What have you learned from comments and ratings?

I've read comments in this forum to the effect that an author should write what he or she wants to write and not worry too much about comments and ratings and favorites. I think, in general, that's the right attitude. I write stories that interest me. I hope they appeal to someone else, somewhere, but I don't know how to write other than to write what is interesting to me.

At the same time, this site offers a unique opportunity to receive a large quantity of immediate feedback on one's stories. Since comments can be few and far between, and ratings earned with no explanation, the feedback can be difficult to interpret. But it's still quite a lot of data, in a short time span.

I'm curious whether other authors use that feedback when they write new stories, and, if so, how. And whether authors can intuit anything useful or interesting about their stories from the comments, ratings, and favorites they receive.

What have I learned?

1. That some of my story themes are not popular and will never get a Red H.

2. That when I post a story I have no idea whether readers will like it or not.

3. That some anonymous people like downvoting my stories and leaving harsh comments.

4. That some people like a few of my stories better than I do.

5. That most readers are generous with their votes and comments.

6. That I can still write crap after 15 years of posting stories on Literotica.

I'm not swayed by comments on ratings on what to write. As with Ogg, I can be puzzled by a different reaction to a story in general than I have to it myself. Occasionally there will be a comment that makes me rethink what I did, but that's so rare that it has little impact on what I write. I initially posted here to have a safe repository for what I was writing and continued posting here because I was getting more reads (or so it seems; I can't say that the "views" number isn't inflated somehow) here than anywhere else. Now, I guess, in addition to the feeling it gives me that my work is being widely read (just yesterday, for instance, I found that hundreds of my stories had been stolen from here and are being run and yet another Web site--expanding the readership even more) I'm seeing if I can hit the 1,000 story mark before trotting off to other sites that give me fewer reads but better ratings because they are constructed to be more friendly to the primary category I write in.

1. Ratings are about popularity; they are not about the quality of writing

2. I can usually get the rating I expect, but sometimes I delude myself about how popular a story might be

3. I have no idea what causes people to comment on stories

4. I have no idea what causes people to favorite stories.

As to the last two points...

My second and third lowest-rated stories both have more favorites than my highest-rated story.

My second highest-rated standalone story has four (count them, 4) comments; one is from a friend and one is mine.

My personal favorite story is well-rated by a small number of voters, but has received minimal response in terms of either favorites (4) or comments (4)--and half of the comments are from friends.

It seems that every story has at least one reader who will enjoy it. Whether or not that reader finds the story ... that is another matter.

People are strange.

NotWise said:

1. Ratings are about popularity; they are not about the quality of writing
2. I can usually get the rating I expect, but sometimes I delude myself about how popular a story might be
3. I have no idea what causes people to comment on stories
4. I have no idea what causes people to favorite stories.

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This echoes my experiences. Scores are often somewhat predictable, at least until you get into he high 4.7s and the jealousy downvotes start. Very little else is. Favoriting and commenting appear random.

I've learned a lot by looking at comments and scores on other peoples' stories. My takeaway is that any poorly written crap can get a red H and a handful of glowing comments; so I learned not to be overly proud of my scores.

First and foremost I have learned that every story needs a sequel. It doesn't matter how long the story is, how it ends, even if people die...they still want more.

I've also learned that every story I post is

A-The best story ever written here(until they read the next story they click on)

B-I am the best author here(until they go to the next story)

But yet at the same time

A-absolute garbage

B The last story I should ever write...

End of the day, take the overly glowing and the abusive with a grain of salt, neither means a thing and take what you can from the rare comment that actually has some insightful feedback.

Most important thing is to never let them effect what and how you write.

