Story authors

All there in the subject.

I'm pretty sure it's counting every click and not unique views. Which is great for my self esteem, but not so much for getting an accurate number of readers visiting my stories.

Is this intentional or are there any plans to make it so only unique views are counted?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

I've often wondered the same thing.

It's hard to believe there are all these stories that have 75,000 views but only 10 likes and 1-2 comments. Either the views are distorted in some manner, this is the most unengaged community or the stories simply suck that bad.

I don’t think there’s a relationship between views and quality. I really find that the number of likes really gives a great notion of the quality. Sometimes that aligns with number of views, and sometimes it doesn’t.

From what I have observed over my time here, is that one click on the story (one page load) is one view. Stories with multiple chapters will collect multiple 'views' as they read each subsequent part. (Each page load within the story is one view) Youtube used to count views similar to this many years ago, but some users abused it.

FF works similar in that sense...though I don't believe there are any or many users who attempt to unnaturally boost their numbers by padding views. I would not be surprised if has happened before. The "Likes" system is supposed to gauge "quality" of a story. (And in my opinion should have more weight in the algorithm)

Additionally, non-users/guests count to views, further inflating the counts, as thousands of users likely browse here with the intent of never making an account in the first place.

In a way, the current system favors popularity than quality as a fraction of a story's traffic is actually from users who are able to even like the story. On top of that some will go back and reread parts for their enjoyment, and the view numbers quickly add up despite lower unique users.

There are several problems.

1. The view count seems to influence how high the likelihood is for more people to stumble upon the story (it will get a higher search ranking). So people might be incentivized to fake high views by placing a paperweight on the F5 button.

2. Multi-page stories are heavily favored by the algorithms. Besides this, it also increases viewer count, as each chapter adds another view to the statistics. Therefore breaking up a story into very short segments to have as many pages as possible, drastically increases visibility.

I can feel their effects in my own stories. My recent story has a relatively high amount of likes relative to the number of views (I tried to write in a more literary style, it seems people appreciate it - given they stumble upon it at all), while a few other stories posted in roughly the same time period have no grammar, no plot, but have a number of short chapters - and therefore have orders of magnitude more viewers - and have barely any likes. Still, they get much more visibility.

I guess it's also my fault for liking to write short, self-consistent stories, each with their own characters and themes, instead of a long one.
Sadly, these types of stores I like to write are HEAVILY discouraged by the algorithms.

I agree wholeheartedly.

I too, enjoy writing WG stories with a narrative in mind. I take pleasure in setting the story up so the character(s) weight gain can be believable, rather than "I wanna/dreamed be fat now" and then proceed to gain weight quickly.

Unfortunately, the latter is what the readers here at FF want more. Not to rag on that concept, as it gets straight to the point. (And is what people want)

If a user posts a story that gets updated over time, and doesn't make the character gain immediately, then it will quickly lose popularity and thus the algorithm will push the story down. So, even if the story eventually gets to the gaining, the 'age' of it will be discriminated against it by the algorithm.

Example of how the story section works:

(All stories are posted at the same time)

Story 1: A incomplete story with 5 chapters/pages uploaded immediately. This story has short chapters/pages and character(s) begin gaining immediately to different progression levels. Story 1 won't be updated for a week, (or ever). BUT, when it does, its another 5 short pages.

Story 2: A incomplete story with 2 full, well written chapters. Character(s) hasn't started to gain just yet, but plans to. Story 2 will have updates over time, once or twice a week.

Story 3: A "complete" story that is written with 10 short speedwritten chapters/pages. Character(s) will proceed through all the stages until the end very quickly without much detail or background. Story 3 won't be updated.

In this situation, the immediate popularity victor will be Story 3, with Story 1 a close second. (Depending on quality.) Story 2 usually will gather curious readers, but will quickly lose traction as it seems 'incomplete'.

Fast forward a week, and Story 3 is still at the top. Story 1 is close second as the major update will gather new likes, readers and rereaders. Story 2 will have updated once or twice with one or two chapters, but doesnt see the same readership because it isn't as 'fast paced' as the other two. This story has the character gaining slightly.

One more week passes, and Story 1 overtakes story 3 in popularity as it nears the end of the character(s) gaining. 1 is almost complete with one more major update. Story 3 is quickly losing steam because the algorithm discriminates age of story and the lack of updates. Story 2 has faded out of the top group due to the story's pacing. This Only fans will read it or users looking for new stories. Progress wise, the character has gained some weight.

On the third week, Story 3 is out of the top group but just slightly. Dethroned by similar NEW Story 3s and Story 1s. The Original Story 1 is still up there because the story is updated with final gains. Story 2 is has faded further away, and despite the character gaining a decent amount, and written well, the age and popularity make it hard to be seen by typical users.

Hopefully this little scenario will help anyone who are trying to find a good way to release their story.

The take away from this: Complete your story (or a large chunk of it) then post. Do not post one or two, then slowly update. Without quick consistent updates, or large multichapter updates, the story will fall down in the section.

Yes, you are right, according to the recent changes. In the past a story was more visible if it was updated slowly, one chapter at a time.
I should have waited with my recent story until it was completely finished. Actually it is 99% finished, but there are parts I'm still doing some finishing about, but I couldn't wait and posted the first 1/3 of it. Next time I'll wait until it's completely finished.

Glad to help

I comment on this sorta stuff because I care about this site. If you've barely posted your recent story, you can just delete it and repost it with the additional chapters. Some users have already done that anyways. But, you do you. As for me, I'm waiting for my story to cook a little more before presenting it here.

I just wish they'd redesign the stories section... it's interface is so antiquated and makes finding diamonds in the rough impossible.