2012 Survivor News & Views: Announcements and Discussions for the Survivorphile

[Boxlicker101]

I will when we get it pared down to what the options are. I am still not personally clear on what people are wanting to do with it outside of raising the cap in some way. We've had more weigh in on the chapter issue. I've seen a couple of suggestions, but honestly, I didn't clearly understand how exactly they wanted it done. So I think we need some more discussion on it before putting it to a vote.

My proposal was to leave the N & N category at three, EXCEPT THAT if an author wants, he or she can go to four or five, providing all are part of the same novel and each chapter includes at least 7,500 words. To use Red's example:

My Long Story (8750 words)
Her Name Was His (11500 words)
Milo Marked My Christmas Tree (40000 words)

Or, to use the same examples, it could be:

Milo Marked My Christmas Tree (13,334 words)
Milo Marked My Christmas Tree (13,333 words)
Milo Marked My Christmas Tree (13333 words)

Or:

Milo Marked My Christmas Tree (10,000 words)
Milo Marked My Christmas Tree (10,000 words)
Milo Marked My Christmas Tree (10,000 words)
Milo Marked My Christmas Tree (10,000 words)

Or, more likely, it could be:

Milo Marked My Christmas Tree (8,000 words)
Milo Marked My Christmas Tree (8,000 words)
Milo Marked My Christmas Tree (8,000 words)
Milo Marked My Christmas Tree (8,000 words)
Milo Marked My Christmas Tree (8,000 words)

 

[LOAnnie2]

I do have one other suggestion to deal with the chapters thing that Box actually gave me the idea for. Since Novels and Novellas is already for more feature length stories (whether as one large one or broken down), what if we had 2 rules for the Novels and Novella's category?

I.e. Chapters still allowed there no matter the condition (as it stands now)
If stories score in under 7500 words in the category they're worth (3,1,1) and if stories score over the 7500 word limit they'd be worth double still (6,2,2). So someone could have a contest entry like this (and using Box's examples)

6pts: Milo Marked my Christmas Tree Part 3 (10,000 words)
2pts: Milo Marked my Christmas Tree Part 2 (8237 words)
1 pt: Milo Marked my Christmas Tree Part 1 (6000 words)

With the added caveat that if someone says a story is over the limit (let's say 7560 words) and it's not (comes in at 7300 words) and they score it for double points, it becomes ineligible (to keep people honest). And of course the beauty with this still being that if the stories are close, you'd only need to check them if it's going to influence 1st through 6th places or 15th place and not ranked.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

I do have one other suggestion to deal with the chapters thing that Box actually gave me the idea for. Since Novels and Novellas is already for more feature length stories (whether as one large one or broken down), what if we had 2 rules for the Novels and Novella's category?

I.e. Chapters still allowed there no matter the condition (as it stands now)
If stories score in under 7500 words in the category they're worth (3,1,1) and if stories score over the 7500 word limit they'd be worth double still (6,2,2). So someone could have a contest entry like this (and using Box's examples)

6pts: Milo Marked my Christmas Tree Part 3 (10,000 words)
2pts: Milo Marked my Christmas Tree Part 2 (8237 words)
1 pt: Milo Marked my Christmas Tree Part 1 (6000 words)

With the added caveat that if someone says a story is over the limit (let's say 7560 words) and it's not (comes in at 7300 words) and they score it for double points, it becomes ineligible (to keep people honest). And of course the beauty with this still being that if the stories are close, you'd only need to check them if it's going to influence 1st through 6th places or 15th place and not ranked.

I think we are starting to venture into the realm of more complicated than it's worth. People have already said the rules are getting too complex. I think if we can't make it a simple rule, we might just want to leave it alone, IMHO.

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

Since the novel discussion has come to a stand still, I am okay with us keeping the rules as they are.


I have a question about Letters/Transcripts.

In the past I have done sets of Letters/Transcripts.

One set: An Epistle for My Captain (and was title Ch. 1 - Ch. 2 - etc) was written by me with another writer - SEVERUSMAX - writing the answering letter and submitting it under his name.

