Forum: Author Hangout

From what I have seen personally and heard from other authors is that most of the 1s come from readers who ignore the codes, and then punish the author with a 1 when the story squicks them.

That's a case of 'accidental squicks', when someone unintentionally reads the wrong story, however, many readers will go out of their way to attack any story they dislike. This is especially true for gay or anal stories. Things like incest and WS tend to get more of the 'accidental exposure' reactions (i.e. they don't complain unless surprised by it).

In my case, a couple readers decided I was part of the vast left-wing conspiracy because I included a reference to FOX News. They've proceeded to post 1-bombs to my stories ever since. What's strange, though, is they always adjust their rating within days of each chapter (nudging it up or down a point), so it shows they're actually loyal readers who follow each chapter I post, but they're registering their political opinions by bludgening authors with their opinions.

It's a common problem, just not of SOL, but with any rating system.

How can you tell this? Do you have a way to see which reader has voted?

I can see when the 1-bombs are delivered. Since I don't get many, they stand out like sore thumbs. When I post an exciting chapter, all my 1 votes will jump to 3s, and drop back down when the action subsides. From that, it seems clear they're reading regularly, rather than just voting for a story they have no interest in reading ("Not worth reading" is the definition of a 1 vote).

Similar tale here. I let an author know that he needed to code for MM gay sex. He 1-bombed both of my stories and went on a rant about me being a homophobe. Ridiculous assertion to anyone who knows me IRL, or even knows me on FB.

I blamed one on Wheezer :) but have no idea where the other one came from.

maybe he voted under another name as well!! - just kidding

maybe he voted under another name as well!! - just kidding

I've never voted any story on SOL lower than a 5. Anything less and I do not vote.

I've never voted any story on SOL lower than a 5. Anything less and I do not vote.

I know, that's why i figured it'd be good for a joke.

in the current system (some years old) the score is adjusted and the old one replaced with the new one.

One of the 1st books I read when I joined here. When a reader changes their original score, does it show up or is the original score locked in place?

There's a long history behind this feature. In short, in the old days, readers only voted once. However, since the votes were tied to cookies, the cookies would eventually expire, and readers learned they could vote again after a certain amount of time (or if they used a separate device/account).

Lazeez changed the mechanism, so now it tracks your votes based on your account, but any changes are to the score itself. So if you first voted a 7, and then vote a 9 for an exciting chapter, your vote--until you change it--is a 9. That's why, after voting for each chapter, you should always give the final story a comprehensive vote for the entire story, so new readers have an honest evaluation of the story as a whole.

I'm experimenting with my ability to write with little plot and more porn under the pseudonym "Dark Fantasy".

Why limit the plot? You can have a lot of sex AND plot.

Why limit the plot? You can have a lot of sex AND plot.

There's a difference between sex (which is a form of 'action scene') and a plot which spans a story. The sex scenes help to further the plot and define the characters, but they don't really move a story forward. It's the plot which gets readers to come back after the first five minutes.

The sex scenes help to further the plot and define the characters, but they don't really move a story forward.

I believe sex scenes in the erotica genre move the story forward just like romance scenes move the story forward in the romance genre.

In erotica, you can't remove the sex and still have a story. What I hear ranted about here is gratuitous sex thrown into a story rather than it being integral to the story.

Some of it may be over compensation. They read the story, they like it - even feel aroused - but they feel guilty for it. Maybe because BDSM is dirty, maybe because they are in their closet full of Angst, maybe they are afraid to be "one of those" who like "that". To absolve themselves of their feelings of guilt, they 1-bomb the offending story to show (to themselves) that they are not really "such a person". Okay, that's straight from the Reader's Digest Abbridged Edition of "Psychology Today" :o))
My personal bane were the "burn the bitch" faction who protested in this original way against any reconciliations between straying lovers. Yet, as already stated by others, they were avid followers of the stories even sending feedback explaining their motives. Illuminating but tiresome and it gets worse the more readers you attract.

Illuminating but tiresome and it gets worse the more readers you attract.

I might jinx myself by admitting this, but I haven't noticed my traditional 1-bombers on my newest story. Either they've gotten over their anger, they're upset about other political discussions (highly lightly), or they just don't don't frequent FS.

However, as bad as it is here, the trolls are worse on Amazon. There are a number of "Reviewers", who've posted hundreds of reviews, who've never reviewed any book higher than a 1, including all the literary classics. They're just working out their anger at the world, at other's expense. In short, they're bullies, pure and simple.

For reviews and such, unless someone is trained as a critic or uses a specific system for generating scores, this tends to mean that scores will tend towards the lower end. Any bad experience with a story could conceivably rate a 1, but a story needs to be absolutely perfect to rate a 10. The bad experience doesn't need to be a squick.

Except, the observed phenomenon here on SOL is that everyone votes high. Readers typically vote in the 7 to 10 range, and only vote 5 is they really dislike a story. That's why Lazeez had to adjust the scores several times to bring them back to a 'normal' distribution curve.

The 1-bombs, though, are truly outliers, as only a handful of trolls seem to register them, and in that case, they go directly from 5 to 1, with nary a stop in between.

I never got any Feedback from them ever!!!

In my case, they (the 1-bombers) were very explicit. They insisted that I change my story to suit their political philosophy. When I refused, doubling down by going on the attack, they got nasty.

Still, they're loyal readers, following each chapter as it comes out, so I can't really hold it against them. Just like their political leaders, they feel entitled to inflict their personal views on everyone around them. But the story was never political, I just used a news station as a foil in a story, and they took offense to it.

Not knowing why you're being attacked has got to be rough. It could be anything, from use of 1st person (many readers hate that) to your story telling style to your philosophical bent.

For some reason I seem to attract a lot of it, perhaps because in my Simon and Trudi story, the usual thing of a teacher and his teenaged student actually have sex doesn't happen, though there are lots of other things going on and the dance around the whole thing rather nicely. Which is the whole point, actually. Also, the story is slow, character development is gradual, and Simon's use of langauge is pretentious and elusive.

You may be right about why they're 1-bombing your story, but it sounds like it's a matter of setting the wrong expectations. If the story has no actual sex in it, but lots of innuendo, I'd suggest moving it to FS, where there wouldn't be the same expectations. I'd also list is as either "no sex" or "little sex", so readers know up front what to expect. It may be that you have hundreds of fans, waiting for something which may never come, and are voting you down for how long you're taking to develop the wrong story.

Try adding a blog post and a new tag-line in your story description, describing that the story was intended as a tease where no actual sex takes place. You may get fewer readers, but you'll get fewer 1-bombs (hopefully).

Story descriptions are one of the essential pieces of a story, as are the story codes. They're what targets your audience, letting them know what to expect, and it reminds you to keep the story focused on what you initially promised, rather than on side plots and story drift. If it's not covered by the story description, it's probably excess fluff which can be cut to make the story more focused.

I hope you creative geniuses will forgive me invading your topic area.

This area is concerning with "author issues", but is hardly limited to authors, just as the "Editor/Reviewer" section is limited to editors or reviewers.