View counts are dropping?

[ElectricBlue]

Can you provide a link to your story/series/submission page in your signature? It's impossible to analyze this without having access to your stories.

Did you change the category from one chapter to the next? If so, that's the likely explanation for why a later chapter would have more views than an earlier one.

I saw the OP's comment that he didn't want a link in his signature block, which I found very odd - publish stories but they don't want forum readers to know?

You'll just have to get off your lazy ass, pop down to Search Authors and find the guy's story list that way. You could also be a twat and post the link here, but I know you wouldn't do that - we must respect the guy's request for anonymity .

I've got the footers turned off in my forum view, because I got tired of everyone's flashing lights and dodgy book covers, so I never see signature block links anymore.

 

[SimonDoom]

I saw the OP's comment that he didn't want a link in his signature block, which I found very odd - publish stories but they don't want forum readers to know?

You'll just have to get off your lazy ass, pop down to Search Authors and find the guy's story list that way. You could also be a twat and post the link here, but I know you wouldn't do that - we must respect the guy's request for anonymity .

I've got the footers turned off in my forum view, because I got tired of everyone's flashing lights and dodgy book covers, so I never see signature block links anymore.

I think I'll just stay on my lazy ass. I'm comfortable that way.

I don't understand wanting to ask questions and get advice here but wanting to keep links to one's stories hidden. But whatever.

 

[pezzheaddazzler]

Can you let me know what browser you are seeing errors with? I just tested with an iPad and several Android tablets and I can't reproduce those errors, but there are thousands of different device/browser combinations, so it's difficult to guess which combination might not be working. Also, are you using the new story page or the classic Lit story page?

Thank you.

Manu

Sorry it not through a browser its using the android LIT app on multiple devices Samsung tablet SM-T290 and Motorola moto-g-power both running android 11.

I primarily use the APP not the browser.
Just curious is there a different function or data table on your end for the app to record ratings and favorites?
If it doesn't work is there a way to report it??


I just tried it again and it worked on phone without any errors.5:56 pm 2022.06.22

I'd be glad to beta test the app if you develop another one

tom

 

[lovecraft68]

Blinking through a few categories and expanding to see a few days worth of new postings, everything looks strangely low to me. It's rare for even a lower traffic category to not pick up 1k views over the course of the first day, and I'm seeing a lot of sub 1k listings.

Looked at a couple of ranking sites, and Lit's actually on a bit of an upward trend over the last couple of months, so it's not incoming traffic.

It definitely looks out of whack to me.

Now when you say incoming traffic, do you know if its specifically 'story traffic'? There are a fair amount of people on some the boards here who have no idea there are stories here(The GB really does think this site is for them down to getting angry at people who have the nerve to post porn pic threads) and a lot come for those pic threads, the am pic threads, the personals etc...

So would you be able to differentiate that in the traffic numbers?

I've seen slowdowns in the past and one thing I tend to see is when we have slowdowns, the scores also drop, it seems like when the readership wans for whatever reason its the good readers who are absent, the trolls here seem permanent, no surprise I guess seeing they have no life.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I think I'll just stay on my lazy ass. I'm comfortable that way.

I don't understand wanting to ask questions and get advice here but wanting to keep links to one's stories hidden. But whatever.

I know. Very odd, but that's people for ya!

Given that a text copy, three or four clicks and a paste would get me to his story page, it's hiding in plain site.

What's equally odd is that you spent more time writing your earlier post than doing that, which redefines lazy for me!

Carry on .

 

[lovecraft68]

I think I'll just stay on my lazy ass. I'm comfortable that way.

I don't understand wanting to ask questions and get advice here but wanting to keep links to one's stories hidden. But whatever.

I've never linked my stories in my signature. There is no true reason why I haven't done it other than I just don't feel the need to promote myself here in anyway. If people want to read my stories they can take the minute to search me out.

I've occasionally linked a specific story if it pertains to the subject of a thread-for example the talk about your lowest rated story thread.

Also, and this is opinion, but I've seen a few posters over time lend credence to it, the people in this forum are mostly authors and tend to be too busy, or too self centered, to bother reading other people's work. The generally low amount of replied the average feedback thread in that forum kind of bears this out.

 

[RejectReality]

Now when you say incoming traffic, do you know if its specifically 'story traffic'? There are a fair amount of people on some the boards here who have no idea there are stories here(The GB really does think this site is for them down to getting angry at people who have the nerve to post porn pic threads) and a lot come for those pic threads, the am pic threads, the personals etc...

So would you be able to differentiate that in the traffic numbers?

I've seen slowdowns in the past and one thing I tend to see is when we have slowdowns, the scores also drop, it seems like when the readership wans for whatever reason its the good readers who are absent, the trolls here seem permanent, no surprise I guess seeing they have no life.

In the traffic breakdowns by subdomain, the forum has never remotely broken the top 5. It's main, search, and tags in the top 3 every time, and everything else is low single digits so far as percentage of traffic. The people coming here for anything other than the story side are extreme outliers to the point where they're basically irrelevant.

 

[lovecraft68]

The people coming here for anything other than the story side are extreme outliers to the point where they're basically irrelevant.

