Ratings vs. View Counts

TheBusinessMan

TheBusinessMan
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Ratings versus View counts. Which is a more accurate grading scale of stories? So few people rate versus those that read so I’m inclined to go with views but being new I’d appreciate other perspectives.

My take is that the ratings cover the hotness factor and the views cover the acceptable or like it factor.
 
We've discussed this many times in the Authors' Hangout.

Views? They can be people (or bots) opening the story and then back clicking. They don't really tell you anything except about the relative attractiveness of your title. My story Virgin's Sister gets many views just because of the two significant words in the title.

Ratings? They are an indication of the popularity of the story. They are affected more by the category than almost any other factor. They can tell the author which stories (in the same category) are more popular than others. They don't tell you much else.

A good, well-written story can be low rated because the theme is unpopular e.g. my femdom and fetish stories are usually rated low. A poorly written story can be popular because it is about mother/son incest.

Conclusion? Views and ratings can become an obsession for authors yet they don't mean much. A large number of red H's can look good but they mean that the stories are on popular themes. Popularity doesn't mean bad; it doesn't necessarily mean good either.
 
Neither really...

Views are driven by the category more than anything else. Incest and Loving Wives stories do well, non-erotic and novels not so much...

Ratings can be driven by a group of fanboys or bombarded by competitors...

So neither matter, but for some sick reason, I still want both.
 
Ratings versus View counts. Which is a more accurate grading scale of stories? So few people rate versus those that read so I’m inclined to go with views but being new I’d appreciate other perspectives.

My take is that the ratings cover the hotness factor and the views cover the acceptable or like it factor.

Neither one of them have much to do with "grading" a story. As others have pointed out, there are just too many factors involved with both that have little at all to do with the story itself. I ignore them.

However, I read all Comments. The number of comments isn't useful. If there are a lot, I may have touched a nerve, but I don't write to touching nerves other than my own.

I'm more interested in the very few which say something about the story itself, good or bad. Sometimes I can use those in future stories. If they're from a member, I might PM them.

I tend to ignore the "go kill yourself" and "1*/cuck" comments. There isn't much I can use there, and those people are already dealing with a full plate.

rj
 
Ratings versus View counts. Which is a more accurate grading scale of stories? So few people rate versus those that read so I’m inclined to go with views but being new I’d appreciate other perspectives.

My take is that the ratings cover the hotness factor and the views cover the acceptable or like it factor.

How would readers know whether they like it before they've viewed it?

Like Ogg and Nathan say, views are driven primarily by category, title, and blurb. A high rating will also boost views, especially if the story gets onto a toplist, and when you post a new story you can expect to boost views on your other stories, especially in the same category.

But sometimes views work against ratings. If you write a clickbait blurb but the story doesn't live up to it, you can end up getting poorer ratings than from a less enticing blurb that gives readers a better idea of whether they're going to like it.
 
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Someone who tells a good story but is technically poor at the mechanics of writing could get a high rating for the story.

Someone who is technically excellent at writing but is not a good storyteller could struggle to get a high rating.

Even if an author is a good storyteller and a competent writer they could still have difficulty getting a high rating because of the category. Writing a Loving Wives story where no one cheats and no one gets punished? That will suffer in the ratings and attract abusive comments. I know because I've done that. :D
 
I don't read comments. I know whats good, and what you think doesn't interest me at all.
 
But sometimes views work against ratings. If you write a clickbait blurb but the story doesn't live up to it, you can end up getting poorer ratings than from a less enticing blurb that gives readers a better idea of whether they're going to like it.

This is true. I did this. I wrote a story and put "BTB" in the title, only the term was ironic because it really was a cuckold story, and readers let me have it with 1 bombs and nasty comments. But that was fine with me, because the story got a lot of views and it has the highest vote to view ratio of any of my stories, meaning, I assume, that a higher percentage of viewers actually finished the story.

If you want to maximize views it is worthwhile thinking carefully about the story's title, its tagline, and the tags you use. An artsy title may sound good to you, but it probably won't attract as many readers on this site. Stories with lots of readers tend to have very direct, to-the-point titles (e.g., "Sis and Bro Get It On" or something like that).
 
Well... neither. lol But of the two - rating (as long as you are in the right category and your story has been on the board several days. Your rating fluctuates significantly in the beginning because of people who drop 1 bombs and because the average score is so heavily weighted by each individual vote. After it's been up a while and had quite a few votes, it tends to stabilize and is a much better indicator as to whether readers are enjoying your story. Though, what they do or don't like about it remains a mystery unless they leave you a comment.

