My story is not on the popular board.

Joined
Mar 17, 2025
Posts
26
It’s already past the 30 days since upload and I’ve literally begged laurel to fix it two times in the past few weeks. She hasn’t. I thought at least it will be on the 12 months list but she just ignores me. So it’s also not on the 12 months list while with my score it should be on the second page. Why is she ignoring me? It’s so frustrating. My views have literally dropped by 90% because of this. Previous uploads all have 20K+ and this one has 2K.
 
Updates for the high scores lists can be hit and miss. I had a story on the 12-month high-score list that was about 100 places lower than it should have been because the score hadn't been updated since a month after it was published. Another lagged a few months behind for the "most read" list.

Annoying, but it happens. And if it happened to my story, it was probably happening to other stories too, so who's to say that overall it's not an accurate reflection?

Like so many things, you have to realise that Lit is geared mainly towards conveniencing readers, not writers.
 
I don't think those lists update very frequently, and I expect it happens automatically based on a set schedule or some other criteria. Manu would probably be the one responsible for a technical aspect of the site like that, so I'm not sure it's a problem she'd be dealing with regardless.
You don't have any stories posted under this username, at least none that I can see. Are you certain you messaged her from the proper account? While I expect she can cross-reference user data, I'm not sure I'd bother if I was in her position.
 
The whole "popular" thing is misleading anyway. "What Scabby Saw In the Bathhouse" is listed as the 140th "most popular" SF&F story over the past 12 months, and 16th over the past 30 days . Yet it only has 727 views.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very pleased with the score. But even at my most conceited I wouldn't dare to claim that it's a popular story.
 
You don't have any stories posted under this username, at least none that I can see. Are you certain you messaged her from the proper account?
This is my alt account because using the real one attracts trolls. I message her through my actual account with a link to the story.
 
If everything you've written has been on the toplist, then it probably wasn't the forum that was causing the trolling.

If it has been swept of votes any time recently, has it acquired enough new votes to surpass the total it had previously? Whether it's a glitch or by design, a submission's position on the list often won't update until that happens. Scroll from the position of the pre-sweep score and see if you find it, but not where you expect it to be by the score it currently holds.
 
I believe the most up to date data concerning a story can be found by clicking on the "Download Story Stats" icon on your My Stories page, so start there. See if the view/vote/score data line up with the lists. In my experience, they often do not. I don't presume to know why. There's a list that ranks all authors by the sum of all favorites they've received for their stories. To my knowledge it has not been updated in two and a half years. I once asked Laurel or Manu about it and got no response, so I assume it's just something they haven't gotten to, and that applies to everybody, not just me. Also, check whether the vote totals for the stories in question are enough to qualify your stories for rating toplists.
 
If everything you've written has been on the toplist, then it probably wasn't the forum that was causing the trolling.

If it has been swept of votes any time recently, has it acquired enough new votes to surpass the total it had previously? Whether it's a glitch or by design, a submission's position on the list often won't update until that happens. Scroll from the position of the pre-sweep score and see if you find it, but not where you expect it to be by the score it currently holds.
It most certainly was because since I stopped posting here on my main, the trolls have dramatically lessened.

Yes, it has been swept of 1 bombs three weeks ago and has since surpassed the mouth of votes it had.
 
I believe the most up to date data concerning a story can be found by clicking on the "Download Story Stats" icon on your My Stories page, so start there. See if the view/vote/score data line up with the lists. In my experience, they often do not. I don't presume to know why. There's a list that ranks all authors by the sum of all favorites they've received for their stories. To my knowledge it has not been updated in two and a half years. I once asked Laurel or Manu about it and got no response, so I assume it's just something they haven't gotten to, and that applies to everybody, not just me. Also, check whether the vote totals for the stories in question are enough to qualify your stories for rating toplists.
I indeed had a sweep and the ratings on the popular boards shows my rating including the votes that got removed. It's so bizarre. So instead of (example) 40 votes of 4,89 (which is the correct one) I have 42 votes of 4,71 showing on the popular board. Or at least I had it on the 30 days. In the 12 months board you will be nowhere near with a false vote of 4,71. But they should do something about that right?
 
I indeed had a sweep and the ratings on the popular boards shows my rating including the votes that got removed. It's so bizarre. So instead of (example) 40 votes of 4,89 (which is the correct one) I have 42 votes of 4,71 showing on the popular board. Or at least I had it on the 30 days. In the 12 months board you will be nowhere near with a false vote of 4,71. But they should do something about that right?
Don't lose any sleep over things like this. The site is quirky. I don't know the architecture underneath it, but I'm betting the copy data all over the place for the different lists and views instead of keeping a single version of the truth. Who knows what the schedule is for syncing the different lists. In the last year or so, entire categories have seen significant changes in their top lists. I know that in T/CD, where I post, the top stories have all dropped from 4.9+ down to a vast cluster at 4.84. I've heard that Lesbian has seen a similar effect. Could be haters. Could be the site grading on a curve. Don't know, and it's not worth caring. The site is free and the community engaging, so I deal with it.
 
StillStunned made this point, and I've made it before: the ratings and list systems do not exist to reward us as authors and make us feel good. They exist, like all list/ratings systems do, to provide information to prospective readers to help them choose stories. Period. That's it. The system is imperfect. Things aren't updated in a uniform way, and that's true for all of us.
 
StillStunned made this point, and I've made it before: the ratings and list systems do not exist to reward us as authors and make us feel good. They exist, like all list/ratings systems do, to provide information to prospective readers to help them choose stories. Period. That's it. The system is imperfect. Things aren't updated in a uniform way, and that's true for all of us.
In summary: choose stoicism or madness, but choose carefully.
 
In most categories the 30-day list will show all the entries. The all-time list requires a minimum number of votes that varies from category to category. I'm not sure about the 12-month list. Forty-something votes will probably not qualify your story for an all-time list. Look at the "most popular" list in your category and see if you can tell what the minimum is.
 
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