the Big Questions at Literotica! ‘Laurel’ ears up on this one!

[Fred H.]

two questions;

1) do you believe or suspect your stories have been down voted with ones for the purpose of revenge or to falsely lower your ratings?

2) do you believe or suspect that your interactions on the forum have hurt your story ratings and induced down voting of your work?

 

[CreamyLady]

1) No

2) No

My work is not generally popular. It's my fault, not the readers or voters.

 

[CelestialBody]

A comment

 

[Laurel]

Oh geez louise...here comes the conspiracies...

Let's be realistic: how many people do you think care enough to go "vote down" stories? And if this were happening, why do so many stories from board members have 4.0 out of 5 or better?

Occam's Razor: the simplest explanation is often the right one. Maybe some people give low votes to stories because they don't happen to like them. Does that mean those stories are bad? Heck no. It means that not everyone likes the same things.

It's a fact of this site since voting began, before updated results were available...a story will get a few high votes and jump up the list. It will then catch the attention of more readers. Generally, increased readership will cause a story's score to fall a bit. Perfectly normal.

Suppose it's true, that some wild maniac with nothing better to do is going around "voting down" stories. How much damage can one person do? Not much, if any. So for this theory to be true, there'd have to be hundreds of maniacs running around down-voting everybody. That just doesn't seem likely to me.

Interaction in the Bulletin Board hurting scores? I doubt it. In fact, I'd venture to say that people are more likely to READ and APPRECIATE stories from BB members, the way they would read stories by their friends. If you post on the board, people know who you are and are thus more likely to have an interest in your work. Many of the BB'ers have top-rated stories. I can't say for sure that it means the BB helps them, but it sure doesn't seem to hurt them much.

Let's all sit back and think about the whole thing rationally, and with a cool head.

 

[Whispersecret]

Shucks, now that CreamyLady said that, how can anyone answer yes without looking like they're in denial about the quality of their writing? LOL.

Even so, yes and probably. However, just because I think that doesn't mean it's true.

And Laurel, please don't take this as a judgement against the site. I think we all realize that you're doing your best to prevent misuse of the voting.

 

[Never]

Laurel:
"Suppose it's true, that some wild maniac with nothing better to do is going around "voting down" stories. How much damage can one person do?"

You'd be surprised. [insert evil laughter here]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I might be a maniac, I might be wild, but I'm sure as hell not.. wait, what was the third thing you said?

 

[KillerMuffin]

No, I don't think every bad vote or drop in scores comes from a person out to get me. I think it only happened one time. The amount of ones in the space of a few hours is too suspicious. Do I care that much? Not really. I started a thread in regards to it on the author board hoping to make the moron who did it realize how silly s/he was, and give people a place to vent. The thread worked.

Yes, I do think the things I say on the board can make some people go out and vote down my stories. It does for Deborah no doubt. While I'm not the iconoclast she is, I can be offensively bitchy and abrasive at times. Or is it arrogant and condescending? Do I think everyone will do it? Or that I should moderate my behavior? No. It does stand to reason that the easiest way to hurt me would to be to lash at my stories. It's simply, anonymous, and ineffective.

It will eventually work itself out as time passes, I hope. More people will read and vote and I have a feeling it'll reach a certain point in votes and stay static.

Some people may like to console themselves with the thought that their stories were receiving bad votes because someone was out to get them. I think that some of my stories are pretty good, considering. I also think that they may not be to the taste of the average literotica reader, and therefore may garner lower votes due to content or dislike of the writing. Outside of the one suspicious series of one votes, I don't think any other vote was given on anything other than merit. I could have asked Laurel to look into the votes, and she may have done so, but honestly, there is no point to it. Those votes may have well been legitimate. They may not have been. Things will even out in the end anyway.

Like the election committee in Florida, it's a futile task to try to guage the voter's intent.

