What's the last icon?

[sophism]

I've tried searching through forums and haven't been able to find any answer - does anyone know what the last icon under the author's username means?

At first I thought it was related to comments since that's the same number on the first of the list here, but then I looked at all the other posts and realize that they're wildly different.

It also seems pretty odd that the only place I've seen this icon is on the category portal page. I don't see it on my account's works page or on the first page of the story in the 'info' section. I wonder if the site will plan to integrate it further at a later point and it's just related to the changes from the beta.

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

Number of comments

 

[sophism]

The number of comments is the speech bubble, I believe. I mean the square one with the lines on it. I've combed through all the stats available for these stories and can't seem to find anything that corresponds with that number and now I must know

 

[SimonDoom]

No, it's not comments. It's lists. Comments are indicated by the second to last icon, the bubble. The lists icon, I believe, is the sum of a) the favorites the story has received, and b) the "to be read later" designations the story has received. This number can also be seen in the left-most column when you download your daily story statistics.

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

The number of comments is the speech bubble, I believe. I mean the square one with the lines on it. I've combed through all the stats available for these stories and can't seem to find anything that corresponds with that number and now I must know

I had a total brain fart and mixed up a similar icon from a different website. You're right. It's not comments. It's the number of reading lists the work has been placed in.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Number of times the story has been added to someone's reading list.

 

[NotWise]

It also seems pretty odd that the only place I've seen this icon is on the category portal page. I don't see it on my account's works page or on the first page of the story in the 'info' section. I wonder if the site will plan to integrate it further at a later point and it's just related to the changes from the beta.

I believe that is the total number of reading lists the story is on, where reading lists includes Favorites. Notice that the number with the last icon is always greater than or equal to the Favorites.

The only other place I see the number is in the CSV file with stats that you can download from your Works page.

 

[sophism]

Thank you everyone! Mystery solved.

I also didn't know until now that there's a csv file you can download, so that's interesting I guess.

No, it's not comments. It's lists. Comments are indicated by the second to last icon, the bubble. The lists icon, I believe, is the sum of a) the favorites the story has received, and b) the "to be read later" designations the story has received. This number can also be seen in the left-most column when you download your daily story statistics.

Can you clarify what you mean by downloading daily story statistics? Is this different than the csv file NotWise mentioned?

 

[sophism]

Also, follow up - does that mean that when people add a story to a reading list (one different than their favorites), then the author gets a notification in the same way?

Now I'm wondering if any of my stories have landed on reading lists that aren't someone's favorites. Sucks that I'm a little too clueless to know how to check!

edit: okay I'm seeing the numbers properly in the csv file. I don't think I've received any notification about when people add their stories to a reading list, though, only for if they save to favorites. Seems kind of odd to me in all honesty, that there is a difference between how they're treated. If I'm understanding things correctly that is.

 

[firmbutgentle]

This number can also be seen in the left-most column when you download your daily story statistics.

I've never seen that icon, but I also didn't know there was a way to download story statistics. I looked through the FAQ again and either it's not there or I'm not seeing it. Where is that option?

 

[SimonDoom]

I've never seen that icon, but I also didn't know there was a way to download story statistics. I looked through the FAQ again and either it's not there or I'm not seeing it. Where is that option?

Do you know how to navigate to your Works page, which lists all your published works and their statistics?
Look at the row that says "Sort By" on the far left. At the far right is a download symbol. Click it. A file will be downloaded to your computer, which contains the stats for all your stories. The far right column is total lists. The to the left of that one is for Favorites. The far right column represents Favorites + Reading Lists.

You can also see the icon if you navigate to the Story category pages and look at the new story lists.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Also, follow up - does that mean that when people add a story to a reading list (one different than their favorites), then the author gets a notification in the same way?

You get notified when someone Follows you as an author, or Favourites a story, but not when someone just bookmarks the story to read later.

 

[sophism]

You get notified when someone Follows you as an author, or Favourites a story, but not when someone just bookmarks the story to read later.

I find that incredibly odd, but thank you for clarifying!

 

[alohadave]

Do you know how to navigate to your Works page, which lists all your published works and their statistics?
Look at the row that says "Sort By" on the far left. At the far right is a download symbol. Click it. A file will be downloaded to your computer, which contains the stats for all your stories. The far right column is total lists. The to the left of that one is for Favorites. The far right column represents Favorites + Reading Lists.

You can also see the icon if you navigate to the Story category pages and look at the new story lists.

Note that it's just the current stats at the time of the download, it doesn't have historical data. If you want to track the history, you'll need to manually collect it on a periodic basis and compile the stats yourself.

 

[SimonDoom]

Note that it's just the current stats at the time of the download, it doesn't have historical data. If you want to track the history, you'll need to manually collect it on a periodic basis and compile the stats yourself.

Correct. I maintain an Excel spreadsheet that I update regularly, and when I download the CSV data it's downloaded into Excel form and I can with reasonable ease insert the data into my Excel sheet. I use it to track cumulative and per-story mean views, votes, favorites, comments; mean score; and total followers. I've been tracking this data since April 2017.

 

[NotWise]

You get notified when someone Follows you as an author, or Favourites a story, but not when someone just bookmarks the story to read later.

I am notified when someone bookmarks a story. Has that changed? It's been a few months since I posted my last story and all the recent notices have been favorites.

