How did I suddenly become such a bad writer?

[SamScribble]

For several years now, I have posted stories here on Lit. Most of the stories – perhaps 95 percent of them – have, at some stage had a red H appended. (Although it has not been uncommon for the scores to then be trimmed to just below the qualifying mark. Call me the king of the 4.49s.) However, of late, my stories are lucky to get a three-point-something. How did I suddenly become such a bad writer? Is it a side effect of Covid-19?

 

[lovecraft68]

Something has changed on the site, not for the better for authors. Scores seem lower in general, vote totals, comments of course are a joke since they've been getting screened, so all in all it seems a downward spiral numbers wise.

I know someone will come roaring in with graphs etc because god forbid someone mention things here are down for authors, but they are. Sure, some of the more popular ones can still draw the way they used to or some stories can hit just right, but in general, its trending down, so I doubt its you.

 

[LAHomedog]

After the beta version went up, and that other lit website went down (I can never remember its name) my scores went crazy. The vote totals also increased dramatically.

A bunch of stories dropped in their scores and the hot tag disappeared, and a few zoomed up. For example, I had a BDSM story that had been in the low 3s since it was posted and it now is one of my highest scoring stories.

I'm trying to learn to ignore the scores.

 

[ElectricBlue]

They're philistines, Sam, is why. Your latest entrée, main course and dessert were as always, delightful. It's coming out of a cold English winter, just got you down. You know, stuck indoors, and she's upstairs doing something else .

 

[gunhilltrain]

I'm not sure I see anything worthy of a conspiracy theory. It seems to have been basically the same for over three years.

It's a big site, and who knows which readers are bothering to vote on any one story. It could just be statistical "noise."

 

[NotWise]

The site's system for detecting and removing fraudulent votes seems to have changed. There were problems with it starting last July and it came to a head in March. Fixes were put in place, but it doesn't seem to work like it used to.

It would be hard to tell unless you kept track of voting on your stories, and I doubt you do that.

Before last July, I could expect 10% to 15% of the votes cast on my stories to be swept by the site. Since March, I've had two stories with a good number of votes removed, but those are very low-vote stories, so the significance is questionable. Nothing published since mid-April has had more than 7% of its votes swept. One has had none. One had one vote swept, and the most recent has had a whopping 1.5% of the votes cast swept by the site.

Things have changed.

 

[gunhilltrain]

It seems that the sweeps are less frequent, and less "comprehensive" now. Probably that is a good thing. I know they have an algorithm, but maybe it's best to use it lightly.

 

[LAHomedog]

The site's system for detecting and removing fraudulent votes seems to have changed. There were problems with it starting last July and it came to a head in March. Fixes were put in place, but it doesn't seem to work like it used to.

It would be hard to tell unless you kept track of voting on your stories, and I doubt you do that.

Before last July, I could expect 10% to 15% of the votes cast on my stories to be swept by the site. Since March, I've had two stories with a good number of votes removed, but those are very low-vote stories, so the significance is questionable. Nothing published since mid-April has had more than 7% of its votes swept. One has had none. One had one vote swept, and the most recent has had a whopping 1.5% of the votes cast swept by the site.

I just wish they were policing the votes on the contest stories better. For example, I went to bed last night with a 4.53 on my nude day story. I woke up this morning with it dumping .6 points down to a 4.47 on only three or four new votes.

I'm guessing a bunch of 1-bombs. I can only guess the reason. but it feels fishy to me.

 

[tomlitilia]

I noted something similar with voting, but I assumed it's mainly an effect of more stories being published. Readers are presented with more options, giving each story fewer voters who actually read the stories. Trolls don't have to bother with that before downvoting.

 

[SimonDoom]

I noted something similar with voting, but I assumed it's mainly an effect of more stories being published. Readers are presented with more options, giving each story fewer voters who actually read the stories. Trolls don't have to bother with that before downvoting.

I suspect this is a likely cause.

4 years ago, the number 250 story on the 12-month most-viewed toplist had about 115,000 views. Now it has around 85,000 views. That's a very big drop. Either Literotica has lost viewers (which seems unlikely), or it's counting differently, or a significantly larger story base is divvying up the readership.

 

[lovecraft68]

I just wish they were policing the votes on the contest stories better. For example, I went to bed last night with a 4.53 on my nude day story. I woke up this morning with it dumping .6 points down to a 4.47 on only three or four new votes.

