How did I suddenly become such a bad writer?

[lovecraft68]

which is browsing the story side.

Guess the keyword is browsing and if they're reading its all they're doing because something is wonky with scores and voting. Comments we know why they're down. But for the others either people aren't doing it, more trolls than decent readers are doing it, or the sweeps off kilter

Too many people have seen and mentioned it for it not to be true.

For those who here that take their stats seriously, the glory days are a thing of the past.

 

[oggbashan]

You have to wonder why some people come to Literotica at all when they hate authors so much. They seem to have no appreciation of the effort and work needed to write a simple story, and that they are getting the story free.

Those who frequent loving wives can be so angry that I suspect many could be in danger of a heart attack just from reading a story.

While some express appreciation of my body of work, there are those who cannot bear any story of mine to get an H rating and will downvote as soon as they see an H appear. Why? What upsets them so much that some people like the story?

Like the OP, I think attacking an author's work has become more prevalent recently - even attacks on my much older stories.

Why? I don't know but the hatred is obvious.

 

[TadOverdon]

You have to wonder why some people come to Literotica at all when they hate authors so much. They seem to have no appreciation of the effort and work needed to write a simple story, and that they are getting the story free.

Those who frequent loving wives can be so angry that I suspect many could be in danger of a heart attack just from reading a story.

While some express appreciation of my body of work, there are those who cannot bear any story of mine to get an H rating and will downvote as soon as they see an H appear. Why? What upsets them so much that some people like the story?

Like the OP, I think attacking an author's work has become more prevalent recently - even attacks on my much older stories.

Why? I don't know but the hatred is obvious.

Lit is not different from the Internet in general. There is an incredible, incalculable amount of (relatively) quiet rage in the population which becomes quite loud when you add a pinch of anonymity and supposed freedom from consequence. It's sobering to accept, and the worst thing about it is that it's lowering the threshold for such expression IRL. That's at least partly exacerbated by people who are so angry recognizing others online who hate the same things and reaching out to them, often organizing.

I'm not yet old enough to wring my hands about how obviously the human race going to hell in a handbasket...am I?

People have been worried since the 1940s that nuclear weapons have given us the power to destroy ourselves. It would be sadly ironic if the technology that precipitated the fall of our civilization was instead one that simply enabled us to speak our minds while believing that our words are not actions with consequences.

There's an old sci-fi movie, Forbidden Planet, where this alien race killed themselves off by accidentally unleashing their ids into the world.

 

[lovecraft68]

You have to wonder why some people come to Literotica at all when they hate authors so much. They seem to have no appreciation of the effort and work needed to write a simple story, and that they are getting the story free.

Those who frequent loving wives can be so angry that I suspect many could be in danger of a heart attack just from reading a story.

While some express appreciation of my body of work, there are those who cannot bear any story of mine to get an H rating and will downvote as soon as they see an H appear. Why? What upsets them so much that some people like the story?

Like the OP, I think attacking an author's work has become more prevalent recently - even attacks on my much older stories.

Why? I don't know but the hatred is obvious.

Lit is simply par for the course these days. In case you haven't noticed all that's out there is hate, and its all fueled by media and politicians each feeding fear and hate to their base.

They pushed this last year when people were stuck at home and foolishly glued to hate.com

There is no more discourse, no communication, only you're us or them and pure vitriolic hate. I know people who seem mad all the time and don't even know why their mad...except when that's 95% of what you're fed, you are what you eat.

So although LW has had some of that for a few years now, that category is off the charts crazy, and the entire site, as you said has become more and more people teeing off for no other reason than its the net, they're anon and it makes them feel better to make other people miserable.

Personally I feel like someone who drinks all the time who looks at New Years eve as amateur night. I've been full of malice for decades, so 2021 poserdom has no effect on me, other than thinking its a bit sad.

 

[SimonDoom]

The best years for authors are behind us

I'm less sure of this. I think the type of input and interactivity is evolving, but by some metrics the numbers are as good as ever. HeyAll pointed out that there have been stories recently with very high views. 8Letters' last story did very well -- as well or better than his previous stories. My last story had more views in the first month than any of my stories in the last three years.

The other thing I've noticed is that on the most-followed-author lists, the pace of picking up followers is accelerating. That's especially true for established authors who publish often. Silkstockingslover, of course, is in a class all her own, but others are still doing very well.

