I know it's easier to say than do, but think of it this way: two people giving it a one because they're twats is enough to be the difference between 4.35 and 4.49 with that number of votes. If you're happy with it, be happy with it. Don't let either the 1s or the 5s affect how you feel about it.
That's what I'm hoping for. I don't expect it to win, but it would be nice have an "A" average (I figure a 4.5 is basically an A-).
Congrats! I'm working on one last competition piece that's a follow-up on last year's piece. Calling it "Sammi Elf Sweetens Her Sugarplum" and it's about a Christmas elf getting buttfucked by her human boyfriend. A true holiday classic, if you can't tell.
I know, I know. I just ... I know. I am happy with it. I am. At least it's not a surprise hit (relatively speaking) that makes me think "damn, maybe I should have quiried that to magazines" like this one was. One day I'd like to make money off of writing, but for now I'm just happy that people are reading my stories and occasionally telling me that they liked them afterward. There's a reason my forum quote is what it is, after all.
When looking at scores here, all aspects of writing are squashed together into a simple, single number. Thus, you can’t tell if your score is based on the quality of your writing.or the content of your writing. Then throw in choice of category, where great content can be scored lower because your story didn’t match reader expectations.
As it stands mine probably won't get enough to qualify. Its a shame but I've received 5 new followers since I posted it. So not a total loss.
The smaller the stakes the bigger the egos.
I love that you got new followers. I feel like that's going to be the major benefit here for me, too.
I wonder if some of this has to do with the fact that when the stakes are smaller, people feel less bad about manipulating the outcomes. Like they can allow themselves a little bit of fudge factor without it affecting their ego/feelings about themselves at all.
I don't know if it is the tag itself or everyone in the contest, but the contests definitely bring it out.
Word. And it's not enough to ping something as OBVIOUSLY fake, just enough to bring our scores down. Like, maybe my story really isn't that great, but knowing that there are people who review bomb stories is disheartening. Like, I don't even have that good of a score, nor was I expecting one, but it seems like they target anyone who isn't their favorite author.
I'd not noticed that, so I'll have to make sure that I tag it as such in the future. I know that some people like for stories that are part of contests to be tagged with that contest, but if that makes it easier for review bombers to target it, I'm not gonna tag it that way.
Congrats!
I'm not watching anything. Out of curiosity, how do you get that footer in your posts? The one that lists your stories. I can't figure it out.Just out of curiosity, are you guys tracking the ratings, watching your story move up and down the list as the days progress... or just waiting patiently for December 12th? No reason for asking *cough*
p.s. I have absolutely no delusions of winning anything here, just a bit of a nerd.
I have not been nearly as bad this time as I was in my other contest I entered, back in June. That time, I had to promise to my wife I wouldn't check more than every fifteen minutes. And unlike my other vow to her, I did not completely uphold this one. I did realize I was conceivably competitive for a prize that time. Eventually, the 1-bombs drove my score down enough I gave up and stopped tracking regularly. It hurt too much. That story was the one I'm emotionally most tied to.Just out of curiosity, are you guys tracking the ratings, watching your story move up and down the list as the days progress... or just waiting patiently for December 12th? No reason for asking *cough*
p.s. I have absolutely no delusions of winning anything here, just a bit of a nerd.
Go to your forum preferences (one of your choices if you click on your name in the upper right hand corner of this page)
That kind of sums up my attitude as well. I wrote the story mostly because being in comps seems to be a good way to get some views on an author's work, to have something published in between larger stories that need a lot of work and won't be published until the new year, and because I thought the premise and plot were challenging to write. So, I'm happy to see someone else get a deserved win, but am having fun watching the ratings move around and maybe learning something about how comps behave in the process.
