100 kudos- a quest that you can join

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K.T. Leone

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My first question is, has anyone here hit the hundred kudo mark for any one posting. (Adding all the kudos together for a multi-part story doesn't count)?

I know it answers to my vanity but my story Dress Punishment is currently sitting at 87 kudos and for some reason I think it would be really cool if I hit the 100 mark. Some may not know this, but I was once a really good athlete (Competed internationally in wrestling (and no, not what you see on tv)) As such, I am really into numbers. So, my plea is, if you've read Dress Punishment and think it's worthy of a Kudo, but haven't given it one... would you please. Pretty please (though the physical attractiveness of the kudo shouldn't matter). With a cherry on top go and hit the good story button at the bottom. If you haven't read the story, maybe spend a few moments looking at it, a lot of people liked it. Here is the link http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/31054/dress-punishment

Also. I was wondering if we should get badges for certain milestones. They do this on book country.com I think a little graphic for 10k reads, 100 kudos, or winning, placing in contest would be a nice little feature. Maybe even a special page for recipients of that reward. Especially stories with high kudos because that indicates popularity and authors can't mess with the numbers of that. The reason I think a high kudo page would help is for those people who happen to visit for the first time and don't know what to read, maybe an area where they get to see the most popular would encourage them to keep coming back (even though I know the site has awesome numbers as it is).

I thank all the people who help on this quest.

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100 kudos?

the highest any of my stories has is 88. I wish you luck.

which one

Tell us which one and you can join the quest too. I pulled up your stories, but it just tells me how many comments and reads, but not how many kudos. I wonder if we can get a sort page for each author's story like we do for our own. One where we can manipulate the search field.

Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)

Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life

Its Rock Star Makeover part 1

my most beloved piece to date, according to kudos.

kudo for dorothy

I gave you a kudo... It's no fun being in a club by yourself. Even Calvin had Hobbes in his G.R.O.S.S. club.

Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)

Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life

I left a kudo on yours as well

I think I was having trouble with kudos at the time, or it would have had one before.

Good luck hon.

Useless

When you start trading kudos with everybody to bump the score up don't they become essentially useless at that point? Not that they had a whole lot of relevance in the first place but they were supposed to provide readers with a way to give some positive feedback to the writer of the story when the reader didn't want to or couldn't for some reason leave a comment. Now they're just another popularity contest. The writer with the most friends gets the most kudos, and in return gives kudos to their friends because after all, isn't that what friends are for?

"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin

Of course it's a popularity contest

That's why people win awards for best selling books. Because they are popular and a lot of people like them. I didn't ask anyone to give me a kudo just to give me one either. I said if they liked it and forgot to leave one or if they didn't read the story that they might want to and if they liked it to kudo it.

I personally see nothing wrong with showing a person some appreciation. I personally like the kudo system because it is the one thing that can't be inflated by the author. I can't sit there and give myself kudo after kudo, but i can add all the comments I want and all the reads that I want.

Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)

Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life

Actually it can be

And you just did. You wanted a 100 kudos and you said so in a blog. You didn't have to ask directly, but it was there just the same. And people who like you rushed off to give kudos to you. They might even read it sometime.

But it does affect the purpose of giving kudos. I might sometimes give a kudo and then leave a comment. But a lot of times I just leave a kudo. Sometimes it's because I'm reading on my phone and it's a PITA to try to type out a worthwhile comment. Sometimes it might be because I personally detest the writer, but have to admit the story was good. Sometimes I'm just in a bad mood and don't feel like writing anything anywhere. But I can hit the kudo button.

Conversely, I won't hit the kudo button just because the person is a friend of mine. The story has to be worth the kudo.

So, I will give a kudo to somebody I detest if the story deserves it. And I won't give a kudo to somebody I like if the story doesn't deserve it. That doesn't really sound like any kind of popularity contest I've ever heard of. I wasn't really excited about the kudos when they were first introduced. And for awhile some bug in the system prevented me from giving them anyway. But I was won over to Erin's idea that a good story deserved something no matter what I felt about the writer.

