Major sweeps that make no sense...anyione else having this problem??

[silkstockingslover]

Hi fellow authors,
I have had some bizarre sweeps that have really hurt my numbers.. a couple days ago I had al my bedding the bedding the babysitter series stories dop dramatically...now I understand sweeps but to have a story 8 month later (Bedding the Babysitter 3) lose 75 votes now (when it only averages 15 a month now and has been hit with sweeps often)...and dropped from 4.81 to 4.76...this is frustrating and not realistic...

But literotica wont awknowledge my question...which is really frustrating. I know there are better stories than mine, but I sure feel I deserve the numbers i do get (to lose such dramatic numbers is really frustrating)...

A even better example is below from a couple months ago, again no response from literotica after a couple e-mails...here is my e-mail...it wasn't rude was it? Again, it even shows the dramatic loss of votes (a story that has now lost about 80% of the votes it has received)





Thank you for all you do....but there is officially a glitz in the sweeps for this story of mine....and it is really frustrating me...

The first ratings are from August 31st (the 2nd is after the sweep)...before and after a ridiculous sweep that took over half my votes (over 200) and 13 points...this was after losing a major sweep in january and so forth...throughout the year...

Now today I see a thirs sweep has occured taking even more votes and points off...so it seems in the past month I have had negative people vote on my story...

Now if u look at my other stories and add in it is a contest story 500 votes by now would be reasonable...217 is absurd...

Also, i have nevr had one ctiticism of this story but because of your sweeps it went from a top 100 of all time to oblivion...

PLEASE look into this it is not only illogical, but unfair and extremely frustrating when I work so hard to write, hopefully quality stories...

Please FIX!!!! Perferably to the way it was before my story got completely obliberated last month unfairly...oddly the rest of my stories seem to just get hit with the usual sweeps...

THANKS in advance for fixing it for me...and letting me know it is fixed...

Late August
A Lesbian Love Story- of Sorts Lesbian plans elaborate seduction of her straight best friend.
4.79 487 62139 Lesbian Sex (English) 01/20/11 approved
August 31st
A Lesbian Love Story- of Sorts Lesbian plans elaborate seduction of her straight best friend.
4.66 229 62257 Lesbian Sex (English) 01/20/11 approved
Sept 30th
A Lesbian Love Story- of Sorts Lesbian plans elaborate seduction of her straight best friend.
4.63 217 65208 Lesbian Sex (English) 01/20/11 approved

Again as u can see this is IMPOSSIBLE...to be accurate...because it is saying in 3000 reads I had -12 votes and a -3 score...how is that possible???



SHOULD I JUST ACCEPT THE FLAWS...OR ATTEMPT TO GET A REAL ANSWER!!!

THANKS FORREADING MY RANT!!!

 

[Darkniciad]

The winners for the January and February monthly contests were just announced. A major sweep always runs before the montly winners are announced.

And, despite several references to email as the contact method for the site, that email basically vanishes into the void. To contact Laurel, you'll need to do it by PM.

Check the dates on anything that has a sudden, unusual sweep, and then look at the "contests" section of the forum. The odds are that you'll find the month in which your story was published had winners announced shortly after the sweep.

Another thing to look for is dramatic changes in the toplist for your category. People like to monkey around with those ratings with multi-voting 1s or 5s. Some people are smart enough to mask this from a normal sweep. Once it gets to a certain point, the toplists will get a heavy, contest-style sweep as well.

 

[lovecraft68]

The winners for the January and February monthly contests were just announced. A major sweep always runs before the montly winners are announced.

And, despite several references to email as the contact method for the site, that email basically vanishes into the void. To contact Laurel, you'll need to do it by PM.

Check the dates on anything that has a sudden, unusual sweep, and then look at the "contests" section of the forum. The odds are that you'll find the month in which your story was published had winners announced shortly after the sweep.

Another thing to look for is dramatic changes in the toplist for your category. People like to monkey around with those ratings with multi-voting 1s or 5s. Some people are smart enough to mask this from a normal sweep. Once it gets to a certain point, the toplists will get a heavy, contest-style sweep as well.

So are you saying that Scouries is actually smart? It seems like no matter how often the sweeps are run, legit authors seemed to get tagged, while that asshole continues to keep all of his scores above the 4.5 marker when they would in reality lucky to be 4's if that high.

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

To address the point of it being realistic . . . it is a realistic sweep/drop if you have a large fan base that either re-reads your stories multiple times and votes each time, or votes multiple times for the same story. They either don't remember voting, or they think they are helping you.

Dark (at least, I think it was Dark) has mentioned elsewhere that this problem stopped (or lessened?) when he made the point to his fans to only vote once. You might want to consider doing the same.

 

[Darkniciad]

It most certainly can't hurt, in the least.

Once I started my one story, one vote campaign, the average percentage of votes swept from my stories dropped dramatically -- and more importantly -- the heartbreaking number of 5s that found their way into the Lit Hoover's cruel dust bag also dropped dramatically.

Never underestimate the fans' capacity for trying to boost you -- and not always by the most honest of means.

I post it on a regular basis in my closing notes, on my blog, on my forum, in emails... pretty much everywhere. I want to make it plain that I don't want anyone trying to 'help' me by any means other than a single honest vote per story, and that the 'help' is likely only resulting in every one of their votes getting swept of my stories, and everyone else's.

Believe me, I know the frustration of the sweeps. I've had stories with more signed comments than surviving votes before.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

To address the point of it being realistic . . . it is a realistic sweep/drop if you have a large fan base that either re-reads your stories multiple times and votes each time, or votes multiple times for the same story. They either don't remember voting, or they think they are helping you.

Dark (at least, I think it was Dark) has mentioned elsewhere that this problem stopped (or lessened?) when he made the point to his fans to only vote once. You might want to consider doing the same.

The only way to vote multiple time is to have multiple alts or do it from multiple pc's attached to different ip address. Although you could use proxy servers...but I won't go into that here.

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

The only way to vote multiple time is to have multiple alts or do it from multiple pc's attached to different ip address. Although you could use proxy servers...but I won't go into that here.

If you wanted to place twenty votes all at once, then yes, I suppose you are right.

I should have indicated that I meant place multiple votes over time. Your computer, through the magic of . . . computer stuff that I know nothing about, eventually "forgets" your vote and presents you with five blank stars at the end of a story. Fans can wait for it to clear and go back and vote. Or fans, when re-reading a story, perhaps when a new chapter comes out, can vote again.

 

[Darkniciad]

The only way to vote multiple time is to have multiple alts or do it from multiple pc's attached to different ip address. Although you could use proxy servers...but I won't go into that here.

I could cast three votes on any story right now in less than a minute. If I utilized features common to the legitimate software involved, which is used by everyone on the internet, I could double that. Spend a few minutes downloading some more perfectly legitimate software used by everyone on the internet, and I could at least double that. Depends upon how many variants are out there. I haven't kept up.

Of course, none of them would stick because they would all be from the same IP, but I could cast them anyway.

There are umpteen ways to circumvent the simple controls of the stars ( even accidently ). Fewer to get around the sweeps. Fewer still to get around themed and monthly contest sweeps.

No matter what, there are ways, and most of them only require someone pointing them out, and next to no computer knowledge.