My stories and what I learned from comments and ratings in order that they were published:

Heather and Michael Ch 01
Heather and Michael Ch 02
Then: Holy shit! I can write a story that gets a red "H"! This writing thing isn't that hard
Now: A good premise will get you a good rating even if your writing is filled with errors (as this story is)

Cycling Weekends With Sis
Then: Holy shit! I can write a story that gets lots and lots of positive comments! This writing thing isn't that hard
Now:
* My characters don't have to have the bodies of porn stars for my story to be successful. The male MC is 5'6" with a five-inch dick
* Readers love a story that immerses them in another world. In this case, it was the world of higher-end amateur cycling. I did a ton of research and it paid off with tons of comments (currently 96)
* During the story preview, check the whole story to make sure that the formatting is correct. I didn't put a blank line above and below the scene change line that had "* * * *" and LitE made one big paragraph out of the preceding paragraph, the "* * * *" and the ensuing paragraph

Heather and Michael Ch 03
Then: Damn! I guess I'm not as good of a writer as I thought
Now: Chapters are best avoided. I should have published Ch 01 and Ch 02 as one story. I should have published the sequel (this was going to be the first of four chapters) as one story

Sister Has a Plan
Then: Woot! I can write a story that gets above 4.6!
Now:
* Writing several stories and a good editor did wonders for my writing technique. This is my first story that I think was well-written
* Good writing and a good rating are only loosely related to the number of comments. "Cycling" got far more comments than this story even though it has a lower score

My Daughter Interrupts My Work
Then: I can badly misjudge how a story is going to be received. I thought this would get at least a 4.6 and instead had a sub-4 score for over a week. Very depressing
Now: I still struggle with why this story got such a low rating. The comments I got ripped me for having the male MC work on a classified network at home when that's just not possible. But being implausible doesn't hurt most stories. Instead, I think it was that the daughter was a blatant gold digger who was just using her dad. And having the world blown up because he fucks his daughter may not have gone over well

Cruise Doubledate With My Sister
* Of the initial comments, half of them were critical of the story even though this quickly became my highest-rated story. So a lot of negative comments doesn't mean that most readers dislike my story
* I think most of my stories break the "rules" (i.e. typical reader expectations of the Incest/Taboo category). This story is my biggest rule-breaker in that the brother and sister don't stay together and instead the male MC gets back together with his girlfriend at the end. So a story that breaks the rules can do well

My Day as a Pool Boy
* This story has a high rating (4.70) and was in the 2015 Summer Lovin' contest, but has never drawn a lot of comments. I think it's because there's not much depth to the story

lovecraft68 said:

First and foremost I have learned that every story needs a sequel. It doesn't matter how long the story is, how it ends, even if people die...they still want more.

I've also learned that every story I post is

A-The best story ever written here(until they read the next story they click on)

B-I am the best author here(until they go to the next story)

But yet at the same time

A-absolute garbage

B The last story I should ever write...

End of the day, take the overly glowing and the abusive with a grain of salt, neither means a thing and take what you can from the rare comment that actually has some insightful feedback.

Most important thing is to never let them effect what and how you write.

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This is exactly my experience.

I'm new to this site, and recently uploaded some stuff. I've noticed the scoring for one of my stories swing quite a bit (with almost perfect -1 correlation to another story in the category) - could this be the intentional up/down voting? Or am I just overthinking it?

careythomas said:

I'm new to this site, and recently uploaded some stuff. I've noticed the scoring for one of my stories swing quite a bit (with almost perfect -1 correlation to another story in the category) - could this be the intentional up/down voting? Or am I just overthinking it?

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Just looked you up, your scores are off the charts! Good for you.

lovecraft68 said:

Just looked you up, your scores are off the charts! Good for you.

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Thanks! I'm just getting my bearings around here. So am quite happy with it all -- but the swings in the score were intriguing. Not a big deal, just wanted to get some context for why it might be.

Comments aren't worth the waste of time they require,

On some of mine I have turned off comments and voting...yes, Loving Wives.

On some of mine I have left comments and voting on...everything but Loving Wives.

With Loving Wives, I learned no matter what you write someone there will hate it.

With my other stuff...most people like it, some leave comments, some don't. Scores for most are over 4.00. Some even have a red H.

Comments given mostly ask for the story to continue, which is crazy as the person it's about dies in the end. Kind of hard to continue.

Others were written with no intent to continue them and stand alone no matter what the reader rants about in the comments.

careythomas said:

I'm new to this site, and recently uploaded some stuff. I've noticed the scoring for one of my stories swing quite a bit (with almost perfect -1 correlation to another story in the category) - could this be the intentional up/down voting? Or am I just overthinking it?

