HectorBidon
Should know better
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2010
- Posts
- 435
The intent of the red H is to indicate how well a story is perceived across the entire readership. If everyone voted honestly, then a story scoring > 4.5 would mean that more than half of the raters "loved" it and found it to be "one of the best!" That would indeed be worthy of acclaim—if everyone voted honestly. The problem is that people's votes are distorted by the knowledge that their vote will affect whether the story gets its H or not. People are less inclined to give 4s to stories that really deserve them and more inclined to give 5s to stories that don't.
Another way to measure a story's popularity is by its ranking within its category. Alongside a story's score, the site could show its percentile rank. For example, a 4% rank would mean that the story is in the top 4% of its category.
To see how this might play out, I figured out the percentile ranks for some of my stories. (You can do this on the Search Stories page. You can sort all the stories in a given category by score and then find where your story ranks. It's a bit tedious sifting through all the pages to find a particular story, but it can be done.)
My highest rated story is a 4.77 in First Time. It turns out to be the 136th highest rated story out of 7982 in the category, which means it's in the top 2%. Zowie!
My second highest rated story is a 4.70 in Romance. It ranks 4478 out of 18608, giving it a percentile rank of 24%. Not spectacular, but not bad.
I have another story hovering at 4.48 in Romance. It ranks 10111 out of 18608 for a percentile rank of 54%. Hmmm.
My worst-rated story is a 3.7 in E&V. It ranks 21161 out of 22626, for a percentile rank of 93% (i.e., the bottom 8%). Yikes!
To get a broader view, I figured out the distributions for some of the categories. This table shows the scores that correspond to the indicated percentile ranks in different categories. For example, the top 1% of stories in Sci-Fi Fantasy have scores at or above 4.91, and the top 50% have scores at or above 4.58. (The precise cutoffs would require more than two significant digits, which are not available on the search page. Also, note that this analysis lumps stand-alone and chapter stories all in together.)
[tr][td].[/td][td].[/td][td]
What this shows is that most stories on the site are rated fairly high. More than half the stories in every category score above 4 stars. In most categories, more than three quarters do. In Romance and Sci-Fi Fantasy, more than half the stories get a red H. In many other categories more than a quarter do. Only in Loving Wives is the red H given to only the top 5% or so.
Would I like the site to show percentile ranks? Maybe. As an author it's neat to see that one of my stories is a top 2%er. On the other hand, it's embarrassing to have everyone see that another of my stories is a bottom 8%er. Mostly, I guess, it's sobering to see that most of my stories are pretty much just in the middle of the pack.
As a reader? Would it be easier to judge a story's hotness from its percentile ranking than from its score alone? Hard to say. I would still probably mostly choose stories based on title and blurb, but the percentile ranking would supply marginally useful information.
Another way to measure a story's popularity is by its ranking within its category. Alongside a story's score, the site could show its percentile rank. For example, a 4% rank would mean that the story is in the top 4% of its category.
To see how this might play out, I figured out the percentile ranks for some of my stories. (You can do this on the Search Stories page. You can sort all the stories in a given category by score and then find where your story ranks. It's a bit tedious sifting through all the pages to find a particular story, but it can be done.)
My highest rated story is a 4.77 in First Time. It turns out to be the 136th highest rated story out of 7982 in the category, which means it's in the top 2%. Zowie!
My second highest rated story is a 4.70 in Romance. It ranks 4478 out of 18608, giving it a percentile rank of 24%. Not spectacular, but not bad.
I have another story hovering at 4.48 in Romance. It ranks 10111 out of 18608 for a percentile rank of 54%. Hmmm.
My worst-rated story is a 3.7 in E&V. It ranks 21161 out of 22626, for a percentile rank of 93% (i.e., the bottom 8%). Yikes!
To get a broader view, I figured out the distributions for some of the categories. This table shows the scores that correspond to the indicated percentile ranks in different categories. For example, the top 1% of stories in Sci-Fi Fantasy have scores at or above 4.91, and the top 50% have scores at or above 4.58. (The precise cutoffs would require more than two significant digits, which are not available on the search page. Also, note that this analysis lumps stand-alone and chapter stories all in together.)
What this shows is that most stories on the site are rated fairly high. More than half the stories in every category score above 4 stars. In most categories, more than three quarters do. In Romance and Sci-Fi Fantasy, more than half the stories get a red H. In many other categories more than a quarter do. Only in Loving Wives is the red H given to only the top 5% or so.
Would I like the site to show percentile ranks? Maybe. As an author it's neat to see that one of my stories is a top 2%er. On the other hand, it's embarrassing to have everyone see that another of my stories is a bottom 8%er. Mostly, I guess, it's sobering to see that most of my stories are pretty much just in the middle of the pack.
As a reader? Would it be easier to judge a story's hotness from its percentile ranking than from its score alone? Hard to say. I would still probably mostly choose stories based on title and blurb, but the percentile ranking would supply marginally useful information.
