Do the sweeps put votes back?

[lovecraft68]

So with the Summer Loving contest up and running the sites been running their sweeps to clear all the wonderful troll voting that goes on with the contest.

The sweep is across the board and I've lost a bunch of votes in the last few days. My question is do they turn around and put them back? Or does a sweep ever add votes?

Two stories I have that are close to a year old lost about a dozen votes apiece a few days ago, but as of this morning it looks like they each gained a few back. Considering the stories are from last year I doubt five people actually voted on them last night.

 

[Darkniciad]

Can't say "No," because it's possible that the vote database may have a column for "valid" that allows it to be toggled on and off.

However, there's no evidence to suggest this is so. It also doesn't make sense, as the point of sweeps is to remove illegitimate votes, and there's no reason to keep them in the database at all once that determination has been made.

If you've released new stories or chapters this week, you're likely seeing the effect of weekend readers finding the new offering, and then exploring through your list.

Or, if the score went down, people could be using your story list as a weapon in response to postings on the forum.

 

[lovecraft68]

Can't say "No," because it's possible that the vote database may have a column for "valid" that allows it to be toggled on and off.

However, there's no evidence to suggest this is so. It also doesn't make sense, as the point of sweeps is to remove illegitimate votes, and there's no reason to keep them in the database at all once that determination has been made.

If you've released new stories or chapters this week, you're likely seeing the effect of weekend readers finding the new offering, and then exploring through your list.

Or, if the score went down, people could be using your story list as a weapon in response to postings on the forum.

No the scores rose a few points (each story has a couple of hundred so it takes more than a vote or two to get them up a couple of points) I have not released a story since 8/12 so don't think it is that.

I also don't get why I lose "good" votes in the sweeps. I don't have alts or vote on my own work so unless someone is "helping" me without my knowledge I don't see why they get knocked off.

As for people here voting do to posts. There is really only a couple of people I don;t get along with here and I really don't see them as being that petty.

 

[Darkniciad]

The reason high votes vanish could be any number of things.

Double voting happens all the time. I had several readers tell me that they voted more than once over the years. Once I went on a "one story, one vote" campaign on my end notes, emails, and website, explaining why double voting was hurting rather than helping my scores, my average sweep percentage dropped dramatically, and my score almost never drops during sweeps now.

Don't underestimate the enthusiasm of fans.

Maybe a regular voter on your stories is prone to trolling the loving wives or non-con categories, 1-bombing everything they come across. Such behavior could easily result in a red flag, causing every vote from that IP/ID to get wiped out, including the positive votes on your story.

Maybe your readers are copying the stories to files, reading them offline at leisure, then returning to vote afterwards on several stories/chapters at once. It's been speculated for quite some time that this triggers a red flag and gets the rapid series of votes wiped out. I had a reader who always did this, and usually didn't come back to vote until well after the story had fallen off the radar. He always emailed after voting, and the five would appear in the score. Shortly thereafter, I'd lose a five in sweeps. I brought it up, and he started leaving each page of the story up for a couple of minutes while browsing before he voted. The fives stopped vanishing. Small sample, but enough to convince me.

But a small sampling of potential reasons.

 

[lovecraft68]

The reason high votes vanish could be any number of things.

Double voting happens all the time. I had several readers tell me that they voted more than once over the years. Once I went on a "one story, one vote" campaign on my end notes, emails, and website, explaining why double voting was hurting rather than helping my scores, my average sweep percentage dropped dramatically, and my score almost never drops during sweeps now.

Don't underestimate the enthusiasm of fans.

Maybe a regular voter on your stories is prone to trolling the loving wives or non-con categories, 1-bombing everything they come across. Such behavior could easily result in a red flag, causing every vote from that IP/ID to get wiped out, including the positive votes on your story.

Maybe your readers are copying the stories to files, reading them offline at leisure, then returning to vote afterwards on several stories/chapters at once. It's been speculated for quite some time that this triggers a red flag and gets the rapid series of votes wiped out. I had a reader who always did this, and usually didn't come back to vote until well after the story had fallen off the radar. He always emailed after voting, and the five would appear in the score. Shortly thereafter, I'd lose a five in sweeps. I brought it up, and he started leaving each page of the story up for a couple of minutes while browsing before he voted. The fives stopped vanishing. Small sample, but enough to convince me.

But a small sampling of potential reasons.

The last two reasons make a lot of sense. Especially with one reader who according to him hates a couple of other incest authors so maybe he is bombing them. I also have someone who tells me that he copies and pastes the stories and reads a few at a time so probably votes all three or so at once.

Thanks for the info.