Wow..being hated this much is almost a compliment

[RisiaSkye]

I know, I know. You get too high on the top list, and you get spiked with ones. I should know better than to look, but I'm a sucker and I do.

So, from yesterday to today, every single one of my poems got spiked with ones. Every one of them. I had eleven on the list, and half dropped off, cuz they didn't have enough votes to absorb the shock. I don't know whether to be offended, or amused that someone would take such an apparently personal and directed dislike to me.

So, if you read this, whoever you are: I'm sorry you feel that way. But, it's nice to know you care so deeply about me that you would invest that much energy. *sigh*

Someday, I'm gonna learn to just read the feedback and be happy. Sure I am. Any time now.

--Risia

 

[Natalie Nessus]

 

[Guest]

Couldn't agree more

I am totally with you on this one.

Seems the better my story telling is (Not writing as I recently learned).....the more I get the anonymous email's about it. But thankfully, those very rare few are cushioned with the enormous amount asking me if there will be a follow up story, or a chapter 2 or simply..."Loved it."

So as we keep on commenting and sharing back and forth with one another, we write (ooops, "Story tell") because we like to. And because there are a number of readers out there who want us to.

And the "hate mail" most of it always anonymous is just a by product of either how we write (ooops, there we go again), Story tell....or what we write about.

Lets see....you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time...

So why try?

To sleep..........perchance to dream - William Shakespear

 

[SteamyChik]

Yep, mine too!

My poem was in #1 and is now in number 40 or something. *shrug* I know it was spiked with 1's over and over! But oh well. The feedback has been great and I like feedback more than the voting anyway.

 

[Mr. Unsexy]

blah

I never really thought of votes as very important. Don't get me wrong, it would be nice to be no. 1 in several categories at once, but I really don't care. I don't think a single one of my stories is on any of the top lists, but people have sent me numerous e-mails telling me how great my stories were, and that's all that matters to me.

 

[cymbidia]

Guys? Honestly, i haven't looked at my scores or where my poems/stories are ranked relative to that oh-so-greedily-desired #1 spot in at least a couple weeks. I'm MUCH the better off for it, too.

I wrote the best i could in all of them.
I liked what i wrote well enough to post them here.
The people that i care about mostlyl liked what i wrote too, and if they didn't they told me why so i could grow.

I looked at everything again when the last Literotica Newsletter came out at the end of July (for obvious reasons!). Haven't looked at my scores since then. Haven't looked at the lists since then. Don't care where i am, relative to you all.

Some people put WAY too much emphasis on that #1 spot and will pull all kinds of really dirty tricks to stay there. ~shrug~ If that's the most important thing to them, hurting others so they can be on top, then let them do it.

You're better off smiling, acknowledging that you're good writers, good poets, and walking away with your heads held high, a refusal to swim in the gutter with the 1'ers buoying you.

 

[cymbidia]

Now look what you did...

... you made me go look!

Everything of mine is at #27 or below.
Oh well.
One never stays on top forever, right? (Okay, unless you're WD and have amazing and unparallelled output.)

Besides, i respect the work done by WD and RisiaSkye, and their stuff makes up most of what's on top of my #27 placeholder (ohh.. on top .. just where i like them!). SteamyChik and JUDO have stuff atop other poems i've got in there, too. Likewise, i think that's deserved.

All in all, it's not a bad group of poets to be mingled in amongst.



Addendum: In like vein, i think the poem "Stolen Submission" with its connotations of force and an unhealthy D/s relationship, is not only a bad example of poetry but offensive (to me personally as well as to the Lifestyle generally) in content. Just had to add that. I've emailed this critique to the poet, too, just so you know i'm not talking bad behind her back.

 

[L.A. Wicker]

SCORES

Yeah it would be nice but, something is up or down with the voting. how can i get so many e-mails loving my work, then i look my scores are so low, sometimes it does hurt.
my last three stories, i busted my butt on. i got great e-mails, i go look, my lowest scores ever.....
i keep writing for me, myself and my fans, a lot of them i mite add, christa,sweetboxx, emma loria, popeye and many, many more.
keep doing what you like,

 

[Guest]

Hey L.A.W.,

Take it from someone who's been there. And believe me, this subject has been gone over repeatedly already. Just hang in there, write for yourself...(and your fans) and the "votes" will eventually take care of itself. Besides......Laurel and the "gang" are already working on some innovative ideas and improvements.

