How do votes "evaporate"?

[fireballxl5]

Hi, y'all,

I still don't know if this is the right place to ask my question, but here goes. I expressed chagrin in this area about the ratings of my first story back at the beginning of March. My rating on my first story was dropping alarmingly.

I'm feeling quite a bit more confident now after six stories, some of which have decent ratings. I still follow the ratings, reads and number of votes very closely because I'm a super numbers geek. I've noticed some interesting phenomena, that maybe I'll discuss in a later post, but first I'll spit out my question.

With the more mature stories (the ones that rarely get new votes) the number of votes sometimes decreases by one or two. This generally results in a slight improvement in my score. What's going on? I've seen this several times. Are people kicked off the board and their votes sent to hell? Is this something like Hawking's quantum evaporation of black holes? Is there some angel that retires the lowball votes from time to time?

I did make an honest effort to look through previous threads but gave up.

fireballxl5

 

[msboy8]

Hi, y'all,

I still don't know if this is the right place to ask my question, but here goes. I expressed chagrin in this area about the ratings of my first story back at the beginning of March. My rating on my first story was dropping alarmingly.

I'm feeling quite a bit more confident now after six stories, some of which have decent ratings. I still follow the ratings, reads and number of votes very closely because I'm a super numbers geek. I've noticed some interesting phenomena, that maybe I'll discuss in a later post, but first I'll spit out my question.

With the more mature stories (the ones that rarely get new votes) the number of votes sometimes decreases by one or two. This generally results in a slight improvement in my score. What's going on? I've seen this several times. Are people kicked off the board and their votes sent to hell? Is this something like Hawking's quantum evaporation of black holes? Is there some angel that retires the lowball votes from time to time?

I did make an honest effort to look through previous threads but gave up.

fireballxl5

I'm sorry to hear that, I've experienced the same thing. It's either Global Warning or Trolls. My question is, Why do people read stories they know they won't like?

 

[J.Q. Hack]

evaporating votes

I really don't know how votes "disappear" on Literotica. I haven't noticed any of my vote totals changing. The only thing I can think is perhaps some sort of minor glitch in the program that calculates the ratings?

I think there is a problem with trolls negatively affecting a story's score. Ones seem to lower a score much more quickly than fives will bring it up. What doesn't make sense is another thing Msboy brings up: people reading stories they know they won't like.

I believe that happened to two of my stories. Each one I thought was fairly well written with decent characters and plot. But yet the major criticisms were the stories didn't have the characters acting in ways they considered morally acceptable or having the feelings they believe a character should have in that situation.

What it all seems to boil down to is people tend to judge your submissions based more what they think makes a good story as opposed to how well written or structurally sound it is. That can make the whole writing process and publication here on Literotica very frustrating.

If I find myself giving stories a low rating because the characters didn't use a condom or nobody would act like that in real life somebody please shoot me.

 

[bearcomeshome]

and another thing...

I've just posted my first story and in my profile I'm told that it has 9 votes averaging 4.89, which makes me pretty chuffed and would make it the third most popular story in its section (humour and satire) but when I check the 'top stories' board its not there! I can't find an explanation in the FAQs but am guessing either that there is a time-lag or that I have to get 10 or more votes to make it ont othe board. Does anyone know the explanation? And if its the latter is there any kind soul out there would take pity on a virgin and give me that magic extra vote (even if you don't feel you can give me a good one, although I prefer it if you could...) Check out the story at

http://english.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=195098

 

[minsue]

Votes "disappear" when a sweep is done removing duplicate votes. Usually, this will raise your score. Which is rather depressing since that means that the people bothering to vote more than once are the ones that vote low. *sigh*

 

[JamesSD]

Thanks

Votes "disappear" when a sweep is done removing duplicate votes. Usually, this will raise your score. Which is rather depressing since that means that the people bothering to vote more than once are the ones that vote low. *sigh*

I'd noticed this phenomena too and was a bit curious about it. Thanks for the info!

 

[cookiejar]

I've just posted my first story and in my profile I'm told that it has 9 votes averaging 4.89, which makes me pretty chuffed and would make it the third most popular story in its section (humour and satire) but when I check the 'top stories' board its not there! I can't find an explanation in the FAQs but am guessing either that there is a time-lag or that I have to get 10 or more votes to make it ont othe board. Does anyone know the explanation? And if its the latter is there any kind soul out there would take pity on a virgin and give me that magic extra vote (even if you don't feel you can give me a good one, although I prefer it if you could...) Check out the story at

http://english.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=195098

Yoy're right, you need 10 votes.

