Reads, Feedback, and Votes ... AGAIN

[snooper]

I know there have been many threads about this on this forum, but I have some interesting statistics.

The best story (in voting terms) I ever wrote and posted on here (since removed) got 41 votes from 13396 reads, and almost no feedback.

I have just posted a story (ineligible for Literotica) on another large free stories board, and in its first day I got 22 votes from 850 reads and 5 feedbacks, none anonymous.

I ask the same question as many ask: Why do so few people bother to vote?

The layout of the other board is similar, a request to vote and send feedback at the bottom of the story, so it isn't a technical problem.

 

[Quasimodem]

I can better that record!

Well, maybe '‘better’ is the wrong word to use.

Two of my stories are batting:

9,962 views - 38 votes - 1 response* - for a 3.89 score.

and

4,457 views - 16 votes - 0 responses - for a 4.19 score.

They invariably start out low. They may get one or two high votes, but usually in the first week get three to four 1 votes and never recover. Nor can I be bothered to do the math to work out what the following scores might be.

Less than a year ago, I submitted two stories under a alternate Author’s nom. This 'Author' has never written a word in any Forum, and has a nearly blank Profile.

In the less than a year since, they have earned:

10,548 views - 26 votes - 0 responses - for a score of 4.19**

and

22,810 views - 41 votes - 0 responses - for a score of 3.49

These stories both start in the 4.5 and over, but before qualifying for an ‘H’ got hammered down with multiple 1 votes.

As someone who gets paid for a form of quasi-creative writing, I would take this harder, did I not already recognize that my stories are often improved by removing the gratuitous sex, or even sanitizing the necessary sex. I originally began submitting here to get direction through feedback showing me how to consistantly increase the sizzle in the sex I wrote.

I publish ‘straight’ stories elsewhere, in ezines and story sites, and get quite gratifying responses.

As a result, I publish fewer stories on Lit, and spend more time playing ‘silly buggers’ in the forums. There I DO enjoy the interplay! It is the writers (especially in AH) that keep me coming to Lit.
_______________________________________________________________

* “Wow! Like where can I get one of those!” - Was the complete comment, about an invention described in that story.

** Previously written and submitted on Alt.Sex.Stories it won First Prize as the “Best Sex at The Office” Story in 1998.

 

[Pookie]

I ask the same question as many ask: Why do so few people bother to vote?

The layout of the other board is similar, a request to vote and send feedback at the bottom of the story, so it isn't a technical problem.

I think the layout at Lit is a major reason for the lack of votes and feedback, when comparing it to some other sites. The current design typically will not encourage the average reader to submit a vote and/or feedback.

I'm not sure which site you are referring to, but one site that I like has a nice layout that I feel does promote more voting and feedback per reader.

When you click on the story, a frame appears across the bottom of the screen allowing you to vote at any time. Voting doesn't take you to a different screen. If you read a portion of the story and think it is crap, you can vote from right where you are.

The same is true with sending feedback. There is a dialogue box at the end of the story where the user can enter their email addy (optional) and feedback. The user doesn't have to leave the story or click on a link to access the feedback page.

I don't think the typical "reader" likes clicking too far off the story menu. The way it is organized now, you can end up many pages away from the menu you started from. Most readers will want to get on to the next new story.

Just an opinion.


Pookie

 

[Chicklet]

keep in mind that not everyone who clicks on your story is going to finish it, while they will count as a "read"

you count as a read every time you click on your story

people who've already voted, loved your story, and come back time and time again are counting as new reads.

just keep that in mind, too = )

 

[Quasimodem]

Chicklet,

Are you trying to tell me that of the 10,548 times my story was started 10,522 clicked off before finishing, and only the 26 who voted, plodded through to the end, but didn’t wish to startle me with the news that the assignment was completed?

Or, do you mean that the 26 people read it, voted it a 4.19 and then in the next 10 months returned 405.69 times to reread it?

This story won an award on alt.sex.stories in 1998, and it doesn’t bear the “Quasi” moniker, so they can’t know it is me, even if I did piss them off in a forum.

