If we hypothetically limited each author to one fic in the dataset, then our dataset will no longer be representative either.
It's like the difference between the US Senate and the House of Representatives. (I'm guessing you're an American?) The Senate has two members for each of the 50 states, which might seem fair (like one fic for each author) but then the people in the sparsely-populated Wyoming have much more representation than people in highly-populated California. So not really fair. How fair you think it is probably depends on where you live!
If an author is prolific and writes a lot of bottom!Draco, it will indeed make it seem like there's a lot of bottom!Draco fics out there, *because there are*. So unequal representation is not a bug but a feature.
This might also be a (partial) answer to your question of unpopular fics. If the fics are *truly* unpopular, that is, not many people have read them or ever will, then those fics will not be influencing what people are getting in their reading experience, which is what we're trying to determine, right? That way of looking at it probably seems a bit harsh. I'm not trying to say those fics are less worthy. Just that if people aren't reading them, then they haven't affected reader experience at all.
Of course, I'm a reader so I tend to look at this from the reader's perspective. You are both a reader *and* a writer, so your perspective is probably different. I have a few more thoughts on popularity I'll add in a bit.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2015-03-20 03:36 am (UTC)It's like the difference between the US Senate and the House of Representatives. (I'm guessing you're an American?) The Senate has two members for each of the 50 states, which might seem fair (like one fic for each author) but then the people in the sparsely-populated Wyoming have much more representation than people in highly-populated California. So not really fair. How fair you think it is probably depends on where you live!
If an author is prolific and writes a lot of bottom!Draco, it will indeed make it seem like there's a lot of bottom!Draco fics out there, *because there are*. So unequal representation is not a bug but a feature.
This might also be a (partial) answer to your question of unpopular fics. If the fics are *truly* unpopular, that is, not many people have read them or ever will, then those fics will not be influencing what people are getting in their reading experience, which is what we're trying to determine, right? That way of looking at it probably seems a bit harsh. I'm not trying to say those fics are less worthy. Just that if people aren't reading them, then they haven't affected reader experience at all.
Of course, I'm a reader so I tend to look at this from the reader's perspective. You are both a reader *and* a writer, so your perspective is probably different. I have a few more thoughts on popularity I'll add in a bit.