Comments vs scoring vs Author's feelings

[MillieDynamite]

Why is there a need for me to compare my writing to others? I don't make such a comparison to what foods I like. I don't make comparisons between the songs I like. I don't think one song is more or less than another based on the other song. If you do make such comparisons, that's fine. But I find that in songs, food, and my reading, I like and dislike things, and I don't think, "Jesus, this is shit" when I compare it to Shakespeare. Believe me, if I compared any writing here to the best classic literature to vote it, none of the stuff on this site would get much above a 1.

You guys are diving deeply into motives that probably don't exist. I like pizza and seafood, but they do not in any way compare to one another.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I like pizza and seafood, but they do not in any way compare to one another.

They do compare to other things that you don't like as much.

 

[MillieDynamite]

But I do not make those comparisons. You have a right to have an opinion on this. Still, I know I don't make comparisons, not even unconsciously, about my likes and dislikes on anything except when I consciously make a comparison for whatever reason. One cannot compare Ludwig van Beethoven's Ode to Joy with Another One Bites the Dust. The musical styles are too different for a valid comparison. But I Love both of them and don't wonder why. Good music, like good writing, can be enjoyed without saying this one's better or this isn't. The fact that you think you must make those comparisons says something about you.

They do compare to other things that you don't like as much.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

But I do not make those comparisons. You have a right to have an opinion on this. Still, I know I don't make comparisons, not even unconsciously, about my likes and dislikes on anything except when I consciously make a comparison for whatever reason.

It's not an opinion, it's fact.

How do you even know that you like pizza at all? Because eating it is a more enjoyable experience than eating most other things. You compare the experience of eating pizza to that of mashed potatoes and green peas and you prefer the pizza and therefore you define pizza as good or favorite. If pizza were the only food on Earth you could not like nor dislike eating it because there would be nothing else to eat to compare it to. It is simply not possible. This is science. This is physics.

You think that you are not making comparisons, but you actually are, whether consciously or unconsciously. I'm not assuming anything going on in your mind, nor am I mind reading. You are making statements that are just not possible.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Well, you're not only wrong, but you're also pig-headed. I know I like something because I like it. Not because I like more or less than something else. You're stating something as a fact you cannot prove. So, it's your religion. It isn't mine. There need not be any reasoning to enjoy something. You might simply enjoy it. I don't compare things when I don't need to.

Please give me the scientific study that supports your hypothesis. If there isn't one to give me, then do it yourself. Get a thousand of your friends, hook them up to gizzmo that gives the readout for unconcess compairson and get back to me with the results.

You're stating a belief as fact. That's what religion is.

It's not an opinion, it's fact.

How do you even know that you like pizza at all? Because eating it is a more enjoyable experience than eating most other things. You compare the experience of eating pizza to that of mashed potatoes and green peas and you prefer the pizza and therefore you define pizza as good or favorite. If pizza were the only food on Earth you could not like nor dislike eating it because there would be nothing else to eat to compare it to. It is simply not possible. This is science. This is physics.

You think that you are not making comparisons, but you actually are, whether consciously or unconsciously. I'm not assuming anything going on in your mind, nor am I mind reading. You are making statements that are just not possible.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Well, you're not only wrong, but you're also pig-headed.

Now you're just being an ignorant arrogant rude fool, and given many of your previous interactions with me I'm not at all surprised. Next time that you try to call me rude or take shots at my attitude, look in the mirror. Other than that, good day to you.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Oh, please, you should be able to do better than the "I'm rubber, you're glue argument." You have an unprovable fact, which makes it an opinion. I'm not trying to be rude any more than I think you are. Best thing is, we say we have a difference of opinion and leave it at that.

Now you're just being an ignorant arrogant rude fool, and given many of your previous interactions with me I'm not at all surprised. Next time that you try to call me rude or take shots at my attitude, look in the mirror. Other than that, good day to you.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I'm not trying to be rude any more than I think you are.

I was going to drop this, but I'm not letting this go. What have I said in this thread that was rude? And don't say that I called you ignorant fool because you claim to be as rude as I and you were rude before I said that.

