Ratings trolls?

[Mikethe3DGuy2]

Is there a known issue with ratings and comment trolls here? I'm new to Literotica, and am primarily interested in stories about powerful, dominant females, and that's what I write about too.

I noticed right away that stories like that often have comments from guys that seem to be irrationally angry with the very idea that a woman could ever be dominant to a man.

I've also seen that often when I release a chapter I get one or two "1 star" ratings, even though the rest of my ratings seem to be high. Twice now, almost immediately after releasing a chapter, I get one or two 1-star reviews. Almost like someone was waiting for it to be published so they could pounce on it to downvote. This just happened in fact. Chapter published late at night. In the morning I wake up to a rating average of 1 star out of 2 reviews.

What gives?

 

[AlinaX]

All sounds par for the course.

 

[Enchantment_of_Nyx]

If you're in the U.S., when you wake up in the morning, you're probably seeing the Australian vote. Possibly complete with Australian trolls.

Don't forget you can vote on your own story. (Some people find that distasteful, but it's a valid option.)

Clarification: I just mean that votes come in from different time zones, so it's not necessarily someone lurking on you personally. In retrospect, it sounded like I was accusing our Aussie friends of a proclivity to troll. That wasn't my intention. In fact, I understand they have elite troll hunting outfits over there.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

All sounds par for the course.

A-yep.

Mike, the truth is that you could be writing pure Shakespeare and have nothing whatever about dominant women in your stories and you'd still get one-bombed. It's just a fact of life here, like ants at an otherwise-fine picnic. There is a breed of mouthbreathers out there whose sole pleasure seems to be trying to hurt others. Take heart, though, for most of them get cleared out by the sweeps Laurel runs.

Welcome to the club, in other words. In three or four years, you'll be answering the same sort of question from a new generation of new writers.

Welcome to Lit, BTW.

 

[oggbashan]

Like the OP I sometimes write about dominant females.

There are some men who see any story about a dominant woman as aa threat and an insult to their masculinity and react with 1-votes and abusive comments.

Ignore them and delete the comments.

 

[Mikethe3DGuy2]

Well, good to know, everyone! I just worry that the ratings will prevent others from seeing the stories until they manage to dig themselves out of the ratings hole created by trolls. Does the rating score have that big of an effect? Maybe I'm over-concerned - I thought that a 4.5 rating was needed to get decent exposure on a submission.

And I actually did NOT know that I could rate my own stories, thanks! That gives me the ability to negate the effect of a single troll in any case.

 

[oggbashan]

Well, good to know, everyone! I just worry that the ratings will prevent others from seeing the stories until they manage to dig themselves out of the ratings hole created by trolls. Does the rating score have that big of an effect? Maybe I'm over-concerned - I thought that a 4.5 rating was needed to get decent exposure on a submission.

And I actually did NOT know that I could rate my own stories, thanks! That gives me the ability to negate the effect of a single troll in any case.

Sorry. It doesn't. You need more than one 5 vote to reverse the effect of a 1.

 

[DrHappy]

I've wondered how many ratings trolls are just readers, and how many trolls are writers who sabotage stories that are competing with theirs.

It's really hard to recover when the first rating is a 1 the first few hours after it was it published. It seems that a lot of people watch the newly published articles and that initial 1 star rating assures that it won't get many initial readers.

 

[MetaBob]

It's really hard to recover when the first rating is a 1 the first few hours after it was it published. It seems that a lot of people watch the newly published articles and that initial 1 star rating assures that it won't get many initial readers.

I think that's why they do it. Self-appointed thought police, basically.

I've wondered how many ratings trolls are just readers, and how many trolls are writers who sabotage stories that are competing with theirs.

Maybe during contests. Hard to know, though I've certainly witnessed some of that in the 11th hour for a story that was doing well.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

My story for the Nude Day contest went live this morning (about 10 hours ago), and ratings have been blanked out.

I'm wondering if this is a new thing for contests to try to reduce sockpuppet vote armies and 1-bombing? At first I thought it just hadn't had any ratings, but this afternoon it said 7 views and 3 favourites, which I thought was remarkably good (it's taken me a couple years to get to 50 faves last week!), but checking again just now I have 2 views and 3 favourites, so there's definitely something odd going on!

