Loving Wives? Not worth it in my opinion.

[M_K_Babalon]

I'm not surprised The Voice in my Head was popular. It's not a traditional BTB story where the cheater is unrepentant until she gets punished by her husband's deliberate actions, but it still very consistent with the general BTB tropes and themes.

More generally, I find it interesting that those are your lowest when they're still solidly over 4.0 out of 5. Maybe LW is logical and the rest of the has oddly inflated ratings? The star system says that 3 stars is "average," so shouldn't the average be 3.0?

Technically a three should be average, the way the "system" works, it is. But the reality of how it's used, the way folks vote and descern what's worth reading; it isn't. And how it collects and I guess averages votes, is somewhat on a curve. It doesn't take many five votes to bring up a one rated story, but it take a lot of one votes to bring down a five, and a few three and fours in the mix will probably still keep it 3.50+. Something like that.

 

[iwatchus]

Technically a three should be average, the way the "system" works, it is

In the US, at least, most exams are graded on a 0-100 scale. No one expects a 50 to be an average grade. I knew a professor in college who designed his exams to have an average of 50. His reasoning was that His reasoning was that using an average of say 85gave you much more room to explore what the weaker students didn't know, but an average of 50 gave you much better understanding of what the top students knew and didn't know. He had a good point, but it gave his students, who were all straight-A students in high school, apoplexy. For those who do not know the odd American system, anything below a sixty is typically failing. And these students all came inviting anything below mid90's as horrifying. There is some parallel to some of us and the ratings.

 

[bumpercars]

Is LW a trump category, in the sense that any story with infidelity in it will be poorly received in other categories and so should always go in LW?

I am almost done with a story involving infidelity - the cheaters break things off before their partners find anything out, and the ending is a little bittersweet. I don't want anyone to get upset by the infidelity (which could happen if I put it in another category) but I also don't want to anger the rageboner crowd.

 

[sirhugs]

Is LW a trump category, in the sense that any story with infidelity in it will be poorly received in other categories and so should always go in LW?

I am almost done with a story involving infidelity - the cheaters break things off before their partners find anything out, and the ending is a little bittersweet. I don't want anyone to get upset by the infidelity (which could happen if I put it in another category) but I also don't want to anger the rageboner crowd.

IMHO it is NOT a trump category in the same sense as taboo/incest (or some might say Gay Male).
There is no guaranteeing that will you not anger somebody with any story in any category... The mere act of posting in the LW category provokes anger (see the comments to my Not Another Loving Wives Tale! for example).
Post where you think best (with the exception of incest). Consider the use of a disclaimer before the beginning of the story to manage expectations ( the one I used recently on My Father's Secretary Ch. 2 seems to have worked well)