Lit writer's agony

karaline said:

personally I favourite stories for one of two reasons, either i want to book mark a story to return to later, i sometimes find this easier than favouriting a writer. i often look at the list of my faves and think Who are all these people? if i see a story title i can usually recall what the story's about. i never bother favouring more than one story by the same author, i;d just favourite the author. so if i favourite a story for this reason i usually don't vote because i haven't usually read it at that point.

my other reason is if i want to support a new author I do it to 'signal boost' a new story. if i read a story i like thats only just been published and its still on the new stories list the another reader scanning down the list may base their choice of what to read on the number of favourites. (I don't think you can see how many favourites a story has had on any other of the other lists) I normally vote too when I do this.

I hope that makes sense, its kind of passed by bedtime

Click to expand...

Thanks for the great insights!

There is one other list that has the number of favorites, but its the all time fav list and it only features the top 250 stories.

http://www.literotica.com/stories/favstoriesv2.php

litmlove said:

I have a few theories. Did I mention they are only theories?

1 - The Hall of Fame list is bugged and doesn't update as it should.p

Click to expand...

Maybe, but it isn't true for all categories.

2 - The score of the story has been archived. Meaning the score of your story will be fixed after a certain period of time to save server space. The server discards all polling information, ie. everyone who voted on the story, leaving only a static score. All subsequent voting is illusionary in effect.

Click to expand...

I think you're making this hypothesis on basis of stories that have virtually no difference in scores over a long time. This can be due to the high amount of votes it gathers, which nearly nullifies any change in average due to the subsequent 5* or 4*.

3 - Your story has already approached the long-term expected score from Literotica readers. The few extra votes you have received, besides being insignificant to the vast amount of votes you have already received, only tend to confirm the score you have already received.

Click to expand...

Eh?

Do the millions of readers have the same score in mind for a story?

4 - There is a conspiracy to deny LaRascasse recognition. The plan is for LaRascasse to only gain post-humous recognition so that LaRascasse will continue toiling away unspoilt by fame.

Click to expand...

No comments.

TheSoulfulBard said:

I think you're making this hypothesis on basis of stories that have virtually no difference in scores over a long time. This can be due to the high amount of votes it gathers, which nearly nullifies any change in average due to the subsequent 5* or 4*.

Click to expand...

Literotica wouldn't be the first large community website to use a secret archival system. The polling system would have to remain semi-secret for fear the audience loses faith in voting. My intuition says Literotica wouldn't do this because it would require some advanced technical skill to implement.

I agree Archiving & All-ready-very-large-voting-pool appear to be similar in effect which is kind of the point.

TheSoulfulBard said:

Eh?

Do the millions of readers have the same score in mind for a story?

Click to expand...

It is the herd mentality not a hive-mind, and I think this is the most plausible theory.

So each batch of new votes into the voting pool (the accumulated votes since LaRascasse last logged in) is like another sample size. And a statistically significant sample batches of votes should be fairly close to the long term average. So once your score stabilises, then you are kinda hitting a virtual wall.

Of course this is assuming the preferences of the community is not wildly changing. I do think you can safely make that assumption because the rest of the Hall of Fame list is also affected by changing preferences to a degree.

TheSoulfulBard said:

No comments.

Click to expand...

JAMESBJOHNSON said:

You confuse THEORY with HYPOTHESIS.

Click to expand...

Please don't play word games with me. I may or may not be wrong, in either case you are wrong for ignoring LaRascasse's issue.

Theory: an idea used to account for a situation or justify a course of action.

Hypotheisis: a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.

Another thing is the sweeps. If you are trying to check numbers around the end of each month, the sweeps run and some votes go so it looks like nothing changed.

Just pointing this out as a possibility.

litmlove said:

Please don't play word games with me. I may or may not be wrong, in either case you are wrong for ignoring LaRascasse's issue.

Theory: an idea used to account for a situation or justify a course of action.

Hypotheisis: a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.

Click to expand...

Stick your control issue up your ass, por favor.

A theory is a fund of evidence that warrants confidence in cause and effect.

JAMESBJOHNSON said:

Stick your control issue up your ass, por favor.

