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Bimodal score distribution

Sterling ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

My most recent story (https://storiesonline.net/library/author.php?name=Sterling&sf=story_time_cre&so=desc) has gotten a strongly bimodal distribution of scores. As of this writing, here is the count on scores from 1 to 10: 12 2 0 1 2 3 10 3 0 3

Around 14 people hated it, and 16 thought it was decent, and there are a few outliers. First, I'd like to thank Laz for the change that lets authors see this raw data rather than just averages.

It's an interesting case study on score-assigning philosophy too. My opinion of the ideal way to score a story is to say, "Given that based on the description and codes you thought this was a story I might like, how did it compare?" I take the 14 "no" votes" as people following a different philosophy, which isn't surprising for a story titled "Men Strike Back: The Right to Rape": "Writing a story like this is bad, bad, BAD!" That's OK with me. All is fair in love and culture wars. But I thought it was interesting.

Switch Blayde ๐Ÿšซ

@Sterling

My opinion of the ideal way to score a story is to say, "Given that based on the description and codes you thought this was a story I might like, how did it compare?"

I think the description and story codes is a factor in deciding whether or not to read a story. But the voting should reflect the story itself, not how it compared to the description and codes.

Saying that, people who don't like a subject should not read that story and therefore not vote on it. Unfortunately, that's not the case.

Vincent Berg ๐Ÿšซ

@Switch Blayde

Haters gotta hate, hate, hate.

Too many people feel offended by anyone who doesn't share their own views, and feel entitled to weigh in with their opinion, even if they know they hate the story and have no desire to read it.

The worst case of this is anything "MM". It doesn't matter what it is, but the religious conservatives will go out of their way to bash it, and never even read the story blurb. They just react to the code and punish the author as a way of shutting them up and driving them away. It's typically bully tactics. It's also why there are SO few stories about blacks here. Sadly, the SOL scoring system is not very encouraging of minorities.

Replies:   Switch Blayde
Switch Blayde ๐Ÿšซ

@Vincent Berg

the religious conservatives will go out of their way to bash it,

I don't think you have many religious conservatives on SOL. They'd vote almost anything down. Well, unless they're a closet sex lover, but then it's not their religious conservatism that's causing them to score a MM story low.

Hmm, SOL should attract Catholic priests and assistant college football coaches. Then the Mm stories would be in the top ten.

It's not as apparent, but cheating stories get bombed too.

Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@Switch Blayde

I think the description and story codes is a factor in deciding whether or not to read a story. But the voting should reflect the story itself, not how it compared to the description and codes.

Some people may down vote a story if they think it's miscoded. I haven't personally. I have however occasionally wished for a way to report miscoded stories.

samuelmichaels ๐Ÿšซ

@Dominions Son

There is always an email to the webmaster option to report miscoded stories.

Replies:   Vincent Berg
Vincent Berg ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@samuelmichaels

There is always an email to the webmaster option to report miscoded stories.

I've never heard of a webmaster recoding a story. Instead, you should contact the author. Even if they decided not to code it, they may relent.

Correction: Sorry, Ernest, I stand corrected. I'd never noticed a corrected code before.

Ernest Bywater ๐Ÿšซ

@Dominions Son

however occasionally wished for a way to report miscoded stories.

use the Webmaster link and include the URL link for the story. Lazeez will email the author and see some action is taken after he investigates it.

richardshagrin ๐Ÿšซ

I didn't vote as I didn't read the whole thing. The parts I looked at were a significant strain on my suspension of disbelief. Sterling's women characters lacked reality. When faced with rape, almost none of them fought back. Even former military. Having set up straw women Sterling let events proceed as would never happen in real life.

I suppose, based on what I saw I might have given it a 3 or 4. Strange premise, strange story. If you like that kind of thing, I guess this is the kind of story you like. Me, no.

Replies:   Sterling
Sterling ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@richardshagrin

Thanks for the feedback! I used to write hardly any rape stories, but I see I'm writing more -- at least among the ones I can post here (those lacking in little girls).

Sterling's women characters lacked reality. When faced with rape, almost none of them fought back

I believe that in the (all too common) rapes that occur in the real world, remarkably few women will fight back, especially if they know they'll lose.

Replies:   Ernest Bywater
Ernest Bywater ๐Ÿšซ

@Sterling

I can't figure out how to quote text like the rest of you do here,

Use you mouse to highlight the text, then click on the arrow that turns left in the bottom right corner of the message and it'll automatically show it as a quote. Or you can copy and paste the text and in the line above it you type quote between the angled brackets and /quote between angle brackets under it. When you type a reply under the box Post is some of the html code it accepts, just replace the b for bold with the word quote and the / before the tag indicates it's closure point.

Replies:   Dominions Son
Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@Ernest Bywater

Or you can copy and paste the text and in the line above it you type quote between the angled brackets and /quote between angle brackets under it.

