How do you Vote on stories?

[Grizzman]

I never voted on stories until I posted my first one. Now I see some value in the system and have started to vote. Not sure this is the right forum for this, but here it goes. What parameters do you use when voting on a story?

Some things I consider (and I'll try to put them in order) are:

proper grammar Nothing bites more than having to figure out what some has just written

point of view 1st person, 3rd person, omnipotent, whatever. Keep it consistent. Unless you're writing a multi-chapter story, it's pretty hard to transition.

story length / flow These two kind of go together in that the stories on this site are of a sexual nature. Too much lead in / character building usually makes my attention wane. I generally like stories that are one page. I have never read one longer than two.

posted in the correct category I realize that in most stories there are a broad range of sexual derivatives. It is near impossible to write a story that does at least touch on multiple category headings. But if you story in 99% about golden showers with a three line anal sex crescendo, It should not show up under anal sex.

examples
A story with all of the above done correctly that is engaging and allows the reader to feel the excitement/electricity gets a 5.

Less than proper grammar w/ feeling or everything else excellent but lacking in feeling is more like a 4.

If I struggle through a story with awful grammar, but devilish thoughts on my mind, probably more along a 3.

Anything less, terribly out of catagory, or too long I probably will not finish reading it.

I am not dead set on any of this. In fact I would like to here what others look for in the perfect story so that I may use this to help temper and hone my ratings.

Thanks for the input

-G

 

[damppanties]

Try out the following threads:

Voting Methods

A reader asks about story scores & feedback

 

[Green_Gem]

Voting

Hello there Grizzman and congratulations on taking the plunge and submitting your first story. There is a thread on this very topic in the Authors Hangout. I will try and post a link, but you will find it listed as "Voting Methods"

https://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=211510

Green_Gem

 

[Grizzman]

DOH!

I looked around but didn't find it. Thanks!
-G

 

[wishfulthinking]

How I vote

Hi there. My voting system can only be described as antique. If I don't like the story, I won't vote. This may be for a number of reasons, say, it isn't my thing, or something grates against me that would only irritate me. But someone else might love it.

I vote on the story - originality, whether I finish it, good characters etc. I don't think I have ever voted below a 4.

Things like spelling won't affect my vote too much, unless every second word is wrong.

So, at the end of the day, I only vote if I like it. Might not make for fair, but in a twisted way it seems to for me.

Hope that helps. Aussie chick.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Re: How I vote

I vote on the story - originality, whether I finish it, good characters etc. I don't think I have ever voted below a 4.

A lot of people do this, and I know their hearts are in the right place, but I wonder just how helpful it is to restrict one's votes to either a 4, a 5, or no vote at all. Does it help an author improve if all they ever hear is that their story was good or very good? How will they know if they've written something really bad?

I've been on this site over a year, and only recently started regularly voting for stories. In the past, I would send feedback for stories I liked, but I couldn't bring myself to vote. The 1-5 system is very crude and unfair and best suited for a simple liked it/hated it kind of evaluation. It's not suited at all to really expressing an opinion on a piece. A 1-10 system would be much better.

I started out voting on the 4-5-no vote system, but lately I've readjusted my scale. I save my 5's for a story that's really outstanding in terms of style and substance. My 4's are for "above average", and an average story rates a 3. Sub-par stories get lower scores.

It comes down to what you mean to do by voting: do you want to evaluate the quality of the story, or do you want to just express appreciation?

---dr.M.

 

[wishfulthinking]

How I vote

I do admit that my votes simply reflect apppreciation. If I felt a story deserved a 1 or 2, I prefer to leave feedback.

I have to agree with Dr M that the 1 to 5 system is crude. I would find it more helpful to know why someone voted the way they did, rather than what they did vote. For example, a one line explanation sent with the vote. "the plot had holes big enough to sink a battleship in."

But this is moving toward a cross between scoring and feedback, and who is to say people will take the time to do this any more than it takes time to send feedback?

