I want someone to explain to me so that I understand, how the rating system works? I had recent story with 158 ratings get (1) additional rating, that dropped it's overall rating from 4.61 down to 4.58. How is that even mathematically possible. Can anyone explain the math behind the system? It will take 6-7 5-star ratings to even get it back to anywhere close to where it was at. How can 1 bad rating even if it was 0, bring it down so far, so fast, when it has over 150 ratings already logged?
Can someone explain how thecrating story rating system works?
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StillStunned
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Presumably your 4.61 was actually closer to 4.605.
For the rest, it's just maths. The higher your rating, the greater the effect of a low score will be, and the smaller the effect of a high score.
StillStunned
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Because a 1 is 9 times as far removed from 4.6 as 5 is. Every 1 carries 9 times the weight of a 5. It works like a lever, where the 5 is the short end and the 1 is the long end: it's far easier to exert pressure from the long end than from the short end.
Precisely how much pressure that is you have to work out with maths.
ETA: And even with 2.5k votes, a couple of low scores can knock you down.
Precisely how much pressure that is you have to work out with maths.
ETA: And even with 2.5k votes, a couple of low scores can knock you down.
NotWise
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I'm not sure this is the right answer, but it's an answer. The change you see in the total votes is a net value. The site has a fraud detection system that operates during contests and on other occasions, and that system can remove votes. So the net value can include both votes added and votes removed.
So, what looks to you like a single vote could actually be something like 3 x 5* ratings removed and 4 x 2* votes added. That would give you an increase of one vote, but a big drop in the score.
edited to add: It's also possible for voters to change their votes, which can have hard-to-explain effects.
So, what looks to you like a single vote could actually be something like 3 x 5* ratings removed and 4 x 2* votes added. That would give you an increase of one vote, but a big drop in the score.
edited to add: It's also possible for voters to change their votes, which can have hard-to-explain effects.
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* Shrugs. It just seems to me there should be a more straight forward rating system. A 2.5 rating should be the Centerpoint and that overall ratings should fulcrum from there. Based on the number off positive and negative votes it receives. What other ratings system in the world operate this way? I am just curious. This isn't about whether I feel that any of my stories deserve a better rating, it's just frustrating to watch, difficult to understand, and certainly not a plus when the site is trying to recruit, retain, and reactivate writers....
Bamagan
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You probably had a total of 728 'points' from your 158 votes, for an average of 4.61, rounded up.
728/158 = 4.60759
If you then received a vote of 1 star, you have
729/159 = 4.584905, 4.58 but just shy of a 4.59 rounded up.
Voboy
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All due respect, but this is about attempt #3,491 to suggest a Newer, Better Rating System. Threads like this post regularly.
I doubt you'll make much of an impact on the site owners. This thread always ends the same way: with a reminder that the rating system clearly works for the readers and the site owners at the expense of the writers. Understandably, writers are likely to have complaints in the wake of that sort of realization, but Laurel and Manu seem not to care about our complaints.
I'll go ahead and just post that now, to get it overwith.
NotWise
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Looking more closely at your numbers, it's hard to say what happened, but it wasn't much. You have more than 100 votes, so back-calculating the changes is difficult.
With 158 votes and a score of 4.61 you had 728 or 729 total stars. That's the number of votes times the highest and lowest values that would round to 4.61.
With 159 votes and a score of 4.59 you had 727 to 729 total stars, calculated as above.
The net change you see could be anywhere from up one star to down two stars, but it was probably down one or two stars from one net vote. That can happen a lot of ways, but one way would be for a voter to change their 5* vote to a 4* vote, and another voter to cast a 2* vote.
With 158 votes and a score of 4.61 you had 728 or 729 total stars. That's the number of votes times the highest and lowest values that would round to 4.61.
With 159 votes and a score of 4.59 you had 727 to 729 total stars, calculated as above.
The net change you see could be anywhere from up one star to down two stars, but it was probably down one or two stars from one net vote. That can happen a lot of ways, but one way would be for a voter to change their 5* vote to a 4* vote, and another voter to cast a 2* vote.
Bamagan
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Just to clarify, your score didn't drop three points, it dropped three hundredths of a point. Technically, it actually only dropped 2.2 hundredths of a point, but just happened to be where the rounding rules make it look bigger than it is.
ronde
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There are lots of alternative rating methods out there, but they all have the same flaw. That flaw is that few people pick the highest score and few people pick the lowest score. Most people will vote a "4" if they like the story or vote a "3" if it was OK. If the rating was say, 1-10, most readers would vote an 8 or 9 and the rest would fall between 5 and 8. There are binary systems out there as well, but all they tell you is the percentage of readers who liked or disliked the story.
