Is it time to leave?

My stories are being repeatedly 1-bombed, and Laurel is doing nothing, nor has she EVER done anything to try and rectify the situation; case in point: yesterday one of my story chapters in the I/T HoF hit the top spot with a score of 4.89 after what looks like a sweep, and at least 5 of my other story chapters popped in there. 20 minutes later, that same story had tumbled to 4.83 and #114; it was #203 this morning, along with every other story, mine and others', that consistently score highly, while the 'top' story in the HoF that got knocked way down in the score list after the sweep, magically appeared back on top like it had never been away, and continues to squat there like a toad in a stone.

This happens after every sweep, a story will hit the top slot and knock that one story off, a story that is by an author who's allegedly dead, and in any case hasn't published here since 2011, but seems to have achieved icon status, because it jumps back to pole position after a few minutes, and the trolls who bumped the story up once again are left untouched.

I used to be unruffled by it, considering it gamesmanship, but after 6 years it's getting on my tits that Laurel persistently refuses to level the playing field, labelling other readers and authors trolls, yet leaving such a blatant fiesta of trollish behaviour to fester untouched and unpunished.

Yes, I write in I/T, and yes, I know it's not to everyone's taste, fair enough, but I still consider myself a legitimate content provider nevertheless, and it rankles that I/T still has so little consideration from the owners that they persistently refuse to address a situation with such a negative impact on the rest of the authors who score well and legitimately with their readers, but who are considered such a threat by the trolls protecting that particular story that they are persistently and maliciously 1-bombed, sometimes into oblivion.

My experience is that it's useless to complain; Laurel won't do anything about it, in fact, it's beginning to seem like she actively encourages, or at least deliberately turns a blind eye, to trolling and such determined, long-term manipulation of scores, because it somehow suits her purposes.

I've decided it's not worth wasting my time and posting anything further; whatever I post gets slammed by a stream of 1 votes seconds after it appears on the site, which tells me that someone, for some reason, probably considers me a threat, although a threat to what, is a matter for conjecture; there's nothing to be gained except personal satisfaction from seeing your story rise to the top of the rankings; most likely they just get a retarded delight in fucking with people's work and expectations, so once I've had a long think about it, I'll most likely delete my work on here, because I'm sick of all the screwing around - life's too fucking short to keep doing this, and I have better things to do with my life.

Nobody can answer this question for you. If it bothers you so much that it ruins your enjoyment of the site, then it might be a good idea. But my own personal view is I don't know why anyone would care enough about ratings to leave the site because of them. You've gotten trolled, but nearly all your stories have red Hs. You're doing well. Readers like your stories, and I assume you like writing them. Why would you stop because of the scoring?

I write I/T stories, too, and I get the same thing. My I/T stories do fine, but they get bombed or downgraded just enough to keep them from having top scores. I just don't care. It's a feature of the site. It's not going to change. It's a bit annoying, but it has a minimal effect on my ability to reach readers who like my stories. That matters much more than the score.

Since you obviously have achieved a level of success here and have plenty of fans, I would recommend that you NOT leave. But, obviously, it's your decision to make.

I'd say that, yes, if you get upset at the voting at a wide-open site like Literotica you should reassess why you're writing and posting at all and consider some other activity where you can concentrate on the art of it more than on the competition in it.

I got a bit miffed when my “Sammi Woo” story got one bombed out of the running in one of the competitions after 50 straight 5* ratings but after a bit of contemplation as to why I was writing on Literotica, I thought “screw it”, I’m not here for the competitions or the HoF top spots, although that’s nice. I’m here to learn to write on a live audience and to experiment with my writing, stories and techniques. The competitions and HoF are nice but they’re not why I write here. If there’s losers out there that want to game the ratings, that’s their misfortune that they’re that hung up on something so inconsequential. Most of my stories have that red H, there’s a few blue W’s and there’s a lot of comments, feedback and favoriting of me and my stories and it translates slowly over to Facebook and other social media. I’ve also started, slowly, to get stuff published, which is my primary and long term objective.

So my suggestion is, sit back and think first about why you’re here. If it’s to write and have readers in that genre, don’t kill yourself over the ratings and the HoF. The new tags give you good visibility. If it’s ratings and the HoF, learn to game it. As I pointed out to a couple of authors who gamed me, two can play and I can do it just as effectively if I care to. It’s not hard if you put your mind to it, and I’m nowhere near as geeky with this stuff as some people here. So decide what you’re here for first.

