One-bombed?

[Trionyx]

My story Summer on the PCT was doing quite well and as a result, I checked in on the voting frequently. Suddenly this morning the vote count jumped 7 votes and the score dropped quite a bit. I did the math and 7 one-votes would have made the drop almost exactly. I doubt this was due to a sweep as the vote count went up, not down.

I guess my questions are more philosophical. Why would someone do this? Disgruntled or competing author? Someone who objected to mention of a hall pass, the only potentially controversial issue in the otherwise fairly tame story?

One can only hope that the sweep will take into consideration not only the votes but how they apparently all hit at once. Thoughts?

The story: https://www.literotica.com/s/summer-on-the-pct

 

[BarracudaSwordfish]

I had a story published this morning - a seven pager and got two one bombs in the first few minutes. Unfortunately there are people out there that seem to delight in this sort of thing.

Or some very competent speed readers.

I actually doubt some of them can read.

After 50 stories I should be used to it, but it still pisses me off.

Which is probably why they do it!

 

[jaF0]

Why would someone do this?

Why ask why?

 

[RoperTrace]

It happens, I had a 20,000 word part 6 go live recently, and almost immediately there was one vote, a 2. Part 5, also received a 1 early in the voting. I almost asked them why they read part 5 after reading the previous 4 terrible chapters. The person also left a comment saying they wanted it to be zero.

 

[lovecraft68]

Seeing its in romance which isn't known for its trolls, my guess its more contest related. Doesn't have to be a competing author, could be one of their bases trying to help them.

It will backfire, the votes will be swept and the sweep may even cut deeper and raise the score.

Hall pass is only an issue if the woman gets one, men can do whatever they want here, women? Well the little mens here just can't handle that.

 

[Anthonysdaughter]

Under a different user name I wrote a horrible, awful, 800 or so word story with multiple homophones-- because they are invisible to the spelling and grammar bot-- at the end I asked the readers to one-bomb the story. It's at 3.13 as of a few minutes ago...

 

[Trionyx]

Quick question: Where can one see the actual votes, that is the number of 5s, 4s, etc?

 

[KeithD]

Quick question: Where can one see the actual votes, that is the number of 5s, 4s, etc?

You can't on Literotica, and the voting of contest stories are more manipulated than regular file stories are. There's money involved. The big sweep right before the deciding vote is tallied by the Web site will take care of most of the maneuvering voting.

 

[Trionyx]

You can't on Literotica, and the voting of contest stories are more manipulated than regular file stories are. There's money involved. The big sweep right before the deciding vote is tallied by the Web site will take care of most of the maneuvering voting.

Money? At the rate I write and edit and ponder and rewrite and head scratch and mull and re-rewrite, I'd be lucky too clear 25 cents an hour. Not worth it, but I do see where some might think it is.

Thanks for the info.

 

[KeithD]

Money? At the rate I write and edit and ponder and rewrite and head scratch and mull and re-rewrite, I'd be lucky too clear 25 cents an hour. Not worth it, but I do see where some might think it is.

Thanks for the info.

The contests have prize money.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Welcome to the jungle... as the song goes. I gave up wondering why people do what they do a long time ago.

At one point I just shut off all voting and comments on all my stories.

Then I realized I really didn't care what the score was or what they said so, I turned them back on.

However I do delete stupid and inaccurate comments each and every time someone makes one.

I do not allow anon commenters.

 

[MetaBob]

My story Summer on the PCT was doing quite well and as a result, I checked in on the voting frequently. Suddenly this morning the vote count jumped 7 votes and the score dropped quite a bit. I did the math and 7 one-votes would have made the drop almost exactly. I doubt this was due to a sweep as the vote count went up, not down.

I guess my questions are more philosophical. Why would someone do this? Disgruntled or competing author? Someone who objected to mention of a hall pass, the only potentially controversial issue in the otherwise fairly tame story?

One can only hope that the sweep will take into consideration not only the votes but how they apparently all hit at once. Thoughts?

The story: https://www.literotica.com/s/summer-on-the-pct

I certainly liked the story well enough (I dropped 5* on it), but then I wrote a similar story two years ago about a different PCT hike that turned into a romance (Packback, linked below in my sig), and was struck by how many similarities there were with yours, but also how many differences.

One thing, though ... bad weather in October in the North Cascades is a lot more likely than your story indicates.

Edit: Oh yeah, Packback had a rating in the 3.8+ range until a few hours before the Summer Lovin' 2019 contest ended, then got one-bombed to below 3.65, where it remains. So yeah, I think organized one-bombing happens here (other sites, too) and not all of it gets swept, though I applaud the site admins' attempts to set things right.

 

[lovecraft68]

Money? At the rate I write and edit and ponder and rewrite and head scratch and mull and re-rewrite, I'd be lucky too clear 25 cents an hour. Not worth it, but I do see where some might think it is.

Thanks for the info.

If your story doesn't have a lot of votes you can do the math when the score changes, but that's a PIA and at least to me not worth it.

