I really don't get it.

[lovecraft68]

Yeah I know with a title like that you're all thinking "There's plenty he don't get."

And you'd be right, but this is about a specific thing. The wife, who seems more obsessed with my scores and "placing" here than I am sends me this link a couple hours back.

http://www.literotica.com/top/Incest-Taboo-9

She's all thrilled. So okay yeah it's nice. However, I take it in context. First off it has 100 votes to stories that have thousands.

More importantly, and correctly, I e-mail her back and say "give the trolls a little time"

Sure enough on my home page I just got 3 more votes and it is down 6 points.

Now even though I expected this I really just don't get it. Do they check the page daily? Is it the author?

In this case I do not think so. It is apparent that the offender is a fan of Texas Refugee. Tex himself has not been heard from since 2007. But it was "Colleen that suddenly supplanted "Conflicted" from the top spot last year in such a shitstorm of trolling that Eldgerin00 pulled his series.

Mental Case's Just the six of us then took over only to get slammed by dozens of one votes. The Afflicted had the top spot last week and got dropped. Now mine.

What the hell is in it for these people.? It would be pathetic enough for the author to do it, but at least they are doing it for their work these are toadies.

It's not like money is on the line here. The real shame is that because of this the real top incest story of all time Paco fears "Words on Skin" will never be number one where it belongs.

Oh well, good to be hated I guess. But like I said I can't wrap my mind around someone being that petty. Do they think we don't see it and know they're cheating? Sorry scratch that I just thought of Scouries.

 

[jomar]

Huh?..

 

[Feotakahari]

Well, there have been times when I saw a story get a higher rating than another story I thought was better, and I was tempted to drop a vote to downgrade it a little. I've yet to bother actually doing so, though (and in any event, most stories with that high a rating deserve at least a 4 vote, not a 1-bomb.)

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

Sounds like Dark needs to chime in here.

 

[lovecraft68]

Sounds like Dark needs to chime in here.

Not so sure Dark would know why people do this any more than I would. Unless you mean he could figure out who the offender is.

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

Not so sure Dark would know why people do this any more than I would. Unless you mean he could figure out who the offender is.

Nah, he'd throw some numbers out there, statistics, facts, and equations that projects the outcome of the next flood though and that would be fun.

But in all seriousness - I don't know what causes the changes to happen so quickly. In the past when I was writing more I had stories at the top for a while, then they'd be gone, then back again. I'd even forgot about that top list until I hit the link. Now I'm gonna be curious where my stuff is sitting after I submit it.

 

[Darkniciad]

The answer is likely simple. You had few enough votes to make it possible.

It doesn't have to be the author, or even an author's fanbase -- although those are certainly potential motives for the crime. There are trolls who have nothing better to do than to knock things down for the sake of knocking them down.

As was also hinted at, some may see the story at the top, read it, decide it doesn't deserve to be there, and low-vote it to bring the score down to a "realistic" level for the quality of the story as they see it.

"My opinion is worth more than anybody else who voted!"

I've actually seen that openly stated on this very forum in the past, by people I wouldn't otherwise consider to be trolls. The excuse was that the score "Had to come from the author's cheerleaders, and somebody needed to counteract them."

This is something I've seen openly expressed in comments on poetry as well. Commenters will directly say "No score for now, but if a bunch of your friends vote five, I will be back to score it to properly balance the score."

When it comes to toplist manipulation, I suspect the mindless attack trolls, the "realistic score" voters, and the long-standing top story fanbase equally, with the top-standing authors coming in a distant second.

All of that sort of falls to the wayside once you have enough votes. It becomes harder and harder to manipulate as your vote total rises, discouraging further attempts. Anyone who's on the top of the toplists has probably reached that point, having been knocked down and swept back up numerous times.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

What Dark said, although I believe it's authors alts doing the knocking...there are some who just can't stand to see someone better than them in the tops slots. They really don't care who is there just so it's not you or I.

JMHO.