Just because I read Sci-Fi doesn’t mean I am THAT gullible!

Amost, maybe . . . .

 

[pop_54]

Yea

This got me thinking, not often I do that it makes my brain hurt, but I popped over to the control panel and had a look at my bunch of crap, I mean stories, for the first time in about a month or so.

The two best scorers are sitting at:

10581 views - 44 votes - score 4.61, feedback has been fair on that one.

41039 views - 109 votes - score 4.50, feedback has been very low on that one.

Do vary don't they?? strange the way it seems to work.

Oh and I was chuffed to fuck to see all 8 stories above 4 on the scale still. No accounting for taste is there.

I've no doubt someone will attack with a few 1 votes now I've bragged openly.

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

 

[gauchecritic]

Re: Yea

I've no doubt someone will attack with a few 1 votes now I've bragged openly.

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

Bragging. I love it.

Gauche

 

[Guest]

bragging

A ripe, mature and virile man with a red bird on his shoulder has all rights to brag.

One who dares make fun of Hp or Alan Rickman will get shat on by birds (femme Lit. birds).

 

[Quasimodem]

Re: bragging

. . . One who dares make fun of Hp . . . will get shat on by. . . femme Lit. birds . . . .

Perdita,

You've got a THING about steak sauce

 

[Guest]

Quas:

You've got a THING about steak sauce

I have no idea what you mean.

 

[flawed_ethics]

Does it say anyone can vote regardless of whether you registered with Lit or not? People might just read and pull away to avoid an irritating sign-up form. (Not that Lit's is annoying, but most are.) I would pull up a story to find out, but I would fear adding to that story's count without a vote!

It would be kinda interesting for multi-page stories to see the 'counts' on each page. It doesn't 'count' for each page viewed, does it? (e.g, a three-page story followed to the end gets three counts, instead of the expected one count). If it got multiple counts on one read, that would be a bugger.

 

[Invid Writer]

yeah I would think that to be quite interesting too. I wish I knew how many people clicked on page 3 or page 5 of my stories and see how that compares to page 1.

I am also under the impression that if your story is multi page it is much more likely to get high votes because people who don't like it can't find the vote option to give it a 1. People who like it on the other hand read all the way through and give it a high rating. So if you're a vote monger, then make your story 2 pages min. -- Of course that's all assumption. I don't know how acurate any of that is but I have stories sitting at like 4.88, 4.83, 4.66 etc. My lowest is a 4.33 and they're all multi page stories. And I doubt my writing warrents a 4.88 so who knows

 

[destinie21]

I guess I've jus been lucky the first two stories I submitted both got high ratings and more than 20 vote the first one I submitted recived 113 votes out of 14,729 the second recived only 23 votes out of 3,156 veiws yet both stories got ratings of 4.43 or higher I encourage readers to send feed back and vote .I recived more than 90 feedback emails on the two stories and I did encourage readers to send suggestions as to where they would like the story to go or if any had prefrences regarding outfits and the like and many readers responded with great feed back and suggestions while there was about 3% of people who sent things that were nuts and the usual 5% who send the great story came lots feedback the other feed back was constructive and interesting

Also unlike the story feedback forum the readers who send feedback have read your story and respond more quickly (most likely because story feed back is always overun with people and stories. Plus I've noticed alot of people on story feed back are easily offended or defensive about their work.)

 

[snooper]

I113 votes out of 14,729
23 votes out of 3,156

10581 views - 44 votes
41039 views - 109 votes...

I wasn't really talking about the vote rating, only about the number of votes. A vote means somebody cares enough to bother, so to me a 1 is as good as a 5 in terms of my writing having tempted someone to vote. All of the vote counts quoted are well under 1% of reads; my new board seems to give something like 4% to 5% consistently.

... Plus I've noticed alot of people on story feed back are easily offended or defensive about their work.)

