[ SECRET POST #2821 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2821 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


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02.
[Twin Peaks]


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03.
[Star Trek]


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04.
[Fall Out Boy]


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05.
[Monster]


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06.
[Left 4 Dead 2/Grand Theft Auto 5]


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07.
[Cabin Pressure]


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08.
[Quantum Leap]


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09.
[Amy Winehouse]

















Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 036 secrets from Secret Submission Post #403.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I'd never admit this un-anon because people can be super judgmental about it...but I use kudos as a measure of whether I "should" read a fic, and I sorta wish that AO3 had an easy hits-to-kudos ratio that I could sort by. :/

(secret that I'm too lazy to make an actual secret about)

[(Anonymous)]

What do you consider a good hits-to-kudos ratio?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm curious, too, especially since you can read it multiple times (up the hit count), but only give kudos once...

[akacat]

For a relatively new, single chapter fic, I hope to find a 1 kudo per 10 hits ratio.

The older it is or the more chapters it has, the harder that is to gauge, of course.

[(Anonymous)]

Dude, I don't think I've ever seen a fic with that amazing of a ratio. Just doesn't happen, at least not in any of the hundreds of fandoms I'm into.

[(Anonymous)]

Okay, glad I'm not the only one who finds that 1:10 ratio preposterous. I'm going through some of my favourite fics, the popular highly read ones, and even their ratios are closer to 25-30 kudos/hits-- and they aren't even all that kinky or scandalous. One is a total curtains sweet fic and it was at 28.

[(Anonymous)]

I do agree that once a fic becomes more popular/highly-read, it's more likely to get more casual readers who might not know/care to kudos, or who might just click to check it out but not finish - so then the ratio tends to increase. 20-25 is still a decent "popular" ratio, imo.

[akacat]

Once it's popular and highly read the ratio is bound to drop, just because some of the hits are repeat readers who can't re-kudos. So once the # of hits reaches a certain threshold, I just assume it's popular and worth checking out.

[akacat]

I've actually seen even better ratios than that. Especially in Cabin Pressure. I think the scarcity of the fic makes people more likely to hand out Kudos, and something about the source material seems to make that fandom quite a bit more welcoming and encouraging in general.

[(Anonymous)]

OP

Since I've already outed myself as being way too into kudos...

I read in some pretty big fandoms, so things would be different if you were in a smaller fandom. But for me, ~10 and less is generally excellent. Up to 20 is also good as well, and tends to be about average for a decent fic. I've also read very well-written fics that were a bit kinky and ended up with a 30-40 hits/kudos ratio, so I know that it's not always a reliable metric to use - but pretty much all the 50-100 fics I've decided to try anyway (for a particular pairing or kink or whatever) have not been worth my time.

Obviously there are other factors that could skew this - a many-chaptered WiP gets repeated hits from people looking at the newest chapter, but those people may only be able to leave one kudos. People might go back and reread a favorite story. Or if a fic is in a particular genre/pairing/niche that appeals to a certain crowd, readers might be more generous with something that hits their likes (or the reader base is already biased because the majority of hits come from people who are really interested in or partial to the subject material).

Of course, despite all this, I admit to reading many fics that don't meet my "kudos criteria" just because they have my OTP or kink.

[(Anonymous)]

I used to think that a high comment count was a better indicator of quality than kudos, just because it requires more effort of the reader (who presumably is especially moved by the fic).

However, I've noticed that comment counts have fallen dramatically across all the fandoms I read, even on those fics that are truly outstanding. So unless the fic is old enough to have accumulated comments back when people were more generous in leaving them... that doesn't count for much, either.

Add to that the fact that a mediocre fic that pushes all the right fandom buttons (juggernaut pairing + fluff or PWP or whatever the fandom in question skews towards) will have a high kudos count, and many a terrific "niche" fic won't, and - well, it's a crap shoot.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, I agree on general laziness/apathy being more prevalent now. And I think the comment count is also easily skewed because sometimes authors reply to their comments (or they/others end up in a long comment-discussion).