missing votes?

[where]

One of my stories has 'lost' votes... It had 16 the same as another story last time I looked and now it's down to 15. It's bombing anyway so needs all the votes it can get! Although it could be the really bad ratings that have been lost.

Any idea why this happens?

 

[Darkniciad]

One of my stories has 'lost' votes... It had 16 the same as another story last time I looked and now it's down to 15. It's bombing anyway so needs all the votes it can get! Although it could be the really bad ratings that have been lost.

Any idea why this happens?

Lit performs "sweeps" on occasion to remove "illegitimate" votes. Nobody knows the criteria for these sweeps, but more of then than not, your score goes up, so a lot of it appears to be removing malicious low votes. The system will remove cheerleader votes from fans voting more than once as well, however.

There's a themed contest going on right now, and the sweeps during a contest always bite a little deeper than your day to day sweeps, because there's money involved in the contest.

The only consolation I can offer is that everyone is feeling the lash, it's not just you My second entry in the contest is down to 14 votes and plummeting

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Lit performs "sweeps" on occasion to remove "illegitimate" votes. Nobody knows the criteria for these sweeps, but more of then than not, your score goes up, so a lot of it appears to be removing malicious low votes. The system will remove cheerleader votes from fans voting more than once as well, however.

There's a themed contest going on right now, and the sweeps during a contest always bite a little deeper than your day to day sweeps, because there's money involved in the contest.

The only consolation I can offer is that everyone is feeling the lash, it's not just you My second entry in the contest is down to 14 votes and plummeting

Yeah... I've lost 9 last night and the night before. Now I'm down to 16 again

 

[Darkniciad]

You haven't truly tilted with the sweeps until you have fewer surviving votes than public comments *laugh*

That story now has equal numbers of votes to comments, but it sat with 9 votes and 11 PCs for the longest time.

 

[where]

Cheers Dark

The rating has gone up slightly. It went from 4.60 down to 3.30 after I think one vote so maybe they pulled that one vote. I didn't expect it to do brilliantly as it's a bit niche without being fetish

Tough on yours but I'm sure it will pull up. I registered on the competition but the maths is just too much for me lol!

 

[Darkniciad]

Cheers Dark

The rating has gone up slightly. It went from 4.60 down to 3.30 after I think one vote so maybe they pulled that one vote. I didn't expect it to do brilliantly as it's a bit niche without being fetish

Tough on yours but I'm sure it will pull up. I registered on the competition but the maths is just too much for me lol!

You must be talking about survivor. I was actually referring to the Earth Day contest. It's more of an aim and fire thing. You just post and strap in for the roller-coaster ride with your story.

 

[where]

Tough on yours but I'm sure it will pull up.

..ok... just checked out your member page and every one has 'hot' ratings so quit moaning!

 

[Darkniciad]

..ok... just checked out your member page and every one has 'hot' ratings so quit moaning!

*laugh* That's also because I write in niches with low readership. I've just been around longer, so I usually manage the 10 votes to register that H from a small, but loyal fanbase. No real mark of skill, because I'm just a fair to middlin' storyteller, not a real author

 

[where]

*laugh* That's also because I write in niches with low readership. I've just been around longer, so I usually manage the 10 votes to register that H from a small, but loyal fanbase. No real mark of skill, because I'm just a fair to middlin' storyteller, not a real author

mmm... I should maybe move into niche as opposed to straightforward fucking then *laughing*

I will make time to read your stuff though.

 

[Darkniciad]

mmm... I should maybe move into niche as opposed to straightforward fucking then *laughing*

I will make time to read your stuff though.

Nahhh. Branch out, explore your limits! I tend to stick with my favorite categories in this name, but I have an alternate pen name I use to explore other categories.

 

[Elianna]

*laugh* That's also because I write in niches with low readership. I've just been around longer, so I usually manage the 10 votes to register that H from a small, but loyal fanbase. No real mark of skill, because I'm just a fair to middlin' storyteller, not a real author

WHATEVER!

 

[starrkers]

You haven't truly tilted with the sweeps until you have fewer surviving votes than public comments *laugh*

That story now has equal numbers of votes to comments, but it sat with 9 votes and 11 PCs for the longest time.

Yep, I have a poem that once had 7 votes and three comments. It now has one vote and three comments. Mind you, that one vote is a damn good one

 

[Darkniciad]

WHATEVER!

Bah, it's the truth

Authors are the bards in the King's Court. I'm the vagabond singing for my supper in smoke-filled common rooms.