You need to post this in the GB

 

[RejectReality]

You need to post this in the GB

That's the kind of thing that sparks inter-forum wars, and I've seen what happens when the AH and GB go to war. It's butt ugly, and the AH is the one that suffers, because the GB is chaos in its natural state. They barely notice whatever shit is being slung at them because it's one of a thousand turds they're hurling at each other every five seconds.

 

[SimonDoom]

I've never linked my stories in my signature. There is no true reason why I haven't done it other than I just don't feel the need to promote myself here in anyway. If people want to read my stories they can take the minute to search me out.

I've occasionally linked a specific story if it pertains to the subject of a thread-for example the talk about your lowest rated story thread.

Also, and this is opinion, but I've seen a few posters over time lend credence to it, the people in this forum are mostly authors and tend to be too busy, or too self centered, to bother reading other people's work. The generally low amount of replied the average feedback thread in that forum kind of bears this out.

You also do not, as far as I can recall, ask people for input or advice about your stories. If one doesn't care, I can understand not providing a link. But I don't understand starting a post in which you are asking for advice or understanding regarding one's stories but declining to link to one's stories

Also, while your experience may differ, I don't agree that the authors here are too self-centered to read and comment on others' stories. Speaking for myself, I have at one point or another read at least one or more of the stories of most of the authors who frequently contribute here. And I have received feedback and comments to my own stories from many of the authors here, including you.

 

[RejectReality]

I've gotten enough confirmed pass-through from my forum sigs to feel it's worth the time. ( Meaning people who said they were intrigued by something they saw here sufficiently to follow through to the story side )

Same with adding release announcements to Twitter. The bump isn't massive, but I can tell the difference between when something goes live when I'm not expecting it and ready to churn out all the release announcements vs. when everything is pre-queued to go live a few minutes later.

Plus, I enjoy making them. It's a major sticking point for me elsewhere, because sigs were even more neutered by recent changes than they are here. They used to have a large collection of work that was exclusive to there, and I've ported almost all of it since the "upgrade". Right now, things are so bad I won't post anything over there, but restoring sig capability is the one of my 3 minimum requirements that will determine whether I consider adding any more exclusives over there. The other two are bare minimum to expend the effort to cross-post anything already written.

 

[TxRad]

It is Summer, so yes views have gone down. People have other things to do than read.

 

[lovecraft68]

You also do not, as far as I can recall, ask people for input or advice about your stories. If one doesn't care, I can understand not providing a link. But I don't understand starting a post in which you are asking for advice or understanding regarding one's stories but declining to link to one's stories

Also, while your experience may differ, I don't agree that the authors here are too self-centered to read and comment on others' stories. Speaking for myself, I have at one point or another read at least one or more of the stories of most of the authors who frequently contribute here. And I have received feedback and comments to my own stories from many of the authors here, including you.

I had to think on this for a couple minutes, but I guess you're right I don't generally ask about anything I've already written or might be writing. My threads tend to be about how other people think or react to things or their experiences here.

I didn't say every author, but there are quite a few-and I admit I'm one of them-who don't read others stories to often. For me its time constraints and if I'm in the middle of writing something, someone else's 'voice' can screw with mine.

RR says in his post he can confirm he received traffic through his signature. How, I have no idea, but I believe him. Maybe it comes down to apathy for me, that I'm not concerned with who does or doesn't read my stories. Seems like a lot of people do even though I've never done much to plug my stuff here.

Last thing, I am really getting soft in the memory department, I had to think about what story of yours I read. It was the brother sister one. I recall thinking you didn't do a lot to justify them hooking up, but the story was still fun, well paced, and a great sex scene.

If someone in the feedback forum has a short piece I'll give it a go, but not all that often.

 

[RejectReality]

I had to think on this for a couple minutes, but I guess you're right I don't generally ask about anything I've already written or might be writing. My threads tend to be about how other people think or react to things or their experiences here.

I didn't say every author, but there are quite a few-and I admit I'm one of them-who don't read others stories to often. For me its time constraints and if I'm in the middle of writing something, someone else's 'voice' can screw with mine.

RR says in his post he can confirm he received traffic through his signature. How, I have no idea, but I believe him. Maybe it comes down to apathy for me, that I'm not concerned with who does or doesn't read my stories. Seems like a lot of people do even though I've never done much to plug my stuff here.

Last thing, I am really getting soft in the memory department, I had to think about what story of yours I read. It was the brother sister one. I recall thinking you didn't do a lot to justify them hooking up, but the story was still fun, well paced, and a great sex scene.

If someone in the feedback forum has a short piece I'll give it a go, but not all that often.

Several times via PMs here, people have told me that they saw one of my mini covers and it intrigued them enough to follow the link. I had it happen even more often in the other place ( which is one of the reasons it's a deal-breaker over there )

I can tell the difference in hits between when I post a pure text ad on twitter vs. one with a cover or banner as well. They actually accomplish something in addition to providing me with enjoyment through their creation, so even if it's a tiny bump, it's well worth it to me.

