Anyone notice a discrepancy between the amount of views one would get when posting a new chapter in comparison to the amount of followers?

I know this may sound weird, but I found that when I post a new chapter, one of two things would happen:

1) I'd get a ton of views, but zero new followers (statistically improbable)
2) I'd jump a couple of followers or even get a review or two, but like 10 views on said chapter

Before anything I'd like to note that I am extremely thankful to every one of my followers, as well as the people who are taking the time to read the story even without clicking the dopamine button labeled "Follow". I just wanna hear if others have had similar experiences, and if there is an explanation for this seemingly illogical mathematical formula.

Your latest chapter will get views based on your existing followers reading it, since few people are going to start reading a book from the end, so increases in follower count are disconnected from last chapter view count. If you get new followers from somewhere or if they make a new review partway through, then it will take them a long time to reach the latest chapter and so you will see a lengthy delay.

I don't really use views as a metric for anything. Some of those views are archival bots (and scrapers, if you're unlucky). I've also discovered how easy it is to accidentally give myself views lol. If anything I would consider average views to be a bit more accurate, and I don't consider views and follows to be related in any way. Many, many people will view a story and decide it's not for them. I also figure a particularly interesting chapter title will lure people in to check it out and then they might decide to go back and read from the beginning if they like the chapter. Or not, and then it's a hanging view. Readers are illogical so their behavior isn't going to fit neatly into any mathematical calculation.

Basically as long as my numbers go up, I don't worry about it at all.

madisj Wrote: Your latest chapter will get views based on your existing followers reading it, since few people are going to start reading a book from the end, so increases in follower count are disconnected from last chapter view count. If you get new followers from somewhere or if they make a new review partway through, then it will take them a long time to reach the latest chapter and so you will see a lengthy delay.

Aah, I see! So these seemingly random jumps in views are basically one or two people who caught up with the story, am I getting that right?

If so, that makes me happy, but as Cymas said on this post, as long as the numbers are going up, I'm happy.

Thanks madis!

Cymas Wrote: I don't really use views as a metric for anything. Some of those views are archival bots (and scrapers, if you're unlucky). I've also discovered how easy it is to accidentally give myself views lol. If anything I would consider average views to be a bit more accurate, and I don't consider views and follows to be related in any way. Many, many people will view a story and decide it's not for them. I also figure a particularly interesting chapter title will lure people in to check it out and then they might decide to go back and read from the beginning if they like the chapter. Or not, and then it's a hanging view. Readers are illogical so their behavior isn't going to fit neatly into any mathematical calculation.

Basically as long as my numbers go up, I don't worry about it at all.

Yikes, I hope I don't have too many bots in that case. It'd make me really sad if that was the case. But if AV is a more realistic number, then I can at least rest easy.

MikanSensei Wrote: Aah, I see! So these seemingly random jumps in views are basically one or two people who caught up with the story, am I getting that right?

Yeah. You don't have a lot of readers comparatively, but do have a lot of content. A couple of readers going through all the chapters would generate a significant amount of overall views, and they will reach the last chapter at a completely random time disrupting the usual pattern of views that you have. I've been on hiatus for a bit so that changes reader behavior, but my daily total overall views can vary a lot (for example this week lowest was 307 and highest 634). I expect your variance might be even higher, as a new reader binging mine can generate up to 23 views (which implies around 20 new readers a day on average for me, neat), but in your case a new reader could completely overshadow your usual readers in terms of showing up in the overall view counts.

I think, there are readers, who keep themselves up-to-date on the fics, without being followers. I did it a lot of times too, only clicking on "Follow" at the end. I would say, one-third of the views come Followers, one-third from folks, who follow, but don't Follow, the rest is a mix of bots, re-readers (or checking comments), and so forth.

There are some strange jumps in views between chapters, I assume, those are readers, who saw the fic pop up in Latest Update, or checking a chapter or so back for a situation or such. Or had the Chapter bookmarked, and are checking for updates. Who knows.

