May
29th
2014
I Guess I Won Fimfic.net · 9:57am May 29th, 2014
So, turns out out that Hard Reset is the top story on Fimfic, if you go by their Browse-> Top-> All Time category. Sorry, Hoopy!
Honestly, it's a bit confusing. I mean, I'm proud of the story, but I never expected it to become THIS famous. I consider myself a pretty humble guy, but I'll probably be soaking in this particular achievement for quite a while. Makes me think I should try my hand at non-pony writing too, maybe make a career out of this.
Oh, yeah, Thank you! Thank you all. I'm 4,032 people short of making this happen by myself. I'm not sure how I managed to convince this many of you that I can words good, but I'm glad I did. Keep an eye out for future writing projects!
gratz !
I was about #250, I think. I fell in love with it immediately.
Now it's time to sit back and watch the mass drive-by downvotes by other authors in the top ten who feel threatened by your almighty accomplishment.
The pleasure was ours
Hard Reset was a good story, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself
Though, I will say that the other two in the trilogy blow it out of the water in quality by comparison.
2155456
I've always thought that Stitch > HR > Fate, personally. So you're half right.
Screenshot it for posterity! I did when I hit the top slot for a few hours last weekend. The top rated fic of all time seems to change pretty often; I've seen four different fics in that slot in the last week. It doesn't take many downvotes to change which fic is on top, and I suspect that being in the very topmost slot gets a story attention until it gets a downvote which pushes it down.
But that means more folks get to share in the glory!
Though to be fair, it will be pretty hard to push Hard Reset down much, as it has a huge number of votes; it has been a feature of the top 10 top rated fics for a while now.
2155454
I don't think it is really authors in the top 10; part of it is, I think, just the top fics get a lot of attention.
There may be some drive-by downvoting, of course ("this story doesn't deserve to be #1!") but honestly I suspect a lot of it is just that you end up getting more attention from a broader variety of people, who are less likely to upvote and more likely to downvote because it is less directly pertinent to their interests.
I've voted on most of the stories in the first two pages, though I haven't read a few of them (the Discord story and Mort, in particular, are as yet unread) and I have been responsible for kicking at least one fic off the front page with a downvote last week (poor Celestia Drinks Tea, though it was only like #7 or 8 at the time IIRC, not the top slot).
I did end up upvoting several of them as well though (when the borrowing story was in the third slot, I read it and upvoted it).
2155460
Speaking of, I saw yours in the top spot for a few moments. Too bad the jealous ones smashed you off your throne.
2155466
Ahahah I know right?
I want to blame it on them, but honestly a lot of it has to do with your upvote:downvote ratio, and in my case, I had like 330 upvotes and 0 downvotes, which... well, having 0 downvotes is incredibly unlikely to stand for any length of time. Nothing makes EVERYONE happy, and it was prominently at the top of the highest rated list and the feature box (first slot non-mature, second slot mature), so...
I know one person downvoted it in order to promote another fic, but I suspect the other 8 downvotes are because of people just not liking the premise of the story or not liking discussions about power levels and suchlike.
The system is very sensitive to very small number of downvotes, though I think that is mostly just because fics in general have such a high upvote:downvote ratio. I've spent some time actually trying to work out the math of the ratings system for fun, but I haven't really come up with anything which is generally applicable. I'm pretty sure I have a general idea of how it works, but...
Congrats on this!
2155472
Hmmm. You know, that also makes me think of another situation.
Do you ever get a favourite, then immediately click on it, only to see you've gained a red instead of a green? That has happened to me quite a lot, actually. Do you suppose that maybe people are mis-clicking and not noticing? I've had someone say they did so to me once; what's to say it doesn't happen more frequently than one would like?
2155456
2155458
Well, HR is my favorite of the three by a fairly wide margin, and it was a reasonably self-contained story which worked well at what it did and had an interesting examination of the enormous stress that a groundhog's day type loop would put on you.
One of my friends in college actually proposed a television show which was based on the premise that before the show started, the protagonist had a "perfect day" due to a Groundhog's Day loop, and now he had to deal with being back in everyday life and cope with the fact that he had that perfect day, which he will never have again; he got the girl and everything else... but he's no longer capable of perfecting outcomes and doing the same thing until he gets it right, and has to readjust to it.
So the fallout bit of it was nice, too.
I never really liked the latter two fics as much because I felt it was too convoluted and self-indulgent; it felt too fan-fiction-y, for lack of a better word, as it tried to get bigger and burn brighter but in the end felt like it lost the punch and central thread that made Hard Reset a fun read.
I've re-read HR 3 times IIRC, but I only read the other two once each, when they were released.
You've written a bunch of good stuff, though; you definitely deserve consideration as one of the best writers on the site.
2155476
Dunno; it is hard to say. I'm sure SOME percentage of downvotes are unintentional... but it is hard to say for suire, I have to imagine it is probably a pretty low ratio.
