Question about "1 bomb" rating attacks

[lovecraft68]

One-bomb one-bomb you're a one-bomb
You can give it to me when I need to come along
One-bomb one-bomb you're my one-bomb
And baby you can turn me on

http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/hexenal/tom-jones.jpg

Great now all the women on lit will be throwing their panties!

Well the ones over 60 anyway.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Great now all the women on lit will be throwing their panties!

Well the ones over 60 anyway.

You mean briefs and boxers.

 

[RejectReality]

Voting is anonymous, and that lends itself to that sort of thing. Restricting voting to members-only mitigates it, but even on the two sites where I post that have that restriction, they still have things in place to deal with malicious low scoring.

It's an internet poll, and thus wide open to manipulation.

The forum/comment boards are also a free-for-all where the most venomous of bigots have no fear of any repercussions for their spewing. When there's a haven for the people who are banned on 90% of the internet with their first post, they're not going to limit their scumbaggery to just that. They understand how much more powerful a 1-vote can be as revenge than anything they post.

One thing I've noticed is that long stories divided in chapters tend to get better scores as time goes by — I imagine the first few chapters serve as a gateway of sorts, filtering away both those who simply don't like the story and the less rabid trolls, who would (example given) 1-bomb a story for featuring a kink they don't approve, and simply leave.

There is still a frightening number of people down-voting, though. Possibly trying to get their own stories into the top 10 list.

 

[Seanathon]

Why not simply deactivate voting? What information, exactly, are you authors getting from it?

There is no guideline for voting. One person might come along and think, "this isn't perfect, but it was a fair attempt, so I'll be nice and give it a five." Then another comes along, thinking: "this is really good! But compared to <my favorite writer> it's trash, so I'll give you a 3." And that's not even considering trolls and serial 1-bombers, or even worse, trolls with technical knowledge, who can bypass the sweeps.

High votes and the red H hopefully serve as affirmation for most Literotica writers that the time and effort they poured into their story was appreciated and recognized by their readers.

But I've been a reader at Literotica for far longer than I've been a writer. And I always thought the voting system was intended to be a way of telling fellow readers, "Hey, you've got to read this story!"

I know writers have different reasons for turning it off, but I think any time you deactivate voting you're doing a great disservice to the reading community at Literotica (which I imagine is 99% of the site users). I know when I sit down to read a story the first button I click is Category and the second is Recently Popular.

There are so many new stories posted to Lit every day, I rely on my fellow readers votes to point me towards (what they consider) the best ones.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

One thing I've noticed is that long stories divided in chapters tend to get better scores as time goes by — I imagine the first few chapters serve as a gateway of sorts, filtering away both those who simply don't like the story and the less rabid trolls, who would (example given) 1-bomb a story for featuring a kink they don't approve, and simply leave.

There is still a frightening number of people down-voting, though. Possibly trying to get their own stories into the top 10 list.

I always have way more votes views and comments on one-off stories, vs chaptered stories.

But chaptered stories are how you build up personal fans. And those guys are the best.

 

[RoyceConnors]

1 bombs are Lit's way of saying even the brainless can have fun here.

I had the sweep clear away all the 1 bombs and was at 12 votes of 5, then I'm at 4.69 w/13 votes. Gotta love a consistent troll. LMAO

 

[Tsotha]

High votes and the red H hopefully serve as affirmation for most Literotica writers that the time and effort they poured into their story was appreciated and recognized by their readers.

But I've been a reader at Literotica for far longer than I've been a writer. And I always thought the voting system was intended to be a way of telling fellow readers, "Hey, you've got to read this story!"

I know writers have different reasons for turning it off, but I think any time you deactivate voting you're doing a great disservice to the reading community at Literotica (which I imagine is 99% of the site users). I know when I sit down to read a story the first button I click is Category and the second is Recently Popular.

There are so many new stories posted to Lit every day, I rely on my fellow readers votes to point me towards (what they consider) the best ones.

Well, personally, I normally go straight to the Tags page. The tags system here is a bit of a mess, but (for me) it is still the best way to find something that I want to read.

I also often do "author hopping", that is, going into an author I like's favorites list to see if I find something else I'd like to read. It works.

As for the H... Yes, sometimes it is the result of exceptional writing. Sometimes, it's not. There is a lot of run of the mill stuff out there with an H tag. And there are stories that are different, and well written, that get bombed HARD because it's portraying something the trolls don't like.

(Gay male content in stories not placed in the gay male category comes to my mind.)

I always have way more votes views and comments on one-off stories, vs chaptered stories.

But chaptered stories are how you build up personal fans. And those guys are the best.

I haven't published anything here on LIT, but I imagine having people who actually appreciate your writing is rewarding.

