New Milestones Thread

[rdodger]

It's an Eastwood reference, but I'm pretty sure I got it a bit wrong. Are you gonna pull those pistols or whistle Dixie?

You gonna do somethin'? Or are you just gonna stand there and bleed?

 

[MillieDynamite]

Just waiting, waiting for you to make my day, punk. Do you feel lucky? (sort of mixing my movies there)

You gonna do somethin'? Or are you just gonna stand there and bleed?

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I woke up this morning and found my story up there. Of course, it lasted a couple of hours only before some fanatic got offended and gave it a 1* to make it tumble down the list.

Still, it's my first second spot in the all-time Lesbian Sex list! I once held the top spot in SF for a whole week before the sniping began, so that makes me think that the "fans" are a bit more fired up in the Lesbian Sex category.

 

[THBGato]

I woke up this morning and found my story up there. Of course, it lasted a couple of hours only before some fanatic got offended and gave it a 1* to make it tumble down the list.

Still, it's my first second spot in the all-time Lesbian Sex list! I once held the top spot in SF for a whole week before the sniping began, so that makes me think that the "fans" are a bit more fired up in the Lesbian Sex category.

It's a great story. Yes, there has been systematic down voting of the LS top list since October last year. Hopefully, your story will bounce back...

 

[AwkwardlySet]

It's a great story. Yes, there has been systematic down voting of the LS top list since October last year. Hopefully, your story will bounce back...

Yeah, I didn't expect to get the second spot with 4.87. The scores of the first 20 stories, at least, used to be over 4.90 if I remember correctly.

Still, this downvote was a deliberate thing for sure. Two quick downvotes in a matter of an hour, just when the story appeared in that 2nd spot. Someone is very fired up about who gets which spot.

Anyway, I'm way past caring about top lists in a clearly broken system, and I'm really glad that's so. Just a couple of years ago, I used to get pissed off about these things. Time and perspective mean a lot.

Still, thank you for the kind words.

 

[THBGato]

Yeah, I didn't expect to get the second spot with 4.87. The scores of the first 20 stories, at least, used to be over 4.90 if I remember correctly.

Still, this downvote was a deliberate thing for sure. Two quick downvotes in a matter of an hour, just when the story appeared in that 2nd spot. Someone is very fired up about who gets which spot.

Anyway, I'm way past caring about top lists in a clearly broken system, and I'm really glad that's so. Just a couple of years ago, I used to get pissed off about these things. Time and perspective mean a lot.

Still, thank you for the kind words.

In September 2024, a score of 4.86 wouldn't have even got you onto page 5 of the top list. Now, as you can see, it gets you the number 3 slot. Of course, the stupid thing about it all is that which stories are on the top list has barely changed since then. Quality wins out in the end: people keep reading the very best ones and voting 5, so they stay buoyant. The only difference is that they now have a score 0.05 lower than a year ago.

Somebody out there had gone to a monumental effort to achieve the square root of fuck all!

 

[TheLobster]

Somebody out there had gone to a monumental effort to achieve the square root of fuck all!

It may not have changed much within LS, but it reduced the likelihood for lesbian stories to appear on site-wide top lists.

Unless those same trolls "took care" of other categories, of course, in which that would be truly pointless.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

In September 2024, a score of 4.86 wouldn't have even got you onto page 5 of the top list. Now, as you can see, it gets you the number 3 slot. Of course, the stupid thing about it all is that which stories are on the top list has barely changed since then.

I noticed the trend, yeah. I'm gonna touch on that in a bit.

Quality wins out in the end: people keep reading the very best ones and voting 5, so they stay buoyant. The only difference is that they now have a score 0.05 lower than a year ago.

It's not my intention to be controversial here, but I don't really agree with that. And I mean no offense to all the authors who write popular lesbian stories. The readership rewards the stories that provide what they need. The stories that hold the top spots aren't necessarily the best ones, merely the ones that were rewarded for their content, although the quality is certainly a factor as well. I just believe it's not the factor with the most impact, not by a long shot.

And just so people don't think I'm taking a shot at the LS category (which I like), I think the same goes for every category.

Somebody out there had gone to a monumental effort to achieve the square root of fuck all!

Whatever the reason for the drop is - whether that's automated voting-bots taking advantage of the fact that the voting system sucks, or the site itself systematically lowering the scores for reasons known only to them, or something else entirely, it doesn't affect all the stories equally.

There are stories that are protected by their popular content, by the fact that they have thousands of votes, and there are those like mine, for example, which take just a couple of downvotes to be removed from the top list entirely (next server refresh, it won't be anywhere in the 250 spots the top list has).
All stories have dropped, but some have dropped way, way more. It's just the reality of math.

