Something to Say(+Rant below)
Hi guys, Magnum here and there's something I would like to discuss and shed some light on... as you can tell by the drawing up above. Now as a heads up I am going to try to be constructive but I am going to end up ranting, you'll see why in a second...
Now first off I just want to thank all my watchers, people who fav, give votes, comments and so on as I do greatly appreciate it. This is more aimed at the broader site that is SoFurry and is basically my jest at how rigged all of it is, yes it is rigged.
For a start I have been on SoFurry for almost two years and after gathering data and getting a feel for the site, I honestly don't really know what to make of it, other then if you are a new user, don't don't do NSFW or aren't a decent digital artist, you will effectively get no where and will end up beating your head against the wall as you try to find your footing and an audience... and it really shouldn't be that way.
The main issue is that since there is NO sense of any positive reinforcement for content creators or those starting out, profiles have a very short life span and after estimating it, the average new user only lasts maybe a month and then they move on with them either deleting their account or simply abandoning it. There are several reasons why this is the case and I'll happily go over them:
1. The Voting System
The voting system is an example of the phrase "Open to abuse", simply because unless you give a full 5/5 star rating it won't notify the user of who effectively down voted and I have have been on the receiving end of this for basically as long as I have been a user and it is confusing, here are some examples from my gallery:
https://www.sofurry.com/view/1818923
https://www.sofurry.com/view/1875360
https://www.sofurry.com/view/1947876
https://www.sofurry.com/view/1918260
All of them have the same skill and effort put into them and yet the rating is not consistent and I think what it is, is that there is a user or troll who just gives low rating to push the already popular stuff more towards the top(I have a theory on who it might be, however I will not say their username here because I don't want to risk any backlash if I am wrong). And because the voting is open to this kind of abuse and I am thinking of just deactivating voting all together as it does do more harm then good in some cases, as while a positive vote is possible like 4/5 and 5/5 and that help push it, anything below that it doesn't get promoted in the algorithm and if it is a one or two star it is basically dead on arrival even if it is one vote. The kicker is that even if I get a great vote it doesn't really effect the statistics at all unless many are stacked on top of each other.
2. The Treatment Between Users
This leads me into my next point, new users and smaller users are effectively compared to the more popular users based on the aligirtham and perception of the user-base just in general, even more so then places like Deviant Art, given that the more established users get all the promotion and the users who really do need some exposer to help them find an audience effectively get nothing and this ties in with the voting system.
Let's take three different sizes of users with different followings, a user with around 3000, another with 300 and another with 30, the former two will get all the attention for the work but the latter third simply won't no matter how much effort they try to put in, the former two will receive all the comments, all the favs, all the big votes and the smaller one is lucky to even get a handful of favs, hardly any votes if at all and dead silence in the comment section, the latter is also an issue in the larger following to an extent but I digress.
And this becomes basically a self-fulfilling prophecy where the smaller users get muted and the larger users despite being solid are just given far more attention, I get it, their art is amazing and all but what about the ones at the bottom of the food chain and effectively treated as ghosts despite trying their best? Where is their spotlight and where is their moment to shine? I am not kidding when I say I will see a new username and then after a handful of submissions they leave and never come back because of these very reasons, whenever I get a watch, comment, fav or vote I am not kidding at all when I say I appreciate it even if the response is basically copy and paste and it's also the reason why I don't really comment that much if at all as well, because sometimes I feel whatever I leave would just be viewed as such.
And this lack of feedback, lack of any real sense of generating a positive result just kills any morale pretty quickly and I guarantee that because of the drawing this submission will only get around 30 views max with no votes and maybe a comment or two... because that is what I have come to really expect based on the data I have gathered on my end.
And yes there seems to be a huge stigma against those who do more traditional pieces(ie pencil, paper and camera) and digital art that isn't deemed what many consider a masterpiece, look a little encouragement and reinforcement does go a long way and I have people that watch me from various skill sets and levels and vice versa and if the smaller users did get that much needed reinforcement then maybe they would actually have a reason to upload more often. The issue though is that this doesn't fix the core issue which goes back to exposer and not just finding an audience but also expanding it and with how cut throat SoFurry seems to be(for some reason).
