Reader votes and comments

Like I've said in different threads before, I write for myself: because I like it and want to improve my English, not to support a self-image or anything.

With no - or at least a very small (like 35 followers...) - fan base I don't get that many reads, votes or comments: 6-14.000, 50-350 and 2-10 respectively. I have taken this for what it is and most of the time it doesn't help a lot in improving either my language or writing skills.

So, with my latest story (Love and trust: https://www.literotica.com/s/love-and-trust-1) I did something new and out of character for me: I added this plea after the story for votes and comments.

'Dear Reader

If You have the time, may I suggest that You vote or leave a comment now? That is after all the only reward we who write and publish here on Literotica get: Your judgement.

Thank You.

Halin24'

At 4800 reads after two days I now have 10 comments, 270 votes (1 vote in 17 reads!) and several added followers.

My question is this:

Was it - in your opinion - the plea that caused this increase in votes, comments and followers, or the somewhat controversial subjects of sex trafficking and religion?

I know that it is impossible to answer with certainty, but what do you think? Is there any point in repeting the plea?

That's a very, very high vote per view ratio. I'd be inclined to think subject matter rather than the plea for votes. Lots of writers ask for votes, and might get a few extra.

What can you glean from the comments - are they about the story content or about the story writing? I'm guessing readers are reacting to your subject matter.

It never hurts to ask but I suspect it's your story. I get around the same proportion of votes and comments regardless of whether I beg for them or not. The deciding factor seems to be story. Well done!

You've written other stories in the same category, so compare the view:vote:comment ratios of those stories with the one you posted with the plea. I scanned you submissions very quickly and it appears you are doing much better with votes and comments per view than previously, so I'd say your plea probably worked. My experience is that votes and comments per view drop over time, so monitor if that happens.

electricblue66 said:

That's a very, very high vote per view ratio. I'd be inclined to think subject matter rather than the plea for votes. Lots of writers ask for votes, and might get a few extra.

What can you glean from the comments - are they about the story content or about the story writing? I'm guessing readers are reacting to your subject matter.

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Yes, most comments mention the subject one way or another, mostly in a positive way. The view/vote ratio is the real surprise though. My two best ranked stories both have 1:35 ratios, the others between 1:70 to 1:150. This one still have 1:17 today (with only a couple of hundred more views though).

Well, I guess I will add the same plea next time and see what happens...

But if, as you first posted, you write for yourself, not "to support a self-image or anything," why do you bother to add extra stuff asking for comments and votes? I think putting a lot of disclaimers on a story is defensive (a different, but similar, line of discussion to this thread) and asking for attention on a story is rather needy. I don't think of it as writing for oneself.

sr71plt said:

But if, as you first posted, you write for yourself, not "to support a self-image or anything," why do you bother to add extra stuff asking for comments and votes? I think putting a lot of disclaimers on a story is defensive (a different, but similar, line of discussion to this thread) and asking for attention on a story is rather needy. I don't think of it as writing for oneself.

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I also said I write to 'improve my English'...

One thing that usually comes up in the comments is grammatical mistakes etc. Sometimes they ridicule, other times they encourage, but either way they tell me something about it. So, they help 'improve my English'...

Votes may not by themselves tell me a lot about that, but since I don't get a lot of comments I use the rating as an indication if I have done a reasonably sound job or not. Of course it is an unreliable method since the subject of the story and other parameters come into play, but it can give an indication at least. Therefore, a lot of votes should give a more reliable indication...

This, in turn, makes the question if it was the plea or the story subject that caused the higher ratio, relevant. If it was the subject it might be an indication that the rating is also higher because of that.

I know, it's a guessing game and I over-analyze, but a spell-check is also often a guessing game since it doesn't say if the word is the right one, only that the spelling is right or wrong.

If you suspect that I'm an 'attention whore' and hypocrite you are of course entitled to do so. I don't mind and I don't care.

If you should find any grammatical mistakes in this my reply I appreciate if you let me know. After all, I try to 'improve my English'...