Myself, I can’t be bothered with the gaming so as long as my scores are high enough to get reader views, I’m good.

The gamers only fool themselves by artificially inflating their rankings. It’s like good sex versus playing with yourself. They’re jerking off and I’m having a fucking good time. Lol.

Whose stories aren't getting bombed, I wonder. My winter contest stories got seriously bombed--both at the same time--earlier this morning. If that i going to make me stop writing and posting, writing and posting isn't what I should be doing anyway--certainly not at a wide-open voting site.

KeithD said:

Whose stories aren't getting bombed, I wonder. My winter contest stories got seriously bombed--both at the same time--earlier this morning. If that i going to make me stop writing and posting, writing and posting isn't what I should be doing anyway--certainly not at a wide-open voting site.

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Exactly. Mine start getting one bombed out of the gate. Doesn’t worry me at all now. I accept it as a fitting tribute to my awesomeness. Let the trolls kneel and kiss my toes with their little one stars.

ChloeTzang said:

Let the trolls kneel and kiss my toes with their little one stars.

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Careful, you'll have a lineup of guys wanting to become trolls

I think the first thing that we all need to get out heads around is that Literotica is not a competition. Even the ‘contests’ are not competitions. If they were competitions, the same panel of ‘judges’ would assess and rate every story. As it is, I can give Chloe’s entry five stars; give Burt’s entry one star; and simply ignore everything else. That’s not an option that the judges of the Pulitzer or the Man Booker have.

When I post a new story, the ‘score’ usually zooms up to 4.6x – and then the first squadron of one-bombers arrives. Boom! Boom! Boom! And, next thing you know, the score is down in the weeds of 3.xx.

If there’s a sweep, the score bounces back up. But even that is a mixed blessing. If the story regains its red H, it attracts some more readers (and voters). But it also sends out a signal to call in the next wave of one-bombers. It seems to take two or three months for the one-bombers to lose interest. How they find the time, I don’t know.

So … is there any point it getting upset? Not really.

Here on Lit I have a loyal fan base of about ten readers. OK, maybe a few more. Perhaps 40 or 50. And out in the real world there are more than a few publishers and editors who think I am a pretty damned good scribbler. They know they can make money off my writing. And that’s their game.

Could Lit be improved? Yes – and not a month goes by without someone offering their recipe for a ‘better’ Lit. But until there is a proper, qualified judging panel, the totally meaningless score game is not going to change. And will there ever be a proper, qualified judging panel? I doubt it.

Treat the hall of fame as a short corridor down to a public toilet that's not been cleaned for years, and avoid it. Take a walk outside, look up to the sky and say,"wow, that's a lovely blue, and look at those trees!" Smile at a pretty girl or a handsome man, and get on and write about them.

Worrying about some poor soul with no life in a basement full of computers, one-bombing you down, is not a life. That's an obsession, no better than theirs. The difference is, you can write, they can't. That's why you're here, isn't it, because of your writing, and the readers who want to read it?

If you leave, you've let the fuckers win. Up to you whether you do that, I guess, but I wouldn't.

ChloeTzang said:

I got a bit miffed when my “Sammi Woo” story got one bombed out of the running in one of the competitions after 50 straight 5* ratings but after a bit of contemplation as to why I was writing on Literotica, I thought “screw it”, I’m not here for the competitions or the HoF top spots, although that’s nice. I’m here to learn to write on a live audience and to experiment with my writing, stories and techniques. The competitions and HoF are nice but they’re not why I write here. If there’s losers out there that want to game the ratings, that’s their misfortune that they’re that hung up on something so inconsequential. Most of my stories have that red H, there’s a few blue W’s and there’s a lot of comments, feedback and favoriting of me and my stories and it translates slowly over to Facebook and other social media. I’ve also started, slowly, to get stuff published, which is my primary and long term objective.

So my suggestion is, sit back and think first about why you’re here. If it’s to write and have readers in that genre, don’t kill yourself over the ratings and the HoF. The new tags give you good visibility. If it’s ratings and the HoF, learn to game it. As I pointed out to a couple of authors who gamed me, two can play and I can do it just as effectively if I care to. It’s not hard if you put your mind to it, and I’m nowhere near as geeky with this stuff as some people here. So decide what you’re here for first.

Myself, I can’t be bothered with the gaming so as long as my scores are high enough to get reader views, I’m good.

The gamers only fool themselves by artificially inflating their rankings. It’s like good sex versus playing with yourself. They’re jerking off and I’m having a fucking good time. Lol.

