Djmac1031
Consumate BS Artist
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2021
- Posts
- 4,025
Yeah I know, another topic that's been done to death, but indulge me.
People in general enjoy praise, positive feedback, for something they've said or done.
Social media has taken that to the next level, training us to base our success or failure on how many Likes, Comments, Views or Retweets / Shares we get.
I mean, why post it if no one's gonna see or read it, right?
Unfortunately LE is unlike most social media sites. It's simply not set up to gratify us with Instant Feedback.
The closest we get to it are Views and Ratings.
And while Views can be encouraging, they don't really give us a full picture of how readers are reacting to our story.
And so we turn to the one indicator we can pry at least SOME info from: the Rating.
If we go under the assumption that a rating means someone at least finished the story, then the number of ratings tells us how many people actually read the thing. (Yes, I understand people can rate without reading or finishing the story. But I think we can agree those are minimal. )
Okay great, so we got 10 readers confirmed.
Or 100. Or 1000.
But did they LOVE IT?
LIKE it?
Find it "Average?"
Disliked? HATED???
Ah, but then there's still one more factor:
That shiny little Red H.
It's a carrot dangled before us, a goal set for us to achieve.
But what does it ultimately MEAN?
I'm sure we've all dealt with this:
We submit our story. It goes live.
The Views start coming. Then the Ratings.
Oh look, our first rating! It's a 5!
More Ratings, more numbers. Maybe it drops a little, to a 4.7 or 4 8.
Ten Ratings come in and suddenly, it appears; the Holy Grail, the Coveted Red H Stamp Of Approval!
We're happy, of course; our story us doing well.
Then the score drops.
And drops again.
And again.
POOF! Our reward is gone, lost to the digital ether.
Our score is now a 4.47. Or 4.43.
Oh no. It just dropped to 4.2. FUCK!
We're sad. What went WRONG?
WHY ARE PEOPLE HATING OUR STORY??? Why did they take away my reward, my public affirmation that my story isn't just good, or great, but "HOT???"
We can bitch about Trolls and Haters all we want, and I won't deny they exist.
But I'd be willing to bet in at least 80% of the above scenarios, trolls have NOTHING to do with it.
Maybe, just MAYBE...more people simply LIKED your story than LOVED it.
And what's wrong with that?
"But...but... my Red H!!!"
As someone with quite a few Red H's attached to my stories, I will tell you this: I'd rather have more READERS than Red H's.
I'm quite happy and content with anything rated over a 4.
The few I have under 4? I understand why.
My suggestion to solve this problem is simple:
Change the Red H requirement from 4.5 to 4.
And up the votes needed to say, at least 50. Maybe 100.
"But that would flood the market, a LOT more stories would get the Red H!!!"
So what?
If your story gets 10K Views and 100 votes to reach a 4 or higher, I think that's a pretty damn solid accomplishment.
And now readers aren't looking at the Red H to judge a story worthy and, writers are no longer seeing a story with less than a 4.5 as somehow either a failure, or a personal attack on them.
I think it would also allow us writers who also read to vote more fairly.
I've openly confessed to giving out 5s to newer authors even if their story didn't blow me away. If I felt it was a good effort, I give the 5, because I know a higher rating will encourage them to keep going.
But if I know my 4 won't kill their chances of getting that encouraging Hot tag, I could be more honest with that vote. Or even give a 3 and not feel terrible about it potentially screwing their score.
And One Bombing Trolls would do a lot less damage if the Red H stood at 4.
In the end,ratings are subjective.
Two stories have 100 votes.
One has a score of 4.51
The other, a score of 4.49.
What's the difference between the two of them besides that Red H?
Absolutely nothing, IMO.
I'd still have to read both to decide if I like them.
And the Red H doesn't influence my decision to read a story at all. If the subject matter or kink doesn't appeal to me, no amount of Red H's or score numbers will change that anyway.
Final thought: new writers, don't focus on the Red H. Don't focus on ratings, or views, or comments.
Focus on your craft. Focus on writing the best story YOU can write.
Your audience will find you.
