alternate accounts, and going for ratings

[Pocketshaver]

Whats the point really here guys, really.

Yeah you have a story that you THINK your typical audience may not like at all, or as much as your standard offerings. Perhaps its a different genre.. who can really say if your standard offering of incest or cheating wife stories will manage to survive if you write something really nice like a romance.

SO you toss up a fake account and put that story online.

Why though?


Why the hell does anyone seem to only write for the ratings here? Far to many posts from first timers here asking the age old "what story section will give me the best possible ratings".

Why not just write a decent story and toss it up under your own name and see what the readers say? A lot of the one off stories seem to be more enjoyable then what the regular offerings are.

Case in point, ChloeTzang. found her after I did an email to a writer who wrote a story I liked, it was good. She popped up as the responder who said it was done to get it out, and not screw with her regular offerings. Ironically I find that one off story far better then what shes posted under her own name.

Sure not pissing off you regular readers political views, however absurd they are, with some REAL and decent.... gah horrid

 

[LexxRuthless]

To be fair, I feel like a chickenshit sometimes. I have completely avoided posting anything to LW just because of the caustic community. Some of my regular readers have reached out to request a story from me for that topic, and my answer is always along the same lines.

"I don't want to go there. That community is awful. The trolls from LW will actively go after my other stories and bomb them--not because they think I am a bad author, but merely because they are against whatever premise my story seems to support. Whether there are repercussions for the cheating wife or not, it will piss some of these people off."

Likewise, I have cultivated a certain "brand" of stories on my LexxRuthless account. I have written other stories that I haven't posted at all because they don't fit with the rest of my stuff, or because I know that they will be rejected by the site due to content.

The only reason I haven't set up an alt to post some of that stuff is that, unlike Chloe, I am just too lazy.

 

[oggbashan]

I have an alternate Author account: jeanne_d_artois

I originally created that account to try writing from a female POV but revealed that it was an alt of oggbashan on one 1st April. A couple of fellow authors were annoyed that they had been 'duped'. Most accepted jeanne as just a different viewpoint.

But now I have made it clear that jeanne IS oggbashan I get the same anons spewing their hatred on both...

As for ratings? A quick scan of either account shows a paucity of Red Hs. I do have a couple of Green Es and some Blue Ws. I like getting those but I have no idea when I write a story how it will be accepted by the readers, except that some people do not like anything I write and will leave 1 or 2 bombs and negative comments in similar terms whatever the genre.

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

I have an alt account, it's not fake it's a real account, but I made it to post fetish stories that I thought people who follow this account might not like.
Not really about the ratings for me, just wanted to keep those things separate. Kind of like how I like to keep my etsy account separate from this place, don't need old ladies buying fabric from me to know I write erotica So this account name has nothing to do with my ebay and etsy names.

 

[MelissaBaby]

There is a big difference between using a different name because you think it might somehow help you get higher ratings, and doing so in order to prevent trolls sabotaging the voting on your other work.

 

[Hypoxia]

There is a big difference between using a different name because you think it might somehow help you get higher ratings, and doing so in order to prevent trolls sabotaging the voting on your other work.

That's where I'm at. My alt posts to LW and ignores or relishes the hate, which doesn't overflow to Hypoxia Smurf, Esq. Whew.

 

[LexxRuthless]

Then there's the issue of giving your account's followers more of what they like from you. I've written stuff that I know my normal followers won't be interested in reading. Rather than posting them anyway and annoying my normal following, I just haven't bothered to post those stories at all.

Perhaps when that number of "unusable" stories reaches a dozen, I will make an alt and post them there.

 

[SimonDoom]

Well, to start with, one should be able to start a thread with a completely legitimate question without disparaging people who take a different point on the question.

People write for different reasons, with different perspectives, and there's no one right way to do things. At a site full of stories heavily weighted toward the deviant, it seems always odd to me that so many insist that there are norms about writing and publishing stories from which one should never deviate.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to achieve high ratings, high views, positive comments, favorites, whatever. It's human nature to want approval. I care less about ratings than I do about wanting to reach out to as many readers as I can that might like my story. The higher the score, the more readers I will connect with. Others may not care, and that's fine with me, but I do. If I didn't care I could just write my stories and save them in a drawer or back them up on hard drive.

