Reader voting

[MathGirl]

When I first started submitting stories here, I lived and died with daily peeks at how my stuff was doing. Now that I've been around here for a while, I don't much care.

How do feel about reader voting?

Have you ever turned it off?

I know the subject of voting has been thoroughly flogged, but I'd like to know how you feel about those two questions.

Diane

 

[Alex De Kok]

For the first few days after a story is posted, I watch the voting closely. This gives me a feel for how a story is being received. After a week or so I don't watch so closely, maybe glancing at the score(s) every two weeks or so.

I get a lot more from reader feedback, if only there was more of it! Mine ranges from zero to almost fifty on a story, the majority being at the low end of the range, unfortunately.

I haven't bothered turning voting off. I might if the voting pattern was low, 'cause my ego might get bruised, LOL.

Alex

 

[MathGirl]

#$%%$&^(& voting

For the first few days after a story is posted, I watch the voting closely. I haven't bothered turning voting off.

I've followed more or less the same pattern. The vote average starts out really high, and I think "Finally, I've done something right!" Then the bottom falls out, and the average sinks to the usual level.

I finally got a story to stick in the top 500 (not near the top, of course). I'm wondering if I should just be satisfied with that and save myself all the agonies of watching the damned votes.

My writing is mediocre, and I know that. I just hate to have that confirmed every time I post something. I'd probably be happier if I turned the voting off, but I'd always wonder.

 

[sirhugs]

My vote scores vary widely, and I am not sure why, but I do follow it- less intently when I don't have a new one posted. the only time I experience angst is if a story fluctates around 4.50 . I alweays feel losing an " H" for one vote is a shame, and if that label encourages more readers, I want it, since I hope for lots of readers. The view totals mean more to me than the scores, but I wouyldn't turn of the scores.

Nothing mediocre about Top 500, Diane.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I used to check my ratings every time I logged in, but I don't do it so much anymore. I've noticed that my stories have lost their average.Perhaps there is someone out there who is upset with me..?

Ah, well. I'll check my ratings again when I submit something new.

 

[KillerMuffin]

I have it off for all of my "How-to" essays. People either take the advice or they leave it. I don't want them grading me on it. The rest is on. I look about once every other month or so these days.

I used to be pretty uptight about it. Check at least twice a day, keep track, and freak out whenever it dropped half a point in three votes. I've even got a seriously embarrassing vote-bitch thread in my past.

It doesn't matter to me anymore because I accepted the fact that at Literotica I'm a mid-list writer. Once I lost the competitive feelings, I lost interest in my votes beyond the pleasant surprise that I've got higher than a 2 on my stuff.

 

[NorthwestRain]

I check almost everyday. I love reader voting and the whole way this site works. I know lots of writers bitch and moan about it and claim they have been sabotaged, but I don't really give a fuck. It's all practice, it's all fun, and it's all learning.
So no, I would never turn it off. Even while my last story has absolutely bombed with a 2.25 score, I'm enjoying peoples abusive anon feedbacks. Some are so pissed off at me it's hilarious.
Sometimes I think it's even fun to piss off the readers out there with something a little whacked out, instead of pandering to their needs in the hope of high scores.
I love this site!!!!!!

 

[Dirt Man]

I've pretty much flogged the voting on this site...

And that's mainly because there's no way to really tell by the vote average here how one of my stories is being received by those who really read them all the way through, and then vote. Obviously there are different tastes in reading by gender, and mind sets, but there is also a clear cut group of idiot voters out there as well, and possibly a few manipulators of the voting average also. It's easy to do, you just need six people to vote nothing but threes, and twos to sabatage any story if Laurel erases only the ones. Isn't it strange how my stories are consistantly averaging out at 4.5 or just slightly lower. In any event you'll never know unless you get honest feedback on a story just how well it is being received other than by the amount of viewers who have gone to the story site, and actually read the story. So I've pretty much given up any hope of an honest vote getting any of my stories to the top lists that I've posted here, nor do they therefore have a chance in hell of winning any contest here. But then I don't write for those reasons. I'm just dissapointed in the results due to the manipulation of votes is all. But hey, that's life, I've been dissapointed before.

As Always
I Am the
Dirt Man

 

[NorthwestRain]

Well stop fucking whining then. No-one cares!

 

[Dirt Man]

I believe we were asked to comment...

Well stop fucking whining then. No-one cares!

Why is it when I comment it's whining, and when you attack, it's just bad manners?

 

[OT]

How do feel about reader voting?

Have you ever turned it off?

I love randomness. It's a fun thing to watch. Since I've mostly poetry submissions, the votes are so few that I get a kick out of any sign of life.

My voting habits are mood dependant, so I assume the same from others. I have more undeserved fives than undeserved ones.

I'd never turn it off. Just today, I read something totally cool and was bummed that the writer had votes and feedback turned off -- I felt cheated.

 

[jfinn]

I used to check it a lot, but I think like most of you, I finally got it through my thick skull that it's silly to worry about something you have no control over. Now the only thing I hope for is that nice big H after one of my titles because I think that probably does encourage readers to take a look at something. But even that is such a crapshoot that I really don't think about it much.

