UK vs American submission feedback scores

[sis_porner]

As a new contributor here, I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed a tendency where ratings of new submissions are affected by different readers nationalities?

I'm a curious sort, and I watch my scores obsessively as I am new to this site and writing in general actually.

I notice my rating deteriorates during evening hours in the UK, when more views would be occurring there. Then the score recovers in the evening hours in the States typically. I can see why that would be the case as I write from a very American perspective, while I can tell a UK writers work almost immediately as well. Americans never say knickers, nor have I ever heard someone say "whilst".

I recognize my own biases as well, due to the fact that a story written from a British perspective gets high ratings, where I can barely get through it and generally have difficulty relating to it. I imagine others have similar, but opposing perspectives.

Just an observation really. I tend not to vote in these instances, but still appreciate the opportunity to see others perspectives.

 

[SimonDoom]

I haven't noticed this, but I haven't paid any attention. It would surprise me if this was a real phenomenon, because even the most die-hard Brit reader would be accustomed to the majority of stories at Literotica being written in American English.

I'm also an American English writer. I've never used the term "whilst" and use "panties" rather than "knickers." I've never caught any flak for my Americanisms from my friends across the pond, as far as I can recall.

 

[oggbashan]

Literotica has an international audience.

I get comments from India and China but I write - always - in British English. Apart from a few Americans who have left comments complaining about my British spelling, no one else seems to mind.

 

[PoisonPen33]

The first four words of this thread grabbed my attention.

I've noticed my favorites/comments tend to come when it's morning in the UK and late night/early morning in the US. I like to think people are reading my stories during breakfast and last call.

 

[KeithD]

I don't get many comments focused on the difference in regional language use. Most comments on my Literotica stories tend to come in my morning (on the U.S. East Coast). I don't know if that's Americans just getting up and getting started or Europeans doing an evening read before going to bed. I write in the context in which I write, though (although I've lived here and about internationally and my stories have a broad range of locales and nationalities), so there's not much to be done about that. The readers will read/respond to what they will.

 

[SimonDoom]

I don't get many comments focused on the difference in regional language use. Most comments on my Literotica stories tend to come in my morning (on the U.S. East Coast). I don't know if that's Americans just getting up and getting started or Europeans doing an evening read before going to bed. I write in the context in which I write, though (although I've lived here and about internationally and my stories have a broad range of locales and nationalities), so there's not much to be done about that. The readers will read/respond to what they will.

Your comment raises an interesting possibility, concerning the timing. Literotica stories are most often published sometime around midnight Pacific Standard Time, as far as I can tell. There appears to be a phenomenon of trolls waiting to bomb stories in the early morning hours after they are published. So it's possible that what the OP observes is a reflection of this phenomenon, rather than something having to do with American v. British English.

 

[oggbashan]

One thing I have noticed. The most abusive anons usually spell, if they can spell, in the American style. Some take offence at me being British with no relevance to the story.

 

[SpindleTop]

I notice my rating deteriorates during evening hours in the UK, when more views would be occurring there. Then the score recovers in the evening hours in the States typically.

You need to be careful about overgeneralising here! I think I read somewhere that porn searches peak at 4am local time - I'm not sure if that applies to Literotica, but the evening peak might occur a little later than you assume!

Also don't exclude the contributions of non-native English speakers - it wouldn't surprise me if there was a significant readership from Germany, Scandinavia, the low countries, other parts of Europe and also Africa - all of whom would keep similar hours to the British and Irish!

Nevertheless, I think my informal observations more-or-less mirror yours. Certainly the highest number of views per hour tends to be between 10pm and 2am ET. The majority of my likes seem to come in that window as well. I think its also true to say that the scores that I receive during the UK evening are a little lower than during the US evening - but I really only notice the effect in the first few days after a story is published.

