Minimum story rating ?

[SimonDoom]

That's the way it is for the monthly contest with cash prizes:

Rule 11. "Literotica reserves the right to disqualify without notice or explanation any story in which any kind of cheating or vote-tampering is suspected. Turning off voting on a story at any point - for any reason - disqualifies a submission from any and all contests winnings. ... "

My question is whether it automatically knocks you off a toplist that you've already achieved.

You shouldn't be able as an author to "freeze" your score. If you do that, it's a phony score. I don't know for sure what the rules are about this, but it seems to me any time you turn off voting your score should disappear--subject to coming back if you turn voting on later.

 

[MillieDynamite]

That's the way it is for the monthly contest with cash prizes:

Rule 11. "Literotica reserves the right to disqualify without notice or explanation any story in which any kind of cheating or vote-tampering is suspected. Turning off voting on a story at any point - for any reason - disqualifies a submission from any and all contests winnings. ... "

But turning off the voting doesn't wipe the slate clean on the votes. Whatever the score is at the time voting is disabled, is the score displayed for forever and day.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Many readers will punish you when your story doesn't go the way they wanted it to go, regardless if your choice was consistent and reasonable, regardless if your story was really well written or not. I've seen ridiculous 1k words stories saying Y took his thing out, put it in the X's thing and boom and then they went home, getting red H. I've also seen stories with hundreds of words of absolutely ridiculous filler dialogue, unrelated to the story, contributing nothing to character development or world building, that served no purpose whatsoever and was incredibly boring to read, get that same red H letter, because the theme was appealing to a certain niche.
As some others already said, don't exclude stories without red H. I have read some really good stories (they seemed well written in my humble opinion) with like 4.1 or 4.2 rating. They simply didn't appeal enough to the people who have a habit of rating the stories.
Truth is though, many readers just exclude everything without a red H, feeling they might be wasting time with something that people didn't rate high enough, so they simply trust it and don't bother checking for themselves. But if you are a long time reader, and a writer as well, then you should know better.

 

[PennameWombat]

Up until now I wouldn't read a story rated under four, then I read a story with a four.seven score that had numerous grammatical errors and no build up for sex at the end. I ask how this story got its four seven rating and decided to check the comments. There were only two comments which is unusual for a high rated story. I assume these two were the only ones that rated it, there are usually more comments on a highly rated story. So, was I amiss by not reading stories rated under four? Clearly ratings can be misleading when it only gets a few votes / comments.

My top five highest-rated stories have five total comments across all of them (two have none, two have two and one has a single comment.) Most of my stories have zero or one comment. So to say 'high rated stories have many comments' is certainly not a universal case. Nor do my low-rated stories have many comments. The maximum number of comments any of my stories has is eight (I've only ever deleted a single comment. It's not that.) Some authors have more voluble readers, some Categories attract more voluble readers, when it comes to comments. Is what it is.

If you'd seen my recent Summer Lovin' entry in its first week, it fought to climb to even a four. Why? When a sweep finally happened, a decent percentage of the votes disappeared, so at least the site considered them invalid one or two or whatever bombs (and no, it wasn't in LW, in Group). Whether its current rating (just under 4.5) is a more accurate reflection, I leave others to judge. But most of its 'New' life corresponded to it being rated 2.x or 3.x. It has only ever received a single comment, a very complimentary one, I do admit, but that's it.

Until a story gets a large number of votes, each vote can have a significant effect.

 

[KeithD]

NO, it isn't. I read several stories this weekend with red-Hs, and several had the voting turned off.

The voting of those was turned off after they got a red H. My post was to the actual circumstance SimonDoom posed. His point had nothing to do with the red H. The score isn't listed when the voting is turned off and as long as it is turned off and the story doesn't qualify ever again for a top-list posting or contest win if the voting is ever turned off.

Anyone not believing this observable practice is free to ask Laurel for clarification.

 

[Voboy]

I agree, do you think if we voiced this to management it would be considered?

No.

 

[KeithD]

No.

Right, no, because it's not necessary. That's already what happens.

