Valentines Day Contest Support Thread.

[thanagar]

So I could use some help. I published my Valentine’s Day story - Slingshot - today. I’m very proud of it and I had a lot of fun writing it. Here’s the link for it.

https://literotica.com/s/slingshot

Which is great. Except the first story today “Our Special Night” contains all the text of my story. Word for word. Including all the comments and traffic.

This is insanely frustrating. I worked on this story for weeks and the first day is so important. How do I get this corrected?

 

[alohadave]

So I could use some help. I published my Valentine’s Day story - Slingshot - today. I’m very proud of it and I had a lot of fun writing it. Here’s the link for it.

https://literotica.com/s/slingshot

Which is great. Except the first story today “Our Special Night” contains all the text of my story. Word for word. Including all the comments and traffic.

This is insanely frustrating. I worked on this story for weeks and the first day is so important. How do I get this corrected?

PM Laurel. This happens from time to time. She's the one that can fix it for you.

 

[KeithD]

PM Laurel. This happens from time to time. She's the one that can fix it for you.

Yep, this. It happened to me once. I notified Laurel and it was immediately taken care of.

 

[thanagar]

I’ve written, but it’s murder. On the plus side, Slingshot is rated higher. The other story with my text had more traffic and comments. I mean, it’s great hearing how fantastic the story is, but it would be nice if they said it on my story.

 

[YDB95]

Yep, this. It happened to me once. I notified Laurel and it was immediately taken care of.

Me too, and she took care of it right away.

 

[Voboy]

Your choice of names created an expectation in a readers mind, you can disagree with that, but it ought to be worth noting, and something to consider in our naming choices. That's useful.

Oh, believe me, I've noted it. But I'm confused; is it not my prerogative to name my own characters? Must I justify those names for the sake of every reader? The story is fairly well-rated; I have no evidence that the naming conventions I chose made any difference to anyone but this one reader.

I'm curious what you would consider "useful" criticism then. If your stock answer is "I'm the writer and that's what I intended so fuck off", then I can't imagine any feedback would be "useful" to you.

His feedback on the story not being "Valentine-y enough" is well-taken, which is why I've not brought it up. I had doubts about that myself, before I wrote it, and I'm not surprised he picked up on it.

Plenty of feedback is useful to me. When it is, I'm hardly going to come in here and bring it up... My comment mostly asked whether anyone else had dealt with this commenter before, and that was answered. I admit to being quizzical about the form of his comment, much of which confused me due to its eccentric formatting.

I also found it amusing that he praised my writing and told me it was worth a 5* on its own. Then gave it a 3*. His prerogative, entirely, but it doesn't mean I can't have an opinion about it, surely.

 

[EmilyMiller]

He provided some good feedback on my Valentines story. I rather hope he reviews a few more of mine. It's always helpful to get an outside opinion, and when someone is willing to take the time to be that thorough I'll always be grateful.

I he working his way through the Valentine’s stories then?

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Oh, believe me, I've noted it. But I'm confused; is it not my prerogative to name my own characters? Must I justify those names for the sake of every reader? The story is fairly well-rated; I have no evidence that the naming conventions I chose made any difference to anyone but this one reader.



His feedback on the story not being "Valentine-y enough" is well-taken, which is why I've not brought it up. I had doubts about that myself, before I wrote it, and I'm not surprised he picked up on it.

Plenty of feedback is useful to me. When it is, I'm hardly going to come in here and bring it up... My comment mostly asked whether anyone else had dealt with this commenter before, and that was answered. I admit to being quizzical about the form of his comment, much of which confused me due to its eccentric formatting.

I also found it amusing that he praised my writing and told me it was worth a 5* on its own. Then gave it a 3*. His prerogative, entirely, but it doesn't mean I can't have an opinion about it, surely.

You can certainly have your own opinion of the feedback you get. It's when it comes across with all that vitriol that I look a little askance as the response.

No one is saying you can't name your characters anything you want. Douglas Adams pretty much proved that. Saying "other people liked it" isn't proof that a critic's comments don't have merit. I think we've all read some pretty unimpressive stories that were highly rated.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I he working his way through the Valentine’s stories then?

Seems to have hit quite a few of them.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

I'd hoped to be finished with my Valentine's story by last night so I could submit today but I still have two big sections to write. Curses! It will be a late entry once again! Ha ha!

The name of the reviewer sounded familiar so I checked his lists. He offered a very nice and constructive review on my story for ogg's memorial event back in the summer. Such reviews can be quite helpful even when they're not as complimentary as that one was.

 

[thanagar]

Just an update….the problem has been fixed. The other story is gone (I feel bad for the other writer. Hopefully it’s addressed when the correct story goes live). So far “Slingshot” is doing well. Thanks for the help in getting things resolved.

