Contest Whores III - Revenge of the Gimps

[mack_the_knife]

<RANT> I just perused the toplists and suddenly, very suddenly, everything changed position. I was just getting used to the regal procession of stories up and down the chart and, BOOM, the whole list just flipped.

Do people lobby others to pour on the votes at the end of each month to get their stuff to the tops of the lists? I've already been 'unobombed' a dozen times myself, and I'm not even in the running. Before they hit the chart, though, I suppose I have a few people that really like my stuff, giving it big fives, but then it hits in #1 when 10 votes are achieved, and then it gets a quick spat of onesies to blow it out of that coveted position (but I got screen shots!!!). Have any other ideas for how to handle voting been discussed?

I've only been here a couple of weeks now, and it seems a lot of behind-the-scenes shenanigans are going on to promote and pummel stories and authors. The site is great, and I don't want to remove the vote-o-meter from my tales, as it puts the stories out there for people prowling the toplists, for more hits and possibility of feedback (which is what I am fishing for, not a $100 prize).

As I asked, have any solutions to prevent this silliness been discussed? Seems there should be something that could be done. Fives do seem to be handed out a bit much, IMHO, but those ones get tossed into the mix as nukes, unless someone just truly hates something.

I am sure this has been discussed to death here, as a 'newbie,' though, I've not seen most of those discussions. Well, I suppose there isn't much that can be done about it without overhauling the entire voting system, which is probably a huge undertaking at best, if not impossible. </RANT>

 

[dr_mabeuse]

<RANT>
As I asked, have any solutions to prevent this silliness been discussed? Seems there should be something that could be done. Fives do seem to be handed out a bit much, IMHO, but those ones get tossed into the mix as nukes, unless someone just truly hates something.

I am sure this has been discussed to death here, as a 'newbie,' though, I've not seen most of those discussions. Well, I suppose there isn't much that can be done about it without overhauling the entire voting system, which is probably a huge undertaking at best, if not impossible. </RANT>

Yes, it's been discussed to death here, and everything's been proposed, from making everyone who votes give a reason for their vote to doing away with votes altogether. There really doesn't seem to be much you can do about it. Some people apparently know how to rig the system, and have no compunction about doing it. The only consolation is that it seems to happen to everyone, although I'm not sure about that either.

The solution I advocate is one I saw on another story site,that uses voting histograms, i.e., bar charts that show the voting dicribution, as in the polls that appear in the AH from time to time. Then if you see a story that's all ones and fives, you can be pretty sure something weird is going on. But there's ways around that too.

The site managers do try and go through and weed out malicious or anomolous votes, but there's only so much they can do. It's just part of the cost of doing business here.

 

[mack_the_knife]

The site managers do try and go through and weed out malicious or anomolous votes, but there's only so much they can do. It's just part of the cost of doing business here.

Figured as much...still, the best site I've found for getting feedback, I'm not going anywhere from here, so far as I can tell. Besides, I gotta keep writing to get that annoying 'Virgin' off mah damn header! Kinda insulting.

 

[TheEarl]

Figured as much...still, the best site I've found for getting feedback, I'm not going anywhere from here, so far as I can tell. Besides, I gotta keep writing to get that annoying 'Virgin' off mah damn header! Kinda insulting.

30 posts will get the virgin tag off your back if memory serves correctly.

Personally I'd recommend a system using standard distribution so that only the middle 90% of votes counted towards the average. However it has been pointed out that that's more than a little bit geeky and I do try so hard to suppress any memory of my A-Level Maths.

No real solution; just a case of flipping a virtual finger at the trolls when you get bombed and occasionally reporting the problem to Laurel and Manu if you feel you're being picked upon.

The Earl

PS. Love the thread title!

 

[mack_the_knife]

<Thirty hmm> Working it.
It seems that the staff has come into the sci-fi/fantasy list and cleaned house now, things are more or less as they should have been, yay.
That's the only list I'm on, so I kinda see the lay of the land there, and this morning was a tectonic shift of biblical proportions.

 

[oggbashan]

<Thirty hmm> Working it.
It seems that the staff has come into the sci-fi/fantasy list and cleaned house now, things are more or less as they should have been, yay.
That's the only list I'm on, so I kinda see the lay of the land there, and this morning was a tectonic shift of biblical proportions.

It happens to all of us sometime. The regular sweep of votes usually corrects it.

There is no real way of avoiding it except by writing such long submissions that no one ever reaches the end to vote. 10+ Lit pages is usually enough to deter votes - good or bad.

Og

 

[mack_the_knife]

10+ Lit pages is usually enough to deter votes - good or bad.

I've got a 9-pager, people seem to really like it, though, it's one of my better-rated tales...The trollls my hate trying to count up to 9 though.

 

[carsonshepherd]

Eventually you'll realize that votes/ranking don't matter that much, and after the first week you'll hardly check them. <pats the newbie's head>

 

[mack_the_knife]

But...but...I'm shallow.
I need those ratings to make my life meaningful!
<weep>
I'll just console myself seeing if any of my old stories are on ASSTR's top 100...

 

[minsue]

Eventually you'll realize that votes/ranking don't matter that much, and after the first week you'll hardly check them. <pats the newbie's head>

Some of us are neurotic enough that we still check regularly (even though they're poems on a porn site and so almost never get votes at all, much less NEW votes.)

 

[TheEarl]

But...but...I'm shallow.
I need those ratings to make my life meaningful!
<weep>
I'll just console myself seeing if any of my old stories are on ASSTR's top 100...

Right there with you Mack. I love my ratings too, but unfortunately my stories never get read after the first few weeks. Dunno why - everyone loves them, but people just don't seem to pick them out of the lists that often.

The Earl

 

[impressive]

Some of us are neurotic enough that we still check regularly (even though they're poems on a porn site and so almost never get votes at all, much less NEW votes.)

*nods*

 

[Belegon]

Me too, Imp and Min...I still check my votes, despite the fact that it makes me feel shallow. And poetry is hard to gauge. I seem to have a regular audience that reads my poems and gets them to about 6 or seven votes and then I either have to beg or hope I get mentioned in the reviews or something to get me over 10. Many of this regular audience may have been identified by the recent trips on the east coast...my latest, posted just as the excitement over Lucky/Vella and Mat's visit started, has only a single vote that I am attributing to a certain very special woman.

I've also noticed that my pieces that are unhappy or dark in nature do not draw as many votes. (Talking about poetry here. My stories are all pretty upbeat. I have trouble staying unhappy long enough to finish a story that way.) Perhaps because some would rather not vote at all then react to the downer? I would hope that people would rather give me a three or four if they feel it is deserved instead of saying, "I'd rather not vote if I am not voting a five". I know that the threat of pulling down a score on a story I feel has just barely missed a five or perhaps is better then most stories out there but below my expectations for a specific author has played on my mind in the past.

 

[cantdog]

The last voting thread I remember

Previous discussion for reference.

1-bombs