April AO3 Hits Meme

[lannamichaels]

2011 version; 2012 version; 2013 version; 2014 version; 2015 version; 2016 version; 2017 version; 2018 version; 2019 version

So I actually did this a couple weeks ago and the results were so boring and repetitive from previous years that it was too meh for me to get up much enthusiasm and bother to post it.

But AO3 is now bringing back guest hits counting in the hit count after turning that off at the end of March because of COVID-related traffic increases.

And the thing about guest hits not counting is that it make the kudos:hits ratio a lot more flattering. Because logged in users counted, but you only saw guests when they kudosed, and if a work wasn't getting guest kudos, well, all the hits coming in were artificially low. Low hit count + regular kudosing behavior = better ratios. :D

So anyway, here's the requisite top 10 by hit count, and then the top 10 by how good the kudos:hits ratio is, with thanks to
flamebyrd for the ao3 works script.

1. Scenes From An Inconvenient Espionage Love Story. (Les Mis, James Bond) - 20,644 hits. Posted June 18, 2013 (6 years, 10 months, 2 days ago)


2. The Pornography Is For Science. (Les Mis) - 19,726 hits. Posted February 18, 2013 (7 years, 2 months, 2 days ago)


3. Polish Your Boots. (Les Mis) - 19,396 hits. Posted May 14, 2013 (6 years, 11 months, 6 days ago)


4. You Get Me Closer To God. (Les Mis) - 18,463 hits. Posted May 1, 2013 (6 years, 11 months, 19 days ago)


5. Handjobs and Hand Grenades. (Les Mis) - 16,903 hits. Posted February 28, 2013 (7 years, 1 months, 23 days ago)


6. Make You Come Undone. (Les Mis) - 15,778 hits. Posted April 10, 2013 (7 years, 0 months, 10 days ago)


7. Let Them Eat Pancakes. (Les Mis) - 13,964 hits. Posted March 17, 2013 (7 years, 1 months, 3 days ago)


8. Earthlings Gonna Earth. (The Martian) - 12,379 hits. Posted August 22, 2015 (4 years, 7 months, 29 days ago)


9. I'm In The Details With The Devil. (Les Mis) - 11,133 hits. Posted June 30, 2013 (6 years, 9 months, 21 days ago)


10. Dance Me Through The Panic. (Les Mis) - 11,081 hits. Posted May 8, 2013 (6 years, 11 months, 12 days ago)

And this is the top 10 by kudos per hit, which honestly surprised me. I'd been wowed for years by the Les Mis/Bond crayon fic's ratio but it's pretty low down here at #87. I am still, however, wowed by how long it's maintained that ratio, which is years. Plus it's still most-kudosed by a lot.

From this I have learned that there were a lot of kudos per hit in 2019... however, I think my artificial cut off being at 500 hits may have been too low, since maybe that benefited the most recent fics the most? On the other hand, my big complaint about Most By Hit Count is that older fics have so much built-up hit count that the list doesn't really change year by year, so why am I complaining about a metric that favors fewer hits ;)

1. What To Do After Firing. (Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett) - 631 hits, 177 kudos, 0.2805 kudos to hits. Posted June 25, 2019 (0 years, 9 months, 26 days ago)


2. The Tadfield Expatriate Club Of Allegheny County. (Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett) - 1,152 hits, 309 kudos, 0.2682 kudos to hits. Posted June 30, 2019 (0 years, 9 months, 21 days ago)


3. 31 Flavors. (Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett) - 1,762 hits, 464 kudos, 0.2633 kudos to hits. Posted July 22, 2019 (0 years, 8 months, 29 days ago)


4. The Sound Of A Yuletide Fic Not Being Written. (4'33" - John Cage (Song)) - 551 hits, 129 kudos, 0.2341 kudos to hits. Posted December 18, 2019 (0 years, 4 months, 2 days ago) - Yuletide Fic


5. It's Just Textbook Stuff. (Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling) - 846 hits, 184 kudos, 0.2175 kudos to hits. Posted November 18, 2018 (1 years, 5 months, 2 days ago)


6. You Need A Big God. (Small Gods - Terry Pratchett) - 983 hits, 210 kudos, 0.2136 kudos to hits. Posted December 22, 2018 (1 years, 3 months, 29 days ago) - Yuletide Fic


7. Double Drabble: The Carriage Held But Just Ourselves - And Opportunity. (Discworld - Terry Pratchett, Mars Rovers (Anthropomorphic)) - 834 hits, 173 kudos, 0.2074 kudos to hits. Posted February 13, 2019 (1 years, 2 months, 7 days ago)


8. On The Internet, Nobody Knows You're An Emperor. (Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold) - 568 hits, 107 kudos, 0.1884 kudos to hits. Posted November 7, 2019 (0 years, 5 months, 13 days ago)


9. The Times They Are A-Changin'. (镇魂 | Guardian (TV)) - 745 hits, 137 kudos, 0.1839 kudos to hits. Posted September 25, 2019 (0 years, 6 months, 26 days ago)


10. You Make Me Look Legitimate. (Check Please! (Webcomic)) - 4,751 hits, 866 kudos, 0.1823 kudos to hits. Posted August 16, 2017 (2 years, 8 months, 4 days ago)

If I adjust the hit count cut-off to be 1,000 hits, I keep #2, 3, and 10 above, but that gives me three that were posted in 2016 and one from 2014. So you know what? I'm keeping that cut off at 500. :P

Also, I bet myself that I could guess what the worst ratio was, over-1,000 hits category, and I was incorrect, but it made me realize I really should filter this based on the date that kudos were implemented and also throw out all fics imported to the archive that were dated before the archive existed, except then it would throw out the fic that I was certain had the worst ratio (and does not). However, ao3 says kudos were implemented on Dec 15, 2010, so throwing out all fics with a post date before then, my worst ratio fic is...

Barrayar Expects That Every Fan Will Do Their Duty: Excerpts From A Fandom (Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold) - 7,670 hits, 111 kudos, 0.0145 kudos to hits. Posted December 23, 2011 (8 years, 3 months, 28 days ago)

This either makes a lot of sense or no sense, depending on how much I think about it, since for ages that fic was in my top 10 by hits, and is still #17 in hit count. But I guess this makes sense? Because of how traffic on the archive has escalated over time? And the way kudos patterns have changed? And large hit counts have an inertia? I mean, this fic is #7 in comments.

Anyway, that was a surprise, and that made doing this entirely worth it. ;)

(and for lulz, the best ratio based on word count is Drabble: He Kindly Stopped For Me. (Discworld/Martian) with 100 words and 289 kudos. This fic had one notable hilarious kudos, so it definitely deserves this title.)

This entry was originally posted at https://lannamichaels.dreamwidth.org/1116670.html.