Also, ratings are most often left by the people who actually FINISHED your story. But - keep in mind that voting is very subjective. Your story may be written well and deserve 5 stars, but readers will score it less if they just don't looove it or if they didn't like an aspect of your story. Erotica is also very broad and has so many things that do and don't appeal to individuals that it makes it a difficult genre to please everyone.

Viewings - that does not mean that a person read your story. Every time a person clicks in your first page it counts as a viewing. Every time YOU click in your story it counts as a viewing. If the same reader clicks in your story 20 times, that counts for 20 views. So, I don't think views necessarily means anything.

I most appreciate comments, but they are even less common.
 
I think the right answer is . . . it depends.

Strictly speaking, views aren't an indicator of whether your story is good or bad, or whether others have liked or disliked your story. A story gets views because people see it on a list and decide it looks interesting enough to click on it. For all you know, they don't get past the first paragraph.

That said, if a story gets a high mark, it may appear on toplists that get it more exposure, and it will get more views. So, ultimately, a high number of views become an indicator that a story has met with approval.

It's important to keep in mind that a "high number" of views is entirely relative to the category. A high number of views in Erotic Couplings might be a very low number in Incest/Taboo or Loving Wives.

Ratings are, to some degree, a measure of quality, but there's a big caveat to that.

First, the highest rated stories often are chapters in long series. This results from the fact that series tend to weed out readers that don't like the series, so the numbers for chapters down the road tend to be higher. This is more a result of audience self selection than the quality of your story, however.

Second, ratings fluctuate a lot depending upon whether you have given readers exactly what they expect in a certain category. You can write a great incest/taboo story, but if you suddenly introduce gay male elements there are some who will bomb you. Write a cuckold story in Loving Wives and you will, no doubt, be bombed.

My own view is that I want a lot of people to read my stories, and I want to get feedback in the form of comments. I am concerned with ratings only to the extent they help my stories get on lists that will get them viewed more. It's nice to have high ratings, but it's not something to fret about. There's little to no correlation between views and ratings.
 
There's little to no correlation between views and ratings.

Right.

My story with the highest view count has my second-lowest score. I think it had more views when I woke up in the morning it posted than some of my stories have ever had. It was getting thousands of views every few minutes. That was pretty invigorating for a brand new author. It was my second story.
 
My own view is that I want a lot of people to read my stories, and I want to get feedback in the form of comments. I am concerned with ratings only to the extent they help my stories get on lists that will get them viewed more. It's nice to have high ratings, but it's not something to fret about. There's little to no correlation between views and ratings.

I agree with this. The only reason I would care about ratings for this particular account at a basically hetero Web site over a strictly gay one (and I also post to those for the nice feeling from ratings) is that the ratings influence views, and what I'm really interested in is the broadest viewership (which, I've decided to believe, is what Literotica provides). Obviously, the user(s) who comes on about 10:00 my time in the morning every day one of my stories posts and zaps the story with three quick 1s understands the relationship between ratings and views. I just go with that, because, even with that, Literotica provides far more views than any other Web site I post stories to. Of course there remains the question of what constitutes a "view" here.
 
I'm sure this is a dumb question, but why would someone go out of their way to pump up their views with bots or some other method? If you know it's not real what do you get out of it?

Feel free to PM me if I'm missing something.
 
To puff themselves up to be seen as Ms/Mrs Popularity here. For years we had a major troll specializing in that here and constantly posting about. Made and posted lists so he could be seen as compared to other high-view/voted users. Hasn't been that long since he floated through.
 
I'm sure this is a dumb question, but why would someone go out of their way to pump up their views with bots or some other method? If you know it's not real what do you get out of it?

Feel free to PM me if I'm missing something.

There's one or two around that do that, not to hard to spot when the writing is mediocre at best but the scores are way high. They don't post here on the AH tho, at least not the one or two I'm aware of. I think pilots right, it's a popularity thing for them. I can see why but you're only fooling yourself in the long run.
 
To puff themselves up to be seen as Ms/Mrs Popularity here. For years we had a major troll specializing in that here and constantly posting about. Made and posted lists so he could be seen as compared to other high-view/voted users. Hasn't been that long since he floated through.

OK thanks!
 
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