For example, let's say I upload something and another user who has a wide range of followers does at the same time and this other user has hundreds to thousands of watchers, the exact way this goes is as follows, my submission due to the stigma will be lucky if it even breaks anywhere around 30 to maybe 50(which is the norm) with maybe a single fav or two and maybe a vote with no comments meanwhile the other will get thousands of views within a span of of few hours to a maybe a couple days and with it they easily get at least fifty votes and the comment section just gets flooded, what this means is that once my submission leaves the front page it is dead and buried and the other joins the popular or featured section which means they get an even bigger spotlight and my submission which while not impressive looking by everyone elses standards but still put my best effort in basically just fades into oblivion. And no, groups do NOT mitigate this issue, it may help expand a little but since the other user is possibly part of the group you just get drowned out basically no matter what you do.
And it's not just me, you can apply this to basically any user and get the same result and it really does suck! I have noticed the NSFW stuff fares a little better... but not by much. And this is not just limited to art, this is applied to writings as well... speaking of which...
3. Understanding the Dynamic of Fiction
When it comes to fiction and literature I have ran into some pretty interesting results and after browsing around I have reached a few conclusions. By far the works that get the best results are erotic one shots and there is little to no exception to this, now there is nothing wrong with these one shots heck I like a lot of them myself, but let's ask a question... is it hard to write a sex scene? The short answer is no even if it does have some loose narrative. However writing a sex scene with context and part of a grander narrative is hard, especially when it is part of an over-arching storyline.
And honestly I can look at my own data to get a pretty good look at the overall situation and what I'll do is use my Magna-Verse fiction as the example, now Crusader which is the first part and is mostly fairly consitant, but once it hits Starlight the numbers drop from the low hundreds to mid-double digits and then we have Trailblazer which has even lower statistics where the parts are lucky if they break around fifty views. Then we have Amatory, which at the time of this is the latest addition to the Magna-Verse and it told me everything I needed to know, the first part of Amatory is currently at 410 views, most of which occurred within a few days(I know I'll never see that ever again) and then you have Crusader with it's first part sitting at 545, Starlight at 242 and Trailblazer at a low 124 and all the other parts have one hell of a sharpe drop. So basically three quarters of people just skip the meat of the story and hope I play catch up with them in the next part of the series and never give it an actual chance.
Now the fanfiction does alright with the Star Fox, Sly Cooper and Ironclaw series being thee most consistent, though trying to break through even in fiction is extremely difficult for the same reasons I listed above, with the bigger users getting instantly pushed to the popular section and those smaller creators who can use a shout out or a spotlight are again left in the dust with no real way to compensate.
Honestly it seems that people on this platform are allergic to reading really just in general, no matter what fiction line I look at from any user, the first part or in some cases first two do extremely well and then it just crashes in terms of viewership, I understand lack of interest is a thing... but a 60% to a 90% percent drop says something else entirely. And the sheer fluctuation of views is beyond strange, because the views end up going up and down about as hard as the stock market, which means that if the part that is skipped has something critical then they won't understand the whole picture.
*Sighs*
The main reason why I am saying all of this, is that I simply don't want it to be a repeat of my DeviantArt page where despite having a good size following I feel like I have nothing backing me up given how silent the reception actually is, despite any effort I put in, I have submitted my best work and it gets basically nothing. Now I know someone may ask "Why not ask for feedback?" and the truth is I did back on DA and what happened was I just got crapped on, not because of the quslity of what I was putting out but because I was politely asking for any optional feedback and that is why I never ask for it and that lead to me focusing on writing and not drawing at all for a long time which is something I am trying to avoid.
Honestly, I'll still produce what I do regardless as it's what I love doing, I just find it strange that despite getting views, despite all the effort I try to put in I get basically dead silence across any form of interaction most of the time... and I really am tired of it... and I have a feeling I am not the only one who feels this way.
Alright, rant over, I think I made my point and hopefully got it across, like I said I am not expecting this submission to do anything or go anywhere based on my analysis, but what I want people to take away from this is that the smaller users deserve some love too, not just me!
