"One Night in XXX” Story Event: Official Support Thread

[NotWise]

Mid-week is lower views than the weekend too.

That isn't how my numbers work out. For me, the highest median reads/story come on Tuesday. The weekends are low. On the other hand, the differences from day to day are small.

The pattern using averages is heavily influenced by the high reading rate on new stories, and my stories tend to come out late in the week.

 

[NotWise]

Yay! "One Night in Gormaz" finally has enough votes for its rating to count!

 

[LoquiSordidaAdMe]

Yay! "One Night in Gormaz" finally has enough votes for it's rating to count!

All day I've been reminding myself that it's a marathon, not a sprint. I've only managed to read three today myself. I'll be reading these for a while. I have to imagine others will too.

 

[gordo12]

I suspect a lot of readers (at least in SciFi&F) are skipping the "One Night in XXX" stories -- which is easy to do, since they all have that naming convention. .

Another thought occurred to me. I wonder if the readers are suffering from "event exhaustion." There's been one event after another lately and more coming. Maybe we're hitting the "meh" stage with them.

There'll be another event along next week if they miss this one.

 

[NotWise]

Another thought occurred to me. I wonder if the readers are suffering from "event exhaustion." There's been one event after another lately and more coming. Maybe we're hitting the "meh" stage with them.

There'll be another event along next week if they miss this one.

I think the events are focused in the wrong direction. There's no reason to think that the readers have any interest in things that authors use for challenges.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Another thought occurred to me. I wonder if the readers are suffering from "event exhaustion." There's been one event after another lately and more coming. Maybe we're hitting the "meh" stage with them.

There'll be another event along next week if they miss this one.

That might be. They’re fun for us to write to, but for readers.... I think a lot of them just stick to the categories and authors they like. Geek Day is something for SF readers and they get read because they’re SF. One Night inxxx was a good writers challenge but maybe not something inherently appealing to readers in and of itself.

I got a bit overloaded myself, and I didn’t manage to get a story in for HeyAll’s event or for April fools day competition. I’m doing one for Geek Pride but that will be it for me for events and competitions for a while I think. Until Halloween anyhow.

 

[yukonnights]

So far, I've read some really well done stories. With this long list to go through, I've got enough reading to keep me busy for quite awhile!

 

[LupusDei]

I'd have to change the name since it would look strange to post a story with the title One Night In XXX a week after all the others.

I am planning to do exactly that whenever I will finish my thing. (Currently at ~55k words, still without part three and missing sex scenes in part four.) The title was excuse for the rendering of it, and a great way to dodge necessity to agonize over it, so no way I'm changing the title.

For the full trolling power I should eventually publish it in Loving Wives, despite my protagonist being highschool boy, and fucks no legally married women. But I can excuse it by his angry thought "Why everyone worries about us? It's not like we're married. Only we as good as are." regarding his (previous?) girlfriend as of two years, only featured in the story in one phone conversation and countless references.

 

[MisterWildCard]

So far so good. Four favorites, one nicely positive comment, and a 4.92 average out of twelve ratings. Seemed to have dodged the trolls so far.

 

[MelissaBaby]

So far so good. Four favorites, one nicely positive comment, and a 4.92 average out of twelve ratings. Seemed to have dodged the trolls so far.

You are off to a great start.

My ratings are still swinging back and forth, currently at 4.5 with 56 votes. I've gotten 2220 views, 9 favorites and 7 comments.

Thanks for the fabulous comments, guys!

 

[SolarRay]

Thanks Chloe! This was a fun author event. I do agree that maybe the title format requirement is impacting readership, more or less so depending on the category you're in. I think you're also right that the events have been too close together. That seems like an easy problem to solve though by agreeing to a stricter schedule for contests and author events, no?

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I find myself puzzled. Both my score and the number of votes have been bouncing up and down like a streetwalker’s knickers, sometimes implausibly high before falling like a brick. I’ve never seen such volatility.

Is there an ongoing sweep? One longer than normal?

 

[rescatooor]

I find myself puzzled. Both my score and the number of votes have been bouncing up and down like a streetwalker’s knickers, sometimes implausibly high before falling like a brick. I’ve never seen such volatility.

Is there an ongoing sweep? One longer than normal?

It sure does seem like it. My average is pretty locked now around 4.68 with 86 votes (just had a one bomb). At one point my score was at 4.11, later at 4.82.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I find myself puzzled. Both my score and the number of votes have been bouncing up and down like a streetwalker’s knickers, sometimes implausibly high before falling like a brick. I’ve never seen such volatility.

Is there an ongoing sweep? One longer than normal?

