Earlier this afternoon, eight of my stories received 2-star and 3-star votes in three hours or so. That's over 70K words. Do people speed read on this site, and persist with a series like that? (I mean, after a couple of 2 stars, why even bother reading any more?)
A new fan?
- Thread starter qidniz
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ElectricBlue
Somewhat Nostalgic
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You might have a troll, unfortunately. I'm surprised to see that in your category of choice; my first thought was, you write in LW. You've possibly upset a purist of some sort.
You could ask for a private sweep, if you think the evidence is strong, or wait for the next Contest sweep, which should capture dodgy votes. It's part of the territory, unfortunately.
AwkwardlySet
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It could be a forum troll too. Forum activity spurs all kinds of reactions. Sometimes we forget that aside from the dozen or so people participating in a thread, there are likely hundreds who read the posts.
ElectricBlue
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I make no distinction. A troll is a troll, regardless where they come from. It's unfortunate @qidniz has attracted attention, there's no reason from their AH posts why they would. I don't know what they get up to in other forums though, but does a troll ever need a reason?
Looks like it, yes. I don't know if they left a comment anywhere, as that would be delayed by moderation. If nothing shows up in a few days, then the conclusion would be strengthened.
I don't know how I could ask for a private sweep. What I did do was to "report" the last in the series and mention all of them. Hopefully that catches someone's attention.
I had downloaded the stats this morning, before stepping out for several hours. By chance I checked my Works page about 3.5 hours later when I got back home and saw that ratings had fallen across the board. I've never seen that before (either that many votes in a short period, or all uniformly poor, against the grain.) I've tried to avoid The Evil Eye by not drawing attention to my stories, but it looks like I failed...
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ElectricBlue
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Trolls tend to be silent under bridge dwellers, mostly, enabled by their own rage. In LW they'd leave a comment, but in I/T, maybe not.
Others know that category far better than I do (paging @SimonDoom) - apparently anal sex with mom is a no-no. I dread to think what your family members got up to, that you've upset some one so badly.
That should do it, yes.
The alternative is a PM to Laurel, but reporting the story is possibly more effective.
That's a real bummer. Commiserations. Maybe it's time for a new category, just sayin'.
SimonDoom
Kink Lord
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It's a bummer to see that kind of behavior, but there's no way to tell for sure what explains it. I/T readers can be "purists," as others have pointed out. I had a reader strenuously object when mom touched her anus in one story. I just shook my head at that.
The good news is that your scores are high for this category. Incest, in general, gets a lot of views, but not the highest scores. You have complimentary comments.
The good news is that your scores are high for this category. Incest, in general, gets a lot of views, but not the highest scores. You have complimentary comments.
Katie_Mae
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Agree. There was a person who used to follow me around the forum picking on me. Every time they did so, my catalogue got 1 bombed. It's far more likely (to me) that each time it was a different reader of our posts, rather than the same person figuring out how to do multiple votes on my stories, but only doing it each time we interacted.
Another time I had 10 2 votes placed on one story, which seemed a more obvious case of one single troll's work. (Not saying 2 start votes are not valid, just placing 10 on a single story shows troll rather than genuine reader)
I did nothing about it and noticed that 9 of the 2 votes get swept in the next sweep, which supports one troll rather than 10 genuine readers in that instance.
Voboy
Sometime Wordwright
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SimonDoom
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I've wondered about this. It strikes me as strange that people would lurk here silently and want to read what we have to say without contributing. On the other hand, there's plenty of strange here.
To paraphrase Hunter Thompson, "When the going gets strange, the strange turn troll."
I have a couple installments left to complete the series. Then I'll re-evaluate. Though I'm led to wonder: are trolls specific to categories or to authors?
Voboy
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The scores are decent, yes, but none of them crack the top 100 in any of the lists. (The one that did, briefly, was promptly 1-bombed: it didn't have enough votes to make the impact less than catastrophic.) I'm in the middle of the bell curve, which is why I find acquiring a dedicated troll (if that's what has happened) quite strange.
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SimonDoom
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It's incredibly annoying, but it's something many of us deal with. I've had plenty of 1 bombs, although I've never been able to determine whether I have a dedicated troll or not.
It helps to have stories in the toplists, but it isn't necessary. Very few of my stories have ever been in the toplists, but I've done fine. People continue to read and comment on my stories, usually, but not always, favorably. Just keep writing, build a following, and do your best (not always easy) to ignore the trolls.
Given some of the other stories I've seen in the category, my stuff is definitely on the tame side. The series is basically a sibling romance. Maybe that's a no-no too?
Katie_Mae
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Both, I believe.
You used to be able to see votes as they came through on the new lists. Sometimes I'd be online just after stories were posted and I'd see, in my category (r/nc) someone go through and 1 start every story in very quick succession. That was a category troll.
Shortly after I post a new story I usually get two 1 stars. I suspect (but no way of knowing) one is that category troll, and maybe one other is a personal troll, but really who knows.
Incest is like r/nc, something wrong and harmful irl, so it makes sense just posting in that category would incite people. They don't read your story so it doesn't matter how mild it is.
People will read a story about a fairy princess and an orc king forced to marry for the safety of their two kingdoms. Eventually they fall in love, but not until after they are married. If that story is in sci-fi/fantasy, the r/nc one bomber won't bomb it, but if you put it in r/nc they will. It's not the subject matter of your story, it's the idea of what they think your kink is.
If people want to spend time doing that, then that's up to them. I'm sure I have followers who 5 star my stuff without reading it too, so it all balances out. I think most stories here are rated higher than they objectively deserve, I know mine are.
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