There’s been a huge decrease in the number of people who rate stories. I’ve published something like 12 stories recently and maybe 2-3 of them got enough ratings to be evaluated for badges. It’s annoying.
I don’t know what could be done to encourage rating stories, but I was wondering if considering the low number of ratings, the threshold number of votes needed could be reduced. Maybe you could analyze the average number of ratings per story in the last year and adjust the threshold so that 2/3 of them qualify for badges, something like that.
Thanks for offering, but I don’t want to compel people to rate. I’d like the results of those who did rate to be considered for badges with a lower threshold for minimum. When I have a story that 10-14 people rated and some of those scores are high, it’s annoying that they are not taken into account. I understand why 3-4 ratings might be considered almost just anecdotal. If you tell me that most stories get enough ratings to be considered for badges and just that it’s mine that are « struggling », I’m ok with that, I can accept it. There are lots of factors that influence the number of people who rate, not just the quality of the story. Still, if we’re a community where people rarely rate, let’s at least make those few ratings count. I’m sure you can analyze the data and find out what threshold would be appropriate based on the rating rates of our community lately.
Totally entirely. The lack of ratings has definitely turned me off from writing and just flat-out give up. I mean, I get ideas and horny feelings and jot down what I’d like to write, but the majority of what I feel is “what’s the point?” If not enough people rate AND say that they liked my stories, or even give me feedback as to what I might do next (aside from MORE garish sex and tasteless suggestions), it legitimately kills my drive for creative writing. It makes me feel untalented and insignificant to the writing community and it directly affects my ability for fiction.
I’m guilty of not rating as much as I had in the past. There have been a lot of great stories. So why haven’t I? Sometimes I would like to give a nonspecific “like” rating rather than try to discern is it hotness or idea or whatever. Plus if I do rate, I feel obligated to put a number in each category. So then if I don’t think a category is covered by the story, I feel bad putting in a low number.
This is just speculation, but maybe people find it too burdensome when there’s multiple rating categories. Easier to just skip it entirely than to spend even a modicum of brain power weighing the story’s merits based on various aspects.
Perhaps this is a case of “less is more”. Maybe a simple rating out of 5 or 10, like they had on the old NCMC, would make people more inclined to rate.
Oh, actually that reminds me. On NCMC, they had a question at the bottom that said “Did this story make you cum?” or something like that. And it would keep a count of the number of people that had jizzed (do people still say jizzed?) while reading the story. Personally, I think there’s no higher compliment for a writer of erotic fiction than to be told someone blew their load while reading your work!
It could also be that the rating pane isn’t obvious enough. I know on mobile devices, in an attempt to prevent erroneous 0.5 ratings from people scrolling too quickly, the rating thing was largely hidden until you expand it by clicking on the dropdown arrow. Maybe it could be made more obvious? Dunno. At least on the theme I’m using, it’s easy to blow right past it as you scroll down.
The main issue I was raising is that since the reality for now is that very few people rate, the threshold limits for considering we have enough votes to qualify for badges should be lowered. Like I don’t know what the thresholds are now.
I got one story with 11-12 votes and another with 8 votes. They are both under the threshold for qualifying for official ratings and badges. Make the threshold for that lower. At the time I wrote my post, I had a few high scores, and I wished they would have meant something. Now I don’t even have any, and it seems that half of the few people who vote really love rating low. I mean, if it’s not your kind of story, don’t rate. Lower scores should be for when you love that type of story and you want to highlight a particular flaw.
In any case, the low sampling makes these ratings almost useless. I guess I’m just not writing a popular type of stories. Out of 200 who read them, I barely get 10 who rate.
So my quick solution so that it’s at least less annoying would be to lower the threshold to what, 6? It seems low, but it’s the reality right now.
I don’t understand your question. It was not about making some votes stronger. It was about the number of votes needed before that category is formally rated.
I don’t like the strengths/weaknesses thing. Seems a bit odd and doesn’t achieve the goal of simplifying the system.
Plus, I’ve seen how the average GSS reader rates other authors’ stories, and it suggests to me that you really don’t want them judging your work in a strengths/weaknesses way. It wouldn’t be as helpful as you think.
I’ve seen some stories with pretty mediocre writing get an extremely high ‘writing’ score, just because the piece itself is insanely hot. People don’t seem to be able to discern a difference. If a story turns them on, they’ll often give it a high score for writing too.
Similarly, I’ve seen some stories that are extremely well-written, well thought out, with plots that are woven intricately and with great care, that score ‘meh’ on writing, just because the story isn’t full of sex.
To me, that’s the biggest flaw of the current system, and it’s also why your strengths/weaknesses idea won’t work on this site.
I know that the rating system has flaws. You’d think a simpler system like the amazon 5star system would be better - but in the end it isn’t. Even a up/down rating system a la Steam is not good, people are still using it to create shit.
