CSI feedback
From Fan History Wiki
CSI: The Review Factor
by Michela Ecks
Originally posted to Fanthropology
Contents |
Introduction
In mid-January, I was having a conversation with my friend Lucy on AIM about feedback. While we had various meta discussion regarding the social implications of feedback, one question came up was what were some of the reasons people gave reviews? What were contributing factors? My meta analysis of late trends towards statistical analysis so I went that route. What relationships exist between the number of reviews a story recieves and other measurable factors? The best place to conduct such an analysis is on FanFiction.Net where basic data is readily available. The fandom that I chose to examine was the CSI fandom because that is where I am fannishly.
I gathered the following data set originally on January 23, 2007 but updated the numbers on February 7, 2007:
The Data Set
All stories were posted on or last updated on December 1 and December 2, 2006. On those two days, a total of 19 pieces of fan fiction were posted. I chose these dates because it seemed like enough time had passed to allow for the just new shiney feedback to have been given and some searched for it story reviews to be added... while not old enough that it can no longer speak for current fannish behavior. I chose two dates because when I originally did this analysis, one day's total was too small a sample.
I looked at the relationships based on the numbers that FanFiction.Net provided. I looked at correlation between different data sets. To understand the equation used to calculate that number, please see Linear Regression and Excel and covariance which provide the equations.
The following correlations were found:
Reviews/Chapters 0.844254474 Reviews/Words 0.921909437 Reviews/Favorite Authors 0.063906964 Reviews/Favorite Stories 0.074346982 Reviews/Joined 0.168879362 Reviews/Userid -0.080206614 Reviews/Posted 0.032118246
Interpretting the data
This data seems to say the following:
- The more chapters you post, the more reviews you get.
- The longer your story, the more reviews you get.
- There is somewhat of a relationship between when you joined FanFiction.Net and how many reviews your CSI gets.
- No relationship between number of favorite authors and reviews.
- No relationship between number reviews and number of favorite stories.
- No relationship between number reviews and userid.
- No relationship between number reviws and number of stories authored.
Pairing Specific Analysis
There were enough Grissom/Sara, Grissom/Catherine and Sara/Greg stories to do some comparisons from with in the sample. The other pairings had only two stories in their sample and were thus too small to analyze. (All correlations resulted in -1, 0, 1, or null.) My hypothesis was that the numbers would be consistent from pairing to pair.
| All | G/C | Griss/S | S/Greg | |
| Reviews/Chapters | 0.844254474 | 0.9619 | 0.76442 | #DIV/0! |
| Reviews/Words | 0.921909437 | 0.8767 | 0.6629 | 0.1533 |
| Reviews/Favorite Authors | 0.063906964 | -0.358 | 0.18458 | 0.9177 |
| Reviews/Favorite Stories | 0.074346982 | -0.613 | -0.16452 | 0.1628 |
| Reviews/Joined | 0.168879362 | -0.511 | -0.08929 | -0.83 |
| Reviews/Userid | -0.08020661 | -0.475 | -0.09729 | -0.997 |
| Reviews/Posted | 0.032118246 | -0.265 | 0.43369 | 0.6934 |
That hypothesis was incorrect. Serious differences exist. And possibly, with a bigger sample, these differences may become more distinct.
Further analysis
There is a stronger relationship between number of reviews and total chapters for Grissom/Catherine then Grissom/Sara and Sara/Greg. The strong relationship for Grissom/Sara makes sense to me as a GSR reader because I have a total preference for longer fic. And I've left multiple reviews for multiple chaptered stuff on FanFiction.Net. The Sara/Greg sample's null number seems mostly to be a result of a small sample size which doesn't include multi-chaptered stories.
Reviews and favorite authors was basically random for the whole sample but there is somewhat of a negative correlation for Grissom/Catherine. The more reviews you have for a Grissom/Catherine story, the fewer favorite authors you are likely to have on FanFiction.Net. For Grissom/Sara, there is a weak positive relationship. For Sara/Greg, there is a strong positive relationship between number of favorite authors and number of reviews. I would theorize that it is possible for this pairing that reciprocity of adding stories and authors to favorites plays a role in the number of stories. I would also theorize that it is possible that, when compared to other shippers, Greg/Sara fans are more likely to give only positive feedback on stories they want to add to their favorites list. Other pairins may just be a bit more picky in what they add to their lists of favorites.
Reviews and favorite stories... Some what strong negative correlation for Grissom/Catherine there. Minor negative correlation for Grissom/Sara. Minor positive for Sara/Greg. The whole sample was random. It would suggest that reciprocity in adding favorites does not appear to be a factor in number of reviews on the whole. Adding too many favorite stories for Grissom/Catherine shippers hurts their ability to get reviews. This could signal the fanac is going on elsewhere for the pairing.
Both of these variables appear to suggest that there is not a social obligation for those ships to add people to your favorite stories and favorite authors as a way of garnering reviews... which runs counter intutituve to what I understand of LiveJournal behavior which seems steeped in social obligations.
The correlation for reviews and total number of stories authored was basically random for the whole sample, but somewhat negative correlation for Grissom/Catherine. There was minor positive correlation for Grissom/Sara. There is a somewhat strong correlation between the total number of stories authored and the number of reviews an author recieved for Sara/Greg. This seems to suggest that the Grissom/Catherine pairing more openly embraces new authors, while the other pairings support through the giving of reviews more established authors. The behavior between pairings is distinctly different and does not correspond to the whole of the fandom sample.
For when an author joined FanFiction.Net and the number of reviews a story recieved, the whole fandom is close to random. This basically holds true for the Grissom/Sara pairing. It does not hold true for Grissom/Catherine and Sara/Greg. Older, more established authors for those pairings are rewarded with more reviews.
Conclusion
In conclusion, if you were trying to figure out how to get reviews in the CSI fandom, the number you will get is pretty random. Various factors like how long you've been on the site, how many stories you've written, don't matter. Reciprocity in adding people to your favorite authors and favorite stories is not something practiced by the fandom. Lengthy, multi-chaptered stories will garner more reviews.
Review behavior can and does change based on pairings in the CSI fandom, which suggests different attitudes in the pairing communities that make up the fandom. This might also suggest other differences in the community such as attitudes towards feedback, fan fiction in general and demographic differences. If you're writing for the sake of getting feedback in the CSI fandom, chosing the right pairing can increase the likelihood of getting reviews.