I'm guessing a bunch of 1-bombs. I can only guess the reason. but it feels fishy to me.

I wouldn't worry much about the contest. They do sweep during, but they know that the trolls just keep coming back. The final sweep is deeper and will get rid of a lot of the shady votes.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

It was all about the lockdowns. More people coming here to get their jollies and clicking on a story that didn't excite them. So, a 1* and a possible bad comment tell you they voted a 1* and would have gave you a zero if they could.

I have been getting a lot of those since they have been locked up at home with the old lady who is now nagging them to fix all the things they said they didn't have time while they were working.

You didn't turn into a bad writer, the audience turned into rude assholes.

 

[jaF0]

I've always been terrible. Scratching out barely a 4 is normal.

 

[HeyAll]

I suspect this is a likely cause.

4 years ago, the number 250 story on the 12-month most-viewed toplist had about 115,000 views. Now it has around 85,000 views. That's a very big drop. Either Literotica has lost viewers (which seems unlikely), or it's counting differently, or a significantly larger story base is divvying up the readership.

I agree with this.

It's the same with the 30 day Top List.

It used to be that the top 5 stories on the 30 day list had at least 100,000 views. With mom/son incest stories, it used to be easy to get 100,000 views within 30 days.

Now it's tough.


If you look at web analytics, Lit has the same traffic. In fact I remember Manu (I think) saying that traffic grew.

So I agree that there are more stories and more people using the search function to find what they want.

 

[lovecraft68]

I agree with this.

It's the same with the 30 day Top List.

It used to be that the top 5 stories on the 30 day list had at least 100,000 views. With mom/son incest stories, it used to be easy to get 100,000 views within 30 days.

Now it's tough.


If you look at web analytics, Lit has the same traffic. In fact I remember Manu (I think) saying that traffic grew.

So I agree that there are more stories and more people using the search function to find what they want.

Another factor that people seem to not think of is lits traffic is not all story traffic. There's people who come here just for the boards. I come here every day, but might click on amaybe a 3 or 4 stories a month, so traffic is not all readers.

I always tell people numbers and stats don't lie. If views/votes/scores/comments are all down whatever the reason...they are down and while lit has done a lot to improve reader experience the authors are getting less 'reward' for their stories than in my 11 years here.

What it is, it is, but what it is is fact

The best years for authors are behind us

 

[gordo12]

I've noticed the average vote in LW has dropped a full point. 4's used to be common, if not then 3's. Now 3's are the top and 2's are common. At the same time, I see a readership that is double what a good story got a year ago. 20k to 30-40k.

I think we have a lot of new readership due to covid but it's a bored readership looking for entertainment, not the dedicated book lover type.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Or, still a possibility, maybe Sam has picked up a dedicated troll. They have to start sometime, trolls do, so a new one might account for part of it.

 

[RejectReality]

Another factor that people seem to not think of is lits traffic is not all story traffic. There's people who come here just for the boards. I come here every day, but might click on amaybe a 3 or 4 stories a month, so traffic is not all readers.

Alexa doesn't show that block any longer, ( at least for free ) but as far as subdomains go, the forum didn't even make the list. It was always search and tags that held the top spots, and even those didn't break double digit percentages very often.

90% of the traffic coming here is going to the main site, tags, and search — and that's the stories. The forum, chat, vipcams, vod, shop, etc. are all sharing what little bit of the traffic is left between them.

Personal patterns aside ( I rarely do more than enter via my author page and click to the forum ) it doesn't represent what the bulk of visitors are doing, which is browsing the story side.

 

[jaF0]

For quite a long time, I didn't even know there was a forum. I fooled around on the story side, may have even submitted a couple ... can't remember now. Then one day I was fumbling around and discovered some obscure wording about a Bulletin Board, a term that hasn't been commonly used in quite a few years:

SITE INDEX
Stories & Pics - original erotic stories, audio, & images
Toys & Videos - take pleasure to the next level
Bulletin Board - meet & post with authors & readers

 

[LAHomedog]

For quite a long time, I didn't even know there was a forum. I fooled around on the story side, may have even submitted a couple ... can't remember now. Then one day I was fumbling around and discovered some obscure wording about a Bulletin Board

Me too. I had been a reader on here for 10+ years enjoying the writing and the porn, decided to give it a go submitting stories, and only found this forum because I was searching around looking for help on how to format and submit.

