Do you feel comfy talking about your success at Lit?

[KillerMuffin]

Like when people talk about their feedback or scores, do you feel comfortable talking about your feedback and scores? I don't mean in general terms, but with actual numbers, quantities, and paraphrasing?

I don't. I don't mind talking about it in general terms (ie my lowest ranked story is yada yada), but I don't like making mention of scores. Like how many votes and what score my stories average. I don't like to talk about my H's or E's or awards. I hate talking about my positive feedback in anything but general terms. That I get it and it's nice, but now what it says. I don't mind sharing my negative feedback because, quite frankly, it's amusing.

 

[Quasimodem]

Success!

People have SUCCESS!

HERE?

Er, how long does THAT take?

 

[NoJo]

KM, You should move to Britain, where that sort of thing is seen as "boasting" and looked down upon as distasteful. Very anti-success in general, we are... we tend to despise it (which is one reason why governments tend to see-saw here.. we don't like people in power getting "big-headed").

So as a Brit I have to say I feel exactly as you do about it, even for my top-rated story which started out at 4.82 and is stilling holding on well at 4.67, with a view/vote ratio of 1/73.

 

[the_bragis]

Do you feel comfy talking about your success at Lit?

I would, if I was, and I will, when I am. ( I like to stay positive.)

Alex (fem).

 

[Angeline]

Success?

It's all relative. If New Yorker decides to publish me, I'll brag, but now....nah

 

[TaffyJ]

I find it pretty distasteful, too

I would feel odd if I talked about story scores and such. If I ever feel too cocky, I find a way to deflate my ego. I'd rather voluntarily control my ego, than have somebody do it for me in an embarassing incident in front of everybody here. I've seen it happen. I don't wanna go there.

 

[ronde]

I don't know if I'm successful or not, but I don't usually talk about my ratings or numbers of votes. It saves my ego from being topped by a better writer.

I've never thought about view/vote ratios. I'm gonna go check now. 1/73...that sounds like a lot more votes than I get out of 1 read. I must be doing something really wrong.

 

[Whispersecret]

My ego often pokes me in the back to post that kind of stuff. There's a thread now asking how much feedback do people get. There's another thread asking for my greatest description of an orgasm. I am very much tempted to post on those threads, but mostly the desire to appear humble wins out. Once in a while, I do slip and brag, but then usually I feel like a boastful idiot afterward and regret it.

 

[wildsweetone]

i have a lot of learning to do... posting the odd score for a particular story, or talking about ratings etc doesn't bother me. the voting has too many variables to be a true indicator of my writing.

having said that, part of the reason i mention voting averages etc is because i like other authors to know i am not really any better than many of them. i sure don't feel i'm a better writer than some of the experienced Lit authors here.

another part is that i enjoy sharing good things with others. i sometimes feel very full of wonderful warm fuzzies and i like others to feel that also. i will sometimes mention to an author who has helped me what has happened to that particular story. if i have feedback that is particularly meaningful to me, then i ensure i mention it to any person who helped edit my work. it's a sharing of the good stuff.

affirmations, while difficult for most of us to partake in, are actually a good thing.

success for me is measured in minute amounts... that i can write a story is success, that i can have it published on Lit is success, that i have somebody actually read it is success, and if i get feedback, well you get the picture i think.

for some odd reason we're taught from birth that it's only okay to be proud of something we've achieved while we're pre-teenage... after that, welcome to the real world where nobody gives two hoots about anybody else.

Lit is a little closer to an 'unreal' world in that most of us get along and most of us are happy when another person shares their good news. i like it.

 

[deliciously_naughty]

Like KM, I don't mind saying my lowest story is this/my highest rated story is this, etc.

Since I rarely agree with my rating, I wouldn't feel comfortable talking about them very often.

 

[Couture]

It doesn't matter to me. Some are rated high. Some are rated low. Some that did well on this site, didn't do well on others.

All in all, it's so subjective and isn't worth worrying over.

 

[HomerPindar]

Success?

I suck... my writing sucks... I'm gonna go throw myself under a puddle.




<- I LOVE THS FROG!!
HomerPindar

 

[Alex De Kok]

Comfortable? No, not really.

One thing is certain. Just as soon as you say, "Hey, my new story is running at four-point-whatever and my votes-to-view ratio is one-to-sixty-something," or whatever the truth is, then the One-Bandit comes along and blows your castle away.

Best keep quiet, methinks.

