Choice is good.
Ask Gav what he'd charge per hour, I might pay him myself.
The same GQP demanding we move on from January 6th, 2021 is still doing audits of the November 3rd, 2020 election.
Feedback is a critical component of learning. The voting and comment system are the only feedback processes that Lush has in place. It is the price of admission. What's more, knowing that your piece is being voted on forces the author to look at their work critically, and make sure it is the very best it can be before submitting. Having the option to remove this minimal bar seems an open invitation to submit nasty writing. (Mine included, BTW)
I expect a broad spectrum of writing levels and skills on this site. It is tempting for me to just stick to the highest-rated stories, but I like the rough gems that exist in the system as it is, despite some of the wading that needs to be done to get to them.
Just my opinion of course. I am still new, so what do I know ... ;-)
I think having the option either way is a good idea me I like having the option to have people vote on my sotires but here is another idea how about rather than having the option but towards all of your submissions making it when you upload a story to Lush having the option there of whether or not you want to have people leave a comment or voting basically and on/off tab for the box that you can check at time of entry to the site. What do you think?
I have been fortunate in that most of the votes that I've gotten have been very good, but even my best works have been hit with a seemingly randome 2 or 3. Why these votes are cast is a mystery to me because they are never accompanied with an explanation from those who cast it. I have just had to accept that there some people who don't like my writing. Even so, I wouldn't turn off votes any more than I would turn off comments. If I did, how would I know if people enjoyed my work. Heck, as the viewed number just represents hits, I could never even be certain if anyone ever finished one. Under those contitions, I'd probably quit writing altogether. As there is no pay for an amateur like myself, the few votes and comments I recieve are the only return I get for my time.
The votes, along with comments are needed to further the "education" of the author, their learning curve at writing. Keep the voting turned on.
I have had a problem of reading a story and the scoring system not working. Any story I vote on, I also comment on. If there is not comment, for some reason I didn't vote (maybe it wasn't working?)
I have made complaints about it before.
I have seen enough people and even moderators say that they dont give votes below 4 or 5. Well if that's the case then whats the point anyway if basically the only votes people get are pats on the back?
On the other hand I think its good to be able to measure our writing against others, and thats one thing I noticed about the site right off was that the voting was easy to understand. The only problem is that you must really have to suck to score below a 4 average, lol. That means only the worst writers are below a B average? That's messed up but I guess theres not much that can be done about that, really.
So if the votes get turned off it loses something and now its just a bunch of sex stories dumped on a site. There has to be some way to score them or grade them I think but that's just my opinion.
I don't see why anyone would want votes turned off. Everybody on this site votes quite high anyways. I don't think I've ever seen a story at less than 4. I think maybe making the voting out of 10 might add a bit more variety and differentiate between really good and average stories.
I would love that feature if it can be selective per individual story not for all of your stories. I've got some hack that votes all my stuff with 3's as soon as they post and I would turn the voting off on my stuff that's very personal written about special people.
Bunny12
Bunny Rabbits cute and fuzzy they want to love you but they have razor sharp teeth - don't piss them off! From what I hear there are only 2 kinds of votes.
4 and 5 for your friends or just to be nice.
1 2 or 3 if you hate the author.
What a f'd up deal
I think any rational person must, at least to some extent, grade
on a curve. As Alan just said, if a story has a dozen or more straight 5 votes, the voter must know how destructive a single two can be to the overall score. Is it really important enough to the voter to do that to the author? Is the opinion based on a rational thought? As I have never seen such a vote backed by a comment from someone with the balls to put his name on it, I'd say no it's not so important that the voter felt they just had to speak out.
No, like it or not the fact is that there are members who go out of their way to be destructive. At least movie and book critics don't hide in the darkness, unlike some members here.
That's a good point about the strategy of turning the votes off at an opportune time. I'd say, if you turn it off, it wipes out all your votes. You didn't want voting anyway.
You wouldn't be able to lock a story after so many votes, the votes would be wiped and unrecoverable.
Having it on a story to story basis instead of for all your stories might be an idea, I don't know how difficult this is going to be for Gav. I don't know why someone would want it on an individual basis though, unless they knew their story was weak compared to others they've submitted?
I can see something happening though - say a story had quite a few bad scores, an author might decide to turn off voting, scores get wiped, then they turn voting back on again, knowing those low voters are highly unlikely to revisit the same story again. I think something would have to be built in to disallow the option once the initial choice has been made.
I'd have to agree Nicola. My feeling is that, once the votes are wiped, the option would be disabled and voting would be permanently off. That would also disallow being on toplists etc. Mmm, for me it's not worth it.
Maybe to turn the voting on and off for individual stories is should be an option in the submit a story screen and you only get to choose once once it's set and submitted done deal. Like when you check the contest entry box to enter a story in a contest. Does that make sense? I would turn the voting off on some of my true poems that are very personal.
Bunny12
Bunny Rabbits cute and fuzzy they want to love you but they have razor sharp teeth - don't piss them off! 
