How come no one votes??

[4Saken]

I don't understand why readers don't bother to vote. For example, one of my stories has been read by over 5,000 people and has been voted on only 20 times! I wish there was a way we could get people to vote more often. I mean, it's no hassel. It only takes a second and I'm sure I'm not the only author who appriciates votes. I just want to know what people think!
Grrr.Ok, just wanted to vent my frustration.

Write on!
-4Saken

 

[Sateema Lunasi]

I recently posted an almost identical complaint.

As I understand it, it is partly because a lot of readers do not finish the stories, and the other part (which I believe is the majority part) is because most people are inconsiderate and suck.

I don't mean to sound ultra negative but that is my opinion of it. I have a story that has 550 reads and eleven votes. It is hard for me to believe that 539 people did not finish reading what they started reading. It is frustrating but I am starting not to give a shit. I would write this stuff even if nobody read it, so I won't let this stop me.

 

[Debbie]

Lots of people read but don't vote. I have my own theories as to why.
IMHO, or should I say in my case I find it hard to vote without a long explaination as to why I gave it that vote.
You know, like cool I gave your story a five because it was great/interesting/fantastic/amazing/moving/erotic/unique whatever.
Some readers wish to be anonymous, some don't realise how important feedback is... whatever
I never vote beneath a 3 as I have not found a story that I thought was complete crap or that it had no potential what so ever.
That damn anonymous person who sends feedback is often cruel so i always vote honestly and in my own name.
I was so excited to find how many times that my stories had been read. The actual feedback is just a small percentage compared to the hundreds sometimes thousands of times our stories are being read.

here's a link to your bio and stories

http://literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=24325

 

[mudlnthru]

Votes

I am new at this and normally just read through messages, but have to agree with Debbie on this. People like to read, but often hate to vote. It would be nice to see more votes and feedback, though. Helps to improve writing and so forth. My highest vote total so far was 35 vote and, apparently, over 14,000 reads. Not a very good percentage. It would be nice to know what they are doing after they read the story and why at least one hand can't get back to the computer to submit a vote on the story.

 

[KillerMuffin]

I am a non-voter. I feel that if I can't give someone a 5, then I can't trust my judgement. After all, all ya'll are, in a way, competition. Am I voting less than a 5 because I think you're competing with me or am I voting less than a 5 because you deserve it? I'm am too intensely competitive and I don't think it's fair.

My criterion for a 5 is simple. I enjoyed the story, I felt something toward the main characters, I found it titillating at the least, and the word choice and mechanical errors didn't interrupt the flow of the story.

I don't exactly expect a New York Times Bestseller here.

But that's just one opinion from one non-voter.

 

[The GrandMage]

You know, I think the major reason that most people don't vote is because of the way the stories are written.

I mean, I for one, am an avid reader, and when I look at the stories on the site, I see things. I pay a lot of attention to the way the words are used and the grammar.

I can like a story a lot, but, because of the grammar, it would rate low on my scale. Since I don't want to give a bad vote to something I liked, I don't vote on it.

And then you start to think, "How can I vote on this story, when another story I liked even more, I didn't?"

It gets to a point where you have two rating scales, and you can't mix them. You don't want a double-standard, so you just forsake voting altogether.

 

[Couture]

I think a lot of it depends on the story. I wrote a fetish story that generated 16000 views, but I only had maybe 7 votes. So I'm thinking no one wants to admit they liked a story where the girl dominated the boy and at the end made him lick up the you know what.

However, I wrote another story about a teacher student bdsm relationship. It got 18000 reads and 75 votes. Apparently, people are more likely to own up to a teacher student fetish, than the former.

Cheers

 

[mudlnthru]

The vote

Ah, but Killer, a vote for any story is a help. What would one do if no one ever voted? How would the worst writers feel if no one gave them a bad vote and everyone said, "Uh, that was a good idea"? In fact, how would average writers with potential (moi?) ever improve? After all, most of us never expect the $100 monthly prize, we just want to see if our writing is any good. Apparently, 1 vote on the website is worth about 1,500 reads. That is not a very good sample. I'll keep writing, but 50 votes in a month is almost too much to expect. I'm happy with only a few, but really want to just write better. It's about the readers, not the votes.