Back to votes, what I have found strange is I wrote a 750 word story for the contest and it is the one that has the most votes. 1.1k+ on only 37k views. And a low score. (I assume that is because it is only 750 words.)

 

[PennameWombat]

I suspect this is a likely cause.

4 years ago, the number 250 story on the 12-month most-viewed toplist had about 115,000 views. Now it has around 85,000 views. That's a very big drop. Either Literotica has lost viewers (which seems unlikely), or it's counting differently, or a significantly larger story base is divvying up the readership.

I’ve only been here since late 2018 so… the very thought that a story of mine could even approach 100K views doesn’t even exist in my mind. But I’ve never been that depressed if I compare my views to what 8Letters posted.

I agree with this.

It's the same with the 30 day Top List.

It used to be that the top 5 stories on the 30 day list had at least 100,000 views. With mom/son incest stories, it used to be easy to get 100,000 views within 30 days.<snip>

Clearly I’m in the wrong categories.

<snip>Personal patterns aside ( I rarely do more than enter via my author page and click to the forum ) it doesn't represent what the bulk of visitors are doing, which is browsing the story side.

This is how I enter, even if I then go look for or read stories.

But I don’t need to posit any sort of conspiracy for my 2021 ‘performance.’ Both my Valentine’s and Geek Pride stories were underwhelming in their scores. But. With a bit of analysis, it’s clear in both cases ambition outstripped execution.

I rushed both to submit regardless… and that was a mistake in both cases. I reread and see plenty of ways to ‘fix.’ :caning:

I figured that out for Nude Day and switched to a story that I’d had percolating for a long time.

 

[jaF0]

I’ve only been here since late 2018 so… the very thought that a story of mine could even approach 100K views doesn’t even exist in my mind.

09/16/2015 in Loving Wives Stories
Published 29 86.9k 2.93 / 922

It is NOT the oldest, but it IS the lowest rated.

 

[PennameWombat]

09/16/2015 in Loving Wives Stories
Published 29 86.9k 2.93 / 922

It is NOT the oldest, but it IS the lowest rated.

Congrats

It’s like hard work. People accuse me of not knowing what hard work is because they never see me doing it. No, I know what hard work is, that’s why you’ll never see me doing it .

It’s not that I don’t know that views like that are possible in LW or I/T, it’s that I’m not interested in posting in either because those stories don’t excite me to read or write.

 

[RejectReality]

Congrats

It’s like hard work. People accuse me of not knowing what hard work is because they never see me doing it. No, I know what hard work is, that’s why you’ll never see me doing it .

It’s not that I don’t know that views like that are possible in LW or I/T, it’s that I’m not interested in posting in either because those stories don’t excite me to read or write.

If Anal or Mature tickle your fancy, you can pull down those kind of numbers there with a good tale.

 

[HeyAll]

Another factor that people seem to not think of is lits traffic is not all story traffic. There's people who come here just for the boards. I come here every day, but might click on amaybe a 3 or 4 stories a month, so traffic is not all readers.

I always tell people numbers and stats don't lie. If views/votes/scores/comments are all down whatever the reason...they are down and while lit has done a lot to improve reader experience the authors are getting less 'reward' for their stories than in my 11 years here.

What it is, it is, but what it is is fact

The best years for authors are behind us

I still have mixed feelings on that.

Years ago, posting in Group Sex or Lesbian, it used to be easy to get 500-600 votes on a story within 30 days.

Now it's rare.

However, some stories still manage it. I look at the Hubs and Top Lists a lot, and there are stories that still manage to pull big views/votes/favs within a short period of time.

For mom/son, it used to possible to 100,000 views within 3 days (not 3 days, 3 days). Now, I haven't seen that in over year.

Having said that, if you look at the Hall of Fame, Buckyduckman has a story that came out a few months ago that has over 260,000 views and 500 favorites.


Author favorites are still strong.

Old stories are still gets favorites.


That's why I tend to agree with the theory that readers rely more on Hubs to find what they want and/or use search.

Readers are still there and old stories still grow steadily with views and favs.

So if I have a mom/son story that years ago would have gotten 100,000+ views in 30 days, and it only got 60,000 views in that time, I'm not as worried anymore. Because I know that people do look at my profile for stories.