Implemented Top Chapters - only allow a single chapter with the same author+story combination.

A completely unrelated suggestion regarding the list of "Top Chapters" on the front page:

• Currently 6 out of 10 chapters are by neo_kenka and the story Apex Seed.
• Another 2 out of 10 are by Javalar and the story Happy Maid.
• The remaining 2 are by different authors and stories

Of course i do not begrudge neo_kenka and Javalar their successful chapters. But perhaps it would be nice to have some diversity in the list. So I wonder if it would make sense to filter the list and only allow a single chapter with the same author+story combination.

 

I whole heartedly support this sugestion: in no small part because I DO begrudge Neo-Kenka his success with that despicable Rape-Fest...

 

Now 8 out of 10 chapters in the list are from "The Gamer, Chyoa edition" by TheDespaxas! ;-)

 

I give Despaxas credit for being able to take over spots that where mostly Apex Seed but still support changing it or replacing it with something else.

 

Agreed, even if I like the new story a lot better than last time, I'm still in favor of increased diversity.

 

I'm in support of it and I'm the guy with 8/10 of them ^^ ,still it was a great lot of fun managing to do that.

 

What they should be for one story per spot.

Happy Maid Use the schoolgirl's outfit. by Javalar
Game Monster Introduction by Cantalope
Chapter 1 in The Gamer, Chyoa edition.
Chapter 1 in Apex Seed
Chapter 1 in 48 Hours As A Girl
Chapter 1 in The Virgin Heroine
Chapter 1 in A Fantasy Dynasty
Chapter 1 in The Virgin Games
Chapter 1 in My naive mother
Chapter 1 in 1 Big Horny Family: Coming of Age.

 

I believe that Introduction chapters(chapter 1) aren't in the running for top chapters due to a previous suggestion. so it would be more like

Use the schoolgirl's outfit (by Javalar)(in Happy Maid)
Private Tutoring(by TheDespaxas)(in The Gamer, Chyoa Edition)
You, With your hard cock out(by neo_kenka) (in Apex Seed)
Look Around, Maybe there's something useful(by booboob)(in 48 Hours as a Girl)
Offer your cunt to be mounted(by hematoma)(in The Virgin Heroine)
She Blows You(by JohnLocke4) (in Cum Addiction)
Re-introduce yourself... as her biological father(by neo_kenka)(in Absolute Gullibility Syndrome)
Heather's anger vanishes quickly(by dingsdongs)(in Size Matters)
Mind control(by wicker)(in 5 Rings)
Corruption of a housewife(by Luka32)(in The Statue of Jocasta)

I think that's right...I had to go all the way back to page 12 to get out of The Gamer and Apex Seed. So the chapters started to blend together after awhile and I may have missed one.

 

It has been implemented and while I no longer have 8/10 top chapters I still have one and my story still has 3/10.

It looks better that way. (even if I don't count Javalar's chapter as legitimately first, fishing with dynamite is cheating.)

 

Yes, though I think it would be useful to determinate the Top Chapters basing on the recent popularity.

 

You should add that as a new suggestion.

 

added it here

 

I am sad to hear this, and I disagree:

I implemented several "please don't forget to vote if you like a chapter" notes in my stories. I always paid attention to not write a blunt, boring abstract but to somehow incorporate those into the story. Most of them did not gather a lot of extra votes, none of them came even close to what the "schoolgirl"-chapter did.

Whenever I implemented that abstract in my chapters, I always meant it as a general reminder for everybody. In fact, the idea started out of a discussion here on the forums on what we can do to get readers a bit more active. I still think most readers are actually not aware on how rewarding a little vote can be, because it's still one of the very few feedback we get (and personally, I still prefer comments over votes). I never saw this as some kind of personal fishing-for-compliments thing.

While the call to vote might have helped the chapter in the beginning, I think it now gathers votes mostly from being there in top spot #1. People tend to like what other people like. I am pretty sure I could delete it now and the votes trickling in would be the same. I still believe that it does function nicely as a general reminder to people. Once you realize how you skip a great chapter in eager anticipation for the next one without voting for it, you might try to watch yourself more next time. I still, myself, sometimes fall into that trap: The better a chapter is, the quicker I click on the next one. I now often return after finishing a story branch to the chapters before and then belatedly give my thumbs up.

 

To see things my way consider this, if you exclude the intro which often gathers more likes, the best chapter on this story has 25 likes, half of the chapters are between 1 and 6 likes and the rest between 7 and 15 with a few above 20. The chapter sits between a 10 likes and 9 likes chapters and it has 174 likes. If you then notice that it has a large reminder to readers to like chapters, I really think that most of the likes it got are from the message (and then from being on top) rather than for its quality. Not because it is bad, but because I don't think it is nine times better than the other chapters of the story.