The other one is called: Love Letters for Him (and titled No. 1 - No. 2 - etc ) - they too were back and forth letters with jushorny also he submitted his half of the work under his name.

So would these be actual chapters and not submittable to the Survivor Contest? And if so, does that mean each letter/transcript cannot be tied to the other?

Thanks.

 

[SusanJillParker]

Just wondering, since I haven't seen anything posted, are there going to be chapter stories or no chapter stories?

When will the official rules be published?

I have several stories that I'd like to post and don't know if I should post them as a complete story or as chapter stories.

Thank you in advance for your reply.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

Well the poll was decidedly...unhelpful. With duplicate votes removed, we had a tie between keeping it the way it is and reverting it back to the way it used to be.

If you threw out the votes from all non-participants (meaning any that have not signed up this year), you get a 3-4-3 vote, which means *nothing* got an actual majority.

So I don't know guys, what do y'all want to do?

 

[SusanJillParker]

I vote to keep Survivor the way that it is without chapter stories.

I think that if I was writing chapter stories, I'd have about three hundred chapter entries of 2,000 words instead of about 100 stories of 6,000 words.

Just the sheer volume of trying to keep track of so many chapter stories would be nightmarish.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I vote to keep Survivor the way that it is without chapter stories.

I think that if I was writing chapter stories, I'd have about three hundred chapter entries of 2,000 words instead of about 100 stories of 6,000 words.

Just the sheer volume of trying to keep track of so many chapter stories would be nightmarish.

That was why I voted, the way I did, except it would be six hundred chapters of 1,000 words each. Under the current rules, I would not be able to add any more about Brenda or Angel Jones or probably some others, but I can live with that, if it means none of this:
http://www.literotica.com/s/computer-knockout-ch-01

This was the first of 46 chapters that was submitted for one "story" and this kind of thing is the reason for the ban on chaptered stories.

 

[LOAnnie2]

Well the poll was decidedly...unhelpful. With duplicate votes removed, we had a tie between keeping it the way it is and reverting it back to the way it used to be.

If you threw out the votes from all non-participants (meaning any that have not signed up this year), you get a 3-4-3 vote, which means *nothing* got an actual majority.

So I don't know guys, what do y'all want to do?

One could argue it's 7-3 in form of having chapters in the contest in some fashion, but at this point let's just forget about it. We're two weeks into the new year and still have people trying to manipulate the contest in their favor, and we have other people who want there to be less rules while still voting for more (see if you can pick out the irony in that statement). No point in fighting it when those of us with only a few stories who are just hoping to place at the giftcard level have to fight with all the alts of those trying to bend the rules enough in their favor to get the cash prizes.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Apparently, Freddie voted eleven times for one option, and four others voted for it. The second option got seven votes and the third received three. A plurality voted to allow chapter stories as they were in 2008. At least the caps rule would help reduce the abuses there were that year, because most of the 46 chapters I mentioned in my previous post would not count.

 

[SusanJillParker]

Apparently, Freddie voted eleven times for one option, and four others voted for it. The second option got seven votes and the third received three. A plurality voted to allow chapter stories as they were in 2008. At least the caps rule would help reduce the abuses there were that year, because most of the 46 chapters I mentioned in my previous post would not count.

I do not care if Survivor has chapter stories or not. I just want to know the rules, being that it's nearly 2 weeks into the contest, tick tock, with only 50 weeks to go.

Should we post chapter stories or not?

Yet, instead of making a decision, Box goes back to 2007 and digs out a story that was allowed back then, while the other little Lo alt echos the fact that she's only here to start trouble and stir up shit, instead of playing the Surivor contest.

All I did was ask a simple question.

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

I would say allow one chapter only in every category. Not one in every cap level, but one in every category. Once it's posted in a category then no other chapters can go in that category.

You give both groups something. There are chapters that can be placed, and yet no one can do a bunch of chapters through the whole contest.

 

[LOAnnie2]

No, I don't intend to win, but unlike you Susan/Freddy/Boston/Etc, I'm no alt. This is my only forum login, and my only author account. I do find it funny how you equate not going for the win as not participating though. This makes it sound like the survivor contest is only for those who value quantity over quality.

