The Official Authors' Hangout Winter Holidays 2017 Support Thread

You're a nerd? You should see my spreadsheet? ;):D

(No, seriously - I have a basic spreadsheet which helps calculate what votes have come in. Watching voting patterns interests me.)

As theorised earlier by me and confirmed by pilot*, it appears to be the 3*s which the trolls use now, as they're less likely to be removed in a sweep.

If you've really been 1-bombed, your bounce-back will be massive. One of mine got pulverised by 1-bombs and bounced back to place, before the trolls took it down again.

In fact, I think the 1* votes do you a favour. So, don't worry about them.



*or we're just producing mediocre stories and that the 3*s arrive in a rash is coincidence.

Oh, I have a spreadsheet too. I find that having an understanding of the voting pattern helps keep me from getting upset over some of the results.

The sweeps can remove votes regardless of the number of stars. I have votes from 1*-5* removed from some stories. Even without large-scale sweeps, I have one story that, over the last few months, has had nearly as many votes removed as added. I have too many votes on the story to even guess at what the votes are.

If 3* votes are the new 1* votes, then maybe that phenomenon is limited to contest entries. I don't see that so much on non-contest entries.

Regardless of what the low votes are, I've recently been looking at the ratio of 5* votes to 4* votes as a fairly robust measure of the story's rating. A ratio of 3:1 may not be that great. A ratio of 5:1 is good. I have one story with a ratio of 15:2, but there aren't enough votes on that story to make the score meaningful.
 
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Oh, I have a spreadsheet too. I find that having an understanding of the voting pattern helps keep me from getting upset over some of the results.

The sweeps can remove votes regardless of the number of stars. I have votes from 1*-5* removed from some stories. Even without large-scale sweeps, I have one story that, over the last few months, has had nearly as many votes removed as added. I have too many votes on the story to even guess at what the votes are.

If 3* votes are the new 1* votes, then maybe that phenomenon is limited to contest entries. I don't see that so much on non-contest entries.

Regardless of what the low votes are, I've recently been looking at the ratio of 5* votes to 4* votes as a fairly robust measure of the story's rating. A ratio of 3:1 may not be that great. A ratio of 5:1 is good. I have one story with a ratio of 15:2, but there aren't enough votes on that story to make the score meaningful.
If only there were a mechanism to 'like' or 'thumbs up' posts here. :)
 
If only there were a mechanism to 'like' or 'thumbs up' posts here. :)

I wouldn't mind the "thumbs up, thumbs down" system, but I don't anticipate a change. One way or another, Laurel and Manu make the important stuff work and I don't see a lot of reason for them to change what they're doing.
 
That's an average rating of 3.55 in 13 votes. You don't have to get one-bombed for that to happen, but you probably did.

I'm a nerd. There are fifteen combinations of 13 votes that can drop your score from 4.57 to 4.27. There aren't more than two 1* votes in any of the combinations, and four of them need no 1* votes.

A combination of 1x1*, 2x2*, 3x3* 3x4* and 4x5* is reasonable.

I'm sorry, I have been submitting stories on here for 15 years and understand the pattern. Statistically, you aren't going to start out with the first 31 votes getting you a 4.57 rating and then all of the sudden the next 13 average 3.55 and those numbers come across the board. That would be a statistical anomaly. We all know that it is 1-bombing.

Most of my stories are 4.5+ with 3 stories above 4.7 and several above 4.6. I try to write quality stuff and make it readable. I'm not perfect and I'm not a professional. This isn't about ego. I'm just discussing an issue and making an observation.

I agree that some trolls might be giving 3s, but by and large there are still plenty of 1-bombers out there. Stories don't nosedive without them. I've read great stuff and I've read crap. I know the difference.
 
I don't see it happening, but what I'd like to see is a breakdown of the stars in your profile portfolio that would only be seen by you as the author. That would certainly make you feel better, if you could see the high numbers versus the low numbers.
 
I'm sorry, I have been submitting stories on here for 15 years and understand the pattern. Statistically, you aren't going to start out with the first 31 votes getting you a 4.57 rating and then all of the sudden the next 13 average 3.55 and those numbers come across the board. That would be a statistical anomaly. We all know that it is 1-bombing.

Most of my stories are 4.5+ with 3 stories above 4.7 and several above 4.6. I try to write quality stuff and make it readable. I'm not perfect and I'm not a professional. This isn't about ego. I'm just discussing an issue and making an observation.

