Do you care about your score?

[davion2308]

I'm curious: Who cares about the scores their stories get and who doesn't care?

I write mostly for me but I like to think I'm entertaining other people while I'm at it. I don't take scoring too seriously but I still like to see a higher number.

Is that irony? "I don't care what I get" but I'm still checking scores anyway?

how does everyone else feel?

 

[FaeLissa]

I'm curious: Who cares about the scores their stories get and who doesn't care?

I write mostly for me but I like to think I'm entertaining other people while I'm at it. I don't take scoring too seriously but I still like to see a higher number.

Is that irony? "I don't care what I get" but I'm still checking scores anyway?

how does everyone else feel?

I worry WAY too much about it. I get sad when peoples downvote me (especially when they IM me and tell me they is doing it to be mean).
Working hard on learning to ignore it.

 

[Apisto42]

I’ll admit I like to get the red H. I have a few people that low vote my stories, so sometimes I have to wait on a “sweep” to clear out the “1’s”.

But I don’t write to get that. I just like it when I do.

 

[RocketLauncher]

Usually idgaf. One story was a very personal one and I was more curious as to why the score wasn't great, asked for feedback and received phenomenal critiques. Lowered my score again, tho. Overall it doesn't bother me except when I read pedestrian stories riddled with spelling and grammatical errors with high scores, then I get a little irked but it soon passes. I'm not competitive by nature.

 

[GrandTeton]

I'd care more if the scores weren't biased by trolling and strategic voting. But it's still nice to get a high number and a bummer when there's a low one, no matter how artificial the low is. And it's nice to be on top of the Hall of Fame even if you know you won't be allowed to stay there (happened once, strategic voting by someone in my favour for a change). To preserve a level of detachment I refuse to vote for my stories.

 

[TxRad]

With around 235 stories posted you might say the luster has worn off. I'll check the voting regularly on a new story for the first three days or so. After that, not so much. About 70% of my stories have the red H. Most of the ones that don't were experiments or Loving wives.

As a newbie, scores are exciting to watch. later on, not so much. There is no rhyme or reason for scores. If you get more than one in a hundred votes, then call it all good.

If and when you go to mainstream, then worry about the score because it is called money.

 

[SimonDoom]

Yes and no.

I'm a competitive person, and something of a stat geek, so I do track the numbers for my stories and I want to see them do well.

But I'm sober and sensible enough to realize that story scores, in isolation, don't mean that much, and shouldn't be taken too seriously. The score you get has a lot to do with what category you publish in and whether you've hit the notes that readers of that category want to see hit. And -- this is crucial -- you absolutely cannot compare scores across different categories. You also cannot compare stand-alone stories with stories with multiple chapters. Chapter 50 of a long series is going to have a high score because the only people still reading the series are those who like it.

My goals are three: to write stories that satisfy my creative/erotic desires, to keep getting better at writing, and to reach readers who enjoy and appreciate what I write.

Getting a higher score will help me reach more readers, because higher-rated stories will get more readers, so I care about it for that purpose. I also believe that there's a certain wisdom in crowds, and if I look really carefully at why one of my stories has a lower score than another one of my stories, I might learn something. I pay attention to stories by other authors in the same category whose scores have been higher than mine, and I believe I can learn something by analyzing why they're higher.

My take: when I see similar stories by other authors whose scores are better than mine, it's usually because they've done a better job developing characters that hook the readers. Character development is everything. Even in a stroke story.

So, yes, story scores are something to pay attention to, but not to get too worked up about.

 

[LoquiSordidaAdMe]

More than I'd like to admit. I'd rather have comments than votes - constructive, useful comments I mean - to help me guage what I do well and what can be better. But I understand that it's easier to vote than it is to comment. So I track my scores in a spreadsheet and try to gleen what I can from them. Someday I hope to be as disinterested as TxRad above, but today is not that day.

