4.89 at 100 ratings dropped to 4.79 by 104.

[lodobon]

After a year and a half, my story Victor or Vanquished of the Vees made got it's 100th review, and made it onto the all-time Exhibitionist & Voyeur toplist. It's not for me to say whether this was deserved. Within a day it had four new reviews and dropped to 4.79, just low enough to drop it off the toplist. Is this common? Are there people so desperate to push their own work that they down-vote the work of others? Sigh. I don't suppose there's much to do about it. Site administrators are no doubt way overworked as is.

 

[THBGato]

Yep. Sadly this seems to be the case, though I doubt it is other authors, more likely a troll. There's a whole thread about this: https://forum.literotica.com/threads/malicious-voting.1620359/

Anyway, bear in mind that your story hasn't suddenly got worse. It's still a very good story. Feel proud of it.

(My own story, Thirty, was on 4.97 after 104 votes, 4.84 and off the top list after 120 votes, so I hear you!)

 

[SimonDoom]

This is very common. You are in very good company!

 

[StillStunned]

Yep, it happens. I for one don't believe in trolls though.

 

[THBGato]

I for one don't believe in trolls though.

What's your theory then?

 

[StillStunned]

What's your theory then?

Writers desperate to maintain their position on the top list. You even see it on the "Popular today/last 7 days/last 30 days" lists on the category pages. People will bomb you enough for your score to drop so theirs goes up.

It's petty, and it's not nice to think about your fellow authors. But there are thousands of people writing stories here, and just because you like a handful doesn't mean they're all nice people.

And let's face it, what makes more sense? Dedicated trolls who keep an eye on any new story added to a top list just to bomb that particular story, or a writer trying to protect their own position?

 

[AwkwardlySet]

What's your theory then?

He's right. It's likely authors or their devoted fans sniping other stories. Happens all the time.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

Stories at or near the top of Hall of Fame lists attract a lot of readers and more votes, so assigning it to malicious votes may or may not be correct.

My story Mentor reached Number 1 on the Mature HoF list at 4.89 and well over 500 votes but that lasted for only a day before a few votes dropped it down to #10 or so. It doesn't take much to drop multiple places at such high scores where the scores and the number of votes matter. Three years later, it's at 4.84 with nearly 900 votes and is currently ranked at #149.

 

[lovecraft68]

It's very common. You can ask the site for a sweep, but its just going to keep happening.

Only way to hold onto a top spot is to have so many votes its actual work to bring it down.

 

[SimonDoom]

What's your theory then?

This is my very tentative theory. I have no evidence to back it up.

It's possible that when a story reaches a high enough level it attracts attention of critical readers who want to see if it's what the score suggests it's cracked up to be, and they genuinely think, after reading it, that it doesn't. I believe this happened to me a year ago when I placed third in the Halloween contest with a score of 4.92. After placing, my story immediately got hit with negative scores, and the score plummeted. It currently sits at 4.55. But the fact that it has far more views than it did in November 2023 and that the score continues to hover there indicates this score might reflect a more "genuine" appraisal by readers than the score I received when I placed. My first reaction was "Trolls!" But in retrospect, I don't think that's what happened.

Something similar happened with my latest story, which reached 4.88 with 104 votes and then fell to under 4.8 by 111 votes. It fell all the way to 4.75 but has since recovered to 4.8 with over 350 votes so I assume that this number is a closer approximation to what all readers "genuinely" think it's worth. But I'm waiting for the sweeps that will accompany the winter holiday contest to find out.

 

[lovecraft68]

Stories at or near the top of Hall of Fame lists attract a lot of readers and more votes, so assigning it to malicious votes may or may not be correct.

My story Mentor reached Number 1 on the Mature HoF list at 4.89 and well over 500 votes but that lasted for only a day before a few votes dropped it down to #10 or so. It doesn't take much to drop multiple places at such high scores where the scores and the number of votes matter. Three years later, it's at 4.84 with nearly 900 votes and is currently ranked at #149.

What I find just as frustrating on top lists is seeing a stand alone story with a thousand + votes getting supplanted by chapter 25 of some endless series with the minimum number of votes.

The Chapter story domination of Top lists is a longtime source of contention, and not hard to fix, but...yeah.

 

[THBGato]

Writers desperate to maintain their position on the top list. You even see it on the "Popular today/last 7 days/last 30 days" lists on the category pages. People will bomb you enough for your score to drop so theirs goes up.

That doesn't explain what's been happening in Lesbian for the last month. EVERYONE has gone down. It used to be the top score was 4.93 and you needed 4.92 to get on page one of the top list. Now the top score is 4.90 and 4.88 will get you on page 1.

But, here's the thing: the authors and stories haven't changed. It's still OneHitWanda and JCMcNeilly at the top. So, it's kind of pointless. It seems more like some homophobe has a vendetta against lesbians in general.

Now, even if it IS another author doing it (I doubt it, because none seemed to have benefited from it), the behaviour still definitely meets the criteria for branding them a troll.

 

[SimonDoom]

Only way to hold onto a top spot is to have so many votes its actual work to bring it down.

Ding ding. This is very true. There's safety in volume. As long as your vote total is around 100 or fewer, your score is extremely vulnerable to quick shifts with downvotes. When it gets much higher than that it's difficult for one troll vote to have much impact.

This is why I caution authors whose stories don't have many votes yet not to get attached to their scores, because they remain vulnerable to quick changes from both nefarious and non-nefarious causes.

