OMG One Bombs!

[tenyari]

I believe, with absolutely no proof, that most of a writer’s followers like the author, receive notifications of stories published, read the stories early on and are more inclined to vote higher than the general readership.

It's what I do. I only follow a very few number of people and I'm only following them because I'm hoping for new parts of certain stories. If that occurs, it's there in my activity feed, I go read it... and since it's something I was waiting to read I'm inclined to be more generous to it that I should be - so those stories end up getting easy 5-votes from me.

Since I know that back when I was writing a lot, a positive comment or a good vote got me energized to want to write more, and I want the authors I follow to write more or I wouldn't be following them... I tend to remember to vote for their stories.

I imagine all the later 1-bombs happen from the people searching for something who land on the wrong thing and blame the author for it, or the 'drama' certain categories have.

But I have seen some new stories start right out the gate with low scores that I myself voted up - so not sure there's any universal pattern in any of this.

 

[jsmiam]

I captured all the last-30-days top lists yesterday and today (3440 stories in today's pull). I looked for stories that had one vote more today than yesterday and calculated what that vote was. The number of each votes were:
1 - 3
2 - 3
3 - 4
4 - 19
5 - 69

The one votes were all in different categories. The one and two votes were all in different categories except Fetish had two 2-votes.

I'm surprised at how few one-votes there were. I thought they'd be more one-votes than two-votes and three-votes combined. Given the quantity of the other votes, I would have guessed ten one-votes.

I love all your work, the screen scraping, the research, the statistics, all of it.

In this case though, I think this example does more to confirm the painful experience of "Toto, I have a feeling we're not on the new story list anymore" than anything else. Keeping in mind your methodology of 'only stories who changed by just one vote yet are still new enough to appear on the 30 day list', this is PTSD inspiring, when a new story often only days old suddenly sees that massive drop in readership. 98 votes total for 3440 stories, all less than 30 days old isn't saying one-votes are rare, it's saying votes are rare, period, once we hit that point of oblivion. A Literotica Event Horizon of sorts - except we adapt it to say "the Event is not being new any more. And our story is now beyond the horizon... in a black hole."

More methodology nitpicking, but totally beside the point; Small font intentional, to symbolically say "small topic" too; Wouldn't you have to run your analysis for 30 full days, capture the date published, and continue tracking any story that ever hit the list for 30 days, even after the story's no longer on the list, as long as it remains 30 days old or less? (Also, in a high traffic area such as I/T, didn't the list of stories change quite a bit? Or did you revisit yesterdays stories regardless of whether they were still on the list today? (also, everyone but 8-letters and/or number-nerds, ignore this paragraph... ;-)

 

[lovecraft68]

Imagine if people spent as much time and effort on their writing, instead of obsessing over numbers and running around the site compiling data.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

You've really done your research. But I've still noticed that every time I've got a story in a contest, my scores usually start off great, often with perfect 5's for a few hours after it's published. Then by around noon, it'll drop like a rock after only one or two votes, to somewhere around 4.5. Eventually, it usually starts climbing again, gradually inching it's way back up.
I understand that some readers may not like what I write, or the way I write. But the same pattern seems to happen too often to simply be a coincidence. I never score my own stories, and neither does my other half. I also never score anyone else's stories, especially if they're in a contest. And I have never tried to drop, or meddle with anyone else's score. I know that some readers, like everyone's favorite critic, Overcritical, like to low ball stories they don't like, just because they can. But I don't think that would be the reason every time.
I just find it kind of odd, if I've got something in a contest, that I know it'll happen again.

 

[RejectReality]

Imagine if people spent as much time and effort on their writing, instead of obsessing over numbers and running around the site compiling data.

Imagine if people could enjoy two things.

Creativity is a tap that isn't always on for some of us. Compiling and analyzing data is why I can be confident with my category/venue placement, so it's useful to me when I do have something ready to post. I can place it where it will reach the maximum number of readers who will enjoy it, and make a reasonable determination of effort vs. reward with regards to cross-posting.

 

[lovecraft68]

Imagine if people could enjoy two things.

Creativity is a tap that isn't always on for some of us. Compiling and analyzing data is why I can be confident with my category/venue placement, so it's useful to me when I do have something ready to post. I can place it where it will reach the maximum number of readers who will enjoy it, and make a reasonable determination of effort vs. reward with regards to cross-posting.

