Curious about votes,ratings, new submissions

[amicus]

A few years back I was posting maybe a story a week for quite a while. As I recall, the number of votes was small, but the ratings always started off high, usually at 5.00 and then began to slide and have settled to the 4.60 - 4.80 range for most of my stories.

Within the past month or so, I have submitted a handful of stories, and my writing style has basically not changed, although I would like to hope it has improved over time.

Each story, in several different categories, seems to acquire far more votes than before, but the ratings have declined to the 420-440 range and only recently have been creeping upwards at a very slow rate.

Not a big thing, just a curiosity. I recall that there were some changes recently, to make voting easier for readers, has that changed the totality of the process, or is there something I am not understanding?

Any ideas?

A puzzled Amicus....

 

[Darkniciad]

People seem to be voting more. I guess updating to something similar to the voting graphics on trendy websites is actually encouraging clicks.

The descriptions associated with each star from 1-5 now are weighted a little more away from the 5. The way 5 is worded now "One of the best" compared to "Loved it" on the old system seems to be pushing people toward more 4s and fewer 5s.

Not necessarily a bad thing, once authors who've been around for a while adjust to it. In time, the older stories with more 5s will get new votes due to their positions in the toplist, and everything will balance out.

Those Hs are going to be quite a bit harder to earn from now on, though, and there's a good chance Hs could vanish from older stories. Could make the graphic a lot more meaningful, in time.

Or the newness will wear off and things will go right back to the low vote, high-end skewed score that's been the standard

 

[amicus]

Thanks, Dark...that sheds a little light, (ahem), on the subject, and it does make some sense, I guess.

If more are tending to 4's, then it should apply to all and que sara, sara.

Thanks...

Amicus...

 

[Stella_Omega]

Thanks, Dark...that sheds a little light, (ahem), on the subject, and it does make some sense, I guess.

If more are tending to 4's, then it should apply to all and que sara, sara.

Thanks...

Amicus...

I agree, but I'd imagine that's not going to happen-- the sheer number of stories here would make a nightmare for anyone trying to re count votes on old stories.

It's like the minimum standards screening; although we have to watch our grammar and spelling, there are thousands of illiterate stories that were uploaded in the early days and are going to stay.

 

[Bazzz]

More voters and meaner trolls

I believe the previous posts went over the greater number of members voting but another reason may be the type of voter. Depending on the type of story you are writing you could get inundated with horrid remarks posted by anonymous trolls. While this group has probably always existed on this site they have become much more active and have had a negative effect overall on the site. One of these effects is that you can expect lower ratings because of their unfair voting.