It's still funny how you say you don't care what the rules are, just make a decision and yet you logged in 11 different forum names to influence those alts. If there's any reason there's no decision yet it's because you confused the process. Blame yourself.

 

[Kaishaku]

Chaptered stories...

Well the poll was decidedly...unhelpful. With duplicate votes removed, we had a tie between keeping it the way it is and reverting it back to the way it used to be.

If you threw out the votes from all non-participants (meaning any that have not signed up this year), you get a 3-4-3 vote, which means *nothing* got an actual majority.

So I don't know guys, what do y'all want to do?

There was no tie, even if you count BFW's one legitimate vote the totals were 4-7-3, with a clear majority of 10 to 4 favoring chaptered stories and of those voters going back to the way it was before was favored by over 2 to 1. I recommend we disqualify all the multiple votes and then you will have a majority.

As far as allowing votes from only participants, if you intended to limit the vote only to members currently entered in this year's contest you should have specified that requirement prior to posting the poll. Besides, with the deadline for entering not until the end of October classifying anyone as a non-participant seems a bit premature at this time.

K.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Boxlicker101
Apparently, Freddie voted eleven times for one option, and four others voted for it. The second option got seven votes and the third received three. A plurality voted to allow chapter stories as they were in 2008. At least the caps rule would help reduce the abuses there were that year, because most of the 46 chapters I mentioned in my previous post would not count.

I do not care if Survivor has chapter stories or not. I just want to know the rules, being that it's nearly 2 weeks into the contest, tick tock, with only 50 weeks to go.

Should we post chapter stories or not?

Yet, instead of making a decision, Box goes back to 2007 and digs out a story that was allowed back then, while the other little Lo alt echos the fact that she's only here to start trouble and stir up shit, instead of playing the Surivor contest.

All I did was ask a simple question.

First, the link was from 2008, and there were 46 chapters involved, not just one story. Second, although I voted for the current rule against chapters, a plurality voted for reverting to the previous rules RE chapters. As long as we stay with the caps limitations, there should be no more than a minimum of problems. Therefore, I say we allow chapters as we did in 2008. I don't like the idea, for reasons I have pointed out, but we should, at least, settle the question.

ETA: I also don't believe being signed up or not should mean anything. I expect more persons to sign up before the deadline, and some of those who do will very likely not actually participate.

 

[Noira]

I voted to add in chapters again. People will skirt the rules if they want to no matter what we do, and there's always find and replace. Having the rule only hurts us legitimate writers; anyone who might want to just cut a novel into a bunch of bite sized chapters can always do a little tweaking of character names and poof, it's apparently no longer a chapter.

I really could care less what other people do to pad their story count. I just want to be able to write stories about the same characters and have them "count". I'm very passionate about my characters and creating people who live from the page, so to me it hurts my style to have to make new characters all the time for short oneshots who'll never live. I'm a big Discworld fan and each story about say, Vimes, stands alone but further expands the world and people around him. I love to write like that, not writing plot continuations but having constant characters so that people are getting to know this character intimately. My story count probably would have doubled if I didn't have to worry about making new characters each time.

So let me be the voice of dissent, why not. This is a contest about quantity, not quality, and even though I doubt I'm going to be writing 'chapters' I don't want to be afraid of writing the same characters twice.

 

[PrincessErin]

.....

 

[Tara Cox]

What about the idea that I posted before...the first chapter counts but subsequent ones do not? I favor this not because I write true chapters but because I do write sequels, which are treated the same way.

For instance, last year I did not post more of Sergeant Mike's Miracle Tour because I did not want to have the first one disqualified. But I know that my readers would love to see the other stories in the series...each which would stand alone with a beginning and ending.

In my preferred genre of erotic romance, sequels are quite well liked and that is my reason for voting against this rule...because sequels are treated the same as a single story broken into chapters. This would at least offer a middle ground on this issue.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

Apparently, Freddie voted eleven times for one option, and four others voted for it. The second option got seven votes and the third received three. A plurality voted to allow chapter stories as they were in 2008. At least the caps rule would help reduce the abuses there were that year, because most of the 46 chapters I mentioned in my previous post would not count.