As for prize money $150 for first place $100 second $75 third, you have a choice between check or a gift card.

I know some people have it rough, but I have a hard time thinking $150 is worth spending days on end running around bombing stories.

For the people who do that I always feel its more about having the Blue W on their page.

I have 8 of those and each time I've placed I've taken the check, then written checks to SPCA and Providence Animal Rescue League with it, I pay it forward to the animals.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Poop doth occur. There appear to be four types of one-bombing trolls, IMO. The first takes a dislike to a particular writer and will bomb everything and anything published by them. The second is, for whatever reason, wanting to win a contest and bombs any story which might compete. The third seems to lurk in the New Story region and bombs virtually everything. The last haunts the Loving Wives section and bombs a story because: a) the cheating wife gets punished or b) the cheating wife does not get punished.

For the OP, sweeps to remove improper votes are done automatically. If you are really worried, you can use the report icon to request a special sweep. The owner discourages speculation on the actual mechanism of sweeps as it might allow the trolls to play the system.

 

[LiveLocalLateBreaking]

I'm new, so take it with a grain of salt, but I've noticed certain people on certain content definitely mobilize the one-star votes.

Now, all my stories lost like a third of their votes in apparently the sweep that happened last night, and that was a true surprise!

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I'm new, so take it with a grain of salt, but I've noticed certain people on certain content definitely mobilize the one-star votes.

Now, all my stories lost like a third of their votes in apparently the sweep that happened last night, and that was a true surprise!

The sweeps seem to remove 'false' votes, both bad and good. Some fan hitting five after five will have those votes removed as easily as a troll hitting one after one.

 

[LiveLocalLateBreaking]

The sweeps seem to remove 'false' votes, both bad and good. Some fan hitting five after five will have those votes removed as easily as a troll hitting one after one.

Thanks TarnishedPenny! I was just shocked by the sheer volume of votes that went away! But not a big deal because it's about the creative endeavor and release.

 

[HisArpy]

The sweeps seem to remove 'false' votes, both bad and good. Some fan hitting five after five will have those votes removed as easily as a troll hitting one after one.

The interesting thing about those missing 5's. They can disappear at any time, even months later.

Then show up again.

Then vanish once more. Sometimes less than an hour after they miraculously reappeared.



The website has too much technical debt.

 

[Fervid]

I have a few popular stories whose scores have dived suspiciously since May of 2020. These stories scored:

4.88 for the first ~200 votes as of May of 2020, then an average score of under 4.6 for the 50 or so votes between then and now

4.86 for the first ~140 votes as of May of 2020, then an average score of under 4.5 for the 50 or so votes between then and now

4.89 for the first ~185 votes as of May of 2020, then an average score of under 4.4 for the 50 or so votes between then and now

I picked these three because they were published my first day here, before I had any followers. Only two of these stories have been obviously trolled, and for them, there have been sweeps. But the sweeps have not restored anything close to the average scores.

It may not be a big drop mathematically, but statistically, it’s highly, highly improbable. It means the scoring has changed from almost 90% 5’s to around 50% 5’s (assuming all 5’s and 4’s). And of course, it means expulsion from the Hall, where these have occasionally been top-5 despite being stand-alone, non-chapter stories. That decreases views.

Last May I was encouraged. But now, . . . What’s up? Have scores declined site-wide?

 

[lovecraft68]

I have a few popular stories whose scores have dived suspiciously since May of 2020. These stories scored:

4.88 for the first ~200 votes as of May of 2020, then an average score of under 4.6 for the 50 or so votes between then and now

4.86 for the first ~140 votes as of May of 2020, then an average score of under 4.5 for the 50 or so votes between then and now

4.89 for the first ~185 votes as of May of 2020, then an average score of under 4.4 for the 50 or so votes between then and now

I picked these three because they were published my first day here, before I had any followers. Only two of these stories have been obviously trolled, and for them, there have been sweeps. But the sweeps have not restored anything close to the average scores.

It may not be a big drop mathematically, but statistically, it’s highly, highly improbable. It means the scoring has changed from almost 90% 5’s to around 50% 5’s (assuming all 5’s and 4’s). And of course, it means expulsion from the Hall, where these have occasionally been top-5 despite being stand-alone, non-chapter stories. That decreases views.

Last May I was encouraged. But now, . . . What’s up? Have scores declined site-wide?

Yes, scores have declined in general, why? Anyone's guess, mine is lit's incompetent spam filter which is not allowing people to comment has caused them to stop commenting and most likely voting, but as is always the case, the trolls have more fortitude and they somehow find their way around the spam filter to get their comments in and will always vote whereas most normal readers can't be bothered.

Another factor for you could be your first stories had great ratings, but once the category and top list snipers saw them they started hitting them. I've seen that happen to myself and others here have gone through it.

Every stat on this site has gone down, especially comments because of the aforementioned issue. In my experience, everything the site does or fixes here benefits readers and does nothing for authors and our complaints are met with apathy from them, and spin doctoring from the long time brown nosers here.