 

[Laurel]

I don't take it as a judgement against the site. I do take it as people getting hysterical for no reason. Okay, say someone doesn't like you and votes down your story. There's gonna be someone else - a friend, a fellow author, a fan - who does like you and will give your story a 5 regardless of their opinion of the story.

And how do you propose solving the problem? Having all voters submit an essay to me of "Why I Like/Dislike This Story" along with a copy of their driver's license every time they vote?

I'm not deliberately being flippant. I do worry about the voting accuracy. However, determining the intent of a voter is IMPOSSIBLE.

If the voting is causing going to discourage people and make them stop participating in the site - either on the BB or as authors - we can always take it down. Like I said, it's supposed to add to the fun, not make it less fun. I don't want to lose good authors and good stories - or good BB'ers - because of the voting.

 

[Fred H.]

Occam's Razor: the simplest explanation is often the right one.

Contact… but they never did explain where the interconnecting galactic conduit tubes came from and who the original builders had been. And my Laurel, you do have fast ears and a nimble mind. A smile back…

Sorry not looking for conspiracies, just opinions, and definitely not knocking the web page.

 

[Never]

Glancing at the title of this thread, I suddenly realize that, naturally, Laurel's real name is not Laurel. Okay, Duuuh.

 

[Laurel]

You mean your name's Never?

 

[Fred H.]

And how do you propose solving the problem? Having all voters submit an essay to me of "Why I Like/Dislike This Story" along with a copy of their driver's license every time they vote?

I do worry about the voting accuracy. However, determining the intent of a voter is IMPOSSIBLE.

well not such a bad idea (essay)... especially if a one is given to a story.

Here is a question just for Laurel;
(since you are still up)

do you find that many of the good stories have a heavy load of five’s and a several one’s but nothing in between? This is something that we as readers can not see – we get only the totals, not the placement of the scores.

 

[CRaZy]

I have this amusing vision of some maniac running from internet cafe to internet cafe, madly voting ones on stories. Does the mad mythical one voter set goals? One hundred one votes in an hour? "I'm falling behind in my per minute one quota..faster..faster...get to the next cafe....faster." Then at the end of the day, does it go to its home computer and cackle wickedly, "Ah ha, 4.98 down to 2.27 in a single day. Ha ha ha ha ha. I am Lord of the Top Stories list. Ha ha ha ha ha."

I reckon it would be bloody frustrating for the poor mad mythical one voting creature to actually have other damn readers voting on the stories and wreaking havoc on its system. Next day the poor thing would have to start all over again. Makes you almost shed a tear. Just as well the mad one voter is just a
.figment
..........of
...............our
....................imaginations.

 

[KillerMuffin]

Something that may help with that, as was mentioned on some other thread, was giving the reader a higher point spread to choose from, or labeling the votes. I think they used to be, didn't they?

 

[KillerMuffin]

I have this amusing vision of some maniac running from internet cafe to internet cafe, madly voting ones on stories. Does the mad mythical one voter set goals? One hundred one votes in an hour? "I'm falling behind in my per minute one quota..faster..faster...get to the next cafe....faster." Then at the end of the day, does it go to its home computer and cackle wickedly, "Ah ha, 4.98 down to 2.27 in a single day. Ha ha ha ha ha. I am Lord of the Top Stories list. Ha ha ha ha ha."

I reckon it would be bloody frustrating for the poor mad mythical one voting creature to actually have other damn readers voting on the stories and wreaking havoc on its system. Next day the poor thing would have to start all over again. Makes you almost shed a tear. Just as well the mad one voter is just a
.figment
..........of
...............our
....................imaginations.

Why would he run from internet cafe to internet cafe? It can be done by a single person from a single computer in an astonishingly short amount of time. Well, the short amount of time, I don't know about, but it's only a series of clicks and another activity. I can do it, but I don't.

 

[Never]

After eight hours of labor my mother looked at me and yelled 'Never Again!'

