Thank you

[Smuttyandfun]

I've noticed, like the troll that's been hounding me, they say they're giving a story a 2, probably thinking that if they give it a 1 it might be deleted in a sweep.

 

[NoTalentHack]

Honestly, I kinda wish LitE would switch to a thumbs up/down system like Reddit. People use the star system in wildly different ways, even as individuals. Sometimes it's "I like this," sometimes it's "this is well written," sometimes it's "I like the politics here." It's probably way too late to do it, but a simpler system really would be better.

 

[Voboy]

...and, slowly, YET ANOTHER AH THREAD finds its way to becoming a gripefest/referendum on the Lit voting system...

 

[MrPixel]

At the risk of sounding both didactic and nostalgic, I remember the pre-Internet world where it was a lot more difficult to say or write such things about somebody without them knowing who it was. Yes, there was gossip and people could leave notes in mailboxes or on car windshields. It was far from perfect. But I wouldn't want to be in my twenties now and this is all I had ever experienced.

And people in general were infinitely more civil. I'm reminded of my (then) wife coming home and complaining that somebody left their name and phone number on her windshield. It was a guy's name, and she automatically thought she had a stalker (she was quite attractive) and threw the note away. I look at the nearly new car... big dent in the left rear quarter panel.

Second time I had to repair one of her being on the receiving side of a hit-and-run because she had her head... in a dark place.

 

[SimonDoom]

Honestly, I kinda wish LitE would switch to a thumbs up/down system like Reddit. People use the star system in wildly different ways, even as individuals. Sometimes it's "I like this," sometimes it's "this is well written," sometimes it's "I like the politics here." It's probably way too late to do it, but a simpler system really would be better.

1. I understand the arguments for changing the system, including in the way you propose.
2. That being said, I disagree, and many other authors disagree, and I can almost guarantee that readers disagree. I think the number system is fine as it is, although I would get rid of the 'red H' if anyone asked me (which they won't).
3. Readers matter far more than authors. Anytime a suggestion for changing this site is made, this basic principle must be kept in mind. There is no reason to make any change unless it improves the experience for readers or at the least does not take away something they want. I think it's fair to say that readers want to be able assign numerical votes rather than up or down.
4. Regardless of what you or I want, there's no way this is going to happen. It's dead in the water from the word 'go.'

 

[alohadave]

Yes, sweeps happen. I've sometimes thought some of my stories never were swept, though.

It seems rather random. I had a story with 18 votes that had been up for a few month that got swept. It was totally random and one vote got killed. Curiously, it's now my highest rated story at 4.65.

I'm pretty sure it's NOT true that all 1 votes are swept. Nor should they. What's the point of giving readers the option of voting 1 if the vote automatically is deleted?

I don't know how the system works but my sense is that the site has a way of identifying what it believes are "inauthentic" votes and it sweeps those.

I'm pretty sure that I've had a 5 swept, in addition to the usual 1s.

 

[alohadave]

Honestly, I kinda wish LitE would switch to a thumbs up/down system like Reddit. People use the star system in wildly different ways, even as individuals. Sometimes it's "I like this," sometimes it's "this is well written," sometimes it's "I like the politics here." It's probably way too late to do it, but a simpler system really would be better.

People complain just as much about that system as we do here. Any voting system will have these kinds of frustrations.

You can't dictate how people vote, because everyone has their own criteria.

 

[Voboy]

3. Readers matter far more than authors. Anytime a suggestion for changing this site is made, this basic principle must be kept in mind. There is no reason to make any change unless it improves the experience for readers or at the least does not take away something they want. I think it's fair to say that readers want to be able assign numerical votes rather than up or down.

This x1,000. It bears repeating in the AH that we are not the customers here. The readers are.

 

[alohadave]

And people in general were infinitely more civil.

To your face maybe. They'd say it behind your back instead.

People have not changed in the last 40-50 years that the internet has been around.

 

[Andrew1968]

I feel for you, Emily, but this sort of thing can happen if you write and publish a Loving Wives type story. That’s what you’ve done – write and publish a Loving Wives story. As a result it looks like you’ve picked up some trolls. The problem is also greater because you’ve become a sort of “high profile target” because you’re so active in the Author’s Hangout here.