As I said...it was tough watching my story Mrs. Steel bouncing around all over the board. But if the story's a good one...in the end, it will prove itself out.

I finally had to "quit" looking at the numbers...it got too depressing, so if you can do it, let em ride, and just have faith in what you've written. That's what I finally had to do.

We've "ALL" been there........trust me.

To sleep........perchance to dream - William Shakespear

 

[Natalie Nessus]

Voting

 

[Laurel]

When we started out, we had no voting system. We added the voting system later after many, many authors requested it. We are currently putting the final touches on a system by which anyone can remove their story or stories from the voting altogether. How much this will satisfy people, I have no idea.

 

[KillerMuffin]

Actually, I don't really think it's the voting that's the problem. I think it's the top lists that's the problem. If there were no arena of competition, then there would be no reason for malicious voting. You could still do the cash prizes, just do it without the lists.

 

[vgrey]

Eliminating the top list?

KM does raise an interesting point. I have noticed that differences in the scores are so small that the first couple of pages on the toplists are usually very close, score-wise. This seems to be a natural occurence with the huge growth in the story collection, but I hate to see people beating themselves up just because of a couple of tenths of a point (which is the usual difference in the top to bottom of the first couple of pages on a toplist)

But eliminating the toplists would mean eliminating one of the tools on the site for visitors who might want to use it. I don't know if that would be the option that I would prefer, but it would eliminate a lot of competitive issues.

I think that it would be nice to be able to index the authors in some additional way to alphabetical order. If authors could have the body of their work classified under a subject heading similar to the story categories section, then a reader could browse to, let's say, an INCEST section where a list of writers classified under incest are listed alphabetically with links to the body of that writer's work, complete with category listing and scores of each story right beside it. Then a reader interested in incest writers could browse through AUTHORS related to their subject of interest, as easily as STORIES related to their area of interest. For authors who don't want to be classified, a GENERAL heading could be available.

Just a thought,

VG

 

[cymbidia]

Re: Eliminating the top list?

I think that it would be nice to be able to index the authors in some additional way to alphabetical order. If authors could have the body of their work classified under a subject heading similar to the story categories section, then a reader could browse to, let's say, an INCEST section where a list of writers classified under incest are listed alphabetically with links to the body of that writer's work, complete with category listing and scores of each story right beside it. Then a reader interested in incest writers could browse through AUTHORS related to their subject of interest, as easily as STORIES related to their area of interest. For authors who don't want to be classified, a GENERAL heading could be available.

Well. Clever. Workable. Original.

Have we ever seen this idea before, in all the many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many threads/posts given over to discussion on the "voting issue"?

I like it.
A lot.
Doesn't sound expensive to do, either, to my totally unknowledgeable ears.

Laurel?
Manu?

 

[Natalie Nessus]

 

[Enchanttress]

"Wow...being hated this much is almost a compliment"

Oh I totally agree with this statement. Being new to this forum, and discussion group as well, I have learned a great deal from all the posts.

As a newbie "story teller" you might say, I looked forward to getting a story on the Top Lists. Soon after asking how one acquires such an honor..(or so I thought) my story The Restaurant made it to number two.

Thinking finally, my story will get seen. Hoping that I would get feedback on it. To my disappointment, my story went from 10 views to 26 (which I know to you guys are very few, considering the views and hits on you're stories) without one feedback, but, my original score of 4.80 goes down to something like 3.06 or so.

Now I do understand, my story itself, may not be grammerically correct, and may not even be in the class of some of you guys, but if that is the case, I would certainly hope someone would send me a feedback saying... such and such could have been done in this manner. I am open for any constructive criticism. If it was truely someone reading it for enjoyment even, I would have thought, that I would have gotten at least one feedback. Then I read these posts and understand.

I do understand now, after reading all this, and I will continue to write, and hopefully in the future get feedback, whether on the Top Lists or not. I have many that I have written in the last couple years, that are being editted. After thankfully, someone anonymously critiqued a story on the forum (thank you whomever you may be) about puncuation and such.

To the administrators of this board.. Thank You for such an informative presentation.

Enchanttress