Can number of votes lessen?

[Guest]

On several of my stories, the number of votes has actually decreased. Just a couple per story, but I didn't think that was possible?

I try to write for myself and not worry too much about the votes (though it is hard at times - ego and all of that!)
This just strikes me as odd.

Also, some people messaged me that they attempted to vote on my stories but were told they couldn't because they already had (and they hadn't) I'm beginning to feel paranoid!! LOL

Any thoughts, anyone? Harold?

 

[Weird Harold]

On several of my stories, the number of votes has actually decreased. Just a couple per story, but I didn't think that was possible?
...
Also, some people messaged me that they attempted to vote on my stories but were told they couldn't because they already had (and they hadn't) I'm beginning to feel paranoid!!

Every so often, Laurel goes through the votes and removes fraudulent votes -- by her definition, any vote that can be traced to someone who has already voted on the story.

Part of identifying fraudulent votes from "unregistered voters" involves checking the IP address the vote came from -- unregistered = not logged in. It's possible that Laurel may have blocked an entire range of IP addresses -- like all AOL users or all prodigy users -- because of severe problem with fraudulent votes from that direction. I don't think that's terribly likely, but it is a possibility.

Since there is money involved in the monthly awards, Laurel does tend to be as vigorous in suppressing vote fraud on those stories in contention for awards and contests as is possible.

However, I think those who said the cannot vote may be encountering some bug in the verification process and should e-mail or PM Laurel with details on what story, when they tried to vote, whether the problem persisted, and anything else relevant they can think of. If there is a bug that is keeping legitimate votes from being cast, I'm sure Laurel wants to fix that problem just as much as she wants to block fraudulent votes.

 

[Weird Harold]

PS:

Whether your score went up or down depends on whether the frud was comitted by friends or foes. Laurel doesn't distinguish between fraudulent ones and fraudulent fives.

 

[Guest]

Thank you!!

That makes sense to me - and I would be happy to know that votes from "foes" would be removed as well. (last weekend my top scoring stories and poems were voted "1's" across the board - someone was attempting to be difficult) This voting nonsense can drive you nuts!!

As for the not being able to vote on my stories, one of the readers who contacted me was Sillyman. He did say he was going to email Laurel and ask what was happening.

Thanks for writing back!! I knew you'd have the answers!!

 

[ronde]

I have also had readers email me to say they got the same message when they tried to vote. It happens to me on occasion when I try to vote on a story. I know at least one of my readers did send Laurel an email.

 

[its Leslie]

There is alot of buzz over fraudulent 1s but rarely fraudulent 5s.

I personally would be annoyed if people were voting fraudulent 5s on anything I had written for the same reason fraudulent 1s would bother me.

I currently don't have voting on for my stories, personally I think I was getting to many "generous" votes.

To me personally, a vote should be a 1 if it sucked and deserved it, a 2 if lame, a 3 if average (because three being the median it IS average), a 4 if above average, and a 5 if bloody great.

I have recieved in the past votes that indicated my stories lived between a 4 and a 5 zone. Now I like a compliment as much as the next guy, but hmmm I know my stories, and I also know they are not a 4.5 zone quality either (I mean I am an honest to god amateur).

That's it in a nutshell.

 

[Wildfire427]

Mine too

I have noticed over the last several days some of my votes coming up missing. I also noticed that when they went missing my scores went up.

If any of you have kept up with me you know I am a reader, vote, score, feedback hound so I for one applaud Laurel's efforts to eradicate fraudulent votes.

Yes, even if they lower my scores.

 

[Guest]

Same here

I just had the same experience as Wildfire. My votes dropped but my score rose. I am sure it was a combination of fraudulent 1 votes and "generous" fraudulent 5 votes. Actually I am happier with the higher score and fewer votes. Just as long as everything that is done is fair to all, I have no complaints.

Once in a while I have a concern whether my hit numbers are correct. I have been assured that their counter is correct.

In the end we have to have confidence in the webmasters that they are doing their best to run a fair and honest site.

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: Same here

Once in a while I have a concern whether my hit numbers are correct. I have been assured that their counter is correct.

The view counter is as "correct" as any page hit counter can be. However, youhave to remember that because of the number of pages being tracked, the cumulative count on your view submissions page is only updated once a day -- not in real time.

The votes update in real time, and the disparity in update frequency sometimes give a false impression of inaccuracy.

 

[SilentLady]

There was something wrong with the board for a while at least on my log in page. It told me for 3 days that I hadn't logged in since the 15th of the month and I sent 2 stories up for posting on the 17th and 18th.

I wrote about the problem and then this morning when I logged in it showed that my last log in was on the 19th correct and that my story Voyeur's Delight was a hot new story and now it has lost points and isn't hot at all. . this is now 2:02 p.m.