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Wise words, CT, and you too, KD, your reality-checks are always pithily incisive; I get that it's a wide-open site, and I always took into account the fact that snots in cellars are going to make mischief for no other reason than it's funny (to them); I never tried to compete with any of the seasoned, polished writers on here, because I can't, they write classic, iconic stories, and I just write porny fairytales, which is why I never enter any of the contests, I really don't want the embarrassment of a zero-score entry...

I never wrote to grab even reasonably good scores; that I can on occasion is always a welcome surprise to me, because I honestly don't get why, so I just roll with it.

Recently, though, it's begun to feel almost personal, like there's a very directed, concerted campaign to smash my stories as soon as they appear; to be honest, there's probably more paranoia than outright fact hiding in that statement, and while they do recover to a certain extent, I can't help but feel a natural resentment that they should be doing better, and someone's playing games to make sure they don't.

I write here because it's immense fun, or used to be; now, when I post, I find myself counting down to when the first string of 1-votes arrive, and lo, they never disappoint me. Am I going to leave? dunno, I'll wait until tomorrow, if it's a sunny day, I might find my mood improving...

I agree that the voting gets very personal and often centers on something other than the story. I can count on automatic two zap votes when I have a story go up and then a couple more when/if it tops a 4.50 rating, and I don't see much evidence of a Web site sweep for anything but contest stories anymore. I get comments too that have nothing to do with the story--they relate to this board and I can pretty much identify who some of them are from, and it ain't "anonymous." Knowing I can't do much about that, I rely more on posting to a few Web sites where what I mostly write is central, not just tolerated, as it is here, and watching what the ratings do there.

There isn't a whole lot of difference, though, so I'm not going to get incensed over it. Truth be know, I opened the keithd account to check on whether an account not related to the board could do better than sr71plt was doing. I found there wasn't an appreciable difference.

I want the volume of views I get here, I can just erase any comments I don't think are fair, and I just grit my teeth and take the ratings. In my case, I've already put most of them in the marketplace and cashed checks on them, so I don't need to care all that much how they rate here. It's nice to have readers, but Literotica readers, on the whole, are here, I think, to be titillated, not introduced to a Nobel Prize winner.

You mentioned the stories popping into the toplist, and that's when the bombing begins. The toplists are always a hotbed of troll activity.

Keep in mind these "icons" likely have a substantially larger number of votes than you. That makes them harder to bring down. They may not be benefitting so much from the activity, but rather surviving it instead.

Laurel does sweep pretty much every toplist periodically. The thing is, if you're on it, you're instantly a target. If she swept it every time it got bombed, it would be a five times a day thing, and nothing else would get done.

Eventually, if you're continually building back up to a score sufficient to make the toplist once the bombs are removed, you'll pick up enough votes to be a difficult mark yourself. Your longevity on those lists will increase, and others will take the brunt of the damage, until they to build up enough vote armor to withstand the slings and arrows.

Every time you're on that toplist, even if it's short lived, you're gaining exposure, and new readers. Enjoy the brief moments in the sun, and keep in mind that they're likely to become longer as time marches on.

Personally, while acknowledging the problem, I blame Chloe. She wrote about this marvelous troll locator programme she has but seems unwilling to unleash it for the benefit of humanity. Rather selfish, if you ask me.

BB - jokes aside, it's a pain, but trolling is like cheating at solitaire. And it's not like they're getting a bigger paycheque for having trashed real writers.

Hang in, sir.

You can check out any time you want but you can never leave.

If all you're here for is ratings so that your ego gets stroked, sure leave. If fact I'll help you pack up your shit and help you out the door.

Whining about it here will do absolutely no good.

I used to be bothered about low ratings, then I thought... "Fuck 'em" I write because I like to write and I write what I like to read.

Sometimes, what I like to do is turn off voting and comments. I still get email comments about the story by the trolls, but I just delete those. The email address they use is always a fake one.

I even warn them they can't vote or comment. Then I leave voting and comments on, to see which trolls read the story anyway. Well at least the first paragraph or so. What a bunch of wankers.

So if you're looking for ego stroking praise from readers...go somewhere else.

By the way, I read stories here. I am not a troll. I rarely comment and if I do vote it's because the work was good. I never down vote anything if I didn't like it. What's the point, they just come here and whine about it.

Zeb_Carter said:

If all you're here for is ratings so that your ego gets stroked, sure leave. If fact I'll help you pack up your shit and help you out the door.