A theory is a fund of evidence that warrants confidence in cause and effect.

Click to expand...

Interesting.

JAMESBJOHNSON, why do you insist on proving everybody else is wrong? I don't think it is healthy for you.

And I won't debate you.

litmlove said:

Please don't play word games with me. I may or may not be wrong, in either case you are wrong for ignoring LaRascasse's issue.

Theory: an idea used to account for a situation or justify a course of action.

Hypotheisis: a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.

Click to expand...

Something else that can factor in is vote total.

If you look at stories that have exceeded 2k plus votes they tend to stay the same score for a long time. Votes will go up, but at that point you need a boatload of consecutive 5 votes to go up .01 and a 2 or 3 or a bomb in between a run of wives will keep you there.

Best way to test your theory is find a story that's a couple of years old with only around a 100 votes, check the score then vote a five on it see if it moves.

stlgoddessfreya said:

I tried an experiment with my latest story on voting. All of me previous stories, no matter which category, and having anywhere from 2,700 views to 87,000 views, have a rate of votes to views very close to .5%. Now, I have a small sample size, comparatively, so I'd be curious to see what someone with a greater number of stories sees in theirs.

Click to expand...

I have a 14-chapter story and a one-shot in Lesbian, and one in EH. For the long story, about 0.8% to 2% of views convert to votes (more for the last three chapters where All The Drama happens, less for stuff in the middle). The one-shot has a relatively high number of views but only 0.4% of them voted - I suspect some may have been expecting something more stroke-y from the summary and didn't get what they came for. The EH one also has about 0.5% votes; might be a category difference, or might just be that it's long and people got bored halfway through.

I'll try the "please vote" next time and see if it makes a difference.

litmlove said:

I have a few theories. Did I mention they are only theories?

1 - The Hall of Fame list is bugged and doesn't update as it should.

Click to expand...

Confirmed for the Lesbian category. The top-25 and the top-51-250 bits seem to be working OK, but the top-50 list has been frozen for years.

2 - The score of the story has been archived. Meaning the score of your story will be fixed after a certain period of time to save server space. The server discards all polling information, ie. everyone who voted on the story, leaving only a static score. All subsequent voting is illusionary in effect.

Click to expand...

I'd be very surprised. I can still see the views and votes changing on my Submissions view, it just doesn't show up in the HoF for those stories that would be rating in places 26-50. Also, I wouldn't expect vote data to take up a huge amount of space compared to what it takes to hold the stories themselves.

3 - Your story has already approached the long-term expected score from Literotica readers. The few extra votes you have received, besides being insignificant to the vast amount of votes you have already received, only tend to confirm the score you have already received.

Click to expand...

Possible. As you get more and more votes, the fluctuation in the score gets smaller and it converges toward some long-term average. Assuming no major change in the tastes of people reading Lit, eventually the fluctuations will become small enough that they're hidden by rounding.

But it takes a LOT of votes to do that - on a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation, roughly 1000 to 10000 votes before your score settles down to its final value. (That's assuming it's a really high-scoring story, somewhere around the 4.9 mark; for lower scores it'll take longer.)

4 - There is a conspiracy to deny LaRascasse recognition. The plan is for LaRascasse to only gain post-humous recognition so that LaRascasse will continue toiling away unspoilt by fame.

Click to expand...

CONFIRMED. The day after he dies penniless in a gutter, all his stories will go to 4.99s and be picked up by HBO for prime-time. It'd be a very LaRascasse ending.

Bramblethorn said:

CONFIRMED. The day after he dies penniless in a gutter, all his stories will go to 4.99s and be picked up by HBO for prime-time. It'd be a very LaRascasse ending.

Click to expand...

Nope.

He will never die a pauper.

Larasscasse will never want for money, said it himself, leads a pretty charmed life.

His problem boils down to being a privileged kid now working his dream job who wants desperately to be an edgy "struggling" person full of tragedy and angst.

"poor black child" syndrome is what some refer to it as. You know what I mean, well do to kids trying to act like they came from the hood.

So he sits back and tries to write as dark as possible so people will think he;s some kind of dark soul, writing from all his pain and experience

Kids a poser and a whiner. His real life personality shines through here bemoaning how his biggest problem is he can't hit a top list.

