What do the metrics say about a story?

[LunarSirius]

Literotica reports on the rating, number of views, number of votes and number of favorites. What does each say about a story?

Based on my own submissions, which is a small sample, a poorly-rated story may get more views and have more favorites than a comparable story with a much better rating. What can I learn by comparing these stories?

Stories get a lot of comments if they take an unexpected twist - particularly if the twist is outside the readers comfort zone.

Some stories get a fair number of views, but votes are as rare as hen's teeth.

Any insight would be appreciated.

LS

 

[Zeb_Carter]

It all depends on which category it is submitted to.

Loving Wives - a lot of views, a lot of comments, poor ratings(depending on the story)

Taboo/Incest - a lot of views, a lot of votes, high ratings, few comments.

Sci-Fi - few views, few votes, high ratings, medium comments

others can speak to other categories.

 

[sr71plt]

Metrics say as much about the specific readers who have read and reacted as they say about the story. The more "like" metrics received, though, can start pointing to a common response to the story.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Literotica reports on the rating, number of views, number of votes and number of favorites. What does each say about a story?

Based on my own submissions, which is a small sample, a poorly-rated story may get more views and have more favorites than a comparable story with a much better rating. What can I learn by comparing these stories?

Category makes a huge difference to views and ratings. Within a category, the story with a higher rating may not be the one that more people liked; it may just be the one where the ones who (would have) disliked it didn't get to vote.

For example, I have a 14-chapter series; it's been up for a while so the metrics are pretty stable by now. Chapter 1 has 53k views; that steadily declines over the next three chapters, until by Chapter 4 this has dropped to 22k. From there it stays roughly level, except for one chapter that's in a toplist and gets extra views from that.

Meanwhile, the ratings steadily increase until Chapter 4 and then more or less level off, except for a couple of chapters that deliver a happy ending.

My interpretation is that a lot of people tried the first few chapters, those who didn't like it stopped reading (and voting) so only the ones who really enjoyed it got as far as Chapter 4; the voting on those later chapters is influenced by the fact that a lot of the less favourable would-be readers have already dropped out.

 

[DreamCloud]

Metrics are all over the board.

You definitely get more views if your story is in a racier category.
Your scores will trend higher in the less racy categories.
Comments tend to be driven by the quality of the story. By quality, I mean plot - not grammatical excellence. I've had people assume that English was not my first language (yes - very embarrassing), but the story will still garnish 50+ comments and score well.

I am not a big fan of chapters. I wish they were scored as one story. The scores can trend higher on the ending chapters - or sink you into unrecoverable oblivion if the story sucks.

 

[sr71plt]

Comments I see seem to be driven more often by the delivered arousal than the plot quality. I see many, many more comments on the sex than on the storyline. I'm sure that depends on the type of story/reader involved.

 

[lovecraft68]

The metrics contain too many variables to ever really figure out when they mean. Category, type of story how long have you been writing here(fan base) the content in the story....the day of the week...

Just write and don't focus too much on the numbers because you will never really get much concrete answers with them.

 

[HeyAll]

The thing about scores being an indicator is this: People will low-ball your story if they don't like certain topics.

The most highly acclaimed writer in the world could post a story on Lit, and still get a low score, if that story involves a cheating wife with an accepting husband.

People will down-vote a story once they see that. Other people get off on that fetish however.

Nonconsent & blackmail are other polarizing issues.

Personally, the best indicator of a successful story are the number of Favorites compared to the category.

If I wrote a Mother/Son story, and after 30 days, it got only 50 favs, that's kind of so-so. However, if I wrote a BDSM story that got 50 favs after 30 days, that's a MASSIVE success.

Another thing that typically scews a score is the length of a story. You could write beautifully and do everything write to please the audience, but if it's only 1 page, you'll be lucky to get a 4.5 range. If you go to 3 pages, you're MUCH more likely to see a 4.60 range.

