VOTING - The Right Way & The Wrong Way

neonlyte

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The Question about Voting thread provided a possible answer - so I looked around.

If you PC before you VOTE (at the bottom of the story) it is the PC VOTE that counts.

This little known quirk is confirmed in FAQ's. It is very easy to forget to shift the 'thermometer' when writing a PC, or, as more than one person has pointed out, leave it at 50% because they didn't think PC votes counted.

VOTE FIRST then PC

I've been guilty of making this error myself, apology to anyone who feels they may have suffered.

From FAQ's

At the bottom of some stories, I see the words "You can leave a public comment on this submission!" What does this mean?

This section is called the Public Comment Board. This is a place for you to leave public feedback on submissions, and to read other readers' opinions. Anything you type here will be posted beneath the submission for everyone to see. If you want to leave private feedback for the author, you can either use the Anonymous Feedback link at the end of the submission or the link at the top of the author's profile.

Authors can choose to activate or deactivate the Public Comment Board on their work. Comments are expected to be free of spam and to relate to the story. If you see an inappropriate or off-topic comment, you can use the "Report This Comment" link to bring it to our attention. Remember: these authors are sharing their work with you at no charge. Be respectful.

You must give a rating to the story to leave a comment. If you have voted on the submission previously, then the vote you leave with the comment will not count toward the submission's total.

By inference, which ever is the first recorded vote (direct vote or PC vote), that is the one that counts.
 
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I know you have your facts together and don't want to confuse the issue, but the final chapter of my story just came out. The first three people made public comments (my stats confirmed it). Two gave me 100%, the third gave me 75%. An hour later, I had 12 total votes (still three public comments) and my score was still at 5.0. Maybe the PC doesn't get counted by the computer until later, maybe the guy voted a 5, then posted a comment, who knows? I just wanted to mention it.

....S-Des
 
So that little thermometer does something, is that what you're telling me?

But how do they average THAT out, since it's a 4 slot (25-50-75-100) system and the regular one is 1-2-3-4-5? weird...
 
SelenaKittyn said:
So that little thermometer does something, is that what you're telling me?

But how do they average THAT out, since it's a 4 slot (25-50-75-100) system and the regular one is 1-2-3-4-5? weird...

That appears to be what the FAQ implies - the thermometer runs 0-25-50-75-100, I guess corresponding to 1-2-3-4-5.

I'm sure few know the voting works like this - the conventional view has always been PC votes counted for nothing.
 
I thought PC voting did count for nothing, and I agree, it is easy to forget to set it.

And there is the vote, right there linked to your name.

I probably owe a lot of you my apologies.
 
I am going to speculate here (Danger!) that the FAQ is wrong, for reasons noted above. I've noticed that for all its virtues Lit is a little bit sloppy in the clarity of some of its titling and intructions. In places it gives the sense of something that was a huge job to do once, that someone nosegrinded through to just get it done without the level of attention to fine detail that a more leisurely approach would generate, and then never went back to "clean up."
 
neonlyte said:
That appears to be what the FAQ implies - the thermometer runs 0-25-50-75-100, I guess corresponding to 1-2-3-4-5.

I'm sure few know the voting works like this - the conventional view has always been PC votes counted for nothing.


oh, duh... forgot about "0" :)

interesting info...
 
Roxanne Appleby said:
I am going to speculate here (Danger!) that the FAQ is wrong, for reasons noted above. I've noticed that for all its virtues Lit is a little bit sloppy in the clarity of some of its titling and intructions. In places it gives the sense of something that was a huge job to do once, that someone nosegrinded through to just get it done without the level of attention to fine detail that a more leisurely approach would generate, and then never went back to "clean up."

Right to speculate... however. I just tested this on one of my own stories that no one has voted on for several days. Voted through the PC - the vote and accompanying PC registered immediately.

If anything has been tweaked, it may have been done recently, there was a time when PC's did not register immediately, this no longer seems to be the case.
 
Thanks for the research, neon. Good to know.

No one needs to worry about my votes. I always vote before I PC.
 
I've always thought the PC thermometer worked as a vote. When I leave a comment that IS my vote, I haven't ever done both on a story. I hope like hell that's right, 'cause if it isn't then I have never voted for anyone in a contest. :eek:
 
angelicminx said:
I've always thought the PC thermometer worked as a vote. When I leave a comment that IS my vote, I haven't ever done both on a story. I hope like hell that's right, 'cause if it isn't then I have never voted for anyone in a contest. :eek:

It appears both ways register a vote, but only the first vote counts. The problem arises when you PC first and forget to set the thermometer... which I know I (and a number of others) have been guilty of doing :eek:

Your votes always count :D
 
I always set it at 100, actually, but I vote first, so I guess it doesn't matter... :eek:
 
I've never understood the relationship between the two, assumed there was one, and -- just by accident -- have been doing it right.

So call me anal. :rolleyes:

Actually, when I opened the thread I thought the instructions were going to suggest that people actually READ the story before voting ... I've suspected for a while that some folk vote more for/against the author than the story, and recently overheard a comment in another thread that confirmed my suspicion in at least that one case.

And of course the general "readership" (the ones who total up about 12,000 "views" to maybe a hundred votes), who the hell has a clue what they do while they're there?

ST
 
If that's true....

Considering the number of people that delete all but the most glowing of PCs, I do hope they set it up so the votes from the thermometers aren't deleted along with them. :rolleyes:
 
minsue said:
Considering the number of people that delete all but the most glowing of PCs, I do hope they set it up so the votes from the thermometers aren't deleted along with them. :rolleyes:

Interesting thought. I tested it on the PC/Vote I made on the 'turkey' (sic) second in my sig. The PC was deleted immediately, but not the vote.
 
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