Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Interpreting the "Views" Statistic

Interpreting the ”Views” Statistic

I am confident that somewhere here at writing.com is a great explanation for the Statistic, “Views.” If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it more often that Views are in my opinion one of the most valid measures of a writer’s work the site has. No doubt many would argue that “Reviews” are the most valuable and the Site puts a lot of weight behind reviews however, I don’t find them too useful. This isn’t to say that occasionally I don’t get one that is useful (Myra McBains) but even a thoughtful one is the expression of but one person’s opinion. Views however represent both the members (writers for the most part) and non-members (readers for the most part) Now it should be evident that I am making some generalizations and assumptions and if anyone wishes to correct me I won’t be offended. After all this is only my opinion.

Having said all this allow me to express how I relate views to the quality of my work. Now please keep in mind that this rule of thumb is based upon my work and those who choose to read it….I write several new static items a week and people tend to hate my stuff or like it but in either case choose to click on it to be amused or entertained or driven to apoplexy. What seems like a reasonable breakout for me won’t be the same for those who write more or less and don’t elicit the intensity and range of emotions that I do.

So here goes…

1. If I get 20 vies or less I consider my Portfolio Offering (PO) ….(note that I have defined the acronym in terms other than its more common interpretation) well below standard.

2. If the PO is less that 40 I feel the readers yawned.

3. If the PO is > 40 but < 60, it was a successful attempt at prose/poetry or whatever.

4. If the Po is >60 but < 100 I feel real good about it.

5. If the PO is > 100 but <150 I’m beginning to get excited.

6. And if it is >150 I treat myself to a meal at Red Lobster. (The flounder is excellent)

Now if something has a high PO I read it several times and try and figure out why it got the interest. This is not always self-evident because we are often poor judges of our own work.

If the PO is very low I do the same thing to discover what it was about the work that elicited such ambivalence.
Both of these flags are useful….one to show what worked for me and one to show what didn’t.

There is one final aspect of this and that is duration….I would say that a six month window is about right….To be sure the views continue to accumulate after this point but I get the sense that the significance is less meaningful beyond that window.