Downvotes and your reaction

[MamasChastityBoy]

So, my stories so far get a lot of downvotes, which I'm guessing is at least partly due to the content (I write weird shit. It's niche, I know it, and I put up content warnings to warn people that hey there's some gay sex or cuckolding in this one etc, but when has that stopped people?)

My wonder is what do you lot think when you get some? Do they discourage you? Do they make you want to write more out of spite? Do you just plain not care? Let's find out!

EDIT:
And let's have a themesong for one of the options! Option 4 in a nutshell.

 

[oggbashan]

Vote ratings on Literotica are a sign of relative popularity.

Some of the stories I write are unpopular so I get low ratings.

So what?

 

[Nezhul]

If your story scores high, downvotes WILL happen. It's just the way internet is.

Also downvotes will happen more if your story touches on fetish or controvercy. Like if you write anything with incest out of the incest category, even if you forwarn your readers - it might score some negative votes just because someone didn't like your content.

A wrong category may be the problem too. Like the recent argument about romance and cheating. Technically, even if one of the partner cheats, it still can remain a romantic story. However the readers of Romance category just want to read one single kind of story, where cheating never happens. You post it there - you get kicked in the nuts for it.

The rule of thumb is - if your story is written good, it will still get more upvotes than downvotes. You will still hang into 4+ category, which I consider to be good enough. If you slip below then it's likely that you upset too many readers somehow, and even those who read your story through didn't give you 5 stars.

 

[hylas_]

I'm pretty confident in my writing skills, plus I always work with an editor, I think they'd tell me if the story "doesn't work". Also, the comments I get that directly reference my writing skills usually are complimentary. So, downvotes don't usually make me question my skills.

If you want to know what people think of your writing skills, you can always try the feedback forum here.

 

[MamasChastityBoy]

I'm pretty confident in my writing skills, plus I always work with an editor, I think they'd tell me if the story "doesn't work". Also, the comments I get that directly reference my writing skills usually are complimentary. So, downvotes don't usually make me question my skills.

If you want to know what people think of your writing skills, you can always try the feedback forum here.

I'm not especially concerned about my writing skills. I'm mostly curious to see how others view the votes they get, since of the other writers I personally know it tends to split almost 50/50 into the 'I must need to improve my writing' and the 'I'm going to write even more, screw those guys!' camps.

 

[Nezhul]

writing more is the best way to improve writing, so...

 

[Areala-chan]

Get anywhere near the Top Lists and down-votes become a way of life. It's hard not to get annoyed with them (I have one story that absolutely cannot break 4.82...every time it happens, there are a couple voters who snipe it back down), but it's just the way things are. I don't write regularly enough to build up an army of loyal readers, so it is what it is.

 

[oggbashan]

Get anywhere near the Top Lists and down-votes become a way of life. It's hard not to get annoyed with them (I have one story that absolutely cannot break 4.82...every time it happens, there are a couple voters who snipe it back down), but it's just the way things are. I don't write regularly enough to build up an army of loyal readers, so it is what it is.

I might feel your pain more if I didn't struggle to keep stories above 4.50.

 

[holliday1960]

Get anywhere near the Top Lists and down-votes become a way of life. It's hard not to get annoyed with them (I have one story that absolutely cannot break 4.82...every time it happens, there are a couple voters who snipe it back down), but it's just the way things are. I don't write regularly enough to build up an army of loyal readers, so it is what it is.

I've learned not to place too much emphasis on votes. Yes, it is nice to know that readers enjoy the stories. Keeping 4.2 is an acceptable story in my book. A 4.5 is successful. Anything above a 4.65 is clearly an excellent read. I had one reach 4.76 but after a few days at that score, it got down-voted quickly. The scores on my few submissions seem to be within a range of 'fair' to me. None of them are worthy of perfect 5's and I know that. It's why I continue to write to improve my skills. The OP didn't give that as an option here. I give a 5 vote to other writer's stories that I don't feel I could have added or changed to improve it in any way. It doesn't mean they are perfect...it just means I think the author did their very best to use proper form, content and creativity, no matter what category it is in. If I had a wish on scoring procedures, it would be that we could vote a 4.25, or 4.50 or 4.75, etc. It would give the writers a clearer idea of where their stories stand in ratings. It might improve competitions. Who knows?