If you want to remain ignorant, you just go right ahead. But don't say lies about me.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Okay, I'm rude and you're not. Does that make you feel better? I seriously doubt it does. If I lied, it was unintentional.

I was going to drop this, but I'm not letting this go. What have I said in this thread that was rude? And don't say that I called you ignorant fool because you claim to be as rude as I and you were rude before I said that.

If you want to remain ignorant, you just go right ahead. But don't say lies about me.

 

[SmilingLez]

It all becomes pointless to me when one person feels their view is the only view.

100% agree

Okay, this statement is false, because otherwise you would not use scores as an indicator of a better story, yet you state below that you do.



Now, it's 100% up to you what makes a story a 5 or a 4 or a 1 or whatever, but if you are striving for a higher score in any way - and in any way includes "I don't care about the scores but it's kinda nice when they are higher." then you believe that a higher score is better.

You also admit in your statement that a higher rated story tends to be better "usually pretty good". Therefore you equate a higher score with a better story. This is the comparison that you are making when you see the score. You compare the higher score to your experience in reading higher scored stories in the past and judge that this story is more likely to be a better one than to be a poorer one.

And even if we do not equate any story or writing quality to scores, the score itself has its own merit. Which is a better score, 4.39 or 4.69? Why, 4.69 of course. That;s obvious. Why? Because compared to 4.39, 4.69 is higher. That is the measurement.

Here is another example. If I write a story and post it in Romance and it scores 4.25, we would say that this is a poor score (a terrible score, really). Why? because compared to all the other stories in Romance, 4.25 is a very low score. We're not judging the content of the story (heck we haven't even read it!), just the score itself. 4.25 in Romance is unequivocally a poor score. But if I write a story and post in Loving Wives and it scores a 4.25, we would say that it's a good score. Why? Because compared to all of the other stories in LW, 4.25 is quite high.

The point is, that the only way that we can tell whether the score is good or not is by comparing it to other scores. It is not possible to make any judgment without comparing.

so (using your logic) if one story is pure masterbation erotica without substance and it gets a score of 4.8 and another is a bittersweet well written erotic romance and it gets a score of 4.3, then the masterbation story is superior?

 

[SmilingLez]

100% agree



so (using your logic) if one story is pure masterbation erotica without substance and it gets a score of 4.8 and another is a bittersweet well written erotic romance and it gets a score of 4.3, then the masterbation story is superior?

Seems like a story looses its red "hot" tag if rating drops to 4.3. Perhaps that's the "golden goose" pink_silk_glove is chasing. However, the "hot" tag has nothing to do with quality, only quantity

 

[WCSGarland]

Seems like a story looses its red "hot" tag if rating drops to 4.3. Perhaps that's the "golden goose" pink_silk_glove is chasing. However, the "hot" tag has nothing to do with quality, only quantity

Quantity of what pray tell...

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Seems like a story looses its red "hot" tag if rating drops to 4.3.

4.49

 

[alohadave]

Seems like a story looses its red "hot" tag if rating drops to 4.3. Perhaps that's the "golden goose" pink_silk_glove is chasing. However, the "hot" tag has nothing to do with quality, only quantity

If the score is below 4.5 the H goes away.

You need at least 10 votes and a score of 4.5 or higher for the red H.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

There is no other way to do it.

How do you know how good anything is? By comparing it to other similar things and rating it as better or worse.

We're talking about stories here, not work boots, cars, or pizza parlors. A story can stand on it's own merit, there's no need to compare it to another story. At least not by another author, anyway. It would make sense to compare one of my own incest stories to another one of mine, but I don't see the logic in comparing it to somebody elses, when they probably won't be the same. That's a bit disingenuous to me. What would compare to my scifi story, Spare Parts?

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Seems like a story looses its red "hot" tag if rating drops to 4.3. Perhaps that's the "golden goose" pink_silk_glove is chasing. However, the "hot" tag has nothing to do with quality, only quantity

Red H starts at 4.50

 

[pink_silk_glove]

so (using your logic) if one story is pure masterbation erotica without substance and it gets a score of 4.8 and another is a bittersweet well written erotic romance and it gets a score of 4.3, then the masterbation story is superior?

