Reading Stats

[JLynch]

On 7/29/2023 at 4:16 PM, Daddydavek said:

Myr has statistics out the yazoo about the site, its readers, writers, commenters and supporters and has shared them in many ways and several times. To me, it's still an elusive question to account for the ebb and flow of visitors and readers.  Certainly some authors and their stories are big drivers.  However, it's the welcoming community that is the reason I visit regularly.  While I haven't been reading stories on site as much lately, that is due to my own personal circumstances and grief. 

 

 

 

Reaching out to Myr, I’m wondering where I can find these stats. I’m still confused about the way the numbers are presented. Some examples comparing a story similar to mine in length: the other story has twice as many views as mine and yet, the other story’s chapter views are considerably below mine. My chapter 1 views are much higher than the subsequent chapter views. I can understand that. But, why does one chapter in the middle have way more views than adjacent chapters? And, who and why are people making comments? It seems as if some are serial commenters because I see them making comments on several stories. Forty different people, so far, have reacted to one or more chapters. Is this a meaningful stat? Inquiring minds want to know.

[Myr]

17 minutes ago, JLynch said:

Reaching out to Myr,

Please, in the future, separate questions instead of a mass of things clumped together. It makes it far easier to understand and faster to answer.

19 minutes ago, JLynch said:

where I can find these stats

You can find your story's reading stats by clicking the stats button on your story. Or going to the "My" menu and select "My Statistics" in stories. This displays each story by "views".  Clicking on the story will give you the story's chapter breakdown.  It also shows you number of comments per chapter.

25 minutes ago, JLynch said:

the other story has twice as many views as mine and yet, the other story’s chapter views are considerably below mine.

Views on a story are Views of the Story + Views of all Chapters.  If the story has more chapters, probably has more views.  If it has less chapter views and less chapters, but still high story views, that means lots of people click the story, read the description, but don't read the story. (enough of a blurb to get someone to click, but not enough to close the sale and get them to read)

28 minutes ago, JLynch said:

But, why does one chapter in the middle have way more views than adjacent chapters?

Because more people clicked on that chapter.  whether they liked it and reread it a few times or it was a slow posting day and it had more exposure in the activity stream, so more people clicked, we have no idea.

29 minutes ago, JLynch said:

And, who and why are people making comments?

I can't figure the purpose or meaning of this sentence without assuming this is your first day on the Internet.  So, under that assumption, the people making comments are members on the site who's name appears with the comment.  As to why they comment, presumably they are commenting about something they just read.  Pretty standard thing on the internet.

36 minutes ago, JLynch said:

It seems as if some are serial commenters because I see them making comments on several stories.

Yeah, no kidding? Members commenting on stories and chapters and reading more than one story...  I'm surprised this surprises you. 

 

40 minutes ago, JLynch said:

Forty different people, so far, have reacted to one or more chapters. Is this a meaningful stat? Inquiring minds want to know.

Insomuch as you are getting engagement, yes, that's meaningful.  It means 40 different members enjoyed whatever you wrote enough to engage you about it.   Hopefully, you have engaged back by reacting or replying to said comments.  If not, you'll likely be considered rude and lose interactions.  And if people feel insulted enough, lose readership.

[JLynch]

1 hour ago, Myr said:

Please, in the future, separate questions instead of a mass of things clumped together. It makes it far easier to understand and faster to answer.

You can find your story's reading stats by clicking the stats button on your story. Or going to the "My" menu and select "My Statistics" in stories. This displays each story by "views".  Clicking on the story will give you the story's chapter breakdown.  It also shows you number of comments per chapter.

Views on a story are Views of the Story + Views of all Chapters.  If the story has more chapters, probably has more views.  If it has less chapter views and less chapters, but still high story views, that means lots of people click the story, read the description, but don't read the story. (enough of a blurb to get someone to click, but not enough to close the sale and get them to read)

Because more people clicked on that chapter.  whether they liked it and reread it a few times or it was a slow posting day and it had more exposure in the activity stream, so more people clicked, we have no idea.

I can't figure the purpose or meaning of this sentence without assuming this is your first day on the Internet.  So, under that assumption, the people making comments are members on the site who's name appears with the comment.  As to why they comment, presumably they are commenting about something they just read.  Pretty standard thing on the internet.