It turns out that the rating system can only be as good as the people who are rating.
To answer @Swizz’s comment: You’re right, not every vote is actually rational and does the story credit. But usually the flawed votes even themselves out with enough ratings for a story given. In the end, looking at stories that have been online for a while, the ratings for that story usually give a very good representation of the strength and weaknesses of the story.
One problem is that the number of reads drops significantly for most series, the more chapters a series has, the less people are reading new chapters. There are only very few series which are exceptions to that rule.
The number of reads directly affects the number of ratings of course.
I’ve put some effort to get some statistics out of the database. The table below contains all stories published in June or July. Only the latest chapter of a series are considered.
The columns:
Chapters: How many chapters there are in the series
Reads: How many reads were counted by the system
Ratings: How often the story has been rated (in “Hot”)
Rating/Read percentage: How many reads lead to a rating
Weighted Average: The calculate weighted average (in “Hot”)
Average: The linear, unmodified average
Show Table
published on
chapters
reads
ratings
rating/read percentage
weighted average
average
07-13-2023
2
9
1
11.11%
[NULL]
5.00
07-13-2023
1
34
4
11.76%
[NULL]
5.00
07-13-2023
1
250
7
2.80%
[NULL]
4.71
07-12-2023
2
477
12
2.52%
[NULL]
4.92
07-12-2023
8
93
2
2.15%
[NULL]
2.50
07-12-2023
9
157
10
6.37%
[NULL]
4.50
07-12-2023
5
42
5
11.90%
[NULL]
4.90
07-12-2023
1
415
234
56.39%
4.66
4.73
07-11-2023
3
143
13
9.09%
[NULL]
4.15
07-11-2023
3
223
10
4.48%
[NULL]
4.70
07-11-2023
1
423
8
1.89%
[NULL]
2.56
07-11-2023
1
587
14
2.39%
4.05
4.29
07-11-2023
10
289
12
4.15%
[NULL]
4.67
07-11-2023
3
146
10
6.85%
[NULL]
4.40
07-11-2023
1
439
240
54.67%
4.61
4.61
07-10-2023
1
225
9
4.00%
[NULL]
4.78
07-10-2023
2
56
3
5.36%
[NULL]
2.83
07-10-2023
1
169
13
7.69%
[NULL]
4.58
07-10-2023
6
312
12
3.85%
[NULL]
3.92
07-09-2023
1
1,198
150
12.52%
4.32
4.48
07-09-2023
2
549
95
17.30%
4.00
4.24
07-09-2023
1
326
39
11.96%
4.23
4.69
07-09-2023
1
241
6
2.49%
[NULL]
4.08
07-09-2023
1
489
28
5.73%
4.36
4.68
07-09-2023
6
402
4
1.00%
[NULL]
4.75
07-09-2023
1
58
1
1.72%
[NULL]
.50
07-09-2023
7
13
2
15.38%
[NULL]
5.00
07-08-2023
3
83
3
3.61%
[NULL]
5.00
07-08-2023
1
140
8
5.71%
[NULL]
4.19
07-07-2023
1
169
7
4.14%
[NULL]
4.29
07-07-2023
1
898
190
21.16%
4.61
4.71
07-07-2023
1
507
170
33.53%
4.39
4.44
07-07-2023
10
428
168
39.25%
4.50
4.73
07-06-2023
3
523
13
2.49%
[NULL]
4.12
07-06-2023
2
92
3
3.26%
[NULL]
4.17
07-06-2023
14
92
5
5.43%
[NULL]
5.00
07-06-2023
7
481
52
10.81%
4.45
4.92
07-06-2023
1
201
4
1.99%
[NULL]
4.38
07-06-2023
1
145
6
4.14%
[NULL]
4.00
07-04-2023
2
477
8
1.68%
[NULL]
4.69
07-04-2023
4
374
80
21.39%
4.36
4.66
07-04-2023
1
725
115
15.86%
4.45
4.41
07-04-2023
7
173
80
46.24%
4.45
4.59
07-04-2023
1
370
100
27.03%
4.55
4.75
07-04-2023
2
252
39
15.48%
4.55
4.88
07-03-2023
1
489
162
33.13%
4.45
4.59
07-03-2023
4
284
8
2.82%
[NULL]
4.75
07-03-2023
1
246
26
10.57%
3.86
3.85
07-03-2023
1
502
135
26.89%
4.45
4.44
07-03-2023
5
101
2
1.98%
[NULL]
2.75
07-02-2023
1
150
2
1.33%
[NULL]
3.25
07-02-2023
1
273
6
2.20%
[NULL]
3.17
07-02-2023
1
396
105
26.52%
4.36
4.26
07-02-2023
8
398
105
26.38%
4.55
4.52
07-02-2023
51
45
3
6.67%
[NULL]
4.17
07-02-2023
2
281
80
28.47%
4.36
4.59
07-01-2023
3
216
80
37.04%
4.41
4.56
07-01-2023
2
237
96
40.51%
4.41
4.47
06-30-2023
3
370
75
20.27%
4.32
4.73
06-30-2023
2
415
95
22.89%
4.55
4.79
06-30-2023
1
441
12
2.72%
[NULL]
4.33
06-29-2023
1
373
208
55.76%
4.36
4.31
06-29-2023
2
152
3
1.97%
[NULL]
4.67