Now that is interesting. I've never used the Story Discussion section, but why would anyone post there and then complain if they were criticised. I have done crits and editing for people and I find most authors are grateful to have problems pointed out to them, provided the editor takes the trouble to explain the problem.

 

[flawed_ethics]

... I've never used the Story Discussion section, but why would anyone post there and then complain if they were criticised. I have done crits and editing for people and I find most authors are grateful to have problems pointed out to them, provided the editor takes the trouble to explain the problem.

I think they meant Story Feedback - which is different. People who post to the SDC (as I understand it) are seasoned writters who bring forth a polished story for critiques and in-depth discussion of character development and storyline flow. On the SDC, your story can only be offered up if it is chosen by the moderators.

Those who sacrifice their stories to the 'Story Feedback' Fourm aren't necessarily polished writters. I've seen some stories that are less than easy on the eyes, and the feedback represented that. That's not to say everyone who posts to the SF is a lesser writer. It is to say that the SF forum is free to anyone, where as the SDC is open to a limited (albeit more professionally minded) audience.

Speaking on this subject of the SF fourm ... does anyone think those who post there might be doing so just to increase their vote count and feedback? I thought of offering my stories up there, but have my reservations about it for similar reasons.

 

[Invid Writer]

I have posted a story in that (sf) forum simply to see what happened. Mainly I was looking for opinions but I certainly wouldn't have minded it if my vote count went up

Overall though, I just want to get as much feedback as I can and since I don't often get written emails I was hoping to boost my feedback up. It didn't work. I suspect only one person read it (only one gave feedback anyway) and that was just for the very beginning of the story. Ah well, maybe you'd have better luck? (maybe the beginning of your story doesn't suck quite the same )

 

[Rainbow Skin]

Views per day and per category

I've always been puzzled by votes/view being way under 0.01, and now I've discovered some more interesting things. I've posted in three distinct bursts:

JUNE 2002
Incest, 40781 views
Incest, 37918
Lesbian, 17512

SEPTEMBER 2002
Lesbian, 28314
Erotic Couplings 13337
Erotic Couplings, 5475

So far so good. This reflects the relative popularity of categories, as well as my descriptions and titles. Votes and ratings are typical values, not relevant to my point. So you might expect things submitted just this month to have proportionate viewing numbers, no?

15 JUNE 2003
Incest, 16949
Fetish, 5125

18 JUNE 2003
Incest, 21549
NonHuman, 1286

Twenty-two thousand views in three days!? Probably most viewing - most of the 41 000 on my top story - is in the first week. How much feedback do you get for past stories? I get an average of two or three e-mails when a story first appears then maybe one per year, if that.

Rejected
8 views
then fixed, pending
12

Eight views for me to submit it, Laurel to read it, and reject it because it contains a URL; another 4 for me to pull it up, delete that text, and click resubmit.

So I think there are so many technical things being counted that we should divide the number of views by ten to get the real number of viewers. So if I do that I get about 2%~5% votes/viewer.

 

[Guest]

Good suggestion

I wanted to bump this up as I think the idea very good. I truly appreciate the work that goes into running this site, and so do NOT want to offend any of the s/w and tech folk. I too get very frustrated clicking back to where I began. Thanks, Perdita

I think the layout at Lit is a major reason for the lack of votes and feedback, when comparing it to some other sites. The current design typically will not encourage the average reader to submit a vote and/or feedback.

I'm not sure which site you are referring to, but one site that I like has a nice layout that I feel does promote more voting and feedback per reader.

When you click on the story, a frame appears across the bottom of the screen allowing you to vote at any time. Voting doesn't take you to a different screen. If you read a portion of the story and think it is crap, you can vote from right where you are.

The same is true with sending feedback. There is a dialogue box at the end of the story where the user can enter their email addy (optional) and feedback. The user doesn't have to leave the story or click on a link to access the feedback page.

I don't think the typical "reader" likes clicking too far off the story menu. The way it is organized now, you can end up many pages away from the menu you started from. Most readers will want to get on to the next new story.

Just an opinion. Pookie