Ratings/Likes

[klaatu48]

Just a random question for discussion:

Authors, how do you look at the ratings/likes your stories receive? Is there a minimum you hope or look to achieve with each, and do the number a story receives affect how you view the story?

For example, I used to judge that a story I wrote was decent if the number of likes it received was at least 1 percent of the number of views. But lately, that’s shifted away from percentages, and more to a baseline of 30 likes for me to consider a story to be sequel-worthy, and 50-likes to be considered popular.

Do you have a system like that? Why or why not? (I would not mind being convinced to ignore the stat entirely…)

[f35h]

I’d be lying if I said I don’t look at them at all, but they don’t really affect what I write. I write the stories that I would like to read, whatever’s forcing it’s way to the front of my head.

I do have the 1% figure in my head, but mostly just as a ‘that’s what most stories seem to get’. Obviously there’s some variation, and some authors consistently get more than that, but it does act as kind of a benchmark, a feeling that the story was OK.

I’m also aware that the stories I write tend to not be the most popular on here, so as long as I get a few people liking them, I’m happy 🙂

[Ginger Herten]

We’re human. I am very firm in knowing logically that I write these stories for myself and what other think of them has no real effect on my life. That logic in no way changes my need to share them and the feelings I have about how well received they are.

I accept though that none of my stories are ever going to be smash hits. For one thing the smooth shave is very popular here, but it just bores me. Technically I had a smooth shave in one of my recent stories, simply because it really fit the plot, but I don’t really go into it. I know if I had taken the time to flesh out that part of the story and make it more detailed, have the main character observing the razor scraping through the foam, etc, it would have made the story more popular, but I might never have finished it out of boredom. So instead I simply mention that it will happen/did happen, then move on to detailing how the main characters hair is cut. In the end her hair is extremely short, to the point she calls herself bald, but of course she’s not bald. (I am deliberately not going to go into a rant about my annoyance at people who buzz their hair down to a number 6 and call it shaving their head, or the one that annoys me even more about them frying their hair with bleach till it starts breaking and calling it their hair falling out.)

My stories tend to fall into 3 categories, though not always neatly because life isn’t neat that way, I assume I am probably the only person who notices these categories: 1. ideas I just have to get out of my head; 2. I’m going to pour these feelings I’m having about a woman into a fictional story; 3. I’m in a mood, and I am just going to write out in gory detail a fantasy I am having. It will probably surprise no one that the first category that are more about ideas than feelings tend to only mildly popular at best, rarely being either very popular or practically rejected. I still like to share them though, I accept and understand why they aren’t going to be super popular. Heck, they aren’t usually personal favorites for me either.

The other two categories though get complicated. The second category, the ones where I just pour out a bunch of feelings, tend to garner a lot of likes when those feelings are positive ones, and tend to get a bit of a cold shoulder when those feelings are negative ones. They are more likely to get commented on, they are just well received. However, people read them, like them, then tend to just forget them. It was the feel good of the moment.

Then there is the third category, where I’m in a mood. They don’t tend to garner likes and comments. What they do get is read over and over. They get read repeatedly gathering views for years. So in some ways, they are more popular than the ones that grab all the likes, they just appeal to a different crowd than the small number of people who think to hit the thumbs up or risk commenting.

[klaatu48]

Thanks for the thoughts and input!

I know the percentage thing only holds up so long — since people can only like a story once, the ratio starts to fall when they return to read it more than once (raising the view counter higher).

Sounds like we all view it as an item of interest, but nothing to put stock of our egos into.

[haircoward]

While I still posted stories here, I don’t think a single one of them ever amassed double-digit likes. That definitely made me less inclined to share, and ultimately why I stopped sharing and even took down all of the stories I had shared.

I still write stories for ME, I just choose to keep them to myself.

[Gabriel]

It takes a lot of effort to write a good story. Sometimes it takes me waiting for months before I have time / desire to redact a story making it fit for publishing. When it is not liked much immediately (compared to the views), it is a bit of disappointment for me (given the effort).

Just now I watched my ratings… there are more likes than I guessed (great!). And the best ratings for the stories I still like!

In the end I write for my own pleasure, but the purpose of sharing it is to see if others like it… Which my Ego likes. It doesn’t keep me from posting as I have one story fit for this site.

[klaatu48]

Haircoward — I think most of your stories were about Men’s haircuts, right? They always have a rough go here, unfortunately. So I hope you don’t take it personally.

And Gabriel, I totally get where you’re coming from.

[haircoward]

Thank you for the reply Klaatu, I really appreciate it. Yes, my stories were my personal accounts of various cuts and styles I’d gotten over the years. A lot of sweat and tears, and getting over my own fears and insecurities were involved in the making (and ultimate sharing) of those.

I didn’t let the indifference bother me so much at first, however, with the rise in cookie-cutter gibberish AI stories, and writers publishing a barely legible paragraph or two and calling it a “story”… and (comparably) raking in the likes and comments, it became clear that my content just wasn’t wanted here.

This was especially rough for me, as the other couple of places where I shared my work… I wasn’t met so much by apathy, but some very mean comments. This was kind of the last place I felt somewhat welcome and not so alone.

Thank you again for your reply, and remembering me!

[klaatu48]

I’m sorry to hear about the mean comments — I can understand why that might shake you a bit.

For here, I can also understand why the experience of shouting into a metaphorical cavern and not getting a reply would also be disheartening, but there’s always a chance someone with similar experiences will find your stuff down the line and feel better about themselves because of it. I’ve had a few instances where people contacted me long after I wrote something and mentioned their ‘favorite’ story being one I thought nobody cared about.

It’s a personal call, of course, but I hope you at least felt welcome here (despite the lack of response). Especially because of the amount of quickie and Ai stories, it’s nice to have contributors who take time with their work. (And this isn’t limited to this site — Instagram is full of artists who have lamented how a 5-minute doodles of theirs has gotten thousands of likes, while their personal favorite piece has only gotten, like, five.)

My own creativity lives and breathes based on crowd response and comments, so I feel where you’re coming from. Just know that whether you have an audience of 5 or 5 million, your work is worthwhile.

[haircoward]

Thank you, klaatu. I can’t tell you how much it means to get a reply and support. It’s so easy to feel completely alone in this “hair interest”, especially the niche-of-a-niche that MY interests occupy.

I have gotten some nice comments here, but it’s the mean ones that seem to “stick”. I suppose that’s always the way. In fairness, the mean comments weren’t from this site in particular, more the men’s site and reddit… where, if your story doesn’t include the phrase “shave smooth baldie” you’re going to disappoint the readership, or invite some aggressively pushy and invasive DMs.

I also can’t help but to get frustrated when I see people drooling over the quickies and low-effort AI stuff. I dunno. I’ve still got my work saved, just reverted to draft-form… maybe one of these days I’ll get over myself enough to re-share them.

Thank you again.

[Author]

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