About having more votes / views / comments on one-off stories, though... I wonder if it's because there is a greater amount of people looking for "stroke" stories?

 

[JKendallDane]

And there are stories that are different, and well written, that get bombed HARD because it's portraying something the trolls don't like.

(Gay male content in stories not placed in the gay male category comes to my mind.)

It isn't just a misplaced category problem. For the last two to three weeks, every new story in GM has been getting slammed hard. Somebody is on a mission and I finally decided to stop worrying about it, grit my teeth, wait for the regular sweeps to take care of it, and hope they get bored quickly.

 

[squirrelzo]

Ok I dont know much about the voting system here but I think this may explain something happening over in the audio section. Two of my faves (Very popular) lost almost all of their hot tags in like 1 day. I could not believe my eyes. Their stories all magically dropped lots of points at the same time. Perhaps this us my first time seeing this phenom. It is not a coincidence.

 

[trace_ekies]

... You can also use the report a story feature and when it asks for a reason put you feel you have been hit with suspicious troll votes.

I did this with one story with surprising results. 12 votes were removed, (from over one hundred), resulting in a score that went from 4.48 to 4.73! Wow!

Question: I have a handful of other stories, all fairly recent postings, with what I view as suspicious voting patterns, for which I would like to request similar treatment. Should I make requests on these too or would this be viewed as 'calling wolf'?

BTW: It was about three days before anything happened.

 

[FragileUnbroken]

I really like the idea of asking to get 1 bombs removed, but it seems like if everybody did it, it would put strain on the resources it takes to run this site. It's tempting, particularly with a couple of stories that I know have been hit.

I think the scores can recover on their own with the sweep I read about. Still I wish my scores were an honest representation of what people think.

Another thing that might help would be a rating system like Anazon uses, where a small bar graph shows how many of each type of vote was received. Then at least people could judge for themselves whether they want to read a story, or authors can get a real idea of how they're doing.

Then again though. Lit already offers us a really nice venue at no cost and I'm sure that would take considerable work.

It's just sad that some people have to be that way.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

People get 5's and 1's for all the wrong reasons, all the time. Bottom line, LIT writers arent best selling authors. I was talking with someone the other day, and their idea of primo porn is 50 SHADES, and they know about LIT. They think 50 SHADES is better stuff.

 

[FragileUnbroken]

People get 5's and 1's for all the wrong reasons, all the time. Bottom line, LIT writers arent best selling authors. I was talking with someone the other day, and their idea of primo porn is 50 SHADES, and they know about LIT. They think 50 SHADES is better stuff.

That's just plain reality. No argument from me.

 

[patientlee]

People get 5's and 1's for all the wrong reasons, all the time. Bottom line, LIT writers arent best selling authors. I was talking with someone the other day, and their idea of primo porn is 50 SHADES, and they know about LIT. They think 50 SHADES is better stuff.

I didn't read it.

 

[sr71plt]

I was talking with someone the other day, and their idea of primo porn is 50 SHADES, and they know about LIT. They think 50 SHADES is better stuff.

Funny, I can always tell when you're making something up just for effect.

 

[Addicted2Writing]

Nope

What category are your stories in? That might explain some of it. Loving Wives especially seems to be ground central for 1-bombs and trolls.

BDSM also gets bombed quite regularly.

Not trying to sound paranoid, but I'm thinking it's other authors that do it to keep their ratings up and kicks stories that are too close to theirs come down.

No one can be that stupid and malicious to go into every single chapter and rate them down just for the sheer meanness of it.

But then again, the more I'm on Lit ...

 

[Addicted2Writing]

50 Shades

I'm writing the sequel to 50 Shades of Grey.

I'm titling it ... 50 Shades of Shit!!!

It is HORRIBLE!! Written like a ten year old! It is unbelievable how that dumb ass book was/is as popular as it is. I mean ... a movie?! Dear God...another Twlight! Someone kill me now!!

But then again, it just proves the stupidity, ignorance and gullibility of people that made the author all that money when there are LEGITIMATE authors who write SO MUCH BETTER!!!!

SMH ... some people need to get a grip on reality!

 

[Addicted2Writing]

Not necessarily

People get 5's and 1's for all the wrong reasons, all the time. Bottom line, LIT writers arent best selling authors. I was talking with someone the other day, and their idea of primo porn is 50 SHADES, and they know about LIT. They think 50 SHADES is better stuff.

JBJ, I've read some ebooks (Amazon, Kindle) that have superior quality over the 'author' that wrote 50 Shades.

On Lit, while they are very popular, have an original theme and are written well, with a little tweaking could be a money maker for some authors on Lit.

See my prior comment re: 50 Shades. So yes, I agree with you re: giving out 1s and 5s. It's either jealousy or just plain meanness.

