Ratio between Authors and Non-Authors

[Bramblethorn]

You can't determine either that four accounts authoring stories aren't really just one person (I write stories here under multiple accounts, some linked, some not) nor that accounts without a story file aren't people who are authors in other accounts.

This "gotta have statistics" fetish gets pretty silly and needy, I think.

Is it really any more silly and needy than being the guy who used alt accounts to leave himself fulsome rave reviews, though?

(Yes, I'm going to keep bringing that one up every time the pot starts calling the kettle black.)

 

[jaF0]

In fact, modulo the question of alt accounts, it's very easy to get a rough answer to that question. The site has a form that allows searching members, and very conveniently author/non-author status is one of the search options.

Nothing we as commoners can see will distinguish people who have 5, 6, 8 or more IDs, who post stories under 1 or 2, but read and/or comment under others, or an Anons.


Admins might be able to see that by IP address or session cookies, but we can't.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Looking at followers is going to skew things a bit. Authors tend to be socially connected - like here - and that probably extends to following patterns, so I'd expect the percentage of authors among our followers to be higher than the percentage among Literotica members as a whole. I think your "at least 10 to 1" is correct, though.

On consideration, I should have put this a little differently - the bigger problem with looking at one's followers list for a sample of Literotica members is that this gives a lot of weight to a small number of highly atypical members.

There are a few users like irishsexstorylover who seem to be on a life's quest to favourite every author on this site, maybe even every story. Those users are probably only about 0.001% of Literotica members, but they show up in everybody's "favourited by" so if we look at our own followers, we're going to get a non-representative sample of the membership as a whole.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Nothing we as commoners can see will distinguish people who have 5, 6, 8 or more IDs, who post stories under 1 or 2, but read and/or comment under others, or an Anons.


Admins might be able to see that by IP address or session cookies, but we can't.

Yep. This is absolutely true, I just very much doubt there's enough of it going on to make much of a difference to the ratio the OP was asking about.

People in this forum get heavily invested in Literotica drama. They forget that most people who visit this site are far less wrapped up in it. Most readers are here for a dirty story, not for multi-sock-account drama. Most readers don't even have reason to create one account, let alone five.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Is it really any more silly and needy than being the guy who used alt accounts to leave himself fulsome rave reviews, though?

(Yes, I'm going to keep bringing that one up every time the pot starts calling the kettle black.)

Spelling. Don't forget spelling.

 

[KeithD]

Is it really any more silly and needy than being the guy who used alt accounts to leave himself fulsome rave reviews, though?

(Yes, I'm going to keep bringing that one up every time the pot starts calling the kettle black.)

Well, of course you are since you've shown both a devotion to LC and a great interest in putting your nose into other people's business and playing like you are the site hall monitor.

Of course your point has nothing to do with the thread, but you just gotta pursue your little hatreds and get into the business of others. It certainly beats actually writing and posting stories here yourself. It's easier being a self-righteous vigilante and posing as some sort of accomplished author yourself.

I'm flattered that, like LC, you spend so much energy researching me and sticking your nose up my ass here. Can't say I've ever read anything by you or ever will. I'm not interested in BDSM clubber gaming.

 

[KeithD]

Spelling. Don't forget spelling.

Meaning?

 

[NotWise]

Has the original question been answered? Most of what I read here is like a family squabble in a very dysfunctional family. If you don't want it to sound that way, then don't have the same exchanges you've had a dozen times before.

For my answer, there are way more readers than writers.

 

[lovecraft68]

Well, of course you are since you've shown both a devotion to LC and a great interest in putting your nose into other people's business and playing like you are the site hall monitor.

Of course your point has nothing to do with the thread, but you just gotta pursue your little hatreds and get into the business of others. It certainly beats actually writing and posting stories here yourself. It's easier being a self-righteous vigilante and posing as some sort of accomplished author yourself.

I'm flattered that, like LC, you spend so much energy researching me and sticking your nose up my ass here. Can't say I've ever read anything by you or ever will. I'm not interested in BDSM clubber gaming.

Fact is if you didn't do it, you'd never hear about it.

Other fact is it took little research, soon as I saw how old the Keith ID was with no stories, there was only one reason it would exist.