You said something which is concerning. You mentioned that your mental health is somehow attached to all of this. That’s a worry because it seems you need the validation of your readers, who for the most part are complete strangers. If you post stories in a combative space like LW, which is filled with trolls, then you will, most likely, experience some negative consequences. You need a thick skin to go into LW. You need to be coldly objective in my view.

Maybe leave LW to assholes like me, dear Emily, I don’t give a shit what they think and do. They can kiss my ass.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I’m glad too .
I’ve also been told that I need to get fucked by a real man. My poor boyfriend .

The concept of being bisexual is beyond these people. Then so is the concept of shoelaces.

Em

Yeah, I know what you mean.

On another front, my sister is being a bitch this weekend. She comes here once or twice a year, I go to see her 3 to 5 times a year. And I'm the bad girl on everything this weekend. She's vegetarian and preaching at Mum and Dad about the sins of meat eating, and I'm the bad daughter.

 

[SimonDoom]

Yeah, I know what you mean.

On another front, my sister is being a bitch this weekend. She comes here once or twice a year, I go to see her 3 to 5 times a year. And I'm the bad girl on everything this weekend. She's vegetarian and preaching at Mum and Dad about the sins of meat eating, and I'm the bad daughter.

When the family dinner is over, and somebody says something complimentary about it, tell everybody it's because of the bacon you put in the recipe.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

This x1,000. It bears repeating in the AH that we are not the customers here. The readers are.

Where do you put us then?

I agree the scores are not that important and even that readers come first, but there are simple things that would improve our experience, while taking nothing from the readers. We really don't have to be so far down the food chain.

 

[MrPixel]

People have not changed in the last 40-50 years that the internet has been around.

Uh... the public Internet has only been extant since around 1990. It's just amazing how quickly our society has deteriorated in the space of a single generation.

 

[SimonDoom]

Where do you put us then?

I agree the scores are not that important and even that readers come first, but there are simple things that would improve our experience, while taking nothing from the readers. We really don't have to be so far down the food chain.

What we (authors) are: fungible.

There are plenty of authors writing stories for Literotica. There's no evidence that the way Literotica does things is causing authors to leave in numbers that affect its success.

I'm curious what "simple things" you think could be done to improve our experience without taking something from readers. Obviously, replacing a numerical voting system with a thumbs up/thumbs down system would take away a lot. Taking away categories would take away a lot. Taking away the ability of anonymous readers to vote would take away a lot. Placing ANY impediments on the ability of readers to provide feedback on stories would take away a lot. Readers want these things. The evidence of that is that this site has been going on this way for 25 years and it has the highest traffic of any erotic story site on planet earth. The site has no incentive to risk pissing off readers. You bear a heavy burden of proving that any change to the site would not inconvenience readers.

You've admitted you don't read stories here. So you don't see things from the readers' standpoint at all. I do, because I've been reading stories here for 20 years. While 95% of my experience here now is as an author, when I consider changes to the site, I think from the point of view of a reader.

 

[MillieDynamite]

When the family dinner is over, and somebody says something complimentary about it, tell everybody it's because of the bacon you put in the recipe.

I fed her vegetarian chili last time she was here. It had bulgar wheat and a healthy amount of hamburger. LOL

 

[gunhilltrain]

To your face maybe. They'd say it behind your back instead.

People have not changed in the last 40-50 years that the internet has been around.

Actually, they haven't changed that much in the last 10,000 years or so. The invention of agriculture was the big change-over point. Not that they were so great before that, just different.

 

[SimonDoom]

I fed her vegetarian chili last time she was here. It had bulgar wheat and a healthy amount of hamburger. LOL

Respect.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It seems rather random. I had a story with 18 votes that had been up for a few month that got swept. It was totally random and one vote got killed. Curiously, it's now my highest rated story at 4.65.

I'm pretty sure that I've had a 5 swept, in addition to the usual 1s.

