I LOVE the newish timeline addition to our accounts. There is only one thing that bothers me personally, and that is since we got it members have more opportunity to figure out who gave them which scores. From comments I have seen, and when talking to friends, it's becoming obvious to me that this is causing some people to get irritated and narky at strangers and friends because people give them scores of 3 and 4 and not 5's every time they write something. If we all did that, it would be a popularity competition and I know that's a subject which has arisen before. Until recently, I've never seen so many votes of 5 since I've been a member here.
Could Lush consider omitting that information from our timelines because I've mainly seen having access to that information is breeding hostility between members. Personally I never score anyone under a four because if someone has enough courage to upload something they wrote, then they deserve something higher than a 3 but that's just my opinion. I certainly wouldn't want someone to give me a score of 5 because they thought I expected it. I'd rather they vote honestly. People seem afraid to do that though.
I totally understand your point, however I haven't seen what I would consider a pattern. Lush has always had a generous voting readership, IMHO.
Personally, I like it. It lets me know when a vote was cast and it's nice to see when someone thought enough to give an opinion even if they didn't feel a need or have time to comment.
Just my opinion
I've seen the same thing Trinket. I don't think I have been victim of it either.
I like having the info too and try to think each person that I now know just votes on my story too. But I have seen others who have gotten mad over a vote they got. I know of one who has just quit voting because they didn't like writers knowing and being able to figure out what they voted.
The only problem that I have is the same as it has always been when a person say votes a 3 when the majority of scores have been at least 4 or 5. Then you get this random 3 and the person doesn't comment to say why. It just leaves you wondering.
Personally, I don't like it. It's too revealing.
We played with the options to even allow people to see who voted what on stories - that didn't end well!
I think it's better this kind of information is hidden, to prevent ill-feeling / revenge voting etc.
Personally, I think that people need to grow a thicker skin. Perhaps the info should be removed, but what people need to realize is that voting is subjective. In all honesty, some folks work is genuinely a 3, but here the story garners a 4 or 5 because someone doesn't want to get offended. I don't get that; some stories don't deserve a 5...
I honestly think that the timeline is great the way it is.
The only thing that would "improve" it, in my opinion, would be if you could see all your comments, wall posts, quotes, scores etc, by clicking a category link at the top of the page (the same as you can click on your newsfeed/profile page - I know that sometimes if there's been a lot of activity on my 'profile' you sometimes have to do quite a bit of scrolling to see who's done what)
With regard to scoring, I just think that it is what it is. We have such a huge membership now that my observation is that the way people vote has changed.
If you want to keep all 5s, then forced commenting is the way to go (although that's not infallible and personally, I generally don't vote in those instances as I prefer it to be my choice, not something foisted on me)
My scores are generally lower now than they used to be (not that I've actually posted anything in a while) I just suck it up now...
If people like what I write, great, if not, that's fine too...
It's all good...
I like the Timeline exactly as it is.
As for as comments to vote or not, that is a good option that each individual member can either turn on or off. I like options.
If you've changed your settings so that it won't show if you've scored a story on Friends Activity then I'd hope that would mean that fact is also hidden from the Timelines - if not, then it should.
The flipside of that setting, along with the setting that hides the stories you've commented on means that I often miss stories enjoyed by friends whose opinions on stories I usually share. I really can't see the point of hiding the fact that you commented on stories - for me it runs against the spirit of the site.
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Why not read some stories instead
NEW! Want a quick read for your coffee break? Why not try this... Flash Erotica: Scrubber It's ok to say "scores shouldn't matter", "people need to grow a thicker skin" etc but the fact remains that a lot of people ARE revenge voting because they know who gave them less than a five. Then the next person passes that on. I can clearly see this is getting very ugly amongst my own friends. WE might think its childish but that's not going to stop people feeling that way. Is it a good idea to keep a dispensible feature and promote ill will amongst some in an online community? In my opinion we should not have to use one or a mixed combination of other features to counteract a new one that adds new problems. My main point is yeah sure the whiners should all grow up and stop being petty, but the fact is, that's not going to happen. As far as some stories deserving higher scores than others, isn't that the decision of the reader? One person might think a story is worth a 3, another might love it so much they give it a 5. Who is right and who is wrong? I'm not having problems at all with revenge scoring or Ill will from other writers but I am watching this problem getting bigger and uglier.
I have been on Lush for over a year now, I also have over 100 stories and one thing I have learned is, you’re never going to make everyone happy. People who are going to get bent out of shape over a three, two or one, needs to just relax.
Yes, we as authors bust our humps to do well writing and to get a low score sucks. But you know what? Oh well. They just have poor taste in writing. Get over it. Does it matter what they think? The more people read it, the score will go back up to five, eventually. As long as people keep scoring.
I just got a two the other day on one of my stories, it had a perfect five. Now it doesn’t, guess what? I don’t care. Why? Because 45 other people thought it was 5 worthy.
People just need to relax. If it is the same butthole who keeps down-scoring, block them! Also, Lush mods do pretty good at staying on top of jerks who down-score too much.
And, I’m with the others, I like knowing who has scored, so I can thank them. So, suck it up, buttercup. Focus on those who DO like your stories.
Everyone seems happy with timelines, but the issue seems to be with scoring, the loss of anonymity and it's knock-on effects.
How about, not showing scores until at least 5 are in? You can see if someone scored you, but you wouldn't know who had awarded what. This retains the anonymity of scores, and as no scores are initially shown, maybe there's less incentive to "jump on a bandwagon" - be that a positive or negative one.