An Alternative Voting System

[rgraham666]

One thing I would like to see is a seperate vote for story quality.

I've read stories here that were wonderfully written, but were not exactly hot.

If you saw a story that had over 4.5 in both categories, you would know you're in for a treat.

After that you could pick whether you want a good read or a good wank.

 

[cantdog]

One thing I would like to see is a seperate vote for story quality.

I've read stories here that were wonderfully written, but were not exactly hot.

If you saw a story that had over 4.5 in both categories, you would know you're in for a treat.

After that you could pick whether you want a good read or a good wank.

This sounds good for the readers.

cantdog

 

[cantdog]

.......
Indeed, there's an argument for FEWER categories, i.e., awful, poor-fair, good, and excellent. (four choices)

At present, and in relation to the mythic 4.5, a 1 carries SEVEN times the weight of a 5. (It will take seven 5's to pull you back to 4.5).

With the four point scheme, the figure, would be FIVE. The simplest way, is to eliminate the 1 vote possibility, i.e, you can vote from 2(awful) to 5 (excellent). In that case, it would take FIVE 5's to counteract one 2. (Or one could rescale 1-4)

**or, as elfin points out, the 1 --in the hands of the mad bomber--would have an even deadlier effect, being SEVENTEEN times the effect of a 10, in relation to staying above 9.5

Yes, but the cutoff would be 9, not 9.5.

I agree, though, that more numbers would be stupid. It would serve no one.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

bump (& grind)

It's really interesting to see the opinions on this. I think instead of changing the entire site for public viewing, maybe there could be a change on the author's acutal submissions page where we could see the votes histogrammed and know where the majority of votes fell. I don't check mine daily and therefore have little clue as to what the new incoming votes were if there was more than one by the time I checked again.

If I had my druthers, I'd love to have the votes posted with comments. The way they do on the site that Doc posted where each Public Comment came with a certain number of stars. It was nice to see that with one or two of the comments that actually held constructive criticism. I'd love to know what merits a three, four or five from those that bothered to comment.

~lucky

 

[snooper]

If you are really serious we only need two possible votes:
Yes - this story does what I want,
No - this story is not what I was looking for.

The vast majority will still not vote.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

Dr. Mab, my guru, you've let me down. The guy that should have won the Halloween contest by miles hasn't gone for National Nude Day. My faith is shattered.

Seriously, I haven't got an answer, but I do know the problem.

Wherever you play, a system that doesn't require a vote is going to give scope to the evil or self-seeking bombers.

If you allow people to view a story (yes I know they can hit backspace) without voting that causes the problem. I've read loads of stories that I've felt poor, for whatever reason, but I won't vote negative if I feel the message. Not everyone can write like lothario, mab or rumple.

The glory of this site is that it encourages people to try, like me. I've had my ups and downs, but the feedback and the support encourages me.

For all you great titans out there, don't cancel the democracy until you really know where you are going. I buy into the problems, shit, I've been there, but from one who's loved the openness of this place, don't buy into the idea that you can ignore the hanging chads.

As George Orwell said, sarcastically, "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."

If you look at the stories that top their categories, it is pretty difficult to argue that they don't deserve their spot. Who, except us authors, worries about 19th or 39th spot.

There are problems but don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

As always, I've probably gone too far, but I really believe in this place. Sorry.

Elle

Ad break: Fiona's Flight of Fantasy

 

[elfin_odalisque]

Look, isn't this getting a bit out of hand. We want a simple system that rewards popularity and discourages trolls. (Don't I know having just been bombed with a story.) Try this.

Desires:
1. Readers want a take on what other people find good.

2. Authors want a fair opinion on what they have sweated over.

3. No-one should have undue influence over the scoring.

Suggestions:
1. The system has to be pretty simple and transparent.

2. Everyone's vote counts.

3. The tendency of people to be generous should not be hostage to malevolent types.

Having done some math, isn't the solution to reduce the categories to three and add a decimal point to the scores? This stops the trolls if there is only good, bad or indifferent. Would you ever vote someone 1 or 2?

All the complicted stats solutions seem a bit far fetched to me. If you eliminate 1 and 2 as voting options and add a third decimal point to the scores, doesn't this solve the problem?

To control the voting system, surely you have to reduce the capacity to terrorise rather than increasing it it to a 'ten' spread.

Or have I missed something?

We play in the upper reaches which gives scope to the nasty guys - why not just cut the rug from under them and stop worrying about histograms and the suchlike.

 

[wishfulthinking]

Look, isn't this getting a bit out of hand...Or have I missed something?

No and no.

The whole spirit of this thread - someone put forward an idea, there has been debating of the pros and cons and proposal of other methods - seems to me is to generate discussion, stir up thoughts and hash out some ideas.