Perhaps I should make clear at this point that I am British, I write in British English and that all my stories are set in the UK. In real life I work with Americans on a daily basis, so I have a good idea which words are mutually intelligible and which might cause some head scratching. (I'd always use while instead of whilst for example.) I've never felt that US (and Canadian) readers are discriminating against me, because I use UK spellings.

So yes, I think US readers are a little more generous in their voting than UK readers (and are perhaps more likely to vote in the first place). But when you impress a Brit, you know you've written a genuinely excellent story!

SpindleTop

--
My latest story: https://www.literotica.com/s/meaningful-meaningless-sex
All my stories: https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=5133214&page=submissions

 

[KeithD]

I've experienced large gaps between the moment I've sent comments and the moment it was shown. I think the timing of comments is determined by Laurel and co.

That's a good point, I think. Votes seem to take effect immediately in the author's view, but comments now are delayed in posting. There's no telling when they actually were submitted.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Most readers are yesterday anyway for me, and my day is their night, so I never notice the subtleties of narrower time bands.

 

[NotWise]

As a new contributor here, I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed a tendency where ratings of new submissions are affected by different readers nationalities?

I keep pretty detailed records on my stories, and with that data I'd be hard-pressed to prove any pattern I could pin to a nationality.

There are hardly any generalizations you can make about voting here that don't eventually prove to be wrong. The closest I get to established patterns are:

1. Viewing rates are high on the first day a story is published and that rate declines fairly uniformly over time.

2. The voting rate (votes per view) varies systematically. It may be low in the first few hours after a story is published, but tends to be high through the rest of the first day and then gradually notch down on subsequent days.

I've never seen evidence for a diurnal variation. I've seen plenty of evidence that publishing a new, popular story can have big, but temporary, impacts on other, similar stories in your catalogue.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I would be very surprised if a typical story gets enough votes to reliably distinguish between a genuine time-of-day pattern and random noise.

 

[SamScribble]

I would be very surprised if a typical story gets enough votes to reliably distinguish between a genuine time-of-day pattern and random noise.

I write in British English and most of my stories are set in the corner of the world that I know best: west-central London. However, one of my biggest fans lives in Texas, a couple more live in Ontario, some even live in Australia. (Bonza blokes and Sheilas, those Aussies!)

That said, pretty much every one of my stories gets one-bombed when it first appears, and I have a strong feeling that the one-bombers live on the North American continent, south of the Canadian border. I could be wrong.

 

[Initiate_me]

I'm too dim to even be able to work out how to check the ratings on my story :/

 

[sis_porner]

The first four words of this thread grabbed my attention.

I've noticed my favorites/comments tend to come when it's morning in the UK and late night/early morning in the US. I like to think people are reading my stories during breakfast and last call.

A keen eye you have there. That wasn't very subtle on my part actually.

 

[sis_porner]

One bombing is just wrong on so many levels. If you dis-like it that much, why did you read it?

 

[NotWise]

I would be very surprised if a typical story gets enough votes to reliably distinguish between a genuine time-of-day pattern and random noise.

The score is cumulative, so it's fairly insensitive to changing patterns. You have to be able to back out the actual votes in order to see anything, but you can only back out the vote up to about 100 total votes.

A story in a popular category will probably hit the 100-vote wall long before you can see a diurnal pattern.

A story in a less-popular category won't have enough votes to discern a diurnal variation.

If there's something in between, then I haven't seen it.

 

[sis_porner]

Spindletop, To your point regarding British voting vs. American I agree. I butcher the language with abandon. I'm not begrudging the voting really. I'm actually very happy with the ratings my writing has garnered. My Sister In-law spent a year studying shoe design somewhere near London and can speak in a wonderful British accent. It's so fun to hear her do Londoner. Cheers!

 

[SimonDoom]

I would be very surprised if a typical story gets enough votes to reliably distinguish between a genuine time-of-day pattern and random noise.

I've noticed consistent patterns with my stories. Part of it is that about half my stories are incest stories, and incest stories very often get over 10,000 views, and over 1,000 votes, in the first 24 hours. So that's lots of data in one day.