Jayne

 

[Chicklet]

Once I realized that all the work I was proud of was getting shitty, shitty votes, I stopped caring. Fuck 'em - if *I* like it, it's good enough = ) I live for my feedback, though <grin>

Chicklet

 

[KillerMuffin]

Dirtman, Laurel erases any extra votes tendered from the same computer. It doesn't matter what they were. She retains the highest of them, and removes the rest. Generally, however, the duplicates are either both 1s or 5s, so the issue of which to remove is moot.

Considering the number of stories on the site, however, and the fact that she's the only person who is able to get into the voting backend, it's not a perfect system.

Votes don't really matter. Only feedback does.

 

[Just_John1]

I check votes

I check them about every two weeks unless I have something new posting. I like to know what the score is and I do want that H because it brings more readers I think. Once the story falls off the first couple of pages on the new list the reads slow down, votes tail off and feedback absolutely dies, but it does give you a feel for how your stories are being received.

Feedback rules though! Wish there was more of it.

JJ1

 

[MathGirl]

Re: Re: Reader voting

I'd never turn it off. Just today, I read something totally cool and was bummed that the writer had votes and feedback turned off -- I felt cheated.

I never thought about that aspect of voting. Good point.

Maybe there would be more feedback if the readers couldn't vote.

It's all pretty damned nebulous, isn't it?

 

[SexyChele]

I use the votes to gauge how a story is being received, but I don't live or die by it. Normally, if the voting is going well, then the feedback reflects that. And I look forward to the feedback more, because it tells me that a reader took the time to let me know how s/he felt. Yeah, even if it wasn't good!

I've never turned the voting off, though I am tempted to with poetry submissions. I can't write poetry to save my life, but get the urge every once in a blue moon. But then, I've been known to be a glutton for punishment!

 

[DarlingNikki]

How do feel about reader voting?

Have you ever turned it off?

Diane

So far I've only submitted two stories so I'm still new at the vote thing and currently a huge vote-watching whore. If I see that I got one more vote and the rating dropped I feel sad.

I care about the feedback a lot but there just isn't as much of it, compared to votes. Interestingly, my first story has a lower rating than my second but I got three times as many feedbacks on it and they were the really thoughtful variety whereas the few feedbacks on the second were of the erection report variety.

Never turned voting off and probably won't.

 

[NorthwestRain]

Apologies Dirtman, just a little tired of complaints about votes. Democracy is never perfect, GWB is testimony to that.
No offence.

 

[MathGirl]

Re: Re: Reader voting

the few feedbacks on the second were of the erection report variety.

Don't you just LOVE those?

 

[NorthwestRain]

Are they like, 'My cock reached a state of 4/5's arousal indicating a four vote was required, or else that there is a slight chance of showers. Not sure which.'

 

[pop_54]

Hi

I only check the votes for existing tales when I post a new story, unless something wild happens in the feedback stakes.

That's no indicator though, a story that received over 30 good feedback notes praising the story to the heavens was languishing at 4.30 when a story that has yet to attract one feedback note was sitting at 4.62

I leave voting on because I can't be bothered to turn it off, oh I am a lazy sod.


pops............

 

[MathGirl]

$%^&^(*) feedback

Are they like, 'My cock reached a state of 4/5's arousal indicating a four vote was required, or else that there is a slight chance of showers. Not sure which.'

Hardly like that. Many go into great detail about masturbatory technique, orgasmic frequency, etc. Those usually include offers to -------- my ------- or ------- on my --------.

I used to keep the weird ones in a folder on my drive, but I can't find it. I'll have to start a new collection. They keep coming in.

 

[Chicklet]

Re: Re: Reader voting

...currently a huge vote-watching whore.

Let's Stone The Whore! (just kidding, duh)

But anyway, back to another question which I didn't answer - do I ever turn off voting? yes. more than once. When I first started writing for the site, and most of my stuff was doing well, one of my stories flopped. I was hearbroken, since at the time I didn't have 80 stories to shift through, the low score seemed to blare in my mind. I turned off the voting so that I didn't have to see it anymore. Later, around the 60 submission mark, I turned all the voting that I rashly had turned off back on, and found, to my surprise, that the scores I'd thought were "super bad" were really not that awful at all. Right now only one of my stories is blocked, and that because I know I didn't do a good job. It doesn't deserve a place on the toplist no matter what anyone thinks of it, because I know it sucks. That might not make any sense, but that's why it's blocked.

When I read stories, rarely do I care about the score. If the lists listed the score AND the number of votes, I might care...but if a story has two votes, one was a four and one was a three, it doesn't have a *great* score - but it might be a "5" in my book...if that makes any sense...

sorry, sugar high.

Chicklet

 

[OT]

Re: Re: Re: Reader voting

Maybe there would be more feedback if the readers couldn't vote.

nah. You'd get the same feedback, but now with no votes.

From what I can tell,
some only vote,
some only send feedback,
few do both and
most do neither.

I like the vote option when I've not quite enough energy (or interest) to bother with feedback. Even the extra couple clicks to vote can sometimes seem a chore. Yep, I'm a (typical) lazy reader

What would be cool would be to supply flavors of the
back-button to let readers painlessly express an opinion:
Back-Didn't finish reading
Back-Thumbs up
Back-Shrug
Back-Thumbs down