What's up with the downvoting?

[KennyCelican]

Someone who got upset by something or was already in a disagreeable disposition feels the need to express it, lash out, and make the world their audience (and a nasty or 1 star review is conveniently easier than actually producing anything).

But silent, consistent, present readers matter more and I think most people intuit enough about people and online culture to be aware of review bombing and not let bad reviews make decisions for them about whether to read or not unless they're substantive and overwhelming in volume.

That first part jives with what I remember from working call centers, where customer feedback correlated more to the customer than to the tech or the service they provided. Like, some customers always left nasty feedback, even when the techs moved heaven and earth and fulfilled every part of their request in way less time than it should have taken, where others would always leave positive feedback, even if the tech totally dropped the ball and took days to fail on every objective metric.

My only problem with the second part is that a lot of visibility is tied to some degree of previous positive attention, and those negative responses can massively handicap something from 'going viral' even briefly. Especially with fictions that have overwhelmingly positive Ratings, a single negative rating can have impact far disproportionate to what a single reader really ought to have. Which might explain why they're doing it if they're looking to 'feel seen', I guess.

 

[Th3Breadnought]

That first part jives with what I remember from working call centers, where customer feedback correlated more to the customer than to the tech or the service they provided. Like, some customers always left nasty feedback, even when the techs moved heaven and earth and fulfilled every part of their request in way less time than it should have taken, where others would always leave positive feedback, even if the tech totally dropped the ball and took days to fail on every objective metric.

My only problem with the second part is that a lot of visibility is tied to some degree of previous positive attention, and those negative responses can massively handicap something from 'going viral' even briefly. Especially with fictions that have overwhelmingly positive Ratings, a single negative rating can have impact far disproportionate to what a single reader really ought to have. Which might explain why they're doing it if they're looking to 'feel seen', I guess.

Hello fellow call center survivor

That's actually a pretty compelling point, even if I think silent consistent readers matter more in the abstract intangible value sense. You're making my thinker box rattle

 

[Anonjohn20]

What's up with people 1-starring your work because they don't like something while not commenting on what it is, they dislike? The way I see it there are a total of 5 stars, so if my work isn't enjoyable but is readable and makes sense, then 2 stars would make more sense right?

Does anyone else get annoyed by people just pissing over the work you've put time and effort in, downvoting without feedback?

Personally, I think it should be mandatory to leave comments with 1 or 5 star reviews. 2-4 can go silently but not the extremes. I don't care (much) THAT they hate it (or love it) just want to know WHY... Or if they're rating ME and not my work...

Look, man, I once gave 3 stars and a positive review to a story, and the author blocked me in retaliation for not giving 5 stars. On two occasions I have given a story 5 stars, and the authors blocked me simply because they probably disagreed with something I said on the forums. There was an occasion that I was going to leave a 4 star rating on a story and found out that the author had blocked me because I had made a comment that her story reminded me of another story I also enjoyed. Demanding feedback when you guys have so much power over ratings and reviews is entitled. Keep in mind the point of ratings and reviews is for consumers to share their opinions on a work with other consumers, and they are constantly hijacked by the pettiest of authors. Readers are allowed to have an opinion. And this is coming from a guy who hands out 5 star ratings like candy. I have given 5 star ratings to stories that objectively might have deserved a 3 or 4, and I have given 3 star ratings to stories that deserved a 2 star rating.

I would be up for requiring a review for every rating, then we could see what is actually justified, one way or another.

Nice.

Disingenuous 5 stars are also the fucking worst BTW

I mean my 5 stars. It is simply that if I loved a story, I was more subjective with it than if I just liked a story or felt neutral about it.

Sadly, this is the innate problem with any reviews. They leave reviews because of a personal preference.

That is not a problem. As long as what is being reviewed is based on the content of the story, then the reviewer has every right to be as objective or subjective with his opinion as he wants. Also, other readers will read the review, and they won't automatically agree; they'll have their own opinions.

 

[KennyCelican]

Hello fellow call center survivor

That's actually a pretty compelling point, even if I think silent consistent readers matter more in the abstract intangible value sense. You're making my thinker box rattle

Yeah, I appreciate the folks who just read and enjoy.

I do think one of the huge advantages of the web novel serial format is feedback, though. So while I appreciate the readers who read and enjoy silently, I get gleefully giddy over even a reliable 'thanks for the chapter'.