 

[RejectReality]

I am notified when someone bookmarks a story. Has that changed? It's been a few months since I posted my last story and all the recent notices have been favorites.

I haven't seen a list notification in a long time. I think something may have went wonky with that, because when they were showing up, favorites weren't showing up. Something in the code may be causing an either/or situation, and they deferred to the more important favorites until they can figure out how to make both notifications play nice.

 

[SimonDoom]

I am notified when someone bookmarks a story. Has that changed? It's been a few months since I posted my last story and all the recent notices have been favorites.

Are you sure about that? When I look at my Activity list I see only the "heart" icon and the words "X has added your story to Favorites." I see no notices that stories have been added to bookmarks. I think I used to see that, but I don't see it anymore and have not for a while.

 

[lovecraft68]

At this point aren't added to list/favorites the same? The story gets on the list and a fav gained?

 

[RejectReality]

At this point aren't added to list/favorites the same? The story gets on the list and a fav gained?

No, they're still separate. The numbers for lists and favorites don't match up. The lists number includes all favorites, but the favorites number doesn't include all list entries. Going by my most recent release ( which has an unusually high list number the last time I looked ) it's absolutely only notifying of favorites.

 

[NotWise]

At this point aren't added to list/favorites the same? The story gets on the list and a fav gained?

I think this might be right as far as the Activity and Works pages are concerned.

I went back through the activity on my stories all the way to the beginning of March when my last story was published. I very distinctly remember getting the bookmark icon, and somewhat less distinctly remember getting the description "Your story has been added to a list." Now there are no bookmark icons and no statements that the story was added to a list.

Rather than eliminating the lists, they may have shown the list additions as being favorites. That would make the results from the new interface, which offers both favorites and lists, equivalent to results from the old interface, which offered only favorites but which people used both ways. That would clear up the problem I've had knowing just what a Favorite is now; It's just the same thing it always was, regardless of which interface the reader is using.

The Favorites number shown on the works page may have always been favorites+bookmarks. I don't remember for sure.

It would be possible to count all the favorites shown on my activity page for that last story and compare it to the numbers in the csv file, but even I have better things to do with my time.

 

[lovecraft68]

I think this might be right as far as the Activity and Works pages are concerned.

I went back through the activity on my stories all the way to the beginning of March when my last story was published. I very distinctly remember getting the bookmark icon, and somewhat less distinctly remember getting the description "Your story has been added to a list." Now there are no bookmark icons and no statements that the story was added to a list.

Rather than eliminating the lists, they may have shown the list additions as being favorites. That would make the results from the new interface, which offers both favorites and lists, equivalent to results from the old interface, which offered only favorites but which people used both ways. That would clear up the problem I've had knowing just what a Favorite is now; It's just the same thing it always was, regardless of which interface the reader is using.

The Favorites number shown on the works page may have always been favorites+bookmarks. I don't remember for sure.

It would be possible to count all the favorites shown on my activity page for that last story and compare it to the numbers in the csv file, but even I have better things to do with my time.

Personally I find adding the list feature redundant because its not really different than faving a story to have it on a list on your fav page. I think they over complicated it, but I agree its not worth spending any amount of time trying to cross reference and count these things.

 

[SimonDoom]

The Favorites number shown on the works page may have always been favorites+bookmarks. I don't remember for sure.

I don't think this is the case. I say that because I've been tracking this information for several years and as far as I can recall the "favorites" number that is shown for each story on the Works page corresponds with the penultimate column in the CVS list rather than the last column. The first column is favorites only, and the second column is favorites + bookmarks.

The notifications make things confusing because the nomenclature for them has changed over time. I recall what you do, that at some point we got notices for both bookmarks and favorites, but now it's just favorites, and I don't know if it's JUST favorites or favorites plus bookmarks.

 

[RejectReality]

Personally I find adding the list feature redundant because its not really different than faving a story to have it on a list on your fav page. I think they over complicated it, but I agree its not worth spending any amount of time trying to cross reference and count these things.

Once the full list feature rolls out, it will create a situation where if you show all additions as favorites, someone will be able to artificially inflate that number pretty much infinitely. You'll be able to create unlimited lists for whatever reason, like a music playlist. Someone could create a Milf list, a Thanksgiving list, an autumn list... ( so on and so-forth ) and put the same story on all of them. That's why the separate favorites number is being maintained, I should imagine. The favorites toplist would remain favorites only as well, so that list can't be manipulated. ( At least by the lists feature )

 

[NotWise]

I don't think this is the case. I say that because I've been tracking this information for several years and as far as I can recall the "favorites" number that is shown for each story on the Works page corresponds with the penultimate column in the CVS list rather than the last column. The first column is favorites only, and the second column is favorites + bookmarks.

The notifications make things confusing because the nomenclature for them has changed over time. I recall what you do, that at some point we got notices for both bookmarks and favorites, but now it's just favorites, and I don't know if it's JUST favorites or favorites plus bookmarks.

You're right about the works page.

I downloaded the csv file and calculated the difference between the last column and the penultimate column as a proportion of the last column. If the penultimate column is favorites (as it shows in works) and the last column is favorites+bookmarks, then that's the percent of the number in the last column that is book marks.

That number increases over time. It's one of the more consistent trends I've seen in a stat on Lit. My early stories are all scattered around 30% lists. That trends up to the last two stories, which are over 60% reading lists and over 70% reading lists, respectively. That's consistent with more people using the new interface over time and more people using the lists feature.