Story authors

I agree. The story section seems to favor this sort of behavior, pushing down other stories and making it hard for users to discover them.

The way I think the algorithm works, is that it boosts the promotion of new (less than a couple weeks old) stories. (or whenever they update with new chapters.)

Meanwhile, older but still updating stories get pushed down into obscurity. I've followed many long running stories. They disappear from the top of the stories section because of 'incredibly short' new stories take over.

It's discouraging to the people who put time and effort in creating a good story. Glad I'm not the only one who has noticed this recently.

Agreed.And Another problem is that we can only hit like one time. It's a very illogical way to proceed.

The reason for the "Like Farming" is to reach the top of the 'Authors' tab of the stories section. (And gain more followers) It's unfortunate that F.F. promotes that behavior, causing its users to take advantage of how it works, rather than creating a memorable narrative.

Like I mentioned before, some users post stories that are incredibly short/unfinished which is unfufilling. They set up the "every X likes = new chapter" rule until the the cow has been milked, moving onto a new story. This system is done to keep all of the author's works at the top.

It clutters up the Stories section and also makes the power of pressing like seem more and more worthless. The stories that I appreciate are buried beneath due to the 'like for new chapter'.

I am simply happy people share the same sentiment I have, and hope our criticism will get to the admins to modify the algorithms. Or change the system altogether.

Guys.

Most of the stories on FF are trash. The fact that the authors are holding the progress until they get a number of likes proves that the writers are just as good as the stories they write.

Support people who finish their work. Anyone else can just be ignored.

I don't get why anyone would be that upset over FF stories, you can find better stories on Deviant Art if you look, I bet.

I agree with your post. But on D.A. there are some amazing stories... and not so good ones. Both sites have their caveats, and you have to seach for the diamond in the rough.

That being said, some of my favorite stories are from this site. And in grand scheme of things, a good piece of work will get popular. But, when it's surrounded by 'low effort' ones, it tends to get blended in and buried with them.

I think the whole point of this is to make people aware of this behavior. It's up to them (or admins) to determine if the user's content is worth promoting. Putting a arbitrary "like requirement" artificially undermines what's 'popular' and some users in this community express their frustrations.

As for me, I will simply have to adapt to these tactics and either post/update consistantly to keep it visible on the stories page or simply not post here at all. (The latter I prefer not to do.)

This ^^^^ is what concerns me with what is going on. It would be a shame to see our really GOOD authors abandon FF out of frustration because the parade of trash is drowning them out.

@fatchance,

I empathize with you, as I'd hate good authors leave/lose interest too. The sad part is, some will see and read those 'popular' low effort stories and think what are they doing wrong. They see the algorithm manipulation that is 'like farming/restricting' and want to potentially copy the tactic and writing style too, posting rushed content and diluting the pool.

I have no ill will against writers that can't punctuate correctly. (Nobody's perfect, I constantly correct myself) In fact, one of my favorite stories here is made by a first time writer. The difference is, you can tell he put a lot of thought and effort into it. It was once the most popular story on F.F until the algorithm stopped favoring it after not updating for some time despite its popularity. It is the simple fact - you stop updating for a couple of days, tell your story goodbye to the visible parts of the story section. It's that fast paced now. That is why it's best to cut your story in chunks and update it daily.

I could go on and on about how strange the story section behaves. (Among other bugs that had affect me and my creations throughout the months.)

Overall I want to see this site improve and evolve. I don't want to leave it either, I remember the positive comments and support from my first story posted here. But, its the way the cookie crumbles. I doubt things will really change until those type of people get bored and quit posting.

Yep, I notice that the many of the new stories have chapters that are clearly sized to the minimum characters, rather than sized to match an "episode". I haven't noticed them stopping min WORD yet, but I suppose I may have missed it.

We still have some great authors writing some excellent stories. It just bothers me that we have established a reward system that favors quickly written superficial story segments over well written stories.

One thing that occurs to me, is that seen from another perspective, perhaps it makes sense. The "like farming" and short story segments may result in more site visits, equating to more potential advertising revenue for the site.

Premium stories that may or may not be 'premium" are intended to increase paid subscriptions. So perhaps all of this is intentional to maximize revenue from the site from both memberships and 'clicks" rather than an entirely accidental side effect. After all, the bills need to be paid!

This is an interesting subject and something I hadn't even considered. I've got a few stories on the boil, some one and done, others that will need to be split into chapters. Will be interesting to see how the algorithms treat them.🤔🤔🤔

Just wanted to respond to this.

The recommended search, which is the default search until you change your search parameters, is actually in favour of well written stories. We have designed it this way to promote good quality stories so they can get to the top of the listings.

There are several things that factor in when the recommended search displays.

* Number of likes: This is factored in because members will like content that is well written.

*Number of chapters: Longer stories mean that the author has taken the time to develop the characters and plot making It a more interesting read.

*Thumbnail and description: Again this is about the time and care spent on the story. If the author can be bothered to fill these sections out correctly we hope that time and care has been taken on the main text itself.

* Newness:This is also considered so that there is a rotation of stories. That are still of good quality... as it includes the other points above too. We don't want a stagnant page that only shows the top stories that people have already read. There are always new and upcoming authors that should be showcased!

Of course everyone of our members apply different qualities to stories that make them interesting to them personally. Maybe it's the writing style, a particular author your following, a certain scenario may take your fancy or a particular character role. Whatever it is, you can use the search function to find stories that fit your preference.

We try to keep things diverse and don't want the stories section to become stagnant. Obviously algorithms are never perfect but there has been a lot of thought put into how this works. However, if you do have any bright idea's on how to improve this section, please send them our way!