 

[49greg]

I might feel your pain more if I didn't struggle to keep stories above 4.50.

Here here.

I'm happy with a 4.0. I do have some 'h' stories, and always try and hope for more, but as someone else commented here, I don't post often enough to have any kind of following. Plus I haven't settled down to one or even two categories, but have been trying out several.

Oh yeah, if the original poster is doing Loving Wife stories, they often score low no matter what.

 

[Kimikimidoll]

I'm a relatively new writer, plus I write in a 'difficult' category, so I'm glad to even get views, forget ratings. Also since I'm writing a series I cannot really accept the ratings on the later chapters- people who stayed for the later chapters are people who obviously like my story.

That being said, the 4.7 on my later chapters look good but I know my real rating must be around 4.2 or below.

Addendum: lol, that's an amazing song. I'm saving it on my phone now and will play it loudly every time I walk down a corridor. I even have the right shoes for it!

 

[MamasChastityBoy]

Here here.

I'm happy with a 4.0. I do have some 'h' stories, and always try and hope for more, but as someone else commented here, I don't post often enough to have any kind of following. Plus I haven't settled down to one or even two categories, but have been trying out several.

Oh yeah, if the original poster is doing Loving Wife stories, they often score low no matter what.

Even more likely to provoke offended readers, I'm afraid. Incest/Taboo stories focused on femdom, cuckolding, and chastity, with BDSM, interracial, and gay sex thrown in. And even for the cuckolding and chastity crowd who are fine with incest, I'm provoking offence because everyone involved is deeply satisfied by the arrangement and half that audience wants the men to be miserable about their situation, or for the women to get their comeuppance etc.

I'm pretty sure I'm always going to offend at least one segment of each of those audiences with at least one of the other elements in the stories, but hey - it's an almost untapped niche and I enjoy writing in it so why not, eh?

 

[Jay321]

I write drivel. I get what I deserve.

 

[GoldenCojones]

I write drivel. I get what I deserve.

You write drivel? I love drivel! You should post a link to your stories, cause I'm fucking lazy, but I want to read your drivel

 

[CyranoJ]

Having been around Lit long enough to have seen that there are certain sorts of people who downvote certain sorts of content (or content by certain writers) without bothering to read it, I sort of incline toward the "haters" answer, but only just.

Of course I know perfectly well that other explanations are plausible, too; my particular style and interests aren't for everyone.

 

[KindofHere]

,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I think warnings about content are, in general, a good idea. I realize Lit has a tag system, but I don't know that readers check those tags before they begin reading. However, I believe there are some readers who do little more than notice a content advisory and immediate skip to comments/voting to vote down the content without reading the story. Just a hunch on my part.

 

[TxRad]

I think warnings about content are, in general, a good idea. I realize Lit has a tag system, but I don't know that readers check those tags before they begin reading. However, I believe there are some readers who do little more than notice a content advisory and immediate skip to comments/voting to vote down the content without reading the story. Just a hunch on my part.

If the tags were at the top of the story instead of the bottom it would solve several problems.

 

[NotWise]

If the tags were at the top of the story instead of the bottom it would solve several problems.

Putting the tags at the top probably would help.

I usually avoid putting any comment at the top of the story. I think most of those comments encourage people to leave. I've decided that the only time I'll put notes at the beginning is when they are specifically intended to draw people in.

I'm not entirely sure what the OP means by "down votes." It could mean any vote below your score, it could mean 1* and/or 2*. I'm not sure.

I've tracked the votes on my stories for the last year. That's something you really can't do on a popular story, so that should give you some idea of the response I get. In that time the site has swept about half of all the 1* and 2* votes cast. The cases where they haven't removed at least half of those votes are sexless chapters that still have scores over 4.5 despite it all.

I think it's a head-scratcher when I get 1* votes on stories that have never had a 2* vote, and hardly any 3* votes. What is the reader trying to say?