Some can, you for example have a large body of work here among your trinity of pen names and a lot of your info has been gleaned from monitoring and experimenting with your own work.

But others seem to spend a lot more time fretting numbers than writing. I find all manner of statistics fascinating, I was explaining to someone how back in the day in order to have a fantasy baseball team, you had to pour over every box score from every game and compile your own stats....now an app does everything for you which is why its so much bigger.

But I also know a lot of this stuff may not be true in the sense that you can find the numbers, but are the organic? Is every view an actual person, is it a full read(often times not) and of course the endless issues on vote and fav fluffers, even comments have been tainted by discovering authors praising their own work under alts.

I guess my point is I'd think on an erotic story site the focus should be more on writing first, play with stats later, and if you do both, great. If you're more obsessed with the latter than the former, its counterproductive.

If you were to get into selling, you'd have a whole different type of statistical analysis to play with. If there's some money involved things like category and polarizing material, and hybrid stories, and when to submit etc...its a whole nother level of obsession LOL

 

[Lifestyle66]

I've still noticed that every time I've got a story in a contest, my scores usually start off great, often with perfect 5's for a few hours after it's published. Then by around noon, it'll drop like a rock after only one or two votes, to somewhere around 4.5. Eventually, it usually starts climbing again, gradually inching it's way back up.

My last story started with a 1 rating before I even realized it went public (five hours later). It took two days before anyone else bothered to read and rate it (three 5's on that third day).

So, I think the haters are focused on me first, and you're just number two on their list. LOL.

 

[RejectReality]

Some can, you for example have a large body of work here among your trinity of pen names and a lot of your info has been gleaned from monitoring and experimenting with your own work.

But others seem to spend a lot more time fretting numbers than writing. I find all manner of statistics fascinating, I was explaining to someone how back in the day in order to have a fantasy baseball team, you had to pour over every box score from every game and compile your own stats....now an app does everything for you which is why its so much bigger.

But I also know a lot of this stuff may not be true in the sense that you can find the numbers, but are the organic? Is every view an actual person, is it a full read(often times not) and of course the endless issues on vote and fav fluffers, even comments have been tainted by discovering authors praising their own work under alts.

I guess my point is I'd think on an erotic story site the focus should be more on writing first, play with stats later, and if you do both, great. If you're more obsessed with the latter than the former, its counterproductive.

If you were to get into selling, you'd have a whole different type of statistical analysis to play with. If there's some money involved things like category and polarizing material, and hybrid stories, and when to submit etc...its a whole nother level of obsession LOL

My own numbers are certainly useful, but I don't have a broad enough category slate to go from that alone. Too many of my categories are single entries. Regularly perusing the old comment portal and analyzing the contests/toplists were critical to getting the lay of the land.

For the most part, significant monkeying with statistics is rare. You get your Freddys commenting with six different alts, and your Scurvies with blistered refresh fingers, and people with personal trolls, but those become blips when put up against a broader sample. The longer a submission is up and out of the limelight, the less it's being manipulated in the broader sense as well.

Sure, you still don't know what a view is, but you don't know what anybody's views are, so other than those outliers, everything is within the same environment, and comparisons are still valid.

Trying to suss out the who/what/why of low scores is probably a fool's errand, but the general range of scores in a category is useful information, and part of that can be the tendency of the readership to slash your score. ( Loving Wives )

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Imagine if people spent as much time and effort on their writing, instead of obsessing over numbers and running around the site compiling data.

My last story started with a 1 rating before I even realized it went public (five hours later). It took two days before anyone else bothered to read and rate it (three 5's on that third day).

So, I think the haters are focused on me first, and you're just number two on their list. LOL.

Glad to hear I've got company!

 

[8letters]

Imagine if people spent as much time and effort on their writing, instead of obsessing over numbers and running around the site compiling data.

Imagine if people spent as much time and effort on their writing, instead of writing forum post after forum post.

 

[lovecraft68]

Imagine if people spent as much time and effort on their writing, instead of writing forum post after forum post.

Like a lot of people here-I imagine-I tend to post to take a break, or procrastinate, during writing editing.
I have 140 stories here, and between pen names 197 published e-books. Two thirds of the way through #198 and most of my e-books, even smuttier ones, clock in around 20k, I have many that are novel length(I think in e-book 40k constitutes a novel, I see it as being over 70k) If I wasted time adding them all up, I'd guess I've published over two million words.

