Undocumented Lit Features

[Darkniciad]

I'm going to use this as a place to put all the little nuggets I come across either by pure happenstance or in the process of researching a question or something.

First is one I recently posted in the Editor's Forum, where it is most likely invisible to a large number of forum visitors.

Want to know exactly who favorited your story? You probably know that you can see the 2 most recent names to favorite the story by going to the end of the last page.

What you might not know is that you can see the rest.

All of them.

If you have a limited number of favorites ( I believe it's a #of characters rather than number of users ) then you can simply hold your mouse over the "and xxx others" after the IDs of the two most recent users. A mouseover layer will appear, listing the names of everyone else who favorited the story.

List too long for the mouseover to display it all? I'm not done yet.

Utilize your browser's "View source" option. When the source code appears, scroll down to the bottom to where the favorites section is. The ID of every single person to favorite your story ( or anybody's story, for that matter ) is listed within the source code.

Enjoy!

 

[sr71plt]

So, if someone had the time and inclination, they could make a list of those favoriting the stories of a specific Lit. author and then could do a study of these accounts to see how focused they were on just that author--and very likely come up with a pretty good list of a number of the alts of that author? Hmmm.

 

[lovecraft68]

So, if someone had the time and inclination, they could make a list of those favoriting the stories of a specific Lit. author and then could do a study of these accounts to see how focused they were on just that author--and very likely come up with a pretty good list of a number of the alts of that author? Hmmm.

Now what would be nice about that is if there was a way to identify Alts, then they could sweep away those "fav's" the same way they do suspicious votes.

If they did that I wonder what it would do to the top 250 list? I mean we all know the couple of people it would really hurt, but I suspect there are a few more than the obvious suspects

 

[sr71plt]

I did a little bit of research on those commenting favorably on a certain Lit. author's Halloween contest entry this year and it was interesting how many of them had no other activity than favoriting just that Lit. author. No stories of their own, of course.

 

[lovecraft68]

I did a little bit of research on those commenting favorably on a certain Lit. author's Halloween contest entry this year and it was interesting how many of them had no other activity than favoriting just that Lit. author. No stories of their own, of course.

Hmmm. One wonders who you are talking about.

But as for them not having stories of their own, a member does not have to be an author, most aren't. But yeah if they have only one fav that is obvious.

That makes me wonder why if certain people go through so much trouble to make the alt, fav the author, then why not take another two minutes and fav a couple of random authors to make them look legit?

 

[sr71plt]

No, one doesn't have to have stories listed to be a legitimate voter. But creation and running of an alt is soooo much easier if you don't bother to put any stories in that account's name. When added up to other things it takes on the strong characteristics of an alt.

 

[Darkniciad]

Because, like most everybody else until now, they don't know that Manu put this in, and assumed that there was no way for them to get caught *laugh*

The people who pump their stats are obvious. There are other ways to demonstrate it, so I didn't feel there was any harm, and a lot of benefit, in pointing it out. I can see certain people frantically trying to remember the passwords of dozens of alts to log in and add random stories and authors right now

Besides, someone asked the question. When someone asks a question and I know the answer, I answer it. That's just who I am.

 

[lovecraft68]

Because, like most everybody else until now, they don't know that Manu put this in, and assumed that there was no way for them to get caught *laugh*

The people who pump their stats are obvious. There are other ways to demonstrate it, so I didn't feel there was any harm, and a lot of benefit, in pointing it out. I can see certain people frantically trying to remember the passwords of dozens of alts to log in and add random stories and authors right now

Besides, someone asked the question. When someone asks a question and I know the answer, I answer it. That's just who I am.

But it would be a lot of work to catch them and the average person doesn't give a shit. I went and checked it out after you posted it. It's pretty cool. I did a few of my stories to see if I could see a lot of the same people, but it got tedious quick.

You;re a numbers/stats nut. This thing is right up your alley, but the regular reader/author won't have much interest in going on a witch hunt.

Now if they installed the how many people have favorited you feature that would get a lot of people excited.

Oh, and I would imagine also help oust alts because you could see all the sock puppet id's on that person's page.

 

[Darkniciad]

Here's another one mentioned in other threads ( mostly the contest threads )

If you hold your mouse over the stars on any listing in a category hub, it will reveal the number of votes the listed story has. A score alone can be deceptive. Something could have a high score, but virtually no votes, so checking this gives you a better idea of how you're doing.

The category hubs are full of other useful information you may be overlooking as well.

The "recent comments" section shows a few of the most recent comments on stories in your category. If you click the link at the end of this section, you can find more recent comments, as well as a list of the stories in the category that have received the most comments in the last 24 hours, 7 days, and 30 days.

The "popular tags" section can be useful for tagging your stories. This section shows the most popular tags used by authors. These are not the most popular tags of readers, and thus using those tags isn't really going to make your story stand out in searches. Of course, if appropriate, you should still use them, but you should consider filling out the rest of your keywords with appropriate tags that aren't so frequently used.

Clicking through, of course, provides a longer list of popular keywords, as well as a tag cloud showing the popularity of many more.

