Drought of Stories and Feedback

[Paolo]

This month, there have been four (4) stories submitted.

That's abysmal.

What's more abysmal are the feedback stats. Granted, I don't have access to emails that are sent to authors who share their addresses, so there could be more. But from what I can see, it's not f'ing wonder that no one wants to submit a story.

Now, "Lucy's Graduation" is at 12 stars and 2 comments. It's a no-minors story.

"Azyntion City" has only been up for 1 day, so the 2/1 doesn't count yet. No minors.

The other two stories are short and sweet, from Atreyu. Both involve minors. We have a 14/4 and 14/8.

A random story from the list, posted about a year ago, not even 30 ratings. Just for an example tonight. And it was no-minors, posted by a once-prolific author.

Looking at the 1,014 of the highest rated stories last night, I found most of them to have ratings somewhere around 25-50. Many have less. The ratings scale that generates that list is set for 20 stars of 4/5. I figure if we raised that bar to 50 ratings, half that list would disappear.

This is nothing new for EA, though. Still, we're getting about 12-24 new sign-ups per day, and hardly any of them are using the boards. Most are registering to be able to read the stories. Apparently, they're not rating the stories, though. Granted, they probably won't see this post, either. Feedback has always been a problem here. As I said, it's nothing new.

Still, feedback is the only reward that authors get for their stories. Many prolific and great authors at EA in the past have long-since given up. Yes, it can be fun to produce a story, and intrinsically satisfying. But for a lot of us, sharing that story with like-minded individuals is great. It becomes disappointing, though, over time to get so little feedback.

It's also a real kick in the proverbial balls for those of us who have spent so much time coding, installing, and reformatting stories for the 'new' archive, only to see it get so little use of the 'new' features.

Frankly, I don't blame authors who have quit.

Folks, if you are reading the stories, then leave a comment or rate it. Even if you didn't like it, rate it and be fair. 1 star or 2 is better than nothing!

[Eunuchorn (imported)]

I remember a post from you that said you had a backlog of some 150 stories, and were requesting people not send in storys anymore. May I take that request as to be removed and the want for stories has now returned?

[Ernie of Maine (imported)]

:)I rate most if not all the stories I read and give comment to most.

[TopManFL (imported)]

Hey @Paolo,

I'm figuring rewriting the software to put the ratings at both the top and the bottom isn't an option.

If I were going to "crutch" this problem without being able to change the software here is what I would do:

At the top of every story in Bold and Underlined Font add this text:

** No Time to Read Now? Your "End" Button Takes you to the Bottom of the Page, then Add to Favorites **

** Rate This Story From 1 to 5 Stars and Leave a Comment **

At the end of the story text similar to this:

** Please, Rate This Story From 1 to 5 **

** Use the "Home" Button to Return to the Top of this Page **

The reason to mention "favorites" and "read later" is that people are far more likely to use something useful to themselves.

Yes, the request would have to be added to every story (or at least the new ones going in), but it beats a rewrite of the software. Also, if a person wants to finish a story later, they have quick instructions to both favorite and rate the story. If they don't like a story and stop reading it, they still have a quick way to jump to the bottom and rate it.

I had to look around, but the BB codes seem to work in the fiction archives. I wasn't sure, but then did find Bold and Underlined text in a story.

I'm not sure if COLOR or SIZE BB code would work, but that might help also.

You could store the standard text with the BB code in a text file (something like notepad) which would make it quick to copy and paste to every newly added story.

Hope that helped.

[CircItaly (imported)]

T

Still, feedback is the only reward that authors get for their stories.

I'm the kind of user you speaking about, I would like "patronize" an author with proper money tips if i have the chance

[KimorKnossos (imported)]

The recent lack of stories and this thread have prompted me to start writing a few things and go back and rate some of my favorites. I've written stories before, but they're on other sites and kinks. A few suggestions that might increase story awareness:

1) Remove the 50 story limit on favorites. The limit creates a mindset that you need to be sparing with what you favorite, and I think people are more likely to rate if they also favorite.

2) Move some sort of list of new stories and a link to submission guides on the main page. To get to the new stories, it takes about 5-8 clicks from going on to eunuch.org. That's just a little too deep for most people to see.

3) Put reminders in the story section to favorite/rate/comment on stories. Make the part at the bottom where one does that more pronounced.

4) Consider the creation of an authors-only subforum where authors can post snippets and get more direct feedback.

[TopManFL (imported)]

Hey,

One more thing regarding only the four submissions.

The submission guidelines found inside the fiction archives still say:

Submission Guidelines

Send your submissions to eafictionarchive @ gmail (dot) com and put only EA story in the subject line. (or else it can end up in my spam folder.)

Include your story as an attachment to the email.

I don't think that is the correct email address.

[gellyfregy (imported)]

Here's an example of something that might be worth addressing:

I was working on a reply to this topic, got interrupted a few times, finally finished it, and then found my login had expired and the comment was lost. Maybe it's just the "incognito" mode on my browser, but that sort of thing sort of discourages me from commenting. I'd suggest checking to make sure people stay logged in for 24 hours or more, even if cookies are being restricted by incognito mode.

(Yes, I know I should have copied the comment out to an editor before trying to post it, but I didn't think it had been long enough for the login to expire so I didn't.)

[TopManFL (imported)]

Here's an example of something that might be worth addressing:

I was working on a reply to this topic, got interrupted a few times, finally finished it, and then found my login had expired and the comment was lost. Maybe it's just the "incognito" mode on my browser, but that sort of thing sort of discourages me from commenting. I'd suggest checking to make sure people stay logged in for 24 hours or more, even if cookies are being restricted by incognito mode.

(Yes, I know I should have copied the comment out to an editor before trying to post it, but I didn't think it had been long enough for the login to expire so I didn't.)

For sure it was chrome's incognito mode. Which should still allow you to favorite a story. But, it won't save a draft comment.

[TopManFL (imported)]

I'm the kind of user you speaking about, I would like "patronize" an author with proper money tips if i have the chance

That's a great idea . I've thought of opening an account at the "buy me a cup of coffee" site. More for my tumblr account. Its at https://ko-fi.com