when are "sweeps" done?

[rae121452]

are they regularly scheduled or are they done on an arbitrary basis? i've read in other threads that you can sometimes see a difference in ratings after a sweep. i'm curious to see if it affects my stories.

 

[NotWise]

are they regularly scheduled or are they done on an arbitrary basis? i've read in other threads that you can sometimes see a difference in ratings after a sweep. i'm curious to see if it affects my stories.

They aren't done on a regular basis. They're done after contests close and before the results are announced, and they're sometimes done by requesting Laurel via PM to do a sweep.

The contest sweeps have their biggest effects on contest stories, but they always spill out onto other stories to some degree. None of the recent sweeps so far this year have done much for my non-contest stories.

The last contest sweep was at the end of the April fools contest and the next won't come until July. That's a pretty long gap between sweeps. Some of my stories could stand a little clean up.

 

[KindofHere]

.................

 

[loquere]

are they regularly scheduled or are they done on an arbitrary basis? i've read in other threads that you can sometimes see a difference in ratings after a sweep. i'm curious to see if it affects my stories.

Ask Laurel.

 

[SimonDoom]

are they regularly scheduled or are they done on an arbitrary basis? i've read in other threads that you can sometimes see a difference in ratings after a sweep. i'm curious to see if it affects my stories.

I know from tracking votes for my stories that sometimes they seem to come randomly, in between contests, and without my making any requests. I have a story that has two fewer votes than a couple of days ago. I never requested a sweep for it and it had nothing to do with a contest.

 

[RejectReality]

There are toplist sweeps, for certain. It's never been stated, but when you see the toplist where the top 20 stories have been beaten down, and then one day they're all right back in there, it's pretty obvious that's what's happened.

Every sweep seems to bleed out into the wider story file, which points toward bad actors getting "blackballed" and all their votes removed when they reach a certain level of asshattery.

Requesting a sweep probably doesn't help you much. You're most likely to do that in the moment when you've been beaten down, and the trolls are probably still actively watching to crap on your score again. Better to wait until the next contest sweep, requested sweep, toplist sweep, etc. bleeds over and wipes out their votes. The trolls may have moved on to other stories by then, and won't notice your score getting restored.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I know from tracking votes for my stories that sometimes they seem to come randomly, in between contests, and without my making any requests. I have a story that has two fewer votes than a couple of days ago. I never requested a sweep for it and it had nothing to do with a contest.

Agree this. I've noticed between 3-5 sweeps over the period of a contest, and maybe one or two in the periods between. The randomness is the point of them, if their purpose is to reduce contest gaming, so Laurel's not going to say anything about timing.

 

[rae121452]

thanks for all of the information. i'm not invested enough to request a special sweep, i can't keep track from day to day what ratings i've received so i usually just pay attention during the first couple of days after posting a new one. i had read similar comments in other threads re: how the sweeps affected the ratings so i was just curious. if the sweeps were regularly done, i'd know when to look at the ratings. otherwise, i'm way too disorganized to keep track.

 

[TxRad]

There is also a sweep at the end of each month for the monthly contests. Or there used to be. The last month contest winners were from like January of last year. Which is probably why the year end awards are still hanging in limbo.

 

[JasonClearwater]

I had a story up: More Common Than You Think.

I had a sweep take me to 4.88 and place second in last year's Nude Day Contest.

I had a sweep on that same story take me down to 4.81 after dropping to 4.84 through normal voting.

I had a sweep on that same story take me back up to 4.84

I had a sweep on that same story take me up to 4.87.

These sweeps were weeks/months apart. Those rating changes are in order. I don't understand the sweeps.

One reason for scores bouncing around is that a certain troll on here uses a technique of pushing up the scores, using votes that they know will be swept, so that their (more carefully placed 2s, 3s and 4s) will bring the final score down in the sweeps.

3s and 4s can especially look like genuine votes, but can dramatically pull down the final score. Without knowing how many people vote outside of the troll's vote-stuffing, it's difficult to know what your general audience might think of your work.

But if you end up in the 4.87 category, that's got to be a good result.

 

[ElectricBlue]

thanks for all of the information. i'm not invested enough to request a special sweep, i can't keep track from day to day what ratings i've received so i usually just pay attention during the first couple of days after posting a new one. i had read similar comments in other threads re: how the sweeps affected the ratings so i was just curious. if the sweeps were regularly done, i'd know when to look at the ratings. otherwise, i'm way too disorganized to keep track.

i have an idle curiosity how a story is running straight out of the gate. Wait thirty days if you really want to know how a story has been received.

 

[ThatsTheGuy]

i have an idle curiosity how a story is running straight out of the gate. Wait thirty days if you really want to know how a story has been received.

Can it be the timing too? I've heard of some books that were not too popular now well known at the time they were originally published, but became better sellers a few years later.

 

[SimonDoom]

Can it be the timing too? I've heard of some books that were not too popular now well known at the time they were originally published, but became better sellers a few years later.

I'm not sure this can happen on Literotica, because the mechanics of the site place so much emphasis on getting off to a good start. If a story does not get off to a good start, it drops off new story lists, top lists and other features that get a story recognition.

The exception I can imagine is a story that starts off with a modest number of views but a high score, which finds its way to a scoring toplist and gets readers that way. High scores and lots of favorites can in time result in increased views for stories, even long after they've been published. If you look at the stories on the Top 250 most favorited list, some of them still get over a thousand views a day, despite the fact that they were published over a decade ago.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Can it be the timing too? I've heard of some books that were not too popular now well known at the time they were originally published, but became better sellers a few years later.

It's odd how reading patterns continue over time. I've recently had some of my earlier stories catch new eyes, from a couple of years ago - I've not mentioned them here, but they're arrival points for new readers to my story file. There's no predicting how they wander by.

 

[RejectReality]

Tags, most likely.

Either that, or there's a crossover connection with a recent story that you didn't recognize, but readers respond to.

Mom/Son can trigger surges in Milf/Cougar. Incest threesomes can cause surges in group. Milf threesomes can crossover between group and mature. So on and so forth.

What can cause readers to jump categories well beyond the normal trickle down of a new story is sometimes unexpected — even baffling.

It's odd how reading patterns continue over time. I've recently had some of my earlier stories catch new eyes, from a couple of years ago - I've not mentioned them here, but they're arrival points for new readers to my story file. There's no predicting how they wander by.