The Official Valentine’s Day Contest Support Thread 2026

[Voboy]

The next almost 300 votes for my winning story had a slightly higheraverage (considered on their own) than my winning score.Once it got back into the leaderboard, it took the requisite damage and disappeared. Short of 1-bombs that are very predictable (right after the W was announced and when it's high on the leaderboard) it seems to have a "true" rating in the 4.9's. So at least for that story, I don't think your surmise is true.

No, that's perfectly fair; I'm sure it's deserving. But do you know its actual winning score?

I've been lucky enough (and I firmly do mean "lucky") to nab a few blue Ws, and never once have I known my actual score at the moment the contest ends. Because none of us actually knows when that moment will come. If your story's at, say, 4.92 now, it might have "won" at 4.96. We'll never really know, unless you were frantically watching the scores all night, hitting "refresh" every five or ten seconds.

 

[MelissaBaby]

How can an automated tool distinguish between a person giving one star to a story they actually read and hated and one person being a troll one bomber and not even reading the story?

 

[old_prof]

How can an automated tool distinguish between a person giving one star to a story they actually read and hated and one person being a troll one bomber and not even reading the story?

There are many theories about this and we should not discuss them. Any approach has countermeasures. Some people have the strong belief that some trolls have developed sweep proof mechanism.

The real answer is they can't and so they make educated guesses.

 

[SmilingLez]

There are many theories about this and we should not discuss them. Any approach has countermeasures. Some people have the strong belief that some trolls have developed sweep proof mechanism.

The real answer is they can't and so they make educated guesses.

Do you truly believe these trolls are masterminds?

 

[ElectricBlue]

How can an automated tool distinguish between a person giving one star to a story they actually read and hated and one person being a troll one bomber and not even reading the story?

Because it looks at several parameters which we don't go into here, because speculation about the method enhances the likelihood that trolls will exploit it.

A little bit of thought will give you insights which can be tested (using your own stories, obviously), plus little snippets of information people drop, here and there. I reckon I figured it out five years ago, and nothing I've seen since says I'm wrong.

 

[old_prof]

No, that's perfectly fair; I'm sure it's deserving. But do you know its actual winning score?

I've been lucky enough (and I firmly do mean "lucky") to nab a few blue Ws, and never once have I known my actual score at the moment the contest ends. Because none of us actually knows when that moment will come. If your story's at, say, 4.92 now, it might have "won" at 4.96. We'll never really know, unless you were frantically watching the scores all night, hitting "refresh" every five or ten seconds.

You could be right. I happened to see it just before the public announcement got made, so I think I got it close. And the three top scores were still in the awarded order.

Seeing it was surprising, because I was at a family gathering and so not watching at all closely. I just happened to glance when I had a moment away from the rest of the extended family.

 

[old_prof]

Do you truly believe these trolls are masterminds?

As I have said in other threads here, there are dozens of people in this forum with the requisite skills to do this. I'm not accusing any of them, just saying that the population is there.

 

[Voboy]

You could be right. I happened to see it just before the public announcement got made, so I think I got it close. And the three top scores were still in the awarded order.

Seeing it was surprising, because I was at a family gathering and so not watching at all closely. I just happened to glance when I had a moment away from the rest of the extended family.

My first win came during a contest when I wasn't watching anything all that closely. I didn't know I'd won until a couple days after the announcement was made. By the time I got to the support thread, everyone had struck their tents and moved on to the next one; my congratulations and thanks were VERY belated!

One of the posters in that thread, though, wondered why all three "winning" stories were so far below many of the other stories, because by the time that poster caught sight of the scores, they'd already been bombed way down. This was apparently a few hours after the announcement. I remember feeling glad I hadn't known about all that.

 

[IdahoExec]

Do you truly believe these trolls are masterminds?

Of course they're masterminds ... and actively plotting. They might even be unionized! What other explanation is possible?