to add to Favorites.


15 people commented on it, all positive.

That's some huge disparity of numbers between them.

And all it really tells me in the end is a lot of people saw it, a decent amount liked it, and a small group loved it enough to say something about it.

 

[TadOverdon]

If you are true to your art and artistic path and still get a lot of followers and flattering statistics, I'm truly happy for you, but that won't change the fact that you write formulaic stories that conform to a low common denominator, and avoid stepping on landmines.

That also raises a very important question: how much does the ranking system train the writers?
If we take Pavlov's experiment as an example, who is the real target of the experiment, the dog who presses the button or the person who feeds it?

You're one self-important pretender.

 

[HordHolm]

"so much better than anyone else's here."
what?! I never said anything close to that.

You may not think you come across that way, but I'm afraid you really do come across as someone with their nose firmly up in the air, someone who thinks they're God's gift and rest of us are just mediocre hacks. Now, that may even be true, but as Sheldon's mother pointed out, "it's ok to be smarter than everyone else, just don't go round telling them that."

 

[NakedNymph]

When I look for stories to read, I don't pay any attention to views, favorites, or number of comments, and I barely look at rating. Statistics is about aggregate trends in a population, not my personal tastes You could have something really niche that only appeals to a subset of the population. Most people who read it might think it's only okay, but for those people who are really into it, it might be the hottest story ever. Title and description are definitely the most important things that I notice with any story on Lit

On the writer's side, that mostly comes down to comments imo, the people who got attached enough to the story that they'll write something about it.

 

[HordHolm]

I'm a billion light years away from that image. All I can say is that every time I touch a bare nerve, every time I come close to the truth, and they don't have a valid counterargument—some of the more sensitive members here make it personal. And when it comes to personal I happen to be the meanest bear on the planet.

I reiterate, how you think you are presenting yourself, and how you are actually coming across are at odds. Have you also considered that you are mistaking disagreement with your opinions as disagreement with you personally? I ask because, as a relatively uninterested bystander observing your disagreements on these boards, it very much seems that you are. If you don't want to be perceived in such a manner, then I advise a step back and some second thoughts before you weigh in again. If, on the other hand, you are spoiling for a scrap, go ahead, it isn't for me to stand in your way.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Can I humbly suggest that we leave unsolicited reviews of other writers unspecified works out of this thread?

The place for respectful feedback is on the Feedback sub forum.

 

[ElectricBlue]

But the more difficult question is when audiences demand misogynistic, sexist, violent and even psychopathic content from only a white person's perspective—content that sometimes borders on the ridiculous not to mention stupid, do we still need to approve it to get high ratings?

Your category of choice would appear to be Loving Wives. You shouldn't assume all other Lit categories share the same dynamic - they don't. The AH has a couple of LW aficionados, but I think it's safe to say that most AH regulars don't write there - possibly for exactly the reasons you mention.

I'm sure most writers, when they first join Lit, take a look around the various categories and make a few "do I write here or not?" decisions. I.know I did, and I wouldn't be alone.

I think you can choose your audience by the choice of the categories you write in. There's more than one audience - which, if you look at historical AH threads, is a fairly constant theme.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Your category of choice would appear to be Loving Wives. You shouldn't assume all other Lit categories share the same dynamic - they don't. The AH has a couple of LW aficionados, but I think it's safe to say that most AH regulars don't write there - possibly for exactly the reasons you mention.

I'm sure most writers, when they first join Lit, take a look around the various categories and make a few "do I write here or not?" decisions. I.know I did, and I wouldn't be alone.

I think you can choose your audience by the choice of the categories you write in. There's more than one audience - which, if you look at historical AH threads, is a fairly constant theme.

This is a better response that the one I was trying to write.


Put simply, write whatever you want to write and try to reach the audience that is going to appreciate it. But also try not to look down too much on those who want to write something different from you and the audience they have. There's nothing wrong with a formula well implemented.