Cymas Wrote: I don't really use views as a metric for anything. Some of those views are archival bots (and scrapers, if you're unlucky). I've also discovered how easy it is to accidentally give myself views lol. If anything I would consider average views to be a bit more accurate, and I don't consider views and follows to be related in any way. Many, many people will view a story and decide it's not for them. I also figure a particularly interesting chapter title will lure people in to check it out and then they might decide to go back and read from the beginning if they like the chapter. Or not, and then it's a hanging view. Readers are illogical so their behavior isn't going to fit neatly into any mathematical calculation.

Basically as long as my numbers go up, I don't worry about it at all.

what's archival bots and scrapers?

Archival bots are exactly what they sound like. These are the automated parts of the site responsible for indexing the stories and all that. They will usually add a few views to each new chapter as it's released, which can artificially inflate the view count.

Scrapers are less benign. Several writers report their work is being reposted on foreign sites such as East Tales. They certainly don't do any of that by hand, they have bots that "scrape" websites like RR (and others, it's not specific to this site) for content, which they then repost on their own sites in order to generate ad revenue through traffic. The only way to know if your story is being scraped is to search for it periodically and see if it pops up somewhere it shouldn't. There isn't really a defense against this beyond simply not posting any of your work publicly, ever.

Cymas Wrote: Archival bots are exactly what they sound like. These are the automated parts of the site responsible for indexing the stories and all that. They will usually add a few views to each new chapter as it's released, which can artificially inflate the view count.

I don't see why that would happen, it would be enormously inefficient. An internal indexing service should have direct access to whatever database is storing the chapter contents.

I've been making use of the "read later" list for some titles rather than following them. I do it more for the fictions that have been around for a while and have a few hundred chapters or several volumes. I feel like, even though I might enjoy reading them, older content doesn't have the urgency for me, like there's no reason to rush because I'll never reach parity with the new releases. For relatively new fictions where I might actually be able to catch up to the new releases, I might bookmark them first in my browser. If I find myself binging chapters or jumping to read the next update, I'll follow. People returning to chapters to read actual comments or replies will probably also effect views. The more interesting the chapter I think the more conversation it drums up.

MikanSensei Wrote: Anyone notice a discrepancy between the amount of views one would get when posting a new chapter in comparison to the amount of followers?

I know this may sound weird, but I found that when I post a new chapter, one of two things would happen:

1) I'd get a ton of views, but zero new followers (statistically improbable)
2) I'd jump a couple of followers or even get a review or two, but like 10 views on said chapter

Before anything I'd like to note that I am extremely thankful to every one of my followers, as well as the people who are taking the time to read the story even without clicking the dopamine button labeled "Follow". I just wanna hear if others have had similar experiences, and if there is an explanation for this seemingly illogical mathematical formula.

I've discussed this a bit in other threads with other members, but fiction statistics are complicated to model and understand.  Part of the reason why is that several different circumstances all get lumped together (even if you are a Premium member), forcing you to make a ton of guesses as to what actually happened.  The statistics only update I believe every 15 minutes, making it harder to collect precise time-dependent data.

You should consider followers as a function of time to be only loosely connected to views as a function of time.  Views includes followers, users who are not followers, and guests (who make up a surprisingly large portion of most fictions' readership).  When you post a new chapter, people who are mostly caught up will potentially add like one view each.  People who become new readers will add anywhere between one view and a large number (such as the total number of chapters you have).  All of these things can also happen during the downtime between chapter updates.  How do you draw conclusions while dealing with all these confounding variables?

Also, your observation, "I'd get a ton of views, but zero new followers (statistically improbable)," is not necessarily improbable.  Only a portion of readers follow.  It only takes a few people to spike up your views a fair bit if they read a bunch of chapters.

TheRealAlpha2 Wrote: I've been making use of the "read later" list for some titles rather than following them. I do it more for the fictions that have been around for a while and have a few hundred chapters or several volumes. I feel like, even though I might enjoy reading them, older content doesn't have the urgency for me, like there's no reason to rush because I'll never reach parity with the new releases. For relatively new fictions where I might actually be able to catch up to the new releases, I might bookmark them first in my browser. If I find myself binging chapters or jumping to read the next update, I'll follow. People returning to chapters to read actual comments or replies will probably also effect views. The more interesting the chapter I think the more conversation it drums up.

