Jul
17th
2015
I am not as happy anymore · 6:10pm Jul 17th, 2015
So as previously mentioned, my story made a short appearance in the featured-box. But shortly afterwards, the amounts of dislikes had doubled, from an amount that had taken nine months to accumulate, making my story drop like a rock in the groups that featured it. I actually place some value on stuff like that.
Now, I might not have a firm grasp on the cause-and-correlation-thing or whatever it's called, but it seems to me that featured = lots of downvotes.
So my question is this: How does the featured-box work and how can I keep publishing chapters for my story while avoiding it?
Sadly, you can't. The last three slots tend to snag recently updated stories. Hitting the featured box puts in a place pretty much any and everybody can see. Those who are looking for a story like yours to read, and those who just wanna dislike. Still, three dislikes isn't the worse that could have come from it. How many likes did it get?
3246541 16, I think, though there's still a wave of people reading it right now. Not a very good ratio. Abandoning a fairly well-received story seems to be the way to go if you want a high like/dislike ratio
3246547 maybe its just me, but a 16 : 3 for likes/dislikes (for new readers) seems like a fine ratio to me.
That's what around 85% of people who pick up your story like iit!
You can't please all readers but your piece clearly works for the majority of people.
Some of the down votes might just come from HiE as some people dislike that on sight for whatever reason.
I still think your doing a good job, your story still has a 95% positive rating. I guess it can suck to see your story drop in those groups, but remember you can never please everyone. Also, I agree with Greycait, before your story was being read by people who were looking for that type of story and therefore more likely to view it positively. Being on the front page, there are going to be some people who give it a dislike just because they don't like the concept. On the positive side a bunch of people who would have never known that your story existed got to see it and experience the little world you created and most of them liked it.
3246579 & 3246611 Thank you
The thing is that I'm aiming as high as I can. And while I realize that my story won't be all that loved, I wish it went a little higher than it did.
It's just that when I was writing those longer chapters, my story was slowly accumulating likes at a very slow but very steady rate, and getting attention means getting hate. Or actually, I wouldn't even call it hate, because I've only ever had one person ever point out why they found my story unappealing, most just leave a passive-aggressive dislike and move on. Anyway, this all means that my story is the most appreciated when no one notices it. You can imagine the frustration when it's constantly placed behind years-old crossovers that was abandoned after a few chapters
As it stands now, you've got 116 likes and 6 dislikes- that's really nothing to worry about. Every author is going to have haters.
3246646
Yeah, that is a definite flaw in the ratings system. Sadly it is also probably one that there is no work around for.
3246680 Yeah, but I'm still gonna lament that because I'm not sure we should just accept haters as a fact of life. This is a culture in which I feel aimless aggressiveness and pointless hating does not belong.
3246690 Just gonna have to hope that as few people as possible notice my story in the future
The adms of this site have said that they had random brony hater come onto the site and every day dislike every fic in the feature box also somthing has been bothering me and that that you don't have a picture for your fic and I remember fics by there pic more then there title I had no idea what story I was reading for the first half of the latest chapter it wasn't till I read the first couple paragraphs of chapter one that I remembered food for thought
The rating system has been flawed for a while. Someone can literally click on a story, not read it and then downvote it and leave. With no comments or reason why.
3246946 Punctuation, man
(and commas)
But yeah, I've considered making a picture for the story, but the problems are as follows: I can sketch pretty decently, given enough time, but I can't color and I'm not sure how to encapsulate the story with a picture.
3246974 Yeah, though I'm not sure I want haters to share why they hate my story. People on the internet often sit and watch the most acidic, critical, and condescending analysis of entertainment they can find, and then they write what they've heard from that into these giant walls of text that they dump at aspiring creators, then hide behind the fact that those aspiring published their stories for everyone to partake in and if anyone doesn't like their patronizing word-dumps, they're cry-babies and hypocrites. I'm not even sure that they realize that they're doing it anymore.
3247164 If they comment on something negatively without some sort of criticism or reasoning for it beyond "I hate what you made because I just do" then that's their fault. I say comments like that are meaningless; like a stranger walking up to you and saying they hate you then walking away.
3247167 Luckily, I haven't experienced that yet. Though sometimes I wish I had. I think I might respect someone more if they were willing to show who they were when disliking for no reason.
3247187 I think there's more strength in someone if they are willing to show you who they are, online, when they like what you do.
3247192 I suppose that's true. Luckily for me, the like-button is just as anonymous as the dislike-one. I'm often hesitant to comment outside my own little corner of fimfic and the like-button is the button for me
Your likes are growing much faster than the dislikes, so I imagine that you got most of your insta-downvotes out of the way. I recommend not worrying about it and simply keep posting as you can.
Just wait until you gain an anti-followership. I've got four people who follow me just so they can downvote any story I post as soon as they can.
If it makes you feel better, your blog reminded me to hit the like button... I have a tendency to forget about it...
Honestly, I think your story stands out in a glutted category (HIE).
Many people forget that even an idea that's over-used can make for a great story, they just hit dislike and move on...
You cannot avoid it. See the document for reasons why, don't feel like typing it again. As for doubled downvotes.. if you mean up to the 6 you have, then that's actually not many. That's how I got a majority of mine, from that box. Not because people went looking for that type of story and not liking it, but because it was there and easy to click on. Hell, sometimes people downvote just because it has the 'human' tag, or just because they are jealous it made it to the featured box. Even if it is just the recently updated slots.
3247260 Now that, if anything, sounds like harassment, and definitely the type that the moderators should take care of. I'm guessing that they can track a user's activity and at least ask for motivation.
3247368 That does make me feel better, thank you
And hitting cliches is something I'm actually aiming for.
Though it's weird that people who dislike an over-saturated genre still take the time to give it attention. Especially on such a slick and easily-used site like this where I as a user don't even have to ignore a genre I don't like half the time, I can just tell the site to ignore it for me. That might be a function that should be expanded upon? Like an "ignore *insert tag here* on the popular stories and featured-box function
3247529 Yeah, I should see what the most hated elements on this site are and make a story featuring all of them.
3248350
If you truly want to do that... write a 'Your Human and You' verse story with the character being one of the 'Displaced' verse type character. For a bonus you can have all of the Mane 6 bend over backwards to do anything for the character, and/or fall madly in love with the character on first sight.
3248357 You could be on to something. Once, I was actually thinking of making a 'Your Human And You'-short story where the main character gets access to the Gamebryo Command-Console
3248409 I'm not sure I'm bothered with disliking poorly made fiction in itself, even though it seems like a waste of time and energy to go around and actually hate it. I am, however, bothered by people who just say that something is terrible because they're not part of the niche that it's aimed at, and those that are monstrously condescending to aspiring creators (again, mostly in ways they picked up from people with more gravitas than themselves) and shoot down their works in really nasty ways and then claim that it's genuine critique that's supposed to help people
PS: And I'm not just talking about FimFiction here, I'm talking about the internet as a whole. To anyone who's reading this: I want you to do something. If you spend a lot of time on the internet, bashing people in ways and with phrases that you've heard from other, popular critics, or if you personally know anyone who does, ask yourself this: do you, or that person, have unusually greasy hair?
3248491 Thank you, that sounded very genuine and it warmed
I haven't had anyone dump a large body of text on me to why my story would suck yet, and as far as I know, it's escaped the notice of the rage review-group. Even so, I'm considering updating my story stealthily, as in leaving an open invite to unpublished chapters, and then publish them in bulk to lessen the frequency of these reactions.
3248566 Well, I try my best to understand, but it still leaves a pretty bitter taste in my mouth. Regardless, I have more to write