 

[StillStunned]

That doesn't explain what's been happening in Lesbian for the last month. EVERYONE has gone down. It used to be the top score was 4.93 and you needed 4.92 to get on page one of the top list. Now the top score is 4.90 and 4.88 will get you on page 1.

That appears to be an entirely unrelated matter. That's carpet bombing, not specifically targeting a new entry into the Hall of Fame.

 

[SimonDoom]

What I find just as frustrating on top lists is seeing a stand alone story with a thousand + votes getting supplanted by chapter 25 of some endless series with the minimum number of votes.

The Chapter story domination of Top lists is a longtime source of contention, and not hard to fix, but...yeah.

This is a long-time complaint of mine. It cannot be logically defended. At some point the Site said it was working on a solution to this, but the solution has yet to come.

 

[RejectReality]

If you're writing work that can attain those spots, it's going to endure. It may never be in the top quarter of page 1 again, but so long as you keep plugging away and introducing yourself to new readers, the sweeps will remove troll votes every so often, popping those stories back up near the top, which attracts more readers. Eventually, you reach a point where the effort required to bomb you down makes it harder to avoid the sweeps, and the trolls get diminishing returns.

Don't sweat the yo-yo. Sigh and lament it for a moment, then move on. Set your sights on long-term goals and keep writing.

 

[alohadave]

I for one don't believe in trolls though.

That's okay, they believe in you.

 

[THBGato]

That appears to be an entirely unrelated matter. That's carpet bombing, not specifically targeting a new entry into the Hall of Fame.

Fine. Sure, they're different. But would you not agree that the carpet bomber is a troll? (You said you didn't believe in them.)

 

[RejectReality]

This is a long-time complaint of mine. It cannot be logically defended. At some point the Site said it was working on a solution to this, but the solution has yet to come.

They're slowly putting the foundation in place. The new series coding was a big part of it. It's not only a feature for authors, it's also a necessity to eventually convert chapters to single entries in toplists, and exclude chapters from contests. The update to the public profile is another step. The collapsing series function is another bit of infrastructure.

 

[SimonDoom]

They're slowly putting the foundation in place. The new series coding was a big part of it. It's not only a feature for authors, it's also a necessity to eventually convert chapters to single entries in toplists, and exclude chapters from contests. The update to the public profile is another step. The collapsing series function is another bit of infrastructure.

That's good to hear. It's going to be a huge upgrade to the toplists when they implement this.

 

[StillStunned]

Fine. Sure, they're different. But would you not agree that the carpet bomber is a troll? (You said you didn't believe in them.)

Sure. Obviously I believe in trolls. We've all had them. I was making a point about this particular practice.

 

[RejectReality]

That's good to hear. It's going to be a huge upgrade to the toplists when they implement this.

Absolutely. They're heaped up with chapters like a hoarder's house. I've been on this crusade for a long time, because almost everyone who was arguing for it early on was a one-shot writer, and people were accusing them of self-interest. I was almost exclusively chapters at the time, so I inserted myself in the fight to take that away from them.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Well, if anything, I love all the propaganda in this thread. It brings back childhood memories.

 

[lovecraft68]

That doesn't explain what's been happening in Lesbian for the last month. EVERYONE has gone down. It used to be the top score was 4.93 and you needed 4.92 to get on page one of the top list. Now the top score is 4.90 and 4.88 will get you on page 1.

But, here's the thing: the authors and stories haven't changed. It's still OneHitWanda and JCMcNeilly at the top. So, it's kind of pointless. It seems more like some homophobe has a vendetta against lesbians in general.

Now, even if it IS another author doing it (I doubt it, because none seemed to have benefited from it), the behaviour still definitely meets the criteria for branding them a troll.

That's a category troll rather than one with an agenda either against a certain author or trying to elevate another author, but just has it in for that genre.

There was a big dust up on the I/T top lists some years back that drive an author to remove an all time popular series over there. I ended up being directed by someone to check out the Tumblr blog of another I/T author who was telling his followers to go bomb that author and other top stories there to elevate his.

At this point its hard to say anything surprises me other than how this can mean that much to someone.

 

[Bramblethorn]

This is my very tentative theory. I have no evidence to back it up.

It's possible that when a story reaches a high enough level it attracts attention of critical readers who want to see if it's what the score suggests it's cracked up to be, and they genuinely think, after reading it, that it doesn't. I believe this happened to me a year ago when I placed third in the Halloween contest with a score of 4.92. After placing, my story immediately got hit with negative scores, and the score plummeted. It currently sits at 4.55. But the fact that it has far more views than it did in November 2023 and that the score continues to hover there indicates this score might reflect a more "genuine" appraisal by readers than the score I received when I placed. My first reaction was "Trolls!" But in retrospect, I don't think that's what happened.

Something similar happened with my latest story, which reached 4.88 with 104 votes and then fell to under 4.8 by 111 votes. It fell all the way to 4.75 but has since recovered to 4.8 with over 350 votes so I assume that this number is a closer approximation to what all readers "genuinely" think it's worth. But I'm waiting for the sweeps that will accompany the winter holiday contest to find out.

Reaching that 100-vote threshold does drastically increase a story's visibility, if it's scoring high enough to make the toplist. I could believe a legitimate drop in the average rating at that point. But what OP described (apparently total 9 stars from 4 votes) sounds a bit too drastic to be from bona fide voting.