Quasi-Pathetic Appeal (aka: Sex, Sex, Sex)

A trend that’s emerged in my stats tracking is this: Generally, the racier the content, the more hits it receives, the more times it is Favorited, and the greater the likelihood it will be commented upon. To demonstrate this point, scroll back up to the above screenshots and take note of the single-chapter story Stone, Water, Twig. It’s managed a mere 94 hits and 2 comments, despite the fact it’s the second-oldest piece there (the first chapter of A Shower of Kisses is older, by maybe a day, yet has 25 times as many hits). The next most popular piece is the aforementioned A Shower of Kisses, which has received roughly 452 hits per chapter (nearly five times as many as Stone). More popular still is When Worlds Collide, a four-chapter affair (stats not pictured) that’s been accessed 2699 times, or a shade under 700 per chapter. But by an almost egregious margin, Nothing Quite Like the First Time appears to be the readers’ favorite, decisively winning with 1825 hits.

Here’s where it gets interesting. Works on FF.net are self-rated on a scale akin to that used to restrict motion pictures. I gave Stone, Water, Twig, my least popular work, a “K+” (equivalent to a PG) for mild language and non-graphic injuries. Most of the chapters in A Shower of Kisses, the next most viewed work, were given a “T” (PG-13) for romantic themes (as the title suggests) and/or coarse language. The last chapter of When Worlds Collide received an “M” (R) for strong sexuality. (Yeah, I know, you all think of me as some stiff intellectual, but I can write smut just as well as the rest of ‘em.) Nothing Quite Like the First Time, as the title implies, concerns a certain, uh, “pregnant” topic, ahem, and so received an “MA” (NC-17) for explicit sexual content. (Yep, I’m blushing just trying to remember what I wrote.)

Surely you don’t need to be Leibniz to point out the relationship between sexual content and popularity here. Don’t lie, I know you clicked the link as soon as you read “explicit sexual content.” (Oh wait, was that just me?) The point is, while sex can be an appeal to pathos, I certainly never intended it to act as one here—the X-rated stories were simply brain droppings from my repressed, twisted mind, and not part of any kind of agenda.