 

[ElectricBlue]

My story for the Nude Day contest went live this morning (about 10 hours ago), and ratings have been blanked out.

I'm wondering if this is a new thing for contests to try to reduce sockpuppet vote armies and 1-bombing? At first I thought it just hadn't had any ratings, but this afternoon it said 7 views and 3 favourites, which I thought was remarkably good (it's taken me a couple years to get to 50 faves last week!), but checking again just now I have 2 views and 3 favourites, so there's definitely something odd going on!

That usually means the author has turned off voting - you should check that you've not done that by mistake - although I noticed the same x.xx on new story from a writer I follow (not a contest story).

I hope it's not a site glitch. Anybody else seen the same thing?

 

[Voboy]

My story for the Nude Day contest went live this morning (about 10 hours ago), and ratings have been blanked out.

I'm wondering if this is a new thing for contests to try to reduce sockpuppet vote armies and 1-bombing? At first I thought it just hadn't had any ratings, but this afternoon it said 7 views and 3 favourites, which I thought was remarkably good (it's taken me a couple years to get to 50 faves last week!), but checking again just now I have 2 views and 3 favourites, so there's definitely something odd going on!

Might also mean it hasn't yet reached the minimum vote threshold to show a score? I'm not sure if that's a thing, though I think I remember a story of mine doing that awhile back.

 

[GroverLang]

Well, good to know, everyone! I just worry that the ratings will prevent others from seeing the stories until they manage to dig themselves out of the ratings hole created by trolls. Does the rating score have that big of an effect? Maybe I'm over-concerned - I thought that a 4.5 rating was needed to get decent exposure on a submission.

And I actually did NOT know that I could rate my own stories, thanks! That gives me the ability to negate the effect of a single troll in any case.

You’ve mentioned a 4.5. If that’s the score you’re on after 10 votes and then you get hit by a 1 your score will dip to 4.18. You’ll need seven 5’s to get back to 4.5. So your one vote is only 15% of what’s required.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Might also mean it hasn't yet reached the minimum vote threshold to show a score? I'm not sure if that's a thing, though I think I remember a story of mine doing that awhile back.

Usually the score shows immediately, there is no threshold.

I wonder if it is something new, some kind of pre-filter. If it is, the fast moving categories are going to be impacted because new stories will roll down the page with no rating at all.

 

[TxRad]

Usually the score shows immediately, there is no threshold.

I wonder if it is something new, some kind of pre-filter. If it is, the fast moving categories are going to be impacted because new stories will roll down the page with no rating at all.

In the past, there had to be 10 votes for the score to show on the story side. The authors page showed it from vote 1.

I don't know if any of that has changed with the new authors page and the new programing on the story side.

Maybe I've been around too long as I don't let the little things bother me any longer.

 

[ElectricBlue]

In the past, there had to be 10 votes for the score to show on the story side. The authors page showed it from vote 1.

I've been here six years and have never seen that, not once. Odd.

 

[lovecraft68]

Is there a known issue with ratings and comment trolls here? I'm new to Literotica, and am primarily interested in stories about powerful, dominant females, and that's what I write about too.

I noticed right away that stories like that often have comments from guys that seem to be irrationally angry with the very idea that a woman could ever be dominant to a man.

I've also seen that often when I release a chapter I get one or two "1 star" ratings, even though the rest of my ratings seem to be high. Twice now, almost immediately after releasing a chapter, I get one or two 1-star reviews. Almost like someone was waiting for it to be published so they could pounce on it to downvote. This just happened in fact. Chapter published late at night. In the morning I wake up to a rating average of 1 star out of 2 reviews.

What gives?

at the least good old fashioned cold male insecurity.

The worst is the outright woman hating venom spewing incels posting their venom from mommy's basement.

Even talking about strong women or pointing out weak men here on the forums will get backlash, except that comes from authors who mansplain everything and may as well be saying "I'm not sexist, but..."

