The Official Authors' Hangout Winter Holidays 2025 Support Thread

[Actingup]

Congratulations! @CleverGenericName , @McQueen127, @Jorunn

 

[StillStunned]

Winning scores, as far as I can tell: 4.9, 4.89 and 4.86. Unless they've already been visited by the bombers.

ETA: Apparently "Holiday Coverage" had already been hit, because it's placed first but the score is the lowest of the three visible now.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Wow!!!! These results came fast this year. Congrats to you guys!!!!!!! Well done!

 

[MelissaBaby]

Winning scores, as far as I can tell: 4.9, 4.89 and 4.86. Unless they've already been visited by the bombers.

ETA: Apparently "Holiday Coverage" had already been hit, because it's placed first but the score is the lowest of the three visible now.

When I won a couple of years ago, there were several of us who looked like we had a good chance to win, and a lot of friendly rivalry banter. So, I was watching and waiting for the winners to be announced, and saw the results right after they were posted. My story was at 4.96, but started dropping within minutes, and was below 4.90 within a couple of hours.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Wow!!!! These results came fast this year. Congrats to you guys!!!!!!! Well done!

View attachment 2583206

Congratulations to all the winners!

If I may offer some advice, contact Laurel ASAP with your info about collecting your prizes. Don't risk it falling through the cracks.

 

[Jorunn]

Unbelievable. Inspired by my recent trip to Ireland, I tried to capture their beautiful country, history, and culture into a story of Hope for the Christmas season. Hugs and kisses for all those who read and voted!

 

[RoyalAuthor]

Congratulations to all three winners! Well done.

 

[Ian_Snow]

Congrats to the winners, and happy holidays to everyone!

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Congratulations to the winners!

I'm still pleased with my 4.81 rating for a story that didn't fit Lit boxes - that's five stars short of the theoretical maximum. 25 5-star votes, one four and one one (another one was swept). For any potential readers put off by the BDSM category, rest assured there's some bondage described in the scene that starts the story, but that's all.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Congratulations to all the winners. Happy Holidays!

 

[RoyalAuthor]

Re: sweeps, there are obviously ways to game the system but I saw my story rise by 0.05 after the removal of 14 votes, so it's not totally ineffective at picking out some trolls. Anything helps, even if they could do a better job.

Happy holidays, everyone! Congrats again to the winners, and congratulations to everyone else who put pen to paper and created something for the contest to spread holiday joy!

 

[Aoife_from_Ulster]

Congratulations CleverGenericName, McQueen127, and Jorunn!!!!

 

[Voboy]

Congrats to all the winners!

These contests have changed a bit recently, but they're still a lot of fun. Good work, everyone.

 

[BryanRichardson]

Congrats to the winners!

I am happy that all four of the stories I posted are presently in the H range. Although one of them only has 17 votes, so it could change. I’m not worried about the T/I score changing since that story has 1.3k votes…

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

Congratulations to our winners and to all who entered!

 

[WittyUserName]

Congratulations to the winners! See you all for Valentine's Day!

 

[redgarters]

Congrats to the winners!
I was nowhere near the top but very happy with my effort. See you all for Valentine's

 

[old_prof]

Congrats to all the winners!

These contests have changed a bit recently, but they're still a lot of fun. Good work, everyone.

What way do you see them as having changed?

 

[WriterPerson314159]

Congratulations to the winners!

 

[Actingup]

Winning scores, as far as I can tell: 4.9, 4.89 and 4.86. Unless they've already been visited by the bombers.

ETA: Apparently "Holiday Coverage" had already been hit, because it's placed first but the score is the lowest of the three visible now.

Sometimes you can see a cached score - 4.96 is extraordinary. Regardless of the exact scores, the effects of sweeps and all the various factors, it’s clear as usual that three quality stories won and that there were lots of great entries. We have lots of reading to do!

 

[WendyTrilby]

This time around, I avoided this thread because posting here probably makes you a target.

I posted my story The Wonderful Mary Bailey a few weeks ago, not too early, not too late. While I did mention it in new-story advertisements, I didn’t post it here. It did great on its own and, as of a few days ago, climbed to a 4.85 with 24 hours to go—a solid score.

A few hours later, it dropped to 4.81 on just a handful of additional votes, so they found me and got me. However, the final sweep before the announcement cleaned up the mess and I finished at a 4.86. That tells me the final sweeps worked.

I’m sure a few malicious 1s or fake 5s still slipped through on some people's scores, but overall I think they got this about as right as they could. That said, I’m still going to avoid posting to the official threads for any competitions until they’re over.

 

[old_prof]

I will say the sweeps did more for my story than I was expecting this go round. My story had a character that many responded poorly too and still ended up at 4.85. (I'm ignoring my T/I story, of which I will never speak again, although 85K views and probably 50 new followers for four hours of work is still something.)

 

[MegaTank]

Well, after however many sweeps and times I stress-checked my story, there was a whole ONE vote that got removed. I thought my story would be a shoe-on for hot status, but now it looks like it'll be forever out of reach.

At least I can stop checking so frantically now...

 

[Voboy]

What way do you see them as having changed?

I'd say there are about three dozen comments from me over the last six months or so that might answer that question.

The voting patterns have changed. The sweeps have changed. The glitches are more noticeable. The tone of the support threads has changed. Much of that is part and parcel with how the site has changed overall, but not all.

 

[YmaOHyd]

I also wanna say that it's not just contests. I didn't realize how much the average rating of the top stories on the site has dropped in the last year. Everything that breaks into the all-time toplist overall or in certain categories is getting pushed down to 4.85 or lower. It's not uncommon for stories in these contests to get enough ratings to make them eligible for those toplists, so some of what we see might be the result of what's happening w/r/t toplists, not contest-specific behavior.