Thoughts/what if - captcha before scoring a story

[jsmiam]

Consider this a hypothetical survey -

If there was a site with the ability to add captcha to story pages before a reader could score a story (no captcha to just read. Only to score). I’m such a dreamer. But, would you like or dislike?

(Captcha is that somewhat annoying but effective tool where you see an obscured code that you have to type in, or pick the images with a bus/boat/bridge/Furrie to proceed. It is pretty good at making life harder on all but the most determined bots).

The 750 word project got me thinking. Do I really want to bother knowing I’d get lower scores and “too short” comments? Even if I included a 750 word author’s note?

 

[MrPixel]

Uh... is the problem "bots"? I thought the scoring problem was idiots.

 

[oggbashan]

Uh... is the problem "bots"? I thought the scoring problem was idiots.

And assholes.

I have a problem with Captcha. I often can't see the pictures clearly enough to identify what they want.

 

[Lifestyle66]

As the others have said, it's not bots hating the stories, they are real people hating the stories. So, their voices should count.

The societal issue to address is: "How do we discourage such readers from flogging themselves with stories they know they are going to hate?"

Another problem to address would be those who attack a story via multiple browsers with one person voting down a story multiple times as "anonymous" (or who have multiple accounts, as I've noticed one author here having three different accounts).

 

[Lifestyle66]

On second thought, the captcha idea has its merits. What if they designed a captcha prompt to be an IQ test? The reader needs an IQ greater than 1 to rate a story.

 

[MrPixel]

On second thought, the captcha idea has its merits. What if they designed a captcha prompt to be an IQ test? The reader needs an IQ greater than 1 to rate a story.

You made me spit my coffee!

 

[jsmiam]

Originally the idea popped into my head because of the general plight of lower scores (generally) of one page stories since it’s so effortless to click when there’s just one page. Then I expanded the question to why not think about all stories.

And I do agree there are less bots than people may think, but that doesn’t necessarily mean none at all.

 

[TxRad]

Bots? You should have been here years ago when stories appeared on the new lists with several hundred views already on them. The creepy crawlies were everywhere.

But like was said above, the bots went way down and the idiots went way up. Balances out, sort of.

 

[shakna]

I'm blind. And though captcha's supposedly have an audio descriptive form, accessibility software for using the computer is usually flagged as me not behaving like a normal user (no mouse movement). So... Captchas can go fuck themselves, to put it as politely as I'm willing.

 

[LexxRuthless]

I think capcha will discourage legitimate voters more than it will deter the idiots. As it is, I only get a vote about 1.25% of the time someone views one of my stories, and all they have to do is click once to vote. A little over 93% of those are 5-star votes. If a significant chunk of those readers stop voting because they find the capcha annoying, it will make it easier for the trolls and score manipulators to down-vote my stories. There will be fewer 5-star votes to offset those 1-bombs.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I think capcha will discourage legitimate voters more than it will deter the idiots. As it is, I only get a vote about 1.25% of the time someone views one of my stories, and all they have to do is click once to vote. A little over 93% of those are 5-star votes. If a significant chunk of those readers stop voting because they find the capcha annoying, it will make it easier for the trolls and score manipulators to down-vote my stories. There will be fewer 5-star votes to offset those 1-bombs.

This. It will not deter the trolls, but fewer legitimate readers will vote.

 

[Winter_Fare]

I hate captcha. I don't know if I hate it more than fake votes, it's a close call.

 

[SimonDoom]

I agree with Lexx.

It's always hard to know what the consequence would be of making this or that change to the system, but I suspect proponents for change underestimate the potential for negative consequences. I think Web Site demand is highly elastic: make it just a little bit incrementally harder for a user to use something, and the Site will lose a lot of people. That's why, I suspect, Literotica is never going to respond positively to requests to impose additional screens on who can vote on a story or comment. And I personally don't support that, because the benefit of easing and maximizing reader participation far outweighs the negative consequence of some downvoting and some negative comments, the latter of which the author always has the opportunity to delete.

 

[windar]

I agree with Lexx.

It's always hard to know what the consequence would be of making this or that change to the system, but I suspect proponents for change underestimate the potential for negative consequences. I think Web Site demand is highly elastic: make it just a little bit incrementally harder for a user to use something, and the Site will lose a lot of people. That's why, I suspect, Literotica is never going to respond positively to requests to impose additional screens on who can vote on a story or comment. And I personally don't support that, because the benefit of easing and maximizing reader participation far outweighs the negative consequence of some downvoting and some negative comments, the latter of which the author always has the opportunity to delete.

I agree that captchas don't address the problem and that the commenters/voters are human (not always a favorable indicator for the future of the species).

But I think fears of losing readers if you had to vote or comment by username are greatly overstated. Votes are 1-2% of views and comments <1%. So 98-99% of readers do neither, and wouldn't care. You wouldn't lose readers. Could you lose some voters and commenters? Possibly, but my experience at other sites where all votes/likes and comments are by username is that those who are inclined to vote and comment (and we know they are a very small minority) will vote and comment regardless.

As for deleting comments, I think you miss the point, Simon. In order to delete a comment the author must first see it. If they're inclined to be hurt by a comment then they are hurt despite deleting it.