 

[dr_mabeuse]

There's a BDSM site that's close to Literotica in structure and philosophy that has a much more user-friendly reader response system. Votes are broken down and displayed in bar graph fashion and reader feedback is simple to post and shows up like reviews that are available for anyone to read. I think this encourages voting and commenting.

Here's a link to the site:

http://www.bdsmlibrary.com/stories/index.php

---dr.M.

 

[wishfulthinking]

How I vote

This is more in response to the 5000 looks, 50 votes post, but how about a brownie points system for voting, to encourage slackers (not saying I am not one of them), or does this seem a childish reward-based system?

I still refuse to use the smile face things, as not that sort of gal.

Also, before I check out this website, will I get pop-ups?

 

[Boxlicker101]

Posted by Grizzman:

posted in the correct category I realize that in most stories there are a broad range of sexual derivatives. It is near impossible to write a story that does at least touch on multiple category headings. But if you story in 99% about golden showers with a three line anal sex crescendo, It should not show up under anal sex

Stories are not always posted according to the writer. I have two stories that, if I were to repost them, would be listed as "Anal". I had one that I classified as "Erotic Coupling" and was posted as "Interracial", and another that I classified as "Erotic Coupling" and it was posted as "Non-Consent". A lot of errors like grammar, spelling, etc. would cause me to lower my vote but they would have to be so plentiful so as to be distracting.

Otherwise, I don't have any kind of formula, just how I feel when I get done with a story.

 

[Grizzman]

I had one that I classified as "Erotic Coupling" and was posted as "Interracial", and another that I classified as "Erotic Coupling" . . .

What exactly is "erotic coupling". that's seems a pretty general heading you couldn't go wrong with.

Cheers.

 

[JRaven]

Only if I like it.

I'm with WishfullThinking. I only vote if I like it. If I'm not going to give it 4 at least, I don't vote. Some stories, I can't get through the first page. Is it because I don't care for the kind of story? Or, is it because it is a bad story? I prefer not to judge harshly.

There was one story that trully was awfull. But I still voted myself a 5!

Jenny

 

[Boxlicker101]

Grizzman asked:

What exactly is "erotic coupling". that's seems a pretty general heading you couldn't go wrong with.

I would think it is consensual sex between one man and one woman who are not related, neither of whom are virgins, and is not mainly anal and does not involve much BD or SM. The plurality of my stories are classified as that but if I change two of them to anal, the category might not be a plurality anymore.

I only vote on a category that I like. If I start reading and suddenly some guy is flogging a woman, I stop reading because I don't like that kind of thing. I don't give it a good score because I don't like it and I don't give it a low score because it wouldn't be fair, since the reason I don't like it is a dislike for the class of srory. Some of my stories involve women who like to be tied up and/or blindfolded or they involve affectionate spanking, and these are classified as BDSM. I never have written a story, and never will write a story that isn't about fun for all the persons involved.

 

[wishfulthinking]

To Jenny and BL, I'm the same. If I come across a story that is not my thing, I won't vote, and will allow people whose thing it is to vote, good or bad.

Also, BL, I read a comment on another thread about non-consent being "vanilla" on lit, but I agree in relation to flogging etc no matter what the category, "affection" is the key term. Even though the two stories I have posted are both non-consent, I hope the strong vein of affection and respect for his women and his captive that is running through them is clear to the reader.

 

[falcon29]

voting

I admit I'm picky. I'm not sorry, that's just the way I am.

I make mistakes in my stories, but it isn't from a lack of editing. If I see grammatic or serious spelling errors in a story it detracts from the enjoyment of the reading. If I take the time to vote, it is usually a low number.

I think a zero should be allowed.

 

[Rainbow Skin]

Ideally, I would take the numbers at face value: 3 is average, and stories get distributed evenly around that.

Perhaps half my marking is for writing, that is freshness of phrasing, three-dimensionality of character, believability of scenes, interest of plot. This is the part that would be equally applicable to non-erotic stories. Probably more than half, in fact.

The other half or part is sexyness: is it exciting, does it make me want to do it or see it or know them? Do I go wow, or mewl?

And on the negative side: is the writing slipshod, are the characters like porn models, is the sex crude?