I see old stories still getting plenty of favorites and views.

I would think it would be harder to get established as an author at Literotica now, because the body of stories is so large now and it's so much harder to work your way up the all time lists. But there are some who've done it recently.

 

[oggbashan]

...

I'm not yet old enough to wring my hands about how obviously the human race going to hell in a handbasket...am I?

...

Older people have been saying that since Biblical times. Some things never change.

Freedom of expression is all very well, but the ability to say hurtful things with no consequences for you is disturbing. Some countries, including the UK, are making 'hate speech' a crime, even on the internet, particularly for racial and homophobic abuse and death threats.

Is that going too far? Perhaps. But some trolling is very worrying. Not that I get that level of abuse on Lit, but I have had death threats. I just delete them.

 

[PennameWombat]

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

My Nude Day 2021 story has been #1 on the Anal 'Last 30 Days' top list all weekend. My other Anal entry is in the top 100 'Last 12 Months' top list. But even my most viewed story, in the top 50 for First Time 'Last 12 Months' (from Summer Lovin' last year, August 2020) is only around 30K views.

I actually waited to post this because I'm almost certain my stories will be targeted now . But I couldn't resist bit of a brag , I've never been #1 on any of the top lists here before!

<snip>
I see old stories still getting plenty of favorites and views.

I would think it would be harder to get established as an author at Literotica now, because the body of stories is so large now and it's so much harder to work your way up the all time lists. But there are some who've done it recently.

There is something of a mathematical inevitability to this. Given the volume of new stories even if only a small percentage hit the 4.7, 4.8 and 4.9 heights, the numbers say they'll pile up over time. The "All Time" top lists (modulo the thread here a while back on 'chaptered' versus 'non-chaptered') will slowly accumulate them making it harder to break through.

What have I read elsewhere? This is a great time to be a reader. Maybe not such a great time to be a writer.

 

[RejectReality]

The contest story, maybe. It's also the most likely to see any bombs eradicated.

The 30 day and 12 month lists aren't much of a target. If you make the first page of an all-time list, prepare to ride a yo-yo. Bomb, sweep, bomb, sweep, and most likely it will be for years.

You just have to take comfort that every time your score gets scrubbed and you're back on the list ( however briefly ) you're picking up new readers, and new insulation against future bombs.

My Nude Day 2021 story has been #1 on the Anal 'Last 30 Days' top list all weekend. My other Anal entry is in the top 100 'Last 12 Months' top list. But even my most viewed story, in the top 50 for First Time 'Last 12 Months' (from Summer Lovin' last year, August 2020) is only around 30K views.

I actually waited to post this because I'm almost certain my stories will be targeted now . But I couldn't resist bit of a brag , I've never been #1 on any of the top lists here before!

 

[RejectReality]

Guess the keyword is browsing and if they're reading its all they're doing because something is wonky with scores and voting. Comments we know why they're down. But for the others either people aren't doing it, more trolls than decent readers are doing it, or the sweeps off kilter

Too many people have seen and mentioned it for it not to be true.

For those who here that take their stats seriously, the glory days are a thing of the past.

It's not like the scoring thing is isolated to Lit. I've gotten more 4s and 3s on Lush in the last year or so than I've picked up in the entire time I've been there previously. My average score has dropped .03 to 4.90 ( erring on the low side as I don't remember the exact number pre-pandemic ) on 220 submissions since the pandemic started. Comments haven't changed, but they still have a RVC ( Read, Vote, Comment ) culture there that we lost here years and years ago.

Comments are down here from a half dozen years ago, which was down from a dozen years ago. Comments have been on the decline ever since favorites were introduced, and favorites have been on a steady upward trend.

Since the queue was introduced? Not in my numbers. Looks the same as it has for years. I'll concede the LW probably has reduced commenting, because a lot of that has always been conversational. ( Or rather, commenters sniping at each other ) But otherwise? Comments in other categories rarely have any relationship to each other. Whether they show up immediately or hours later doesn't have any bearing. People are mostly commenting on the story, not each other.

LW is also the category where I'd imagine the most reported comments come from, so you're going to lose some there as well.

Show me a comparison of pre-queue ( Non-LW ) stories that are more or less equivalents to post-queue stories in all other respects, but have a statistically significant reduced number of comments.