 

[bearcomeshome]

and goddam it..

[COLOR=Purple]nobody's taken pity on me and I'm still stuck on 9!!!

please, pretty, please, someone vote!!!!

[/COLOR]

 

[fireballxl5]

Two answers and a question

JQ: I've noticed that very thing -- the public comments are often about whether they think the characters are likeable, whether it had a happy ending, or whether they think justice was served. I have a very good example of that: one story with a 4.64 that has a happy ending, and one with a 3.62 with an unhappy ending (although I don't blame some people for being pissed at the 3.62 story, honestly. They think the author gyped them in the end, and, well, he did, sort of. I'm rewriting it.).

MinSue: Thanks for the explanation. That certainly makes sense.

Here's a question for anyone who might read this who knows the site better than I do. As I mentioned, I'm a numbers geek. I have been collecting detailed information on voting that I think would interest some of the authors here (e.g., the effect of a hot submission on the number of reads, votes and scores of other stories, the effect of a stinker on the scores of other more highly rated stories, the correlation between number of votes and score, various influences on the fraction of people who vote, and so forth). I'd like to present the results in a format like an informal technical report, including six or eight graphs. Is there a place here that I could present a report like that? I think it would have to be a Word document or some other graphics-enabled medium.

fireballxl5

 

[intriguess]

try the non erotic category

for your data collection

as for reading stories i don't like i once read a sci fi story (which is one of my fav genres) and the lead character was a strong sexy woman who had dominate tendencies, but in the end gets totally subbed and ends up giving up her identity for good sex.

it pissed me off as a total turn off, cuz he built her up as this sexy empowered thing and then totally had her give her personality up for good sex. so I low balled it

 

[fireballxl5]

A true numbers geek

Hey, intriguess,

Oh, wow! When I said I was a total numbers geek, you thought I might find numbers erotic and might want to put my report in something like "Nonhuman"! No, but I stand in awe of anyone that totally geeky.

"3"

"Oh, oh, oh...."

"4.1"

"Ungghhhh"

Panting, I gasped, "37.1"

"Don't stop!"

"37.2, 37.3, 37.4..."

With each number her shrieks became louder. Would the neighbors hear? Her body undulated in time to the numbers, climbing to a crescendo of tremendous proportions. "...40.1, 40.2..."

Finally, she tensed and screamed. Then, squinting her eyes tightly, she held her breath. I continued, "40.6, 40.7,..." She clamped her hand tightly over my mouth.

"No, stop. I'm sensitive now, and I need you to stop."

...

I'm not quite that bad off (see one of my stories). My question really is this: Is there a way to store *graphic* information somewhere? Maybe there's a forum somewhere where people put formatted documents with illustrations, but I wouldn't know how to find it.

fireballxl5

 

[bearcomeshome]

read her lips..

carefully, Fireball and I think that you will find that Intriguess suggested 'non-erotic' not 'non-human', but I enjoyed your flight of fancy none the less..

 

[J.Q. Hack]

How do votes "evaporate"

Minsue you said every so often votes "evaporate" after a sweep is done to eliminate duplicate votes, do you know how they do it? Is it done using an ISP address or something like that? I think its a good thing since it makes useless the efforts of creeps who will hit the "one" vote button twenty times in a row since they don't like that one character didn't use a condom or something like that.

 

[fireballxl5]

I did read them...

Hey, bearcomeshome,

You misunderstood me. A joke loses something when you explain it, but...

The suggestion I read was, "Try the non-erotic category." Someone who thought they needed to say that would have assumed I might have put my little technical report in an erotic category. I'm guessing that an erotic category appropriate for a story about numbers would be "Nonhuman". Hence my little takeoff on what an erotic numbers story might be like (in the pretend world where I was such a geek that I thought numbers were erotic).

It was just a little pleasantry meant in a friendly way. I still would like to know if there is a place at literotica, perhaps in a forum somewhere, where someone can post a largish document that mixes text and graphics.

fireballxl5

 

[minsue]

Minsue you said every so often votes "evaporate" after a sweep is done to eliminate duplicate votes, do you know how they do it? Is it done using an ISP address or something like that? I think its a good thing since it makes useless the efforts of creeps who will hit the "one" vote button twenty times in a row since they don't like that one character didn't use a condom or something like that.

I'm under the impression it's done by IP address, but I honestly don't know for sure.

