People voting a story a 1 should be a fairly uncommon event, seeing every story is quite likely to have been checked by one of the 5 moderators here.
It does still happen though, because either:
a) a story was just on the fringes of being passable quality wise, but some people thought otherwise
b) surf-by trouble makers thinking it's funny going on to the site and voting all stories a 1 until they get bored
c) jealousy by other authors / readers
In the coming weeks, a system will be put in place so that if someone votes a story a 1, they will need to give a reason. That reason will appear in the comments section. To be able to give a comment, the person must be a member. This should cut down drastically the number of unfounded 1 votes.
As usual, if you have any suggestions, please feel free to air them.
Excellent idea.
Some times I have voted a story a 3 or 4, but just can't put a comment together to exlain why.
Bat
Only those that vote a "1" on a story will need to comment Bat, all other votes stand.
I understood.
But now I must ask, why not the same rule for brown nosers that vote 5.
Arn't they sandbagging because of a freind and not also telling the truth?
Food for thought.
Bat
Of course you can disallow Embellishment
and you can disallow comments
could add disallow points
Anyone can tell, especially when there are just a few votes, when a vote of 1 gets added to a 4 or a 5. Stories can turn a reader off, or on, grammar aside at times.
Part of me laughs, but there is still part of me that feels bad when someone votes down what I feel is a good story.
I do think that if you don't like a particular genre, don't vote on the story. I've personally never voted a story lower than 4. If I thought it was worse, even when the grammar was horrible, I just didn't vote. Maybe that's wrong.
That's a great idea, Lush.
I've never voted a story either a one or a two, but I've received both on one of my stories.
A story would have to be terrible to vote it that low, and I haven't come across one like that yet.
It'll be interesting to see what this does to the 'one' votes.
Anytime I have voted less that a 3 I have listed why. Again just to help the writer along.
I agree with you, Lush. Bad gramer makes a storie hurd too rede. (that's been done too much..bad humor) It hurts my eyes, and I end up not wanting to mudde through their mess.
I’m probably too new to know much about this subject, and can’t really say I care all that much. However, I understand the subject is “touchy”, so after reading the comments here and adding in a little of what I know about the nature of readers/judges… one thing that might help level the playing field in terms of voting would be to add short descriptions somewhere on what 1-Excellent, 2-Good etc. should actually mean when someone votes for a story.
What I’m trying to get at is that one reader might simply vote a story a “5” because it got them excited (“Excellent” to them), no matter what the quality of writing was like, while another reader might really care about punctuation and grammar and rate that same story a “3”, because the spelling sucked and that makes it's readability no more than "Average" for that reader. Adding short descriptions to what the scores should mean might help.
But, now that I think about it, do I think all readers will actually be able to discern the types of things that make a story stand out? Probably not. So, I’m back to square one and really have nothing to offer here after all. Crap. Useless to the very end of 2008!
But I’ve written this much, and hate to throw away 200 words, so you can suffer the post just the same!
P.S. Human nature being what it is, when the “must comment on a score of 1” is implemented, what’s the betting there is a huge rise in the number of “2” scores?
"P.S. Human nature being what it is, when the “must comment on a score of 1” is implemented, what’s the betting there is a huge rise in the number of “2” scores?"
Very right. I just voted on a couple of stories, giving them both 5's despite some grammatical and spelling errors, since the stories were good (I get hard with the good ones). I do that to be encouraging. Maybe I'm the problem. I do notice that some writers, including forum regulars, have lines on their comments that say things like "I appreciate any feedback", etc. Others do not.
I always viewed the comments as being a means for readers to express their pleasure or displeasure, not as a means of a critique on the writer's grammatical ability or technique. That's just me, though. When everything is taken as a whole, there is a wide spectrum of thought going into a vote.
Now that's an interesting question. An "O" vote.
Bat
Ha! My grammar is rubish, so If enayone wants to help me with that!!! lol
Seeing as some lovely person went and voted 1 on all my stories, you know how how I feel about this. :-)
A Professional Writer is an amateur who didn't quit"
Can't remember voting anything less that a three, and that only once. I don't vote often so when I give a four or five I mean it. But if I'm thinking a one, two or even a three I just pass on voting, period.
About the ones smiler, just let them roll off you like a bad lover and then forget they ever existed.
Yes, I agree. Writing is a personal thing, so when someone critiques you with a low score, there can be so many reasons why. Jealousy, mean-spiritedness, idiocy...all the way to grammatical stuff and content, etc.
I often start to read a promising story only to find it is not what I expected, so I stop and get on to the next one . Human nature is always looking for a bigger fix, and its just around the corner . When I find it I will let you know meanwhile I will keep on searching .Mind you this is a good site to search on and we must remember that ' One mans meat is another mans poison.'
That's great slippenol. Now can you please go and test my submission by voting a 1 and see if you are forced to give a reason!! We're testing this out now.
Tested. Seemed to work okay. Comment on test story.
ok, so they have to be a member to vote? and if they dont like it and want to give it a 1 they have to give a reason? Might make some people angry. ie: "who gives a shit why, I just don't like it." Or perhaps they will just give a reason and move on. Why does it matter? Is there really that many "drive by" voters?
Sounds to me like to many people are getting sensitive over #1 votes.
Can you imagine being so bored and petty that you become a "drive by voter" on a sex stories web site? Man what a sad life you have to have.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I'm . . . . a . . . . drive . . . . . by . . . . . . . .
I vote 9.75 on Lush Stories.
10 on the babes
&
.01 on idiots.
Bat
