The Popularity Algorithm

Problem: What defines how well a story on FimFiction does?

Solution: Many things.

How well a story does on this website is down to a lot of things. Arguably the most important is what occurs in the first couple of hours. If a new story can amass a small collection of likes and favourites quickly then this inspires others who may be browsing to pay particular attention to it at the expense of everything else.

In this scenario, there are three different people.

1. Early Adopters
2. Controversial Adopters
3. Safe Players

The Early Adopters are perhaps the most important if a story is determined to excel. Most of the time, these people will pick up a new story that has received maybe a few views, hasn't received any likes or dislikes, has no comments, and no favourites. In effect, uncharted territory. Making a good first impression is important, which is where the quality of the written description comes in to play. The description should sell the story to the Adopter, and this could be done in several ways.

1. Presenting a well written, well thought out description that gives all of the essential information behind the story
2. Ends on a question which inspires the Adopter to pursue the story in search of an answer
3. May be written in character (usually in the case of first person stories)
4. Demonstrates good skills in Spelling, Grammar, and Punctuation (SPaG)
5. Doesn't ramble and keeps things concise
6. Doesn't make a desperate attempt for likes (ie. open begging)

Should the description be adequate and to a standard that it appeals to the Adopter, then chances are that they will proceed on to read the main story. This could be a quick one shot or it could be the first chapter to a longer story. Whatever it is, it needs to be gripping. Again, quality of writing would be important here. The Adopter should immediately be grabbed by a number of crucial things.

1. The characters (easier if using canonical characters, to an extent)
2. The plot (which should provide enough detail to keep the Adopter interested in these early stages, and inspire further reading)
3. The description (describing an atmosphere or setting is a skill, and doing it well is important)
4. The dialogue (if any, must appear natural and not forced)
5. SPaG

On the assumption that the Adopter likes what they read, they will likely enjoy whatever it is that they've ventured into reading. Upon completion, they will leave a like on the story. Adopters that found the story particularly appealing will favourite, and the more helpful will leave comments detailing what they liked and suggesting potential points for improvement. For a story to do particularly well, it needs a good number of Early Adopters to visit it, and needs a good number of likes. This is where the follower system comes in to play, as once an author gains a good follower base, they will have a small (or potentially large) group of Early Adopters who have already become accustomed to that particular author's work. This means that, as an author's following grows, they have a larger group of Adopters ready to bump up their story so that other Adopters see it and have their interest piqued.

Following this is the second type of person, the Controversial Adopter. This splits into two primary categories: the True Controversial and the Ironic Controversial.

A True Controversial will see a story that has received a number of dislikes (usually possessing either a neutral or negative like:dislike ratio) and decide to pick it up for the sake of seeing whether or not it is really as bad as other Early Adopters make it out to be. There is the potential for the True Controversial (if the story does not live up to any form of logical expectation) to dislike the story. Most often, however, whilst they may dislike it, they will leave helpful, friendly, or just nice comments where others are calling the author a spastic or a retard. These sorts of comments are much more helpful to the author than any form of insult hurled their way, and should be encouraged. There is also the chance for the True Controversial to like what they read, or find something in it that others don't. Often times, they will leave a comment highlighting this factor, in an attempt to make other see what it is they liked in the story, and to give a slight boost in positive reception. This may not always work, but they try nonetheless.

The Ironic Controversial is different. They can do one of two things: find everything they hate in a story that is well received, or find a story that everyone else hates and fling abuse at the author in an attempt to 'help them' or 'benefit the internet'.

Ironic Controversials that find the need to point out every mistake in an otherwise decent story, only to justify disliking it, will either do so genuinely (ie. they genuinely didn't like it and are just expressing their opinion) or do it for the sake of trolling (ie. act like colossal arseholes). One is better than the other, and whilst neither contributes overly to the success of a story, they can contribute to their downfall. Similarly, Ironic Controversials who tell authors who to 'stop writing to save everyone else' contribute nothing and ought to be ignored. Those who are incapable of making a friendly or constructive comment should not be heeded by author nor site user.

Lastly are Safe Players. These make up the bulk of the FimFiction community, and are what ultimately decides a story's success. These are the people that look at the ratings on a story and decide to read it based purely (or at least partially) on the statistics. If a story has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from Early Adopters, then chances are that it will benefit from a huge influx of Safe Players who will big up the story further. If a story receives an array of negative reviews, then they will either steer clear or turn into Ironic Controversials that are there just to throw hate.

So ultimately, what makes a story succeed on FimFiction breaks down into these crucial factors:

1. Quality of SPaG and the story in general
2. The author's popularity (the size of their follower base)
3. Good reviews from Early Adopters
4. A relatively low number of Controversials
5. An amassing of Safe Players that follow the judgements of Early Adopters

Thus we have provided an answer to the question 'what defines how well a story on FimFiction does?' Think about that next time you pick up a new story as an Early Adopter, or as you throw hate as an Ironic Controversial, or as you leave a friendly comment to someone who's maybe getting a hard time.

This is my personal opinion. Naturally there is a lot more that goes into it than I can write here, but this is what I've come up with as a simplified measure. If you don't agree, you can say so, but just don't be a twat about it.