Sure, any change can have negative consequences, but they can also have positive consequences. Surely at some point back in the Stone Age somebody changed something here and the site has survived...

 

[SimonDoom]

As for deleting comments, I think you miss the point, Simon. In order to delete a comment the author must first see it. If they're inclined to be hurt by a comment then they are hurt despite deleting it.

.

It's not that I miss the point. I just don't sympathize with it much. I don't take any pleasure knowing some authors are hurt by seeing bad comments, but the hurt they feel is no more important than the annoyance I would feel at getting fewer comments. I want as many as possible. I don't know for sure but I suspect I'm in the majority. I could be wrong.

 

[windar]

It's not that I miss the point. I just don't sympathize with it much. I don't take any pleasure knowing some authors are hurt by seeing bad comments, but the hurt they feel is no more important than the annoyance I would feel at getting fewer comments. I want as many as possible. I don't know for sure but I suspect I'm in the majority. I could be wrong.

There is no reason to think you would get fewer comments. There are sites without anonymous comments where stories get several fold more comments than the average story gets here. This is a simple fact which I know from personal experience.

But in all honesty, somone having their wife insulted (which has happened) is a whole lot worse than you possibly getting 3 comments instead of 4 on some story. Sorry, but it is and if the majority here feels otherwise, then shame on them. And again, the fewer comments is speculative, but the hurt some feel is not, because they've come here and expressed it.

 

[KeithD]

I don't see the Web site instituting anything that will make it any more difficult/irritating for a reader to vote/comment, and I don't really see it as impeding trolling more than irritating greater reader response.

 

[Jay142]

I don't see the Web site instituting anything that will make it any more difficult/irritating for a reader to vote/comment, and I don't really see it as impeding trolling more than irritating greater reader response.

I agree with you, Keith. People would simply stop voting and commenting. Trolling and some idiotic comments go with the territory. Authors have to put their big boy panties, er, pants on.

 

[SimonDoom]

There is no reason to think you would get fewer comments. There are sites without anonymous comments where stories get several fold more comments than the average story gets here. This is a simple fact which I know from personal experience.

But in all honesty, somone having their wife insulted (which has happened) is a whole lot worse than you possibly getting 3 comments instead of 4 on some story. Sorry, but it is and if the majority here feels otherwise, then shame on them. And again, the fewer comments is speculative, but the hurt some feel is not, because they've come here and expressed it.

I respect your opinion and I see your point, but I disagree with it. I want a free-wheeling erotic fantasy environment where people can do whatever they want, subject to very few, very limited restrictions. I don't want more controls than already exist. Others disagree, as is their right. But this is my opinion.

There are things this Site could do to facilitate comments better, but I think that's a whole separate issue. Author-reader interaction is not a strength of the Site and certainly could be improved.

 

[windar]

I don't see the Web site instituting anything that will make it any more difficult/irritating for a reader to vote/comment, and I don't really see it as impeding trolling more than irritating greater reader response.

Yeah signing in is onerous. Why you have to click on the top where it says Login. That is just incredibly hard!

I agree with you, Keith. People would simply stop voting and commenting. Trolling and some idiotic comments go with the territory. Authors have to put their big boy panties, er, pants on.

As for author's big boy pants, there's a difference between saying, "Your writing sucks" and "Your wife is a slut". The former is certainly something that you ought to expect as a writer; the latter is beyond the pale IMO.

I respect your opinion and I see your point, but I disagree with it. I want a free-wheeling erotic fantasy environment where people can do whatever they want, subject to very few, very limited restrictions. I don't want more controls than already exist. Others disagree, as is their right. But this is my opinion.

There are things this Site could do to facilitate comments better, but I think that's a whole separate issue. Author-reader interaction is not a strength of the Site and certainly could be improved.

This isn't a free wheeling site in the least. You could only think it is by not having spent time on other sites. Free wheeling would have real-time back and forth, and there isn't any. These boards are closer to free wheeling, but the story part is not.

As for facilitating comments, yeah, how about letting them go up instantly? 24 hours to post a one sentence comment-that isn't free-wheeling.

 

[KeithD]

Yeah signing in is onerous. Why you have to click on the top where it says Login. That is just incredibly hard!

While certainly sarcastic enough to cut off interest in discussing this with you, that doesn't really respond to or honestly deal with what I posted. The verification form being discussed is much more demanding and intrusive and just a click.

 

[oggbashan]

As the others have said, it's not bots hating the stories, they are real people hating the stories. So, their voices should count.

The societal issue to address is: "How do we discourage such readers from flogging themselves with stories they know they are going to hate?"

...

That is a problem I have with the themed contests. If you click on a story from the contest list, you have no idea of the category which could be one you wouldn't normally read.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

That is a problem I have with the themed contests. If you click on a story from the contest list, you have no idea of the category which could be one you wouldn't normally read.

When entering a themed contest, I sometimes put the category and my list of tags at the top of the story, for that very reason.

I think it helps encourage readers who might enjoy the story, while deterring and not wasting the time of those who would never like it.

 

[lovecraft68]

You can barely get these people to click a star, you think they're going to type in a captcha?

Voting would be cut in half.

 

[yukonnights]

I voted dislike entirely. I tend to agree that navigating through a Capcha would deter voting. At the end of the day, the discreet "sweeps" somewhat re-balance reality for story scores.