Anecdata, or, a tale of two stories

[mirafrida]

I noticed I have two stories with almost identical views, but very different scores. They also happen to be stories where I've tracked the voting pretty closely, so I have the breakdown (with a few guesstimates).

I thought the numbers made an interesting comparison. Therefore, I offer them without comment - on the chance that anyone else may feel likewise.

Story       "Reviled"  "Adored"
Rating      3.73       4.67
Published   June '23   May '22
Views       20165      20200
Favorites   44         30
Votes       113        95
5-star      62         79
4-star      17         10
3-star      2          1
2-star      6          1
1-star      26         4

 

[Bamagan]

I may be misreading thanks to the lack of table support, but it looks the the 'reviled' story has about 50% more favorites than the other one. That's curious.

 

[onehitwanda]

I'm not sure what narrative you're hoping to display with this; you have a sample size of two.

 

[mirafrida]

Ugh, i didn't realize the table function didn't work. It looked pretty while editing. Will try to redo...

 

[ElectricBlue]

I don't see Category in your list. That's going to make a difference, probably.

 

[Red_Herring4]

Your 3.73 story has a tag of "cuckold" and an author's note at the beginning warning that it involves non-consensual cuckolding. The Loving Wives crowd that loathes cuckolding stories (in any category) found it and downvoted it. I'm pretty sure that's your answer.

 

[StillStunned]

The biggest difference seems to be how many 1s have been dropped on the first story, 26 v. 4. That's going to have quite an impact.

 

[alohadave]

I don't see Category in your list. That's going to make a difference, probably.

Reviled has 26 1 stars, not hard to figure out the category for that one.

 

[mirafrida]

you have a sample size of two.

That's why i titled it 'anecdata'.

I'm not sure what narrative you're hoping to display with this

I'm not trying to tell any narrative. I just found it an interesting comparison. Because of the favorites dynamic Bamagan mentioned, among other reasons.

Some authors here (in addition to me) ramble about what the scores "mean," and i just thought this was a very concrete comparison of all that's knowable about highly divergent reader responses in one particular case.

But my mind works funny, - ymmv and i don't blame you for saying who cares.

 

[mirafrida]

Reviled has 26 1 stars, not hard to figure out the category for that one.

You would think, but they're the same category and not LW (NC/R to be precise)

 

[Bamagan]

I wonder if there's an incentive for readers to favorite lower-rated stories they enjoy. They can't move the needle much by voting after a certain point, or at least not upvoting, so marking it as a favorite might be seen as a better way to encourage the author to deliver similar content (or sequels) in the future. It wouldn't even have to be a large number of readers doing that kind of thing, either, even a couple dozen could resonate noticeably.

 

[MillieDynamite]

How can you have a breakdown of what the votes are that are cast? There are a large number of combinations that'll give you the same score.

I noticed I have two stories with almost identical views, but very different scores. They also happen to be stories where I've tracked the voting pretty closely, so I have the breakdown (with a few guesstimates).

I thought the numbers made an interesting comparison. Therefore, I offer them without comment - on the chance that anyone else may feel likewise.

Story       "Reviled"  "Adored"
Rating      3.73       4.67
Published   June '23   May '22
Views       20165      20200
Favorites   44         30
Votes       113        95
5-star      62         79
4-star      17         10
3-star      2          1
2-star      6          1
1-star      26         4

 

[ElectricBlue]

You would think, but they're the same category and not LW (NC/R to be precise)

My guess is, your tags brought in the undesirable anti-cuckold crowd. You baited them with "cuckold" and "wife". If you hadn't broadcast your story theme like that, they most likely wouldn't have found it.

You painted a target on your back. There'so-one to blame but yourself!

 

[ElectricBlue]

How can you have a breakdown of what the votes are that are cast? There are a large number of combinations that'll give you the same score.

The OP said they tracked the scores closely, as they came in.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I'll take their word on it then.

The OP said they tracked the scores closely, as they came in.

 

[mirafrida]

I'll take their word on it then.

Way too OCD for my own good...

 

[8letters]

I'd say the issue is the descriptions. Both are in Noncon. "Adored" has a description of "Isabel gets featured in a raw anti-imperial art performance". I can see that being unappealing to a lot of readers, so it didn't get a lot of views despite its high rating. "Reviled" has a description of "Astronaut's wife is taken, by crewmate who has the leverage", which strikes me as a meat-and-potatoes topic for Noncon readers (I don't really know as I don't read Noncon). So you got a lot of views, but the people who read it didn't like the story and gave it low votes.

My suggestion - take "Adored" down and the repost it with a description that appeals more to the Noncon crowd. Put at the front that it's a repost and why. My guess is that you'll get a similar rating, but higher views.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

My suggestion - take "Adored" down and the repost it with a description that appeals more to the Noncon crowd. Put at the front that it's a repost and why. My guess is that you'll get a similar rating, but higher views.

