The now fully official Author’s Hangout Halloween 2025 competition support thread

[SouthernCrossfire]

Congratulations to Nellymcboatface, BrokenSpokes, and Aoife_from_Ulster on their win and to all who entered. I haven't had a lot of time but have enjoyed the few stories that I've read.

I'd mentioned somewhat low views earlier in the thread and a number of writers agreed. My story overcame an initial 1-bomb within minutes of publishing; it depressed the score during the critical first 24-hours (when on the category new list and most views are received), so I suspect that may have depressed the number of readers from the usually reliable category list in addition to the effect of the large number of entries on the contest listing. That I forgot to add the rest of my tags may have also contributed.

Whatever the causes, this story ended up as my contest entry with my fewest-ever number of views though the overall reactions of actual readers were very good and the story's rating finished about where I'd hoped. Thanks to all who read and left feedback in whatever form.

Finally, thanks to Emily for some fun pics and excellent interactive thread event hosting.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Whatever the causes, this story ended up as my contest entry with my fewest-ever number of views though the overall reactions of actual readers were very good

Yup - as I say, weird comp.

Finally, thanks to Emily for some fun pics and excellent interactive thread event hosting.

Thank you

 

[Erozetta]

Mine went from 4.74 with 87 votes to a 4.84 with 80 then immediately got another three tossed on it and a couple of fives not long after. But I also got a lot of comments and discussion around mine elsewhere, so I'm quite happy with it. Particularly because it was a very short story.

As far as other stories, I have one that had no vote change, but the score went up .06 points. The rest lost a vote here or there but no significant score change.

final score indicated the equivalent of 69 (5 star) votes, 12 (4 star) votes, and 2 (3 star) votes on just under 7k views and a story that was just under 7k words

 

[MelissaBaby]

The sweeps seemed as patchy and idiosyncratic as everything else around here recently. Some people appeared to have had positive uplifts acrosss their portfolio. Others I speak to saw no change at all, despite obvious tactical voting.

For me, only my Halloween story experienced an uplift (4.21 -> 4.72 - so yeah to the scaly faced in EH). But it then got three pre-result bombs in a row which didn’t get swept.

Maybe the SQL ran out of resources half way through and only part of the databases got swept. Wouldn’t surprise me given all the other technical issues of late. Maybe the trolls are figuring out how to beat the system .

It was a truly weird comp for many reasons.

I got swept in the afternoon and saw a decent boost in my score. Within an hour or so I received two obvious one bombs. If there was a later sweep, it did not remove them.

If they had been, I still would have only been around 4.7, out of contention, which is fine, because the wins were well deserved.

 

[EmilyMiller]

If there was a later sweep, it did not remove them.

If there was a second sweep, I didn’t see any evidence of it. The one sweep I saw seemed kinda erratic and not as deep (or maybe as widespread) as normal. Then it was for some other folk .

And, as you say, there were obvious unswept bombs after the sweep and before the winners were announced.

Maybe it’s just another part of the tech stack that is creaking and cracking under the strain. It didn’t feel at all like normal.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I got swept in the afternoon and saw a decent boost in my score. Within an hour or so I received two obvious one bombs. If there was a later sweep, it did not remove them.

My experience was the same. I was never challenging, but that doesn’t stop people making damned sure that remains the case.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Let’s hope for a more stable technical lanscape for Winter Holidays, shall we?

 

[iwatchus]

The sweeps were really interesting. Eight of my stories changed in score. My 'Change Management', languishing in Erotic Horror, suddenly lost about 10% of its 87 votes and moved from 4.39 to 4.67, from which I conclude that there were some obvious bombs picked up by the algorithm and some really horrible, withered people with scaly faces live in erotic horror (and will never escape). Conversely, I had a more recent non-Halloween story in Loving Wives that was also swept but only moved from 4.17 to 4.19 - perhaps suggesting the LW voters tend to be more tough but fair with a lower proportion of bombers amongst a crowd that tend to give a high number of views and votes. That's my theory, anyway.

I had far fewer votes impacted than from any of the last three sweeps. Only two votes I have found, but both were notable. I lost an H from a story (I lost a lone 5 there and it's a story I knew would eventually lose that H.) And a story lost a 1, which jumped it from just off the all time list to number 7 in the all-time category list. Not going to point out which story, but that was kind of cool.

I was wondering if I just hadn't been hit as much this go round, but I'm suspicious. I had a fair number of 1's not swept.

Losing that five continued a pattern. And I have participated in three author organized events, which have resulted in my only three non H stories. Odd. Hopefully 2026 will be different for that.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I was wondering if I just hadn't been hit as much this go round, but I'm suspicious. I had a fair number of 1's not swept.

As with the problem with submissions and notifications, it seems that the sweep (singular) missed a real lot of stuff this time around. Let’s hope this is not a sign of things to come.