 

[Black Tulip]

I agree with Wishfulthinking. And I still think the idea of graph bars is a good one. They let you see how many votes were given for each point. That way you can determine very easily how valid a 1 or a 5 is. After all, the opposite of bombing is there as well. How about people voting 5's because they like someone? That is about as unfair.

Keep the five point scale. Some people give a 1 or a 2 for valid reasons! I confess to having voted a 2 sometimes for very, very bad grammar and spelling in addition to a crappy story. On the other hand, I do not hand out 5's very easily either. Most stories get a 4, the 5 is for really good ones. I don't want to lose that option.

Most certainly not because some people can't handle the choices they have.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

Yes, for once Dr mab is less than omniscient!

Given a system where votes concentrate around 3-4-5, eliminating 1 would make a fundamental difference.

People who 'like' a story tend to vote in the 4/5 range, distorting the perfect bell diagram distribution. As a result, most stories, until they get more than 200 votes or so, are open to saboteurs who only want to damage a score.

A 3 range scoring system would allow every reader to express their view without the chance for malevolent types to sabotage the general opinion of the readers.

This is nothing against vbulletin or any sophisticated program.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Yes, for once Dr mab is less than omniscient!

Given a system where votes concentrate around 3-4-5, eliminating 1 would make a fundamental difference.

No, no, you're wrong. I'm still as omniscient as ever, which isn't very.

Like Wishful said, I just opened this topic to generate some talk and ideas. I don;t have any answers, but I'm pretty sure that going to a 3-4-5 system isn't the answer. That's just grade inflation and compression, and all that will happen is that people will agonize about the second and third decimal point in their score.

Under a 3-4-5 system, the sorriest piece of trash will still be rated "Good", and I don't see how that helps anyone,

---dr.M.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

This is kind of embarrasing, but you know, I don't even know how to find a story's ratings unless it's one of my own or in the Top lists for that category.

How does one do that?

---dr.M.

 

[minsue]

If you mean the score itself, not how it's rated against other stories, they're listed next to the stories in the index.


edited coz my grammer slips when I'm drinking....

 

[dr_mabeuse]

If you mean the score itself, not how it's rated against other stories, they're listed next to the stories in the index.


edited coz my grammer slips when I'm drinking....

That's part of the problem. The Index, at least when i use it, takes you to all the stories in that category that start with that letter of the alphabet. Then you've got to start paging through looking for the right story.

Is there an easier way?

And wait a minute. I just went to the story index, clicked on BDSM and went to "M" looking for "Morzhay Cosmetics) (my first Lit story). I didn't see any ratings by any of the stories. I saw some H's, but no ratings

---dr.M.

 

[Black Tulip]

After the title of the story you see this:
... Lilah wants to see him in her office. Now.
Submitted by dr_mabeuse (4.74) 11/02/02

Between the brackets is the score.

 

[wishfulthinking]

Between the brackets is the score.

Eek. Hiya trolls

How long have they been doing this?

 

[Black Tulip]

Trolling? Since the beginning of time, I guess.

The rating? It was there when I joined Literotica.

 

[minsue]

Trolling? Since the beginning of time, I guess.

The rating? It was there when I joined Literotica.

Was it? I only noticed the ratings in the index a few months ago. I must have been distracted by the porn...

 

[minsue]

That's part of the problem. The Index, at least when i use it, takes you to all the stories in that category that start with that letter of the alphabet. Then you've got to start paging through looking for the right story.

Is there an easier way?

And wait a minute. I just went to the story index, clicked on BDSM and went to "M" looking for "Morzhay Cosmetics) (my first Lit story). I didn't see any ratings by any of the stories. I saw some H's, but no ratings

---dr.M.

I'm confused! You want to see the ratings, but not in the index or the top list? Where else would they put them?

 

[snooper]

I'm confused! You want to see the ratings, but not in the index or the top list? Where else would they put them?

Some sites, using the same engine as Literotica, tack the score on to every mention of the title. For example, on the "all the stories by this author" Submissions listing.

 

[Xelebes]

Re: Re: An Alternative Voting System

Everyone and their mother uses vBulletin, it's affordable, good and very adaptable to administrators' needs. But it's only the forum part on Lit that uses that system. The rest of the site is, as far as I can tell, Manu's own construct.

#L

It's more like a battle between PHP and vBulletin. It's like 50/50.

And for the voting system - hmm... interesting.

 

[minsue]

Some sites, using the same engine as Literotica, tack the score on to every mention of the title. For example, on the "all the stories by this author" Submissions listing.

Ah, that makes more sense. Thanks.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

After the title of the story you see this:
... Lilah wants to see him in her office. Now.
Submitted by dr_mabeuse (4.74) 11/02/02

Between the brackets is the score.

Those tiiny little things???

You know I've been on this site a year and a half and I never even noticed them before!

Thanks.

---dr.M.

 

[snooper]

... You know I've been on this site a year and a half ...

How odd - it seems much longer than that. You won't remember Tiggs then ...