 

[RejectReality]

I'm fairly certain that the H remaining after voting has been turned off is an oversight. All benefits of score are supposed to vanish if voting is ever turned off, but the H somehow slipped through the cracks. Toplist/contest eligibility and the score being nulled out to x.xx all seem to work as intended.

 

[MillieDynamite]

The voting of those was turned off after they got a red H. My post was to the actual circumstance SimonDoom posed. His point had nothing to do with the red H. The score isn't listed when the voting is turned off and as long as it is turned off and the story doesn't qualify ever again for a top-list posting or contest win if the voting is ever turned off.

Anyone not believing this observable practice is free to ask Laurel for clarification.

My mistake, I misunderstood what you were saying.

 

[MrPixel]

...So to say 'high rated stories have many comments' is certainly not a universal case. ...

Absoposilutely. F'rinstance, 4 out the 5 stories in my last series are high-'H', and have but one single comment. That's since they went live last April. Granted, this is in the low-readership GS area, but even at that high ratings ≠ high comments. Not for me, at least.

 

[MillieDynamite]

In loving wives, comments are driven by Insel's desire to punish writers who dare to write about willing cuckolds, empowered women, interracial cuckolding, or anything where you don't BtB. Other categories, not as much hate. Even so, some would rather make a nasty comment than anything else. I don't mind fewer, nicer comments, as opposed to a plethora of nasty ones.

 

[EarlyDawn1973]

In loving wives, comments are driven by Insel's desire to punish writers who dare to write about willing cuckolds, empowered women, interracial cuckolding, or anything where you don't BtB. Other categories, not as much hate. Even so, some would rather make a nasty comment than anything else. I don't mind fewer, nicer comments, as opposed to a plethora of nasty ones.

I agree with the comments. So far, I have been pretty lucky. No nasty comments. A few that ask questions and also with useful suggestions which I find very helpful.

 

[SimonDoom]

In loving wives, comments are driven by Insel's desire to punish writers who dare to write about willing cuckolds, empowered women, interracial cuckolding, or anything where you don't BtB. Other categories, not as much hate. Even so, some would rather make a nasty comment than anything else. I don't mind fewer, nicer comments, as opposed to a plethora of nasty ones.

My attitude is, I'm willing to put up with nasty comments if it means I've also received more good comments and I've connected with the largest possible appreciative audience. That, to me, is the goal.

Loving Wives is the worst place for these kinds of the comments, but it's not the only place where you'll get these sorts of comments. I posted a story in the Exhibitionist/Voyeur category a few years ago about a married woman (married to an unpleasant guy) who goes to the beach alone in a bikini that keeps falling off of her. She enjoys the exhibitionism but she doesn't actually cheat on her husband with another man at any time. The last comment I received on the story, a few days ago, was "cunt." That's it. Nice.

Of course, maybe Anonymous was referring to me, and not my character.

 

[NewOldGuy77]

A 4.anything in LW is practically a miracle.

Oh, this, so very much this! The LW Category is a harsh mistress. I've only done one, and the reaction was brutal!

 

[Duleigh]

Did you check and see if you could vote on the story?

Some people lock their stories after a few votes even if they give themselves the votes so they show high scores and red H's.

I never thought of that! Wouldn't that just drive those uno-bombers crazy if LW authors all played that game?

 

[MillieDynamite]

I never thought of that! Wouldn't that just drive those uno-bombers crazy if LW authors all played that game?

But you don't have the red-H until you have 10 votes, no matter the score. But yeah, the flamethrowers would be on full blast if that happens.

 

[Bazzle]

I've got almost 5 stories that are hovering the wrong side of 4.5. It's depressing!

 

[MajorRewrite]

This discussion got me wondering about the ratings of the stories on my favorites list. It turns out the lowest rating is a 3.81. The majority of the 198 stories on the list have red Hs, but quite a few don’t. I think the lower rated ones have more esoteric themes.

 

[lc69hunter]

In certain categories, score means very little, as in Loving Wives. I tend to look at how many people have saved it as a favorite.