Actually, Freddie only voted 9 times for that option according what I've found out (unless he voted from a different location for others.)

 

[SusanJillParker]

Pardon me, but I'm not the brightest star in the universe and with all the back and forth diatribe, grandstanding, confusion, and indecision, I lost track of the outcome, if there was one.

Are we submitting chapter stories or not submitting chapter stories?

And, if we are allowed to submit chapter stories, how does that work?

Can we fill caps with chapter? Or are we not allowed to fill a complete cap with chapters?

Can we post chapters from the same story to multiple categories? Or are we not allowed to post chapers from the same story to multiple categories?

Just my two cents but, sadly, this is getting overly complicated, again.

I didn't like the idea of no chapter stories, when suggested in 2009, but the idea of the stand alone story has grown on me. Stand alone stories has made me a better writer. I dare say that stand alone stories are more difficult to write than chapter stories.

Maybe, just a suggestion, and I'm not trying to influence a decision, one way or the other, not that I can but, perhaps, we should just leave things as they are and let the contest begin. I'm eager to play.

Now, that I've posted this polite reply, the same troublemakers can jump on my back and bash me for asking a few questions and accuse me of being someone that I'm not. I hope you will take note, Crimson, that I'm not starting trouble. I hope you will take note of those who are here just to stir up some shit.

Who am I? I'm a writer. I write stories. I mind my own business. I don't bother anyone. Yet, a certain few think that they have the right and need to kick and taunt me.

Enjoy your weekend. I shall await your reply with great anticipation.

 

[LOAnnie2]

Isn't it amazing how one polite reply automatically negates all the attacks made by someone just a few posts earlier.

Again, the reason things are so confused is because someone believed that multiple forum logins entitled them to stack the deck with a vote on the rules while at the same time proclaiming "more rules are bad" and "I don't care, just tell me."

I'll also point out now that many people are already participating and have scorecards with points on them already.

IF there is a 2013 contest, I suggest no rules and only the $500 prize for the winner, as those of us who arent going for the win have been declared as troublemakers and not good enough for the contest.

 

[SusanJillParker]

Isn't it amazing how one polite reply automatically negates all the attacks made by someone just a few posts earlier.

Again, the reason things are so confused is because someone believed that multiple forum logins entitled them to stack the deck with a vote on the rules while at the same time proclaiming "more rules are bad" and "I don't care, just tell me."

I'll also point out now that many people are already participating and have scorecards with points on them already.

IF there is a 2013 contest, I suggest no rules and only the $500 prize for the winner, as those of us who arent going for the win have been declared as troublemakers and not good enough for the contest.

Sorry, Annie Alt, blame it on my blonde hair, but perhaps you can point out to everyone all the attacks made by me, just a few posts later, that wasn't instigated by you and others because I can't find any.

Maybe if you just minded you own business and stopped attacking me, I'd stop kicking you in the ass.

 

[LOAnnie2]

Sorry, Annie Alt, blame it on my blonde hair, but perhaps you can point out to everyone all the attacks made by me, just a few posts later, that wasn't instigated by you and others because I can't find any.

Maybe if you just minded you own business and stopped attacking me, I'd stop kicking you in the ass.

So I started attacking myself as an alt? I'm sorry to burst all of your bubbles, but this is my only account. Perhaps you missed that. And it's a funny attack coming from someone who has more alts than stories I've submitted. Tell me, whose alt am I supposed to be?

I was minding my own business, the chapter category being added for survivor was my idea--so I do have a stake in things when someone tries to manipulate the vote. I'm sorry but doing something against what was asked (one vote per person) and then proclaiming you're the victim? Really?

 

[Kaishaku]

Actually, Freddie only voted 9 times for that option according what I've found out (unless he voted from a different location for others.)

No. It's actually twelve.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Originally Posted by CrimsonMaiden
Actually, Freddie only voted 9 times for that option according what I've found out (unless he voted from a different location for others.)

No. It's actually twelve.

Nobody but Freddie knows how many alts he has or what their names are. It was six for sure, and maybe as many as twelve.