This is MagnumWolf2, signing off and have a good one...
Magnum (c) Me
Now first off I just want to thank all my watchers, people who fav, give votes, comments and so on as I do greatly appreciate it. This is more aimed at the broader site that is SoFurry and is basically my jest at how rigged all of it is, yes it is rigged.
For a start I have been on SoFurry for almost two years and after gathering data and getting a feel for the site, I honestly don't really know what to make of it, other then if you are a new user, don't don't do NSFW or aren't a decent digital artist, you will effectively get no where and will end up beating your head against the wall as you try to find your footing and an audience... and it really shouldn't be that way.
The main issue is that since there is NO sense of any positive reinforcement for content creators or those starting out, profiles have a very short life span and after estimating it, the average new user only lasts maybe a month and then they move on with them either deleting their account or simply abandoning it. There are several reasons why this is the case and I'll happily go over them:
1. The Voting System
The voting system is an example of the phrase "Open to abuse", simply because unless you give a full 5/5 star rating it won't notify the user of who effectively down voted and I have have been on the receiving end of this for basically as long as I have been a user and it is confusing, here are some examples from my gallery:
https://www.sofurry.com/view/1818923
https://www.sofurry.com/view/1875360
https://www.sofurry.com/view/1947876
https://www.sofurry.com/view/1918260
All of them have the same skill and effort put into them and yet the rating is not consistent and I think what it is, is that there is a user or troll who just gives low rating to push the already popular stuff more towards the top(I have a theory on who it might be, however I will not say their username here because I don't want to risk any backlash if I am wrong). And because the voting is open to this kind of abuse and I am thinking of just deactivating voting all together as it does do more harm then good in some cases, as while a positive vote is possible like 4/5 and 5/5 and that help push it, anything below that it doesn't get promoted in the algorithm and if it is a one or two star it is basically dead on arrival even if it is one vote. The kicker is that even if I get a great vote it doesn't really effect the statistics at all unless many are stacked on top of each other.
2. The Treatment Between Users
This leads me into my next point, new users and smaller users are effectively compared to the more popular users based on the aligirtham and perception of the user-base just in general, even more so then places like Deviant Art, given that the more established users get all the promotion and the users who really do need some exposer to help them find an audience effectively get nothing and this ties in with the voting system.
Let's take three different sizes of users with different followings, a user with around 3000, another with 300 and another with 30, the former two will get all the attention for the work but the latter third simply won't no matter how much effort they try to put in, the former two will receive all the comments, all the favs, all the big votes and the smaller one is lucky to even get a handful of favs, hardly any votes if at all and dead silence in the comment section, the latter is also an issue in the larger following to an extent but I digress.
And this becomes basically a self-fulfilling prophecy where the smaller users get muted and the larger users despite being solid are just given far more attention, I get it, their art is amazing and all but what about the ones at the bottom of the food chain and effectively treated as ghosts despite trying their best? Where is their spotlight and where is their moment to shine? I am not kidding when I say I will see a new username and then after a handful of submissions they leave and never come back because of these very reasons, whenever I get a watch, comment, fav or vote I am not kidding at all when I say I appreciate it even if the response is basically copy and paste and it's also the reason why I don't really comment that much if at all as well, because sometimes I feel whatever I leave would just be viewed as such.
And this lack of feedback, lack of any real sense of generating a positive result just kills any morale pretty quickly and I guarantee that because of the drawing this submission will only get around 30 views max with no votes and maybe a comment or two... because that is what I have come to really expect based on the data I have gathered on my end.
And yes there seems to be a huge stigma against those who do more traditional pieces(ie pencil, paper and camera) and digital art that isn't deemed what many consider a masterpiece, look a little encouragement and reinforcement does go a long way and I have people that watch me from various skill sets and levels and vice versa and if the smaller users did get that much needed reinforcement then maybe they would actually have a reason to upload more often. The issue though is that this doesn't fix the core issue which goes back to exposer and not just finding an audience but also expanding it and with how cut throat SoFurry seems to be(for some reason).