Whining about it here will do absolutely no good.

......

So if you're looking for ego stroking praise from readers...go somewhere else.

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Oh, it's not whining, Zeb. When my Sammi Woo story got bombed I was quite upset about that myself, as one or two people here know coz I cried on their shoulder about it. I think a little bit of sympathy is in order coz it is tough to see yourself up there and then, very unfairly, to see yourself hammered down. And yeah, two stories from 2011 and that's it. Seems pretty weird to me and I read the story. Doesn't do much for me but it's got a huge # of views and favorites so I guess there's a following there.

You have to kind of toughen up about it and for myself, yeah, I did and I don't pay that much attention to the ratings anymore. Or to the competition scores. With increasing age comes wisdom, she says, very modestly.

So my recommendation is along the lines that KeithD and a few others have already said. Don't sweat it, it don't mean nothing except there's some trolls out there. I quite enjoy some of them, and the others that make comments I don't like, I just zap 'em. And then write them in to another story as targets. Poor Xander.

ChloeTzang said:

You have to kind of toughen up about it and for myself, yeah, I did and I don't pay that much attention to the ratings anymore. Or to the competition scores. With increasing age comes wisdom, she says, very modestly.

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My god, girl, you're going to need a mountain top to sit on, by the time you're thirty .

electricblue66 said:

My god, girl, you're going to need a mountain top to sit on, by the time you're thirty .

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I am but a grasshopper learning at the feet of masters. I just hope they wash them.

But no, I am psyching myself up for one of my winter holiday story’s. It’s a dystopian SF number that’s guaranteed to wind a few people up. I’m actually tossing up turning off ratings and comments for it to be honest. Can you do that for a competition story?

Please don't go.

From a purely selfish perspective, I haven't had the opportunity to read your stories yet. I would really appreciate it if you would leave them available to be read. If the anonymous downvoters are getting on your nerves, I get it. All of us who have written stories on the site understand your frustration. Still, there are lots of people who enjoy reading a good story, and there will be many more readers in the future who will miss out if you pull all of your stories from this site.
I have written several stories in I/T lately. The scores are generally good, but I never expected to have Hall of Fame-level success. The main reason I post stories on I/T is for the massive number of readers I can reach there.
If you want to put a story on the top of a Hall of Fame, I would recommend writing something for the 'Anal' category. It worked for me, embarrassingly well.

In Conjunction with This

I wonder if there is a "cloud" where any and all comments made to a story are stored. I have deleted comments from my trolls, but in retrospect I should have reported the ones who blatantly stated they would rank my stories one star regardless of how well-written they may be, and this can be interpreted as one giving the one star without the benefit of reading them at all. Therefore, if a cloud exists where comments I deleted are still salvageable, then perhaps Admin can go back, find the culprit(s), and remove the one-star ratings they have given. I say me and I, but of course I mean we.

My Stories: https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=3938682&page=submissions

BB's my husband, it was originally my idea for him to write, on the advice of his therapists, who divined that his therapy wasn't really working, and so, after several bottles of rather nice Merlot, he decided to chuck his hat in this ring because it seemed a lot more interesting and creative than medical textbooks.

Now he feels it's all gone sour for him, and he's finding himself taking time to consider what he does next, because I really don't think he wants to leave, but he's also sick of the relentless barrage of racist insults and slurs, the 'I hope you get cancer and die, you English faggot' and all its variants; he doesn't see half of them, I usually get there first, but enough slip through, and, coupled with his general disenchantment at the pummeling his stories take right out of the gate, it's pushing him to just dump and split.

This here was originally supposed to be his therapy; after returning from 5 years in Iraq and Afghanistan with a severe case of PTSD and endless cognitive therapy that was really going nowhere, his therapists suggested he do something he used to do, maybe write again, but not in his comfort-zone, which was humorous stories and childrens stories, or a mixture of both.

They originally suggested he write about a subject that would really stretch him and force him to be original, so he decided to write erotica, because he does have a remarkably dirty mind (thank God), and that would be wasted on an idiomatic Latin translation of Parzifal, his first thought, (which I thought would also be suicidally dull), so he decided to wade into I/T because it's such a bizarre and unbelievable byway from his point of view. Basically, he wanted to see if perhaps he could include all the elements that titillate without veering too far into squick while also telling a reasonably hot, reasonably plausible (?) story. As it happens, he liked the number of likes, the reads, the comments (mostly...), the idea he was sharing stories he liked to tell with people who wanted to read them, and for a long, long time, the scores meant nothing to him; he always told people who commented adversely and swore he only deserved 1 star to go ahead if that's how they felt, he didn't come here to score points, he's here to tell stories.