I am still trying to figure it out , but then I know they have their hands full here , as it is a really big site and they want to be fair to everyone.



My Stories on Literotica

 

[Guest]

Wierd Harold's vote counter reply

The query I had, Harold, was because my hit count was unchanged for 3 days, not 1 day. And it was on a semi-current "hot" story.


There was an immediate response by the webmaster. After my request for a check, the hit count rose by 150.

I accept the total. I just scratched my head at the apparent disparity. While I respect and love my benevolent dictators (Laurel and Manu), I hope I am permitted to doubt occasionally.

BTW, What is Manu's gender? And is that photo on the cover of Stuff him/her?

 

[tenyari]

I noticed with two stories that got over ten votes that right after they passed that barrier (and thus started showing in the top lists...) they got hit with a sudden drop in the score and a sudden boost in the number of votes.

Both have since been making a slow climb back up. Though I suspectmy posting this will cause them to drop suddenly again...


I think there are people who comb through the list of top stories and just put in low numbers to:

1. keep something from topping them.
2. keep the numbers low because they have a personal belief that nothing ever should be above a certain number...
3. "get even" with somebody for something posted in the forums.


By contrast, I suspect there are people who ask friends to vote for them, or vote twice for themselves (or even once... I never vote for myself, which I see as unethical) in order to boost themselves up in the ratings.

You'll note that no story of mine ends with me asking for a vote, and no story website of mine ever asks anyone to vote for me, or nominate me for some award.

Doing any of that would be unethical. A work should stand on it's own merits, and neither get artificially deflated or inflated from outside issues...

Personally, I place little value in the votes. I have never voted anything for anybody nor do I plan to. I will and have however... emailed feedback to an author. Which is also something I vastly enjoy getting from my readers.

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: Wierd Harold's vote counter reply

The query I had, Harold, was because my hit count was unchanged for 3 days, not 1 day. And it was on a semi-current "hot" story.
...
BTW, What is Manu's gender? And is that photo on the cover of Stuff him/her?

Aha! not the ordinary everyday question about why the views count doesn't change then. I suspect that you may have gotten everyone's counts moving again -- which is why a PM to Manu or Laurel is generally a good idea when you see something that's not working like you expect.

Manu is male, and as far as I know, there are no pictures of Laurel or Manu online anywhere -- I could be wrong, but they have both said in the past that they would not post pictures because of possible detrimental impact on their RL jobs.

Originally posted by tenyari:
I noticed with two stories that got over ten votes that right after they passed that barrier (and thus started showing in the top lists...) they got hit with a sudden drop in the score and a sudden boost in the number of votes.

You're not the first to notice this phenomenon. It happens to almost every story when it first hits the top lists. My personal theory is that a story chosen from the top list raises higher expectations than a story chosen from the new stories list.

Votes that come from the new stories list -- ie the first ten -- often come from people who read the story because they liked your other work and tend to be fours and fives because people are predisposed to like your work. Once a story hits the top list with a "Hot" rating, it's exposed to a wider reader base and gets more varied votes.

Note, I'm using "your" in the generic sense rather than meaning Tenyari in particular -- although Tenyari is an author worth watching for new stories from.

 

[deliciously_naughty]

just a note...you can't vote on a story twice...I voted for something and apparently a few months later read the story again and when I went to vote on it, i was told I already had. It later clicked I'd read it before (which is my being absent minded, nothing relating to the quality of the story)

 

[margo_x_x]

Thanks for the story. It was great!! I haven't laugh so hard in a long time. I
tried to vote for you. But a message popped up, telling me I had already voted.
That my IP address had already voted. Since I use a dial up modem, I guess I got
an adress that someone else had already used. Sorry. Again, Thanks for the
story. On the 0 - 5 system your story rated a 10 (ten).

I've got to admit it, getting a feedback like this is worth a lot more than those numbers.

I wonder why he laughed???

http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=63517

 

[Carl East]

My advice to everyone here, is to completely ignore the voting. It just doesn't work, I mean I have stories that have never recieved a vote, yet they have been seen by a 1000 people. Unlikely to say the least.

I had a reader get in touch the other day to inform me that one of my stories which she was trying to vote on, kept coming back with the comment "You can only vote once" but as she'd never voted or read that story before she thought I should know.

Fortunately I don't take the voting very seriously, so I didn't do anything about it. Not that I could've done anything anyway.

Carl

 

[its Leslie]

Well I have seen a lot of avatars Carl, but yours has to be given credit for being one of the more impressive among us guys heheh.

I think I will settle for my tank, I can't handle the competition heheheheeh