1'ed out of town

[cymbidia]

Well, damn. I sorta liked my stories being on top, fleeting as it was, and i never expected it to last very long, either. I know how this whole voting thing works.

A few days ago, one of my stories was #1 on the BDSM toplist. The next day, by early afternoon, it was down so low that it's still having a hard time seeing anything but the bottom of the deep blue sea.

Today i had a few stories on top, weirdly enough. They were #1, #2, and #3 on the BDSM list. They've been taking hard hits all day, though, and have died of exposure.

I've read about this whole 1's phenom with sympathy for those frustrated by it. Never having experienced it, however, i didn't know how hollow feeling it can leave the author.

I don't think my stories were *that* bad to *all* deserve being so roundly 1'ed off the BDSM page, were they? Must just be people voting 1's without reading them or people voting 1's in the hope another story they like better will rise to compensate for the fall of my little story. After all, nature abhors a vacuum.

One day on top by some accident of fate and the next day they're all dead as a doornail with wickedly sharpened 1's sticking out all over my poor little stories.

Geeze. It kinda sucks, doesn't it?

 

[circe!]

Me too...

This happens every time w/ my stories. And the other day I had a poem hit the top of the poetry list only to be bombarded w/ low votes and pumult.

circe!

 

[Sateema Lunasi]

I had a couple of stories hit the top of the list and then, wham! They were down like dirt. Don't take it too seriously. It is just people being mentally challenged.

 

[Hecate]

You have my sympathy....

Wanna hear something funny - I put up a How-to thingy about role plays - the first mail I got as anonymous feedback was : Role plays are totally stupid! and my writing was rewarded with a 1.

Now I wonder:
Have I written my "manual" that bad?
Did I say a lot of crap and nobody agrees?

I know this can't be the case, since it has been acknowledged to be usefull many times already - it only is that a person reading it didn't like the subject it was written about.

Maybe that happens to all our stories? At first they attract readers, neutral in regards to your story, interested in the subject as such - they will be likely to like your story and vote it high ... once it is high though, expectations of future readers are raising and thus the "disappointment level" is a lot lower, plus the story will attract readers who usually wouldn't go for that specific subject - and it is more likely they won't like the story as much as the first people to read it... and the stories fall.

It has happened to me and well - I have learned to deal with it (I don't like it though and still it cramps my little fragile author's guts to watch one of my stories slide to the abyss!) ... and "nurture" now on the written feedback I get that usually is all positive and flattering. I still have to accept that there are authors a lot better than me - and that a an average rating above three through all my stories makes me still an "above average" writer. What worth would the voting have for the really really excellent of us if we all got only 4's and 5's? So I will happily take my 3's to make those of you who deserve it as outstanding and appreciated as you deserve to be *s* ... I just wished the 1 and 2 voters would talk to me - or maybe not actually now that I think about it

 

[Deborah]

Cymbidia, I'm not sure what you are complaining about. Sometimes people make statements about these 1 votes without really doing the math.

I'm looking at the Top List for BDSM. You have the top 2 stories and your other stories are above 4.00. What's the beef? I checked out those two stories at the top about a week and a half ago. Reason being I'm working on a BDSM story for the "Survivor" contest and others in various categories and I like to get a "flavor" for what people are writing about. I read your stories because you seem to be some sort of "expert" on this BDSM thing according to your posts on the BB. Your stories now at the top were in the middle of the pack a week and a half ago and have risen significantly in rating since then. Dunno what you are complaining about really.

LOL! When you have a story with 50 plus 1 votes which was in the running for a 2000 award, or you have a story which hits the top of the Top Lists with 5.00 and gets 15 of those 1 votes the next day, or you have stories which would have won the monthly award in their categories in Feb. and Mar. but for 20 plus 1 votes, then I think you got reason to whine, despite what knotty_dude says.

 

[cymbidia]

I beg the pardon of any who read this for what may well be a petty complaint about the 1's.

I honestly didn't mean to offend and realize that there are many Lit writers, really good writers, who have suffered far more grievous blows to their work at the hands of people who misused the voting system. It was not my intent to thrust myself into such a battle-weary group as those who've been through this over and over and had to become accustomed to it. In hindsight, i probably should not have posted and will think twice, and then a third time, about posting anything of a similar nature in the future.

It makes me **very** uncomfortable to know that anyone thinks i've announced myself to be "some sort of 'expert' on this BDSM thing". I, like everyone here, post on topics that interest me, topics on which i may be able to impart a fresh slant, and topics that tickle my funny bone. I'm sometimes right and often wrong but always, i think, open to exploring other perspectives and different attitudes. I try not to pontificate, try not to preach, and try not to be too excessively boring. Should i aviod posting on stuff i feel passionate about to avoid even the appearance of claiming some kind of expertise? What if i *don't* feel that expertise, and certainly don't feel as if i'm claiming it, but do feel like i've got something to say on a topic? Should i post my thoughts then?

The fact of the BDSM matter is that i probably have far more online and real life experience with this subject than do many here. BDSM'ers as a group welcome a chance to educate others as to what the lifestyle is all about. For the first time in history, the net has given us an unparallel opportunity to do some education at little risk to ourselves individually. Of course people like me would avail ourselves of this avenue to dispense popular misconceptions about that which we hold so dear.

