Milovana.com

I think this discussion on voting are being blown way out of proportion. First of all, any voting system you have will have weaknesses and flaws. While the Cactusman's manipulation of the votes wasn't the most ethical action, its not like he irreparably damaged the Milovana site. He damaged his credibility but that's about all.

Second, any rating system is going to have its flaws. I'll quote Mark Twain: "There are three types of lies - Lies, damned lies, and statistics." Depending on who is rating the item, it may receive a high or low rating depending on the person's bias and the criteria being use.

Finally, what is the purpose of the rating system and the TOTM/FTOTM in the first place? From my point of view all the rating system does is gauge how your teases are being received by a select group of people. My self image is not going to be damaged if one of my teases is not selected for TOTM or FTOTM or if a tease I write receives a low rating. It's also probably not something I'll put on my resume unless I plan to enter the adult entertainment industry. Nor do I receive any financial gain from a highly rated tease or a TOTM or FTOTM selection. It just adds a little more more motivation and even that is minimal. If the TOTM or FTOTM were done away with, I wouldn't shed too many tears. It's interesting but its not the primary reason I write teases.

Keep the TOTM and FTOTM rating system and realize that the system isn't perfect. Indigo keep writing teases and submitting them for TOTM or FTOTM consideration. Also, Cactusman teases should be considered for TOTM or FTOTM in May.

Indigo wrote:Because the idea of writing them is somewhat ruined for me with the incorporation of voting. If there was no voting, no TOTM, no competition between clearly talented authors, I wouldn't have any problem with it.

The joy of authoring something that others enjoy is ruined with the idea of being compared against other talent.

Indigo wrote:Now that TOTM is over, I need to step away. I'm being admitted to a hospital this afternoon, with some issues.

Ouch, best of luck and speedy recovery!

Indigo wrote:
Three days without sleep, and a perforated ulcer.

And I'm 27.

No wonder you got yourself into a mucking fuddle

Take it slow and get properly better.
Les

You be careful Indy.
Milovana and nurses,
Dangerous mix.

Please can we have a nurse tease or even series from you,
Just for us your real fans.
So we can all keep our peckers up.

Les

Indigo wrote:. Note to self: Excessive NSAIDs - bad plan.

I guess you should also stay away from chastity devices !
(I gather you were not able to sleep because of it...)

Indigo wrote:Thanks! Though, I think I'm the only one with a netbook, and my Droid tethered for internet in this place! The food sucks, and I'm really sick of getting poked, prodded, and x-rayed.

Waiting to see if I need surgery or not. So far, it's looking promising. Note to self: Excessive NSAIDs - bad plan.

I sincerely hope you feel better soon. Take care!

Indigo wrote:Because the idea of writing them is somewhat ruined for me with the incorporation of voting. If there was no voting, no TOTM, no competition between clearly talented authors, I wouldn't have any problem with it.

The joy of authoring something that others enjoy is ruined with the idea of being compared against other talent.

Why don't you just write them under a different account, and request that they not be included in TOTM?

Indigo,

Keep in mind that the rating system MOSTLY not about the authors. Without TOTM, a rating system would still be useful as a blunt but useful way for newcomers to find teases that others have liked, for whatever reason, and also so that users can find their favorites again. I don't think this argument will sway you, but if you say you don't like it being about you as an author, my answer is "It's NOT about you."

But either way:
- I don't fully understand why you don't want to make teases any more.
- I'm ok with the fact that I don't understand it.
- I want you to be ok with fact that I don't understand it.
- If you want to stop participating in a voluntary community in any way, end of story.
- Heal well.
- Thank you for making this site a better place.

Why withdraw the old teases ? They are not in any TOTM competition ?


I'll also copy over a post from the chastity thread as the issues raised byt the other person are quite valid and NOT just about your teases.

1) The votes are cast not just based on the writing, but on the personality of the author. I am pretty sure that if MissJay wrote a crappy tease, it would still get a high rating (and similarly for any female author). Does this mean girls should be taken out of TOTM competition. MissJay can sway votes more than Indy (barring outright fake votes from the mods which I'm sure nobody thinks is happening)

2)Indy has pointed out a crucial suboptimality in the TOTM process, where a highly rated tease with low viewcount is judged to be better than a tease with a super high viewcount, but perhaps a lower viewcount. The viewcount needs to be combined with the rating somehow.

Human wrote:2)Indy has pointed out a crucial suboptimality in the TOTM process, where a highly rated tease with low viewcount is judged to be better than a tease with a super high viewcount, but perhaps a lower viewcount. The viewcount needs to be combined with the rating somehow.

I'm sorry, but in my opinion view count means hardly anything. That was something that irked me about flash teases, was the tease of the month nominations were based on view counts. There's two main problems with the idea of giving importance to view counts:

1. View counts increase with time. Post at the beginning of the month, see a higher probability of getting more view counts.
2. Good view count doesn't correlate to a good tease. If anything, it correlates to how interesting its listing is on the list, how many people the subject of the tease appeals to, whether or not it's a sequel to a previous tease, etc. If you go through the teases, you can see this in the numbers. Tease for girls get fewer views, teases that are in a series get progressively fewer views as the series goes on, etc. These are all things that shouldn't matter for TOTM nominations.

Indy, I think you should just exempt yourself from tease of the month. That seems to be your main problem, being pitted against other users in the TOTM vote. So why not continue writing teases, and just exclude yourself when it comes to nominations? Any other user could ask this, and I'm sure whoever is running TOTM at the time wouldn't mind.

As far as not wanting people to rate your teases in general... I agree completely with camel. The voting system of x/5 stars is for the users. It enables them to find or sort teases that the masses like. It has less to do with "well this tease is definitively better than that tease since it has a higher rating," and it's more about "well more people enjoyed this tease more than that one."

At the risk of sounding harsh, I hate to break this to you Indy; but no matter what you do in life, you're going to be compared with something. Is it fair? I don't know. Your boss is going to compare you to someone else. Your co-workers are going to compare you to someone else. Your lover is going to probably compare you to someone else. If you write or create something, its probably going to be compared with something else - like it or not. Maybe you're self employed so you don't have to worry about that issue. However, even if you're self-employed, your customers are going to compare you to something.

My recommendation is make peace with yourself and do what you feel is right. If you believe withdrawing your old teases is the right thing to do then so be it. However, no matter what you do, someone will tell you you're not doing the right thing. If you try to satisfy everyone - you'll satisfy no one. There's a lot of malcontents in the world who do nothing but complain. They find fault with everything and don't enjoy life.

As for the person who emailed you and complained that his/her tease did not make it into the TOTM I have this to say: If you're identity is based on getting into TOTM, you need to get a new life.

In addition, even if you change the voting system, someone's going to complain about it.

My question is, how does withdrawing your teases and ceasing to write teases going to reconcile your values/beliefs/life?

Indigo wrote:If you're making a suggestion, I'm all ears! Also, there's been a topic started about overhauling the TOTM, I'd suggest a post there.

As for my withdrawing my old teases, as I said, I don't like the idea of being compared with other writers/authors. That has to do with teases being voted on in general, not just the TOTM.

I'm sorry, but I've made my decision.