Alex

 

[Route66Girl]

That's kind of a toughie, KM, especially since I so recently posted some stats in the very thread that Whisper mentioned. I've also posted in the "favorite feedback" and other threads that ask for the exchange of that kind of info. Since my stats are decent, I hope that it doesn't come across as boastful. But after reading this thread, I wonder if it might. In any case, I’d be just as comfy putting up my scores in those discussions even if they sucked, so…

I share the same views as Sub Joe (hehehe) and Wildsweetone almost verbatim, and have only a couple thoughts to add.

There’s a big difference between being proud of success and being conceited about it. Too often, people are reticent to discuss their triumphs because they’re afraid of being viewed as arrogant. On the other hand, there are those who are so smug about their own humility that it takes on a whole new dimension of self-importance. There’s just as much danger in too much humility as there is in too much pride.

 

[Pookie]

I don't normally talk about my stories other than to make reference to the style I used or something specific I did with the story.

Interestingly, my story with the worst score here is my highest rated on another site.

 

[jfinn]

Everybody seems to be taking the high road here so I guess I'll play devils advocate.

Personally the scores don't mean that much to me. I've had good and bad and really it's not like I lie awake at night thinking about them. The emails are great, but again, I don't let them affect me or my writing other than the basic premise that somebody out there likes my stories and that's always a nice thing to here.

But I have a lot of friends in the writing community who do like to talk about their hits and misses and I think that's fine. I guess it doesn't bother me if someone wants to tell me how they're doing with scores or about a great email they've gotten. Positive feedback is, after all, our only real payback, so why not share if it makes you happy? And it certainly doesn't make me think the person is boasting.

This whole thread reminds me of something Will Rogers once said, "It aint bragging if it's the truth."

 

[Erlikkhan]

You like me... you really like me... What? You don't. You hate me? AAARRRGGGHHHHH... I'm faaaaaallling and I caaaaaan't get up...

Please... Puhleeeeese... I want high scores. I need high scores. You don't have to like it... just give me a five.

I'm fading away... oh my god... I'm melting... I'm melting... goodbye cruel world.

 

[Chicklet]

lol at erlikkhan

personally i will answer questions about anything but i'm not going to start a thread about how great a story is doing or how i got all this super great feedback for something or other.

maybe i have a strange opinion about it, but, like, it's not very important to me so i don't really take it that seriously. if lit was the center of my universe and getting that 4.8 was the highest goal i could think of, i might go around talking about it constantly, but as it is, it's just there.

another question for you guys:

does it bother you to hear about someone's success?

Chicklet

 

[PAUL C]

no. never, seldom,

no, I never do.

But this fred coincided with a recent series of emails I have recieved.

'Paul and Jenny have made love 185 times.'

She said.

Not one to disuade young ladies from their hobbies I said, 183 only, surely.

I was wrong.

I only wish. but's that another story.

 

[M.A.Thompson]

When my kids bring home a good grade or something they are proud of, I grab a magnet and display it up on the fridge. It makes both them and myself feel good.

I have used the analogy before that I am, in relative terms, a mere infant here at Lit as are many others. KM wrote,

I don't like to talk about my H's or E's or awards.

KM, you don’t have to. You are, with all respect, a virtual deity around Literotica. Everyone knows your work, who you are, and what you have accomplished.

So if us kids want to hang our work on the fridge for a day or two, what is so wrong with that?

 

[NaughtyMike]

Like when people talk about their feedback or scores, do you feel comfortable talking about your feedback and scores? I don't mean in general terms, but with actual numbers, quantities, and paraphrasing?

I don't. I don't mind talking about it in general terms (ie my lowest ranked story is yada yada), but I don't like making mention of scores. Like how many votes and what score my stories average. I don't like to talk about my H's or E's or awards. I hate talking about my positive feedback in anything but general terms. That I get it and it's nice, but now what it says. I don't mind sharing my negative feedback because, quite frankly, it's amusing.

Since everything is indexed it is simply a matter of record. I can pull up all of your stories and see what your number of views and vote average are. They are here at the site. I see no sense in being coy or shy about it. If the story is in the top 500 of a catagory, I also know the exact amount of votes.

 

[Chicklet]

mike knows all our secrets!

 

[Pookie]

Tammy is the one that told Mike all our secrets.

Funny she hasn't been around lately ... guess she is busy paying for her votes.

You shouldn't try to fool us Mike ... very naughty!

 

[NaughtyMike]

mike knows all our secrets!

Actually I don't. I do not keep track of anyone's vote tally and score other than my own. And admittedly that is a gross waste of time too.

 

[Guest]

I find this whole subject rather amusing. To bring it up at all is to do exactly what you say you don’t do. Sorry but it all reeks of self aggrandizement. I thought the work spoke for itself anyway. To say I am above that puts you right in it middle of it.