JuanSeiszFitzHall
yet another
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2019
- Posts
- 1,027
This is for anyone who thinks long and hard about story ratings (which may depend on whether ‘long’ and ‘hard’ are prominent in the stories, but that’s a different topic). You don’t have to admit that you think this way, you can just read and move on. If all goes well, you might discover that ratings deserve less of your attention.
During a story’s early going, up to maybe 50 votes, here’s a point system that can tell you what’s possible with later votes. I’ll call the key data Poyntz, so it’s always clear when they’re being mentioned. In a story with 23 votes, a perfect score of all 5*s would give the story 115 Poyntz (23 x 5), and the worst possible score would be 23 Poyntz (23 x 1). I don’t know if the latter happens, even in Loving Wives.
To find the Poyntz in a rating between the two extremes, multiply the rating by the number of votes. Because Literotica ratings are rounded to two digits to the right of the decimal point, the multiplication may not give you a whole number. A rating of 4.22 on 23 votes would multiply to 97.06. With such a small number of votes, however, you can round this down to 97 Poyntz. To check your work, divide 97 by 23. The rating is thus shown in more detail, as 4.21739(etc.). This is rounded up to 4.22 in the rating, so let the expanded number serve as a reality check: This story isn’t really, completely, 4.22000.
It’s possible that the author of this story would like the rating to move up to 4.50 or higher, and receive HOT! status. (Possible? Ya think?) The system can show ways for this to happen. 23 is an odd number, so a story with that many votes can’t have a rating of exactly 4.50. With 115 Poyntz at the top (all 5*s), the 4.50 threshold would be slightly more than halfway between the Poyntz for all 4*s, 92 (23 x 4), and 115. That works out to 104. A story with 104 Poyntz on 23 votes would have a rating of 4.52174(etc.), and a Red H.
The author might look at that, and think that their 97-Poynt story doesn’t have far to go to get to the Red H, which appears to be only seven Poyntz higher. But the bar that the story must reach doesn’t stand still. Each new vote raises the bar. The 104 target for 23 votes becomes 108 when the 24th vote is added, because the perfect score rises to 120 and the 4*-average level rises to 96.
A useful, and perhaps depressing, statistic is what I’ll call Poyntz Below Perfect (PBP). Let’s assume that the story has been around long enough for all of the votes to have been reviewed by the site, and found to be legitimate. This 4.22-on-23 story has a PBP of 18, which is what’s left when the story’s 97 Poyntz is subtracted from the perfect 115. If all of the votes are valid, the PBP will never be smaller, and it will almost certainly grow. That’s because any 4* or lower vote will increase the PBP, take the story further from perfect, and add height to the hill that must be climbed to reach Red H.
A way to see this in action is to postulate future votes. If vote 24 is a 5*, the story would get one Poynt closer to the Red H threshold, 102 vs. 108. But even if vote 25 is also a 5*, the story’s 107 Poyntz would still be six below the threshold’s 113. As implied earlier, an even number of votes can get Red H at a rating of 4.50, but an odd number needs to get slightly above. In the case of 25 votes, there are no ratings between 4.48 and 4.52.
Continuing this wish list of future 5*s will show that each new 5* in a streak gets a story half a Poynt closer to Red H. Ten 5*s in a row, therefore, gets it five Poyntz closer. In this case, that would be 147 Poyntz for the story, and 149 for the threshold. Yes, even this great run would leave the story below Red H, with a rating of 4.4545(etc.) on 33 votes.
The harsh reality is shown by the PBP, which is still 18, even with all these new 5*s. One can cut to the chase by noting that 4.50 exists exactly halfway between 4 and 5. If the PBP is 18, the story can get to Red H only if the Poyntz Above Four-Average (yep, that’s PAFA) is 18 or more. For the 4.22-on-23 story, the PAFA is five. The fact is, the earliest that the story in question can get to Red H is with twice as many votes as the PBP. In this case, that’s the 36th vote. And this is only going to happen if all of the thirteen votes after the 23rd are 5*s.
And that’s not just this case. Multiply any story’s PBP by two, and the result is the minimum number of votes it must have to gain HOT! status. And, this being reality, the PBP is going to grow, every time there’s a legitimate vote of 4* or lower. This raises the vote minimum for Red H.
Well, that’s math for ya. Math don’t care, but at least its indifference applies equally to everyone. Someone with a 4.22-on-23 story shouldn’t obsess on the story ever becoming HOT! Yes, if the author’s stories routinely get 100-plus votes, Red H might arrive eventually, but it would take a while. Gratification would be delayed.
Math also tells us that this story has been given at least seven 5*s, and probably more. If one can look at it calmly, 4.22 is a pretty good rating, and the story was enjoyed by several Lit readers (probably including many who didn’t vote). Which is the best thought for the author? ‘Can that story get to Red H?’ Or ‘Job well done, time to write the next one.’
