My perception of how little to value the likes may be colored by the fact that some of my favorite stories have chapters that sit with 1-3 likes forever. If I judged things by likes, I wouldn't think those were worth reading or contributing to. If anything, I'm glad the likes are at the bottom of the page so my decision to read a story or chapter isn't colored by that before I start in; I'd have missed a lot of great stuff. Of course, on pc rather than mobile, the likes do display beforehand in the story map (not that I'm complaining about that useful feature). Funnily enough, I'm opposite when it comes to viewing porn videos. Those I use the number of likes on religiously to decide whether it's worth my time to check it out. Sorry, porn video creators.
I'd like to say they aren't that important to me, and I try not to focus on them too much versus comments which I find much more helpful. Since my story has several different threads, some of them do get much more likes than others. If I was focusing solely on that I'd just write the one which gets a lot more than the others, probably because people on this site enjoy that content (the Futa route). As it stands, I'm mainly writing for myself and because I enjoy creating the story, so I try to spend time equally on all of them, even the less popular ones and make sure content is added. I know they all have their dedicated readers based on who's liking them, which does help motivate me, as do comments especially. That said, it does worry me a little if it looks like a particular chapter is getting much less likes than the preceding ones in that thread, but they usually even out in the end once enough time has passed.
Threads are naturally going to get less likes as they go on, people leaving the site, forgetting about the story, or just getting lazy and not liking. Also some types of chapters may be more likely to get likes than others for example ones with sex scenes or maybe just a certain character. Some readers also tend to read a arc, like a bunch then wait for a couple months for more than one or two chapters to be added before reading it again. As a professional reader here I really don't place overly much value on liking , sometimes I'll block like everything in a story because I don't want a author to abandon it, sometimes I just won't like at all because I am lazy and on my phone reading. And other times I'll like a chapter just because the concept of it gave me good ideas for material or fantasies but the actual chapter honestly is not the best written. I do try to comment on stories I particularly like though and I know for many authors they really like it but I am pretty sure most people don't even think about commenting and its not really implemented in the best way either.
My favorite part of getting likes is when a long string of them appear from a single reader, giving me a snapshot of the choices that person is making through the story. I end up refreshing in suspense to see which branch they will choose next.
this! I greatly enjoy seeing what paths readers go down, especially when they like a few different parts of the story. very good comment as perhaps the ultimate 'ask', a feature that enables us to track readers (with their consent) when they simply view story branches would be also phenomenal.
I've found likes and comments help motivate me to write. At first, I didn't think it'd be a big deal but every time I logon, if I get a notification of a like or comment it makes me feel appreciated.
So, I've got a mixed bag of nuts on this. On one hand, I'm going to write what I want to write, and hope that other people will enjoy reading it as well. On the other hand, if I didn't get likes when I first started, I would have quit completely by now. I will still look at the number of likes per chapter, relative to alot of other stories and find myself grumbling in envy, but I remind myself this isn't a competition.
The worst are the stories where it's just a giant list of names (especially of female celebrities) with each page getting dozens of likes for no actual content.
Likes are an interesting indicator of readers' interests, but most of the stuff I like best that I've written I've had fewer likes for, and I'll keep going anyway. Comments are better as has been said. In general I've noticed that early chapters and those with the most "action" get the most likes, but anything with depth or plot build up tends to be as well liked as the proverbial ginger haired step child, so I'll carry on writing what I like, and if anyone else happens to like it too, great.
Having just started writing here, I'll second this. Partly my reasoning is that — along with interactivity being awesome — I've found myself far more likely to favorite things than 'like' them now that I have an account. I'm sure that I'll improve my behavior and like stuff more often going forward, but currently my brain's like 'favorite = update notifications, and only needs to be done once/story', while 'like = +1 to an author, but it's something you have to do while between chapters and that's kinda clunky'. Going back and hitting favorite for a story after enjoying it is far simpler, basically. That said, it's neat to see what people have decided they liked more than other stuff.
As interesting as the like feature is, I don't get a lot of information from it, since everyone uses it in different ways. Some of my readers like every chapter, which... okay, yeah, it can be fun to wake up to see that a new reader found it and liked every chapter overnight, but it doesn't sway my decision with what chapters to write when everything gets a like! Then I have readers that do like the particular paths that have kinks and such that they enjoy. But I also have situations like... I wrote a path that was pretty dark for my story, there were like 6-7 chapters that progressed before resolving with another chapter. Those middle chapters get very few, if any, likes. But the resolution got a lot of likes! But I wouldn't have known if it weren't for comments and messages saying that readers worried for the safety of one of my characters, and when she was okay in the end, they were relieved. Which... aww, that's sweet! I think that's a big compliment for the character's development. But then I wouldn't have really understood what was happening without those comments, I just would've thought everyone hated those chapters because of how I wrote, but it was more that the ordeal was necessary to set up that well-liked resolution. (...maybe they also do actually hate the chapters too. I can't really be sure. But they definitely read them to understand the resolution!) Anyway, deciphering likes for what I'm going to do with branches is definitely not as easy as comments, but comments are so much rarer to come by. If I wanted more useful one-click feedback, what would maybe be interesting is a 'vote', where readers could cast maybe one, or just a handful, of votes, on what path they'd like to see more of in a story. But just about any decisions beyond just what I felt like that day for adding new content come from comments.
"Deciphering likes" is such a great way to put it, it's exactly what I'm doing half the time hahaha (sob). I tend to do one branch at a time so I don't use likes as a guide for developments though.
I don't really have any system for making sense of likes as others have. I am more likely to keep adding to a story if there are more likes though. If I get none or just one or two I assume no one is liking what I have written.
Sometimes I think this, as well, but I'm of the mindset that you need to put in a fair amount of effort before receiving attention. Waiting for feedback before you've got a significant amount of content down can be a catch-22. Readers are more attracted to a story if they see it's 15 chapters deep, or if they've noticed it on the homepage several times.
I put together a story (https://chyoa.com/story/Break-the-4th-wall.29576) designed to be as collaborative as I could make it. It doesn't have an awful lot of likes, but I've managed to get at least 18 different authors contributing, which I'm chuffed to bits with! I feel like each new writer is worth a lot of likes.
The first story I wrote had a decent amount of comments but my more recent has gotten literally none I have yet to decipher why yet. Maybe my I am new message helped with that one not sure. One of my comments was from someone commenting on my use of German as another language so maybe they commented because it made them feel knowledgeable. It also had more likes which I think is because of the characters and time. My current Character is an ass which might not help as well as my previous one being more romantic.
There are some many possible reasons for people to leave or not a comment. Personally, if I just want to say "good job" to the writer, I usually just give a like, unless I have a specific reason. So most of the times I end up commenting when either I have a question for the author or when I want to criticize something. There's a third, less common option. It's when I feel so engaged and involved with the story plot that I want to discuss it with the author and the other readers. That is to say in 90% of the cases I push like for likes and comment only when I dislike, and I'm inclined to think most have a similar behaviour.
I know it shouldn't be, but 'Likes' feel good and are a confidence boost for me. But also Comments, Favorites, and even Views feel good. As someone who has struggled with finishing a story (erotic and non), having some instant feedback on whether you are writing something worthwhile or interesting is nice and motivates me to write on. This as opposed to spending time writing a whole story or novel and THEN finding out no one is a fan. At least here you can fail (or succeed) quickly and then adjust accordingly.