Mature, 2021, 38.5k views, 1.1k votes, 19 comments.
Mature, 2018, 41k views, 900 votes, 13 comments.
Mature, 2020, 36k views, 950 votes, 13 comments.
Group, 2021, 73k views, 1.2k votes, 17 comments.
Group, 2017, 88k views, 700 votes, 9 comments.

Just a few quickly gathered. Basically no change in comment numbers. Can't really find any viable comparisons in mine for other categories, because I can't remember when the queue was installed. I'm fairly certain 2018 is far enough back. Not so sure about 2019. I could put up a couple more categories if 2019 is pre-queue, and they would tell the same story. Basically no change.

Now go back about six years, and there's a difference. Down somewhere around 30%. Go back 12 years, and you can drop another 20-30%. Even that's not universal. Incest seems to be virtually immune to the comment fall-off for me, even that far back.

Views are down? I still think that's fine-tuning the bot detection to eliminate more non-human hits. That's how I felt when it happened, and nothing has arisen to make me change my mind. It's still, in my estimation, about 15% bots. At least that's the number that springs to mind from the last time I cross-referenced things with SOL.

Stat downloads. Easy tracking and full lists of followers for all authors. Sortable, searchable works list. All things Lit has provided to authors in recent history, with more in the queue. Hell even little things like an announcement in your feed when your story has been posted. No need to scroll through your list to look at it and see if it's up yet. I don't use it, but drafts have always been requested by authors. Separating pending, posted, and sent back is a convenience often overlooked.

You talk as if Lit is conspiring to take things away from us, and completely ignore all the benefits they've provided us in that same period of time. That does not jive with someone who's ignoring authors in favor of readers, or anyone else.

 

[Bramblethorn]

It's not like the scoring thing is isolated to Lit. I've gotten more 4s and 3s on Lush in the last year or so than I've picked up in the entire time I've been there previously. My average score has dropped .03 to 4.90 ( erring on the low side as I don't remember the exact number pre-pandemic ) on 220 submissions since the pandemic started. Comments haven't changed, but they still have a RVC ( Read, Vote, Comment ) culture there that we lost here years and years ago.

Hmm. I wonder if the pandemic has changed reader demographics at all, or perhaps put existing readers in a grumpier mood?

 

[HeyAll]

I'm less sure of this. I think the type of input and interactivity is evolving, but by some metrics the numbers are as good as ever. HeyAll pointed out that there have been stories recently with very high views. 8Letters' last story did very well -- as well or better than his previous stories. My last story had more views in the first month than any of my stories in the last three years.

The other thing I've noticed is that on the most-followed-author lists, the pace of picking up followers is accelerating. That's especially true for established authors who publish often. Silkstockingslover, of course, is in a class all her own, but others are still doing very well.

I see old stories still getting plenty of favorites and views.

I would think it would be harder to get established as an author at Literotica now, because the body of stories is so large now and it's so much harder to work your way up the all time lists. But there are some who've done it recently.

I think it was Manu who mentioned that since the Lit redesign, there's been an increase in people making profiles.

Everytime someone puts me on their favorite author, I take a look. Sometimes it's really old account (obviously). But in the past several months there have been tons of new profiles.

To reiterate, the readers are still there. All you have to do is look at the 30 Day Top List for specific categories.

Recently in Group Sex, there were 2 stories that got tons of views and favorites. What did they have in common? Big tits and those kinds of themes.

In Lesbian there was a story that got 600 votes in a month.

For those successful stories, what they had in common is that the author(s) were smart with title and description, giving readers in those groups what they want to read.

 

[Wifetheif]

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?

I'd say your writing level has not changed. It is the site's audience. I still post here but most of my stuff now goes to Amazon. Amazon's new program "Vella" or something like that is specifically designed to drain away readers and authors from this site and others like it. The Amazon program will allow writers to post stories serially. My popular 14 part story "Mrs. Cheng Pays The Debt" is just the sort of thing they want to hijack from sites like this. Amazon has sent me notices about the program but is unaccountably vague about how it is supposed to be monetized. They want writers to post four or five stories to start with and expand as fans request. If I CAN make any money from it, it would be tempting to leave L.dot behind entirely. The problem is though, that I don't have a lot of multi-part stories. "Mrs. Cheng" is my longest and I haven't produced a multi-parter in quite some time. Where does that leave writers like me?