Lit, like a lot of places on reddit and other platforms is man's world, and I'm using the term man very lightly

 

[lovecraft68]

In the past, there had to be 10 votes for the score to show on the story side. The authors page showed it from vote 1.

I don't know if any of that has changed with the new authors page and the new programing on the story side.

Maybe I've been around too long as I don't let the little things bother me any longer.

I thought score showed with the first vote. Its the Red H that takes 10?

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Just logged into my author-side and it confirms 3 favourites (named users) and a rating of 4.46 from 26 votes, 4.3k views, which all looks what I'd expect - but if I then click through to the story it says 0 comments, 0 views, 3 favourites!

Suspect the public-side data is updated much less often?

It's https://www.literotica.com/s/into-the-woods-14 if anyone wants to look.

 

[PeytonMirabelle]

Just logged into my author-side and it confirms 3 favourites (named users) and a rating of 4.46 from 26 votes, 4.3k views, which all looks what I'd expect - but if I then click through to the story it says 0 comments, 0 views, 3 favourites!

Suspect the public-side data is updated much less often?

It's https://www.literotica.com/s/into-the-woods-14 if anyone wants to look.

I haven't been here long and only posted one story but yes, it does feel like the author page updates much faster than the public side.

 

[Ginlover]

My story for the Nude Day contest went live this morning (about 10 hours ago), and ratings have been blanked out.

I'm wondering if this is a new thing for contests to try to reduce sockpuppet vote armies and 1-bombing? At first I thought it just hadn't had any ratings, but this afternoon it said 7 views and 3 favourites, which I thought was remarkably good (it's taken me a couple years to get to 50 faves last week!), but checking again just now I have 2 views and 3 favourites, so there's definitely something odd going on!

I had this on my last BDSM story - funnily enough about a Domme - Turning the Tables. It showed as published but didnt appeared until 24 hours later and showed no votes or reads but puished the day before. It didnt seem to have been trolled but a site glitch. It's got a decent score but lower reads and votes than my other stories.

This could be as it never showed as a new story but could also be because it's a niche story, a Domme dominating a Dom and I dont personally think much of a stroke story.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Is there a known issue with ratings and comment trolls here? I'm new to Literotica, and am primarily interested in stories about powerful, dominant females, and that's what I write about too.

I noticed right away that stories like that often have comments from guys that seem to be irrationally angry with the very idea that a woman could ever be dominant to a man.

Yep. There's a certain contingent of fragile masculinity poster boys, unfortunately.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I've been here six years and have never seen that, not once. Odd.

I did see that on my lockdown story. I think after ten votes it came back.

 

[Javahead]

My 2020 Nude Day contest entry posted earlier this week.

When I first checked it, it had 5 votes, and a score of 3.0 - yes, it's possible the first 5 votes were all 3's, but it's more likely that at least one of them was a '1'. It's currently at 4.35 with 26 votes.

I saw the same thing with my Valentine's contest entry - the first few votes were low enough that it started under 3, but it's currently at 4.80 with >700 votes.

Contest entries tend to be more visible and likely to attract the early 1-bombers, but they also tend to have more votes overall, which somewhat mitigates the effects.

Non-contest entries, especially in contentious categories like "Loving Wives", have a harder time overcoming the early bombing.

I've sometimes wondered if it wouldn't make more sense for scores not to be made visible until both a minimum number of votes have been received AND at least one sweep has been run. But I suspect that our dedicated trolls would find some way to work around it, if publically known.

 

[Mikethe3DGuy2]

Sorry. It doesn't. You need more than one 5 vote to reverse the effect of a 1.

Great point, thanks!

I have a strategy now. We'll see if it works. I reasoned that if the downvotes happen within just a few hours of my first posting a chapter, the downvoter is following me, and getting notification when I drop a new story. So I'll set my published stories to disable voting, and then within 24-48 hours of them appearing, manually enable voting. I doubt there is no notification when an author's voting setting changes, and by then the downvote vultures will have tried to downvote and given up. The downvotes seem to come very early, with "legitimate" readers/voters later.

Might work.