 

[SamScribble]

Personally, I have no idea what the metrics say. I write stuff. Sometimes I write ‘safe’ stuff, sometimes I write stuff that is more out on the edge. But I have absolutely no control over who reads what I write. I have no control over their expectations. I have no control over whether they have a reading age of five or something a bit more grown up. That’s how it works on a site like this. You put it out there. And you please some of the people some of the time. I like my red aitches. But I also recognise that they are (mainly) there by good luck.

 

[oggbashan]

What do the metrics say?

Not a lot. They may only show that you chose an attractive title.

They MIGHT show which of your stories (or your titles) are more popular than others.

What they do show is that posting a story on Literotica gets more attention than posting almost anywhere else.

 

[49greg]

I've got a two part comment.

First, Thanks to everyone who answered before me, there's useful info. Lots of useful info. I haven't stuck to one or two categories, but have tried several, and I don't think I have a fan base. I can definitely agree with LW and Incest/Taboo observations.

Second, I have been playing around with an idea, and wonder how it will work out for views and votes. It could be LW, maybe group, or mature, or possibly mind control. Basically Hubby is away for several months. Wifey is coerced or hypnotized or otherwise influenced into fooling around with some younger men in their early twenties. (She and hubby are at least in their late thirties.) My plan is that hubby never knows, never finds out, but when he comes home on weekends he gets to enjoy the newly sexually liberated affections of his wife. When he finishes his sabbatical the young men are gone and they live happily and with a rejuvenated sex drive.

My question is, would the cheating wife hater crowd go after it if wife was somehow coerced or hypnotized, or influenced into cheating, and hubby never knows. A twist that I might put in is that hubby cheated on her and she has a free pass from years ago.

edited for a grammar and a spelling error. I'm sure there are more.

 

[RejectReality]

Hypnotism is going to be seen as an unrealistic cop-out. Any other form of coercion is going to be met with complaints that blackmail isn't possible unless you let it happen, so she's still a whore.

For the BTB crowd, his cheating in the past is irrelevant. Her taking the freebie card doesn't make her any less of a whore. "She should have divorced him if she wants to fuck someone else."

Put into a category other than LW, it might fly better, but cheating is always going to invoke a negative response. It's a matter of degrees.

I've got a two part comment.

First, Thanks to everyone who answered before me, there's useful info. Lots of useful info. I haven't stuck to one or two categories, but have tried several, and I don't think I have a fan base. I can definitely agree with LW and Incest/Taboo observations.

Second, I have been playing around with an idea, and wonder how it will work out for views and votes. It could be LW, maybe group, or mature, or possibly mind control. Basically Hubby is away for several months. Wifey is coerced or hypnotized or otherwise influenced into fooling around with some younger men in their early twenties. (She and hubby are at least in their late thirties.) My plan is that hubby never knows, never finds out, but when he comes home on weekends he gets to enjoy the newly sexually liberated affections of his wife. When he finishes his sabbatical the young men are gone and they live happily and with a rejuvenated sex drive.

My question is, would the cheating wife hater crowd go after it if wife was somehow coerced or hypnotized, or influenced into cheating, and hubby never knows. A twist that I might put in is that hubby cheated on her and she has a free pass from years ago.

edited for a grammar and a spelling error. I'm sure there are more.

 

[49greg]

Hypnotism is going to be seen as an unrealistic cop-out. Any other form of coercion is going to be met with complaints that blackmail isn't possible unless you let it happen, so she's still a whore.

For the BTB crowd, his cheating in the past is irrelevant. Her taking the freebie card doesn't make her any less of a whore. "She should have divorced him if she wants to fuck someone else."

Put into a category other than LW, it might fly better, but cheating is always going to invoke a negative response. It's a matter of degrees.

Thanks for confirming what I thought about the cheating wife trolls. Yes, I was thinking the same about the hypnotism. At this point it's just a paragraph in a list of ideas. I've got a lot of work to do and I don't know how it'll end up. For some reason I've been thinking about this one a lot the last few days.