The Math in a One-Star Rating

[TopManFL (imported)]

First, if you read the fiction section, thank you. -- If you take time to rate a story even better. -- Best is if you both rate a story and leave a comment. For that, I say, "Namaste".

I'm not asking anyone to rate a story higher than they believe it deserves. If you hated a story, the only reason you might be giving it a one-star rating is that you couldn't give it zero stars.

What I'd like you to consider is that authors need feedback. Even the reason you didn't care for the story is better than no feedback. You might not like a story because it contained circumcision before castration and give it one star. That is fair but, say so in the comments so both the author and any interested reader will know your reason.

Just leaving a one-star rating tells the author nothing useful. It is only slightly better than not having rated the story at all and might be worse because it could discourage future stories from that author.

Many stories only get very few ratings and "recovering" from a one-star rating can be mathematically challenging.

Two Ratings, a one and a five, 1 + 5 = 6 divided by 2 = a 3-Star Rating.

Four Ratings, a one and three fives, 1+5+5+5 = 16 divided by 4 = a 4 Star Rating.

Again, thank you for rating a story. Posting a story and getting no feedback at all is like shouting in the wind.

This is a reminder that often weeks go by with no new stories and there might be an author out there who wrote one story, got a one-star rating and decided to never write another one. My experience is that authors get better with time and encouragement and feedback help. Even feedback that is critical can help.

[Arab Nights (imported)]

Thank you. Whenever a person posts and especially writes a story they are doing two things. First they are taking time (and my experience with stories is it is not hours, it often is days of working it out in your mind) to actually putting something down. It is like getting a hand written letter as opposed to a like. They are making an effort - whether you agree or not. Second, they are putting themselves out there. Maybe there are some people who toss something out and then never care again. I know I am not one of those. I appreciate responses. If you want to stop all activity, disallow responding. It is just blahsville to put something to dead silence.

Thanks again.

[Paolo]

If you want to stop all activity, disallow responding. It is just blahsville to put something to dead silence.

Thanks again.

That's been the ongoing problem with stories here since, well, since the thing started!

[cutnbulls2ox (imported)]

As one of the men who does post alot of comments on the stories I really like, I wonder why more men don t comment on these great stories ?

These authors really put themselves out there in sharing their inner most fantasies and secret turn ons to give us fans intense reading and often jacking pleasure. Its the least we can do to let them know how appreciated they are ! And thank them for SHARING their deepest thoughts and turn ons with us. They have to be both very brave and very generous to share their private ideas and kinks with all of us for our pleasures.

I wish I could thank them more than only posting a comment and a star rating or adding them to my overflowing favorites list. But I worry that I make so many comments compared to other readers and fans. Fearing I m leaving too many comments. I try to make unique comments to each story, telling the writers what especially turns me on in their stories. Some stories are so good I can enjoy reading them many times with great pleasure. I hope the authors see our comments on older stories at some point.

These authors really are doing men and humanity a major favor in providing such a wealth of castration and modification stories that you can t find anywhere else. And a place for the men seriously interested in castration and male body mods to explore their desires safely to decide if they want it for real or not. Where else can they access so many men s and a few women s most honest and open ideas on these rare interests and desires ?

You wouldn t believe how often the men seriously seeking castration and penis mods say this archives turned their desires from mere fantasies into wanting these for real on their bodies !

[Arab Nights (imported)]

I had the thought to ad this - a thank you to the EA for maintaining this section. While there are aspects that a guy might wish were different, it still gives us an opportunity to express an inner desire to write. When I get the urge to write something, it pretty much feels like this:

https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... om+stomach

The EA fiction section allows me to get it out.

Thanks

[ka.dick. (imported)]

Apart from writing I also know this very well as an Uber driver . Like my work? No rating. Not perfect? 1 star.

It's just how it is.

I have to admit tho, even tho I write myself (well not nuch anymore but ya know), I find it difficult to write feedback. Possibly because my tastes are somewhat niche and most stories around here fall into different sub-genres. Sometimes I get to read something outside my zone but it's just not my thing so what's there for me to say? Other times the scope of the story changes in the middle and I kinda go sigh.

But it can also be hard to write proper feedback about something I do like. After all stories tend to be short, and in 10 minutes there won't be too many twists and turns so at the end even if it's superbly written it's hard to come up with something more than "Iove this!". Debating with the author about a potential sequel/prequel/whatever is fine but that's more for roleplay if you ask me.

So anyway yea. Every writer likes feedback, but commenting can be hard. As for ratings, I only give 5, 4 or no ratings, but I suggest not taking the ratings too seriously because everyone likes something different.

BTW it would be cool if we could favourite more than 50 stories. Why is there a limitation in the first place?