Yep, I have a poem that once had 7 votes and three comments. It now has one vote and three comments. Mind you, that one vote is a damn good one

Just looked, and that one story is back down to 10 votes and 11 comments again *laugh*

 

[Elianna]

Bah, it's the truth
Authors are the bards in the King's Court. I'm the vagabond singing for my supper in smoke-filled common rooms.
Just looked, and that one story is back down to 10 votes and 11 comments again *laugh*

But, my dear Knight who says "Ni", your writing is not to be judged by one story in one contest. You write well, and deliver good methodical feedback to writers on this DB.

Fine... I'll go check your story out...

See what whining gets you

 

[Darkniciad]

But, my dear Knight who says "Ni", your writing is not to be judged by one story in one contest. You write well, and deliver good methodical feedback to writers on this DB.

Fine... I'll go check your story out...

See what whining gets you

:: Bites tongue and nearly bursts a blood vessel avoiding the use of a perverted quip about shrubbery ::

It really doesn't pay to have my twisted mind sometimes -- it hurts!

Trust me, I'm judging me by the full body of my work. Well, what's on here. If I include the crap lurking in the dark, dank corners of my hard drive, I'm more like the wild-eyed guy they toss food and booze to to keep me out of the joint *laugh*

 

[The_Fractal_King]

On the topic of votes. What is, roughly, an average number for a story?

 

[Elianna]

:: Bites tongue and nearly bursts a blood vessel avoiding the use of a perverted quip about shrubbery ::

It really doesn't pay to have my twisted mind sometimes -- it hurts!

Trust me, I'm judging me by the full body of my work. Well, what's on here. If I include the crap lurking in the dark, dank corners of my hard drive, I'm more like the wild-eyed guy they toss food and booze to to keep me out of the joint *laugh*

Oh fine, great, self-depricating one! Be that way. :~

TFK has a good question. I was looking at my stuff and my votes didn't seem to have gone down... How do you judge such things? And... gasp... am I just lucking out because I have such a small "niche" for this story. Sigh.

 

[starrkers]

On the topic of votes. What is, roughly, an average number for a story?

Depends entirely on the category, how well you're known and if it's a contest entry. Contest entries (in my limited experience) get more votes than other stories.
Celebrities, Erotic Horror, Letters and Chain Stories get limited votes (Someone's bound to add others, this is just the cats I've got stories languishing in).
Loving Wives and Incest get the most.
Having said that, my story with the most votes (just over 200) is in Non-Consent. It was also in last years Earth Day Contest.

 

[PrincessErin]

.....

 

[Darkniciad]

I've noticed how my scores, votes, and views, have been affected by sweeps. I do have a question though about removing votes. Most of my poems have no votes at all even though they had 2-3 at some point.
I know of at least 2 different people who have voted on these poems. Why would those votes be removed?
I understand the purpose of sweeps. I mean if I could vote 100 times on my stories to earn that little red H I'd love to - but not necessarily fair.

Erin

Poems are surely hit especially hard by the sweeps. It's hard enough to get a vote on poetry, from what I've heard.

There's no way of knowing the criteria for the sweeps. They aren't revealed, because to reveal them would immediately let malicious voters know how to get around them.

My main suspicion for the votes that you know are legitimate vanishing is somebody bombing/multi-voting a bunch of stories during the same time frame with a similar IP range. When the jackass/cheerleader gets blackballed, innocents get caught up in the crossfire.

 

[starrkers]

It's bloody annoying on poems. The three comments I have are from regular commenters from either the AH or the poetry forums and I know they voted at the same time. Yet their votes got swept.
The only good thing about it is, it has finally closed the argument over "are the ratings on comments included in your vote tally?". The answer is an obvious and resounding NO.

 

[Darkniciad]

Here's some numbers from my stuff. I've condensed down multi-parters into single entries with vote ranges.

*=Vote total from a final chapter
*=Vote total from a first chapter
*=Themed Contest Story
*=Vote total from themed contest episode