You've missed the point. You see, you are assuming since you care so much about scores, that any time anyone raises a curiosity about scores you assume that they too are trying to get a better score. Mira has not made one comment in this thread indicating that she is frustrated with a low score here. Maybe she is but she has not stated that at all. She is merely offering a statistical oddity of potential interest for discussion.

Your observation is very relevant, but your suggestion is not.

 

[TheRedChamber]

It's the fundamental point about scores on Lit. Most people are nice and give you a five if they give you anything.
The main difference between a high scoring story and a sub-4 story is the degree to which you attract one-bombers.
(Assuming you hit a basic standard of story-telling)

 

[TheArsonist]

I think one thing is worth pointing out. Yes, "Reviled" has more 1-star ratings than "Adored," and that's what's mainly driving the difference in the averages, but it also has more 4-star, 3-star and 2-star ratings. In other words, ratings that aren't apparently by "haters" just seeking to pull down the score by 1-bombing. Thus, even if you exclude the 1-star ratings, "Reviled" has a lower average (4.55).

I would speculate that there are three main types of LE voters:

• A: Voters who only give 5s to stories they like, and don't rate anything else
• B: Voters who give 5s to stories they like and 1s to stories they dislike
• C: Voters who use the whole scale, giving 5s to stories they really like, 4s to stories that they think are OK, and so on

If that's accurate, the data fits pretty well with the hypothesis that "Adored" is simply a better story—or better-liked, anyway—than "Reviled." The only thing that doesn't fit is that the theory suggests that since they have about the same number of readers, "Adored" should have more votes (because of group A)—but that is assuming groups B and C rate all stories.

 

[8letters]

The voting distribution in the OP looks off to me. Too many 1's and not enough 3's.

From here, the vote distribution for Noncon for single votes was:
5 - 68%
4 - 20%
3 - 6%
2 - 2%
1 - 3%
for an average rating of 4.48

The OP has "Adored" getting the following percentages:
5 - 83%
4 - 11%
3 - 1%
2 - 1%
1 - 4%

The OP has "Reviled" getting the following percentages:
5 - 55%
4 - 15%
3 - 2%
2 - 5%
1 - 23%

 

[Paul_Chance]

I have a somewhat different take on 1 votes, especially in the more controversial (prone to 1 vote) categories.

If you look at the rating system as a standard Likert questionnaire the logic that a 3 is average, and any variation off a 3 indicates engagement - 1 being very negative engagement and 5 being very positive engagement.

Both of which however measure the same levels on engagement with the story. So, you'd drop the count of highly engaged readers (1 and 5) together.

In the more controversial categories the reader like to engage - either positive or negative, but they're engagement.

There is probably a lot of psychology you could dive into as to why they are that way, but in LW for example, there are many readers who are reading precisely because they WANT to engage and rant about stories. That is their happy place. So, a high one score is actually a successful story in their minds - and they're going to come back and give you more one votes because you're emotionally (negatively) touching them.

That's my theory anyway, for what it's worth.

 

[TheArsonist]

The voting distribution in the OP looks off to me. Too many 1's and not enough 3's.

Remember that what you're comparing against is an average across many stories. We should expect considerable variation in rating distribution for individual stories.

 

[Paul_Chance]

The voting distribution in the OP looks off to me. Too many 1's and not enough 3's.

From here, the vote distribution for Noncon for single votes was:
5 - 68%
4 - 20%
3 - 6%
2 - 2%
1 - 3%
for an average rating of 4.48

The OP has "Adored" getting the following percentages:
5 - 83%
4 - 11%
3 - 1%
2 - 1%
1 - 4%

The OP has "Reviled" getting the following percentages:
5 - 55%
4 - 15%
3 - 2%
2 - 5%
1 - 23%

"Reviled" is a classic inverted curve (common in Likert distributions).

If you combine the 1 and the 5 votes, both stories, with the similar amount of views have similar levels of engagement (87 and 78 respectively).

 

[8letters]

"Reviled" is a classic inverted curve (common in Likert distributions).

If you combine the 1 and the 5 votes, both stories, with the similar amount of views have similar levels of engagement (87 and 78 respectively).

There's no reason to expect "Reviled" to have that kind of distribution. AH posters assume that one-bombs are common, but I don't see that in the Top Lists data. My guess is that the OP is expecting that kind of distribution and calculated votes accordingly.

If I look at the single votes that stories with a rating between 3.5 and 4.0 on Day 31 for all categories, here's the distribution I see:
5 - 45%
4 - 25%
3 - 15%
2 - 6%
1 - 8%
3.92 average vote

I would expect "Reviled" to have a vote distribution similar to that.