Vote Culling Data

[filthytrancendence]

I was updating my story stats analysis spreadsheet this evening and saw something real interesting. I think I've seen people speculating about this occurring, but I don't recall seeing evidence/data about it. I did a search and didn't see a thread on this, though that may be down to using different language to describe it.

This table is calculating the difference between vote counts between each batch of story data. The rightmost column is the difference between my data from July 4 and today.



As you can see, I had 3 stories this last period that had negative votes. Meaning votes were removed. I had one last time but chocked it up to an anomaly. Of course, any actual new votes in this period would cancel these out in this method of calculation. I suspect I'm seeing this more clearly now because I've not published anything new in a while, so the new vote count is pretty low.

All 3 accompanied a significant increase in rating (.05, .02 and .17 in order), so I surmise the culled votes were 1 bombs.

 

[AwkwardMD]

If you want to see the threads on this phenomena, we usually call it a "Sweep"

 

[AwkwardMD]

Lots of theories on how they work and what they're looking for, but much like the AI detector there's no confirmation from Laurel and Manu's side on how it works or what it's looking for.

The best we know is that the sweeps look for fraudulent votes (something I know because Laurel once told me how to request a sweep of an individual story of my own specifically to root out fraudulent voting). This is why, *generally speaking*, your score will go up after some votes are removed. The sweep got rid of some 1 star votes that it determined were unwarranted.

 

[filthytrancendence]

Lots of theories on how they work and what they're looking for, but much like the AI detector there's no confirmation from Laurel and Manu's side on how it works or what it's looking for.

The best we know is that the sweeps look for fraudulent votes (something I know because Laurel once told me how to request a sweep of an individual story of my own specifically to root out fraudulent voting).

Thanks! I perused the threads that come back with that keyword and I see what you mean. But it doesn't look like anybody's posted individual data like this yet, so hopefully this is useful/interesting to someone.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

https://forum.literotica.com/threads/nude-day-2025-contest-thread.1634320/post-101237833

 

[AwkwardMD]

Thanks! I perused the threads that come back with that keyword and I see what you mean. But it doesn't look like anybody's posted individual data like this yet, so hopefully this is useful/interesting to someone.

Only to the extent that it adds to my drinking game.

Shots, everyone. Drink.

 

[filthytrancendence]

Only to the extent that it adds to my drinking game.

Shots, everyone. Drink.

Guess it was my turn. I've got a bottle of whiskey around here somewhere.

 

[Bamagan]

I was updating my story stats analysis spreadsheet this evening and saw something real interesting. I think I've seen people speculating about this occurring, but I don't recall seeing evidence/data about it. I did a search and didn't see a thread on this, though that may be down to using different language to describe it.

This table is calculating the difference between vote counts between each batch of story data. The rightmost column is the difference between my data from July 4 and today.

View attachment 2552982

As you can see, I had 3 stories this last period that had negative votes. Meaning votes were removed. I had one last time but chocked it up to an anomaly. Of course, any actual new votes in this period would cancel these out in this method of calculation. I suspect I'm seeing this more clearly now because I've not published anything new in a while, so the new vote count is pretty low.

All 3 accompanied a significant increase in rating (.05, .02 and .17 in order), so I surmise the culled votes were 1 bombs.

I have the voting turned off on my stories, so with no new votes coming in it's easy to see when something gets removed. I don't check my data very often anymore, but I occasionally see votes go missing even on stories from a couple of years ago. I don't know if that's a result of sweeps catching voters that eventually got pegged as fraudulent, though.
In at least a few cases I think the account was deleted, because comments disappeared along with votes, although whether it was the user cutting ties willingly or getting booted is impossible for me to determine.

 

[filthytrancendence]

I have the voting turned off on my stories, so with no new votes coming in it's easy to see when something gets removed. I don't check my data very often anymore, but I occasionally see votes go missing even on stories from a couple of years ago. I don't know if that's a result of sweeps catching voters that eventually got pegged as fraudulent, though.
In at least a few cases I think the account was deleted, because comments disappeared along with votes, although whether it was the user cutting ties willingly or getting booted is impossible for me to determine.

Seems safe to bet this one's tied to the nude day contest that just finished. I don't keep up with those threads usually, so I missed them talking about it in there.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Thanks! I perused the threads that come back with that keyword and I see what you mean. But it doesn't look like anybody's posted individual data like this yet, so hopefully this is useful/interesting to someone.

It's part of the furniture, happens to us all, and yes, sweeps run several times at the end of Contests, to cull the junk votes. Once I was satisfied that I had a fair idea how they work, I no longer had an interest in analysis. I can always see the effect once a sweep has run, especially if a story gets published while there's a Contest running.