2155483
You say that like it's a bad thing.
2155483
Can totally respect that. HR was only supposed to be chaps 1-4 and 6 originally, after all. Although I have a hard time imagining it without 'Closure' now.
2155475
I think you may have the most fics in the top 200 by rating; by my count, you have 6 fics there, while the next most have 4 each (Eakin being one of them). That's a pretty great accomplishment itself.
Something just occurred to me. Due to the automatic grading system used to generate the top-list, said list does not necessarily showcase the best stories; only the least controversial ones (popularity is also taken into account, but seems to be logarithmically scaled; the upvote:downote ratio is thus much more important than the total number of views/votes/favs/comments).
Due to this bias, the stories that make it on this list are mostly short, lighthearted slices of life or comedies.
… mostly. You somehow managed to sneak a dark epic novel in there. It’s the only story in the top ten that isn’t tagged Slice of Life. Even better: it’s one of the only two Dark tags in the entire Top 100. Guess what the other one is? Yeah. You Can Fight Fate, 41st as of this writing.
Seriously. Hard Reset is dark, violent and has sexual undertones. For each of those things, there is a bunch of people who will blindly downvote any story featuring them. And despite that, it still managed a (well-deserved, I’d say) 98.7% upvote ratio.
So, one more time, congrats
Congratulations! Popularity is a bit of a fickled thing, but Hard Reset is a good story that stands on its own merits. And you should be proud of your achievement. If people enjoy the story, and it becomes popular for that reason, then what harm is there?
No one I know deserves it more.
Well, you know what all great artists do when they make their Magnum Opus?
They die.
2155497
A Stitch in Time sometimes pokes into the top 10 as well; I think it is #11 right now. I'm surprised the other one fell down so much, as it was in the top 20 last week; I suspect it got a downvote.
Getting just one downvote can drop a story an enormous amount in the top rated list. When I was tracking my story last week, 330:0 and 33x:1 were at the top of the list; 34X:2 was like, #100. Then it went all the way back up to #2 at 4xx:2, and then dropped down again after it got more downvotes. It is crazy sensitive to downvotes just because all the top rated fics are so close in whatever system it is, though the more upvotes and downvotes a story has, the less sensitive it is to either.
It is also why you'll see new stories (like mine) go really high on the top rated list sometimes before they pick up their first downvote; the sequel to Numbers hit the top slot earlier today, then got a few downvotes which sent it plummeting back down. The Borrowing fic also hit the top, then went way down, then made the top ten again before getting downvoted again; right now it is sitting in like the 70s or 80s.
Lost Cities was at something like 440:0 upvotes:downvotes at one point, which was insane, and then it got downvoted and now it is at 593:6 and barely in the top 200 at all.
Some of the stories on the top 10 list are pretty tough to move very much though; Hard Reset has a ridiculous number of upvotes (4034!) and 53 downvotes, which means that it isn't very sensitive to being downvoted, though a single downvote would knock it down below the Keepers of Discord.
I wouldn't expect HR to leave the top 10 list... pretty much ever. Well, maybe not ever ever, but displacing it would require a lot of REALLY good stories to surpass it. Really, all three of them have so many upvotes that they're pretty unlikely to slip all that much.
I am amused that HR was put up on EqD on Groundhog's Day.
Did the other two ever end up on EqD, or did you just decide not to bother cause they didn't need the publicity?
Congrats!
I'm not surprised at all, honestly.
Hard Reset is one of the few fics I recommend to people with actually no disclaimers or reservations attached.
2155502
Well, there's always the AbsoluteAnonymous route of getting upset that your Magnum Opus is a "dumb story" you wrote about Pinkie Pie watching paint dry, and then quitting the fandom forever due to the stress.
Hoopy must be crying a little inside.
2155494
That's cool to know. I hope people browsing top stories click down that far before getting overwhelmed.
2155472
I can absolutely sympathise. This screenshot is from a few weeks ago.
i1312.photobucket.com/albums/t526/arcum42/EVIL/Pictures/screen%20captures/top-rated-really_zps150d1d91.png~original
That fourth one down is mine, and now has one downvote, bringing it to the middle of the second page...
Sun Princess, OTOH, stays in the same place between the screenshot and now because it is awesome.
--arcum42
2155520
Months and months ago, I actually went through and RLed like, every story in the top 50 fics at the time. I also read a bunch of the shorter ones which immediately interested me.
Which was dumb, because I then promptly had too many stories on my RL list and never read them all.
I've gotten better about managing my RL list since then. Only 1118 stories on it.
Which still includes Philomeanie, sadly. Why have I not read that yet?
Woohoo! Congrats!! Very well deserved!
2155527
Admittedly, my favorite Skywriter story is probably Martial Bliss, because I am a terrible person and enjoy stories with awful, awful pun titles.
