How to judge a story

I've often wondered whether a story should be judged on the number of times it's taken as a favourite or by the number of comments. My latest effort (The Rivals) has been taken three times as a favourite which is encouraging but only attracted two comments at this stage.

An interesting question.

I don't think it's an "either/or" situation. Some readers will not comment, but apparently will mark stories as a 'favorite.' Others - particularly those who comment a lot - will use 'favorite' designation more sparingly, possibly because of the total number of stories they read. So I think you have to look at both.

Interestingly enough, the stories by some authors, when taken as a whole, have generated almost as many 'favorites' as comments, or even more, while the stories of other authors (me being one of them) have several times as many comments as 'favorites.' I don't know what factors there might be that cause one author to appeal to 'favorite'-designating readers, but another to appeal to comment-making readers.

My personal opinion is that an awful lot of people never stray beyond the latest loaded or latest commented pages, so I am not sure any stories can be judged at all, other than maybe by this somewhat bizarre but very common behaviour. And then of course you have the friendships, where as soon as a person posts a new story, all their friends rush to read and comment on it, which puts/keeps their work on the two pages that other people go to choose their reading, so I am not sure I would judge a story on that either...

I generally only read what I am given to validate, so maybe I am not in the best position to comment either...

Just my own thoughts...

PinkAngel

Pink makes a very good point. I'd be careful on 'judging' any story by comments or 'favorites.' I'm one of those authors with a number of friends, a half dozen or so, who will comment on my new stories whether they're good, bad or anything in between. It would be unfair to make a comparison judgment between one of my stories and one with an author who doesn't have that built-in comment base. And a first story for a newly-introduced author will invariably draw a lot of comments. And there's also no fair comparison between new stories from the past 14 months or so since commenting became common and older stories that have been sitting here since Bottom Lines days.

That being said, I do notice how 'well received' my newer stories are, as compared to others of my newer stories, by looking at favorites and comments, and even that needs to take into account how many times they are viewed. I would consider a story that received 8 comments and 3 'favorites' in a hundred views 'better received' than one that received a a dozen comments and 4 'favorites' in 250 views. The number of views is more dependent on the title and how long it stays on the front page, and doesn't tell you whether the readers are actually enjoying the story. But the more times it is viewed, the greater the opportunity for both 'favorites' and comments.

So what you are telling us is you have more friends than the rest of us?

Judge the stories for yourself, by reading them. Personal tastes vary too wildly to use others' responses as your guide, in addition to the various factors that PinkAngel listed. Just read the blurbs that the validators so kindly provide and make your decision to open the story based on that.

I do look at certain metrics to judge whether a story is a success or a flop. Generally I look at the ratio of comments plus favorites to total hits. And I have to say that it does drive my writing somewhat. But tastes vary so much that no writer can be all things to all readers. That is borne out by the fact of the large number of dropouts in multi-part stories. I,m convinced that what this represents is a judgment made after a brief scan where the reader decides, no it's not his/her thing.

If the ratio above is 3-4%, that matches my average at least. If it goes higher, that's great.

It is difficult to judge the success of a story based on number of reads, comments, or favorites. If a story is posted on the weekend, it may be competing for readership with 20-30 other stories, and it may spend no time on the front page. As a result, it may not get that many reads. I have several authors that I try to read all of their new stories because they write in a way I usually enjoy. There are probably some people out there that read my stories for the same reason.

Number of comments can be one way to judge success in the last few months because readers comment a great deal more than they used to. I view favoriting a story as an easy way to find a story I really liked and would like to read again. I may be less likely to favorite some of my favorite authors because I know I can simply go to their author pages to find something good to read. Plus, Februs has provided an icon change to let me know if it is a story I have read, and the synopsis reminds me of that particular story. I favorite fewer stories than I used to because I know how to find some of my favorites without it. Of course, the authors might prefer that I still list the story as a favorite as an indication to them that the story was appreciated.

Sometimes, quite frankly, I am surprised by the reaction I get from a story. I really didn't expect anyone to favorite my first World Cup report on New Zealand because it was a report that didn't provide intimate details of spanking, and yet that story got a favorite before it got it's first comment. Maybe someone hit the favorite button by accident, but I will choose to believe it was on purpose.

I've rambled a good bit without say a whole lot. I think I would judge the quality of a story by the quality of any comments it receives. If the commenter is pointing out specific things in the story that he/she really liked, then I know that my writing was good enough to be remembered. If I simply get a "good story" comment, I'm happy they took time to write something, but perhaps my writing was not very memorable to elicit a more detailed comment, or perhaps the reader was simply being nice to me that day.

This is certainly how I feel. I would also add to it the point made by Beth concerning the quality of the comments. To 'quality' I would add 'detail'. It is often a help to read confirmation of one's own conclusions. It has taken me a long time to establish a list of 'favourites' in my head, especially as so much time is taken up with validating and aiming to be objective on behalf of all the many readers.
But I wouldn't have it any other way - it's a delightful dilemma!

There's a lot of hit and miss involved (I've only just realised that's a phrase loaded with spanking double and even treble entendres). I've noticed that in some case one of my stories may be loaded and get little reaction till someone lights on it and comments, which provokes other comments and a whole lot of new readers. Some people comment with enthusiastic praise but don't make the story a favourite. Some stories of mine that were by any measure well-received on old Flaming Cheeks sunk without trace here and vice versa. Moreover, one story may be quite liked by lots of people while another fires a few people with enthusiasm and is loathed by most - yet the second story will probably get more comments and favourites. Finally, comments are not necessarily a sign of admiration: some are critical while others are technical (Yes, you could cheat at chess; why would this man living near Tregaron shop in Swansea instead of Aberystwyth).