 

[THBGato]

It may not have changed much within LS, but it reduced the likelihood for lesbian stories to appear on site-wide top lists.

Unless those same trolls "took care" of other categories, of course, in which that would be truly pointless.

LS stories were never in those lists. I haven't looked in quite a while, but before all the trolling started they were dominated by TheWriterAnnabelle's Home for Horny Monsters... endless Chapters of it.

and there are those like mine, for example, which take just a couple of downvotes to be removed from the top list entirely (next server refresh, it won't be anywhere in the 250 spots the top list has).
All stories have dropped, but some have dropped way, way more. It's just the reality of math.

I hear you. I have only two stories with 500+ votes, both of which were in the top 10 for most of 2024. But they still have good scores, and the bounce back up now and then, as do stories by sugarstorm and redgarters, neither of whom have votes in the thousands. So don't be too despondent...

 

[AwkwardlySet]

So don't be too despondent...

Oh, I'm not. Lit's silliness rarely touches me now.

As I said, a couple of years back, I'd be pissed off about it. I'm just saying that, whatever the reason behind this consistent drop is, it'll always favor the most popular stories... and authors.

 

[Areala-chan]

I've noticed this as well. Every time I've managed to place on the Top List for the category, which has only been with Chasing Cars, I've been systematically hit with enough downvotes in a row to remove me from it. Those votes got swept, another couple of 5s came in, and almost immediately I was hit with another three 1-star votes to knock me off. Those got swept, putting me back on the list, and lo and behold, another series of 1-star votes showed up to knock the story down to a 4.83. Whatever they've done this time appears to have beaten the sweep system, because those 7 1-star votes have been there for weeks now, guaranteeing that, without the unbelievably unlikely 49 straight 5-star votes needed to cancel them out, the story will not return to the top list anytime soon.

That's fine. I've got my screenshot from where I was before the trolling started up, and a score of 4.83 is nothing to cry about, so I'm not. I'm in the top list in other categories, I've done okay for myself. I can accept there are people who think that story is absolute garbage. They might be right. I don't think so, but I'm also biased, so who cares what I think? LOL! But if that's true, then why has nobody commented anything about it being awful, either on site or in the few PMs I've received about it? Someone appears to have taken it upon themselves to ensure the LS top list conforms exactly to their specifications via vote manipulation, and there seems to be nothing any of us can do about it except shrug our shoulders, which is what I'm choosing to do.

Still gotta wonder why though. It's just weird.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

No hard evidence but I think some changes were made to the site that normalized a lot of ratings. Maybe the sweeps started figuring out how to identify bogus fives, or something.
I had a story at 4.93 with over a thousand votes for 18 months that dropped to 4.83 over about six months(Yeah, rich girl problems, I know that. I'm not bragging. Just an example).
When I looked closer, I noticed the entire T/CD category had undergone the same thing. Now the all time highest scores are 4.84-ish with a huge morass at 4.83. Some of this is normalization over time, but I do think it something in the way votes are being tabulated that is leveling things. Again, no hard evidence, just one girls opinion.

 

[MillieDynamite]

There is no change to my slew of those just shy of the 4.5 mark a'tall.

No hard evidence but I think some changes were made to the site that normalized a lot of ratings. Maybe the sweeps started figuring out how to identify bogus fives, or something.
I had a story at 4.93 with over a thousand votes for 18 months that dropped to 4.83 over about six months(Yeah, rich girl problems, I know that. I'm not bragging. Just an example).
When I looked closer, I noticed the entire T/CD category had undergone the same thing. Now the all time highest scores are 4.84-ish with a huge morass at 4.83. Some of this is normalization over time, but I do think it something in the way votes are being tabulated that is leveling things. Again, no hard evidence, just one girls opinion.

 

[THBGato]

Someone appears to have taken it upon themselves to ensure the LS top list conforms exactly to their specifications via vote manipulation, and there seems to be nothing any of us can do about it except shrug our shoulders, which is what I'm choosing to do.

But I don't think that's the case. Everyone has been hit. All of the stories there now at 4.85 used to be 4.9+. If it was a "fan" of, say, Wanda or JC, then why downvote their stories too?

I think it's a homophobe, personally. That's why Trans and CD got hit too...