For example, let's say I upload something and another user who has a wide range of followers does at the same time and this other user has hundreds to thousands of watchers, the exact way this goes is as follows, my submission due to the stigma will be lucky if it even breaks anywhere around 30 to maybe 50(which is the norm) with maybe a single fav or two and maybe a vote with no comments meanwhile the other will get thousands of views within a span of of few hours to a maybe a couple days and with it they easily get at least fifty votes and the comment section just gets flooded, what this means is that once my submission leaves the front page it is dead and buried and the other joins the popular or featured section which means they get an even bigger spotlight and my submission which while not impressive looking by everyone elses standards but still put my best effort in basically just fades into oblivion. And no, groups do NOT mitigate this issue, it may help expand a little but since the other user is possibly part of the group you just get drowned out basically no matter what you do.
And it's not just me, you can apply this to basically any user and get the same result and it really does suck! I have noticed the NSFW stuff fares a little better... but not by much. And this is not just limited to art, this is applied to writings as well... speaking of which...
3. Understanding the Dynamic of Fiction
When it comes to fiction and literature I have ran into some pretty interesting results and after browsing around I have reached a few conclusions. By far the works that get the best results are erotic one shots and there is little to no exception to this, now there is nothing wrong with these one shots heck I like a lot of them myself, but let's ask a question... is it hard to write a sex scene? The short answer is no even if it does have some loose narrative. However writing a sex scene with context and part of a grander narrative is hard, especially when it is part of an over-arching storyline.
And honestly I can look at my own data to get a pretty good look at the overall situation and what I'll do is use my Magna-Verse fiction as the example, now Crusader which is the first part and is mostly fairly consitant, but once it hits Starlight the numbers drop from the low hundreds to mid-double digits and then we have Trailblazer which has even lower statistics where the parts are lucky if they break around fifty views. Then we have Amatory, which at the time of this is the latest addition to the Magna-Verse and it told me everything I needed to know, the first part of Amatory is currently at 410 views, most of which occurred within a few days(I know I'll never see that ever again) and then you have Crusader with it's first part sitting at 545, Starlight at 242 and Trailblazer at a low 124 and all the other parts have one hell of a sharpe drop. So basically three quarters of people just skip the meat of the story and hope I play catch up with them in the next part of the series and never give it an actual chance.
Now the fanfiction does alright with the Star Fox, Sly Cooper and Ironclaw series being thee most consistent, though trying to break through even in fiction is extremely difficult for the same reasons I listed above, with the bigger users getting instantly pushed to the popular section and those smaller creators who can use a shout out or a spotlight are again left in the dust with no real way to compensate.
Honestly it seems that people on this platform are allergic to reading really just in general, no matter what fiction line I look at from any user, the first part or in some cases first two do extremely well and then it just crashes in terms of viewership, I understand lack of interest is a thing... but a 60% to a 90% percent drop says something else entirely. And the sheer fluctuation of views is beyond strange, because the views end up going up and down about as hard as the stock market, which means that if the part that is skipped has something critical then they won't understand the whole picture.
*Sighs*
The main reason why I am saying all of this, is that I simply don't want it to be a repeat of my DeviantArt page where despite having a good size following I feel like I have nothing backing me up given how silent the reception actually is, despite any effort I put in, I have submitted my best work and it gets basically nothing. Now I know someone may ask "Why not ask for feedback?" and the truth is I did back on DA and what happened was I just got crapped on, not because of the quslity of what I was putting out but because I was politely asking for any optional feedback and that is why I never ask for it and that lead to me focusing on writing and not drawing at all for a long time which is something I am trying to avoid.
Honestly, I'll still produce what I do regardless as it's what I love doing, I just find it strange that despite getting views, despite all the effort I try to put in I get basically dead silence across any form of interaction most of the time... and I really am tired of it... and I have a feeling I am not the only one who feels this way.
Alright, rant over, I think I made my point and hopefully got it across, like I said I am not expecting this submission to do anything or go anywhere based on my analysis, but what I want people to take away from this is that the smaller users deserve some love too, not just me!
This is MagnumWolf2, signing off and have a good one...
Magnum (c) Me
2 years ago
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