Just a question

[JADED_ONE1969]

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[sr71plt]

If readers OR trolls as you call them read a story but dont comment or vote
is there someway that you the writer can tell that a story has been read?

Every time the story is opened, your "read" count (found in your submissions account and also can be found in the general story lists) goes up by one. That's no guarantee the story has been read, though, just opened.

And I don't equate readers and trolls (but I answered your question anyway).

 

[mjl2010]

If readers OR trolls as you call them read a story but dont comment or vote
is there someway that you the writer can tell that a story has been read?

Actually, we don't call readers trolls.

A troll...
May or may not read a story.
May or may not like a story.
May or may not think a story was well written.

Will get to the vote and vote a one, just because doing so...
Makes them laugh to trash someone else.
Makes them feel powerful.
Gets their rocks off.

May leave a comment, public or private, designed to make the writer feel bad.

Readers on the other hand, read a story. If they don't like it, they probably back click. If they do like it, they'll finish it. If they are impressed, they might leave a vote or comment. Or not. Some never vote or comment. Some do so occasionally. Some do every time they read a story and finish it. Some never vote anything but a four or a five.

Really, the only way to know if someone actually read your story, is if they write you and tell you they did. The views that show up on your submissions-view page, are just that. Views. There's no way to tell if a view read your story or not.

MJL

 

[elfin_odalisque]

If readers OR trolls as you call them read a story but dont comment or vote
is there someway that you the writer can tell that a story has been read?

As sr and mjl said, every time someone clicks on your story and opens it, the counter on your submission page registers one more view. As the others said, this does not mean the person read it, just that they opened it. They may have clicked back after the first paragraph, but it still counts as a view.

Nevertheless, if you start getting thousands of views and a few votes, you can assume that a good few people are reading your story.

Readers are NOT trolls. Readers are the oxygen that any author craves, together with their fair votes and criticism (not just praise).

Because most readers usually don't vote vote lower than a '3', the distribution is skewed so that the mean of the voting distribution is between 4.25 and 4.50 (i.e. 'average') and not 2.5 as you would expect from a 1-5 scale.

A troll is someone who takes advantage of this to deliberately lower a story's score by giving a 1 vote. Try calculating what happens if your story has 10 '5' votes and then gets a '1' vote.

 

[mjl2010]

A troll is someone who takes advantage of this to deliberately lower a story's score by giving a 1 vote. Try calculating what happens if your story has 10 '5' votes and then gets a '1' vote.

I love math...

10 votes x 5 = 50 = a perfect score of 5.0

add in the 1 vote. 51/11 = 4.636363.... or 4.64.

Which takes you from first place on the top list right off of it.

MJL

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Readers are NOT trolls. Readers are the oxygen that any author craves, together with their fair votes and criticism (not just praise).

Contrast this to a troll which is the Hemroid on the bung hole of all literature.

 

[TxRad]

Contrast this to a troll which is the Hemroid on the bung hole of all literature.

JJ you have such a way with words

 

[mjl2010]

JJ you have such a way with words

Don't ya just love her to death?



MJL

 

[elfin_odalisque]

Contrast this to a troll which is the Hemroid on the bung hole of all literature.

Norman Mailer can rest on his cloud - we've got JJ.

 

[Susan2002]

Mathematics

What is very interesting to the mathematically minded is that if a troll votes you a '1', the number of '5' votes required to return you to the original average does not depend on how many votes you have had in total.

EG Average 4.9 with 6000 votes - a '1' drops it to 4.8993 - needs 39 '5' votes to get back to 4.9

Average 4.9 with 20 votes - a '1' drops it to 4.7142 - needs 39 '5' votes to get back to 4.9.

Fun, hey?

This table shows what the situation is for different starting averages.

AVE '5's needed
4.99 399
4.98 199
4.97 133
4.96 99
4.95 79
4.90 39
4.85 26
4.80 19
4.75 15
4.70 13
4.65 11
4.60 9
4.55 8
4.50 7
4.45 7
4.40 6
4.35 6
4.30 5
4.25 4
4.20 4
4.15 4
4.10 4
4.05 4
4.00 3
3.00 1
2.00 1
1.00 0

 

[lloyd_5]

You should post this in a 'How To@ so it gets in writers' resources.