Story Stats Question

[TarnishedPenny]

Maybe this has already been answered, but my once-miraculous search powers have apparently abandoned me. If one goes to one's Works page, there is an icon which leads to a chart with various stats for all of one's stories.

What's the difference between the two far-right columns, "Reading Lists' and 'In Reading Lists'?

 

[alohadave]

One is just Favorites, the other is reading lists and Favorites.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

I was today years old when I learned you can download the stats in a csv file like that
In reading list seems to match up with favorites..

 

[Emotional]

I was today years old when I learned you can download the stats in a csv file like that
In reading list seems to match up with favorites..

That makes two of us.

 

[SimonDoom]

Far right = favorites plus "to be read."

Second from far right = favorites.

You can tell, because the numbers in the column on the far right are always larger than in the next column.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Thank for the insight, folks.

 

[SimonDoom]

I had a tinker with the Works icons and ended up mistakenly favouriting one of my stories, then unfavourited it. I still got a notification, telling me of the glad news - at least the positive bit. So that's a load of bollocks isn't it?
I've suspected the same is true of reading lists for a while. I've had plenty of favourite notifications. I just checked on one reader who has 2,500 Favourite authors ; another has 450 favourite stories <- these are plucked from a couple I checked from my works page - I didn't have to look far. 'Views' can be simple page opens... Scores may be 'swept' removing multiple high or low scores, but by and large the rest of the data is meaningless.
The only metrics that count for anything are comments.

Stats have relative, not absolute value. If you know somebody has viewed your story, you have no idea if they've read it. You don't know how many people, out of 10,000 views, have actually read your story. But you know to a statistical certainty that 100,000 views means more complete reads than 10,000 views.

But this is true in all cases. Even if you knew the number of actual reads--what would that mean? 10,000 actual reads might seem really impressive. But if you were told that 100,000 actual reads is the average, you wouldn't feel so impressed.

The relativity of statistics doesn't mean that they're meaningless; it just means you have to look at them the right way. They help you compare how your story is doing relative to other stories, either your own or those by other authors. You may or may not find that a useful or interesting thing to know.

 

[ElectricBlue]

However, I just ran a small test. I chose a less read story and visited it several times and the number of views did not change. When I add a 5-star score, it did change the rating. I've got better things to do than pick holes in Lit's recording system but it shows it's a nonsense.

Number of Views shown where, Sticky? When I did the same experiment years ago (when figuring out how it all worked) the View count on my control panel updated immediately - but all other places showing counts always had a lag (including the story header, which you'd think would update first). I think the CP is the master, all other number fields, slaves.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Thanks Simon, I appreciate how averages work - it's a key stage 3 school requirement but wasn't really the point I was making, which was wrt favourites.

I just ran a small test. I chose a less read story and visited it several times and the number of views did not change. When I add a 5-star score, it did change the rating.

Comments are the only metric that's important.

I know where you are coming from and comments are what lights my particular fire, too. Playing the Devil’s Advocate however, a couple of points.

WRT your visiting one of your own stories, yes, I believe you. Is it possible however that that particular stat is not instantly ungraded on this site? It’s no secret that the number of, for example, favourites, varies between different sections of this site at any given time, that one part lags behind. Maybe the numbers only change every so often?

Also, there’s an old saying with some truth to it - no man ever crossed the room at a party to meet a nice personality. To that limited extent, the vote score serves to attract potential readers. Enough people have said that the red H, with all its problems, still gets their attention. I find it very reasonable to say that a tale with a 4.78 rating will draw more readers than one - same length, genre and similar title - with a 3.62 rating.

But, yes, warm comments are the best.

 

[JGittes]

I know where you are coming from and comments are what lights my particular fire, too. Playing the Devil’s Advocate however, a couple of points.

WRT your visiting one of your own stories, yes, I believe you. Is it possible however that that particular stat is not instantly ungraded on this site? It’s no secret that the number of, for example, favourites, varies between different sections of this site at any given time, that one part lags behind. Maybe the numbers only change every so often?

Also, there’s an old saying with some truth to it - no man ever crossed the room at a party to meet a nice personality. To that limited extent, the vote score serves to attract potential readers. Enough people have said that the red H, with all its problems, still gets their attention. I find it very reasonable to say that a tale with a 4.78 rating will draw more readers than one - same length, genre and similar title - with a 3.62 rating.

But, yes, warm comments are the best.

The works section of one's control panel has the most accurate statistics. Like stickygirl, I've seen inconsistencies in the followers, stories, views, and scores on the first-page stats on the actual story. It can take months for the stats to update. I've noticed the same thing with the avatar. It took three weeks for it to post to all my stories when I posted one a few years ago. I assume that stories are posted to different servers that are not synchronized on a consistent schedule. This also leads me to believe that sweeps are not something done to the entire database of stories, again, at least not regularly.

On your second point, the red H, I agree that it is an important message to attract potential readers. Last year I obsessively tracked statistics for all the stories entered in the Valentine's Day and Nude Day contests. (Yes, I have too much time on my hands, and it should be devoted to writing.) The contests provide a good-sized sample of stories (well over a hundred each) with multiple entries in the major categories and a wide range of statistics. There is no 100% correlation between red H and increased views, but it is close. A story with a red H would likely have twice as many views a week after the H was published than stories in the same category without the H.