Irrationally angry at losing the 'H'

[Salirophilia]

A couple months ago, I submitted a story. I thought it was good, although not necessarily my best, so I was pleasantly surprised when its rating shot up to 4.51, and I was finally awarded with my first red 'H'. Well, I logged in today, and its rating had dropped to 4.49, depriving me of the H. Damn! No real punchline here, just needed to vent.

 

[StillStunned]

Lost one myself the other day, one of my favourite stories. Someone dropped a 1. It's the sense of helplessness more than anything, I think.

 

[Voboy]

It's the nature of the beast.

Write more. Sooner or later, you'll have a bunch of stories. And enough of them will have red Hs that you'll stop caring all that much.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Yeah, it happens. I had a story that had been up for a year and a half suddenly drop to 4.4ish then a couple of days later drop to 4.3. It's annoying, but especially with stories with low vote counts, it doesn't take much to knock them off. The trick is to grit your teeth and remember that 4.4 is still a good score.

 

[Priscilla_June]

Write like you are the only one reading it

 

[Kelliezgirl]

With any luck it will jump back up on the next sweep. Just gotta keep the faith.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Irrationally angry at losing the 'H'​

Illegitimi non carborundum

 

[Devinter]

@Salirophilia - You have a good chance the story will recover again, and that the H will be reclaimed in due time. However, as a stranger on the internet providing unsolicited advice; being irrationally angry at things are not healthy, and I strongly encourage you to try to take a step back and find your inner tranquillity once you come to the conclusion that your anger might not be entirely justified. Learning how to let go of negative emotions without them consuming all of your thoughts and greatly influencing your actions is an extremely underrated life skill. Just a suggestion - nothing more. Best of luck!

 

[SimonDoom]

Write like you are the only one reading it

Love this advice.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Love this advice.

And it’s often true

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

A couple months ago, I submitted a story. I thought it was good, although not necessarily my best, so I was pleasantly surprised when its rating shot up to 4.51, and I was finally awarded with my first red 'H'. Well, I logged in today, and its rating had dropped to 4.49, depriving me of the H. Damn! No real punchline here, just needed to vent.

I've had one recently that has been hovering around the 4.5 mark, so one day it might be above, one day it might be below. Really frustrating!! I feel your pain, haha.

 

[nice90sguy]

I used to be addicted to the H, but after a painful period of cold turkey, I've kicked the habit.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Take a long-term view where scores are concerned. I have one story that hovered around 4.49 forever. It finally received its red H 1287 days after it was posted.

 

[alohadave]

hovered around 4.9 forever

Do you mean 4.49?

 

[StillStunned]

Take a long-term view where scores are concerned. I have one story that hovered around 4.9 forever. It finally received its red H 1287 days after it was posted.

I had a story that was on 4.9. And then someone dropped a big fat stinking 1 on it. Not enough to lose the red H, but enough to make me angry. And I don't think it's irrational, either.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Do you mean 4.49?

Not necessarily. In low-voting categories you can wait a year or more to get 10 votes. I had a chapter rated 5 for about 10 months, but no red H as only 9 votes.

I mentioned it in a AH thread and got the red H thanks to a 5 and 1 turning up within the hour.

Also once you have a red H, a lot of people don't bother to vote. Most of my stories get to about 25 votes and never get more even when the number of views slowly doubles. The different between a 4.39 story, a 4.49 story, and a 4.61 story is minimal with under 30 votes, only it's annoying as only the last will get many more reads.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Only those used to success get upset over something so trivial. I lost the only red h I have on this account. Was I dissapointed, yeah, was I surprised or angry, no.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I had a story that was on 4.9. And then someone dropped a big fat stinking 1 on it. Not enough to lose the red H, but enough to make me angry. And I don't think it's irrational, either.

Have been watching a few of my stories and it seems there is a small cabal out there that just can't stand to see highly rated stories.

My story that won readers choice has over 1K votes and after months and months of sitting at the same score, just took a very conspicuous drop over just a few days. Not losing any sleep, but it's annoying AF. It will be interesting to see if the next sweep does anything.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Do you mean 4.49?

Yes. Thanks

 

[AllenWoody]

Have been watching a few of my stories and it seems there is a small cabal out there that just can't stand to see highly rated stories.

My story that won readers choice has over 1K votes and after months and months of sitting at the same score, just took a very conspicuous drop over just a few days. Not losing any sleep, but it's annoying AF. It will be interesting to see if the next sweep does anything.

Yep, it’s annoying as shit. My final chapter of Lost Colony was rated very highly (for me) at 4.94. It won the contest that month for Sci-Fi, which I didn’t even know was a thing. I suppose that also put it in the running for an annual contest, and that must be what sunk it. Its rating almost immediately dropped to below 4.9.

I’m not complaining. The rating is still ridiculously high for me, it’s just sad that stories which gain prominence get voted down.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Have been watching a few of my stories and it seems there is a small cabal out there that just can't stand to see highly rated stories.

My story that won readers choice has over 1K votes and after months and months of sitting at the same score, just took a very conspicuous drop over just a few days. Not losing any sleep, but it's annoying AF. It will be interesting to see if the next sweep does anything.

That could've been a sweep.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Yep, it’s annoying as shit. My final chapter of Lost Colony was rated very highly (for me) at 4.94. It won the contest that month for Sci-Fi, which I didn’t even know was a thing. I suppose that also put it in the running for an annual contest, and that must be what sunk it. Its rating almost immediately dropped to below 4.9.

I’m not complaining. The rating is still ridiculously high for me, it’s just sad that stories which gain prominence get voted down.

Damn. Congrats 4.94 is rarified air indeed.

Just FYI, the annual Reader's Choice is a separate vote count not based on the story score. Only the top five from a category get included(sounds like you made the cut. Kudos again), then the readers that want to, vote.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

That could've been a sweep.

Probably not. The last fifteen votes have averaged less that 3 on a story that has been at 4.91 or above for over six months....

 

[Britva415]

Happened to me yesterday or today. *shrug*

 

[SkyBubble]

A couple months ago, I submitted a story. I thought it was good, although not necessarily my best, so I was pleasantly surprised when its rating shot up to 4.51, and I was finally awarded with my first red 'H'. Well, I logged in today, and its rating had dropped to 4.49, depriving me of the H. Damn! No real punchline here, just needed to vent.

I assume H is for hot?