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Hi, probably the wrong forum, but hey I'm new. Someone please tell me, what are 'total hits' listed next to the stories?. What are 'hits?' Thanks in advance!!
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Hits
Hits are times people opened the story.
- Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Hits and misses
"Hits are times people opened the story."
Which includes every time someone reads any of the comments on that story. The more comments a story gets, and the more people read those comments, the higher the hit numbers go.
In short, the number of hits is not an accurate reflection of the number of times the story has actually been read.
Amelia
"Reading rots the mind." - Uncle Analdas
"Reading rots the mind." - Uncle Analdas
Author Hits
... which includes, of course, when the author goes to read the comments others have placed. Also, it's impossible to add a story and add it to an outline without adding two hits in the process, and if I find an error and make a quick edit to fix it, that's unavoidably another two hits (used to be one when authors had an Edit link on the summary block on the front page)
But I'll have you know I feel guilty about every one of these hits to my own stories. :-)
Seriously though, that would amount to just a few; and when hit counts go up into *hundreds*, and the same distorting factors apply to everyone's stories, as a relative mark of popularity it probably is useful. Unless someone's cheating... or unless an old old story with thousands of old hits is pushed back to the front page. :-P
Which is how I know my story's dropping off in popularity as time goes on. :-(
Hits means how popular
Even though it is not an accurate count of how many people actually read your story. It is an accurate count on how many people opened it and felt strongly enough about it to keep track of who and what was said in the comments.
It is an accurate measure of how popular a story is, or was, and how strongly people felt about it. Do not just dismiss the hit counts as out of hand and almost meaningless because they are far from that!
Many stories have a lot of comments, but never reach the hit counts other stories have. The reason is as Amelia R stated. It includes the number of people that are following the comments as well. If people are that interested in following the comments for that story, it deserves the count it receives.
Just a Guest Reader with a humble opinion
Means very little
A hit count is the number of times somebody clicked on a story, for ANY reason. This includes mistakes. So the number only has a vague relation to a story's popularity. A popular story might have numerous return visits by readers, on the other hand, it might be downloaded to the reader's harddrive and so they never come back even though they reread the story a dozen times.
They know they can survive
Sorry Withheld, but I disagree with you.
How many mistaken hits can one story receive? Not many, and as for people downloading and or printing out a story, at least it was registered as a hit once. What other reasons can someone click on a story and pass up on reading it, especially if it has the Keywords and categories clearly listed at the top?
No, maybe for a new author people will read a bit and then just stop reading, and maybe for a new author their style is just wrong for some readers.
When it comes to established authors and ones the readers know their styles and subject matter, none of your arguments holds much weight.
I still say that hit counts matter a lot more than meaningless numbers to readers who don't really care one way or the other. To the authors they mean a bit more, but are not used as a golden rule.
A story that has 300 hits versus a story that has over 3,000 hits does mean something! Are the hit numbers that meaningless that they should just be ignored?
An author who's stories receive over a 1,000 hits per story on average, is this meaningless? I don't think so, I think it means that the author is a popular one and many people enjoy reading their work.
Now if that same author starts receiving less than 300 hits per story on average for their new writings, that tells them something. Hit counts are more useful than most people think.
I believe it is a more personal thing aimed for the authors benefit than any other reasons. You may feel they are not meaningful, but as a general rule, they mean more than you think to some other people.
Just a Guest Readers Humble Opinion
On Rainy Thursday Nights
The whole readership thing as reflected by "hits" is vexing to me. Every comment makes some sense to me so I suppose that a bit of it all comes into play. I have efforts here that languish in the hundreds and others well beyond 3000. Oddly, I hold them all equally valuable to me. I think my best advice to myself is not to think about this too much as I try to spin my little tales. While I love to see that a story gets read, it really is not the reason it gets written, but I thank you if and when you do read one.
Gwen
Gwen Lavyril
Gwen Lavyril
What does it say?
Since I'm fairly new at the writing thing I've thought a lot about HITS. I mean as a newbie just posting the story is nerve racking. "Do they like it?" "Did I mess this up?" How could I have improved this?"
All you have to go by is the number of hits and the comments. Comments are good because they do answer some of the above questions. What do HITS do? I have some stories that I really enjoyed writing but got very few hits. Why?
There are two answers I've come up with: the Tag line and the preview. The tag line is just saying what kind of elements are in the story. Some pay attention to this and some don't. The preview demonstrates how good are you at attracting interest with just a few lines. If these don't HOOK a reader it doesn't matter how good your story may be, it won't get read.
Then you have the "inflation" mentioned by others and the author reading the comments. Hits are a clue but doesn't make up for those oh so valuable comments. I personally average about one comment per every 200 to 300 hits. Sometimes more and sometimes less.
That is why even if I don't have much to say I try and leave some sort of comment! Just my point of view everyone!
Hugs!
grover
# of Hits Doesn’t Mean Squat
My stories have just gone by a milestone, in that they’ve collected a total of over 50,000 hits on BCTS. Of course, they’ve had many times that number on Crystal’s and I assume on FM, although FM doesn’t show a hit count. (It’s my understanding narcissistic authors were using bandwidth raising the hit count on their own stories. Too bad the board didn’t have a convenient Nemesis.)
I totally reject the theory that the number of hits is an indication of quality.
Longer stories will have a greater number of hit because readers will come back to them several times to finish them.
Stories that have certain subject matter will attract more readers. If you want a lot of hits, write about cheerleaders. People crave light, stroke fiction. If you indicate your story has anything to do with suicide, your hit numbers will be abysmal. "The Big Chill" would have been in the dumper on BC.
Dimelza Cassidy’s story “Mister†is one of the best stories on this site. As of today it has attracted only 625 hits, which is slightly below average, in my experience. I posted a story about two weeks after Dimelza posted her story; it’s posted both here and on Stardust and is called “A Dollar Short.†It’s a short, fun piece that isn’t all that remarkable, but it has attracted nearly twice as many hits as “Mister.†Maybe part of that is because Dimelza posts on FM. I don’t. (Actually I don’t post anywhere as I’m on Hiatus, which is a small island in the Sea of Doldrums.)
One of my best stories has attracted very few readers. Some of my drivel has attracted a large number of hits. As we used to say back in my bong days, there’s NO correlation between hits and quality.
The same can be said for number of comments. Some stories get comments because they’re controversial, and controversial doesn’t always mean good. As Aardvark accurately pointed out, one of my stories was a heavy-handed political screed, yet it attracted a ton of comments. Many comments have absolutely nothing to do with the story, as the thread cascades off into oblivion.
Many, many positive comments are more a product of good ‘ol girls club than they are someone’s honest reaction to the story. Many negative comments are more a product of misguided egos than a desire to accurately provide a critique.
I keep a close eye on the number of hits and comments, for all my stories. Even though I know the math is meaningless, it makes me feel good to think people might be reading what I’ve written. Anything beyond that romantic notion is delusional.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)