Now, I need to try to actually get some writing done on this mid-week day off. LOL Spent the last couple of days at work musing how to start the next scene, so time to put it on "paper".

 

[gunhilltrain]

Can you let me know what browser you are seeing errors with? I just tested with an iPad and several Android tablets and I can't reproduce those errors, but there are thousands of different device/browser combinations, so it's difficult to guess which combination might not be working. Also, are you using the new story page or the classic Lit story page?

Thank you.

Hi Manu, I don't think I've ever spoken to you before. I use Chrome. The thing I've noticed is that if one spends too much time lingering over a forum post, a message will appear at the top that says, "Oops, we ran into some problems. Please try again later. More error details may be in the browser console." It's two lines, both in gray strips, and it's relatively recent, like this spring.

There is no getting around it. One has to close the thread and go back in. Sometimes half the message will indeed be there.

 

[gunhilltrain]

As I said, I was expecting views to drop off after the first one. What was weird to me was that some chapters had substantially MORE views than their predecessors. Part 4 having nearly 2x MORE views than part 3, and part 6 having more than 2x MORE views than part 5.

I've seen chapters in a series bounce around; sometimes they do indeed go back up in views. As for me, I'm happy if I get 2,500 views for a story. 700, not so much.

 

[tenyari]

I've got the footers turned off in my forum view, because I got tired of everyone's flashing lights and dodgy book covers, so I never see signature block links anymore.

I've only seen one person that I can remember who uses an image in their signature - and it's just a static image with no animation or anything, and pretty tame colors that don't hurt the eyes. Those animated banners went out of style about 20 years ago.

It's pretty "safe" now to turn signs back on.
I do see a lot of handy stuff in people's sigs.

I can't speak for the forums outside of the author and story related ones - I don't venture too far "out there" much.

 

[tenyari]

Also, while your experience may differ, I don't agree that the authors here are too self-centered to read and comment on others' stories. Speaking for myself, I have at one point or another read at least one or more of the stories of most of the authors who frequently contribute here.

I've browsed through several people's stories here.

Granted it's a bit of a stretch right now for me to be calling myself an author since my last story here was in 2008 (I did post a story elsewhere earlier this week and it IS intended to go here as well, but here I want to post it as chapter 4 of something, and there I only put it out "early" because of a contest)...

But yeah. If someone in here is starting to interest me, I'll look and see if they happen to write to one of my 'kinks'.

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

I can't speak for the forums outside of the author and story related ones - I don't venture too far "out there" much.

So many people who are unbearably horny. Or unbearably angry. Sometimes both at once.

 

[Bramblethorn]

So many people who are unbearably horny. Or unbearably angry. Sometimes both at once.

Ragewanking is a thing.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I've only seen one person that I can remember who uses an image in their signature - and it's just a static image with no animation or anything, and pretty tame colors that don't hurt the eyes. Those animated banners went out of style about 20 years ago.

I can't even figure out how to turn Sig Blocks back on now,***, but when I did know how to do it (two or three years ago, with some update or other) half my page disappeared with book covers and neon bullshit and "personalised" signatures. You might think they went out of style two decades ago, but someone forgot to tell a whole bunch of people who post here.

*** I can't even see my own Sig Block, unless I go to my Control Panel.

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

I can't even figure out how to turn Sig Blocks back on now,***, but when I did know how to do it (two or three years ago, with some update or other) half my page disappeared with book covers and neon bullshit and "personalised" signatures. You might think they went out of style two decades ago, but someone forgot to tell a whole bunch of people who post here.

*** I can't even see my own Sig Block, unless I go to my Control Panel.

So I can only see sigs on desktop, not on mobile. Is that built into the interface or is there a setting I need to change?

 

[ElectricBlue]

So I can only see sigs on desktop, not on mobile. Is that built into the interface or is there a setting I need to change?

Dunno. I've always used a Kindle - there used to be a Sig Block toggle, but I'm damned if I can find it now. Not that I'm keen to see some of the signature blocks with their dodgy book covers and far too many fonts, that used to clutter up my page. It's very tidy now, just text and avatars over there <---------

 

[gunhilltrain]

I can't even figure out how to turn Sig Blocks back on now,***, but when I did know how to do it (two or three years ago, with some update or other) half my page disappeared with book covers and neon bullshit and "personalised" signatures. You might think they went out of style two decades ago, but someone forgot to tell a whole bunch of people who post here.

*** I can't even see my own Sig Block, unless I go to my Control Panel.

I didn't know that Sig Blocks could be seen anywhere else. I mean the avatar shows up with each post but not the other info in there. Not that I have much - just a quote and the submissions link. One can usually see it by clicking on the person's name. You've got a bit more there, like some links to other sites. Some people seem to have no block at all.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I didn't know that Sig Blocks could be seen anywhere else. I mean the avatar shows up with each post but not the other info in there. Not that I have much - just a quote and the submissions link. One can usually see it by clicking on the person's name. You've got a bit more there, like some links to other sites. Some people seem to have no block at all.

Yes, I know what's in my Sig Block because you fill it in Options, but I turned all sigs off at some point, and can't find the toggle to see them if I want to. But I'm not looking very hard.