 

[Blind_Justice]

It's one of the few metrics of how "well" I'm doing. Since getting comments is like watching a Unicorn doing the Despacito (i.e. incredibly rare), scores have to do.

 

[FaeLissa]

More than I'd like to admit. I'd rather have comments than votes - constructive, useful comments I mean - to help me guage what I do well and what can be better. But I understand that it's easier to vote than it is to comment. So I track my scores in a spreadsheet and try to gleen what I can from them. Someday I hope to be as disinterested as TxRad above, but today is not that day.

Yeah - that degree of calm in teh face of peoples saying "doesn't like you or the horse that rode you" is probly took TxRad a bit of time to just accept as he brews coffee and thinks about what he might write today, if he decides to write today. But we isn't all as old and relaxed.

Comments is more useful to us what doesn't write fast or often. I'd like to know what made a people vote 1 (although several has said they did it because my stories is mostly lesbians and that's evil - not actually useful (and really weird on an erotica site) since the same peoples voted my stories of dragons higher ).

Rather know why they took the time to write - what they liked and didn't - than has the number. Is too easy to force the numbers down "just because" but comments is words I can look at and see which is assholes and which is peoples.

 

[NotWise]

My stories don't usually get many comments, so I keep track of all the other feedback channels. Score is one of them, and probably the easiest to understand: views tell you if the story has an appealing presentation, votes depends on views and some categories give more than others, favorites may just be bookmarks, favorite authors are nice, but you usually don't know why.

Even though scores are probably the easiest to understand, you still have to remember that they are a popularity rating, not a critique.

 

[Kantarii]

A silent vote doesn’t get my attention like a thoughtful comment does. I put more value into the comments since they come fewer and far between compared to votes. To me, a comment is the reader reaching out to the author. Most of the people that leave a comment on my stories go even further to send me an email as well. I’ve had some nice chats with quite a few of my readers, some of which get to read previews of my next chapter long before I post it on Lit.
Kant

 

[lucky_guy_49]

I've only written four stories, would like to write more. I was pleased when the second one got an H after being published awhile. Yes, comments are rare, but what fascinates me is number of hits. Although I published mine 4 years ago, it's still kind of a rush for me that combined they recently topped 100,000 reads. Since they are all also based on true experiences, I like knowing 100,000 people have read them (or that a smaller number of people have clicked on them 100,000 times).

 

[rae121452]

i usually pay attention for the first few days because i figure that's when the people who follow me will be reading. after that, i'm much too disorganized to even remember what each story score was. i do like receiving feedback messages though.
i don't think the scoring is a representative sample in most cases, there are just too few people who bother to vote. and it seems easily manipulated.
i just enjoy finishing a story and getting it out of my head.

 

[Paul_Chance]

I don't care. The only number I look at out of curiosity is how many people read it/clicked on it. I like feedback when it comes, especially if someone has thought it out and written something that's actually helpful as a writer.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I watch the scores of a story straight out of the gate to gauge the initial reaction, and then I wait thirty days for everything to settle.

I tell no lie, I like my little garden of Red Hs because there ain't much else to go by. As Kant says, each comment assumes importance way above its statistical relevance coz they're such rare beasts.

 

[Bebop3]

I do care and pay attention to the scores, as they are a barometer for success. I'm not posting stories here out of some inner drive to share my work with the world. I'm trying to get better as a writer, and the scores help me to determine if I'm succeeding.

I wrote two stories as experiments and they tanked. Rightly so. They sucked. The voters were spot on. My other stuff has done fairly well, but I think the voters may have been a bit generous with their scores.

 

[Kantarii]

I do care and pay attention to the scores, as they are a barometer for success. I'm not posting stories here out of some inner drive to share my work with the world. I'm trying to get better as a writer, and the scores help me to determine if I'm succeeding.


I don’t agree with this statement.

There is no barometer for success the rating system on this site can convince me of in my eyes. There are books on the New York Times best sellers list I’d never read. By the same token, I’ve read a few of the stories on this site that are on the all time lists. Most don’t appeal to me.