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You might be overthinking it just a tad. With all of your scores ranging from 4.82 to 4.90 you can't be getting much in the way of down voting--mostly it's up, up up. Congratulations.

lovecraft68 said:

First and foremost I have learned that every story needs a sequel. It doesn't matter how long the story is, how it ends, even if people die...they still want more.

I've also learned that every story I post is

A-The best story ever written here(until they read the next story they click on)

B-I am the best author here(until they go to the next story)

But yet at the same time

A-absolute garbage

B The last story I should ever write...

End of the day, take the overly glowing and the abusive with a grain of salt, neither means a thing and take what you can from the rare comment that actually has some insightful feedback.

Most important thing is to never let them effect what and how you write.

Click to expand...

This is so true especially the sequel part. I just started posting here but I've been posting stories on another site for years and some readers are obsessed with sequels even when protagonist dies, is dying or you give it happy ending where couple gets married, engaged or whatever.

I appreciate the different perspectives. This is interesting to me. I submitted my first story in December and have submitted only four stories so far. The responses have been very intriguing.

My initial thoughts, as a long-time reader but new author:

1. Lit readers as a whole have strong opinions about what they are looking for in certain categories, and if you submit a story that is creative and well-written but fails to deliver what they are looking for, you will get bombed by some readers.

2. There is no correlation among a) how high the rating is, b) the number of views, and c) how many favorites you get. You can have a high rating but relatively few views. You can have a lower rating but lots of views. You can have ratings all over the map but lots of "favorites."

3. Lit readers are not very demanding. They are not demanding about things like grammar and punctuation. They are not demanding about highly original story ideas. They are looking for a story that involves characters who have some degree of believability who engage in whatever erotic activity interests them.

4. If you like abuse, submit a story to LW. I submitted a story to this category and still am blown away by the vicious -- but highly entertaining and creative! -- comments I received. I never have been told in the past that what I have written is "illiterate cuck shit". Until now. Nor have I been told to eat someone's condom.

NotWise said:

You might be overthinking it just a tad. With all of your scores ranging from 4.82 to 4.90 you can't be getting much in the way of down voting--mostly it's up, up up. Congratulations.

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Standby for movement on your scores. This is well meant praise from another writer, unfortunately there is also a tall poppy syndrome alive and well lurking in the background, and it's possible that hostile anons will flock to your story file to knock it down. One bombs will get removed in subsequent sweeps (especially when the next contest gets going), but seeing scores move up and down can be off-putting for someone new here.

It's a sad thing that folk who are prepared to put their work out there get attacked by people who don't, but that's the way of it, unfortunately. Hopefully you won't get the vile commentary that sometimes appears - remember, as the author, you decide which comments you keep and those you delete. Nobody else, just you.

SimonDoom said:

My initial thoughts, as a long-time reader but new author:

1. Lit readers as a whole have strong opinions about what they are looking for in certain categories, and if you submit a story that is creative and well-written but fails to deliver what they are looking for, you will get bombed by some readers.

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I've been thinking of these folks as "entitled" readers. They feel entitled to get off on whatever they read, and if they don't they'll bomb it. They'll even do that when they're reading stories that are outside their normal interest -- which happens quite a bit with contests.

SimonDoom said:

2. There is no correlation among a) how high the rating is, b) the number of views, and c) how many favorites you get. You can have a high rating but relatively few views. You can have a lower rating but lots of views. You can have ratings all over the map but lots of "favorites."

3. Lit readers are not very demanding. They are not demanding about things like grammar and punctuation. They are not demanding about highly original story ideas. They are looking for a story that involves characters who have some degree of believability who engage in whatever erotic activity interests them.

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What they're looking for varies from category to category. For the most part you're right about grammar and puntuation, but in Romance they actually do care about how well your story is written--and they have their story formula. In I/T and in several other categories they want romance and will vote you lower if you don't give it to them.

I'm not sure about the believable characters thing. Most characters in I/T stories are unbelievable. SciFi and Fantasy has a whole different scale for believability.

