A deliberate "1"

[davekoko2005]

Have any authors had problem with a "1" vote just to put down the story and get it rated out of the "Top" list into obscurity?

I had 14 consecutive "5's", for, of course a "5" average. Then along comes a "1" vote which knocked it to an averae of 4.73 and out of the "top" list altogether. A "4".. even a "3", I could understand; but a "1".. go figure. He /she made a comment of spelling and mentioned only one misspell, out of 4 pages (Peaked for piqued).

I have a hunch that it was another author who wanted to deliberately knock this story down in order to raise his/her's up. I have had this trouble in another site.

THe story in question is: "AN ONLINE RELATIONSHIP". in Romance section. Author: Davekoko2005. If anyone wants to look it up: under "A", page 6, or under authors: as above.

Your comments would be welcomed. Here, in PM or in Email.
Davekoko2005

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Yeah. You got one-bombed, also known as "trolled". It happens to most people who have top-rated stories, and yes, it was done deliberately to knock you out of the top spot. It's part of the cost of doing business here.

There are a lot of people who know how to run this system to rig votes, and they use it. If you want to see some fun, submit a story to one of the contests. Your story will be doing well right up until the deadline and then suddenly it'll get peppered with ones.

For what it's worth, the webmasters do go through the stories every so often and remove the spurious one-votes. And if your story stays popular enough, in time the honest votes will bring the score more in line with where it was.

Be aware too, though, that new stories usually score high for the first few days they're up, and then scores usually start drifting a little lower.

 

[JamesSD]

Minor disagreement

Be aware too, though, that new stories usually score high for the first few days they're up, and then scores usually start drifting a little lower.

You summarized 1 votes far more eloquently than I would have. However I actually disagree on this point, at least from personal experience.
All my stories have posted their lowest score on the first day and then moved up a bit (magnitude of .02-.1 or so). I've noticed this effect is exaggerated within the first few hours and first few votes. I have a few theories on the cause of this, the most likely being there are a couple tough customers who read everything that comes out when it is new.
Of course, you get the most reads and most votes per read during the first few days, and the majority of those in that first day.

My experience with mature story score drift may be different than yours Dr. because I think you have a few more stories on "top" lists. My one story that made it to the first page of a category sunk down a bit shortly thereafter.

 

[msboy8]

Well, just throwing my 3 cents in (inflation).

1. Do you write for yourself or others?

2. Obivously you care about what others think because you Want to be on a top list.

3. I've been bombed by trolls before and while it may be discouraging, at least people are reading (hopefully) and voting. It doesn't really matter in any case, I like to please people, including writing story requests, but I write for me. If you turn on the voting, you have to live with the results.

 

[Virtuallee]

A Deliberate "1"

Dave, the previous comments to your concern are absolute truth. I've submitted to literotica only since December 2004, but immediately became aware of the 'many' arbitrary reasons why readers assign a 'deliberate 1' to authors material. I only add this comment. Don't complain too much, as your irritation becomes fodder that trolls feed off, and unscrupulous authors also home in on your work to see if it actually threatens their own ratings. If you're a person who places too much emphasis on ratings, you'll be discouraged when your material's ratings go 'down in a puff of smoke.' Write for yourself, and don't use literotica's ratings to validate your stories quality. Readers here are an unknown element--who knows what their agendas are? I took the advice that another author suggested. The material that I'd actually like serious input, comments, or ratings on was/is submitted under another name. The Virtuallee nick is used for material which I know may inflame the bigots, idiots, etc., and I don't care (or am simply curious to see) how their reaction is reflected in the story's rating.

 

[davekoko2005]

Thanks to all who responded.

I admit, I do want a lot of readers. I have written stories for myself, and those are not submitted.

My story so far, as had 17 votes. 16 were "5's", and that one "deliberate "1"; that gives me a rating of 4.76 and in the romance category, knocks it out of the top 7 pages (the lowest score there is 4.77) , and therefore into obscurity. I will live with that and not complain too much but it sure does irritate the hell out of me.

Thank you all for your comments, and I didn't know it had a name.. "Troll"..

Dave

 

[JamesSD]

I admit, I do want a lot of readers. I have written stories for myself, and those are not submitted.

My story so far, as had 17 votes. 16 were "5's", and that one "deliberate "1"; that gives me a rating of 4.76 and in the romance category, knocks it out of the top 7 pages (the lowest score there is 4.77) , and therefore into obscurity. I will live with that and not complain too much but it sure does irritate the hell out of me.

Thank you all for your comments, and I didn't know it had a name.. "Troll"..

