The Benefit of Being Number 1

[SimonDoom]

The story "Sitting On My Mom's Lap" recently ascended to the position of number 1 on the all-time most viewed Literotica story, with an astonishing 11,521,269 views. It already was number 1 on the most-favorites list, with 7367.

The story was written by retired04 in 2009. He hasn't published a story since 2012.

Here's the amazing thing: that story received 181,142 views between August 25 and September 30 of this year, which is far more than any story published since August 1, despite the fact that it's 12 years old. It's far more than all my stories put together during that period, and I've published 7 stories this year, including incest stories. It indicates that readers use toplists to select stories, especially stories near the top, and also that they use Similar Stories lists, because that story appears near the top of almost every other top mom-son incest list.

 

[Privates1stClass]

I've noticed the same thing you've pointed out as an amazing statistic. Some stories seem to strike a chord with readers and then their views skyrocket.

The best of my stories have achieved barely one percent of retired04's views.

So, I suppose my advice would be to write a story that catches on, then sit back and watch the views snowball.

 

[rescatooor]

So, I suppose my advice would be to write a story that catches on, then sit back and watch the views snowball.

Better yet: build a time machine and travel back to a time when the market wasn't oversaturated and it was all-in-all easier to get a story on a top list. It's difficult to catch a story that's been high on that chart for years.

 

[SimonDoom]

Better yet: build a time machine and travel back to a time when the market wasn't oversaturated and it was all-in-all easier to get a story on a top list. It's difficult to catch a story that's been high on that chart for years.

There's a "rich get richer" effect. The growth in views of the stories near the top gets faster, and they distance themselves further from those down the list, even though the stories are old.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Old should never equate to bad, only bad should do so! I'm new here, this time around, and wasn't here that long the first go round. I don't expect to be near the top of any list on here. I'm happy with how I've done and only hope my writing gets better and people like what I do.

I'm not much into the competition thing, never get my hopes up, and am never disappointed when I don't show, place, or win.

Still I can dream of being wildly popular, as long I know it is just a dream.

 

[CharleneBarr]

Perhaps just as relevant to those hunting that elusive hot 4.50 score is that the fact that, despite being so highly popular, 'Sitting on my Son's Lap' only comes in with a rating of 4.40.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Perhaps just as relevant to those hunting that elusive hot 4.50 score is that the fact that, despite being so highly popular, 'Sitting on my Son's Lap' only comes in with a rating of 4.40.

I'm not a psychologist, but I play one on Literotica, and obviously the Oedipus Complex is on view here (assuming you believe that part of psychoanalytic theory). Supposedly it should be resolved by the age of six. But Lit is the place where we can deal with all of our hang-ups and not have the expensive of paying for professional help. (I hope so, anyway.)

The mother-son incest trope is nevertheless an interesting phenomenon.

 

[lovecraft68]

Perhaps just as relevant to those hunting that elusive hot 4.50 score is that the fact that, despite being so highly popular, 'Sitting on my Son's Lap' only comes in with a rating of 4.40.

Possibly brought down to 4.4 by being bombed by people pissed its the #1 all time story, I imagine it had to be higher at some point to get a lot of initial attention.

I've never seen the most viewed list, but I look at the top author list all the time because I'm watching Heyall somehow remain the same distance behind the number two author every day even though that author has not posted a story in 4 years and Heyall is very prolific.

The #2 author does have some stories on top lists so will always see some gains, but at one point they were gaining rapidly and was up 180+, then lit had that "event" not long ago and the lead became 144 as apparently Lit wiped some fake favs away, now they've been crawling back up.

This has been happening for years up and down the list, making it about as worthless as every other stat here. I think you can legit get yourself some very good numbers, but once you start creeping up on the "Gods of Lit" the games begin.

Of course we still hear this is "scouries" a person who hasn't posted on the forum in 5-6 years and no new stories since 2012 but the urban legend is he comes here every day-for years mind you-and creates new fake e-mails and Ids every day to keep doing this....um, no, no one is doing that.

Unless their part of the site? Hmm? Which is really where I lean these days as all other rational explanations fail, no person is going to do that for any lengthy period of time.

Meantime...Fav Heyall, he deserves to move up the list

 

[LAHomedog]

I've never seen the most viewed list, but I look at the top author list all the time

I've seen everyone talk about these Top lists for a while. Where do you find them?

