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...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.
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.
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.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.
It may not have changed much within LS, but it reduced the likelihood for lesbian stories to appear on site-wide top lists.
I noticed the trend, yeah. I'm gonna touch on that in a bit.
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.
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.
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.
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...
Oh, I'm not. Lit's silliness rarely touches me now.
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?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.
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 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.
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.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.
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.
There seems to be someone or someones who like to curate the top list.
Yes, you're all victims of systemic scorism.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.
You're a daisy if you do.