Yes, fives get swept, just as ones (and twos) get swept. Any time there's a contest sweep, the algorithm goes through the story database. I've seen votes removed from some of my earliest stories, from eight or nine years ago, so I suspect the algorithm chugs through everything, each time.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

What we (authors) are: fungible.

There are plenty of authors writing stories for Literotica. There's no evidence that the way Literotica does things is causing authors to leave in numbers that affect its success.

I have seen time and again authors losing interest to write, many due to the lack of feedback, a consequence of a terrible model of communication between authors and readers.

I'm curious what "simple things" you think could be done to improve our experience without taking something from readers. Obviously, replacing a numerical voting system with a thumbs up/thumbs down system would take away a lot. Taking away categories would take away a lot. Taking away the ability of anonymous readers to vote would take away a lot. Placing ANY impediments on the ability of readers to provide feedback on stories would take away a lot. Readers want these things. The evidence of that is that this site has been going on this way for 25 years and it has the highest traffic of any erotic story site on planet earth. The site has no incentive to risk pissing off readers. You bear a heavy burden of proving that any change to the site would not inconvenience readers.

I wouldn't take anything away, I would add. I am talking about your own idea, the blog feature for authors who would like to use it which would provide both authors and readers with a far better line of communication than what we have now:

- comments that take forever to get published and the need for the reader to return to the story in a day or two and see if there were any replies from the author.

- the contact author feature that requires the reader to provide his/her email to talk to the author, thus maybe making the reader uneasy about their anonymity and "contaminating" the email with messages about sex stories, the email they maybe use for work and other stuff.

You've admitted you don't read stories here. So you don't see things from the readers' standpoint at all. I do, because I've been reading stories here for 20 years. While 95% of my experience here now is as an author, when I consider changes to the site, I think from the point of view of a reader.

Absolutely false. I have been reading Lit stories for 15+ years on and off. I still read a story now and then, mostly older ones. You probably remember me saying something in Em's thread (well ONE of her threads...) the one where she wanted us to describe other authors. What I said there was that I haven't read anything from the AH authors, as this crowd here doesn't really write the kind of stories I like reading on Lit.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Respect.

She's a pretentious vegetarian and gets preachy about it. So, I told her it was bulger wheat (which it was) flavored with artificial beef broth, which it was not.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I’m glad too .
I’ve also been told that I need to get fucked by a real man. My poor boyfriend .

The concept of being bisexual is beyond these people. Then so is the concept of shoelaces.

Em

That is truly messed-up. It's a form of bullying, I think. When people were bullied face-to-face, there was some risk involved for the aggressor. If they miscalculated, either the person attacked or someone they knew might kick their ass. I saw this myself, where people in New York knew not to start something they couldn't finish. On-line like this, there are no potential consequences.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Where do you put us then?

I agree the scores are not that important and even that readers come first, but there are simple things that would improve our experience, while taking nothing from the readers. We really don't have to be so far down the food chain.

Why do you think we're so far down the food chain? We've got a free publishing site, for goodness sake, costs us nothing, brings readers to us, let's us indulge our fantasies, costs us fucking nothing. It's got some rules, and readers exhibit curious behaviours, but so what? This constant moaning is like going for a swim in the sea, and bitching because God didn't turn the temperature up.

If you want bells and whistles, send money. It really is that simple. Go to the heated pool.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Why do you think we're so far down the food chain? We've got a free publishing site, for goodness sake, costs us nothing, brings readers to us, let's us indulge our fantasies, costs us fucking nothing. It's got some rules, and readers exhibit curious behaviours, but so what? This constant moaning is like going for a swim in the sea, and bitching because God didn't turn the temperature up.

If you want bells and whistles, send money. It really is that simple. Go to the heated pool.

There is a certain number of people here who get a heart attack whenever someone criticizes Lit, no matter how politely and constructively one does it. I really hope Laurel is providing the beta blockers.

 

[Bramblethorn]

That’s reflected in some comments and PMs as well. As I say, I’ve been called uppity, a man hater and frigid (if only they knew!)

Em

Pissing off those types is a badge of honour. If they like your stories, that's when you might be doing something wrong.