[gellyfregy (imported)]

So is a five-star rating "meets minimum conditions for a readable story" or is it reserved for the very best? Does five mean "excellent" and 4 means "meh"? If everyone uses different standards, it will be hard for an author to interpre

If one gives everything a five-star rating, it's about the same as giving everything a one-star rating, right.

Does the star rating measure how entertaining the story was, or how titillating, or whether one agrees with the premise, or how well it was proofread or conforms with minimal stylebook standards, or something else?

This stuff can be hard, but maybe we should all just resolve to enter something, rather than nothing.

I assume authors can tell how many times their story was read? That should be something...

[mikesnub (imported)]

I agree completely with KA.dick. It's difficult to comment negatively, but constructively given how specific our tastes are in this genre.

"I really hated when you did X, Y, Z because it totally ruined the fantasy for me --it was a big turn off when you dropped the ACME anvil on the guy's balls, which you had no way of knowing because I only like it when uncircumcised men get castrated by twelve-foot-tall women from Mars while being ball-tickled with a feather by a gaggle of underage, super-intelligent elephant cyborgs in pink tutus. Now if the guy had been cut, the way you did it might have worked for me, but we'll never know unless you write a sequel. And BTW, it's 'they're' not 'there'...." Would that really be helpful to an author?

Let's just be frank here. Why do I read these stories? This isn't the New Yorker fiction section. I tend to skip stories that don't specifically appeal to my fetish targets. I've only written one story, and it was the kind of story I like to read. I very much appreciated the feedback I got, but I wasn't expecting a huge amount, especially not from people who weren't into the subject matter. As far as comments go, a "loved it" or "keep them coming" or even better "made me hard" or "shot a big load" would all be very flattering and much appreciated. Specific comments on things people liked are fantastic (I got some great, generous feedback), but that's going to be really specific to the reader.

As for stars, I, too, only give 4 and 5 star ratings. Five stars means I really, really liked it, it turned me on a lot, or it was exceptionally well written, or both. Four stars probably means it ticked some, but not all of the boxes, but I still really enjoyed some aspect of it. If it didn't work for me, I'm not going to leave a low star rating unless I have a real problem with the story. Sometimes stories don't work for me because of premise that seems off for me, sometimes it's because of the quality of the writing, sometimes it's because of a quirk that just turns me off. I don't want to give someone a hard time about those kinds of things. We all like different stuff, we all have different styles and skill sets. This shouldn't be a judgmental place.

Maybe something people could think about doing even if you don't love the story or it didn't turn you on specifically (or if you jack off to it daily, but you don't want to admit it) is leaving a generic thank you without commenting specifically on the quality of the story? How would other authors feel about that? I know even a simple thanks would be great for me.

[cutnbulls2ox (imported)]

I agree with mikesnub,

I only read the stories that happen to be what I m personally turned on by. So, I usually only rate stars for the stories that I really enjoy and will rate 4 or 5 which are like As and Bs in school grading to me. The 1 to 3 stories I leave unrated because those are usually aimed at readers with different turn ons than my own happen to be. I m not the target or intended reader that writers aimed to please in stories that I would rate lower than a 3. So, my feedback is useless if the writer was not aiming to please me in that story.

I never criticise stories because everyone is different in what they enjoy and desire. A turn off for me might be other people s favorite story. I do like to try saying what or why I liked or shot off a load in reading stories. Hoping it lets the writer and other readers know why I liked it. Sometimes I read the comments before reading very long stories. To see what turned on other readers before I read long stories and invest that time in an unknown story.

Let s face it, most of us readers are jacking off as we read most stories. Alot of writers cater to this by writing stories for the time it takes for most horny men to stroke to orgasm while reading it. Other authors give us longer lasting excitement and pleasures beyond just shooting our loads. Both are great ! Some are so short that you read it fast and then play it out longer in your head to add details and more action to reach orgasm and ejaculation at your own speed by using the writer s ideas.

Comments that I especially enjoy reading from other readers are real life comparisons, how it changes their thinking, or if its how they want to be castrated, or if it opens up new kinks for them to enjoy. Most of us do greatly expand what we enjoy by reading these writer s endless different ideas and details. It helps us enjoy more stories and different turn ons than we first did before we started reading other people s turn ons with an open mind.

[ka.dick. (imported)]

I've only written one story, and it was the kind of story I like to read. I very much appreciated the feedback I got, but I wasn't expecting a huge amount, especially not from people who weren't into the subject matter.

Funny that. I looked it up and remembered that I read it a while ago, I guess I happened to browse EA just as it was published. Aaand yes it's certainly one of the best written stories I've read (I did put it in my favs fyi), as a straight guy I especially appreciated the irony of the whole thing. At the same time again due to my moderate straightness I also just glossed over like half of the text, and as such it wouldn't be fair of me to give any reasonable critique. And I also didn't want to just leave some vague thanks/nice etc.

In any case if you write more I'm likely to check them out even tho it's not my particular niche.