I know I'm a saddo but I follow my scores

[gauchecritic]

I've just looked at my scores (again) and people seem to be reading all my stories again. Which is nice. No extra feedback though.

My best story (highest scoring) is once more reaching for the H (been there twice before) at 4.44.

I just wish I'd keep my 'good idea' by taking the time to note down the scores so that I can work out what the latest scorers think instead of thinking "Hmm... I'm sure that last score was lower/higher I wonder who it was and what score they gave it."

Will anyone admit they follow the scores? However irregularly.

Can't someone ask Laurel to automate a system which gives a detailed breakdown of the scores and dates? Please? Muffie? Anyone?

Has anyone made up a full spread sheet detailing every vote?

I often wish I had.

Gauche

 

[MathGirl]

Will anyone admit they follow the scores? However irregularly.

Has anyone made up a full spread sheet detailing every vote?

Dear Gauchie,
Not me! I did that at first, and it made me crazy. If I ever post anything again, I'm gonna turn off the scoring. Last time I looked, I had some decent scores, but trying to make any sense of it can make you crazy.
MG
Ps. There's a site I once posted some stuff to. You could look each day to find individual scores posted in the last 24 hours. Again, it could make you crazy, and I haven't even looked there in months.
Pps. I think I'm overusing the word "crazy." Whenever I think about voting, though, that word just keeps coming up.

 

[Guest]

Same as Maths. It never made me crazy, really really don't care. I haven't looked in months I think.

Purr

 

[PAUL C]

now and then

I do look but more out of morbid curiosity than anything else I think.

I have so many posted now that to follow one is pointless. I do tend to follow my latest, sometimes. But what is the point. You can do little to effect the scores. and if you do reach the dizzy heights somebody comes along and gives you a 'one' vote.

I have quite a few 'H's and half a dozen or so 'E's. Which only goes to show that it doesn't matter how many read your stories. It's Laurel who really counts.

 

[The_Fool]

I guess I fit in all three categories. First off, I do write primarily for myself. However, it is nice to have great scores and always wonderful to get direct feedback. But the scores can be annoying as well. They go up, they go down, so I’ve decided just to look at scores as a general indicator. I also have two stories, one of which that had an “H” before that are just hovering below that magic number, my other stories all have “H”s. My poems don’t get and keep enough scores to even register.

As far as feedback, I look at feedback as a very qualitative measure, because the reader that is going to take the time to give feedback, either likes what you’ve written a great deal or hates what you’ve written a great deal. I know this is a generalization, but if I can hit 75% of the readers…

So, I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing and write what I please when I please, hoping to get good scores and smiling when I get feedback.

Fool

 

[oggbashan]

Printouts

I used to printout the submission view page or download it.

I've kept the printout that showed my story as No.1 even though it was a statistical fluke that was corrected in hours.

Now I only look for the first two or three days after a new submission.

Og

 

[Alex De Kok]

I watch the scores like a hawk for the first few days after a story is posted, then pretty much ignore them. I find that I get a feel for how a story is being received from those first votes.

Alex

 

[Lovepotion69]

I'm slightly paranoid about scores the first few days, but not as much nowadays. I've finally come to terms that my stories will reach an "H" after a while, and then head for a major decrease. Then I'll never see that "H" again.

Feeback is great fun, have to admit I love the ones where the sender tells me I've triggered a memory for them. Most feedback I received was for "Cum Undone", my Gay Male story. The latest story within the Fetish category hardly received any feedback at all. Sucks as I don't know what I did "wrong" or "right".

 

[pixiesjuice]

I know I shouldnt spend much time watching my scores but its like a compulsion, one I'm going to try and get rid off. Especially when it looks like a story is doing really well, then it gets hit by a '1'.

Good feedback is a better indicator

 

[Icingsugar]

I pop in for a peek now and then. I can't say I obsess over the scores, although I can't for the life of me understand them.

I'm still a saddo now and then. But that's an entirely different story.

 

[Couture]

No, but I do love when I look in the Top Lists and find my stories on the first page.

 

[KenJames]

I'm both obsessive, which I consider to be a good thing (in moderation) for computer programmers and writers (I'm both), and somewhat masochistic, so I do record my scores.

I go through my story list every few days and record the date, score, votes and views for each story. I follow freshly-posted stories more closely for the first few days.

The scores for my stories seem to stabilize very quickly. The few stories which have gone over 4.5 have stayed there, while those under the magic number have never climbed above it.

I don't take the scores very seriously (although I do want more Hs, dammit!). I'm more interested in votes and views. Those give me a rough feel for a story's popularity, although I don't have a clue as to why one story is popular and another is not (except for Sci-Fi. Nobody seems to read Sci-Fi erotica. I don't even read Sci-Fi, even though I published a Sci-Fi story.).

Feedback is more important to me. My stories don't attract much negative feedback, but I don't get a vast amount of positive feedback, either. Still, I love what I do get.

It's a good thing I basically write for myself.

 

[Seattle Zack]

Isn't it funny how we all crave feedback so much, yet we guard and defend our meager creations so zealously? When I first posted, I checked my scores every day. Now, after a few stories posted, I'm used to seeing the scores oscillate for a bit, then finally settle at a (somewhat) reasonable score.

When I give someone a story of mine, I find it hard to even be in the room while they read it. It drives me nuts. I want to go over and point out "well I originally had this set up, and I took a shortcut here, and this character was blah blah blah"

I never consider a story finished. Even after I send it off to an editor, it gets accepted, I'll still tinker with it. Hard to let them go sometimes.

I do get a lot more from the feedback than the scores. Some of that "Wow you're the greatest" feedback really makes my day. It's such a personal and isolated endeavor, writing, it's a wonder there's such a compulsion -- and a dread -- of sharing it.

--Zack

 

[LorriLove]

wow

wish i could score

 

[Guest]

Re: wow

wish i could score

You score with me, Love.

 

[LorriLove]

hiya

hiya darling

 

[English Lady]

I think i look more in the first few days, just to see how well it's gone down,then I tend to only look every once in a while, just to see if there has been much movement.

the scores don't bother me much,but then all of my stories are at what i class as a respectable score, if one slid down and down..then maybe i'd get a bit more score obsessive!

 

[Icingsugar]

Re: wow

wish i could score

I find it very hard to belive that you can't.

cheers!
/Ice