 

[Weird Harold]

I don't understand why readers don't bother to vote. For example, one of my stories has been read by over 5,000 people and has been voted on only 20 times!

There are a lot of reasons why the number of views is so much higher than the number of votes.

First, a count on the views does not mean someone read your story -- it only means someone opened that page. Saving a story to disk to read offline will register as a view. Opening the first page to check for more pages reisters as a second view. That's two views before I ever even look at the first word of a story.

Second, a story has to generate a fairly strong impression to move me to vote on it -- I have to go back online, find the story, open the first page, open the last page, and then page down to the vote and submit a vote. That generates one or two additional views for the story to record a vote.

Third, many stories are "viewed" by someone who finds that it doesn't suit their tastes and doesn't bother to finish reading it. I will often preview a story before deciding whether to save it to disk for later reading.

Finally, many views are generated by people who don't have the time to finish a story online and go back to it later to finish it. a longer story may be opened three or four times before someone finishes reading it.

 

[Tawny T]

Wierd Harold has a point, who knows if they read the story in the first place.

Just ran some stats. I think with 51 "stories" up - that includes 6 chapters of two stories (each chapter counts as one story), I can give you some stats.

I had over 145,000 "reads." I had 6,100 votes, that's 4 per cent overall who voted.

My highest number of reads was for an incest story, and it had 25,690 reads and 323 votes for 1 per cent of the readers voting! The highest (for a high count story) was 6 per cent for one story. Go figure!

Sometimes when I read a story and don't like it, I may vote, I may not. Most times I don't vote for it. If I like a story, I will ALWAYS vote for it, and usually send the author a note of appreciation/encouragement.

I think many people are just too lazy to vote - hey it happens in our national elections!

Here they don't even have to leave the house to vote! Tell you something?

 

[enslaved lioness]

i too would like to see more votes. though i only have a couple of stories up it would help me to know how i am doing.

the actual vote (1 through 5) is not what counts to me though. i find much more encouragement in the feedback sent by readers. whether they like it or hate it at least i know what my readers are wanting and i can put those elements into my next story...assuming those elements fit my writing style.

i am not foolish enough to think that i am going to be able to please everyone everytime. if a few people like it than i am happy. if some hate it and write me to tell me why they hated it than i can mull it over, take what critisim i think worth my time and improve my writing that way.

just telling me that the average of my story is a 3.53 does not tell me why it is that way and how i can better work towards making it a 4 or higher.

 

[mudlnthru]

What a percentage!

Well, first, Tawny, you certainly encourage more votes than I've ever received! My best percentage is 38 votes out of 14,500 readers for a whopping .26%. Can't even get to 50 votes! As far as the percentages versus the averages, it seems that if I am to draw conclusions, a few people love my stories and the rest quit after the first paragraph. High ratings (4.50, 4.44) and less than 20 votes. Strange. And I definitely agree with the idea that people may be just lazy. Thank goodness it doesn't stop me from hacking away at the keyboard. At least I can please myself.

 

[gopher&kitsune]

My voting slant and a bad one

I actually want people to vote but commit the unltimate sin of not voting myself. I am going to make a point of voting on everything I read from now on and sending a bit of feedback if I think it is needed. I apologize to those of you I may have read but didn't vote for and will try to get back and put up a vote so that you have my input from now on.

Gopher

 

[CRaZy]

A lot of people read stories at work. Firstly, they don't like to spend any longer than necessary on the site in case they are caught. Secondly, apparently many workplace firewalls prevent voting. Nasty messages come up I'm told. As someone has already mentioned, a lot of people save the stories on disk or print them out to read later when families are tucked up in bed. It doesn't matter; even if only 20% of the people who view a page read the whole story, that's an awfully big audience.

 

[daughter]

voting

I am new to this site. There is quite a bit to view, participate and learn here.

I'm wondering what's most important to writers here: votes or comments? I have never been on a site where voting is ongoing.