06-29-2023
1
489
45
9.20%
3.82
4.10
06-29-2023
9
418
12
2.87%
[NULL]
4.46
06-29-2023
3
498
140
28.11%
4.45
4.63
06-28-2023
1
1,013
75
7.40%
3.91
3.73
06-27-2023
1
815
170
20.86%
4.52
4.63
06-27-2023
1
418
130
31.10%
4.41
4.50
06-27-2023
4
372
13
3.49%
4.23
4.73
06-27-2023
4
209
8
3.83%
[NULL]
3.81
06-27-2023
3
84
3
3.57%
[NULL]
4.17
06-27-2023
1
322
235
72.98%
4.48
4.50
06-26-2023
2
296
95
32.09%
4.41
4.53
06-26-2023
29
288
12
4.17%
[NULL]
4.75
06-25-2023
3
445
90
20.22%
4.41
4.67
06-25-2023
3
495
4
.81%
[NULL]
4.13
06-25-2023
1
502
138
27.49%
4.00
3.98
06-25-2023
2
158
9
5.70%
[NULL]
4.33
06-24-2023
1
151
115
76.16%
4.55
4.52
06-24-2023
2
399
145
36.34%
4.45
4.69
06-24-2023
1
564
216
38.30%
4.80
4.60
06-23-2023
6
109
7
6.42%
[NULL]
4.57
06-23-2023
6
143
9
6.29%
[NULL]
4.61
06-23-2023
1
640
85
13.28%
4.36
4.18
06-23-2023
5
358
10
2.79%
[NULL]
4.50
06-22-2023
1
314
145
46.18%
4.45
3.97
06-22-2023
2
173
9
5.20%
[NULL]
3.50
06-22-2023
1
346
8
2.31%
[NULL]
4.06
06-22-2023
1
327
85
25.99%
4.59
4.47
06-21-2023
1
691
80
11.58%
4.32
3.59
06-20-2023
2
335
4
1.19%
[NULL]
4.00
06-20-2023
3
554
9
1.62%
[NULL]
3.61
06-20-2023
1
135
5
3.70%
[NULL]
4.60
06-20-2023
1
1,245
360
28.92%
4.84
4.87
06-20-2023
1
136
7
5.15%
[NULL]
3.64
06-19-2023
1
120
4
3.33%
[NULL]
4.13
06-19-2023
1
521
225
43.19%
4.20
3.82
06-18-2023
1
293
70
23.89%
4.32
4.61
06-18-2023
1
339
5
1.47%
[NULL]
4.10
06-18-2023
3
730
100
13.70%
4.55
4.65
06-18-2023
4
140
3
2.14%
[NULL]
4.67
06-18-2023
10
181
3
1.66%
[NULL]
4.00
06-18-2023
16
61
4
6.56%
[NULL]
5.00
06-18-2023
2
283
8
2.83%
[NULL]
4.13
06-17-2023
1
1,007
565
56.11%
4.67
4.55
06-17-2023
3
203
12
5.91%
[NULL]
4.75
06-17-2023
1
75
3
4.00%
[NULL]
4.33
06-17-2023
1
1,132
204
18.02%
4.43
4.50
06-17-2023
1
662
10
1.51%
[NULL]
4.10
06-15-2023
2
612
186
30.39%
4.41
4.60
06-15-2023
1
346
80
23.12%
4.23
3.81
06-14-2023
2
675
11
1.63%
[NULL]
4.45
06-13-2023
2
167
5
2.99%
[NULL]
4.50
06-13-2023
1
1,230
125
10.16%
4.09
4.38
06-13-2023
1
697
110
15.78%
4.45
4.48
06-13-2023
8
188
114
60.64%
4.64
4.55
06-12-2023
2
636
125
19.65%
4.27
4.32
06-12-2023
1
675
160
23.70%
4.25
3.95
06-12-2023
2
432
6
1.39%
[NULL]
4.33
06-12-2023
1
187
4
2.14%
[NULL]
3.50
06-11-2023
1
684
52
7.60%
3.82
3.96
06-11-2023
1
290
70
24.14%
4.09
4.14
06-11-2023
18
303
9
2.97%
[NULL]
4.06
06-11-2023
1
346
13
3.76%
[NULL]
4.38
06-10-2023
1
1,049
135
12.87%
4.41
4.46
06-10-2023
5
40
4
10.00%
[NULL]
5.00
06-10-2023
28
162
7
4.32%
[NULL]
4.50
06-10-2023
4
255
70
27.45%
4.32
4.68
06-09-2023
1
1,085
125
11.52%
4.00
4.16
06-09-2023
1
555
240
43.24%
4.52
4.63
06-08-2023
1
340
132
38.82%
4.41
4.61
06-08-2023
12
371
13
3.50%
4.05
4.50
06-08-2023
1
1,040
95
9.13%
3.95
3.87
06-08-2023
2
393
8
2.04%
[NULL]
4.50
06-07-2023
1
391
105
26.85%
4.32
4.36
06-06-2023
3
156
9
5.77%
[NULL]
4.72
06-06-2023
1
580
168
28.97%
4.55
4.39
06-06-2023
1
207
2
.97%
[NULL]
4.50
06-06-2023
1
384
5
1.30%
[NULL]
3.70
06-05-2023
17
631
115
18.23%
4.55
4.76
06-05-2023
1
246
100
40.65%
4.59
4.68
06-05-2023
1
331
10
3.02%
[NULL]
4.55
06-05-2023
3
536
175
32.65%
4.55
4.76
06-05-2023
11
268
144
53.73%
4.68
4.81
06-04-2023
1
563
12
2.13%
[NULL]
4.13
06-04-2023
5
434
9
2.07%
[NULL]
4.00
06-02-2023
1
419
105
25.06%
4.41
4.64
06-02-2023
1
549
180
32.79%
4.43
4.32
06-02-2023
2
138
7
5.07%
[NULL]
4.64
06-01-2023
1
151
6
3.97%
[NULL]
4.67
06-01-2023
3
146
9
6.16%
[NULL]
4.67
In general, you can see that stories, which people like, are rated more often. Also, the tendency is that short series get way more reads and also ratings. Of course, the longer a series has been published, the more reads and ratings it gets.
There are two issues that make a complete overhaul rather unlikely to happen:
