The Official Authors' Hangout Winter Holidays 2025 Support Thread

[ShelbyDawn57]

Anyone else finally got their 25 votes to be tied for 4th place?

We're all tied for fourth place. I think you'd need a 4.85 to be in the top three.

 

[YmaOHyd]

We're all tied for fourth place. I think you'd need a 4.85 to be in the top three.

Don't worry about it too much. The only scores that matter are the ones right exactly as the contest closes, and sweeps have changed those by a quarter of a point at 11:59 PM before.

 

[Voboy]

I kept the same vote total, but the score rose by .5 or so. Now it's lost .3 of that on one more vote. Gee, wonder what that vote was...

 

[WittyUserName]

Anyone else finally got their 25 votes to be tied for 4th place?

My story got a surprising amount of votes. It was released today and I have 82 votes already. I have zero chance of placing, but the amount of votes and views is encouraging. A few new followers, too.

 

[WriterPerson314159]

Don't worry about it too much. The only scores that matter are the ones right exactly as the contest closes, and sweeps have changed those by a quarter of a point at 11:59 PM before.

Yup. Had this happen to me. Remember that the winners are based on the scores at a snapshot in time - and that can change hourly.

 

[Purechicanery]

Is there an actual way to view how we're 'placed'? If everyone's tied for fourth I assume I'm thereaboutsish as well. I seem to have found approximately the formula that reliably scores around 4.7. Don't think there's any going higher for me, though.

 

[YmaOHyd]

Is there an actual way to view how we're 'placed'? If everyone's tied for fourth I assume I'm thereaboutsish as well. I seem to have found approximately the formula that reliably scores around 4.7. Don't think there's any going higher for me, though.

No, because every other story's score is time-delayed. You can only see what it was 12-36 hours ago, and they will change significantly as we get close to the end of the contest. I've seen stories go from the low 4.7s to the high 4.8s, even up to the mid 4.9s, with the final round of sweeps, and then be right back down at 4.71 three months later. The only thing you can do is assume that the sweeps will be even-handed and fair, and take Laurel and Manu's word on who the winners are.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Is there an actual way to view how we're 'placed'? If everyone's tied for fourth I assume I'm thereaboutsish as well. I seem to have found approximately the formula that reliably scores around 4.7. Don't think there's any going higher for me, though.

Tied for fourth is a joke. The contest only pays three places.

 

[Purechicanery]

I see I am insufficiently familiar with some forum specific in-jokes, having never really interacted in this space before.

 

[TheLobster]

Tied for fourth is a joke. The contest only pays three places.

The real contest is the friends and haters we made along the way.

 

[srosa]

Well, my story is live. https://literotica.com/s/firelight-at-snowcap-ridge 4.32. Ouch. :/

I thought 4.32 would be something to be proud of!

I went for both a boring-sounding title if you don't get to see the tagline (and possibly even if you do), and a less-read category (BDSM).

So after a couple weeks Last Christmas has 4.2k views and now 28 votes, two recent ones being 1s so that's lowered the score a lot. It's very easy to track votes when you only get one or two a day.

I don't think there was a better category, though. Nor title, really, so there we are.

Impressive story. Do you know someone with ALS? The fine details make me wonder.

 

[WittyUserName]

I thought 4.32 would be something to be proud of!


Impressive story. Do you know someone with ALS? The fine details make me wonder.

Guess I'm a spoiled brat.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I missed the deadline this year, because of a family crisis. My Mom had an accident and broke her knee. On the plus side, my job has very generous family leave policy, and I will be with her in Maine through the end of the year. And, I've got a story 90% ready for next year.

Good luck to everyone who submitted.

If you finish all the worthy entries and feel like more Christmas, I have collected my past Christmas stories into a list.

My Christmas Collection

 

[Voboy]

I missed the deadline this year, because of a family crisis. My Mom had an accident and broke her knee. On the plus side, my job has very generous family leave policy, and I will be with her in Maine through the end of the year. And, I've got a story 90% ready for next year.

Good luck to everyone who submitted.

If you finish all the worthy entries and feel like more Christmas, I have collected my past Christmas stories into a list.

My Christmas Collection

Best wishes to your mom.

 

[Lord_Libido]

Mine still only has 21 votes. But I'm okay with that fact

 

[RoyalAuthor]

Guess I'm a spoiled brat.

Yeah, I got that way quickly. When I started, I would have been happy with a 4, now I get annoyed if I have a story score below 4.7. And the more stories I put out that do well, the higher pressure I put on myself to score higher. And now I'm terrified of ever not receiving the red H, which I know will happen someday. It's nerve-wracking, and it literally does not matter.

Champagne problems. I'm really grateful that I've been as well-received on this site as I have. The readers are, for the most part, really great.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Impressive story. Do you know someone ...
The fine details make me wonder.

Thank you! (Do please upvote and comment... )
Yes, I did. I'll DM you to avoid spoilers.

 

[RoyalAuthor]

There are currently, as of the moment of this post, one story at 4.86, one at 4.85, two 4.84s, and six 4.83s. Do what you will with this meaningless analysis of the standings at this meaningless point in time. Best of luck to everyone with a potential contender.

 

[TheLobster]

Mine's lost about 3 or 4 votes within the last few hours, which pushed it above the H line. It had dipped there before, organically, before it got hammered down back below, so we'll see if this current state lasts.

Not that it's gonna matter in the final tally, sporting the amazing score of 4.53 but that's still better than my previous foray into Romance

 

[Actingup]

Mine's lost about 3 or 4 votes within the last few hours, which pushed it above the H line. It had dipped there before, organically, before it got hammered down back below, so we'll see if this current state lasts.

Not that it's gonna matter in the final tally, sporting the amazing score of 4.53 but that's still better than my previous foray into Romance

That's promising, in the sense that if we're back to doing a series of sweeps over several days, it's likely to be a more thorough job. And a good time for everybody to download their stats if they want to see this play out.

I don't think that I'll threaten the leaderboard post-sweeps, but that's fine as honestly the engagement has been fabulous for the LW story with Penny, and even though I was disappointed that the more recent one got bombed, at least some people have read it.

 

[WittyUserName]

That's promising, in the sense that if we're back to doing a series of sweeps over several days, it's likely to be a more thorough job. And a good time for everybody to download their stats if they want to see this play out.

I don't think that I'll threaten the leaderboard post-sweeps, but that's fine as honestly the engagement has been fabulous for the LW story with Penny, and even though I was disappointed that the more recent one got bombed, at least some people have read it.

View attachment 2582507

I haven't lost any votes that I've noticed. Although, I have way more votes than I usually get. So, like you said, even though I can't place, at least the engagement is awesome.

 

[RoyalAuthor]

I haven't noticed a sweep yet. I've been just outside the top 3 a few times as best as I can tell, and a win would be nice, but I mostly enter for the engagement and in this contest that's been amazing so no complaints here.

 

[WittyUserName]

I haven't noticed a sweep yet. I've been just outside the top 3 a few times as best as I can tell, and a win would be nice, but I mostly enter for the engagement and in this contest that's been amazing so no complaints here.

I haven't had time to check the other entries, but I'm sure 4.67 is nowhere near close enough to be in the running.