The problem with posting in LW is that if you trigger the wrong people they will bomb your other stories. So some people recommend setting up an alternate persona for LW stories. I haven't done this yet, but it makes sense to me. I don't see how it's something to criticize.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I don't have an Alt, but I understand why some people do. It's a way of compartmentalising content; and in many cases, keeping the sewer away from the stream. It's no big deal, except where authors use an Alt to talk up their Other (but that's more sad than a hanging offense). Let folk do what they want, I reckon, unless it's with malicious intent.

 

[JamesMiehoff]

Now that I've been here for a little while. I am starting to think that I should have created a totally off base screen name. I was a creature of habit and went with what I was used to. Finding me is not that difficult. Just add a dot between first and last names and add (at) gmail.

I have already been spammed and trolled by several of the more recent incarnations of what appear to be long term persona burning trolls.

But I have gotten some really nice comments as well.

james

 

[ChloeTzang]

Now me, I created that alt because the story was so different from my usual. I wasn’t sure how it was going to fly and I didn’t want to draw trolls down on me, and I also didn’t want any preconceptions from readers.

 

[Hypoxia]

The higher the score, the more readers I will connect with.

Well, not really. I previously thought a string of Red-H's would grab eyeballs. Hah. My most-viewed is my lowest-scored; my highest-scoring mostly catch fewer than 10k views. Measuring who my words "connect with" means counting comments (mostly in LW stories) and faves (mostly in Incest), which don't correlate with either views or votes. Is a puzzlement.

 

[RejectReality]

I started Les to house stories outside the Danica universe. ( Too late. Should have put the LST3K and Chain stories under Les as well, but the stories were already filed under Dark and established, so I left them )

I started this name as an experiment to see what I could do without name recognition, and kept it a secret from almost everyone but Laurel for around a year, and all but a handful of people for another year.

Now, Dark is for my Danica's world stories. This name is for my quickies. Les is for everything else. It's all nicely compartmentalized, and I like it that way.

 

[ttvttp]

I don't see many people creating a new account for ratings. In fact I think that's extremely rare. What I have seen a different account is to house different stories.

 

[gunhilltrain]

That's where I'm at. My alt posts to LW and ignores or relishes the hate, which doesn't overflow to Hypoxia Smurf, Esq. Whew.

I've heard that suggested before: that the LW trolls leave their reservation and plunder other categories.

I posted on LW in December and I didn't notice any unusual activity - but maybe they did roam beyond LW and it got lost in the statistical noise.

Are we being paranoid or prudent?

 

[yukonnights]

Why the hell does anyone seem to only write for the ratings here? Far to many posts from first timers here asking the age old "what story section will give me the best possible ratings".

This question/comment/topic seems to come up a lot. I'll phase it another way;

Why would any author work on a story for over a year, choose the best publisher and make it the best he/she can possible do... all just to have a shot at a best seller and reap the monetary reward of their effort? It's just money...write your story to please yourself—and don't even think about winning a literary award...so insecure to need that! Don't be trite and shallow by pandering for approval and success.

Hint To Original Question: It's the readers who decide what is a best seller—that is true in the marketplace and here on Lit.

 

[SimonDoom]

Well, not really. I previously thought a string of Red-H's would grab eyeballs. Hah. My most-viewed is my lowest-scored; my highest-scoring mostly catch fewer than 10k views. Measuring who my words "connect with" means counting comments (mostly in LW stories) and faves (mostly in Incest), which don't correlate with either views or votes. Is a puzzlement.

I mean, all things being equal. Story X is likely to have more views with a 4.7 than with a 4.4. That doesn't mean Story X with a 4.7 will have more views than Story Y with a 4.4. My highest rated story is one of my least viewed, but that's more a matter of them being in different categories than anything else.

 

[Hypoxia]

I mean, all things being equal. Story X is likely to have more views with a 4.7 than with a 4.4. That doesn't mean Story X with a 4.7 will have more views than Story Y with a 4.4. My highest rated story is one of my least viewed, but that's more a matter of them being in different categories than anything else.

My least-viewed are high-scorers in hot categories. Go figure.

