How much do you pay attention to your ratings?

[SlickTony]

I only have some poems posted right now. I check the scores on those on occasion. They don't even have enough votes to be anything worth wild. I am finishing up a story that I've been working on for a long time now. I know my poems have flaws, big flaws. I didn't, and still don't, take them seriously. Those are what I write to release random or pent up feelings. This story however, I've put too much into it. I should have dumped it months ago, but I just put everything of myself into and hate to see it fail, by my standards fo course.

Welcome to the AH. I'm sorry I don't have usual kind and oft poetic words to soothe or entice, but I am in a rather shitty mood right now. I offer my most sincere and kind welcome though.

I shouldn't worry about the low ratings for the poems. That's the way poetry gets received. Don Marquis once said that publishing a book of poems was like dropping a feather into the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.

 

[brightlyiburn]

Sadly, as am I. I noticed you posted several times that you play video games, PM me some time and we'll talk about favs.

Currently playing Animal Crossing, Skies of Arcadia, and KOTOR 2

(Currently not playing Jak 3 and Prince of Persia 2 because my sister has my PS2 )

 

[sophia jane]

I shouldn't worry about the low ratings for the poems. That's the way poetry gets received. Don Marquis once said that publishing a book of poems was like dropping a feather into the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.

The problem for me with poetry ratings is that my poems are much more personal to me. So when one gets a low score (or as three get low scores, as is the case this morning), it feels more like someone has attacked one of my children. I know that's the risk in sharing my work, and I know it will make me a better writer. But I hate to see those twos, especially when I have no idea why they're being received.
Sigh. Why is it that those low scores are often more powerful than the high ones?

SJ

 

[oggbashan]

The problem for me with poetry ratings is that my poems are much more personal to me. So when one gets a low score (or as three get low scores, as is the case this morning), it feels more like someone has attacked one of my children. I know that's the risk in sharing my work, and I know it will make me a better writer. But I hate to see those twos, especially when I have no idea why they're being received.
Sigh. Why is it that those low scores are often more powerful than the high ones?

SJ

Perhaps because they convey too much to be comfortable. The rating system is biased towards the popular rather than the challenging.

Og

 

[Alex De Kok]

Like others have said here, the private and public feedback is what really counts, although I have to exclude the 'Your story sucks' I got for one of my efforts. With a new story, I check frequently over the first day or two, as I've found that I can tell the way a story is being received by the voting pattern of the first few days. Usually, anyway - I had one story that had settled at about a 4.20 average after a week or two and over the years (posted in October 2000) has crept up to 4.67. That's unusual.

This thread got me thinking, so I did a little number crunching. I wrote a Perl script which pulls the numbers out of my submissions page saved as a .txt file, and stuck those numbers into a spreadsheet. From a total of 64 submissions, under three names (Alex de Kok, Frederick Carol and another I keep for experiments) my efforts have attracted over two and a half million views. That is scary! Even if half of them did back-click after a line or two. The voting is another story. From the same 64 pieces, a total of 14,440 votes, or just over 0.5% of the views. Feedback, public and private, much less - so treasure it!

And as Og has said, if you write 'outside the box', prepare to be slammed.

Alex

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I've already admitted I'm addicted to feedback. Unfortunately I'm also addicted to my ratings. I'm so vain.
So, I was wondering am I just obsessed because I'm new and looking for validation? Or am I normal? (Well, okay I know I'm not normal!)
Also, does it ever piss you off to read a story that has a better rating than one of yours but is full of typos, grammatical errors and bad writing?
I do write for myself. And I will continue to write for myself, no matter what anyone tells me. But here I am obsessed with stupid numbers...
Anyone else?

SJ

I don't check mine regularly and am pretty blissfully ignornat of my scores. It took a while to get there though. In the long run, you will come to the realization that no matter how well written, or how skillfully depicted, you rwork is at the mercy of the winds of fortune once posted. it takes only one of our proessional trools, or a reader who expected soemthing they didn't get or a reader who isn't into you rstyle to lower your score. Over time, the good ones will tend to rise based on the fact most readers will appreciate them.

At the very least, I would suggest not paying too much attention until you have around 50 votes. Until that point, a single one or 5 is too heavily weighted and will skew your score in a manner that can be out of proportion to a single vote's importance.

 

[Guest]

 

[DrFreud]

From the same 64 pieces, a total of 14,440 votes, or just over 0.5% of the views.
Alex

Wow that's not bad. I thought there was usually 1 / 1000 (0.1%) ratio of votes to views. Good job

DrF

 

[Octavian]

How much attention do I pay?

None at all; I don't check more than once an hour.

