Total votes decreasing

[JessikaN135]

Hi everybody!

Today something strange happened. According to my submission-list one of my stories lost a vote since yesterday. Is this even possible or just a bug? (total-votes went down from 23 to 22).

 

[lovecraft68]

Hi everybody!

Today something strange happened. According to my submission-list one of my stories lost a vote since yesterday. Is this even possible or just a bug? (total-votes went down from 23 to 22).

It is called a sweep where once a week the system checks votes and gets rid of ones they think are 'suspicious" you will usually see a score change as well.

During a contest-and we are at the end of one now-you will see it more often as the contest draws a lot of cheating and the sweeps are more thorough. Even if you are not in the contest the sweeps still sometimes go across the board.

 

[JessikaN135]

Hm, ok.
I just don't see why. My stories are far from being top-rated and get a vote only once in a while. Hard to believe this is suspicious.
This very story had its last vote on September the 19th. (I make statistics )
Now one of the few "5" is gone. Strange... *shrug*

 

[RejectReality]

It really stings when your vote numbers are low, sometimes.

No matter how small your fanbase is, there's the potential that they're engaged in shenanigans - whether knowingly or unknowingly.

Some people may read your story several times and vote every time, not thinking there's a problem with that. Multiple votes are swept ( known criteria ) and if it reaches the level of a problem voter, all the votes may get swept ( my suspicion )

Someone may have really liked your story, but may really hate some other author and constantly drops 1-bombs on them. That reader's votes may get wiped out across the board for trolling ( suspected )

Or, it could be friendly fire. Sweeps - especially during themed contests - can be bone-cutting. I suspect they search deeper into the IP address attempting to eliminate multiple votes from people with dynamic IPs. Odds are that legitimate votes get nuked when that happens.

The best thing to do is to keep writing. The more you write, the more fans you'll acquire, the more votes you'll get, and the less the sweeps will hurt when they suck up a 5 vote.

It also doesn't hurt to leave a note at the end of your story asking readers to vote -- but only to vote once. If you have someone trying to boost you by casting multiple 5s or down-voting the competition, you can sometimes nip that in the bud by telling them you don't want that kind of "help", and that it doesn't accomplish anything.

 

[lovecraft68]

Hm, ok.
I just don't see why. My stories are far from being top-rated and get a vote only once in a while. Hard to believe this is suspicious.
This very story had its last vote on September the 19th. (I make statistics )
Now one of the few "5" is gone. Strange... *shrug*

Well sadly there is no rhyme or reason to these things and the site has never actually explained what makes a vote suspicious. Its the source of a lot of debate here and not all of it pleasant.

I have a story that does the same thing, each week it seems to go up or down by one vote even though it is 3 years old and has seen no recent "action"

Welcome to the AH by the way.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Laurel swept my stories today, and many lost votes and major points. I guess she's killing 5s today to make room for one bombs. How in hell does one vote out of a 100 knock a score down 3/10ths of a point?

The whole goddamned system is a cluster fuck.

 

[patientlee]

Laurel swept my stories today, and many lost votes and major points. I guess she's killing 5s today to make room for one bombs. How in hell does one vote out of a 100 knock a score down 3/10ths of a point?

The whole goddamned system is a cluster fuck.

The Power of 1.

This is the first time one of my scores has dropped in a sweep.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

The Power of 1.

This is the first time one of my scores has dropped in a sweep.

ONE ISNT THE LONELIEST NUMBER NO MORE! 5s ARE.

 

[lovecraft68]

ONE ISNT THE LONELIEST NUMBER NO MORE! 5s ARE.

Its all those "cheerleader" votes that stories supposedly get.

Funny the only ones in the contest that seems to get them are the stories by "un popular authors" or newbs who are in the way of the site favs

 

[BuckyDuckman]

Laurel swept my stories today, and many lost votes and major points. I guess she's killing 5s today to make room for one bombs. How in hell does one vote out of a 100 knock a score down 3/10ths of a point?

The whole goddamned system is a cluster fuck.

Amen!

 

[Bramblethorn]

Hi everybody!

Today something strange happened. According to my submission-list one of my stories lost a vote since yesterday. Is this even possible or just a bug? (total-votes went down from 23 to 22).

Yep, I lost a vote yesterday as well, looks like it was a '5'.

If you're forgetful, it's quite possible to vote twice on a story by accident - some of the measures I use to keep my browsing private also mean I can't see whether I've already voted. I imagine those would get swept.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

Laurel swept my stories today, and many lost votes and major points. I guess she's killing 5s today to make room for one bombs. How in hell does one vote out of a 100 knock a score down 3/10ths of a point?

The whole goddamned system is a cluster fuck.

Here's another thing that makes no sense. In the half dozen or so categories that I read fairly regularly, scores are down across the board. The exception is chapter stories. In some categories the only stories scoring above 4.5 on the 7 and 30 day lists are chapters 3, 4, 5, 99, etc. Those entries have scores in the 4.7 and above range, while the stand alone stories are consistently below 4.3. I know how this happens - attrition and such - but it's still a pretty silly result.

 

[StrangeLife]

The whole goddamned system is a cluster fuck.

Alas if you want a system where everybody can vote - not just those who are logged in - I'm not sure there is a better way of implementing it.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Alas if you want a system where everybody can vote - not just those who are logged in - I'm not sure there is a better way of implementing it.

I don't know of any, either.

 

[horrorotica]

It's one of those things that make this site what it is. I suspect the whole sweep idea is to stop people cheating and falsely inflating their scores. But it also penalises stories that has gotten votes honestly too, so it's a fucked up system. You either live with it or go somewhere else.