I agree that some trolls might be giving 3s, but by and large there are still plenty of 1-bombers out there. Stories don't nosedive without them. I've read great stuff and I've read crap. I know the difference.

Yes, and from the last couple of competitions I'd take a guess that it's someone with a stake in the game. That last competition, my "Nockatunga Station" got one bombed down under 4.5 for most of the competition (after the sweeps at the end it was 4.7 and it's gone up since so go figure....) - and so did a couple of other SF entries. Ditto my other story, and the same with "Sammi Woo" back in the Summer competition. At the end of day one that was at 4.98 after 50 odd votes and someone managed to one star bomb it down to under 4.5 for a while which took some doing. And it was fast, you could see it getting hammered down.

Right away that low rating under 4.5 reduces the #'s of views you get so it's a good tactic if you can pull it off. The sweeps are always right at the end, which is far too late to correct the impact of getting your overall views reduced by a low rating. It's fun to complain about it but it's so obvious a problem that if Laurel hasn't done anything about it by now, I can't see anything changing. You either enter the competitions, accept that it's going to happen and persevere or you don't bother, or you join the game.

Fake IP's, multiple votes, extra userids, it's obviously being done by one or two people because you're not going to get a group of readers suddenly deciding to one star vote one particular story or a group of them. Unfortunately, the site not policing that sort of nonsense through the competitions does detract from the competitions. It also makes gaming them fun if you're that way inclined. It's almost a challenge really.

Because if one or two people are allowed to get away with it, and it was obvious who they were in the summer competition from which stories were impacted and which weren't on a day by day basis, then why not join in. You can almost say it's part of the competition, really. :D

Do I have strong feelings on this one? Nooooooooo, of course not (laughs maniacally)
 
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Yes, and from the last couple of competitions I'd take a guess that it's someone with a stake in the game...

...You either enter the competitions, accept that it's going to happen and persevere or you don't bother, or you join the game.
...
Fake IP's, multiple votes, extra userids, it's obviously being done by one or two people because you're not going to get a group of readers suddenly deciding to one star vote one particular story or a group of them.
...
Because if one or two people are allowed to get away with it, and it was obvious who they were in the summer competition from which stories were impacted and which weren't on a day by day basis, then why not join in. You can almost say it's part of the competition, really. :D...

BIB - no, I would never do that, or ask anyone to do that for me. Call me naive but I find it...distasteful to manipulate the voting that way. It would devalue any win.

I'd love to know who's supposed to be doing this though, as it's been happening for years and I don't think many of the same people are still entering these competitions.

Perhaps as the years have passed, the baton has been picked up by others thinking it's OK as everyone else does it?

Not me. Definitely not me.

It stings when your first 1*/2* votes come in before anyone's had chance to read the story (I was online at the time and watched), but that's always been my experience here. Some of my stories have recovered, others haven't.

As I've said before, what is most annoying is the low initial score means missing out on views and feedback.
 
Not me. Definitely not me.

It stings when your first 1*/2* votes come in before anyone's had chance to read the story (I was online at the time and watched), but that's always been my experience here. Some of my stories have recovered, others haven't.

As I've said before, what is most annoying is the low initial score means missing out on views and feedback.

Not me either, but I'm a bit compulsive on tracking story stats day by day so the last few competitions I did and you could see what and who. Not bothering with this one, I don't really care now I understand how it works and what the patterns are but that first days rating is key and so is staying high in the ratings. When you get tanked, it reduces your chances of coming back if you're in a category with low fees.

It is annoying tho, and so is the lack of policing it. That detracts from the value of the competition. That said, they're still fun as long as you don't take them to seriously. Took me a while to get there.
 
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BIB - no, I would never do that, or ask anyone to do that for me. Call me naive but I find it...distasteful to manipulate the voting that way. It would devalue any win.

I'd love to know who's supposed to be doing this though, as it's been happening for years and I don't think many of the same people are still entering these competitions.

Perhaps as the years have passed, the baton has been picked up by others thinking it's OK as everyone else does it?

Not me. Definitely not me.

It stings when your first 1*/2* votes come in before anyone's had chance to read the story (I was online at the time and watched), but that's always been my experience here. Some of my stories have recovered, others haven't.

As I've said before, what is most annoying is the low initial score means missing out on views and feedback.

The last part is what bothers me. I don't give a crap about the competition. I entered it mostly to get people to check out my other stuff. I mean it would be nice to win, but I don't win much in life. I'd just hope people enjoyed my art.