 

[Kirk482002]

Yeah, they go by ISP

Minsue you said every so often votes "evaporate" after a sweep is done to eliminate duplicate votes, do you know how they do it? Is it done using an ISP address or something like that? I think its a good thing since it makes useless the efforts of creeps who will hit the "one" vote button twenty times in a row since they don't like that one character didn't use a condom or something like that.

My oldest kid had the toughest time trying to get a vote in for me after her boyfriend already did it. Seems that votes on the same day from the same computer get ignored and votes done on seperate days eventually get erased as 'multiple' votes from the same 'reader'. It makes it fair so someone can't keep voting for them selves and also to keep that troll from repeatedly hitting the '1' button, over and over.

 

[Tanuki]

My vote count drops as often as it goes up, and usually the score drops - I think people are revoting on my story, not knowing the rules.

I don't believe any of my 1s have been removed, because I've never seen the score shoot up. 4.80 seems to be the magical barrier at which I get more 1s, maybe because it's around the Top 25? So my story is usually around 4.79.

 

[JamesSD]

I think you can be very happy

My vote count drops as often as it goes up, and usually the score drops - I think people are revoting on my story, not knowing the rules.

I don't believe any of my 1s have been removed, because I've never seen the score shoot up. 4.80 seems to be the magical barrier at which I get more 1s, maybe because it's around the Top 25? So my story is usually around 4.79.

I did a little study and posted the results elsewhere. Nonconsent/Reluctance and SciFi are two of the toughest categories to get little red H's in, so if your story runs around 4.79 you should be QUITE pleased w/yourself!

 

[Tanuki]

I did a little study and posted the results elsewhere. Nonconsent/Reluctance and SciFi are two of the toughest categories to get little red H's in, so if your story runs around 4.79 you should be QUITE pleased w/yourself!

Haha, no! I just puts more pressure on me to make a good chapter 2.

 

[dreampilot79]

Personally I write mostly for fun, and couldn't care much less about the scores. However, I like entering the contests, mostly because you tend to draw many more comments. You also get to see more trolls.

I don't know if anyone knows much about trolls but I suspect there are several kinds. The first is just the type who likes to give 1's. The second is probably other authors who want their scores to be higher than yours.

Sweeps can cause your scores to go either up or down. Sometimes, people vote more than once, even by accident. Frequently those votes are initially tallied, and then removed. This can happen especially to authers entered in contests. You talk to others and then feel that you should vote on their stories.... you vote on the first day and the last and forget who you voted for.

Trolls are also eliminated when the vote is way out of line. If you have 50 votes all 4's and 5's and one 1.... somebody must be trolling you.. bingo.. 1 bomb gone.

There are people around (or at least so the rumor says) that have a large fan club (or group of friends) who all vote 5's for particular authors and if they see them falling in the top category give anyone competing 1's.

One fact is for sure... if you get into the top category, you will draw trolls!

 

[Kirk482002]

Personally I write mostly for fun, and couldn't care much less about the scores. However, I like entering the contests, mostly because you tend to draw many more comments. You also get to see more trolls.

I don't know if anyone knows much about trolls but I suspect there are several kinds. The first is just the type who likes to give 1's. The second is probably other authors who want their scores to be higher than yours.

Sweeps can cause your scores to go either up or down. Sometimes, people vote more than once, even by accident. Frequently those votes are initially tallied, and then removed. This can happen especially to authers entered in contests. You talk to others and then feel that you should vote on their stories.... you vote on the first day and the last and forget who you voted for.

Trolls are also eliminated when the vote is way out of line. If you have 50 votes all 4's and 5's and one 1.... somebody must be trolling you.. bingo.. 1 bomb gone.

There are people around (or at least so the rumor says) that have a large fan club (or group of friends) who all vote 5's for particular authors and if they see them falling in the top category give anyone competing 1's.

One fact is for sure... if you get into the top category, you will draw trolls!

You nailed it right onj the head

 

[hiddenself]

Not quite

Trolls are also eliminated when the vote is way out of line. If you have 50 votes all 4's and 5's and one 1.... somebody must be trolling you.. bingo.. 1 bomb gone.

Life is not uniform. A hundred people may vote for Bush, ninety for Kerry, and just one for Nader. Should that last one be eliminated as fraudulent because it "is way out of line" with the rest? Interesting logic.

Lit is no different. There are very legit reasons why occasional 1 votes might appear on a story that typically gets 4s and 5s. As far as I know, 1-votes do NOT get eliminated the way you outline.