I'm not spending much time/effort suspecting anything of you. I just find your OP contradictory and I don't think that asking for comments and ratings from strangers on the Internet is going to do much toward improving in any meaningful way your English, which seems to be fine for this Web site. If you are asking for comment and voting on stories, you, in fact, do want your self-image bolstered and you aren't writing just for yourself.

Nothing wrong with some confidence boosting. I like those ratings and those comments. They give me nice warm fuzzies and make me smile. The awful ones usually make me smile too.

sr71plt said:

I'm not spending much time/effort suspecting anything of you. I just find your OP contradictory and I don't think that asking for comments and ratings from strangers on the Internet is going to do much toward improving in any meaningful way your English, which seems to be fine for this Web site. If you are asking for comment and voting on stories, you, in fact, do want your self-image bolstered and you aren't writing just for yourself.

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Okay, so we have different opinions then. Fine with me. I do believe something can be learned from others opinions, even if I have to try to interpret the results (probably in the wrong way). Maybe I'm just as fucked up as most people are, but I really do believe in exchanging views and learning from that, right or wrong. If I get a hint something is wrong I try to make it right the next time. That's all I have to say.

Over and out.

Since you requested it:

Halin24 said:

I also said I write to 'improve my English'...

One thing that usually comes up in the comments is grammatical mistakes etc. Sometimes they ridicule, other times they encourage, but either way they tell me something about it. So, they help 'improve my English'...

Votes may not by themselves tell me a lot about that, but since I don't get a lot of comments I use the rating as an indication if I have done a reasonably sound job or not.

Click to expand...

Should be "...as an indication of whether I have done a reasonably sound job". (The "or not" is optional.)

Of course it is an unreliable method since the subject of the story and other parameters come into play, but it can give an indication at least. Therefore, a lot of votes should give a more reliable indication...

This, in turn, makes the question if it was the plea or the story subject that caused the higher ratio, relevant.

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Again, "if" should be "of whether" here. The comma after "ratio" shouldn't be there:

"This, in turn, makes the question of whether it was the plea or the story subject that caused the higher ratio relevant."

However, the sentence is a bit clunky so I'd be inclined to recast it to something like "This is why I want to know whether it was the plea or the story subject that caused the higher ratio".

If it was the subject it might be an indication that the rating is also higher because of that.

I know, it's a guessing game and I over-analyze, but a spell-check is also often a guessing game since it doesn't say if the word is the right one, only that the spelling is right or wrong.

Click to expand...

If you suspect that I'm an 'attention whore' and hypocrite you are of course entitled to do so. I don't mind and I don't care.

If you should find any grammatical mistakes in this my reply I appreciate if you let me know. After all, I try to 'improve my English'...[/QUOTE]

"...I would appreciate it if you'd let me know."

N.B. forum discussions normally use casual English and I've only edited to that standard, which mostly means flagging the things that give you away as a non-native speaker. For a story or a piece of formal writing you might want a more in-depth edit.

ChloeTzang said:

Nothing wrong with some confidence boosting. I like those ratings and those comments. They give me nice warm fuzzies and make me smile. The awful ones usually make me smile too.

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Thank you Chloe: I've seen enough of your replies on the discussion board to know you really mean it. No offence, but I really don't care about 'Pilots' comment. If my reply wasn't clear enough for him or anyone else, well, that's the way it is...

My ego is not something I try to force upon others: if they believe me or not is up to them. I know what's in my mind whether I can express it or not.

From what I have learned about you I guess you will enter the 'Winter' competition so, good luck with that.

Bramblethorn said:

Since you requested it:



Should be "...as an indication of whether I have done a reasonably sound job". (The "or not" is optional.)



Again, "if" should be "of whether" here. The comma after "ratio" shouldn't be there:

"This, in turn, makes the question of whether it was the plea or the story subject that caused the higher ratio relevant."

However, the sentence is a bit clunky so I'd be inclined to recast it to something like "This is why I want to know whether it was the plea or the story subject that caused the higher ratio".



If you suspect that I'm an 'attention whore' and hypocrite you are of course entitled to do so. I don't mind and I don't care.

If you should find any grammatical mistakes in this my reply I appreciate if you let me know. After all, I try to 'improve my English'...