Nice to hear a reader's perspective! That being said, if you like longer stories with multiple volumes, why not check mine out (wink wink nudge nudge) 

James Wrote:

MikanSensei Wrote: Anyone notice a discrepancy between the amount of views one would get when posting a new chapter in comparison to the amount of followers?

I know this may sound weird, but I found that when I post a new chapter, one of two things would happen:

1) I'd get a ton of views, but zero new followers (statistically improbable)
2) I'd jump a couple of followers or even get a review or two, but like 10 views on said chapter

Before anything I'd like to note that I am extremely thankful to every one of my followers, as well as the people who are taking the time to read the story even without clicking the dopamine button labeled "Follow". I just wanna hear if others have had similar experiences, and if there is an explanation for this seemingly illogical mathematical formula.

I've discussed this a bit in other threads with other members, but fiction statistics are complicated to model and understand.  Part of the reason why is that several different circumstances all get lumped together (even if you are a Premium member), forcing you to make a ton of guesses as to what actually happened.  The statistics only update I believe every 15 minutes, making it harder to collect precise time-dependent data.

You should consider followers as a function of time to be only loosely connected to views as a function of time.  Views includes followers, users who are not followers, and guests (who make up a surprisingly large portion of most fictions' readership).  When you post a new chapter, people who are mostly caught up will potentially add like one view each.  People who become new readers will add anywhere between one view and a large number (such as the total number of chapters you have).  All of these things can also happen during the downtime between chapter updates.  How do you draw conclusions while dealing with all these confounding variables?

Also, your observation, "I'd get a ton of views, but zero new followers (statistically improbable)," is not necessarily improbable.  Only a portion of readers follow.  It only takes a few people to spike up your views a fair bit if they read a bunch of chapters.

Yeah, I didn't take into account the fact that most of the views come from people that binge the entire series (as a lot of people noted as well). 

Guess I jumped the gun a bit.

MikanSensei Wrote: Nice to hear a reader's perspective! That being said, if you like longer stories with multiple volumes, why not check mine out (wink wink nudge nudge) 

Clever marketing pitch.
Y'know what? I will bookmark yours and give it a look soon, no promises though.

A lot of people follow stories without actually following them if that makes any sense. They’ll like a story but can’t be pressed to hit follow yet strangely enough will every now and then type your title in to find it and catch up. 

Happens a lot more than you’d expect.

Apocryphal Wrote: A lot of people follow stories without actually following them if that makes any sense. They’ll like a story but can’t be pressed to hit follow yet strangely enough will every now and then type your title in to find it and catch up. 

Happens a lot more than you’d expect.

I guess that makes sense. I've caught myself watching a ton of channels on youtube without hitting like or subscribe, so I imagine it's like that.

The discrepancy between new followers and views is absolutely normal. I encounter the same situation when I post a new post on Instagram. A photo can get 500 likes, including some who aren't my followers. People like the posts, but they don't subscribe to the page. I do that sometimes, too. For example, I don't want to follow a particular user, but I liked one of their posts. I know that some social media users periodically buy followers in order to boost activity on their pages. One of the best services is tipsogram.com.

JulianneMelton Wrote: The discrepancy between new followers and views is absolutely normal. I encounter the same situation when I post a new post on Instagram. A photo can get 500 likes, including some who aren't my followers. People like the posts, but they don't subscribe to the page.

Use the right hashtags and you can see your posts skyrocket in engagement on Instagram. I had an art piece I did for a friend's tattoo go nuts when I decided to add the title of the game that the art was based on. It went from 7 or 8 of my usual friends liking to 130. It did result in a few new random follows, but it doesn't last. At least not unless you're posting similar content on a daily basis.

I think a lot of people don't even have an account. A majority of readers even. Of the few users who do, even fewer will follow.

I think also that readers with accounts will sometimes finish a story and when they see it has updated again, they may think to follow at that time because they're excited by the new release.