 

[NicoleZ]

I think it's a head-scratcher when I get 1* votes on stories that have never had a 2* vote, and hardly any 3* votes. What is the reader trying to say?

On the "Official Author's Hangout Halloween 2016 Contest Support Thread", Oggbashan said that it's because someone from the AH Forum didn't like a comment you made on the message board. It may have been something as simple as you saying that you agreed with someone they hate that made them decide to punish you. From personal experience, I know there's correlation between "down votes" and what I have said on the AH. Even if everyone here is supposedly over 18, regrettably, not everyone is an adult.

 

[oggbashan]

On the "Official Author's Hangout Halloween 2016 Contest Support Thread", Oggbashan said that it's because someone from the AH Forum didn't like a comment you made on the message board. It may have been something as simple as you saying that you agreed with someone they hate that made them decide to punish you. From personal experience, I know there's correlation between "down votes" and what I have said on the AH. Even if everyone here is supposedly over 18, regrettably, not everyone is an adult.

It doesn't have to be someone who has POSTED on the AH. It could just be someone who is reading what is posted. At any time there are more people apparently here than are leaving posts.

Or it could be an annoyed and misguided fan of another author.

Edited to add:

"Guests" who are not signed in do not show against a particular forum. A couple of minutes ago there were 324 signed in people and 305 'guests'. If a guest reads your post and then votes? How would you know?

 

[NicoleZ]

It doesn't have to be someone who has POSTED on the AH. It could just be someone who is reading what is posted. At any time there are more people apparently here than are leaving posts.

Or it could be an annoyed and misguided fan of another author.

Edited to add:

"Guests" who are not signed in do not show against a particular forum. A couple of minutes ago there were 324 signed in people and 305 'guests'. If a guest reads your post and then votes? How would you know?

That is a valid distinction as there is no way of knowing for certain, even if it would be far more likely that it was someone who felt hard done by a reply to one of his or her posts and even if the timing sometimes is auspicious.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

If the tags were at the top of the story instead of the bottom it would solve several problems.

I agree. I think tags would be better than the sometimes arbitrary categories.

For example, if I write a husband & wife story, where she gets anal for the first time, in front of her neighbor - is that Loving Wives, Erotic Couplings, Exhibitionism & Voyeur, First Times or Group?

How many times do we see people asking "Where should I post. . .?"

Any hopes of that sort of feature in the pending upgrade?

 

[TxRad]

I agree. I think tags would be better than the sometimes arbitrary categories.

For example, if I write a husband & wife story, where she gets anal for the first time, in front of her neighbor - is that Loving Wives, Erotic Couplings, Exhibitionism & Voyeur, First Times or Group?

How many times do we see people asking "Where should I post. . .?"

Any hopes of that sort of feature in the pending upgrade?

Since the neighbor didn't get involved, you can leave out Loving wives and group. That narrows it down to anal, first time, and E&V. Since anal has the biggest squig factor, that's the one I would go with.

I have no idea what all will be in the pending upgrade other than the new authors CP but i doubt very seriously they will do away with categories. The reorganization would be a nightmare.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

Since the neighbor didn't get involved, you can leave out Loving wives and group. That narrows it down to anal, first time, and E&V. Since anal has the biggest squig factor, that's the one I would go with.

Probably. Although with minor tweaks to the slant of the story, you could make it fit in any of those - and I purposely left off any trump cards, like if someone was a cousin or a different race.

I have no idea what all will be in the pending upgrade other than the new authors CP but i doubt very seriously they will do away with categories. The reorganization would be a nightmare.

Reorganization would be a bitch. (Didn't stop me from making the suggestion in the testers thread. I realize none of it is an original thought - but nothing happens if you just sit on your hands, too.)

I've only haunted the boards and submitted to Lit for five years, but I still have to wonder how society's growing tolerance for "alternative" sexual practices have affected categories and the like.

Bringing it back around to the OP's original post - I think some people still object to certain kinds of content and base their votes solely on that content without concern for the quality of the story.