Click to expand...

"...I would appreciate it if you'd let me know."

N.B. forum discussions normally use casual English and I've only edited to that standard, which mostly means flagging the things that give you away as a non-native speaker. For a story or a piece of formal writing you might want a more in-depth edit.[/QUOTE]

Thank you Bramblethorn, that will certainly help once I have analyzed what you're saying. One question though: I'm probably stupid, but is this 'all English' or specific to one 'dialect' (UK, US or others)? 'Casual English' means little to me, that's how ignorant i am...

Halin24 said:

Thank you Chloe: ..... From what I have learned about you I guess you will enter the 'Winter' competition so, good luck with that.

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I'm going to try but I'm not sure I'll get one done for this competition. Got a short story to finish for the end of November and a 55k word novella to finish as well plus chapter 6 of Chinese Takeout and .... and ..... if I do a winter story I know what it'll be. A Chinese girl, a Xmas party, a fantasy come true. "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" - a romantic race play loving wives tale. Or is it tail. Lol.

ChloeTzang said:

I'm going to try but I'm not sure I'll get one done for this competition. Got a short story to finish for the end of November and a 55k word novella to finish as well plus chapter 6 of Chinese Takeout and .... and ..... if I do a winter story I know what it'll be. A Chinese girl, a Xmas party, a fantasy come true. "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" - a romantic race play loving wives tale. Or is it tail. Lol.

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Don't give us that dog's bollocks, Chloe. You know you can't resist a competition!

"Oh look, another comp!" Chloe sits down and knocks out 2,000 words before breakfast. By lunchtime, she's on her second keyboard. By dinner, the guys at Intel are figuring out how to double the size of their latest memory chip...

Halin24 said:

Thank you Bramblethorn, that will certainly help once I have analyzed what you're saying. One question though: I'm probably stupid, but is this 'all English' or specific to one 'dialect' (UK, US or others)? 'Casual English' means little to me, that's how ignorant i am...

Click to expand...

"Casual" in this context means not too formal. It's like the difference between what you'd wear at a business meeting and what you'd wear at a barbecue.

I think the issues I mentioned are equally applicable across UK, US, and Australian English. Indian English is quite distinctive and I don't know it well enough to comment there.

Halin24 said:

No offence, but I really don't care about 'Pilots' comment.

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Well, bless your little heart.

Although I must say that you seem to care; you've mentioned it twice.

sr71plt said:

Well, bless your little heart.

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Made me laugh out loud (per discussion on another thread).

It's hard to get useful feedback through comments. I usually don't. For my first two stories I went to the the Story Feedback forum and asked for input. Some people responded to the story and some people responded in the forum. It didn't take long before I realized that what they gave me wasn't the feedback I needed. I needed to know if it was a good story. I didn't need to know if my mechanics were flawed.

If you need an editor to fix your English, then seek an editor. If you need to know if your story is good, then that is what the ratings and comments are for. I read the comments on your story. Your readers think you wrote a good story. What more do you want?

As near as I can tell, your English is as good as many of the native English speakers around here. Just write good stories, and maybe find an editor.

electricblue66 said:

Don't give us that dog's bollocks, Chloe. You know you can't resist a competition!

"Oh look, another comp!" Chloe sits down and knocks out 2,000 words before breakfast. By lunchtime, she's on her second keyboard. By dinner, the guys at Intel are figuring out how to double the size of their latest memory chip...

Click to expand...

I just snorted my hot chocolate. The problem is, I think you're right. I like the competitions, those deadlines force me to stay focused on getting the story done and submitted, otherwise I just go round and round half finishing stuff.

Maybe the more likely reason than either the subject matter or comment request is that the site is going through a bit more talkative spot.

My latest (cough, shameless plug, https://www.literotica.com/s/vibrations-5 cough) went up the day after, in the same category, and with pretty different subject matter. As I'm writing this, I'm seeing pretty much the same you are. 5.5k views to your 5.4k, 17 comments on mine (3 are my own, so throw them out) to your 14.

Just to help you compare apples to apples.