 

[TheRedLantern]

But we had a lot of stories published and a lot of engagement. Which given the other site issues I’m gonna call a win

If it helps you consider this contest a success, this was my first one and I had a GREAT time!!! Thank you for your encouragement along the way as well as for shepherding all of us through the contest!

 

[Soixenta]

@EmilyMiller Thank you for your enthusiasm in running this support thread and keeping us all motivated and informed!

 

[Nynah]

Congratulations to the winners and to all who took part. This has been The Halloween 2025 Competition . On to Winter Holidays, hosted by @Duleigh

https://www.com/stories/contest.php/halloween-2025

The Winter Holidays thread this year is hosted by ChloeTzang, not Duleigh.

The actual link to the Halloween contest this year is here: https://www.literotica.com/stories/contest.php/halloween-2025

 

[DEFCOM5]

And the winners have been announced! https://www.literotica.com/stories/contest.php/halloween-2025

Congratulations to @Nellymcboatface, @BrokenSpokes and @Aoife_from_Ulster! And well done to everyone who wrote and/or read a story!

Congrats to the winner.
Hey I finished 4th. or 5th. or last. Who cares? Not me. I won in my book. 251 vote (most) and a 4.69 rating (most).
The sweep moved me +0.01! Yeah!

I am actually sad that the contest is over because I will not get to start my day with Lily and Emma drawing.

@EmilyMiller, thank you for running the contest.

@Duleigh, can you post the link to the winter contest?

And finally, thank you to all the authors who posted in that thread. For a month, I felt less lonely as a writer of low quality porn.

 

[DEFCOM5]

The Winter Holidays thread this year is hosted by ChloeTzang, not Duleigh.

Thank you!

 

[EmilyMiller]

If it helps you consider this contest a success, this was my first one and I had a GREAT time!!! Thank you for your encouragement along the way as well as for shepherding all of us through the contest!

It does help, thanks

 

[EmilyMiller]

@EmilyMiller Thank you for your enthusiasm in running this support thread and keeping us all motivated and informed!

You are most welcome - need to change my by line to something less demonstrative

 

[EmilyMiller]

The Winter Holidays thread this year is hosted by ChloeTzang, not Duleigh.

The actual link to the Halloween contest this year is here: https://www.literotica.com/stories/contest.php/halloween-2025

Yeah - getting 2025 and 2026 confused

 

[EmilyMiller]

@EmilyMiller, thank you for running the contest.

I can’t claim to have run the contest, just the support thread

 

[DEFCOM5]

I can’t claim to have run the contest, just the support thread

@EmilyMiller , THANK YOU for running the support thread!

 

[EmilyMiller]

@EmilyMiller , THANK YOU for running the support thread!

Welcome

 

[Trionyx]

It was a truly weird comp for many reasons.

This!

 

[HippyJeanSalon]

Congrats to all the winners

I couldn't finish my story in time to compete, but it's finally done. I thought briefly about sitting on it until next year (and it doesn't deserve to have my fat ass sit on it), but I said fuck it and submitted it. I have a couple more Halloween ideas I'll tuck away for next year. My lesson learned is I need to start earlier.

 

[WeShallUnclench]

For better or worse I didn't get so much traffic as to attract 1-bombs the way I did in the summer contest, so conversely the sweeps did nothing for me (except, again, weirdly killing one 5 star rating ; I choose to believe someone liked the story so much they voted on it twice and got caught)

Still can't complain - the contest still gave me a boost of attention, and I kept track of the votes well enough to be able to tell that the worst vote I got was one lone 2-star just before the finish line, otherwise 4s and 5s only.

 

[Aoife_from_Ulster]

Congratulations to Nellymcboatface, BrokenSpokes, and Aoife_from_Ulster on their win and to all who entered. I haven't had a lot of time but have enjoyed the few stories that I've read.

I'd mentioned somewhat low views earlier in the thread and a number of writers agreed. My story overcame an initial 1-bomb within minutes of publishing; it depressed the score during the critical first 24-hours (when on the category new list and most views are received), so I suspect that may have depressed the number of readers from the usually reliable category list in addition to the effect of the large number of entries on the contest listing. That I forgot to add the rest of my tags may have also contributed.

Whatever the causes, this story ended up as my contest entry with my fewest-ever number of views though the overall reactions of actual readers were very good and the story's rating finished about where I'd hoped. Thanks to all who read and left feedback in whatever form.

Finally, thanks to Emily for some fun pics and excellent interactive thread event hosting.

Yes! A huge thank you and shoutout to @EmilyMiller for all you did here I loved the art

 

[EmilyMiller]

Yes! A huge thank you and shoutout to @EmilyMiller for all you did here I loved the art

Thank you so much