Forum: Author Hangout

because both my stories went up in score by close to .75 each after one additional vote was cast

It may be something totally different. Each time your story is voted on, a new score is calculated. Part of the algorithm compares your scores with other stories during some time period. If that adjustment factor went down, your score would go up.

When the new scoring system went into effect, all existing stories were recalculated based on the new method. To help test the system, I voted on my stories (I hadn't in the past). When I gave a story a 10, the score actually went down because the algorithm was using a different number than what it used when it recalculated all the stories.

PLEASE, for the sake of everyone here, let's NOT go down the dreaded 'Scoring' black hole once again!

I Second That! PLEASE!

let's NOT go down the dreaded 'Scoring' black hole once again!

I didn't expect to. My second post was to correct The Outsider's misbeliefs.

My first post was because of an eye-opener. I didn't realize the top and bottom 5% votes no longer showed. My bar for 6s gets to a small number and then goes down. Currently it's back to zero so it must have disappeared because of the bottom 5%. That means an unknown number of 10s have been lost.

So when I look at the chart it looks like more people scored the story an 8 than a 10. But that's not the case. I just don't see many of the 10 votes. I also don't know how low someone scored my story. It's at least a 6 because I saw some, but were there any lower? And if I were to look at it right now for the first time, I'd assume the lowest score was a 7 because there are no scores lower.

Crumbly, you've mentioned several times that readers change their votes based on new chapters. But how do you know that? A low score might disappear because it ends up in the bottom 5%. So you're making decision based on erroneous data.

Crumbly, you've mentioned several times that readers change their votes based on new chapters. But how do you know that? A low score might disappear because it ends up in the bottom 5%. So you're making decision based on erroneous data.

It's based on my observations before Lazeez stopped showing the missing 5% in both directions. Because my 1-voters were always loyal readers, I assume they're still there, but I can no longer see them, and because I refused to change my first story to suit them, they've never again communicated with me.

Over half my stories are sponsors! WOOHOO - They're all going to the stars. Not one Dickhead Delight amongst them. Daddy loves all his little pumpkin heads.

Just imagine a story at the very top of the totem pole.

This is the point where some annoying pedant will point out that master craftsmen made the carvings at the bottom of the totem pole whereas the carvings at the top were made by inferior craftsmen ;)

AJ

I'd like to think the author whose novel I'm beta-reading thinks my pedantry is worth every penny - or would be, if they were paying me ;)

AJ

whereas the carvings at the top were made by inferior craftsmen

Nope, tall craftsmen :)

Nope, tall craftsmen :)

Or, at least, agile craftsmen (or women), or extremely dexterous goats (aka. 'kids').

And yet many sites persist with the opposite view, that the bottom of the pole is the most prestigious:

http://users.imag.net/~sry.jkramer/nativetotems/lowman.htm
https://www.woot.com/blog/post/the-debunker-is-it-bad-to-be-the-low-man-on-the-totem-pole

AJ