But in practice I usually give 4, occasionally 3 or 5, often nothing, because stories deserving 1 or 2 I can't be bothered finishing. It would be unfair to vote without reading them, and they're too bad to read: I sometimes think I ought to persevere, with my editing cap on, and give them feedback on what they did wrong, but I seldom think it would do much good. (Compare the result of giving feedback on this forum to hopelessly bad stories: the author usually comes over all injured and the next John Steinbeck.)

 

[Sexy Frosh]

I have to admit to being a rare voter. Generally I will only vote on stories that I've found to be among the best I've read.

This means that they are:

1) Character driven (it's just that much hotter than sex driven)

2) Realistic, well kinda. I don't expect to run into this kind of character in my life, but having a 55 year old man who is performing better and more often than a man half his age would just doesn't flow. There are a couple other things that can bring me in or out of the story.

3) Probably by a favourite author. I admit it, there are a handful of authors that I look out for, and that I will read their stories immedietly and probably give them a 4 or 5 depending on if it's one of their best, or just good.

I have to say that my biggest problem with voting on Lit is that there is not a range of possible votes, while the quality of story varies WIDELY. I think if there was a 10point scheme, I'd be more likely to vote for more than half the stories I read rather than for less than 10% of them.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Trolls

I have one story in the Sci Fi category and for a long time it had a score of 4.9 but only nine votes. Finally, yesterday, it picked up two more votes of five each and had a rank of 4.91 and was at the top of its category. This morning I looked and saw that it stood at 4.58. Some troll came along last night and gave it a vote of one. Why, if ten persons thought it rated a five, and one person thought it rated a four, would the next person think it was so bad to give it a vote of one? Probably that one person wanted to remove it from the top of the Sci Fi category, although I don't know why somebody would do that.

http://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=207952MySmut

 

[CAPT-CockAssPussyTit]

I will always vote if the story interest & are able to excite me. Usually it's 5 pts as I feel that even giving it a 4, will actually pull his ratings down when it was already hovering above 4.

For The rest, I'ld rather not give any votes at all. I find it's not fair to tht writer if I give it a low score just becoz I dun really like his story or not my kind of preferences. I do not like gay or those les stories so I'll just skip it rather than giving them a low score. Other readers may find that they love it!

I find tht it's not right to give a low score just becoz of some spelling mistakes. I rather go for the plot and the suspense.

As the way of the scores goes, it is easy to manipute it, which i believed it's already happening everytime. Simply vote 1 pt and tht story will slide down like crazy. It's just not fair A bunch of idiots cld simply just vote 1 on every top-score stories excpet theirs. Just imagine, 10 votes in succession of 1 pt will instantly kill it. If there are 1 to 10 pts to vote, it will be alot worst!

 

[Boxlicker101]

Trolls (2)

I will always vote if the story interest & are able to excite me. Usually it's 5 pts as I feel that even giving it a 4, will actually pull his ratings down when it was already hovering above 4.

For The rest, I'ld rather not give any votes at all. I find it's not fair to tht writer if I give it a low score just becoz I dun really like his story or not my kind of preferences. I do not like gay or those les stories so I'll just skip it rather than giving them a low score. Other readers may find that they love it!

I find tht it's not right to give a low score just becoz of some spelling mistakes. I rather go for the plot and the suspense.

As the way of the scores goes, it is easy to manipute it, which i believed it's already happening everytime. Simply vote 1 pt and tht story will slide down like crazy. It's just not fair A bunch of idiots cld simply just vote 1 on every top-score stories excpet theirs. Just imagine, 10 votes in succession of 1 pt will instantly kill it. If there are 1 to 10 pts to vote, it will be alot worst!

What you describe happens sometimes, although I don't know how a group could conspire to do it unless it was a series of PM's. People who do what you describe have been given the name "trolls". I don't know who came up with that name but it is descriptive.

I described this on my previous post and now it has happened again. I have a story in the novella section that had been given 13 votes of five each until last night, somebody gave it a one. I know this was not a valid vote because the story is actually chapter six of six, and none of the other chapters had been voted on by this person.