Having that pissed all over, and all the idiot 'Why don't you write in English, you English fag?', 'all English are fags and pedophiles', 'Your slut mother should have died of cancer 6 months before you were born, you Limey queer' comments that just roll in seemingly every other day finally got to him, although it's taken nearly 7 years for him to stop grinning at the lunacy and start taking it personally, and it does affect him, because he's human, not a plaster saint.

I hope he stays, he's a good writer, if currently writing in a very strange field, but if he doesn't, I wouldn't blame him; perhaps I can persuade him to keep writing if he does decamp, but for a more UK audience, and in a different, calmer genre, because my American compatriots seem to feel no compunction at airing their vicious racism with zero provocation; at least the Brits seem to have better manners, from the years I've lived among them.

Right now he's down in St Tropez with his friend, drinking Dubonnet and pretending to eat fruits de mer while sun-glassing the naked chicks, hopefully he'll come back tonight refreshed, invigorated, because naked chicks, and be ready to finish what he started

Wow. That is really awful. I have had a couple of knuckleheads come after me with personal attacks, but nothing like what you are describing.

Will has been shot, stabbed, held hostage, used as a human shield, drone-attacked by our own forces, subjected to mock executions, and forced to operate on African warlords and Asian drug kingpins at gunpoint, and after all that, the opinions of mindless dick-heads used to have no impact on him; he's seen real evil up close and personal, so some fat internet troll/hero in his own lunchtime dressed in a Spongebob Squarepants Onesie in his mom's basement stuffing pop tarts and hot pockets in his face wouldn't ordinarily cause even a momentary blip on his own Richter Scale of annoyances. It all builds up, though, and minor annoyances start to take on greater significance and have a deeper effect the longer they continue

ChloeTzang said:

Oh, it's not whining, Zeb. When my Sammi Woo story got bombed I was quite upset about that myself, as one or two people here know coz I cried on their shoulder about it. I think a little bit of sympathy is in order coz it is tough to see yourself up there and then, very unfairly, to see yourself hammered down. And yeah, two stories from 2011 and that's it. Seems pretty weird to me and I read the story. Doesn't do much for me but it's got a huge # of views and favorites so I guess there's a following there.

You have to kind of toughen up about it and for myself, yeah, I did and I don't pay that much attention to the ratings anymore. Or to the competition scores. With increasing age comes wisdom, she says, very modestly.

So my recommendation is along the lines that KeithD and a few others have already said. Don't sweat it, it don't mean nothing except there's some trolls out there. I quite enjoy some of them, and the others that make comments I don't like, I just zap 'em. And then write them in to another story as targets. Poor Xander.

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Maybe I was harsh... on second thought, no I wasn't. Every story he has published has a red H on it. Of course he does write nothing but incest. I dare him to try Loving Wives.

Getting one bombed out of a contest win is far different than getting pushed off some arbitrary top list. Top lists here are meaningless here. Most lists here are meaningless when anon can vote and comment.

If you're not writing for yourself, then why are you writing. I love what I write, I love to write, and I do take constructive criticism, which apply... try to apply, to my next story.

Lori_the_Hoosier said:

I hope he stays, he's a good writer, if currently writing in a very strange field, but if he doesn't, I wouldn't blame him; perhaps I can persuade him to keep writing if he does decamp, but for a more UK audience, and in a different, calmer genre, because my American compatriots seem to feel no compunction at airing their vicious racism with zero provocation; at least the Brits seem to have better manners, from the years I've lived among them.

Right now he's down in St Tropez with his friend, drinking Dubonnet and pretending to eat fruits de mer while sun-glassing the naked chicks, hopefully he'll come back tonight refreshed, invigorated, because naked chicks, and be ready to finish what he started

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What you've said puts things in context, and is a good reason why we should all pause in how we react to what he had to say. I'm rather thick-skinned, and my instant reaction to people who complain about scoring is they just need to get over it. But you've explained why it may not be that simple.

BB needs to do whatever is consistent with his mental health and happiness, but I hope he doesn't leave because of the scoring games.

And, so you know, the American trolls you are describing are the minority here. I appreciate my fellow writers from across the Atlantic (and from down under) and enjoy the variety of writing styles and idioms that results when people from all over the globe contribute to this site.