Good try though.

 

[8letters]

Like a lot of people here-I imagine-I tend to post to take a break, or procrastinate, during writing editing.
I have 140 stories here, and between pen names 197 published e-books. Two thirds of the way through #198 and most of my e-books, even smuttier ones, clock in around 20k, I have many that are novel length(I think in e-book 40k constitutes a novel, I see it as being over 70k) If I wasted time adding them all up, I'd guess I've published over two million words.

Good try though.

Being subtle didn't work, so let me be more blunt. How I spend my free time is my business, not yours. You like to write more than I do, and you churn out stories faster than I do. If you want to give yourself a gold star for that, go ahead. I'll be busy doing other things.

I get that you dislike discussions of story numbers. My advice to you - don't read them. You and your "don't you people have better things to do with your time" posts won't be missed. Regardless, the rest of us will continue having such discussions because #1 you aren't the boss of us and #2 we enjoy them.

 

[SimonDoom]

Imagine if people spent as much time and effort on their writing, instead of obsessing over numbers and running around the site compiling data.

I do not understand criticizing what other people do here, and how they do it. I don't understand moralizing about it.

Like 8Letters, I'm one of those who likes to noodle over data. I think it's interesting in its own right. But it doesn't get in the way of writing. To the extent that I don't get this or that story done, it's just because I'm undisciplined or lack motivation, or because I haven't figured out how to end a story, not because I'm spending time analyzing or writing about Literotica stats.

This is a free site where nobody is getting paid (except to the extent they get tiny financial awards for winning story contests, and that doesn't count for much), and people should feel free to get whatever enjoyment they get from this site in whatever way works for them.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I get that you dislike discussions of story numbers. My advice to you - don't read them. You and your "don't you people have better things to do with your time" posts won't be missed. Regardless, the rest of us will continue having such discussions because #1 you aren't the boss of us and #2 we enjoy them.

He implied that you obsessed over numbers. You do not deny this, so his assertion was correct.

You implied that he did not write enough. He countered that - successfully, so your assertion was not.

If you want to get butthurt because he was right and you were wrong, that's on you. If you want to escalate this and exchange barbs with him, I might suggest that you will almost certainly lose. You seem rather overmatched here. That's my observation.

 

[8letters]

I love all your work, the screen scraping, the research, the statistics, all of it.

In this case though, I think this example does more to confirm the painful experience of "Toto, I have a feeling we're not on the new story list anymore" than anything else. Keeping in mind your methodology of 'only stories who changed by just one vote yet are still new enough to appear on the 30 day list', this is PTSD inspiring, when a new story often only days old suddenly sees that massive drop in readership. 98 votes total for 3440 stories, all less than 30 days old isn't saying one-votes are rare, it's saying votes are rare, period, once we hit that point of oblivion. A Literotica Event Horizon of sorts - except we adapt it to say "the Event is not being new any more. And our story is now beyond the horizon... in a black hole."

You misunderstanding what I wrote. If I look at all the stories on the top list that were on both days (3313), there were 8250 votes on those stories, an average of 2.5 votes per story.

More methodology nitpicking, but totally beside the point; Small font intentional, to symbolically say "small topic" too; Wouldn't you have to run your analysis for 30 full days, capture the date published, and continue tracking any story that ever hit the list for 30 days, even after the story's no longer on the list, as long as it remains 30 days old or less? (Also, in a high traffic area such as I/T, didn't the list of stories change quite a bit? Or did you revisit yesterdays stories regardless of whether they were still on the list today? (also, everyone but 8-letters and/or number-nerds, ignore this paragraph... ;-)[/SIZE]

The big problem with my analysis, which NotWise pointed out, is that I don't get the low-rating stories in categories that average more than 8 stories published a day. Not getting those stories removes a lot of the one-votes. I could redo my analysis with only the categories that average 8 or less stories published a day, but then you get into the question of how representative those categories are. As I didn't get the category when I pulled the top list data, I can't actually redo my analysis.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

First time ever, I got a one bomb as my first score on my latest story Breeding Bull Ch. 4. I actually laughed seeing that lonely one, that gave me a score of 1.00. It's gone up in the last few days, so at least not everyone hated the story.