Dave

If you want more readers, submit more stories. Your older stories will get a "bump" in readership from people who enjoy your newer submissions.
I've also noticed as I write and submit more I worry a bit less about the score on any given story. It's nice to know that people are finishing it and enjoying it, and also to get a sense of what "works" for your readers. Generally I can agree with, or at least understand the scores of my stories, especially relative to each other.
I still do watch the scores on that first day when the majority of reads and votes come in though.

 

[msboy8]

If you want more readers, submit more stories. Your older stories will get a "bump" in readership from people who enjoy your newer submissions.
I've also noticed as I write and submit more I worry a bit less about the score on any given story. It's nice to know that people are finishing it and enjoying it, and also to get a sense of what "works" for your readers. Generally I can agree with, or at least understand the scores of my stories, especially relative to each other.
I still do watch the scores on that first day when the majority of reads and votes come in though.

What James said is true, unless you're a 'Mediocre' writer like me. I don't know where the nickname "troll' came from, but the original Dungeons and Dragons text decribed trolls are "thin, loathsome and rubbery". I think that description fits for those who Anonymously '1' bomb authors. 'Nuff said.

 

[DJHyrrikhayne]

I personally don't write so much for the ratings as I do to get feedback on my work. What does bother me, though, is when people criticize something that has nothing to do with the story itself. For instance, I got a feedback message today from a writer who gave my story a '1' because I ended it with 'TBC' without mentioning that it was the first part in a series. The mystifying thing about that is, he made it all the way to the end, so he must have enjoyed it to get that far! The story I'm talking about is 'A Soul Unraveled,' and you can get to my submissions by the link in my siggy.

As far as the score on that story goes, it's still sitting just above 4, which suits me just fine; as long as none of my works drop below 3.5, I'm happy

One last thing: the feedback was sent anonymously.

 

[Halo_n_horns]

Pardon my ignorance here, but I'm not even sure how to tell what the vote numbers are aside from seeing what the total tally is. But otherwise, I'm pretty positive that I have, and probably everyone has gotten this also at some point.

That's just the immaturity of those individuals. It's right up there with negative "Anonymous Feedback" in terms of gutless wonders.

Now I'm sure that some big baby will go bomb my stuff for saying this.

 

[JamesSD]

Me too

Pardon my ignorance here, but I'm not even sure how to tell what the vote numbers are aside from seeing what the total tally is.

I'm in the same boat here. I can do the math if it is one vote knocking a score down, but I am not aware of an individual vote tally.
Still, I can see where if you recieved a "zero" feedback and saw the score drop a bit you could put two and two together.

 

[davekoko2005]

The votes and the "dreaded '1' "

spelling!!
05/10/05 by Anonymous
I WISH people would diffrentiate between "peaked" and "piqued". It is NOT "peaked my interest"!

 

[davekoko2005]

more..

This was the anonymous comment that was connected to the "1" vote.

spelling!!
05/10/05 by Anonymous
I WISH people would diffrentiate between "peaked" and "piqued". It is NOT "peaked my interest"!

And was accompanied by the "deliberate "1" vote.

And was accompanied by the "deliberate "1" vote.
With regard to the votes and tally, mine was easy to figure out. I had received 14 "5's" and then that "1" vote. The significance was that it knocked my story out of the top 7 pages in "Romance" category. The readership fell from 200-250 hits per day to 0-3 hits per day.

Again, I thank all of you who have taken time to post your replies.

 

[DJHyrrikhayne]

Here's mine:

"I HATE stories that end with "To be continued" or in some other way indicate, at the end, that this is only the first chapter without informing the readers of this important fact BEFORE they open the fucking thing. I hate it so much that, after years of putting up with this shit, I decided that all such stories get an automatic rating of one (1). Since it is obvious that you don't give a fuck about the readers nor your own story, you have no right to be pissed about this."

Not only does my generous commenter show a lack of balls by posting anon, his immensely small vocabulary is also put at the fore by using such foul language. But again, like I said earlier, he mentioned NOTHING about the story itself!

 

[Boxlicker101]

spelling!!
05/10/05 by Anonymous
I WISH people would diffrentiate between "peaked" and "piqued". It is NOT "peaked my interest"!

Actually, it could be "peaked my interest", depending on context. If somebody had a low level of interest in something, and something happened to increase it drastically, or "peak" it, you could say the event "peaked my interest" in whatever it was.

 

[davekoko2005]

thank you, Boxlicker

Thank you and all the others for your support. Even though it changes nothing, I sure do feel a lot better about it.

Dave

 

[Dinsmore]

Anon reviews and stupid, 'reviews'

I have written a few pieces with a, romantic theme or ending, and then someone dings me because I write a little pure, recreational smut---or one of the characters is a jerk or an ass hole.

