The Official Valentine’s Day Contest Support Thread 2026

Yes, but when Witty said "run through the list" I took it to mean one bomb everybody.
The people who trash comp entries most effectively target the highly performing ones. It’s almost as if they are trying to boost their own chances of winning (or ensuring disfavored people lose), but that just couldn’t possibly be, could it? Must be fans instead, yeah, definitely fans. Because no one ever complains about a lack of reader engagement here, right? Must be the hyper-motivated fans.

The other thing is obv if you are unlucky enough to hit 100 votes in a comp and then your get the top list piranhas nibbling at your toes as well.

Which is why, ‘🎶 Don’t worry, be happy 🎶
 
The people who trash comp entries most effectively target the highly performing ones. It’s almost as if they are trying to boost their own chances of winning (or ensuring disfavored people lose), but that just couldn’t possibly be, could it? Must be fans instead, yeah, definitely fans. Because no one ever complains about a lack of reader engagement here, right? Must be the hyper-motivated fans.

The other thing is obv if you are unlucky enough to hit 100 votes in a comp and then your get the top list piranhas nibbling at your toes as well.

Which is why, ‘🎶 Don’t worry, be happy 🎶

Believe me, I know. I've been through this many times. (And my story just crossed the 100 vote line)
 
Thank you for saying that. Of course it's great to win a contest, but I've long since realized that, as someone who does not write in the most popular categories, they are the best way to put your stories in front of a wider audience.
Agreed
 
Yes, but when Witty said "run through the list" I took it to mean one bomb everybody

It makes sense to go through the top first, but I imagine there are some who one bomb everyone. :rolleyes: Apparently some people are targeted specifically. No idea how to tell who. The author probably knows who dislikes them for whatever reason. Arguments, etc..
 
Thank you for saying that. Of course it's great to win a contest, but I've long since realized that, as someone who does not write in the most popular categories, they are the best way to put your stories in front of a wider audience.

Contests can also help you learn. You get a lot more perspectives from viewers who don't usually read your stuff.
 
I'm thinking of the "I hate Rachel Green club" from friends. Maybe there are forum chats with small groups of people who get together to discuss their hatred of EmilyMiller?
Undoubtedly - I occupy way too much of some people’s brains (or what passes for them) 🤣.
 
Undoubtedly - I occupy way too much of some people’s brains (or what passes for them) 🤣.
Hey, Taylor Swift loves it when someone spends so much time thinking about her. Thank them for their devotion to you; be proud!
 
We can blame the site (and believe me I do) but at the end of the day some people are just very, very sad excuses for human beings.

I don't blame the site, this is an inherent flaw in any ratings system. While I do think there are trolls who target particular writers, I think there are a great many reasons they happen. People one bomb in "defense" of their favorite author or story or because they don't like the category your story is in or because it's too long or too short or your main character has the same name as their ex-wife and god knows how many other reasons. The problem can't be solved by banning a handful of individuals, there will be a new one come along right behind them.

One reform that I wish they would consider is to go to a 1 to 6 rating. There is a trend in social services to adopt that model, because it disallows anyone choosing a neutral vote, every vote is either positive or negative to a varying degree. That wouldn't stop one bombing, but studies have shown that it allows for a more accurate evaluation of opinion.
 
I don't blame the site, this is an inherent flaw in any ratings system. While I do think there are trolls who target particular writers, I think there are a great many reasons they happen. People one bomb in "defense" of their favorite author or story or because they don't like the category your story is in or because it's too long or too short or your main character has the same name as their ex-wife and god knows how many other reasons. The problem can't be solved by banning a handful of individuals, there will be a new one come along right behind them.

To an extent, the 1-bombs don't bother me here and there - they mostly get picked up in sweeps, and you have to assume that all highly rated stories are going to get a few. I get annoyed when I watch my story drop a couple of hundredths of a point from an obvious one-star, but I can live with it as I watch it slowly claw back up from legitimate votes.

What I can't accept is that I just had a story that was more than a month old, discussed earlier in this thread, get hit with approximately 35ish new votes over the course of 2 and a half weeks, 2 or 3 a night, that dragged it down from a 4.89 (with 140 votes) to a 4.45 after it climbed the toplist. It's unbelievably obvious trolling, but the site hasn't fixed it, instead giving me two automatic sweeps that pulled two votes off when I reported it. I finally just removed voting from the story before it fell any further.

I get that it's hard to pick out trolls systematically, and some can bypass sweeps, and there's nothing you can really do to weed out trolls without requiring logins to vote, which would be less than ideal. I don't blame the site at all for that. Still, some moderation of obvious cases like this where it gets reported would be nice - I'll keep my fingers crossed they do something about it eventually, my first report was a couple weeks ago and I've been lucky enough to have a great experience posting stories here until this incident. I now long for the days, a few weeks ago, when I only got the obligatory 3 or 4 one-stars on every story.

If not for the ability to vent in AH, I'd be much more annoyed.
 
Still, some moderation of obvious cases like this where it gets reported would be nice - I'll keep my fingers crossed they do something about it eventually, my first report was a couple weeks ago and I've been lucky enough to have a great experience posting stories here until this incident. I now long for the days, a few weeks ago, when I only got the obligatory 3 or 4 one-stars on every story.

If not for the ability to vent in AH, I'd be much more annoyed.
I can give you multiple (double figures) examples of precisely this happening to me with exactly the same lack of any action from the site. The only difference is that it’s personal rather than top lists related for me.

It’s the main reason I don’t publish new work here anymore. If they don’t do anything about totally obvious and systematic vandalism, when the author’s complaint is supported by meticulously gathered and irrefutable data, then what’s the point?

Maybe you can download free Literotica troll scripts somewhere on the web 🤷‍♀️
 
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