Thanks.

 

[HectorBidon]

Interesting observations, Simon, as usual. Note that the 181,142 figure works out to more than 2 million views per year. According to the list, there are only 107 stories on the site that have more than 2 million views total. That means that Sitting on my Son's Lap got more views this past year (assuming the 181k per month rate) than any of the other 496,642 stories on the site have gotten ever.

It's kind of suspicious, don't you think? Do you really think that that many people actually clicked on it looking for a story to read? I wonder if the "rich get richer" effect might not have a bot component. If a story is on a lot of Similar Stories lists, a web crawler is going to find it a lot of times, and maybe each of those finds ends up getting counted as a view.

I couldn't help but look at the list itself a bit more closely, at least the first page. It turns out that 31 of the 50 Most Read Stories are in Incest/Taboo, 8 are in Non-Consent/Reluctance, 5 are in Loving Wives, and there is 1 each in Anal, Non-English, Mature, First Time, Group Sex, and Romance. (The Non-English entry is not really a story, but the "Click here for Language List" page.) I'm not sure what to make of this. If the IT readership is much much larger than some of the other categories, how do stories from the other categories manage to break into the top 50 list? Maybe there is a "rich getting richer" dynamic at work within each category?

The stories on the list tend to be older ones. The most recent one is from 2015. Only 11 of the stories are from 2011 or later. It makes sense that it must take a lot of time to build up so many views.

As CharleneBarr points out, the top story doesn't have a red H. In fact, 13 of the top 50 stories don't. The lowest rated is story 2 ('A' My Name is Alice, 2001, IT), with a score of 3.58.

Most of the stories on the list are highly favorited. 15 of them have more than 4000 hearts, and all but 5 have more than 400. But story 2 ('A' My Name is Alice by Emmah, 2001, IT, 3.58) has only 23 hearts, and story 12 (The Interview by ally1979, 2009, NCR, 4.05) has only 58. It wouldn't seem like they would have been on that many Similar Stories lists, and one wonders how they got on the most read list.

The stories on the list do seem to be still being read. 30 of the 35 stories that allow comments received from 1 to 14 (median 3) comments during the last month. Story 27 (Threads: The Island by JammyJimmy, 2011, IT, 4.85, 42 pages) has the most comments: 1924, 14 of which came during the last month. Story 15 (Words on Skin by PacoFear, 2009, IT, 4.81, 6 pages) has 1751 comments, 6 of which came during the last month. This is pretty strong evidence that these stories are still being read rather than just being clicked on.

 

[NotWise]

I've seen everyone talk about these Top lists for a while. Where do you find them?

Thanks.

From "My Home" select the "Explore" link near the top of the page. That gives you a drop-down menu. Select "Popular" from that menu. Under "Most Read" you can get the most viewed stories. Under "Reader Voting" you can get the most highly-rated stories.

Get the list of most favorite stories (or authors, or poems) by selecting "Favorites" from the "Explore" drop-down menu.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Here's the amazing thing: that story received 181,142 views between August 25 and September 30 of this year, which is far more than any story published since August 1, despite the fact that it's 12 years old. It's far more than all my stories put together during that period, and I've published 7 stories this year, including incest stories. It indicates that readers use toplists to select stories, especially stories near the top, and also that they use Similar Stories lists, because that story appears near the top of almost every other top mom-son incest list.

Which is why the Top Lists have no meaning for me. There's no way on earth a newer writer can ever get anywhere near a Top List, so they're simply not relevant to anything I do as a writer.

As a reader, sure, popularity trumps everything, so go there. But give 2021 a chance, too.

 

[NotWise]

Which is why the Top Lists have no meaning for me. There's no way on earth a newer writer can ever get anywhere near a Top List, so they're simply not relevant to anything I do as a writer.

As a reader, sure, popularity trumps everything, so go there. But give 2021 a chance, too.

Romance has the only Top List I pay attention to, and it contains a lot of recent stories. At least for the time being, a story dated 9/23/21 with 560 votes has displaced Dreamcloud's "The Link Pt 2: The Hunted" from the top of the list.

By my count, eleven of the top fifty stories in Romance are from this year, and there are substantial numbers from 2020 and 2019 as well.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Romance has the only Top List I pay attention to, and it contains a lot of recent stories. At least for the time being, a story dated 9/23/21 with 560 votes has displaced Dreamcloud's "The Link Pt 2: The Hunted" from the top of the list.