"Where was the romance? Oh, gee, he was just using her for sex, that's not very nice! She's a bitch. Oh my God, she cheated on her nice husband, that's not a very good story." and on and on.

Today, I posted a story with this warning, to discourage those readers who are put off by unprotected, unmarried kinky and nasty sex.

This is a nasty story. There’s no love, no romance and little tenderness. The participants do not, ‘make love’---they fuck. They do it in every orifice; there’s ATM and fucking during menstruation. There is no BDSM, but the sex is not gentle---be warned.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I have written a few pieces with a, romantic theme or ending, and then someone dings me because I write a little pure, recreational smut---or one of the characters is a jerk or an ass hole.

"Where was the romance? Oh, gee, he was just using her for sex, that's not very nice! She's a bitch. Oh my God, she cheated on her nice husband, that's not a very good story." and on and on.

Today, I posted a story with this warning, to discourage those readers who are put off by unprotected, unmarried kinky and nasty sex.

This is a nasty story. There’s no love, no romance and little tenderness. The participants do not, ‘make love’---they fuck. They do it in every orifice; there’s ATM and fucking during menstruation. There is no BDSM, but the sex is not gentle---be warned.

This is fairly common, that somebody will take offense at a man who forces his stepdaughter to have sex with him or an employer sexually harasses a female employee or a woman cheats on her husband or something else along those lines. I take it as a compliment that somebody gets pissed off at a character.

 

[karebeargirl]

Yes it happens to most of us I suspect

I too have had it happen, as others have posted it's the price of posting your work on this site. I mainly care about what comments I get posted here and pretty much chalk up the "1" bombs as jealousy and fear the authors work.

But I have to admit that while I do want honest criticism not petty childishness it does dig at me a bit. I can certainly empathize with ya though.

 

[Slickman]

Trolls do piss you off...

I've faced similar problems with my stories reaching the top and after the voting settles to see it drop and drop. The Lit folks do try to keep an eye on this if you tell them but after a while you just give it up and go on doing what you like to do. I've had emails from readers who have said they give me "1s" because I forgot to tell them there are more chapters. Whatever....If you don't like to read my stories then don't open them next time.

However, the majority of the readers are great and give me bunches of support. They are what keeps me writing....Take care...I love you all....Slickman

 

[JamesSD]

I'm fairly sure

I'm thinking there's at least one person systematically 1-bombing new stories right now.
"Hot" percentages are down across the board this past week, significantly. My two new stories have had a small enough number of votes that I noticed almost exactly when the 1 came in.
Yeah, you live with it and move on, and pay more attention to the feedback. It still can be frustrating.

 

[~hellbaby~]

A few days ago my story went from 4.91 down to 4.62 in one vote, without any comment. Another went down today the same way,seems like someone doesn't like stories getting to high for sure. I turned the voting off.

 

[Boxlicker101]

A few days ago my story went from 4.91 down to 4.62 in one vote, without any comment. Another went down today the same way,seems like someone doesn't like stories getting to high for sure. I turned the voting off.

When you have a story with a high ranking, such as 4.91, after it reaches ten votes, you can almost count on at least one troll hitting it with a one-bomb. It could be somebody who is envious or just nasty or it cold be somebody else who has one of the top ranked stories on that list and wants to hurt the competition. It works well, too. If you have ten votes, all fives, and a troll sees that and dops a one-bomb, the average falls to 4.64 for eleven votes, which is not bad but also not usually one of the top ranked stories. If you get thirty more votes. each one of five, your ranking will be up to 4.90 for 41 votes. That's how much a single one-bomb can do.

 

[silverwhisper]

i'm sure it's been discussed previously but i have to ask: is anonymous voting a desirable thing?

ed

 

[JamesSD]

i'm sure it's been discussed previously but i have to ask: is anonymous voting a desirable thing?

ed

Wow that's a big can of worms.
My short answer is probably. Non-anonymous voting would require registration, so that would cut voting by a good bit.
I also think you'd also see people less willing to give out honest 4 votes. Fear of retribution, just not wanting to seem mean, etc. Alternately you could see people creating "voting alts".
Really I think the problem is just that not enough readers vote. Laziness and apathy aside, you could argue low vote rates are partly because on this site a 4 is basically a negative vote. I know I've had more than one story that I read that I couldn't justify giving it a 5, but wasn't about to slap it with a 4 and hurt its score.
Mostly my experience has been that the more votes a story has, the more "accurate" its score, since the majority, who vote fairly, outweigh those trying to manipulate the system. It's a good system overall, but it does have minor flaws.