I Don't put into question the quality of your writing, I liked a lot some of the things you wrote. I just don't feel this particular chapter deserves to be on top and felt that way long before I even dreamed coming anywhere close to have on on the top list.

This chapter is an anomaly. Maybe without the message it would have gathered 40 or 50 likes because of the quality of it, but I can't imagine it reaching 174 without that. How could 174 people choose to like this chapter but only max 26 to like any other chapter of the same story?

 

I could not agree more with you Javalar. I too have implemented a "Call to Action" headline on a couple of my chapters and it has probably added a few extra votes but nothing earth shattering. And I still get people who only favorite the story without liking a single chapter much more than a new person that likes multiple chapters. To truly get the likes you either have to write a good chapter or have some kind of gimmick that draws them despite your story being so so at best. I would consider the latter to more along the lines of cheating than the former.

 

I understand where you're coming from, but having obviously closely watched how the chapter was rising through the ranks, I still believe that the main push came from being placed in the "top10" section. At least, it was a combination of both. Plus, for a very long time, the chapter actually ended in a cul-de-sac, which obviously made it easier for people to "like" it, instead of skipping eagerly to the next one.

As of now, it is an anomaly, I agree. But I think that is true for a lot of chapters being top ranked. Obviously, Apex seed and Gamer are no helpful examples, because they both managed to dominate the top10 for quite a while with several chapters, but if you look at the top chapter of "48 hour as a girl", that one is somewhat of an anomaly as well, because it has gathered 70+ votes, whereas the rest of the story mostly has 5-20 votes, and a few chapters have 30-40 votes.

The same is true for "Offer your cunt to be mounted" from the Virgin Heroine, which has accumulated 80+ votes, while the rest of the great story, being placed with merits among the top10 stories as well, still does not come close. The 3 branches following that chapter get 26, 12 and 8 votes respectively, and it stays at that level. Certainly this single chapter is not so much better than a lot of other ones in that story.

I am not saying that the reminder and the end did not have any effect at all. It certainly did. But I think quite a few other factors have played into this as well. And as I said, there are around half a dozen other call-to-action notes in other chapters, and they did not propell those chapters to new heights. Maybe the tone and style of this particular call to action was especially successful and clever, but if that is the case, I have apparently failed being able to duplicate this, so you could call that particular paragraph "good writing" as well.

Personally, I actually have still no real clue on why some great chapters here on CHYOA gather votes and others just as great don't.

 

The one from 48h as a girl has a message asking for likes at the end .

The one from virgin heroine, which was already in the top stories has 55 likes, is an ending and is following a 31 likes chapter.

I Still have little idea of why my story gathered as many likes. My bet would be on the fact that I have more than one chapter per day average published on my branch since the story got out without more than two days break once or twice.

But you can't point at two chapters with a lot more likes than the rest of their stories and being in the top ten and then rule the fact that they explicitly ask readers to hit the like button as a coincidence.

LIke I said earlier, I don't say that your chapter isn't good. I just say it isn't "best chapter of the whole site" good. I guess we'll never know, but I will remain convinced that those two chapters wouldn't be there without those messages.

No hard feelings, I just don't like this situation.

 

Has anyone checked, who (what kind of people) actually likes their chapters?
Are they mainly readers or mainly writers?

 

I have some dedicated fans and other than that it seems random.

 

I'd say everything is fair game in love and chyoa likes.

My bunch of disorganized thoughts on this topic:

I too have added these notes to several of my chapters in the story "size matters", and maybe one of those will make it again to the top 10 spot again tomorrow (54 likes at the moment).
So yes it's quite clear to me, that chapters with these kind of notes get an over-proportional amount of likes, that is often not justified compared to other chapters within that same story, and can sometimes easily get twice the amounts of likes compared to the other surrounding chapters in the same branch of the story.

I have to admit, that it feels a little bit like "cheating".
And at the same time i have already felt quite sad and mad, that a simple reminder on a not particularly special chapter, that i have written within a few minutes, can generate more likes than something that is several pages long and where i have worked on for days. Just by putting a little reminder below it. *Facepalm*

But is it really that bad?
I also think that it's just the same with YouTubers. It's pretty standard by now that they ask for likes and subscriptions at the end of their videos. Are they cheating someone? They even might get more advertisement money out of it, because they compete with other channels for the continued attention of the viewers.

So are likes received on these chapters with notes unwarranted?
Is asking to press that "thumbs up" button a bad thing?

Is it unfair to other authors or stories, because it might possibly generate attention to it and the story that is not entirely warranted?

On the topic of "unwarranted" likes. What about a first time author, posting in the currently number one story, listing just a bunch of gaming abilities and generating more likes per chapter than any other author in their position would with their first chapters? ;-)

I don't know. I have no definite answers to these questions.

Another aspect of these appeals for likes: Imho they don't look pretty in the story and disturb the reading flow and immersion.

For me it's mostly readers, and a few writers here and there.