But if it is going to be treated as a popularity contest then why bother?

"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin

and your problem is

I really don't understand what you are upset about. Perhaps you didn't read my post all the way. I said that if people read the story and like it then to give a kudo. I didn't say that if people like me to give a kudo and I didn't say give me a kudo just because I asked for one.

The fact that it is based on popularity should go without saying. More popular authors will receive more kudos because they will get more people reading. The same goes for read counters. The Daily Dormouse always gets a ton of hits, why, because it is popular. Should I be upset if I put up a story that doesn't get as many hits as Angharad or another author that has earned the right to be more popular than I am.

The fact is that Kudos are a reward system. They are given when things are found worthy. Do people simply give them for people that they like no matter how good or bad the story is? I am sure that happens. Do people withhold giving them on stories that they think are good simply because they have issues with the author? I am sure that happens as well. I am sure there are dozens of reasons people give out kudos and comments that might not conform to one view or another as to how the system should work. I had gotten 87 kudos on a story that I posted before deciding to ask for a little push to reach a milestone that is important to me. Me getting 100 kudos doesn't affect anyone else, doesn't put me in any higher sphere than I already am. There are those who like what I write and I appreciate that. The fact that I set up a goal and am making a push to reach that goal simply reflects on me. I am not trying to circumvent the system, I just made an appeal for some assistance.

I think of kudos kind of like a kid selling candybars at school. The more popular kids sell more, its just a fact of life. And if one kid needs 11 more candy bars to sell so he wins that bike I am sure he is going to go to people and ask, just like I did. Unfortunately, unlike that kid who can sell those 11 candybars to his parents, I can only get one kudo per person.

Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)

Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life

Both of your points are well taken

But that's why there is not a page that shows the stories with the most kudos or the stories with the most comments or hits, either, for that matter.

Back in the day, another story-based site had hit counters on stories and a page that showed the stories with the most hits. This led to competition among authors, and authors being citizens of the digital age, a few of them knew how to write bots. So some bots got written that hit stories to run up hit counts. Pretty quickly, the bots overwhelmed the server because each hit was several database calls on the server and even with a quite efficient database design, it could not support that level of traffic. It brought the server down.

The sysadmin of the site blocked those particular bots and removed the page that showed which stories had how many hits. But the cat had been let out of the bottle and the genie out of the bag. Hit counts by particular authors on particular stories were compared in the forums on the site. Bots continued to be written, this time not by authors (most of whom had learned a lesson) but by fans of particular authors. Smarter bots that could get past smarter filters in an arms race of one sysadmin against several hackers.

It could have only one ending and that wasn't by making the hackers smart enough to see what they were doing. The sysadmin had to remove the ability to record hit counts from the site because educating hackers is a never-ending task.

And that little moral lesson is why BC does not have general pages that can be construed as open-ended popularity contests but does have occasional contests with end dates to let off a bit of competitive steam.

Hugs to all,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Make them invisible

I think Kudos should be invisible except to the author.

Then I could confidently say I have one trillion Kudos and no one could contradict me. Of course, not many would believe me either!

The problem is there are many perfectly good writers reading this blog who are saying to themselves, "I only got 20 - I must be a dreadful writer - I shall give up writing."

I know that was not your intention in starting this blog, but a lot of people write here who don't have much self esteem. Think of them.

And Erin, couldn't we make Kudos private information, rather than public?

Charlotte

Balance

I like kudos the way they are. If they were completely private, almost no one would click on that button because they would get no reward for doing so. But there is no place where one can go and compare kudos given on different stories by different authors as a competitive list. That's the way I think it works best.

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

I went

I read, I kudo. You now have 89.
Love you
Michele

With those with open eyes the world reads like a book

Badges? Badges?

...no I won't quote that quote ...

But wow -- this is the badge I want if I reach one of those levels

Huggs

Amy-Lynn