Yeah, no kidding? Members commenting on stories and chapters and reading more than one story...  I'm surprised this surprises you. 

 

Insomuch as you are getting engagement, yes, that's meaningful.  It means 40 different members enjoyed whatever you wrote enough to engage you about it.   Hopefully, you have engaged back by reacting or replying to said comments.  If not, you'll likely be considered rude and lose interactions.  And if people feel insulted enough, lose readership.

Good information. Thanks! I wonder if it would be helpful if all of this was used for an author page so that we can all navigate these stats in a more informed manner.

 

[Myr]

28 minutes ago, JLynch said:

Good information. Thanks! I wonder if it would be helpful if all of this was used for an author page so that we can all navigate these stats in a more informed manner.

I've added a note to include "Views" in the FAQ.

[ReaderPaul]

3 hours ago, Myr said:

Because more people clicked on that chapter.  whether they liked it and reread it a few times or it was a slow posting day and it had more exposure in the activity stream, so more people clicked, we have no idea.

Insomuch as you are getting engagement, yes, that's meaningful.  It means 40 different members enjoyed whatever you wrote enough to engage you about it.   Hopefully, you have engaged back by reacting or replying to said comments.  If not, you'll likely be considered rude and lose interactions.  And if people feel insulted enough, lose readership.

What @Myr said about chapter views.  I often re-read chapters I especially like, or chapters where I might wish to gain more clarity of what the author is saying.  On certain stories by @Geron Kees I might, over a period of two or three years, read that chapter or section of a chapter eight or ten times.  Same way with other good writers such as @JamesSavik or more.  That would drive up the chapter views on that chapter, and the same way on other favorite authors such as @Backwoods Boy, @AC Benus, and others.  GA is fortunate to have may wonderful authors.

[Mark Arbour]

Chapter views for one chapter in the middle of a story could be inflated if posting slowed around that chapter.  If that’s the case, readers often have to go back and reread a chapter to catch up.  Alternatively, they may go to that chapter when checking for an update. 

Edited February 24 by Mark Arbour

[Gary L]

Although a technical question(s), I feel that @Myr’s comments are v interesting and relevant.   I’m in love with statistical analysis but, actually what counts in GA is the quality of the stories which is, in my opinion, first class.   

[wildone]

I might be wrong, but the more comments you get on a chapter, the more views you will get as people are notified of a new comment on the story, new reaction to a comment that I left or after they have liked or commented on it. If you click on that notification and read the new comment, I believe it also logs as another view. I think they are correlated directly. So more comments might inflate the chapter views. Not necessarily people reading, not commenting or rating.  Which is a positive  

[Talo Segura]

I've always thought there might be a disconnect between Europe and America, but as @JLynch is American and @Myr is also, then that's not it! 

On 2/24/2024 at 3:06 PM, JLynch said:

And, who and why are people making comments? It seems as if some are serial commenters because I see them making comments on several stories.

I easily understood the question: And, who and why are people making comments? If I got or right, @JLynch would be interested in knowing what sparks readers to comment in large numbers. There is a knock on effect, many comments seem to provoke more comments. Then there is the simple fact that readers find the story interesting. Interesting enough to comment. Comments often snowball when readers identify with the characters and situations. It is not rare for people to give their own life experiences. This kind of points in the direction of slice of life stories being very popular with commentators.

When an author replies to comments, that virtually doubles the numbers. Some authors actively solicite comments, the let me know what you think note at the end of a chapter. Perhaps if you don't write a chapter note you don't get comments, so that's one thing you could do, ask for readers to comment.

Serial commentators, again if I got this right, it is the small group of members who read lots of stories, most especially the new ones out, and always comment. There the attraction is being along for the ride and in there with all the others commenting on the story as the author publishes, speculating on the plot, being part of the publishing trip, and of course, congratulating the author on a chapter well done. It's a unique aspect to this site and how it works.

So in brief, ask for comments, reply to comments, and probably get known as an author, which is a question of time and a lot of work. Personally, I'll just take what I get, I love the stories I write and enjoy publishing some of them for others to read. An occasional comment, like, email, is a nice to get bonus, as for site stats, there off the wall, often make no sense. I had a book with I think 36,000 views on chapter one followed by a few thousand each chapter and that spike in the middle. Remember, thousands of views come with time, look at the stats after three or four years, time makes numbers, but not 36,000!