By my count, eleven of the top fifty stories in Romance are from this year, and there are substantial numbers from 2020 and 2019 as well.

Well there you go - since I never look, I didn't know that.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Romance has the only Top List I pay attention to, and it contains a lot of recent stories. At least for the time being, a story dated 9/23/21 with 560 votes has displaced Dreamcloud's "The Link Pt 2: The Hunted" from the top of the list.

By my count, eleven of the top fifty stories in Romance are from this year, and there are substantial numbers from 2020 and 2019 as well.

About 13 of them are mine. It's my one claim to fame.

 

[NotWise]

Well there you go - since I never look, I didn't know that.

I just checked I/T. I counted fourteen stories from 2021 in the top 50, including the top 4.

This might be a recent thing. I remember the top lists in both I/T and Romance as being pretty static. I guess things can change.

 

[TxRad]

You also have to remember, a view is someone clicking on a story. With enough time and strong thumbs you can get thousands of views from anyone.

At one time, we had an author here that loved to game the system. He said views were sales and he got paid by lit for sales. His thumbs must have looked like the Hulk's.

 

[lovecraft68]

New stories can get to the top of all time lists for score, all they need is the 100 votes,

But things like views, votes, most favs is a steep climb. I have a story that's 7 years old and just cracked the top 15 on the all time fav list.

I believe somewhere there is a most comment list, with the joke that's become here, damn straight that list will never be touched.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Romance has the only Top List I pay attention to, and it contains a lot of recent stories. At least for the time being, a story dated 9/23/21 with 560 votes has displaced Dreamcloud's "The Link Pt 2: The Hunted" from the top of the list.

By my count, eleven of the top fifty stories in Romance are from this year, and there are substantial numbers from 2020 and 2019 as well.

My first "Cricket Anyone?" story, which was entered in last year's Summer comp, cracked the all time top favourites for Romance and sat around 150 for a couple of weeks before two rapid one bombs blew it off the list.

I was pretty happy it got there, and perversely, happy a troll took the time to bomb an old story.

Views and votes are still disappointingly low, but it is a niche story.

 

[GinnyPPC]

By my count, eleven of the top fifty stories in Romance are from this year, and there are substantial numbers from 2020 and 2019 as well.

Similar situation on the Lesbian board. Of the top 50, 21 are from 2021 and 9 are from 2020. Also 28 of the top 50 are from three authors.

 

[PennameWombat]

<snip>
So, I suppose my advice would be to write a story that catches on, then sit back and watch the views snowball.

<snip>It indicates that readers use toplists to select stories, especially stories near the top, and also that they use Similar Stories lists, because that story appears near the top of almost every other top mom-son incest list.

My by-far most viewed stories are my Summer Lovin 2020 and Nude Day 2021 entries. Both spent time either at number one or in the top five on the 'Last 30 Days' toplists (First Time and Anal, respectively) during and just after the contests. Neither placed in the actual contests, but that shows up how ratings differ amongst categories (a different discussion.)

Although contest entries always get a boost, these two were pushed even higher and the only factor I could think of was the Toplist positions.

 

[KeithD]

Similar situation on the Lesbian board. Of the top 50, 21 are from 2021 and 9 are from 2020. Also 28 of the top 50 are from three authors.

In GM, half (25) of the top 50 are from the three most recent years, with 2021 dominating the top 10.

 

[NotWise]

So, I guess the top lists are fairly dynamic. A few years ago, that would not have been my take.

I remember LC telling me that "Threads: The Island" would never be beaten because the fans would always down-vote other stories. Right now, that story is #12.

LC is probably doing better than the weather service, and the weather service is paid for their predictions.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

Similar situation on the Lesbian board. Of the top 50, 21 are from 2021 and 9 are from 2020. Also 28 of the top 50 are from three authors.

And 6 of the all time top 10 rated stories are from the Lesbian category ...

 

[NotWise]

And 6 of the all time top 10 rated stories are from the Lesbian category ...

Different categories have different dynamics. Lesbian Sex has an appreciative following. So does SciF&F. But there are some great stories in LW that will never make a list because of their readership.

You can't compare results across categories.