It’s only fair for me to show the stories and ratings of my own obsession:
https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=5116173&page=submissions
During a story’s early going, up to maybe 50 votes, here’s a point system that can tell you what’s possible with later votes. I’ll call the key data Poyntz, so it’s always clear when they’re being mentioned. In a story with 23 votes, a perfect score of all 5*s would give the story 115 Poyntz (23 x 5), and the worst possible score would be 23 Poyntz (23 x 1). I don’t know if the latter happens, even in Loving Wives.
To find the Poyntz in a rating between the two extremes, multiply the rating by the number of votes. Because Literotica ratings are rounded to two digits to the right of the decimal point, the multiplication may not give you a whole number. A rating of 4.22 on 23 votes would multiply to 97.06. With such a small number of votes, however, you can round this down to 97 Poyntz. To check your work, divide 97 by 23. The rating is thus shown in more detail, as 4.21739(etc.). This is rounded up to 4.22 in the rating, so let the expanded number serve as a reality check: This story isn’t really, completely, 4.22000.
It’s possible that the author of this story would like the rating to move up to 4.50 or higher, and receive HOT! status. (Possible? Ya think?) The system can show ways for this to happen. 23 is an odd number, so a story with that many votes can’t have a rating of exactly 4.50. With 115 Poyntz at the top (all 5*s), the 4.50 threshold would be slightly more than halfway between the Poyntz for all 4*s, 92 (23 x 4), and 115. That works out to 104. A story with 104 Poyntz on 23 votes would have a rating of 4.52174(etc.), and a Red H.
The author might look at that, and think that their 97-Poynt story doesn’t have far to go to get to the Red H, which appears to be only seven Poyntz higher. But the bar that the story must reach doesn’t stand still. Each new vote raises the bar. The 104 target for 23 votes becomes 108 when the 24th vote is added, because the perfect score rises to 120 and the 4*-average level rises to 96.
A useful, and perhaps depressing, statistic is what I’ll call Poyntz Below Perfect (PBP). Let’s assume that the story has been around long enough for all of the votes to have been reviewed by the site, and found to be legitimate. This 4.22-on-23 story has a PBP of 18, which is what’s left when the story’s 97 Poyntz is subtracted from the perfect 115. If all of the votes are valid, the PBP will never be smaller, and it will almost certainly grow. That’s because any 4* or lower vote will increase the PBP, take the story further from perfect, and add height to the hill that must be climbed to reach Red H.
A way to see this in action is to postulate future votes. If vote 24 is a 5*, the story would get one Poynt closer to the Red H threshold, 102 vs. 108. But even if vote 25 is also a 5*, the story’s 107 Poyntz would still be six below the threshold’s 113. As implied earlier, an even number of votes can get Red H at a rating of 4.50, but an odd number needs to get slightly above. In the case of 25 votes, there are no ratings between 4.48 and 4.52.
Continuing this wish list of future 5*s will show that each new 5* in a streak gets a story half a Poynt closer to Red H. Ten 5*s in a row, therefore, gets it five Poyntz closer. In this case, that would be 147 Poyntz for the story, and 149 for the threshold. Yes, even this great run would leave the story below Red H, with a rating of 4.4545(etc.) on 33 votes.
The harsh reality is shown by the PBP, which is still 18, even with all these new 5*s. One can cut to the chase by noting that 4.50 exists exactly halfway between 4 and 5. If the PBP is 18, the story can get to Red H only if the Poyntz Above Four-Average (yep, that’s PAFA) is 18 or more. For the 4.22-on-23 story, the PAFA is five. The fact is, the earliest that the story in question can get to Red H is with twice as many votes as the PBP. In this case, that’s the 36th vote. And this is only going to happen if all of the thirteen votes after the 23rd are 5*s.
And that’s not just this case. Multiply any story’s PBP by two, and the result is the minimum number of votes it must have to gain HOT! status. And, this being reality, the PBP is going to grow, every time there’s a legitimate vote of 4* or lower. This raises the vote minimum for Red H.
Well, that’s math for ya. Math don’t care, but at least its indifference applies equally to everyone. Someone with a 4.22-on-23 story shouldn’t obsess on the story ever becoming HOT! Yes, if the author’s stories routinely get 100-plus votes, Red H might arrive eventually, but it would take a while. Gratification would be delayed.
Math also tells us that this story has been given at least seven 5*s, and probably more. If one can look at it calmly, 4.22 is a pretty good rating, and the story was enjoyed by several Lit readers (probably including many who didn’t vote). Which is the best thought for the author? ‘Can that story get to Red H?’ Or ‘Job well done, time to write the next one.’
It’s only fair for me to show the stories and ratings of my own obsession:
https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=5116173&page=submissions