From the time it went live, voting on my story has followed the same pattern; a steady rise to above 4.5, then a downward plunge. The pattern had repeated itself at least a half dozen times. I have not submitted in Erotic Couplings before, and don't know the audience well. Maybe readers don't like my story to sex ratio, or that, as cold diesel pointed out, it's about a "bad girl" who doesn't get punished, but is perfectly happy with herself.

But I think enough other authors are having the same experience that it seems likely that a person, or persons is 1-bombing the One Night stories.

 

[NotWise]

I find myself puzzled. Both my score and the number of votes have been bouncing up and down like a streetwalker’s knickers, sometimes implausibly high before falling like a brick. I’ve never seen such volatility.

Is there an ongoing sweep? One longer than normal?

Part of it is that our vote totals in SciFi&F are low, which keeps the score volatile. In addition, there were votes swept, but I don't know if that happened since yesterday morning. At one point, the site had swept more than half of all the votes my story received.

I just got a new 2* vote, and with only eighteen prior votes, the nineteenth vote dropped my score by 0.15.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

It’s not just one-bombing. At one point, my score jumped to 5.0, which was both undeserved and, as I understand it, impossible. (Didn’t stay that way for long, but still...)

 

[MelissaBaby]

It’s not just one-bombing. At one point, my score jumped to 5.0, which was both undeserved and, as I understand it, impossible. (Didn’t stay that way for long, but still...)

There have definitely been a couple of sweeps as well.

 

[NotWise]

It’s not just one-bombing. At one point, my score jumped to 5.0, which was both undeserved and, as I understand it, impossible. (Didn’t stay that way for long, but still...)

That would have been a sweep. I think mine went to 5.00 at about the same time yours did. At the time I had a total of seven votes; 1*, 2* and five 5*. The site swept the 1* and 2* votes, so all the remaining votes were fives. The site also swept two of the 5* votes, and at that point I had only three remaining votes, all fives.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Part of it is that our vote totals in SciFi&F are low, which keeps the score volatile. In addition, there were votes swept, but I don't know if that happened since yesterday morning. At one point, the site had swept more than half of all the votes my story received.

I just got a new 2* vote, and with only eighteen prior votes, the nineteenth vote dropped my score by 0.15.

I think it’s just a troll one star bombing the event stories - mine started low, got swept, went high, dived again, got swept, climbed back into the 4.7s and just dived again. Low voting #s so it can be impacted easily. Not worrying about it. I think it’s some basement slime having their version of fun. Seems a bit mindless to me but whatever....

 

[NotWise]

I think it’s just a troll one star bombing the event stories - mine started low, got swept, went high, dived again, got swept, climbed back into the 4.7s and just dived again. Low voting #s so it can be impacted easily. Not worrying about it. I think it’s some basement slime having their version of fun. Seems a bit mindless to me but whatever....

We have one or more voters bombing the event stories. I take them as disgruntled readers or authors. I don't know why they're annoyed. It might help if they explained themselves.

On the other side (at least in SciFi) a lot of the other votes are probably coming from other authors, and they're voting high.

And the site is sweeping votes.

Add all that together, and the result is that if you don't have a lot of votes on your story, then the score swings wildly.

 

[KeithD]

I find myself puzzled. Both my score and the number of votes have been bouncing up and down like a streetwalker’s knickers, sometimes implausibly high before falling like a brick. I’ve never seen such volatility.

Is there an ongoing sweep? One longer than normal?

I think the site is actively sweeping this collection, yes. I'm seeing the same bounce.

 

[gordo12]

I watched the LW category ones swing up into the mid fours and then start to drop yesterday afternoon in lockstep. All declined 50 points or so and that is not normal voting. Especially when it took place over 60 votes or so (for me)

 

[gunhilltrain]

That might be. They’re fun for us to write to, but for readers.... I think a lot of them just stick to the categories and authors they like. Geek Day is something for SF readers and they get read because they’re SF. One Night inxxx was a good writers challenge but maybe not something inherently appealing to readers in and of itself.

I got a bit overloaded myself, and I didn’t manage to get a story in for HeyAll’s event or for April fools day competition. I’m doing one for Geek Pride but that will be it for me for events and competitions for a while I think. Until Halloween anyhow.

You could argue that if the writers are motivated (by a contest) then that makes better stories for (some) readers. Maybe it balances out.

My glance at the categories seems to indicate that the contest stories have been generally well-liked. I'm not sure about the total number of readers; I don't follow those statistics closely.

Regarding being overloaded: we have to pace ourselves. I get the impression that some contestants went for longer and more ambitious stories than usual. That's fine in itself, but it's not a paid job and there seems to be some self-imposed pressures by the writers.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I think the site is actively sweeping this collection, yes. I'm seeing the same bounce.

That last sweep was a big one, bounced me from 4.47 to 4.81.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

That last sweep was a big one, bounced me from 4.47 to 4.81.

Where you belong!