SimonDoom said:

4. If you like abuse, submit a story to LW. I submitted a story to this category and still am blown away by the vicious -- but highly entertaining and creative! -- comments I received. I never have been told in the past that what I have written is "illiterate cuck shit". Until now. Nor have I been told to eat someone's condom.

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Comments on stories that are mis-posted to Romance can be pretty clear about their disapproval but they usually express themselves more eloquently.

SimonDoom said:

...but I don't know how to write other than to write what is interesting to me.
...

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I do, but I won't.

NotWise said:

1. Ratings are about popularity; they are not about the quality of writing
...

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^^ This!

careythomas said:

I'm new to this site, and recently uploaded some stuff. I've noticed the scoring for one of my stories swing quite a bit (with almost perfect -1 correlation to another story in the category) - could this be the intentional up/down voting? Or am I just overthinking it?

Click to expand...

Your ratings for your 6 or 7 submissions in the last two months since you started are phenomenal. So good they will never get better! (4.8-4.9 is wow stuff) I suspect that whilst your writing is particularly good, your ratings are very high partly because you have posted only in the Lesbian category.

If you posted a link to your stories in your sig line you might get more comments from established authors here. But all established authors ain't necessarily good guys, and 'ahem,' one or two notorious characters might even mark you down solely because you have scored so well. Good luck.

I've learned that people like my high concept stuff more than they like my realistic material. I knew as soon as I wrote the second chapter of Gold Digger that it would get a bad rating, but that was the direction I was set on when I conceived the series. I thought it was kind of silly that politics was never used as a conflict on here. Morals or money will be explored in the third chapter.

With Tropes, I learned people enjoyed my absurd humor. It was rated hot for about a day, but then got voted down. The comments were great. Though there was one idiot who sent an anonymous message because a joke flew over his or her head.

I have learned that ratings and the number of favorites are practically meaningless, except to specifically feed a part of the ego to those who need them, or to provide numbers for people who live for statistics.

From the comments, I have personally learned that:
-when I pull more from my own real life experiences for a story, that the readers will tear it apart for being impossible and unrealistic. My favorite such comments are the ones telling me that female characters that have adopted some of my personality are especially fictitious because: 'women like that don't exist in real life.'
*looks down at self, and then back at screen* oh...okay

-when I write a more fantasy based story that doesn't pull so much from reality, readers praise it for how realistic and plausible it is, they give examples of their own similar experiences, or explain to me that they wish such a story could happen to them. ...okay

-grammar Nazi trolls have established a bridge to live under in every category on this site, but some categories have grammar Nazi trolls that are far less forgiving than others

-I purposely end stories with leading endings that allow for a reader's imagination to keep thinking about--and hopefully keep progressing--the story line when they are finished, and that is not always appreciated. Like stated above, the call for sequels is strong here.

-A Femdom following does exist...they tend to hide in the shadows, but sometimes, they're actually vocal. Femdom stories can actually achieve a H, even in the BDSM category.

-sometimes readers look out for each other, and feel a need to label the type of story in a category; regardless if the tags put on the stories already call that out. Two of my stories, (one in BDSM and one in Fetish) have been labeled 'sensual BDSM' (from different usernames) to let other readers know that the characters in those stories actually do follow SSC.

-I used to not keep comments on my stories, and delete them after x-so long...that makes people very pissy if you do that. Lesson learned.

Is any of that really useful to writing future stories? Not particularly, but that's what I've learned.

From ratings? Almost nothing, they are a mystery. Not the calculation, the motivation behind the votes.

From Comments? Quite a lot. We're not trained writers and come from technical background.
1. Punctuation. - Our first story had numerous punctuation and homonym issues (complicated by dyslexia).
2. Word overuse. - Several readers offered helpful suggestions that aided us. Further stories got feedback from editors and readers that we over use words (just is a big on). Lists are great for this, but aren't a hard fast rule.

Lots of comments seem meaningless, but if someone took the time, we evaluate it higher than just a vote.

From contact? We've gotten much more in depth feedback on story flow, detail level and general excitement about the characters and storyline.

Most of all we learned we can write. Maybe not as well as we'd like, but we work at it.
-MM