 

[8letters]

First time ever, I got a one bomb as my first score on my latest story Breeding Bull Ch. 4. I actually laughed seeing that lonely one, that gave me a score of 1.00. It's gone up in the last few days, so at least not everyone hated the story.

I've been wanting to say this all through this thread, and this seems like a good time to do so. The problem I see isn't so much that stories get an occasional one-vote. The problem I see is that authors publish stories that get so little votes that the occasional one-vote is really upsetting to them. There's plenty of information on this forum on the kind of stories that get a good amount of views and votes.

 

[Lifestyle66]

I've been wanting to say this all through this thread, and this seems like a good time to do so. The problem I see isn't so much that stories get an occasional one-vote. The problem I see is that authors publish stories that get so little votes that the occasional one-vote is really upsetting to them. There's plenty of information on this forum on the kind of stories that get a good amount of views and votes.

When he says he received a 1-bomb within the first few hours of his story being published, I had that same experience. It took my story two days before anyone else rated it (four 5's since then).

I think we're seeing a change in the dynamics of those haters. They're starting earlier to try suppressing views.

 

[SimonDoom]

I've been wanting to say this all through this thread, and this seems like a good time to do so. The problem I see isn't so much that stories get an occasional one-vote. The problem I see is that authors publish stories that get so little votes that the occasional one-vote is really upsetting to them. There's plenty of information on this forum on the kind of stories that get a good amount of views and votes.

Sometimes I think the experience of Literotica authors with the story reaction that they see is a bit like the parable of the blind men and the elephant: each blind man touches a different part of the elephant and comes away with a completely different reaction to what an elephant "is." The response varies so greatly depending upon what kinds of stories you publish and in what category you publish them that there are no universals, and one person's experience may strike another as totally mystifying and unfamiliar.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Sometimes I think the experience of Literotica authors with the story reaction that they see is a bit like the parable of the blind men and the elephant: each blind man touches a different part of the elephant and comes away with a completely different reaction to what an elephant "is." The response varies so greatly depending upon what kinds of stories you publish and in what category you publish them that there are no universals, and one person's experience may strike another as totally mystifying and unfamiliar.

I wasn't surprised when that particular story was one-bombed. I tried something a little different knowing that it would probably garner some pretty strong reactions. It was still fun to write, even if some of the readers enjoyed it and some didn't.

 

[Comshaw]

Sometimes I think the experience of Literotica authors with the story reaction that they see is a bit like the parable of the blind men and the elephant: each blind man touches a different part of the elephant and comes away with a completely different reaction to what an elephant "is." The response varies so greatly depending upon what kinds of stories you publish and in what category you publish them that there are no universals, and one person's experience may strike another as totally mystifying and unfamiliar.

I totally agree with your assessment. But it's not just Lit stories. It extends too much of life in general. As someone who has lived a life with varied and wide-ranging experiences, as a student of humanity and an observer, it's always entertaining to me to hear, "That doesn't happen!" or "No one would ever do that!" It's entertaining because there are few absolutes in life.

Way too many people get into their head that the narrow, myopic view of life they have, the experiences they have had, what they have seen are the same for everyone else. Too many make the statement, "That isn't true! It could never happen!" Rather than ask, " I wonder if it's real, if it ever has happened?" And they go through life with that single view of a multifaceted thing, seeing only the tail of a complicated and interesting entity while being (intentionally or not) blind to the rest.
Many situations and things are rare, but that does not mean they haven't happened or don't exist. There is a picture floating around the 'net of two rifle bullets that were recovered from s WWI battle site. One hit the side of and embedded itself in the other in mid-flight. In the 1800's there was a man named Phineas Gage who had a metal bar go through his skull. Most times that would be the end of the line for whom ever got that kind of injury. He lived and became a famous case in Psychology books because of the complete change in his personality from the brain injury.

That's just a couple of examples. Some of the things in stories here people claim are impossible or would never happen, are a lot more likely. So, yeah, looking at a tiny piece of the elephant and saying it isn't what it is, is a cognitive blindness.

