Apr
28th
2014
Okay, Seriously? · 1:18am Apr 28th, 2014
Magnificent Soul, a Dark Souls 2 crossover, is now at the top of the Featured Box after less than twenty-four hours, and with only two chapters, while Pony Souls, which has more views, upvotes, and last I checked, favorites, can't even make it to the popular stories list.
So what the hell am I doing wrong?!
Are my story ideas too simple? Too complex? Do all of my descriptions make me sound like an asshole? Do people just not like my name? Am I unaware of some secret advertising group on the site?
I must be doing something wrong, here, because I've seen stories of the same type as both my other stories make it up there, too.
So what am I fucking up, here? Can anyone tell me? Does anyone even know?!
this has nothing to do with the tagged story but ive only read stolen minds
Favorites don't matter in the featured box. And maybe the mods just haven't noticed? Ask Knighty or whoever the buck is modding these days
It's also worth noting that the time in which those likes/views/favorites were gathered also factors heavily into this.
A story getting a hundred likes in an hour will be more likely to get to the box than one with two hundred in six weeks.
It's just the box going "Hoy goyz! This story's getting all kinds of attention right now! Look at it!"
Yours just isn't drawing enough eyes in a short enough time.
A car going fifty miles over the speed limit for five minutes is more likely to attract the cops than one going one mile above for five hours. It's not really something you have much control over. Just keep on truckin'.
I'd say Lord Destrustor has nailed it. The secret is for a story to get a massive number of upvotes in a short amount of time. Favorites don't matter. Total number of upvotes don't matter. If it gets a lot of upvotes in a short amount of time, that's what's going to get it in the Featured Box.
Also, something I've noticed is that after it gets in the Featured Box once, whenever a new chapter is written, it's probably going to get featured again. Maybe that could help you somehow?
Well your current one made it!
I honestly have no idea how the feature box works anymore. I have been keeping a careful eye, and it confuses me. There are stories which get a huge number of upvotes in a short time that are passed up by stories posted at the same time but with a smaller number of upvotes / a huge proportion of dislikes.
I think getting lots of likes/favs is only part of it. A lot of it is also down to sheer luck, as a story needs to gain 'heat' at exactly the same time as one of the stories in the featured box falls out. Heck, the last stories by Short Skirts and Pen Stroke didn't make the featured box, and they have an army of fans who instantly upvote their stuff to huge numbers really quick.
Still, at least stories in it move quickly. It used to be that when a story was in the box it'd stay there for a week. There's a brisk turnaround now which is good.
You didn't say "PRAISE THE SUN" enough.
I'm pretty sure that the 'heat' system only ever looks at views over time. Right now I see a story in the box called 'Executioner One'. 705 views total, but it just went from three views a day to 27. Not much overal, but that's a big percentage difference. (900% change?)
Well, it's just conjecture. The workings of the featured box are mysterious. I am pretty sure that only newly-posted fics can make it above the bottom three slots. Also, the 'popular' box is randomized each time the page loads. There's no way to tell 'up' or 'down' with that one.
Anyways, your LOHAV fic is in the top slot now, and I think I'll go have a read.