Er, no, but...
As you are the owner of this site, why wouldn't you use your real name? It's not as if you're afraid of being fired from your job for being on a porn site; I'm guessing most of your friends and family members know what you do for a living. In fact, isn't the name of any company president public knowledge?

To my line of thinking, as you have no reason for anonymity and, I assume, couldn't maintain it if you tried you'd use your real name as your board title.

Little did Otto know!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am The mad midnight voter what votes at midnight!

 

[Whispersecret]

<rips down the conspiracy flow charts, the blank petitions to "FIND THE 'ONE' VOTER!!!">

Who's getting hysterical? <swipes at the froth dripping down her chin>

Certainly not me. <glances at the gallows she was constructing in the backyard>

Seriously...you're right. Skewed voting goes both ways. Recently someone wrote to tell me how they voted 5 on one of my how-tos, and that they were going to read the rest of my stuff and give it 5s too. I had to write her back immediately and tell her not to pre-determine her votes.

I'm no math wizard. (I'm not even a math apprentice!) But doesn't a one vote do a lot more damage than a five vote does "good?" I remember trying to figure out my grade point average in school, and it took a lot more As to bring up a grade and only one C to plummet it.

I think Deb had a good idea about having a window pop up when someone votes a one, asking for specific feedback for the author. Sure, people could use it as a way to say, "I thought your story sucked!" But, it could perhaps get the message across that the authors here are sincerely interested in improving and that specific feedback might make for better stories in the future.

 

[CRaZy]

Why would he run from internet cafe to internet cafe? It can be done by a single person from a single computer in an astonishingly short amount of time. Well, the short amount of time, I don't know about, but it's only a series of clicks and another activity. I can do it, but I don't. [/B]

That's true. You can go into the computer and change your IP. Like I said - it was an amusing image I had in my head. I wasn't proposing that the mythical one voter would do it that way. LOL.

 

[Fred H.]

Why would he run from internet cafe to internet cafe? It can be done by a single person from a single computer in an astonishingly short amount of time. Well, the short amount of time, I don't know about, but it's only a series of clicks and another activity. I can do it, but I don't.

yup, your correct.

I'm no math wizard. (I'm not even a math apprentice!) But doesn't a one vote do a lot more damage than a five vote does "good?" I remember trying to figure out my grade point average in school, and it took a lot more As to bring up a grade and only one C to plummet it.

yup, your correct too.

 

[Laurel]

After eight hours of labor my mother looked at me and yelled 'Never Again!'

LMAO!

Er, no, but...
As you are the owner of this site, why wouldn't you use your real name? It's not as if you're afraid of being fired from your job for being on a porn site; I'm guessing most of your friends and family members know what you do for a living. In fact, isn't the name of any company president public knowledge?

To my line of thinking, as you have no reason for anonymity and, I assume, couldn't maintain it if you tried you'd use your real name as your board title.

Keeps the freaks away. Don't need people looking me up and turning up on my doorstep, ya know?

 

[Laurel]

A smile back…

Sorry not looking for conspiracies, just opinions, and definitely not knocking the web page.

Didn't take it as such. Just don't want to start a scare, ya know?

 

[Never]

Laurel:
"Keeps the freaks away. Don't need people looking me up and turning up on my doorstep, ya know? "

*mighty sigh* Okay, I get the hint... "Laurel"
*goes back to the bedroom to unpack bags*

 

[Laurel]

No No No! I meant the EVIL freaks...the good freaks get a map to my door...

 

[Fred H.]

hey....... Laurel!
You're a sweetheart!

now I'm off to bed happy.

 

[Andra_Jenny]

Man. I do not care about the votes, the nominations, being liked, etc. I write for the pleasure. I share for the pleasure. Most people will not like each individual story because each individual is looking usually for something specific, something they like. Hell, Steven King is a fantastic success, but I would never give him a five. Probably not a one either, but its just not my genre. The only vote that counts is the one submitted by time. Will you be read 100 years form now? Probably not, so it cannot be that important.