 

[Actingup]

The changes can be quite dramatic, particularly if a story has been tactically bombed and those votes are suddenly removed. Today, I'm not complaining

 

[Soixenta]

My Nude Day story went from 4.51 with 99 votes to 4.68 with 92 votes. I didn't expect it to win, but it seems like someone was trying very hard to make sure.

 

[onehitwanda]

Only to the extent that it adds to my drinking game.

Shots, everyone. Drink.

but my liver!

 

[MelissaBaby]

I was updating my story stats analysis spreadsheet this evening and saw something real interesting. I think I've seen people speculating about this occurring, but I don't recall seeing evidence/data about it. I did a search and didn't see a thread on this, though that may be down to using different language to describe it.

This table is calculating the difference between vote counts between each batch of story data. The rightmost column is the difference between my data from July 4 and today.

View attachment 2552982

As you can see, I had 3 stories this last period that had negative votes. Meaning votes were removed. I had one last time but chocked it up to an anomaly. Of course, any actual new votes in this period would cancel these out in this method of calculation. I suspect I'm seeing this more clearly now because I've not published anything new in a while, so the new vote count is pretty low.

All 3 accompanied a significant increase in rating (.05, .02 and .17 in order), so I surmise the culled votes were 1 bombs.

When was the sweep for the Nude Day contest? There is always a big sweep before a contest closes.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

When was the sweep for the Nude Day contest? There is always a big sweep before a contest closes.

We think there were two. There are some posts about it on that thread and linked above.

 

[TheLobster]

When was the sweep for the Nude Day contest? There is always a big sweep before a contest closes.

The last one was shortly before announcing winners, so maybe 24-36 hours ago?

 

[MelissaBaby]

We think there were two. There are some posts about it on that thread and linked above.

Contest sweep would be the Occam's Razor here, I would think.

 

[MelissaBaby]

The last one was shortly before announcing winners, so maybe 24-36 hours ago?

There is often one several days before the end of a contest, then one just before it closes, so a sweep on July 3-4 makes sense. Five Inch Heels link seems to confirm that.

 

[Actingup]

I noticed the numbers wobbling around slightly for several days, although I wasn't paying enough attention to track it in detail (and better not to). A few days ago, my score was 4.67, and it wasn't changing much. I think they do the most subtle changes first, and then things move rapidly at the end with 1-bombs going - suddenly my score was 4.89, and then a few hours later 4.9. Even between several hours up to the announcement and the announcement itself, there was more sweeping going on. First time it's fallen my way so I'm not complaining!

 

[SimonDoom]

Only to the extent that it adds to my drinking game.

Oh, hell, Doc. Everything does that.

 

[NotWise]

I had no votes removed during the contest sweeps. I had votes removed from three stories yesterday after 11:18AM local time, which I think was after the contest results were announced. In two cases those bumped the stories to the highest score they've had. In the third case it gave the story its highest recent score, which it lost to the next vote cast, no more than eight hours later.

One of the stories would have required some odd combination of new votes and votes removed to explain the changes, and that makes me think it wasn't a regular sweep. I think the tech side at Lit may do some kind of update or cleanup in the database now and then, and that causes changes in scores and votes cast.

 

[SimonDoom]

Sweeps have been going on for a while, and they regularly happen shortly before contest winners are announced. Now would be a good time, because the Nude Day contest winners will be announced in two days. They can sometimes yield surprising score changes. I was the beneficiary of this one time, two years ago, for a contest. I published my story just a day or two before the cutoff deadline, and it was chugging along, doing OK but nothing great, and then a sweep happened right before the contest deadline. My score rocketed to the top and I placed in the contest. I think I had a 4.92 or something like that. It was my first time ever with a score that high. Once the story placed, however, the score plummeted. That story now sits at 4.49 with about seven times as many votes as it had when it placed. So I probably can't complain it's the result of bombing.

During the summer a few years ago, the site went through a phase of systematic vote deletion for several weeks, to the point that some people were fretting about it. It had nothing to do with the contests. I think the site was trying to clear out old fraudulent votes. Vote numbers dropped significantly across the board. Then the deletion stopped and everything went back to normal.

 

[SimonDoom]

but my liver!

You didn't think it was going to escape the Hangout unscathed, did you?

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Sweeps have been going on for a while, and they regularly happen shortly before contest winners are announced. Now would be a good time, because the Nude Day contest winners will be announced in two days.

They were announced yesterday.

 

[SimonDoom]

They were announced yesterday.

Whoops!