What to do with the stories rated before the change?
The sheer amount of work that has been invested in the current system
Things that could be changed:
the rating categories (including reducing their number) - but then we have to find a way to migrate existing ratings
improve the actual rating process (i.e. making it easier to rate)
the various values like the threshold for badges or the effect of the number of ratings on the weighted average etc.
Also, in the end, ratings should be seen as the icing on the cake, not the reason for authors to publish their stories here. Sometimes I think authors are clinging too much on their ratings. In the end, it should be fun to write and publish. If you get some nice comments and/or ratings, that’s just an additional bonus.
Could you add an overall rating category that would be on top and not linked to the others. That way people who want to give a quick rating without delving into details will be able to do so.
I was jealous of the numbers in your table, but then I checked my stories either singles or chapter 1s and it’s not so bad. I’ve been publishing a lot of later chapters recently.
Sorry for having gone into details for a whole new system in such a way. I know how much you’ve invested in the current one, it seems disrespectful on my part.
I think adding an independent (in the sense of not being derived from the others) rating category as Overall and put it on top, a bit separated from the others, might help catch some ratings from people in a hurry or are uncertain about how to measure the degree of hotness, etc… I do think that although no system is flawless, having an option to give a simple quick rating would help increase how much info we got about our stories.
So either they don’t rate at all, only rate Overall, or rate Overall + all the other categories, it’s already designed so people are not forced to put a rating in all categories. As for older stories, they just would not have an overall rating (unless they get enough new voters).
And I put my vote for lowering the threshold for badges to 8 instead of 12. So the struggling later chapters of stories could have a chance of getting some.
And I put my vote for removing the wanking material and adding instead the Did this story make you cum? I think the difference between hot and wanking material is too subtle. A simple binary to know how many ejaculations our words have triggered.
The Overall rating and the Did it make you cum? would allow two ways to quickly communicate some useful info to the author without getting immediately into details when you just wanked and are about to go out the door. Right now, I put a lot of work into 4 chapters for Lexington, and I know it’s being read, but it’s discouraging to have so little feedback about all that work. By making it easier to give it, it could make a big difference.
I know that the Favorites system is meant as a kind of like system, but again it’s too loaded because it not only likes, it adds the story to your library.
If you just read a story and the first thing you see is Did it make you cum? a simple yes-no without any further commitment, you’re very likely to answer. Then if the next thing that follows is a simple Overall rating, some will already bolt out the door, but many will encourage the author before they quickly dress and go. And finally those who have a lot more energy might even dive into providing exact details by specifically rating Hot/Mind Control/Writing/Idea, like those who cook you breakfast.
This hierarchy of ways to provide feedback would help all the authors get more feedback about their stories and prevent major mental health crises because we all care about ratings too much.
