Valentines Day Contest Support Thread 2025

[D_K_Moon]

Impressive! You might make the top 3!

Last night it was still 4.82 with 243 votes.
This morning its 4.79 with 246 votes.

It appears that someone is afraid the story might actually be a contender.

 

[Duleigh]

Last night it was still 4.82 with 243 votes.
This morning its 4.79 with 246 votes.

It appears that someone is afraid the story might actually be a contender.

You are totally correct. That's why there are sweeps, but there's ways of reporting this.

 

[D_K_Moon]

You are totally correct. That's why there are sweeps, but there's ways of reporting this.

We'll see what the sweeps do when they hit, it will be interesting to see what the results are.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Last night it was still 4.82 with 243 votes.
This morning its 4.79 with 246 votes.

It appears that someone is afraid the story might actually be a contender.

LOL. Happens every time. Mine got one bombed out the gate, first vote. Every time it gets over 4.5 it gets one bombed again down into the 4,3's. There was an airstrike this morning - three or four in a row to push it down which was easy because it's in First Time and not that many votes. It's either one of my trolls (me being me, totally likely) or being targeted because of the competition. I never worry about it these days - the sweeps take care of them and not being up myself or anything, but I have enough followers that my stories get read regardless so I don't worry about the silliness. Been thru this for 10 years now and it's a fact of life. No point in worrying about it, altho I did when I was new. Now I just laugh and tell newbies not to sweat it. Those sweeps are pretty good at weeding out the crap votes.

You're in a pretty good position to have a chance at making the top 3, so wait and see, and good luck.

 

[ChloeTzang]

You are totally correct. That's why there are sweeps, but there's ways of reporting this.

TBH, I never bother. The scores average out over time, and for the comps, the sweeps will do their stuff. What I find tho is, you may get a sudden jump when you win, but your scores generally soon get averaged down until you have a huge volume of 5* votes - which can happen now and then.

 

[Duleigh]

Last night it was still 4.82 with 243 votes.
This morning its 4.79 with 246 votes.

It appears that someone is afraid the story might actually be a contender.

Mine took a bit hit today too - and they have a whole week to pull their ... to play their games. Then, if you win, place, or show, they're going to bomb the hell out of you because reading is hard they have the sads.

 

[thanagar]

Mine took a bit hit today too - and they have a whole week to pull their ... to play their games. Then, if you win, place, or show, they're going to bomb the hell out of you because reading is hard they have the sads.

They were busy last night. My latest wave of downvoting hit me last night (this is at least the 4th time I’ve been hit). Frustrating but I’m keeping my zen.

 

[Duleigh]

Frustrating but I’m keeping my zen

I agree - you work so hard and pour a big portion of yourself into your story only to have someone cast shade without even reading it. Zen can be hard to keep.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Finished out at :


4.32

907

32,214

15

260 views the last day.


We'll see if there's a sweep.

No noticeable change.

But a non-contest story from January somehow got nudged up to the magic 4.5 overnight

 

[Not2Pervy]

Having your story get bombed is definitely discouraging and frustrating. But at least the consolation for being well out of contention is that nobody targets my story .

 

[Wineandcheese]

Having your story get bombed is definitely discouraging and frustrating. But at least the consolation for being well out of contention is that nobody targets my story .

I’m with you. My goals are to stay above 4.5 and increase followers. So unless the sweep knocks me down a bunch, I’ve met my benchmarks.

 

[D_K_Moon]

Mine took a bit hit today too - and they have a whole week to pull their ... to play their games. Then, if you win, place, or show, they're going to bomb the hell out of you because reading is hard they have the sads.

2 more votes and I've lost 2 more points, now at 4.77

 

[RBeemer]

Same thing happened to me. Someone got on here and did a major assault.

4.8 to 4.72 overnight.

Oh, well. If everyone loses then no one does.

 

[Actingup]

I think my stories had a few hits at the start and then have been largely ignored by bombers because they're not scoring high enough to threaten their precious little egos. It's pretty sad behaviour, not just in terms of being motivated to bomb stories, but also not taking the time to understand that the sweeps will clear the bombs. Three strokes of the whip for being mean little pricks, but 7 more strokes for stupid.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Mike's kicking along my long-term average. I was wondering how a niece - uncle relationship would go in I/T, but there's no comments one way or another.

 

[Rollinbones]

It's interesting watching the bombing and the rise and fall of the numbers. Often it's an author's fan base doing the bombing, not necessarily the author themselves. However the dice fall, we rolled them and that's the important thing. I'm actually quite humbled by the attention my other works have enjoyed and have committed to make a better effort at entering contests.

 

[Rollinbones]

Having your story get bombed is definitely discouraging and frustrating. But at least the consolation for being well out of contention is that nobody targets my story .

Watch your story rise after the event. Some of my comp entries have risen two or three points after the comps. I don't read the stories during the comp. (Unless i'm predisposed to liking the author's work and want to see what shiny things they've pulled out.)I read them afterwards without the red hots and dots and am often baffled how they didn't do better. Such is life as old Ned said. Ultimately we are all mumbling into the ether and letting others filter out what they want to hear and what they don't. Early on, I took things very personally and sometimes still a nerve gets its nipple twisted. That's what we're here for though; the nipple twisting.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Watch your story rise after the event. Some of my comp entries have risen two or three points after the comps. I don't read the stories during the comp. (Unless i'm predisposed to liking the author's work and want to see what shiny things they've pulled out.)I read them afterwards without the red hots and dots and am often baffled how they didn't do better. Such is life as old Ned said. Ultimately we are all mumbling into the ether and letting others filter out what they want to hear and what they don't. Early on, I took things very personally and sometimes still a nerve gets its nipple twisted. That's what we're here for though; the nipple twisting.

LOL. Definitely the nipple twisting! rotflmao

 

[TheLobster]

Another sweep might be ongoing. My entry went from 4.43/31 to 4.59/32, which is impossible unless someone figured out how to 10-bomb a story.

 

[Wineandcheese]

Mine went from 4.71 to 4.74 overnight, making it my highest rated story.

 

[Duleigh]

Mine went from 4.71 to 4.74 overnight, making it my highest rated story.

How many votes did you lose?
I lost 4

 

[ChloeTzang]

Another sweep might be ongoing. My entry went from 4.43/31 to 4.59/32, which is impossible unless someone figured out how to 10-bomb a story.

Mine went from 4.35 to 4.47 and the votes stayed the same. Probably lost some and then got some new votes, Not many votes and only 3k views so its an easy one to manipulate. Which is why I just shrug and wait

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

No change noted so far.

 

[Actingup]

Might be gentle, site-wide sweep. Three of my LW stories lost 1-2 votes overnight, scores improved by a massive 0.01! Not quite the 1.3 improvement I would have hoped for...

 

[Wineandcheese]

How many votes did you lose?
I lost 4

I can’t really say how many votes I lost. Since it’s an I/T story, I have rather a lot of votes: 442. I don’t keep very close track of the stats, so I don’t know what it was yesterday.