 

[AwkwardlySet]

No hard evidence but I think some changes were made to the site that normalized a lot of ratings. Maybe the sweeps started figuring out how to identify bogus fives, or something.
I had a story at 4.93 with over a thousand votes for 18 months that dropped to 4.83 over about six months(Yeah, rich girl problems, I know that. I'm not bragging. Just an example).
When I looked closer, I noticed the entire T/CD category had undergone the same thing. Now the all time highest scores are 4.84-ish with a huge morass at 4.83. Some of this is normalization over time, but I do think it something in the way votes are being tabulated that is leveling things. Again, no hard evidence, just one girls opinion.

It might be some kind of systemic normalization of votes from the site. And I mean besides the top list sniping and general troll-voting that happens all the time, and that has happened since the dawn of Lit, but it's not sweeps.

I've tested the impact of sweeps, at least on regular stories - I've never been in a contest, so I can't say if sweeps affect contest stories differently, but for the ordinary stories, they almost never touch the fives. They can easily be gamed.

 

[lovecraft68]

No hard evidence but I think some changes were made to the site that normalized a lot of ratings. Maybe the sweeps started figuring out how to identify bogus fives, or something.
I had a story at 4.93 with over a thousand votes for 18 months that dropped to 4.83 over about six months(Yeah, rich girl problems, I know that. I'm not bragging. Just an example).
When I looked closer, I noticed the entire T/CD category had undergone the same thing. Now the all time highest scores are 4.84-ish with a huge morass at 4.83. Some of this is normalization over time, but I do think it something in the way votes are being tabulated that is leveling things. Again, no hard evidence, just one girls opinion.

I think this is the site finally realizing the sweeps aren't catching cheerleader votes. Years ago you rarely saw a story that was over 4.9 (unless it was one of the endless chapter series) but last year or two the scores are just grossly inflated especially with contest winners, which needs to be fixed during the contest sweep, not two months later.

This doesn't mean the author is doing anything sketchy, but they may have readers who are voting multiple times and in a suspicious manner. The high fiving here has been as big of an issue as one bombing for some time, but of course people never want to admit a five can be fake, only a one.

Personally, I hope this happens site wide and is a bit of a reset as far as eliminating inflated scores.

 

[SimonDoom]

You gonna do somethin'? Or are you just gonna stand there and bleed?

Oh, Johnny, I apologize, I forgot you were there. You may go now.

The dialogue in that movie is excellent.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I'll be your huckleberry!

Oh, Johnny, I apologize, I forgot you were there. You may go now.

The dialogue in that movie is excellent.

 

[lovecraft68]

Oh, I'm not. Lit's silliness rarely touches me now.

As I said, a couple of years back, I'd be pissed off about it. I'm just saying that, whatever the reason behind this consistent drop is, it'll always favor the most popular stories... and authors.

Its been an ongoing thing for well before my time that when a story is high score but under 100 votes its generally left alone. The second it gets the 100 needed to land on the all time top list, bombs away. I had a series here that wasn't highly read but highly scored when it came out and every two weeks or so I'd watch one after the other get zapped as soon as it hit that list, and at 100 votes its doesn't take too many dings to knock it down.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Its been an ongoing thing for well before my time that when a story is high score but under 100 votes its generally left alone. The second it gets the 100 needed to land on the all time top list, bombs away. I had a series here that wasn't highly read but highly scored when it came out and every two weeks or so I'd watch one after the other get zapped as soon as it hit that list, and at 100 votes its doesn't take too many dings to knock it down.

Ah, the il-lit-inati at work, the mystical they tending the garden keeping out the up and coming riffraff and preserve the true order of things. I always suspected as much.

 

[Bazzle]

Its been an ongoing thing for well before my time that when a story is high score but under 100 votes its generally left alone. The second it gets the 100 needed to land on the all time top list, bombs away. I had a series here that wasn't highly read but highly scored when it came out and every two weeks or so I'd watch one after the other get zapped as soon as it hit that list, and at 100 votes its doesn't take too many dings to knock it down.

There seems to be someone or someones who like to curate the top list.

I'm assuming either it's out of malice or because they have some disability that they *need* the list as they want it.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Not a milestone as such, but it always makes me feel good when someone favorites one of my 750 word pieces...

 

[lovecraft68]

Ah, the il-lit-inati at work, the mystical they tending the garden keeping out the up and coming riffraff and preserve the true order of things. I always suspected as much.

Yes, you're all victims of systemic scorism.

 

[designatedvictim]

(Back again)

It took another week, but this time it's real!! 75K!

Although, I haven't had my coffee yet, I hope I didn't screw up the numbers again.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

I'll be your huckleberry!

You're a daisy if you do.

...oops, this is the milestones thread not the Tombstone thread.