You paint this story and someone comes along and throws shit all over it, then it is going to upset you, especially when people look at it from afar (new stories page) and see the shit. They aren't going to be invited in, because they aren't going to realize the beauty behind the shit. By the time that some of the shit gets cleared away, its to late and some o0f that shit never comes off.

It is like the people that are doing this are vandalizing your property. It shows that they are true POSs and immature to the point of being sociopaths, because it is very selfish what they are doing. You have no feelings when you take such actions.

Now, don't get me wrong, if someone legitimately doesn't like my work for reasons, then I welcome and appreciate their critique. If they are doing it and just being hateful/spiteful, then a pox on them.
 
It stings when your first 1*/2* votes come in before anyone's had chance to read the story (I was online at the time and watched), but that's always been my experience here. Some of my stories have recovered, others haven't.

As I've said before, what is most annoying is the low initial score means missing out on views and feedback.

That pattern isn't unique to contest stories. I compared thoughts with LC a few months ago and we both saw the same pattern over the first day of voting. One of the first votes is usually a 1*, so the initial score is low. The rating creeps up during the day then in the afternoon it gets bombed again.

A story I posted last Christmas had a score of 2 when I got up the morning it went live. By 1:00 in the afternoon it had struggled up to 3.8 then got bombed again. The site helped and as of now there have been 81 total votes cast and 12 removed: 3x1*, 1x2*, 2x3*, 2x4*, and 4x5*. That's right, more fives were removed than anything else.

The rating worked its way up to 4.72, then after I posted to the Summer Luvin' contest it was bombed again. It worked back to 4.72 then got bombed again last weekend.

Who one-bombs old, high-rated stories?

I don't think there's any way to understand the one-bombers. They're just a fact of life, and their behavior on contest stories seems the same as it is on every other story. Contest stories get more exposure and usually more votes than other stories, and they might get a few more one bombs for that reason alone.
 
...

It is like the people that are doing this are vandalizing your property. It shows that they are true POSs and immature to the point of being sociopaths, because it is very selfish what they are doing. You have no feelings when you take such actions.

Now, don't get me wrong, if someone legitimately doesn't like my work for reasons, then I welcome and appreciate their critique. If they are doing it and just being hateful/spiteful, then a pox on them.

Unless they leave a comment we don't know why they do it. I think that some of it is just because they can.

Locally there is an artists' group that have frequently changing exhibitions of their work. I think that very few of them actually have any artistic talent and I wouldn't give house room to any of their works. But the effort that put into producing their art is considerable. I wouldn't go to an exhibition, and I do, to most of their exhibitions, and leave a written comment that I think everything is derivative rubbish. I might think so, but I wouldn't say it.

However bad a story posted to Literotica might be, it has taken an effort to produce and courage to post it. I would never leave a 1-vote. If it is that bad, I wouldn't vote or comment. If there are obvious things that could be corrected I might send feedback. I wouldn't put serious criticism in a comment that could be seen by anyone reading the story.

But there are some people who want to destroy any author's work. Is it because they don't agree with the author's political views, or they don't like the theme of the story? I don't know. But when I get adverse comments and 1-bombs because they don't like the category? Why were they reading a story in that category if the CATEGORY annoys them? They are just being assholes.

And that's the real problem. Assholes can hide behind anonymous or disposable email addresses. It's not just a feature of Literotica. It happens across most social media platforms. It is easy to be destructive and spew hatred if you are hiding your identity.

But that anonymity is not as safe as many think it is. With some effort most anonymous people can be traced.
 
For the tenth year running, I'll suggest taking the money awards off the contests. That, I opine, would get rid of a lot of contestant jockeying, and, since it's nearly only the contestants that have skin in the game, I'm betting the cheating will be cut down. Not all of it, because some folks are so needy they'll cheat just for the false pride of a blue W.
 
I, for one, value the blue W more than the money (not that I mind the money, but...)

I had no less than four stories started for this contest at one point or another. Two of them just aren't ready - I serve no story before its time! - and one I have concluded works much better as a Valentine's Day story (plus that gives me two more months to polish it, which is perfect). The fourth one, I have just completed and submitted. It's a sequel to one of my lowest-rated stories, but I always loved the characters and felt they had more potential. Now I guess we'll see if I'm right about that!

(If anyone's wondering, yes, it is compliant with the contest rules. Although it's a sequel, it's a standalone story and not a chapter in a novel.)
 
25 entries, and my votes have dried up. Bit of a quiet one, eh?

It is, but there's still nearly three weeks left. I just started writing my potential entry a couple days ago. Don't expect a masterpiece :).
 