Plus we have the history of you being outed as 4glory6 or whatever the number is when you used that alt to brag about your own story in the fawc thread...patientlee nailed that one, so there was already a history of your alt fluffing.

Seriously, for an alleged spy and intelligence agent, you're not very clever. For an alleged successful 'mainstream author' you showed just how much a site you denigrate, and a readership you denigrate means to you, that you have to post raving reviews of your own story "

Really about the most pathetic thing someone can do here

Spin it all you want, froth all you want, try to do the "oh, they're obsessed with me" all you want, you were outed, and the only reason anyone cares is because you're nothing but a troll and a bully on this forum and you got what you deserved.

Oh, and don't forget Awkwardmd, she has it all too. Must be part of the BDSM club

 

[lovecraft68]

Has the original question been answered? Most of what I read here is like a family squabble in a very dysfunctional family. If you don't want it to sound that way, then don't have the same exchanges you've had a dozen times before.

For my answer, there way more readers than writers.

By far, you could try and get a list of authors, the pour through it to see how many haven't posted in years and eliminate them, but with readers you not only have countless accounts, but no way of knowing in anyway how many anon's there are.

Exact ratio is impossible, but its greatly in favor of readers

 

[KeithD]

Has the original question been answered? Most of what I read here is like a family squabble in a very dysfunctional family. If you don't want it to sound that way, then don't have the same exchanges you've had a dozen times before.

For my answer, there are way more readers than writers.

I agree that the are way more readers than writers here. How many actual individuals of each, though, I don't think is knowable.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Well, of course you are since you've shown both a devotion to LC and a great interest in putting your nose into other people's business and playing like you are the site hall monitor.

Of course your point has nothing to do with the thread, but you just gotta pursue your little hatreds and get into the business of others. It certainly beats actually writing and posting stories here yourself. It's easier being a self-righteous vigilante and posing as some sort of accomplished author yourself.

I don't aim to match your prolific record here. I'm not a fast writer, my goals are different to yours, and I have two jobs and a social life placing demands on my time. Literotica is something I do when I have time and energy left over from all that. On my to-do list, it falls somewhere behind treating my cat's acne problems.

But as it happens, I just finished my first draft for the AI Contest on the weekend. It's currently with my first reader, and the cat is freshly shampooed, so I'm giving myself a little forum time while I wait for feedback. Looking forward to seeing your entry for that contest

I've made my position clear more than once: don't start none, won't be none. I don't pick fights with you for the hell of it, but any time you start denigrating other authors for being "needy" or what-have you, I will happily remind folk that you're the last person here to be making that criticism.

All you have to do is resist the urge to snipe at others - pointless sniping at people merely for being interested in something that doesn't interest you - and I will refrain from reminding you about the times you used alts to write comments like "this author could write the phone book and make it both sexy and fresh and interesting" on your own stories.

(Aside: as a professional editor, you ought to know that using "both" preceding a list of three attributes is an error.)

But you can't. You don't have the self-control. You know that every time I notice you doing it, I'm going to point out the pathological depths of your insecurity - no healthy person creates an alt to say things like "wish that I could think these stories up myself and travel in the worlds of his stories and could write them so well" on their own stories. And yet you keep going there, because taking petty shots at other authors is more important to you than your own dignity.

I'm flattered that, like LC, you spend so much energy researching me and sticking your nose up my ass here.

Doesn't actually take a lot of energy, for anybody who knows a little bit about how to find information.

I know technology has moved on since you were at spy school, but for somebody who purports to come from a business where information is everything, I'm surprised at the contempt you show for people who know even a little bit about how to find stuff it. I didn't read through all of your 1000-plus stories to find all your sockpuppet reviews; I programmed a computer to do that, and to look for suspicious patterns in your comments, and it crunched through the lot in a couple of hours while I did other things with my time.

Can't say I've ever read anything by you or ever will.

I guess spy school didn't teach you to keep your story straight.

Here's what you wrote about my work a while back (in reply to a post from Chloe, but in the context of that discussion, clearly directed at me):

You obviously can also spin your wheels writing essentially two longwinded epics over eight years and play board guru and site babysitter in some sort of self-decaying vendetta if you like.

So you have read enough of my work to characterise it - and quite accurately, if not very charitably.

I'm not interested in BDSM clubber gaming.