No, I have never said that. If quality was an inherently large component of the general readership's criteria for what is good, then yes we could make a case for such conclusion, but that is a separate argument. What we can conclude however is that the 4.8 stroker was more positively received than the deep emo 4.3.

 

[SmilingLez]

No, I have never said that. If quality was an inherently large component of the general readership's criteria for what is good, then yes we could make a case for such conclusion, but that is a separate argument. What we can conclude however is that the 4.8 stroker was more positively received than the deep emo 4.3.

Agreed, but only if you judge your story's worth/value by the number of sticky fingers

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Agreed, but only if you judge your story's worth/value by the number of sticky fingers

In this example I am not drawing any conclusion whatsoever due to value or quality or anything. In fact I'm not really concluding anything about the story, at least not directly. I'm drawing conclusions on the story's reception, not really the story itself. This is the only really accurate thing that we can say about scores - they indicate popularity and positive (or negative) reception. Not much else. But base on that, we can certainly draw comparisons in this in itself does have some value.

 

[SmilingLez]

Unfortunately, we will never know if the popularity is because of "sticky fingers" or the quality of the piece.


[side note - might have to write a 'lil piece about sticky fingers]

 

[big_cane_sugar]

I recently did kind of an experiment with two contrasting stories. One is a romance titled "My Slutty Cheerleader Fantasy" where I really did my best to imagine a traditional, somewhat toxic in all the fun ways, bad-boy/good-girl, reformed rake and virgin kind of romance from the POV of the alpha-hero MMC. Like, why would such a guy go from the bad boy to the (supposedly) ideal husband? And how would a sweet virginal good girl turn into a freak in the sheets? Are the transformations plausible? Can I write them plausibly?

Well, I tried anyway. That story went through a lot of drafts over the course of several weeks and in fact I'm working on another one now based on some of the readers' feedback that I thought was good. I'm pretty proud of it. It has 17.4k words and lots of story.

And I can't complain about the results. After about three weeks, it has 8.4k views, a 4.69 rating with 99 votes, two hearts and eight comments counting my replies. Still, TBH, I really was hoping for even more, although I knew the graphic sex twoard the end would not delight some readers. Maybe the future draft will do even better.

On the other hand, I felt a little dirty about writing such an idealistic story so for Loving Wives I wrote "John's Wife Needed Money" with the description "So she had my baby." It is what it sounds like, with 4.5k words and basically just the facts. A very unromantic alpha-hero POV, and I wrote it in two drafts, maybe a total of three hours of work, with sheer mischief in my heart, barely even trying. It's been up about 24 hours, and it has 8.2k views, a 3.03 rating with 224 votes, eight hearts and 13 comments (none of which inspire me to another draft) counting my replies. TBH I'm delighted with that response. Way, way better than I expected.

Most of this is about the difference between "Romance" and "Loving Wives" (in terms of subject and in terms of audience) but we all know that already. My point is that responses to stories are like a box of chocolates. Sometimes you get the one filled with toothpaste. Sometimes you expect the toothpaste and get the caramel.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

My point is that responses to stories are like a box of ch

Oh, no you dint! (snap-snap-snap)

 

[lovecraft68]

Unfortunately, we will never know if the popularity is because of "sticky fingers" or the quality of the piece.


[side note - might have to write a 'lil piece about sticky fingers]

Generally its the sticky fingers. I know a lot of people try to put some depth into their stories and characters, but the sex is still what rules here. Build up vs stroke is just a difference of taste, but still about what their characters end up tasting.

The literary erotica types have always amused me, especially when they get big mad when they're not the biggest deal and say the readers are too stupid to understand their greatness.

 

[SmilingLez]

Perhaps literotica should implement a 2 tier rating system. Use the stars for the quality of the work and perhaps eggplant (males), peach (non binary) and taco (females) icons for "sticky fingers" ratings.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Perhaps literotica should implement a 2 tier rating system. Use the stars for the quality of the work and perhaps eggplant (males), peach (non binary) and taco (females) icons for "sticky fingers" ratings.