25 entries, and my votes have dried up. Bit of a quiet one, eh?

My votes have dried up as well. I think most people, especially newbies, find stories through the path of least resistance. They go to the Literotica front page. They scroll down to Stories&Pics and click that. Then they are going to scroll down under Erotic Stories and click on New. That is how they are going to initially find stories. They are going to notice the Red-H and know it means Hot and those are the stories they will initially read.

After a short time with that experience, then they will grow more curious and maybe seek out a category. Before long, when they grow more comfortable, they will start searching for stories, but it always comes down to the Red-H. They might find an author they like and look at their other stories. They may find a story arc they like and journey through it. That will help get a lower ranked story some views, but viewership correlates to Vote Scores and the Red-H.

That is why it sucks when the trolls are allowed to come in and do their thing without any resistance.

OK, I will try to move away from my soapbox and I have enjoyed this thread and y'alls thoughts. I know I haven't posted in the forum previously. I have occasionally lurked here, but it has been nice reading the thoughts of others who have had a similar experience.
 
Who knew? It seems that Dr. Otabor is a renaissance man-medical genius. Not only can he cure the herpes virus but he can also enlarge one's penis, get one's lover to return and many other great things at least according to the comments a devoted follower left on my contest story.

I'll leave the comments up for now in case anyone needs his cures and it must have taken some time to write them out so such hard work should be rewarded ;). First time I ever saw such spam here and was wondering if it's common or out of the ordinary since I've seen similar stuff at other sites.
 
Who knew? It seems that Dr. Otabor is a renaissance man-medical genius. Not only can he cure the herpes virus but he can also enlarge one's penis, get one's lover to return and many other great things at least according to the comments a devoted follower left on my contest story.

I'll leave the comments up for now in case anyone needs his cures and it must have taken some time to write them out so such hard work should be rewarded ;). First time I ever saw such spam here and was wondering if it's common or out of the ordinary since I've seen similar stuff at other sites.

Just seen those. I must say, a step up from the usual 'YOU SUCK!' or 'MEH.' comments. Not seen anything like that here before, tbh.
 
Who knew? It seems that Dr. Otabor is a renaissance man-medical genius. Not only can he cure the herpes virus but he can also enlarge one's penis, get one's lover to return and many other great things at least according to the comments a devoted follower left on my contest story.

I'll leave the comments up for now in case anyone needs his cures and it must have taken some time to write them out so such hard work should be rewarded ;). First time I ever saw such spam here and was wondering if it's common or out of the ordinary since I've seen similar stuff at other sites.

I'm impressed. I could use these cures at work and delivered by UPS too. I'm thinking about ordering the penis enlargement and testing it on some of the guinea pigs.
 
My votes have dried up as well. I think most people, especially newbies, find stories through the path of least resistance. They go to the Literotica front page. They scroll down to Stories&Pics and click that.

If they do that then they'll at least have a chance of catching the link to the contest on the Literotica front page. I usually go directly to the story page where there is no contest link.
 
Yeah, low views, low number of votes, plus it’s pretty clear I missed whatever mark I was aiming at with this one. I’ll never learn not to post to EC.

BUT the usual amount of traffic is being shunted to my other stories, which is nice.
 
I’ll never learn not to post to EC.

It's a large group, but they're neither engaged nor supportive.

I have thoughts of posting my entry there, but I'll probably put it in Mature even though my first experience posting to Mature wasn't very good.
 
It's a large group, but they're neither engaged nor supportive.

I have thoughts of posting my entry there, but I'll probably put it in Mature even though my first experience posting to Mature wasn't very good.

My first submit to Mature was a nice little runaway success for me, warm and fuzzy comments, too.

The next chapter, I had "men" plural in the title, along with the heroine's name. One fifth the number of views - so no matter the category, the men of Lit really cannot handle the slightest notion of GM. One cannot help but wonder, what's the threat? Are people really so insecure about their sexuality? Conclusion, yes, they are. Poor souls.
 
It's a large group, but they're neither engaged nor supportive.

I have thoughts of posting my entry there, but I'll probably put it in Mature even though my first experience posting to Mature wasn't very good.

I’ll be pulling for you. Mature is my favorite category.
 
I've just submitted another contest story as oggbashan in the fetish category. Almost as soon as I had, I noticed a 'to' where there should be a 'too'. I corrected it.

I'm sure there must be at least one or two more typos but I'll probably notice when it is posted. :eek:
 
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