Ah, that's the latest explanation for why people are mean to you, is it? I guess you realised that trying to blame it on homophobia, like you did last time, was just a little too absurd.

It's very simple. You're a jerk, on a regular basis. Not just to forum regulars like myself who have histories with you, but to newbies who've never sought out conflict with you. You accuse people of "neediness" and the like, simply for being curious about how this site works, and you make the forums unpleasant for people who might have something good to contribute here. That's why even people like AwkwardMD and Lovecraft68, who don't get along at all, manage to agree on this one thing.

Not everybody chooses to call you out for that behaviour - some folk just don't like conflict, some hope that if they keep being polite maybe you will eventually, eventually, eventually grow out of your insecurity and your need to snipe. Me, I believe in challenging that kind of thing.

You can call it "hall monitor" if you like. I prefer to think of it as taking out the trash.

Meaning?

I believe EB was referring to this spelling error on the cover of one of your books:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41rdU+suTbL.jpg

 

[LAHomedog]

If writing were easy, everyone would do it. But the truth of the matter is that writing is a very, very difficult thing to do. There are an infinite number of ways to misspell a word, but only one way to spell it right. To choose the precise right words from a dictionary of over one million entries and string them together, one after the other, into coherent sentences? The odds against doing such a thing simply boggle the mind! And those are just the extreme rudiments. There are so many more layers to writing left to conquer: grammar, punctuation, characters, plot, sexuality, humor, nuance, minimizing verbosity, avoiding clichés, engaging the reader, and on and on. Lit authors do it all, and they do it all for Free. Not once, but for story after story, day after day after day.

Those of you who are on the majority side of that thousand-to-one ratio should take one minute of your lives to digest and appreciate just how lucky you are to be Lit members, where your erotic entertainment is always no-strings-attached free of charge. And maybe — just maybe — think twice before leaving an undeserved negative comment on a story or lobbing your next 1-bomb.


Ben

Oh my gosh! That's a little overblown. We're not saving lives, saving the planet from climate change here, or even writing the great American novel. We are writing porn Sheeesh.

 

[KeithD]

O We are writing porn Sheeesh.

Shhh. Some get the vapors here when it's identified as porn.

 

[LAHomedog]

Shhh. Some get the vapors here when it's identified as porn.

Yeah, sorry. I don't do well with pompous and pedantic.

 

[SimonDoom]

Has the original question been answered? Most of what I read here is like a family squabble in a very dysfunctional family. If you don't want it to sound that way, then don't have the same exchanges you've had a dozen times before.

For my answer, there are way more readers than writers.

Definitely way more.

I think Bramblethorn's estimate is as good as any.

 

[lovecraft68]

I don't aim to match your prolific record here. I'm not a fast writer, my goals are different to yours, and I have two jobs and a social life placing demands on my time. Literotica is something I do when I have time and energy left over from all that. On my to-do list, it falls somewhere behind treating my cat's acne problems.

Some believe in quantity over quality, but in this case I feel incessant bragging about the size of one's story file is the same as the guys who drive the obnoxious over sized Pick ups, obviously over compensating for low self esteem among other things.

My old man didn't get me jobs and set me up for life like some did, but he had the occasional pearl of wisdom, "The ones who talk the most do the least" and we know who talks the most here.

 

[oggbashan]

In addition to my post #7 above, many readers do not have Lit identities so would not appear on the list of members. They can read without signing in, but every author has to if they are going to upload a story.

I think from a rough sample, that the difference between those registered as embers of Lit who have submitted at least one story, and those registered as members who have NOT is about 1 author to 1000 members, Add in all the people reading as Anon? 1 to 2,000? 1 to 3,000? It can only be a guess.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

not that I have a decent sample size, but I counted 17 out of 101 with works listed vs no works listed on my follower list. I think only four or five of those had more than 15 works listed.

Interesting and suggestive, thanks for showing us that, but it's hardly conclusive. The problem is that it's a self-selected sample. 16.8% of your followers are writers, yes, but are your followers typical? To that we can have no answer.

The site owners might - might - be able to come up with a more-or-less reliable figure, but the rest of us are trying to answer the question using Plato's shadows.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

it's completely biased and in no way scientific. And a 100 subject sample size would never cut it as any kind of acceptable sample size to draw conclusions from. Just the data I have available to me to contribute as best I can.