I posed questions to Manu in a tech thread. He said more than half of LIT readers use tablets or phones. I asked if he knew what percentage read stories on the Android app, which doesn't support votes, favorites, or comments; and if a story's view count is only browser hits, or the app too.

My point? We don't know what a 'views' count means except that 200k is a lot and 2k isn't. We can't tell how many read our works. We can at best count votes, faves, and comments. Almost all my most-favorited are in Incest... but I'm tiring of writing Incest. What a pickle.

Our numbers are fuzzy. For bigger fuzzy numbers, pander to common lust.

 

[SimonDoom]

My least-viewed are high-scorers in hot categories. Go figure.

I posed questions to Manu in a tech thread. He said more than half of LIT readers use tablets or phones. I asked if he knew what percentage read stories on the Android app, which doesn't support votes, favorites, or comments; and if a story's view count is only browser hits, or the app too.

My point? We don't know what a 'views' count means except that 200k is a lot and 2k isn't. We can't tell how many read our works. We can at best count votes, faves, and comments. Almost all my most-favorited are in Incest... but I'm tiring of writing Incest. What a pickle.

Our numbers are fuzzy. For bigger fuzzy numbers, pander to common lust.

I agree that it's in vain to imagine that you know objectively what the numbers show. 100,000 views doesn't mean 100,000 reads, or anything close to it. My guess is that for the average story it means somewhere between 25,000 reads and 4,000 reads, but that's just a guess.

It's a matter of degree. These numbers are indicators. I want my stories to reach as many readers as I can, even if I have no idea what the real number is. The more the better. I don't need to know what the real number is.

 

[oggbashan]

I agree that it's in vain to imagine that you know objectively what the numbers show. 100,000 views doesn't mean 100,000 reads, or anything close to it. My guess is that for the average story it means somewhere between 25,000 reads and 4,000 reads, but that's just a guess.

It's a matter of degree. These numbers are indicators. I want my stories to reach as many readers as I can, even if I have no idea what the real number is. The more the better. I don't need to know what the real number is.

All I know about the numbers against my stories is that posting on Literotica gets far more exposure than leaving a story on my hard drive or circulating a few printed copies to my friends.

 

[ChloeTzang]

All I know about the numbers against my stories is that posting on Literotica gets far more exposure than leaving a story on my hard drive or circulating a few printed copies to my friends.

So true.

 

[SimonDoom]

All I know about the numbers against my stories is that posting on Literotica gets far more exposure than leaving a story on my hard drive or circulating a few printed copies to my friends.

In the words of Aaron Neville and Linda Ronstadt, "That may be all I need to know."

 

[TarnishedPenny]

All I know about the numbers against my stories is that posting on Literotica gets far more exposure than leaving a story on my hard drive or circulating a few printed copies to my friends.

Samistit, Тovaritch?

 

[Pocketshaver]

Now me, I created that alt because the story was so different from my usual. I wasn’t sure how it was going to fly and I didn’t want to draw trolls down on me, and I also didn’t want any preconceptions from readers.

Aww shucks, you KNOW I loved that other story to bits, and asked for a sequel.


But that story was good, I do like Chinese takeout, and wonder when chapter 6 will ever happen.


But the thing is, there are so many people that just seem to be fixated on ratings. Yeah there are some here that make money out of this, I mean serious cash like Tefler does. But the thing is,

Fetlife isn't a magazine or monthly anthology book that pays people for stories. Its simply a free for all where people can toss out a story with perferted things in it.

Its like the long dead Mias Index,, and the dead anthromorphic writing era that ended in 2010. There were so many good works, raccoons bookshelf still shows how many, Mias index still shows all the dead links to stories as of 2004. There were so many good stories written by people who wrote what they enjoyed with no hope for monetary compensation.

Hell every time a school teacher shoved a "how to write a story" book at me, it was all about "writing what you know, or what you love to talk about". Never about writing what would give the best ratings from a bunch of perverts jacking off to stories about people jacing off with a pair of dirty panties they stole from their granny

 

[KeithD]

I don't care much about ratings at Literotica. I would think that others who didn't care much about ratings here just wouldn't start threads about caring about ratings here.

I have separate accounts to write under here to keep radically separate genres separated--just as I do in the mainstream. There's nothing revolutionary in doing this. It helps readership/sales.