Octavian

 

[Boota]

I'm not saying I don't care, but I really don't check very often. A lot of the time I forget to check for months at a time. I was surprised to check once after several months and find that I had made it back onto the first page from around the fifth. I couldn't find my story and I thought I had dropped off the top list in erotic couplings. I went back and checked and found myself on the first page of listings. I was surprised not only to have climbed that high again after falling so low, but to see that I really liked it that I came back.

If I didn't care I wouldn't have posted it for others to read. I love feedback, whether it is positive, negative/constructive, or just negative. It lets me know that someone has seen it. Considering the sheer numbers of stories on this site alone, the fact that mine is found and read is amazing. To get feedback from someone who has read it shows that one way or another they thought enough of it to respond.

 

[SlickTony]

I think I got on the top ratings page like, once. I'm just glad if people send me nice feedback and give me H ratings.

(Edit) Hot damn! I just looked at them for the first time in months and months and months, and one of my stories is on them--"Quid pro Quo," of all stories, which was panned when it first came out and isn't one of the H rated ones. Maybe it's turning out to be a sleeper. I wonder if it's getting the Asperger vote or something.

 

[sophia jane]

Although I still check on them, the best thing of all happened and the one that I finally submitted that I actually liked has received the lowest rating - a very low one indeed - but it did not hurt because I still liked the piece - I actually laughed about it. It was very liberating.

There was a famous composer I read about a few years ago (can't remember right now just who) and if I correctly recall what I read, the more favorably his work was received the bigger failure he considered himself and when his work was despised it made him feel successful. Something like that. Another way to look at things.

This is something I struggle with. If I love a poem I've written but it gets a bad score, I question my objectivity. If I think I've done a good piece, but someone else gives it a two, my immediate response is- what do they see that I don't? I am dealing with that today, and it sucks!
I know that I will become a better writer by opening myself up to feedback and criticism, but some days I am not sure if being a better writer is worth feeling like this.
On that vein, if anyone wants to read my new poems and give me feedback and tell me if you think I went wrong and where, I would be glad for it. Much rather that than get a two for who knows what reason.

SJ- who is going to try to spend the day writing and not obsessing about stupid numbers

 

[mtnman2003]

All over the board

I am also a ratings whore!! Reads whore!! Feedback whore!! Public comment whore!!

Get the picture.

32-stories. Mostly H's. All over 4. Combined reads exceed 1.5 million.

Minimal feedbacks, minimal public comments.

I wish I received more feedback. Useable feedback!! Requesting a story with a "girdle" does not trip the feedback trigger.

Challenging organ size does not trip the feedback trigger.

I have looked at other stories from other authors. The level of writing ability is below what I would expect for clarity, use of language, logic, etc., but amazingly, public comments number a yard long.

So, I sit and ponder. No logic! Write for myself!

Oh, by the way, I check scores every morning to see if any have moved up or down. Then off to more important stuff, emails.

Mtn

 

[elfin_odalisque]

Oh vanity, thy name is author (Apologies to Shakespeare)

Sophia, really loved your 'Speeding Ticket' story but was that because I read it from a female POV? Do guys understand the eroticism in your controlled, submissive scene?

I'm fairly new here too, but I've learnt to read between the lines a bit. All the comments from the 'big cats' saying 'I write for myself', 'popularity isn't everything, look at McDonalds' and 'I get easily distracted from following my scores' are just euphemisms for saying that every author in the world wants to be read/appreciated.

If I get an H and it stays, the cat gets treated to gourmet cuisine. The thing I don't really understand is this bit about 'views'. Every time I've raised it here, everyone says ignore. Surely there is a difference between 2000 and 200,000 views, whatever the story score?

 

[sophia jane]

Sophia, really loved your 'Speeding Ticket' story but was that because I read it from a female POV? Do guys understand the eroticism in your controlled, submissive scene?

Thanks for that! I need it today. I have actually gotten much more feedback from men than women on that story, so I think the guys did get it. Or they got it enough to be turned on by it.

As to views, I don't know what to say on that. It's crazy to me to have one of my stories read by over 10,000 people or however many it says. But I like it.

SJ

 

[Alex De Kok]

< ... first part snipped ... >The thing I don't really understand is this bit about 'views'. Every time I've raised it here, everyone says ignore. Surely there is a difference between 2000 and 200,000 views, whatever the story score?

As far as I know, a view is registered when anyone clicks on your work, even if they shudder, back out and run screaming into the night. The reader figure will therefore be somewhere between your votes total and your views total. What the proportion of genuine 'reading' views is I have no idea. Someone else (Harold?) might have an idea.

Alex

 

[impressive]

This is something I struggle with. If I love a poem I've written but it gets a bad score, I question my objectivity. If I think I've done a good piece, but someone else gives it a two, my immediate response is- what do they see that I don't? I am dealing with that today, and it sucks!
I know that I will become a better writer by opening myself up to feedback and criticism, but some days I am not sure if being a better writer is worth feeling like this.
On that vein, if anyone wants to read my new poems and give me feedback and tell me if you think I went wrong and where, I would be glad for it. Much rather that than get a two for who knows what reason.