It also works with curly brackets. { } in fact if you look a the auto quote before clicking post it uses curly brackets.

Replies:   Vincent Berg
Vincent Berg ๐Ÿšซ

@Dominions Son

It also works with curly brackets. { } in fact if you look a the auto quote before clicking post it uses curly brackets.

I never realized you could use angle brackets (for quotes). That would be easier than searching for the seldom used curly brackets. I'm used to typing angle brackets for html code, so now it's almost second nature.

Replies:   Dominions Son
Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Vincent Berg

I never realized you could use angle brackets (for quotes).

I've never tried it before my self. I use some of the formatting codes for one of my stories so I am fairly familiar with using curly brackets.

I might switch myself. For me it's not an issue of find them, but I have relatively short fingers and the angle brackets are easier to reach in touch typing.

Angle Bracket Quote Test

Edit:
It appears that they don't work. the angle bracket quote tags got stripped out when I hit post.

Replies:   Vincent Berg
Vincent Berg ๐Ÿšซ

@Dominions Son

Angle Bracket Quote Test

Your test seems to have failed. :(

docholladay ๐Ÿšซ

@Sterling

I haven't read it but I do know there are people who are bullies (or whatever term you like) whose only pleasure is in destroying other people. If they can destroy a potential storyteller/writer they gain pleasure in doing it. But when a writer keeps going they cannot stand it. That is probably the majority of the haters. I tend to have the attitude that if it doesn't harm then either read it or ignore it.

Ernest Bywater ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

Bold with angle brackets because the allowed list uses angle brackets.

Let's try this to match the allowed list and see if it works as angles on the same line.

Angle brackets on the line above.

Curly brackets on the same line.

Curly on the line above.

edit to add test shows the angle brackets < > don't work for the quote command but do for the rest while the curly brackets { } do work for the quote command. Wonder why he has two systems in use?

Replies:   Vincent Berg
Vincent Berg ๐Ÿšซ

@Ernest Bywater

test shows the angle brackets < > don't work for the quote command but do for the rest while the curly brackets { } do work for the quote command. Wonder why he has two systems in use?

Two different systems. One (angle brackets) allows the use of basic html commands, while the other (curly brackets) offers SOL specific commands, same as when you post stories.

Guess we need to suggest that Lazeez allow cross angle/curly brackets for SOL commands. But I suspect he wants authors to focus on the SOL commands separately, rather than assuming they're extensions of html.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)
Updated:

@Vincent Berg

Guess we need to suggest that Lazeez allow cross angle/curly brackets for SOL commands. But I suspect he wants authors to focus on the SOL commands separately, rather than assuming they're extensions of html.

I have no preference personally. I used { quote } simply because it's shorter to type than { blockquote } and < quote > is not html.

I updated the text handling function to allow quote in angled brackets as well as curly ones and allowed the < blockquote > tag too.

If you use the site's tags { i } and { b } and { em } etc... they'll work too. But only those tags listed as html too.

Replies:   Vincent Berg
Vincent Berg ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

I updated the text handling function to allow quote in angled brackets as well as curly ones and allowed the < blockquote > tag too.

If you use the site's tags { i } and { b } and { em } etc... they'll work too. But only those tags listed as html too.

Thanks, Lazeez. It sounds like a silly fix, but it should really speed up responses, especially when using a smartphone where you can't click the 'auto reply' arrow.

Ernest Bywater ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Vincent Berg

Two different systems. One (angle brackets) allows the use of basic html commands, while the other (curly brackets) offers SOL specific commands, same as when you post stories.

When I post stories at SoL I use the Tagged Text commands to ensure the finished product looks like I expect it to. They all use the curly brackets { } and have limited instruction options. I wonder if they work with this.

{blue} test of tagged text colour command blue {/blue}

edit to add: looks like it doesn't.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Ernest Bywater

I wonder if they work with this.

refer to my reply above yours.

Replies:   Ernest Bywater
Ernest Bywater ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

refer to my reply above yours.

see what happens when we both work on something at the same time and one of us takes longer to post it? Thanks.

edit to add: You snuck in with a reply while I was still working on a response to CW.

Dicrostonyx ๐Ÿšซ

@Sterling

Around 14 people hated it, and 16 thought it was decent, and there are a few outliers.

With more votes, this might be a good example of the problem with score based rating systems, but with only fifty-one (as of this writing) these will just be wild guesses.

The problem is that there is no standard by which people vote, nor any easy way to weight votes. Some people will vote by what they like, some will try to rank it compared to what they've read recently, and some with actually score it. Worse, many people will rate based on how well the story fits their expectations going in, which is why your tags and summary are so important.

With any story that involves controversial topics, though, you should probably expect a wide spread like this. The same applies to niche content or under-represented genres: those people who feel that their needs aren't being served will be more likely to ignore any problems and rate the material highly. Recent mainstream examples of this are Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey; they aren't popular because they're good, but because there is very little available that is targeting those audiences (female fandom).

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