​

Comshaw

 

[PennameWombat]

I've been wanting to say this all through this thread, and this seems like a good time to do so. The problem I see isn't so much that stories get an occasional one-vote. The problem I see is that authors publish stories that get so little votes that the occasional one-vote is really upsetting to them. There's plenty of information on this forum on the kind of stories that get a good amount of views and votes.

We don’t all want to write in only I/T and/or LW. Beyond that, you can follow every piece of advice (or every one of your tips) and still not understand why you get the result you get with a story. I can’t explain why my latest is averaging one vote per 1500 views, when my overall average is one vote per 400 views (across all categories) yet it’s consistent in style with my others in that category.

When he says he received a 1-bomb within the first few hours of his story being published, I had that same experience. It took my story two days before anyone else rated it (four 5's since then).

I think we're seeing a change in the dynamics of those haters. They're starting earlier to try suppressing views.

Ah, so we have a trend. A few of my latest stories started off with ‘1’ votes, or a 1 among the first couple of votes, amongst concurrent or following 5s and the odd 4.

 

[PennameWombat]

I wasn't surprised when that particular story was one-bombed. I tried something a little different knowing that it would probably garner some pretty strong reactions. It was still fun to write, even if some of the readers enjoyed it and some didn't.

Just for my own usage… a “one bomb” is someone who never read the story and accessed it only for the purpose of casting a 1.

If someone takes the time to read and analyse my story, fighting their disgust and hatred, through to the end and rate it a one because, well, they blew past every warning that indicated they’d probably not like it, that’s not what I call a ‘one bomb.’ It’s - to me - a massive waste of their time, yes, I have way too little time to waste it doing something like that to anyone else’s story that I don’t like. But if they do, and put in a ’1’, well, they Did the Work.

That it’s impossible from our view to differentiate is the issue. As to sweeps, a story a while ago had voting 5-5-5-1-1-1 and then a bunch more mostly 5s and the odd 4. A sweep removed one of the 1 votes, but also a 4. So… I have to conclude that two of those 1 votes were readers who Put in the Work because the sweep says they’re legitimate 1 votes.

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

If someone takes the time to read and analyse my story, fighting their disgust and hatred, through to the end and rate it a one because, well, they blew past every warning that indicated they’d probably not like it, that’s not what I call a ‘one bomb.’ It’s - to me - a massive waste of their time, yes, I have way too little time to waste it doing something like that to anyone else’s story that I don’t like. But if they do, and put in a ’1’, well, they Did the Work.

Do you think anyone actually does this, though? It’s much more likely that people see content that’s not to their taste and skip to the end to drop a 1.

I suppose I can imagine people hate-reading something they decide early that they actually despise, but even then, I don’t believe that they’re giving it an honest read. They’re not looking at the quality of the writing, story, character development. They’re just pushing through to make themselves even angrier, but they’ve already made up their mind long before the last page.

Probably the only caveat to this is if a writer intentionally includes a twist at the end that wasn’t foreshadowed or disclosed in any disclaimers upfront.

 

[lovecraft68]

I've been wanting to say this all through this thread, and this seems like a good time to do so. The problem I see isn't so much that stories get an occasional one-vote. The problem I see is that authors publish stories that get so little votes that the occasional one-vote is really upsetting to them. There's plenty of information on this forum on the kind of stories that get a good amount of views and votes.

I agree, but going to add to the issue by looking at the last part of your post. There are categories here that will get more views and votes. But....what if you don't want to write in those categories? Maybe incest puts you off, who wants the hate in the LW section(and even though you get votes and comments there, they are mostly negative)

The next tier as I'd refer to it, would be mature and group, neither are squick categories, mature is easy to write, but again, what if you don't want to?

Say you're someone who enjoys writing in fetish, E&V, Trans...the categories that don't get the traffic. Your choices are to continue to be frustrated with numbers and have a why bother feeling-if you're writing for numbers, some don't care-or try to force yourself into writing something you're not interested in just to get some attention.

And the tough truth is, there is nothing that can be done. Lit cannot change the dichotomy of stories here. They can't make readers go to certain categories, they can't spread the wealth so to speak.

So your suggestion of just write in other categories isn't a fair solution, but on the other hand, there's nothing else one can do. The decision has to be made on do you want to tell the stories you want to, and get little in the way of stats or sell out to write things you don't like just so joeybigballs will leave you a two word "so hot!' comment?

Up to the author, just too bad its like this