SJ- who is going to try to spend the day writing and not obsessing about stupid numbers

The thing is, people vote based on wildly varying criteria. Some judge poetry on meter & rhyme, while others judge it on the feelings evoked. Some judge prose on the "wood factor" and others judge it on grammar/spelling. That makes it harder to determine exactly WHAT your rating means.

 

[davidwatts]

Guilty of paying way too much attention to voting, especially in the first few days that a story is up. Shamefully addicted to feedback, and only wish there was more of it.

I don't read as much as I first did, but I have been making an effort to offer a few words of feedback to stories I enjoy, figuring that there may be others like me.

 

[fifty5]

<snip> The thing I don't really understand is this bit about 'views'. Every time I've raised it here, everyone says ignore. Surely there is a difference between 2000 and 200,000 views, whatever the story score?

What Alex said, but also there's the category factor: some categories get read more than others. The bottom line? The number of views tells you how good the title & blurb are (within category), nothing at all about the story itself.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

So now it's all clear. We write for ourselves and don't know why we post our efforts for others to read. (Must be cos we love all that creative proofing and editing-such a turn on.)

If you get a lot of votes and a good score, your story must be poor because it's popular and formulaic. Are you listening Dan Brown and J K Rowling?

Views don't count because they're really angry people who've been tricked by your falsely seductive title and blurb and click out in a nanosecond.

The only thing we crave, like addicts, is feedback, good or bad. After weeks of gestation to bring our literary baby into the world, all the masochist inside wants is a message saying. 'I tink yor storry is crap nd is not errotik cos therr is to much sexx innit'

Despite this, we're all deranged enough to follow our stats with hyper-excitement.

Yup, sure is the authors' hangout-just feel the neuroses. I feel quite at home.

 

[Lilin Penn]

score whore here

I watch my ratings closely and when I lose the little "h" I covet so much I try and figure out what people didn't like and what I could've done different or better.

I also worry over public feedback which is why most of my stories DON'T have it. I don't want to be slammed publicly. I'd rather someone write me and tell me what they love/hate about my story.

One question since I am fairly new. What is a troll vote?

Lilin

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

. . . One question since I am fairly new. What is a troll vote? . . .

Everything You You Always Wanted To Know About TROLLS

But Were Too Wise To Ask!

http://www.searchlores.org/images/trolling.jpg

Click On Image

 

[BlackShanglan]

So now it's all clear. We write for ourselves and don't know why we post our efforts for others to read. (Must be cos we love all that creative proofing and editing-such a turn on.)

If you get a lot of votes and a good score, your story must be poor because it's popular and formulaic. Are you listening Dan Brown and J K Rowling?

Views don't count because they're really angry people who've been tricked by your falsely seductive title and blurb and click out in a nanosecond.

The only thing we crave, like addicts, is feedback, good or bad. After weeks of gestation to bring our literary baby into the world, all the masochist inside wants is a message saying. 'I tink yor storry is crap nd is not errotik cos therr is to much sexx innit'

Despite this, we're all deranged enough to follow our stats with hyper-excitement.

Yup, sure is the authors' hangout-just feel the neuroses. I feel quite at home.

That's about right.

Actually, each of my stories seems to have one person whom I really want to like it. It's not always the same person. Odd. I don't write stories with one person specifically in mind, but for some reason they seem to attach themselves to specific audiences.

Luckily, so far so good on pleasing those I wish to please.

Shanglan

 

[elfin_odalisque]

That's about right.

Actually, each of my stories seems to have one person whom I really want to like it. It's not always the same person. Odd. I don't write stories with one person specifically in mind, but for some reason they seem to attach themselves to specific audiences.

Luckily, so far so good on pleasing those I wish to please.

Shanglan

I understand , I think, but with Meer Kass were you aiming at TS Eliot or the pussy vote? (Got mine anyway, fantastic writing.)

 

[Sabledrake]

I check my scores obsessively with each new story, a couple of times a day for at least the first week. Then I only pop back in occasionally to see how the rest of them are doing. The scores are nice, but I prefer the feedback ... that little extra bit of effort it takes to send a note or leave a comment proves that someone spared the time to type it out rather than just click, and I appreciate that.

As for cruddy stories raking in the votes, yeah, that is aggravating. But I feel the same way when I see lame books on the bookstore shelves and best-seller lists, when I'm struggling even to get published. I hope to someday be a big enough name to coast on my laurels for books and books, getting sloppy and inane, while bringing down those 6-figure advances, yeah baby!

-- Sabledrake