And I didn't even call them writers, I said they had works listed vs no works listed on the accounts.

If they're following me, they are probably as atypical as it gets, lol. (and I mean that as a compliment, typical is usually boring.)

We do the best we can with what we've got at hand. Gotcha.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I think from a rough sample, that the difference between those registered as embers of Lit who have submitted at least one story, and those registered as members who have NOT is about 1 author to 1000 members

It can't be anywhere near that.

We know there are no more than about six million member accounts ever created: every Literotica account has a number assigned in order of creation, visible in the URL, and the newest accounts are somewhere around 6200000.

For instance, Manu's account is number 2: https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=2
Laurel's is number 7: https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=7

Many of those numbers are missing, probably deleted accounts, so six million is probably a significant overestimate for live accounts, but we know it's not more than that. If the ratio was 1:1000, that would imply no more than six thousand authors on the whole of Literotica.

But just searching for authors with "mar" in their name (Mark, Mary etc.) produces over a thousand hits. There are another 832 with "writer" in their name, and so on.

Meanwhile, adding up the total stories for each category gives a total of about 500,000 stories on this site. If those were the work of only six thousand authors, that'd be an average of almost a hundred stories per author. That's not plausible, even if a few authors do have story counts in the thousands.

Add in all the people reading as Anon? 1 to 2,000? 1 to 3,000? It can only be a guess.

This estimate, OTOH, could well be accurate for all I know. I would expect there are a LOT of unregistered anons for every member.

 

[8letters]

Some Lesbian Sex stories statistics:
* I have statistics for 18916 stories. They were written by 6870 different authors, an average of 2.75 stories per author
* 4137 of the 6870 authors have written one LS story, or 60%. 1111 have written two LS stories, or 16%
* 2/3's of the LS stories have been written by authors who have written 3 or more LS stories
* I have data for 107,282 comments on the 18916 LS stories. 51,143 of those comments are anonymous, or 48%
* The 56,149 non-anonymous comments were created by 10,032 different user accounts, an average of 5.6 comments per user account
* 5,668 of the user accounts that have left a comment on a LS story have left only one comment on a LS story, or 56%. 1,514 of the user accounts have left two comments, or 15%
* 85% of the user comments on LS stories are by accounts that have left 3 or more comments
* 1,718 authors of LS stories have left 14,915 comments on LS stories
* Of the 1,718 authors who have left a comment on a LS story, 750 have left only one comment. 274 have left two comments
* One LS author has left 1526 comments and another has left 1121 comments on LS stories
* So for LS, 1 out of 7 comments is from an LS author

 

[oggbashan]

...

This estimate, OTOH, could well be accurate for all I know. I would expect there are a LOT of unregistered anons for every member.

And there are those who find Lit stories through links (or copies) on other sites.

The real answer is we don't know and there is no real way to work out what the ratio might be.

 

[Abbafan]

The vast majority of the comments on my work seem to come from members without a single submission and mostly blank profile. I'm curious if anyone is aware of the ratio between members who have submitted at least one piece of work to members with no submissions at all.

It's possible.

However, I have two accounts, which I think is allowed. I don't post comments or anything with the other one. Some authors might do that as well. No stories associated with this account, but if I wrote a comment on a story, it'd be with this one.

 

[PennameWombat]

It's possible.

However, I have two accounts, which I think is allowed. I don't post comments or anything with the other one. Some authors might do that as well. No stories associated with this account, but if I wrote a comment on a story, it'd be with this one.

Multiple accounts are allowed. Lots of authors here use them to post different content under different pen names, e.g., I/T under one and LW under another and other categories under a third, to build up a following specific to that content and not intermix/dilute their brand where audiences might be strongly focused. That's drawing on a long publishing tradition so nothing nefarious. Or, they do collaboration on one account and solo on another. Your use is fine, too.

What's considered unethical is to create the multiple accounts as secret sockpuppets to post glowing comments and votes on your own work. This is in no way limited to LitE, it happens all over online media.

There was a thread here some time back asking "if your characters came alive and had LitE accounts, what would they post about your stories?" My thought was mine would all post "why can't we get a GOOD author to write about us!!!"