 

[FragileUnbroken]

I agree with you re: giving out 1s and 5s. It's either jealousy or just plain meanness.

The sad part of that for me is, I had every intention of using the scores to learn what bdsm readers here prefer, so that I could focus on writing about experiences that would be more enjoyable for the readers.

As it stands, the numbers are shit for that. The up side is, I will just continue to write what I enjoy. The impact of 1 bombings hasn't been huge, just disappointing that I can't get a real read on what people like.

It's a good thing I just love to write.

 

[Tsotha]

No one can be that stupid and malicious to go into every single chapter and rate them down just for the sheer meanness of it.

But then again, the more I'm on Lit ...

You don't really have to go into each story, just takes some automation.

 

[squirrelzo]

Could someone explain this to me. Favorite audio guy, one of the top on lit, just started listening three months ago. Huge following. I'd click on and see a sea of red. All hot. For months. Few weeks ago I click on and see one lone little red flag. Stayed like that for weeks. I wasn't on for a while til yesterday and voila. A sea of red. Out of curiosity I checked in today. 2 lone red flags. In less than 24 hours over 20 audios dropped at least 5 to 10 points each. Im sure those of you who follow the ratings system can help me out here. Thanks!

 

[RejectReality]

Somebody's dropping low ratings on him systematically.

Either he has a hater, or he's a threat to someone else. The person retaliating in the later case could be the other author, or a rabid fan.

The reason you saw the sea of red -> bombed to oblivion -> sea of red phenomenon is probably because someone has already alerted Laurel to the shenanigans, or the activity is so obvious that normal maintenance sweeps wipe them out without any additional scrutiny.

Unfortunately, it's par for the course. Everyone goes through it, especially early on when your fanbase isn't large enough to balance the scales.

Just for the sake of playing devil's advocate with myself, it's always possible the opposite is true as well. A rabid fan of the author could be casting multiple 5s to boost the score, and the sweeps could be wiping those out instead, which would result in the same pattern in reverse.

That's the least likely scenario, though.

Could someone explain this to me. Favorite audio guy, one of the top on lit, just started listening three months ago. Huge following. I'd click on and see a sea of red. All hot. For months. Few weeks ago I click on and see one lone little red flag. Stayed like that for weeks. I wasn't on for a while til yesterday and voila. A sea of red. Out of curiosity I checked in today. 2 lone red flags. In less than 24 hours over 20 audios dropped at least 5 to 10 points each. Im sure those of you who follow the ratings system can help me out here. Thanks!

 

[squirrelzo]

Ah I see. His enemies must have been very busy with their hands last night. But hey the Devil's advocate scenario works too. QUOTE=RejectReality;55812402]Somebody's dropping low ratings on him systematically.

Either he has a hater, or he's a threat to someone else. The person retaliating in the later case could be the other author, or a rabid fan.

The reason you saw the sea of red -> bombed to oblivion -> sea of red phenomenon is probably because someone has already alerted Laurel to the shenanigans, or the activity is so obvious that normal maintenance sweeps wipe them out without any additional scrutiny.

Unfortunately, it's par for the course. Everyone goes through it, especially early on when your fanbase isn't large enough to balance the scales.

Just for the sake of playing devil's advocate with myself, it's always possible the opposite is true as well. A rabid fan of the author could be casting multiple 5s to boost the score, and the sweeps could be wiping those out instead, which would result in the same pattern in reverse.

That's the least likely scenario, though.[/QUOTE]

 

[alt68]

... [detailed explanation of voting realities] ...

One of the best explanations I have seen regarding the voting process. Thanks for taking the time to explain it. i would like you to explain even further though, if you can.

Do you have any idea what takes place with a sweep and when do 'sweeps' happen?

I had always thought that it was only 1's that got knocked out. You suggest that 5's also get the treatment, and i have noticed that a vote count sometimes will drop by one and the score - something in the 4 to 5 range - will drop by .01, suggesting to me that sweeps can also knock out a 5's.

So how does it work? Do you know? Or is the sweep mechanism a secret?

 

[Mara12]

I'm writing the sequel to 50 Shades of Grey.

I'm titling it ... 50 Shades of Shit!!!

It is HORRIBLE!! Written like a ten year old! It is unbelievable how that dumb ass book was/is as popular as it is. I mean ... a movie?! Dear God...another Twlight! Someone kill me now!!

But then again, it just proves the stupidity, ignorance and gullibility of people that made the author all that money when there are LEGITIMATE authors who write SO MUCH BETTER!!!!

SMH ... some people need to get a grip on reality!

Here's what's scary - EL James made it to the list of top 100 most influential people for 2012! I hope it was for bringing awareness of BDSM to a large vanilla audience (or making money for sex toy companies) rather than for her writing, but I was blown away.

Goes to show that shit floats, I guess.