(Please know that i'm not a flamer, not a troublemaker, and not one to thrust myself into the limelight just to feel the rays of the light bulbs hitting my body. My questions and comments are seriously intended and not at all sarcastic.)

 

[circe!]

Hi Cymbia

Deborah bludgeons with bluntness; don't let it offend you, hon.

I've found your posts always intelligent and enlightening, particularly on the subject of BDSM (which is certainly an interesting topic). Keep posting as usual, Cymbia.

circe!

 

[circe!]

Yikes!

I see that I've repeatedly misspelled your name!
My apologies.

 

[Ulyssa]

Try this thread

I've dealt with a portion of this problem at

http://www.literotica.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=28185

May I invite all of you to conjure up a particularly appropriate hell for these self-centered morons.

I have set myself up as a target for these idiots but they can say nothing to any of my potential publishers. None of them have purchased a book in so long that it matters not.

 

[Hecate]

I beg the pardon of any who read this for what may well be a petty complaint about the 1's.

......

In hindsight, i probably should not have posted and will think twice, and then a third time, about posting anything of a similar nature in the future.

*chuckles* Not to worry cymbidia - we all vented our 1's frustration in one way or other, but most of us did already a while ago.

As for the expert - what makes an expert? Someone who knows more about a subject than the average other, and I would say that pretty much applies to you in the BDSM case, so keep sharing your thoughts on this and other matters as you(emphasis is on YOU )feel appropriate.

Off I go now tho Ulyssa's thread ... sounds promising *weg*

 

[cymbidia]

You may take your 1 and post it up the oriface of my choice!

Ohhhh, interesting offer! Can i give it a try? Hmmm, how does this thing work, anyway...

(Thanks Lyssa, for the link and my thanks to you too, Hecate, Sateema, and circe!, for your supportive words. Deborah's points were valid, as we all realize. Feel free to misspell my name anytime you like, circe!.)

 

[Madame Pandora]

cymbidia,

My story "Pecan Sandies" in that same list was the top story of March from the day it posted up until a few days ago when I riled a few feathers on the board. Your stories are number 1 & 2, respectively. If I told you what's been done to some of my other stuff (and, I will), it would sound like a JFK conspiracy.

While I support anyone's right to vent, and encourage them to vent LOUDLY, please allow me to inject a slight sliver of reality.

A story with low votes is at the mercy of each one. If you were really being "targeted" your other stories wouldn't be where they are. PLEASE believe me. You probably just had a random asshole.

Deb's point is well taken.

Just like you feel frustrated now, with your few 1s, trust me. Get to the place where KM, Deb, and I have been. Where you've watched long-standing stories plummet. Where the MINUTE you post, your works automatically get shot down, before they can take a first breath.

Prior to this last attack I never had a single story or poem with a LESS than 4.3 rating. MOST of them were considerably higher. 5 had or flirted on and off with Hs (over a 4.5). One was in the top ten. Right now, other than my story which has 513 votes (the last 10 of which took it from a 4.62 to a 4.58) and the one with 172 votes (which has also dropped over a full tenth of a point) one poem (which has also dropped) and the one, newer story, which broke the top 10 and continues to get a few 5s to counteract the onset of 1s (give it a few days) EVERYTHING ELSE of mine is 4.2 or lower. Poems which once had 4.7 averages are now at 4.0 and 4.1 ratings. Stories which held 4.8s & 4.9s before settling into their comfortable 4.6 and 4.4 settings are now at 4.2 (and, likely, still dropping).

I am not bothered so much by the attack. I know it’s worthless. I hate that the idiot is happily clicking away thinking “ha ha ha…can’t catch me.” It irks me. The small satisfaction I take at the sadness of their lives, only mildly infringes upon the fantasies I have of watching them SQUIRM when actually confronted.

I am not saying my situation is worse than yours. I'm not saying you shouldn't vent.

All I'm saying is that when you have stories rated near the top (especially in the same category), your story hasn't suffered so much an assassination as a drive-by shooting.

The bullets still suck all to hell.

MP

 

[cymbidia]

I hate that the idiot is happily clicking away thinking “ha ha ha…can’t catch me.”

I'm feeling gawky and jejune here but it seems, MP, that you're inferring someone is consistently and repetitively voting you 1's day after day, on all your stuff?

I thought that wasn't possible. I thought once you vote, that's it! Game over. No more votes for you on that story.

We can vote as often as we like?
We can vote as often as we like on whatever we want to vote on?

That's certainly not an option for me, on my computer. I get a big frowning sign telling me i've already voted for the story.
You don't get that page?
Your story-assassin doesn't get that page?

Maybe there's some sneaky back door to voting many times for (or against, in the case with some people, i guess) the same submission? There must be...

The scores on our authors log-in page may not even be representative of real readers????????

If that's true, please do NOT tell me how to do it. I don't even want to know.

If it's true, it makes me want to cry for the people who are gripped by such obsession or envy or dislike that they spend their time working that hard in a concentrated effort to hurt someone else.

 

[1musicman]

more of the onesters!

Cymbidia, your stories are pretty good, it would seem that you have a deliciously twisted mind, I would not let the ranking of your stories get into the workings of your head, just keep them coming, there are those of us who want to read them...