The only thing to do is accept its what it is and decide if you want to keep going here or try another venue. This site's still the biggest, but the claim its the best because of all the attention is becoming a thing of the past with everything declining.

 

[LiveLocalLateBreaking]

I have a few popular stories whose scores have dived suspiciously since May of 2020. These stories scored:

4.88 for the first ~200 votes as of May of 2020, then an average score of under 4.6 for the 50 or so votes between then and now

4.86 for the first ~140 votes as of May of 2020, then an average score of under 4.5 for the 50 or so votes between then and now

4.89 for the first ~185 votes as of May of 2020, then an average score of under 4.4 for the 50 or so votes between then and now

I picked these three because they were published my first day here, before I had any followers. Only two of these stories have been obviously trolled, and for them, there have been sweeps. But the sweeps have not restored anything close to the average scores.

It may not be a big drop mathematically, but statistically, it’s highly, highly improbable. It means the scoring has changed from almost 90% 5’s to around 50% 5’s (assuming all 5’s and 4’s). And of course, it means expulsion from the Hall, where these have occasionally been top-5 despite being stand-alone, non-chapter stories. That decreases views.

Last May I was encouraged. But now, . . . What’s up? Have scores declined site-wide?

Very similar result here -- I'm brand new, obviously, but overnight about 1/3 of the votes on all my stories went away, and the scores "readjusted" from generally 4.7-4.8 to mostly 4.5-4.6. It's kind of whatever because it's not just about the scores ... it's about sharing the creativity and enjoying that people are engaging. But man! That was a shock!

 

[NotWise]

Very similar result here -- I'm brand new, obviously, but overnight about 1/3 of the votes on all my stories went away, and the scores "readjusted" from generally 4.7-4.8 to mostly 4.5-4.6. It's kind of whatever because it's not just about the scores ... it's about sharing the creativity and enjoying that people are engaging. But man! That was a shock!

You must have had friendly readers who were voting multiple 5*'s. It happens, and that's something the site picks up in the sweeps.

I haven't seen any sweep on my stories.

A lot of my stories have been down-voted, especially since last spring. Most of those stories have enough votes that the damage is fairly small.

When someone follows me or favorites a story, I usually look at their profile to get an idea where they're coming from. One thing I've noticed is that a lot of them are relatively new members who signed on during the pandemic. It's possible that the down votes are there because the many new members have different standards from the older members.

There was also an issue with the fraud detection system that appeared in July, 2020 (as near as I can tell). It resulted in seemingly random vote losses across the site, and a lot of people who reported the losses also reported declining scores.

Problems with the fraud detection system came to a head in March when the new story page became the default. There were large vote losses over the course of two or three days, and some scores crashed. Manu used a backup from at or near the beginning of March to fix the recent problem, but nothing can be done about the losses dating back to July.

I think it was a couple weeks later (early April?) when Laurel said that the fraud detection system wasn't working the way they thought it worked. Since then, I think the way the system works has been different, the way they've used it has been different, or both.

For instance, I used to count on the sweeps taking 10%-15% of the votes, and contest sweeps would effect my whole catalog, not just contest stories. My non-contest stories posted this spring have seen little cleanup. The two part "Quarter To Midnight" has had one vote removed. It was a 5* vote. "Sex Under Studio Lights" has had 2.4% of it's votes removed. The sweep on my Nude Day contest story was very effective, but there was little or no overflow to my other stories.

I don't have any way of knowing what's different, but the way it feels to me, is that we're no longer getting the protection that we were getting before July, 2020.

 

[KeithD]

I haven't seen any sweep on my stories.

Me neither. I've seen almost no mid-contest sweeping for several contests or as much final sweeping in recent contests as I experienced before--and I enter all of the contests with multiple entries and have done so for a decade and a half, so I think I have a good feel for this without the need for hard statistics.

That said, during contests, my contest stories almost universally rate below the average of my noncontest stories but then almost universally rate above the average of my noncontest stories after the final contest sweep--which makes entering the contests advantageous.

 

[LiveLocalLateBreaking]

This is really useful insight, NotWise and KeithD. Thanks for the patience to put up with a newbie!

 

[SimonDoom]

I have not noticed a decline in scores. I pay pretty close attention to the data concerning my stories. Scoring patterns seem pretty similar to me to what they were when I started publishing almost 5 years ago.

One thing that is clear is that views per story are fewer. There is no question about this. 4 years ago, to have a story on the top-250 most viewed story list over the previous 12 months one would need about 115,000 views. Right now, the number 250 story has about 85,000 views, a decline of 30,000, which is quite large. But I suspect this is mostly accounted for the fact that there are more stories to choose from, and, also, possibly, the Site counts views a little differently.

1 bombs are just part of the landscape. I always get them. I think almost all of us do. It's not something to get too upset about. The Internet draws its share of crackpots and angry people who want to poop on other people with no consequence. That's what it's all about.