Follow & Thumbs | How to Add Your Voice to the Feature Box · 5:48pm Dec 27th, 2012
Follow & Thumbs | How to Add Your Voice to the Feature Box
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tl;dr - Follow authors and thumb-up stories. Favorites don't affect the feature box and hot list.
Hey guys, I'm writing this because I like attention and I guess some of you like my writing (Thanks!) or maybe you want attention too. If you're a reader here's how to voice your opinion: thumbs and watching.
I'm pretty sure that favorites don't count, only thumbs-up. If you favorite a story, thank you! But it's not actually a vote for the story or author, and it means you'll miss their newer stories.
It's also really important for a story to get attention when it's first posted. The side-effect of the is that, these days, an author needs about a hundred followers or so before his stories are eligible for the feature box, unless they're posted to a big group, like Shipping, Clopfics, or Dark. Ever wondered why there are so many featured stories in those categories? They're big groups that anyone can add to. Other stories depend on watchers to get their momentum when they launch.
I've pinged knighty for confirmation of these two points.
It's really easy to unwatch someone if you find their stories or blog-posts irritating, so my new policy is to watch first and unwatch later.
Basically, a watch/follow just means "I want one of the first views on this author's next story." Since authors generally get better with practice, my new policy is, depending on how much I like a story:
- watch
- and also thumb-up
- and also favorite
And how much I dislike one:
- nothing
- thumbs down
- and also unwatch
Like I said, I like attention. I'd really appreciate your follow. I keep my blog-traffic low, and try to not waste anyone's time.
That is some interesting information. How long did it take for you to put the pieces together to discover this info? (I would have continued assuming that favoriting has a big effect)
653854
It comes from discussions during the Great Trollfic Fiasco last spring. Basically, we figured out how to game the system and some popular folks really messed with the site.
It was the reason that meta-fics are completely banned now. Look up "Twilight Sparkle Earns the Feature Box" and, if you have a strong stomach for gross-out clop, "Scootaloo's Big Meal."
653888 I see... a collab effort to discover all this lol
As for meta stories, I feel that at times, they go a bit far in defining what is a meta story. There is one such story I would never think of as meta that the mods still seem to think of as being meta, and it looks to be a damn good story too.
Now, I HAVE to go find that Scoots story... Maybe I shall read it over lunch.
Woah, three blogs in one day, that's a first.
I always try to remember to thumb-up. I think my own stuff has maybe suffered popularity-wise from people forgetting to (or just using faves to track, I guess) -- one of my stories has nearly 80 more faves than thumb-ups.
Watching... Hmm, okay, you may have a point there. I might feel bad about unwatching though... I know when I get unwatched it's always a little saddening.
653888 Yeah... what tags would you recommend using, cause typing in the name doesn't help any.
653906
The name is Argembarger. Ever heard of "Spiderses"? There's more.
http://www.fimfiction.net/index.php?view=category&user=1227
I will not be held responsible for ruining your lunch if you read SBM, though.
653913 WOW! I did find it... read it, and laughed my ass off at the end!
Never knew playing with your food could be so fun!
I watch authors on this site more for blog posts than for stories, but that might just be me.