Rating manipulation!

[showher]

I have two questions regarding the posting of stories.

1. Do you think “when” the story is posted has a significant impact on the readership and voting? Example: A post on Friday or Saturday would get more readership than a post on Tuesday.

2. Are there ways an author can vote numerous times for his own story? Are there other ways to manipulate the ratings?

I don’t mean to be cynical but . . .

Max

 

[Darkniciad]

The "When" certainly matters as to how many people read the story. I don't think it has much to do with the score, unless the additional votes from the additional readers provides a hedge against low votes.

Sundays are horrible. If your story posts on Sunday, expect far lower reads than any other day of the week. Friday is pretty good, as is Monday. Everything else falls somewhere in the middle.

There are ways for anyone to vote multiple times. I'm not going to mention them, because there are probably more than a few who would vote many times that don't simply because they don't know how.

That goes both ways: People up-voting their own story or someone elses, and people down-voting authors they don't like to boost someone else, or just to knock down the author they're 1-bombing.

The themed/monthly contest sweeps ( automated program that runs every so often and removes votes determined to be "suspicious" ) cut a lot deeper than the everyday sweeps, and has a much higher chance of removing multi-votes. These sweeps can hit stories new and old, in the contest or not.

It's hard to do when you're first starting out, but you have to learn to take the scores with a grain of salt. The quality of the story may have very little to do with the score it ends up with.

 

[CWatson]

To be honest, I think the feedback you get is way more important than the scores, and was certainly much more influential the development of my confidence as a writer. Anyone who leaves a vote for your story is, by definition, biased: either they really liked it, or they really didn't like it, and the scores will reflect that. (Nobody who thought it was "just okay" ever votes, because they don't bother reading the whole thing.) So if you really need numbers, see if you can get statistics for Average Views vs Average Votes, and see how your percentages line up.

But for me, it's the feedback that matters: how much of it there is, and also what it says. I posted my first story here in 2003, when I was still an undergrad and not terribly sure of my ability or future as a storyteller. The responses I got were... Well, I haven't doubted myself since. And not six months later I came across a quote that explained it:

...I wanted what most of us want: not to become someone else, but to find endorsement for who we already are; not to be told, "This is how to write," but to be told, "Yes, you are writing."

Numbers don't tell you that. E-mails do.

Now I'm posting again--chapter by chapter, a long epic which is currently only half-written. The first chapter has that coveted H, but I doubt any of the others will, except maybe the last one. Honestly, that doesn't bug me. The public's love--or lack thereof--does not change the fact that I am a writer, and that I'm doing good work on a story I believe in. For those who are looking, the quality will speak for itself. And, if someone is actually stupid enough to willingly deprive themselves of my genius, well... I'm well shut of them.

 

[TxRad]

I have two questions regarding the posting of stories.

1. Do you think “when” the story is posted has a significant impact on the readership and voting? Example: A post on Friday or Saturday would get more readership than a post on Tuesday.

2. Are there ways an author can vote numerous times for his own story? Are there other ways to manipulate the ratings?

I don’t mean to be cynical but . . .

Max

To answer your questions: 1. somewhat 2. yes and it happens all the time and for the reasons Dark stated.

Look to your feedback for a more representative rating on your story than the actual score. There are actually people here that spend all their time trying to knock down the red H's and trying to make sure that certain people and groups of people don't make the monthly contests or top lists.

One of the top rated and favored authors on this site recently said that she gets 10 low votes on every story she posts right off the bat. I'm lucky, I only get three to five the first day on every new story. Some will get swept but a lot won't.

Welcome aboard by the way and keep a thick skin, you'll need it.