[tr][td]Title[/td][td]Votes[/td][td]Cat.[/td][/tr][tr][td]A.R.S[/td][td]14-15[/td][td]Chain[/td][/tr][tr][td]Blackhawk Hall[/td][td]19-64*[/td][td]SF/F[/td][/tr][tr][td]Danica[/td][td]24-64*[/td][td]SF/F[/td][/tr][tr][td]Ebon Genesis[/td][td]31[/td][td]SF/F[/td][/tr][tr][td]Genie Valentine[/td][td]185*[/td][td]SF/F[/td][/tr][tr][td]Grandfather Yule[/td][td]40*[/td][td]SF/F (no sex)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Harvest of Blood[/td][td]41*[/td][td]Horror[/td][/tr][tr][td]Home by the Sea[/td][td]20[/td][td]Horror[/td][/tr][tr][td]King Thakkorias[/td][td]34[/td][td]SF/F[/td][/tr][tr][td]LST3K[/td][td]10-33*[/td][td]Humor[/td][/tr][tr][td]Laresa's World[/td][td]24-45[/td][td]Chain[/td][/tr][tr][td]Adam's Aunt[/td][td]143-225[/td][td]Taboo[/td][/tr][tr][td]Expectation[/td][td]103*[/td][td]Rom.[/td][/tr][tr][td]Finding Karen[/td][td]268*[/td][td]Rom.[/td][/tr][tr][td]Ghost of a Chance[/td][td]162*[/td][td]Non-Human[/td][/tr][tr][td]It Cuts Both Ways[/td][td]176[/td][td]Loving Wives[/td][/tr][tr][td]Kindled in Fiction[/td][td]116-391*[/td][td]Taboo[/td][/tr][tr][td]L&L First Anal[/td][td]67[/td][td]Anal[/td][/tr][tr][td]L&L Gift of 3[/td][td]50[/td][td]Group[/td][/tr][tr][td]L&L Toy Time[/td][td]23[/td][td]Toys/Mast.[/td][/tr][tr][td]VR: DQ[/td][td]5-13[/td][td]Chain[/td][/tr][tr][td]Window to a Dream[/td][td]169*[/td][td]Exhi/Voye[/td][/tr]


Laresa had ( actually, has ) a wide following across more than one site. It also had the boost of Danielle being on board for the chain. Genie Valentine is a Laresa story, entered into the contest at the height of the chain. That is how that total got so high for a SF/F story.

My most anemic series, Virtual Reality Dragon Quest, suffers from two issues: It's in the chain category, and it has the celebrity disclaimer on top of that because it's pseudo-fanfic.

So there's at least something to give a little idea of the vote total ranges in different categories, and how widely they can vary even within categories.

It's bloody annoying on poems. The three comments I have are from regular commenters from either the AH or the poetry forums and I know they voted at the same time. Yet their votes got swept.
The only good thing about it is, it has finally closed the argument over "are the ratings on comments included in your vote tally?". The answer is an obvious and resounding NO.

I know the comment votes count, because I've tested that before under near optimal conditions ( if the comment is used before/without a regular vote ). If you leave a comment without voting when you're logged in, if you go back to the story, the stars are lit up exactly as if you'd used the voting form.

If they're sweeping them, that seems like a rather silly waste of processor time. Makes more sense to not have the thermometer count at all. Saves processor time and bandwidth on both ends. If they're counting every vote + comment as a multi-vote, it's no wonder that we all lose so many votes from people we know voted.

Rather depressing to think that anyone who thought enough of your story to leave a public comment may have disqualified their vote

 

[where]

On the topic of votes. What is, roughly, an average number for a story?

Couldn't begin to work that one out. One of mine has 60 votes. My last submission has 15 and falling and has a really, really low rating (sob). The third I have up, so far has 17 votes but a pretty high rating and nowhere near as many views as the less successful one. It's all so random!

 

[Guest]

I think my votes were abducted. I expect to see them on the sides of milk cartons soon.

It does seem to be random, both in how many votes a story receives and in how many it loses. I have two parts of a three-parter posted in E&V. Part 1 has (post "Death by Sweeps") 61 votes and 20,000 reads. Part 2 has 11 votes and 8,000+ reads. Go figure.

My most recent chapter in another series (BDSM) topped out at 8 votes, and then dropped like the proverbial rock to 4. So far, it's continuing to tread water. However, the previous 6 chapters range from 17-22 votes.

It must be the gods of Literotica at work... and to paraphrase Euripedes, "Those whom the gods would destroy... they first piss off."

 

[sr71plt]

I think my votes were abducted. I expect to see them on the sides of milk cartons soon.

It does seem to be random, both in how many votes a story receives and in how many it loses. I have two parts of a three-parter posted in E&V. Part 1 has (post "Death by Sweeps") 61 votes and 20,000 reads. Part 2 has 11 votes and 8,000+ reads. Go figure.

My most recent chapter in another series (BDSM) topped out at 8 votes, and then dropped like the proverbial rock to 4. So far, it's continuing to tread water. However, the previous 6 chapters range from 17-22 votes.

It must be the gods of Literotica at work... and to paraphrase Euripedes, "Those whom the gods would destroy... they first piss off."

The sweeps do seem to be pissing someone off--my votes/ratings have gone into a standstill, as if voters assume their vote will be swept away so they just aren't bothering anymore. The strange thing is that my "favorites" rating continues to climb, even during periods when I can't discern that anyone's voted on anything. They find it easier to push the "favorite" button than a "vote" button(?)