The recently popular authors section appears to be determined by new author favorites in the listed time period, and perhaps weighed by new story favorites in the category.

 

[ScouriesWorld]

Thank you darkboy - you made the boss's day!!!!

HER MAJESTY QUEEN LAUREL III and HER CONSORT, MANU the MAGNIFICENT

are pleased to announce that we’ve found another new 2000+ VOTE story. And not just a 2000 vote story – this one has over [size=+2]16,000![/size] And we want to thank darkboy for finding it for us. The author disappeared from the site years ago and although we knew it was a 1000+ vote story its rating made it impossible to us for years to know exactly how many votes it had. As it turns out it is the third highest vote garnering story in site history (and I suspect in finding it db is going to have to reassess some of his previously issued rash statements and graphs ).

Our new story, one of the most read and favorite on the site, is:

[size=+3]Sister Sucks Sleeping Sibling[/size]

By the brilliant:

[SIZE=+4]

brodosist

[/SIZE]

 

[Darkniciad]

Nope.

The story has been around since 2001. The story has been on the top of the favorites list since its creation. The story has also been on the top of the most read list since its creation. The author was also high on the favorite author list prior to the changes increasing visibility and # of the favorites option. The story has never been below 4.5.

The story has a five year jump of everything working in its favor, it is still higher on all the story based lists than you despite constant pumping of your view and favorites numbers, and yet you claim to have ten THOUSAND more votes.

Popping that into the calculatron, we come up with the same conclusion as always.

scouries = fraud.

 

[lovecraft68]

Sister sucks sleeping sibling is the epitome of what I personally hate in the incest category. brainless, far fetched and stupid. But look at the votes and it is on a ton of favorites pages. Plot is certainly a four letter word over here in "family" land.

 

[Darkniciad]

I wouldn't go that far. I don't think it's so much a lack of appreciation for plot as it is a larger proportion of the same stroke readers that are in every other category.

Honestly, the bar is set pretty low in an incest story for plausibility, anyway. You're already restricted by the 18+ rule, and the sheer increduility most people feel about actually having sex with a family member.

Once you've accepted that bar, it isn't all that far of a leap to what would seem completely implausible to the point of groan-worthy in any other category -- especially for a pure stroke reader who's looking for a quick fix.

The incest readership likely has the exact same sort of standards that every other readership does. The numbers are just multiplied by the fact that this is one of the few trustworthy sites where such material can be found without braving an onslaught of trojans and hijacks.

 

[lovecraft68]

I wouldn't go that far. I don't think it's so much a lack of appreciation for plot as it is a larger proportion of the same stroke readers that are in every other category.

Honestly, the bar is set pretty low in an incest story for plausibility, anyway. You're already restricted by the 18+ rule, and the sheer increduility most people feel about actually having sex with a family member.

Once you've accepted that bar, it isn't all that far of a leap to the what would seem completely implausible to the point of groan-worthy in any other category -- especially for a pure stroke reader who's looking for a quick fix.

The incest readership likely has the exact same sort of standards that every other readership does. The numbers are just multiplied by the fact that this is one of the few trustworthy sites where such material can be found without braving an onslaught of trojans and hijacks.

I will disagree in one sense. I feel, and trust me I am dissing my own work here, that the incest crowd is notoriously easy to please. MIndless stories garner hundreds of votes and pretty good ratings.

Whereas longer stories that have some plot to them and are more centered on the emotional bond get far less votes and views. Candlelight062's work, the afflicted by shiwriter, and my own series are fair examples of that. Meanwhile "DEzurtdawg" who writes 2 page strokers with no explanation whatsoever about how the families are fucking has landed on araound a thousand favs pages in the year he has been here.

Personal example, my swb series is complicated and involved and gets around 80 votes. I all but bled over this thing. Back in May I toss out this mother/son thing with a foot fetish twist(to indulge myself) and the fucker took off like a rocket, even held #1 for a week or so. They want stroke.

In fact, now that my SWB series is laid to rest, my goal is a dozen or so incest strokers, and I guarantee by the time I'm done I'll hit the 250 authors list. In incest "dumbing down" is what they want.

One more quick point, I am positive the Romance and SCi Fi categories have higher "story" standards than incest and other categories.

 

[Darkniciad]

And I'm saying that once you branch out and experiment with stroke vs. more involved stories in other categories, you'll find it's the same throughout the site

There are a few exceptions, but they're amongst the least-read categories on the site, because the readership has discouraged pure stroke pieces by strongly encouraging involved stories.

Even there, a short story with a good, simple plot will still get vastly more reads and votes than a long one.

 

[lovecraft68]

And I'm saying that once you branch out and experiment with stroke vs. more involved stories in other categories, you'll find it's the same throughout the site

There are a few exceptions, but they're amongst the least-read categories on the site, because the readership has discouraged pure stroke pieces by strongly encouraging involved stories.

Even there, a short story with a good, simple plot will still get vastly more reads and votes than a long one.

Maybe you're right. My tendencies in reading erotica have always been toward story oriented things and I tend to not read stroke, so skip it in all categories I read.

I'm sure I'll find my way as I start trying some different things.