In short, if one would consider basing “success” against a broken rating system that can be manipulated with multiple accounts on voting, then “success” is measured by how many 5* one can slap on a story or feed it with anonymous comments to boost the story’s popularity. That’s a dishonest anyway to measure success - and it happens more often than not in this site.

I measure “my success” by the satisfaction I get from the readers commenting on my stories. No silent vote will ever compare to a reader telling you that your story touched them in a certain way.Kant

 

[NotWise]

I do care and pay attention to the scores, as they are a barometer for success. I'm not posting stories here out of some inner drive to share my work with the world. I'm trying to get better as a writer, and the scores help me to determine if I'm succeeding.

I don’t agree with this statement.

...

I measure “my success” by the satisfaction I get from the readers commenting on my stories. No silent vote will ever compare to a reader telling you that your story touched them in a certain way.Kant

Most of my stories get few if any comments. I'd be wandering alone in the wilderness if comments were my only feedback. Even when I have gotten a lot of comments on one story the vast majority have been "More!" and that's all. A few quality comments are worth a lot, but they're hard to come by.

So, I do agree with Bebop3.

 

[Bebop3]

I see where you're coming from, but for me, things might be a little different.

I happen to agree with the voting for the most part. I think that my highest rated scores may be too high, but in general, I agree with what the ratings tell me about what stories are better than others.

I realize that there are a lot of variables that come into play and the data gathered from scores aren't perfect, but I can and do use them as indistinct road signs pointing me in a general direction.

The only fly in the ointment is that I have someone that is determined to drive down my scores using an onion browser, so that skews the data a bit. Things get less murky after a sweep.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I see where you're coming from, but for me, things might be a little different.

I happen to agree with the voting for the most part. I think that my highest rated scores may be too high, but in general, I agree with what the ratings tell me about what stories are better than others.

I realize that there are a lot of variables that come into play and the data gathered from scores aren't perfect, but I can and do use them as indistinct road signs pointing me in a general direction.

The only fly in the ointment is that I have someone that is determined to drive down my scores using an onion browser, so that skews the data a bit. Things get less murky after a sweep.

I find the scores useful as a vague comparative tool for my own work measured against itself. Despite all the "gaming the score" conspiracy theories - which in my mind get neutralised through the sweeps, if indeed the effect can be seen - there's some value in the system, it being what it is. Not to compare myself to the next writer though, because it's all apples and oranges (penguin and puffins) - too many variables.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I love my little red H's.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I love my little red H's.

Yes. I always think of Alice when she first goes down the garden path, in Through the Looking Glass.

 

[GrandTeton]

I disagree that the sweeps or the system eliminate the effects of strategic voting by authors (some - not, I think, as many as is sometimes suggested). Somewhere I was told that the system is designed to prevent multiple votes, especially negative votes, and it doesn't. It takes multiple reports on a story to get any action. There are at least a couple of well-run conspiracies to maintain certain stories at the top of their category, not author-run, one of which has operated for years with great success (and appropriate discouragement for other authors). This is one conspiracy I know exists, and I'm not even from California. Which is why the system is indicative, usually, but absolute values are pretty meaningless. Nice to get the red H though.

 

[NotWise]

I disagree that the sweeps or the system eliminate the effects of strategic voting by authors (some - not, I think, as many as is sometimes suggested). Somewhere I was told that the system is designed to prevent multiple votes, especially negative votes, and it doesn't. It takes multiple reports on a story to get any action. There are at least a couple of well-run conspiracies to maintain certain stories at the top of their category, not author-run, one of which has operated for years with great success (and appropriate discouragement for other authors). This is one conspiracy I know exists, and I'm not even from California. Which is why the system is indicative, usually, but absolute values are pretty meaningless. Nice to get the red H though.

If you know that for a fact, why don't you give us and Laurel the specifics? The opportunity was right in front of you and you gave us a bland assertion. It just sounds like paranoia. I mean really.