The rest of it is window dressing.
Okay, I've rambled enough.
Fire away .
People in general enjoy praise, positive feedback, for something they've said or done.
Social media has taken that to the next level, training us to base our success or failure on how many Likes, Comments, Views or Retweets / Shares we get.
I mean, why post it if no one's gonna see or read it, right?
Unfortunately LE is unlike most social media sites. It's simply not set up to gratify us with Instant Feedback.
The closest we get to it are Views and Ratings.
And while Views can be encouraging, they don't really give us a full picture of how readers are reacting to our story.
And so we turn to the one indicator we can pry at least SOME info from: the Rating.
If we go under the assumption that a rating means someone at least finished the story, then the number of ratings tells us how many people actually read the thing. (Yes, I understand people can rate without reading or finishing the story. But I think we can agree those are minimal. )
Okay great, so we got 10 readers confirmed.
Or 100. Or 1000.
But did they LOVE IT?
LIKE it?
Find it "Average?"
Disliked? HATED???
Ah, but then there's still one more factor:
That shiny little Red H.
It's a carrot dangled before us, a goal set for us to achieve.
But what does it ultimately MEAN?
I'm sure we've all dealt with this:
We submit our story. It goes live.
The Views start coming. Then the Ratings.
Oh look, our first rating! It's a 5!
More Ratings, more numbers. Maybe it drops a little, to a 4.7 or 4 8.
Ten Ratings come in and suddenly, it appears; the Holy Grail, the Coveted Red H Stamp Of Approval!
We're happy, of course; our story us doing well.
Then the score drops.
And drops again.
And again.
POOF! Our reward is gone, lost to the digital ether.
Our score is now a 4.47. Or 4.43.
Oh no. It just dropped to 4.2. FUCK!
We're sad. What went WRONG?
WHY ARE PEOPLE HATING OUR STORY??? Why did they take away my reward, my public affirmation that my story isn't just good, or great, but "HOT???"
We can bitch about Trolls and Haters all we want, and I won't deny they exist.
But I'd be willing to bet in at least 80% of the above scenarios, trolls have NOTHING to do with it.
Maybe, just MAYBE...more people simply LIKED your story than LOVED it.
And what's wrong with that?
"But...but... my Red H!!!"
As someone with quite a few Red H's attached to my stories, I will tell you this: I'd rather have more READERS than Red H's.
I'm quite happy and content with anything rated over a 4.
The few I have under 4? I understand why.
My suggestion to solve this problem is simple:
Change the Red H requirement from 4.5 to 4.
And up the votes needed to say, at least 50. Maybe 100.
"But that would flood the market, a LOT more stories would get the Red H!!!"
So what?
If your story gets 10K Views and 100 votes to reach a 4 or higher, I think that's a pretty damn solid accomplishment.
And now readers aren't looking at the Red H to judge a story worthy and, writers are no longer seeing a story with less than a 4.5 as somehow either a failure, or a personal attack on them.
I think it would also allow us writers who also read to vote more fairly.
I've openly confessed to giving out 5s to newer authors even if their story didn't blow me away. If I felt it was a good effort, I give the 5, because I know a higher rating will encourage them to keep going.
But if I know my 4 won't kill their chances of getting that encouraging Hot tag, I could be more honest with that vote. Or even give a 3 and not feel terrible about it potentially screwing their score.
And One Bombing Trolls would do a lot less damage if the Red H stood at 4.
In the end,ratings are subjective.
Two stories have 100 votes.
One has a score of 4.51
The other, a score of 4.49.
What's the difference between the two of them besides that Red H?
Absolutely nothing, IMO.
I'd still have to read both to decide if I like them.
And the Red H doesn't influence my decision to read a story at all. If the subject matter or kink doesn't appeal to me, no amount of Red H's or score numbers will change that anyway.
Final thought: new writers, don't focus on the Red H. Don't focus on ratings, or views, or comments.
Focus on your craft. Focus on writing the best story YOU can write.
Your audience will find you.
The rest of it is window dressing.
Okay, I've rambled enough.
Fire away .