 

[Lifestyle66]

The AH has a couple of LW aficionados, but I think it's safe to say that most AH regulars don't write there - possibly for exactly the reasons you mention.

I'm sure most writers, when they first join Lit, take a look around the various categories and make a few "do I write here or not?" decisions. I.know I did, and I wouldn't be alone.

I'm one of those AH LW aficionados. When I began reading stories on LitE years ago, the description of the LW category "Married extra-marital fun: swinging, sharing & more" seemed appealing. I would skip through or past the BTB and humiliation stories, looking for those nuggets of "extra-marital fun" type stories.

So, when I posted my very first story "He Missed You – (750 Word Project)", it was slammed as "Wrong category." I then posted the next five stories to that category, and those were also slammed, even though they were about sharing and swinging. I re-wrote those and tried posting to a variety of other categories along with newer stories. But the views and ratings are all over the place.

So, I have learned from experience with 23 stories (28 counting those I re-wrote and replaced) to ignore the haters in any category, and just write what I like. I even enjoyed writing one LW story to deliberately poke at the trolls and expect the 1-bombs of the haters ("A Gathering of Trolls")!

As we used to say in the military "Fuck'em, if they can't take a joke!"

Write to have fun.

 

[MaroonPrincess]

When I posted my first story, I did it for myself. It was what I wanted to write. Honestly, I did not expect many people to want to read it. I don't usually include many humans in my stories. But then I had a reader email me and tell me he thought my story was "fucking fantastic". That's what I think about when I need a pick-me-up. A single person out there enjoyed my story enough to write me.
So for me...comments, definitely comments.

 

[TxRad]

The most stories I've read on Lit are ones other writers ask me to have a look at. I didn't start by reading here. I had posted a few stories at another site that suddenly went to being a pay site. I pulled my stories and posted them here along with new ones.

Write what the readers want? Hardly. Everything I've written, even the stories posted in LW, are what I wanted to write. So your broad sweeping statement that all writers here are influenced by the readers is not true.

 

[Djmac1031]

My latest story, Accidental Nudes, has only been up for three days, but in that time has received an overwhelmingly positive response.

Great view count, very respectable rating.

But it's been the nine comments in just three days that's really let me know I did something right on that one.

I have stories that have been up for over a year that don't half half that amount of comments lol.

So in this case I'll take comments for the win.

 

[TxRad]

Good comments are always a win.

 

[JuanaSalsa]

The only reason I share my stories is for the sense of personal connection when someone comments in a meaningful way.

I value views because they mean it's more likely someone will comment. I value the score because it means more people are likely to read it.

Favorites seem to have no correlation to comments so I don't care about them.

I have never deleted a comment. I harbor a hope that even toxic comments can inspire emotion in a reader that may lead to more comments that are relevant to the concepts in the story. So far this has not happened, but I remain optimistic.

 

[Voboy]

I agree, but when those writers pretend to claim that they are not influenced by the ratings and audience preferences, that their high ratings are supposedly a testament to their divine talent, don't be surprised if I pull out the whip.

I think what fascinates a number of us here is that you're so certain you're the one who deserves to wield that whip.

Speaking for myself, I'm not sure I understand quite where that certainty comes from.

 

[Lifestyle66]

I have never deleted a comment. I harbor a hope that even toxic comments can inspire emotion in a reader ...

I tend to believe that even those toxic comments I received are evidence I DID inspire an emotional reaction in a reader!

So, why else would anyone write?

I always had the view that if I'm going to be bad, be THE WORST! I'll strive to be Number ONE at my end of the spectrum!

 

[lovecraft68]

I agree, but when those writers pretend to claim that they are not influenced by the ratings and audience preferences, that their high ratings are supposedly a testament to their divine talent, don't be surprised if I pull out the whip.

And when you do don't be surprised when I remind everyone here you've shut of voting. So until you're ready to jump into the fire and take the ups and downs like the rest of us have you have no skin in the game.