It’s the internet. People only know “up” or “down”. There’s no middle ground…
That’s why I hate Metacritics or Steam ratings…
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Hah hah hah.
Because my story posted this morning, our harsh critic friend took the time to rate the first chapter of my story (posted months ago) really poorly too, which cost it it’s one lonely little flag.
Is he actually reading these stories?
Fucking anons. It’s good that they hide. And if I sound mean well, I look at it this way: authors are adding something to this site. Someone who just blows through and ranks everything poorly will only have one possible effect, which is to cause authors to eventually leave.
Oh well. I liked my story. Fuck these people. Catty little ******* sniping invisibly from the sidelines.
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Ok, I’ve been sad all morning then I got mad for a minute and I think I’m good now. Thank you, guys.
One last thing for @Corin though, I got introspective and asked myself if I myself hadn’t graded stories unfairly in the past so I looked at my own ratings that I’d given out (and skipped to the end, to look at the low ones) and I saw one of your stories on there, which did not make sense and I looked and saw that the only rating that had been recorded from me was a single category (which was high, btw) but this averaged out to a very low score.
So am I correct in understanding that if you do not choose to rate all categories on a story that the ones you skip get counted as zeroes? That doesn’t seem right. Someone might very well read a story and think “This really wasn’t for me but gosh he’s a good writer.” and decide to give a writing or idea score but pass on the others. Or instead of giving a low mind control rating to one of those hot stories that are very light on mind control, they might pass just on that one category.
If I’m not understanding this, please correct my understanding. Thank you all for your patience with me today.
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I haven’t contributed as a writer. As a loyal reader I don’t leave bad ratings. I don’t want to discouraged new authors. Everyone is at at different levels in their experience as a writer.
I think it is better to leave a comment. Ask a question about the story instead of saying it socks.
@amul your latest story was hot.
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Honestly, I’d have to look up how I calculate unrated categories for your own ratings table. From the top of my mind, I’d say I count them as 2.5. Would that fit in your case?
BTW, it’s good that you’re better now. We all have our being blue days sometimes…
(Curious: Which of my stories are you talking about? 
)
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It was the one where the guy is transformed into a latex gimp sex object for a year. That story was absurdly hot and there’s no way in hell I intentionally rated it less than 5x5 (that’s a multi-orgasm story, not that you needed that additional info).
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Awwww…
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Oh no, does that mean every time I’ve only rated one or two categories i’ve actually been giving the other categories low ratings?!
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No. For any OTHER purpose than your own list of rated stories (in the menu User->Your Rated Stories) only the categories you actually rated are taken into account. So if you don’t rate a story in a certain category, there is no harm done.
For that particular list though, which is only for your own information, I chose to count the unrated categories as 2.5. Because otherwise, a single rated category of 5 would put a story right on the top of that list, together with stories which are really fully top rated.
There’s probably a better way to do that, but it has been ages ago that I implemented this, and I never looked back at it. It’s not like this list has ever seen any feedback by anyone yet … 
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On the topic of feedback, there’s often times stories I read where I can’t finish due to something lacking in quality within it. More often then not I won’t end up commenting anything but I’m not able to claim I’ve never rated a story a low score in one category or another if something is particularly atrocious.
The times I do offer criticism though is when a story is almost good but something in it caused it to fall flat or throw me off while reading. In those cases because I can specifically identify what caused the story to sag for me, I’ll point it out. I try to do it gently though because there’s no knowing which authors are open to critique and which aren’t, and some fruit bruise easily.
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I have made comments on stories to correct typos before now, but usually I post it and then 30 seconds later delete the comment having already told them that I will do so in the original comment. It appears in their emails so they get to see the comment but it isn’t there permanently on their story to affect others’ impression of their work. I find that this is appreciated. I also appreciate it if people point out typos on my stories because we all go word blind when writing.
I’ve also offered to beta for a few stories where the story is great but the writing needs work, English is hard especially for non-native English speakers. If I offer this, I message them directly. I have been taken up on this a few times, but I leave it up to them if they acknowledge my help or not, especially if it is their first story on the site. I don’t mind them taking all the credit as it helps establish them and gives them the confidence to write something else. I make them know that I love their story but just want to help them make it easier for others to appreciate their story too. I get a kick when the comments change from “too hard to read” to “I really like your writing style” in their stories.
As a writer, I know how hard it is to stay motivated and those who especially have never written a story on the site but criticize others heavily annoy me and disincentivize me to continue (at the same time making me think of them as Lady Catherine de Bourgh “I never learned to play the piano but, if I had, I would have been a great proficient”). So I am very careful how I write any constructive criticism, I don’t mind constructive criticism myself as it is good to learn. I write non-MC stories on AO3 and there there are a lot of comments as the chapters are posted some encouraging, some downright nasty, and many full of constructive criticism that helped me to be a better writer. I shudder to read the first thing I wrote now.
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Or no feedback, which can also be hard. I posted the first chapter (of the two I’m planning to post) of my new novel and though it’s been read over 500 times, only one person has commented. One of my frustrations with self publishing is lack of feedback, so I posted here in the hopes of getting some.
Frustrating.
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Definitely, comments are the life blood of writing when there is no other reward. It’s not like we are being paid to write things here, so it is always motivating to hear what people think, good or bad (although I prefer good or constructive). It’s terrible to feel you’re in a vacuum.
Hey, Martin, I know we are all suffering from the demotivating blitzkrieg of low scores, would it be possible if a reader gives more than, say, 2 scores lower than 2.0 for a chapter that they have to leave a comment of more than 15 words before their score is counted. Then at least we’d know why they voted the story/chapter so low, and if they just leave a key smash their vote could be removed on the basis is was malicious.
I don’t know if it would help, as it could be more demotivating, but at least we’d know why.
I fear that would just demotivate people to leave ratings altogether.
If you feel that you have unfairly rated (especially repeatedly) then let me know and I look up if someone has maliciously down-rated you. I looked at your latest series and I couldn’t see any obvious down-rating.
The occasional rating of 2 on “idea” or on “cum” is not necessarily malicious. Some people aren’t turned on by certain things (especially if there’s a lot of expository or just not that person’s kink). Or they think that the idea is not that unique. Neither does mean that they didn’t like your story.
Of course, we all like to get more comments. But it’s always a delicate balance of avoiding to nag people too much. If people don’t visit us anymore because they’re bothered by all this ratings and comment nonsense (they just want to wank after all), we lose as well.
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Thanks, Martin, for checking that. However, I wasn’t implying that anyone who rated any of my stories had any malicious intent, I appreciate that we all have different likes and dislikes. It just would be good to know why some rated more than one factor low so I can take their viewpoints into consideration for future chapters and thought this might help.
However, I understand why any barrier to rating will make it even less likely that someone would do so. I can see that the ratio of ratings to readers is very low.
Amul, I think your stories are amazing. Even when they dont appeal to me, I’m taken by the honesty and passion of your writing. These trolls who denegrade or give .5 ratings are why I stopped contributing. I do take it personally. My fetishes and my thoughts put on paper are my wayof connecting and validating that someone else feels similarly or has similar thoughts. I’m old and done but yours and so many others writings are fresh and intimate. Please don’t be discouraged by a few inadequate and gratuitously cruel people. I think you’re enviable.
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[big edit] I’ve just replied to Thames as if it was a DM called “Good and bad feedback” not knowing it was a public post… 
[Post removed]
Here’s a comment someone left to me on one of rubbrsome’s stories. @rubbrsome had mentioned that no one had commented on my stories — which I told him had hurt my feelings a little. I really thought more of everyone here than that.
Anyway, here’s what someone said:
You’re not old school to me.
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