The centerpoint already is 2.5, but maybe you're saying that should be the cutoff for the "HOT" rating. I think the current "HOT" rating of 4.5 was chosen because it truly represents a rating of good writing and content based upon the current 1-5 system. A rating of 2.5 would just indicate the story is "average".
Rest assured that if your story is at a 4.58 rating you're doing better than many, many authors here on Literotica.
alohadave
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The score is a simple average of the votes.
Unfortunately, the numbers are rounded and we have no information about the composition of the votes.
Also, the scores tend to get sticky where scores don't always follow votes. I have some stories that get votes for many weeks and the score doesn't budge.
alohadave
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Voter behavior affects what the median score is. Many voters will only vote 5 or nothing. Some will use 4, 3, and 2, but they are less common. And despite all the teeth gnashing here in the AH, 1 votes really aren't that common outside of LW.
SimonDoom
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I don't understand why it is hard to understand. Readers can give your story whatever vote they want, from 1 to 5, and your score is the mean of all votes cast. How is that difficult? The site periodically deletes votes that it regards as "illegitimate" by criteria that it does not advertise so the system cannot be gamed.
I'm not sure how it's that different from other ratings systems one sees elsewhere, such as on Amazon, where products are rated from 1 to 5.
THBGato
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https://www.literotica.com/s/how-to-analyze-your-scores
It's been shared before, but I'll share it again. A really good explanation of how scores work.
PS: I feel your pain. I just had a story that had been climbing consistently, slump back down to where it was months ago score-wise.
It's been shared before, but I'll share it again. A really good explanation of how scores work.
PS: I feel your pain. I just had a story that had been climbing consistently, slump back down to where it was months ago score-wise.
Bramblethorn
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Where are people getting 2.5 from? The midpoint between 1.0 (minimum possible score) and 5.0 (maximum possible) is 3, not 2.5.
pink_silk_glove
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First, let's not forget that if your story is hovering around 1.8, that a 5 carries all that weight than would require several 1s to counter it. It's just the nature of voters on lit who are hardly educated on the finer points of literature and prose let alone that of mathematics, rubrics and statistical curve grading.
What you're asking for is either these voters that are out there (of whom the majority are looking for a quick fap) should not only understand the bare basics of prose, characterization, plot/motive, descriptions, dialogue and theme enough to form a 3 out of 5 baseline to comparatively rate our stories but should also actually care about such elements.
Either that or you want lit to implement a curve grading system and put our stories on some sort of percentile rating ladder. I'd be okay with that personally but just watch the majorfuckingshitstorm that will happen if they do. To my knowledge there is another erotica site that does employ a curve grade system of sorts and when it is argued here that lit should employ something similar the thread is invariably littered with multiple vomit freakouts and bomb threats.
The Red H system is here to stay because those who have their beloved Red Hs will only have you pry them from their cold dead hands. They're on top and they're staying on top, accuracy be damned.
What you're asking for is either these voters that are out there (of whom the majority are looking for a quick fap) should not only understand the bare basics of prose, characterization, plot/motive, descriptions, dialogue and theme enough to form a 3 out of 5 baseline to comparatively rate our stories but should also actually care about such elements.
Either that or you want lit to implement a curve grading system and put our stories on some sort of percentile rating ladder. I'd be okay with that personally but just watch the majorfuckingshitstorm that will happen if they do. To my knowledge there is another erotica site that does employ a curve grade system of sorts and when it is argued here that lit should employ something similar the thread is invariably littered with multiple vomit freakouts and bomb threats.
The Red H system is here to stay because those who have their beloved Red Hs will only have you pry them from their cold dead hands. They're on top and they're staying on top, accuracy be damned.
pink_silk_glove
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There are many people who forget that one cannot vote zero on lit.
pink_silk_glove
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I have many if anyone wants some.
Bramblethorn
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And since the possible range is 4 points, 3% of a point is less than 1% of the total range.
People here vastly over-interpret small differences in scores. On a story in the neighbourhood of a 4.5 rating, the statistical "noise" in the score is about 1/sqrt(number of votes). With 200 votes, the statistical "noise" in that score is about +/- 0.07 points; trying to interpret differences smaller than that is about as useful as looking for patterns in static snow.
(Hmm, I probably need a new analogy since young 'uns these days will never have seen static snow on a TV.)
Bramblethorn
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Lots of them! If you look at something like Uber ratings, or most restaurant reviews, scores tend towards the high end of the scale. Giving an Uber driver anything less than a perfect 5 is practically a declaration of war.
It'd be possible to adjust scores to a more centered distribution, but it'd be a lot less straightforward than an average. It'd make it much harder for people to understand movements in their scores; for instance, one implication of "grading on a curve" is that your score can be changed by votes on other stories even without any new votes on yours.