I am accustomed to getting feedback from peers. In fact, it is my goal to get reader reactions. I have no problems being honest with a writer about what I like in a selection, and what I found troublesome in a read. I'd rather have an honest opinion than praise that doesn't provide any direction on how I can improve.

What I find overwhelming on this site is the number of stories. How does anyone know how to select a few good reads? This isn't particularly flattering, but the titles are not particularly exciting and appealing. Not knowing any writers here, I can't look for favorite authors' names either. I have never bought into the idea the popularity equates with quality so just because a read gets lots of hits that does not mean a work is well-written.

I'm a tad concerned about what is going to draw folks to my work among the thousands here. I'm not prolific so I won't be submitting works assembly line fashion.

Despite my concerns, I am not worried. I belong to a few communities. Another venue to post and support is a nice option.

Hope to hear from many of you soon.

Peace,

daughter

 

[enslaved lioness]

comments are more helpful for me. though the voting is nice i agree with you that comments help to let me know where i may be missing readers.

there is a huge selection and the only thing that i can tell you there is to look at the short description as well as the title and pick an area you are interested in.

sometimes a story that is well written will be picked up and promoted on one of the forums for stories also. i have read a few that people have put up threads for and they have been good.

if someone is going to put in enough time to put up a thread about the story chances are its going to be worth the read.

 

[daughter]

how to find good reads

enslaved--

Is it uncommon to post feedback publicly in a forum? I don't like sending anonymous notes. I prefer to know who is saying what so I try to do the same. On the listserve I belong to, the number of comments including their content is a good way to find good reads. If I see merit in a story, you'll know it, because it'll be on the boards.

Even if my comments are unflattering, I do my best to be tactful. I don't send ugly messages privately. I prefer to be above board.

Thanks for replying.

I hope to have work up soon. I hope you'll check me out. Like to know if you like it or hate it and why.

Peace,

daughter

 

[KillerMuffin]

I used to vote all the time. Usually 1's 3's and 5's. Mostly 3's. I discovered that a 3 meant that the story was good, but it was in the same category I had a story in. 1 meant that I didn't like it. 5 meant that I liked it and the story wasn't in the same category mine were in. That was a nasty to slap to the ol' integrity there. I don't have a whole hell of a lot of it to begin with and I'd like to keep what I've got. If I feel a story deserves a 1, rather than vote on it I either email the author with an explanation on how I felt it could be improved or (if it would take more than a paragraph) I back click and move on. If a story deserves a 5, I give it a five. If a story deserves somewhere in the middle, I usually don't vote because I'm a like it or not kinda girl and that's very black and white, 1 and 5, and no shades of gray.

Voting has less value to me than my integrity. I don't fash myself over people voting for my stuff or not. If they read it and vote, great. If they read it and not vote, great. If they read the first sentence and go blech and back click, great. I like getting votes and having my stories have some kind of score to them. However, like Laurel finally beat into my thick skull, it is not a good way to gauge a story's strengths and validity. The Story Discussion circle serves a much better purpose for that.

Maybe I've gotten too many, "You wrote a fantastic story, I laughed/cried/got angry. But I didn't cum so I gave you a 3" emails.

 

[enslaved lioness]

i would love to read one of your stories. i am new to this too but mainly i have found that you can not only vote the 1-5 for the story but you can send email messages to the author either anon or under your own name which is best when wanting to offer praise or critisim.

but sometimes someone will see a good story and like it enough to post a thread here saying "you have got to read this". if someone thinks its good enough to take time out to do that the majority of the times i find that i, too, enjoy it.

 

[Tawny T]

Lit Letter

I love to see how many people read, and how they vote, on my stories. It tells me how much they liked them. I also love to get feedback from my readers too. I make it a point to always answer them.

To get to the top stories go to Top Lists and look at the category you want to read. It is a rating system that takes the votes and places a story by how it's rated first, then how many people have read it.

Two stories with ratings of 4.7 will have the one with the higher number of votes at the top.

To get to an author's listing of stories go to the Author Index, or if you know what category they write in most, look on the right of that category and click on their names. It will take you to their bio, and a listing of their stories.