Sunny Skies All Day Long has been sitting in the top 10 for like, a billion years too. I'm still surprised it has as many downvotes as it does; it isn't the best story on the site, but it is pretty inoffensive. Really the sort of thing I'd expect to be that high. Same goes for How To Preen Your Chicken, though I can see how folks wouldn't like that one, as it is a very glurgy fic.
Also, in the hour or so since this blog post was made, HR has accumulated two more upvotes, making it that much harder to ever displace.
2155527
You know, I just realized I've seen you around a bunch, but the only thing I've read that you've written is that silly #savetree fic.
What would you say your best story is so I can read it? You think Cubic Zirconia is your best?
Damn, should've kept reading Hard Reset.
Oh well, good job though.
Dumbass
Oh shut up.
2155536
Hard to displace? A single downvote is still enough to send it back to the second spot. Yes, I actually tried that—and then immediately changed my vote back to an upvote before shame overtook me.
2155536
Oh, as far as that goes, I'd probably choose Shipping Sickness over Martial Bliss for Skywriter fanfics with bad puns.
And yeah, Sunny Skies All Day Long has been somewhere on there forever. (How To Preen Your Chicken is very good, but I'd expect downvotes just from the use of the word "chicken" in the title.)
2155548
Cubic Zirconia is my best received fanfic, and probably is my best overall. Just Winging It, I'm quite fond of, and is probably around second, but I haven't updated it in months, and am a bit stalled out on it.
Making Friends is probably around third, and is a one shot. Dark And Deep is that fanfic of mine that I like but no one reads. Though it is both dark and a tragedy...
Overall, probably Cubic Zirconia if you are looking for drama with occasional humor, and either like Diamond Tiara or like bad things happening to her. Just Winging It if you like Scoots. (though, to be fair, there's a lot of Scoots in Cubic Zirconia. And most things I write...)
--arcum42
2155558
At HR's upvote level, it needs about 90 upvotes per downvote to maintain position.
2155548
Going to bed, but any particular story of yours you'd recommend other than "Proper Anatomical Terminology", while we're on the subject?
--arcum42
Okay, that is planly amacing. Congratulation!
Now, what are you going to do with all that power?
2155569
Depends on what you're looking for.
The Stars Ascendant is my most popular story by a fair margin; it is a short, serious story set after the season 4 finale.
If you're looking for something funny, Shotgun Wedding is a romantic comedy based on the premise of Rarity getting caught after a sleepover at Applejack's, and Granny Smith deciding that means Rarity and Applejack need to get married. Sadly, it is unfinished, but it is actually being worked on again after months and months...
Temptation is my best shipfic, and is also RariJack. Okay, technically speaking Shotgun Wedding is a shipfic, but it is really more focused on the comedy aspect, while this is more of a character analysis.
And if you're looking for something completely different, The Collected Poems of Maud Pie are the best Maudernist poems about rocks on the site, which is definitely not an overly narrow category into which only they fit (unfortunately; several other people tried to write rock poems with much less success). They are... well, they're something. I enjoyed writing them, though. I think they may be the highest rated poems on the site, though that is damning with faint praise.
2155491 Congrats man, you earned it.
Congrats! That oughta show all those induhviduals who say that time travel/parallel world stories are too confusing to become popular.
I remember making a comment way back when it was pretty darn new and saying it would get a lot of views. I didn't expect this though.
You should try non-pone; it worked wonders for me when I started trying. Just don't think you'd be a national bestseller and one of the top authors of all time just because you had success here--reason I say that is because a lot of well-known writers here get trapped in their high horse mindset and it's pretentious as all hell.
Well, you word pretty good, so I wouldn't be too afraid. Plus you've probably gotten better since Hard Reset anyway.
As the old saying says: Go and roll on your achievement like a pig in mud. You have earned it.
The best story on the site.... And I haven't even read it yet. Haha
Congrats. I'm gonna have to definetely check it out now
2155628 IT'S SO GOOD.
Anyone who ever told you you couldn't words good didn't thoughts good. You deserve every view HR has and then some.
I don't think Hard Reset will ever be moved out of my top 5.
Well done!
And if you do come back to pony words, I'll be there. :)
I had that honor oh-so-briefly with Awaken, Scootaloo. About half a day as the top story. However, I think Hard Reset is more of the real deal to my "fluke that hasn't gotten a downvote yet" as it was at the time. Congratulations! It's an amazing achievement!
Well, honestly when I first saw the trailer for Edge of Tomorrow I thought "hey that's like Hard Reset without ponies! Even the main character is giant, obvious closet case!"
So I think that's part of the appeal. It not only would work as a Hollywood blockbuster, it seems it has
Twist ending where you lay your eyes to rest on your death bed, surrounded by thousands of adoring fans, only to open them back up 67 years before, just as you hit the Submit button on Duel Nature.
congratulations for sure.
and i have only ever seen the word hoopy in paul kidd's justicar books said by escalla.
so i was wondering have you read those or is it a new Zealand/Australia thing.
thats where that author is from.