Maybe he can have his parents buy some votes.

Adding to ignore for being a diva.

lovecraft68 said:

Thanks for the great insights!

There is one other list that has the number of favorites, but its the all time fav list and it only features the top 250 stories.

http://www.literotica.com/stories/favstoriesv2.php

Click to expand...

Is there anyway of finding out how many times you have been favourited? (I mean me!)

lovecraft68 said:

Nope.

He will never die a pauper.

Click to expand...

I was speaking with tongue in cheek, FWIW. But honestly, is grumbling about a score really that much worse than some of the other stuff people grumble about here?

litmlove said:

Interesting.

JAMESBJOHNSON, why do you insist on proving everybody else is wrong? I don't think it is healthy for you.

And I won't debate you.

Click to expand...

Because everybody else is wrong.

I'm the guy who fucks up grading curves. At seminars and training people howl when I'm the only participant who knows the right answer.

I cant sing or dance, I'm not pretty and my dick isn't the longest, but I got RIGHT nailed down tight.

JAMESBJOHNSON said:

A theory is a fund of evidence that warrants confidence in cause and effect.

Click to expand...

Point of order. Who says you have to have any evidence at all to form and voice a theory on anything?

karaline said:

Is there anyway of finding out how many times you have been favourited? (I mean me!)

Click to expand...

Only if you are in the top 250 on being favorited as an author. You can find this list by clicking on "Sneak Peek" on the home page and then on something like "old view" or "old list" on that page. As there are over 50,000 Lit. authors (we once could get this number off the Web site, but no longer can), 250 is a pretty small number.

sr71plt said:

Point of order. Who says you have to have any evidence at all to form and voice a theory on anything?

Click to expand...

I say it. Evidence is the stuff of theory. How else do you repudiate theory but by the collection of evidence?

Might note here a positive aspect of the viewing/voting/favoriting process here. I'm still getting reads/votes/favorites on stories posted eight years ago to Literotica. I don't get that much in mainstream publishing. I'm surprised nearly every morning upon seeing a story favorited that I no longer favorited myself in comparison to others I have posted here.

lovecraft68 said:

Adding to ignore for being a diva.

Click to expand...

Duly noted.

Number of fucks given = 0.

Bramblethorn said:

I was speaking with tongue in cheek, FWIW. But honestly, is grumbling about a score really that much worse than some of the other stuff people grumble about here?

Click to expand...

Duh? I'd much rather be endlessly bemoaning the applicability or lack thereof of an imaginary rape rule.

Or if "budding breasts" are an underage reference.

Or how the site management is out to get me.

Or a dozen other equally "important stuff" I can't remember right now.

Bramblethorn said:

I'll try the "please vote" next time and see if it makes a difference.

Click to expand...

I usually do put a variant of "if you liked this story, please vote and comment" at the start of a story. Doesn't really help.

CONFIRMED. The day after he dies penniless in a gutter, all his stories will go to 4.99s and be picked up by HBO for prime-time. It'd be a very LaRascasse ending.

Click to expand...

Ah well... c'est la vie.

LaRascasse said:

I usually do put a variant of "if you liked this story, please vote and comment" at the start of a story. Doesn't really help.

Click to expand...

Ditto. Sometimes this elicits responses berating my request, on the order of I'D VOTE YOU TO HELL IF I COULD, etc. But I beg for votes anyway. What a perv.

Hypoxia said:

Ditto. Sometimes this elicits responses berating my request, on the order of I'D VOTE YOU TO HELL IF I COULD, etc. But I beg for votes anyway. What a perv.

Click to expand...

Given the stories I've read of yours (especially "Under His Eyes"), I understand why. I've received ones like those too, usually with more misspelt words than normal.

LaRascasse said:

Given the stories I've read of yours (especially "Under His Eyes"), I understand why.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the plug. It's interesting that my lowest-ranked stories, UNDER HIS EYES and BIG BANANA (both linked in my .sig) are also those with the most views and comments. I get readers and reactions. I like that. It shows I'm doing my job -- provoking people.