 

[sr71plt]

The recently popular authors section appears to be determined by new author favorites in the listed time period, and perhaps weighed by new story favorites in the category.

I've been coming to the conclusion that the "popular authors" list on the category pages must be purely a combined view count within that time period for all of that author's posted work in that category.

I can't see any other reason why I am pretty consistently on top of all of the GM lists (especially the week and 30-day ones), when my stories are being trolled heavily and other GM authors are getting much better ratings. I think it's just because I have so many more stories being opened because I have so many more GM stories than other GM authors here.

 

[Darkniciad]

I've been coming to the conclusion that the "popular authors" list on the category pages must be purely a combined view count within that time period for all of that author's posted work in that category.

I can't see any other reason why I am pretty consistently on top of all of the GM lists (especially the week and 30-day ones), when my stories are being trolled heavily and other GM authors are getting much better ratings. I think it's just because I have so many more stories being opened because I have so many more GM stories than other GM authors here.

Something to consider as I continue to look at it over time. It just seems that surges in author favorites, and to a lesser extent, story favorites has a stronger effect on how highly I place and how long it lasts. That could simply be a function of the cumulative views being higher when those surges are going on, though.

I'll have to take some snapshots of my views before a story posts, and compare a few releases to see how strong the relationship is.

I know for sure that it has nothing to do with the stats of whatever your newest story is. In one category, I'm frequently one of the few or only story with a Hot rating, often with as much as 10x the votes, and I still have only a short-lived run on the recently popular list.

The low number of stories I have in the name combined with your idea could very well explain that.

 

[sr71plt]

I know for sure that it has nothing to do with the stats of whatever your newest story is. In one category, I'm frequently one of the few or only story with a Hot rating, often with as much as 10x the votes, and I still have only a short-lived run on the recently popular list.

I don't know about that. Although I stay at the top of the 7- and 30-day lists on the GM page, I often will drop off the "today" list laltogether during the early week, only to get slapped right back on top at the weekend. I regularly have a story post everything Thursday, so I would think that this story is what's bringing me back onto the "today" list.

 

[Darkniciad]

I can probably come up with something useful about views if I can get multiple samples in my best performing category in my third name and with Sci-F&Fantasy stories as Dark. I have over 90 submissions as Dark, heavily skewed toward one category. In my third name, I have less than 30 with a category distribution of 9,1,1,5,1,1,7,1, and the category with the best performance is the 7.

I usually appear on the "recently popular" lists of Erotic Horror, Chain Stories, and Humor every time I release a new Sci-Fi&Fantasy as Dark, but those are low-readership categories, so it probably doesn't take much to make the bottom end of those lists if it's pure views.

I should probably write an Incest in my third name and see what that does in other categories, as well.

Experimentations for a later day, when what I want to write happens to fit the criteria. That's as much what my third name has been about from the beginning as anything, though I'm starting to enjoy the feedback I get from it so much that it's hard to screw around with the winning formula *laugh* Besides, for the time being, I'm rather enjoying the formula from a writing perspective.

 

[scouries]

[size=+3]16,000 votes!!!!

I knew the second that Jacqui told me she’d found a 16,000 vote story, that you’d rush out with a poorly though out post trying to justify something that you’d claimed repeatedly to be impossible.

It brought a smile to my lips thinking of your mind spinning as it grasped for explanations. And thinking of how you’ll now have to go back and edit all the ‘now proven wrong’ posts you’ve made over the years.

That said the other issue here is this continuing need you feel to create threads explaining what the fuck is going on on LITEROTICA.

To your credit you must be at least be complimented for trying. But given the way the present regime operates it seems pointless. I’ve repeatedly pointed out that the way MANU prioritizes changes, designs them, implements them and explains them is mickey mouse like. You in your own way have echoed some of this frustration.

While this thread may unlock some of the mysteries of the site I think we both know that it would take the PALACE only minutes to give us detailed explanations of so many things.[/size]

http://images.wikia.com/laurelandhardy/images/1/17/Stan_and_Ollie.jpg
sometimes our leaders act like these guys...

The FAQ page (which I believe you also tried to start a thread about) should be brought up to date.

This new category hub should have been explained to us right from the start. Even ace and you, two of the greatest number watchers on the site, still don’t know what the various lists represent or where they’re drawn from.

How easily this could be corrected if we had some real leadership.​

 

[Darkniciad]

A five year head start and better position on the toplists is grasping at straws?

*laugh*

I never said high vote totals were impossible. Yours are simply laughable when compared to all the data available, and obviously fraudulent.

As to the updates, you once again fail to understand anything about running a website -- especially one built on a database that's over a decade old.

I also accept that Literotica probably isn't the sum total of Laurel and Manu's life. And when you get right down to it, the main purpose of the site for the bulk of the visitors -- reading stories -- works just fine. It could be improved, but what we have is perfectly sufficient.

Everything else is just gravy.

Maybe if you'd stop slamming the site with the scripts provided by 12-year-olds on AOL that pump up your fraudulent stats and overloading the database with alts to favorite you and leave glowing comments on the site, things would move along more swiftly.