My stories, regardless when submitted, are much more often than not published one hour before or after midnight Pacific Standard Time. Views and votes start slowly, but they increase very significantly around 5 am PST and they continue at a very high rate until around 10 am PST, when they begin to trail off. Then they pick up around 5 pm PST for a while.

The one bombs seem to peak during that morning period when voting is heaviest.

My impression is that the pattern is accounted for by Literotica readers on the American East Coast doing a lot of their reading early in the morning, before they go to work, and then in the evening, after work. I think the trolls do a lot of their trollish work in the morning, in Eastern America. That's my sense.

 

[sis_porner]

One thing I have noticed. The most abusive anons usually spell, if they can spell, in the American style. Some take offence at me being British with no relevance to the story.

You made me laugh, Sir. I don't take exception to your post. Thank you.

 

[BarracudaSwordfish]

One bombing is just wrong on so many levels. If you dis-like it that much, why did you read it?

They don't read it. It is purely a reflex action caused by their two remaining brain cells randomly colliding.

I too write in British English but am aware of not wanting to alienate the wider readership. As someone mentioned above, I have worked with many Americans, Aussies etc and visited both countries extensively so have a reasonable handle on writing characters from those countries and have never been pulled up on any errors, though there must be some.

As for timings of votes/comments I have never been able to ascertain a pattern other than votes tend to begin a good few hours after publication. I write long stories in the main (4 - 9 Lit pages) so if someone takes the time to read it, a vote is not going to be instant. If it is, it is usually a uni- bomber, which bears out my first statement.

I am lucky to have had votes, comments and faves from all over the world and the one thing that is consistent to me is the inconsistency of the timings!

 

[oggbashan]

You made me laugh, Sir. I don't take exception to your post. Thank you.

Thank you, too.

Just because they spell American doesn't mean they ARE American. American English is more widely taught throughout the world than British.

 

[sis_porner]

Thank you all for your thoughts

I reflected on this a bit more and realized I should have been more specific. I've noticed the pattern I spoke of in the first 24 hours after being published. Yes, this is Midnight PST, or there about, which happens to be my time zone. There is no discernable pattern beyond that.

What I wasn't specific about is that it is a sine wave pattern. I've noticed a very distinct pattern, which I has caused me to discount simple noise as the cause. This caused me theorize it was a cultural disconnect. One I acknowledge that I have myself.

As for the Eastern time zone in the US. Well, those people are assholes. At least according to those of us out West.

I also appreciate no one pointing out that the subject matter I write of would cause me to lean to an excessive compulsion to be concerned with what others think of me. Excuse me while I wallow in a little self deprecation.

The other thing that occurred to me while composing this reply is a thought on how writing causes one to explore themselves to put thoughts to paper. It is it's own reward in that regard.

Happy writing everyone.

 

[PoisonPen33]

Thank you, too.

Just because they spell American doesn't mean they ARE American. American English is more widely taught throughout the world than British.

I'm American and even I don't spell American.

 

[PennameWombat]

Most readers are yesterday anyway for me, and my day is their night, so I never notice the subtleties of narrower time bands.

I'm an American who lives in Australia but who spent much time in the UK and Europe. I've never particularly tracked arrival of votes and comments except in large increments, such as over 24 hours, due to my time skew. I suspect most of my readers are likely American because most of my stories are set in that country with characters who are largely American. Or, well, alien. But aliens with a fondness for America

But I've also set stories in the UK and Australia. For the former, since I had two of my American characters visiting, language was a mix, depending on who was talking. But the narrative was the usual American English, based on the PoV of the two MCs. But mushy peas did make an appearance and they did get an appreciative comment .

The Australia-based get more Australian English. Given that one of my MCs mused about the Super League war and Wests Magpies (from his youth) and some other strange items and no one noticed or commented on that part, might've been too obscure even for most Aussies