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Ao3 metrics: Kudos

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Kidp0lSWmLNz7hR5a43ZUJbV_uixpxu6D-Y9Xp8AHBc/edit?usp=sharing So this is a quickie spreadsheet I did up to help people grasp some of the differences between fandoms and the relationship of kudos to hits and other metrics Ao3 provides. People can edit it for now, just use a new line. If you don’t know how to spreadsheet, you can give me an Ao3 link and I’ll enter it. You will note I did NOT list story names, this isn’t about recs, this is about understanding how something compares to other things within a fandom.

Rank=“Rank if you sort by kudos”. Keep in mind the following based on the top six entries: 1. I’ve read all four Check Please pieces, and would call all of them good-to-amazing, including the last one which is almost at the bottom of the metrics. I’ve read mediocre check please fanfic, but NONE of these are that. Good CP fanfic tends to get between 11-15% kudos to hits ratio but it’s not set in stone. 2. The piece with the absolute highest number of Kudos in Teen Wolf fandom only has a 5% conversion rate on kudos-to-hits. It has going on 400k hits. A fanfic with 1200 hits that manages an 11% conversion rate is pretty damned impressive. 3. Hits are a complex function of time, length, serial posting of chapters, recs, etc. Kudo-to-hit ratio is actually far more telling for quality. Longer fics will get more bookmarks and comments because some people will comment after every chapter and people may bookmark or subscribe so they don’t lose the story. A one-off will probably have fewer comments than a story posted over time. Kudos can only be left once. A mediocre fanfic posted 3 years ago might have far more hits and kudos than an outstanding fic posted last week, but USUALLY the kudos ratio will be higher on the newer one.

4. Kudos to hits vary wildly between fandoms. Some fandoms have very low conversion ratios. Others have very high ratios, even for writing of similar quality. I think this may have to do with hard-to-measure factors (such as some fandoms have people actively talking to each other and saying “Please leave kudos,” others don’t.) And fandoms differ dramatically in demographics. Does it surprise me that the werewolf fandom leaves fewer attaboys than the fandom about the Canadian and the Southern boy? The venn diagrams for the two fandoms may have a lot of overlap, but I’m guessing Check Please skews a few years older than Teen Wolf. Personally I would ADORE being able to sort Ao3 by the kudos/hits ratio. I think newer stuff would fare much better with that metric. Yes, absolute number of kudos is helpful, but it also leaves a lot of quality stuff in the dust that just doesn’t get enough hits. People sort by kudos to read, but that tends to exaggerate things in favor of older works. This is mostly in response to @poetry-protest-pornography (who does great stuff on Ao3 under another name, when I went to check things out, I’d already left kudos...lol!)

#ao3 #metrics #kudos #fanfic #finding the good stuff #ao3 metrics

The pool… my rebellious spirit gets antsy when the pool all starts looking the same, when everyone is talking the same, when people are telling the same stories. I go on these mass unfollows about twice a year, maybe. This year I dumped almost everyone who was a life coach. Not that I have anything against life coaches, it’s just if you follow 100 of them, it’s very hard to find someone saying something different. I got rid of almost all business building advice people for online businesses because I don’t care. I started following people who did art, or people who really took a look at the world in a thoughtful way, or contemplative way, and that actually helped me find the joy again in {social media}. I was so close to leaving.

Tamara Holland

#tamara holland #creativity #finding the good stuff