 

[Duleigh]

My first story, Friend Zoned, has gotten some amazing responses: Too much story, not enough sex. Great military story telling, the porn slows it down. As you can see, the usual. Two more are coming, both are 750 word stories.

 

[AlexFourways]

It's been rejected as being part of a series as it is numbered. A&C 10: Either need to vandalise it (change the names) and remove series references or just remove it from the contest and remove the stuff to make is 'stand alone'. I'll probably do the latter as I wasn't going to win anyway!

Actually, I vandelised it (edited it down a lot) and have submitted it as a One-off, but have not dared adding to that series!
While I am here, I notice some others have footers, Like Actungnight and Voboy, how do you do that? Please

 

[Voboy]

Actually, I vandelised it (edited it down a lot) and have submitted it as a One-off, but have not dared adding to that series!
While I am here, I notice some others have footers, Like Actungnight and Voboy, how do you do that? Please

Footers... like, a signature here in the forum?

It's under your Settings. Signature. You can embed a link to your stories.

 

[AlexFourways]

Voboy, thanks, I'lll look into it.
Actually, I can't find either Settings (only Options on my home page) and no sign of Signature anywhere.

 

[alohadave]

Voboy, thanks, I'lll look into it.
Actually, I can't find either Settings (only Options on my home page) and no sign of Signature anywhere.

On the forum side, not the story side. In the forum, click on your name in the upper right. It should pop up a box, with one of the options being Signature.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Starting late, but have just hit 30. Now the work starts - editing and polish8ng.

 

[AlexFourways]

On the forum side, not the story side. In the forum, click on your name in the upper right. It should pop up a box, with one of the options being Signature.

alohadave: Got it thanks, just need to see if it has worked!

 

[alohadave]

alohadave: Got it thanks, just need to see if it has worked!

It's working.

 

[AlexFourways]

It's working.

 

[AlexFourways]

Actually, I vandelised it (edited it down a lot) and have submitted it as a One-off, but have not dared adding to that series!
While I am here, I notice some others have footers, Like Actungnight and Voboy, how do you do that? Please

My story passed muster, but after 454 reads it's not doing well (3.5/4) ATM .

 

[Kumquatqueen]

My story passed muster, but after 454 reads it's not doing well (3.5/4) ATM .

You really can't judge by early views - some people 1* everything, and it only takes one to bring down a score hugely if you have below 10 votes.

I'm on 18 votes after 4 days, but will it make it to 25 in time? Two 1* votes have been swept, but how many more will Laurel deem non-legit over the next 2.5 weeks? And other votes, of course.
Nearly 8k views which is good, but I bet most are coming via the Valentine's list and then noping out when they see my big category warning, so it's likely only 800 reads, if that.

 

[AlexFourways]

You really can't judge by early views - some people 1* everything, and it only takes one to bring down a score hugely if you have below 10 votes.

I'm on 18 votes after 4 days, but will it make it to 25 in time? Two 1* votes have been swept, but how many more will Laurel deem non-legit over the next 2.5 weeks? And other votes, of course.
Nearly 8k views which is good, but I bet most are coming via the Valentine's list and then noping out when they see my big category warning, so it's likely only 800 reads, if that.

Kumquatqueen:
Thanks for that and my stats are surprising in 11 hours 3026 views and 4.25 Rating over 32 Reviews / Votes*.
Also can you see the votes anywhere as I check occasionally and derive my assessment using Excel, but have noticed the 1 sweep a couple of times**.

I have noticed from my series (where I naively thought numbers would fall as I lost readers each part [i.e. 1000 > 900 > 850 > 800 ...] that some classes of story do better, so either people are skipping parts entirely or just dropping in for the one part. Group Sex and Anal seem to do better than Erotic Coupling and First Time with Romance lagging, which is a pity as sometimes I think the sexiest things happen in them.

Your milage may vary as they say.
*As I am a relative newbie, and my first competion, I was going to ask if Reviews == Votes, but on Downloading Story Stats, I found Reviews are called Votes count. This is included if others wonder the same thing.
**I saw it in my first story where I also had someone complain about the lead woman having sex with four men - in a group sex story!)

Thanks again.

 

[alohadave]

Also can you see the votes anywhere as I check occasionally and derive my assessment using Excel, but have noticed the 1 sweep a couple of times**.

The site doesn't break out the votes. You'll need to calculate best guess.

 

[AlexFourways]

The site doesn't break out the votes. You'll need to calculate best guess.

Thanks alohadave, that is what I do "I check occasionally and derive my assessment using Excel"*.

If anyone wants to know how...
Column A has the row titles [Title, Views, Score, Votes and then a count from 1 to 62]

Column B Row 1 is the abreviated title (i.e. MW = My Wish). Row 2 is Views. Row 3 is Score using the formula =AVERAGE(B5:B62) and Row 4 is Vote count using =COUNT(B5:B62) Note blank values don't matter, but 0 does.

Clearly the B changes to C, D, E ... and the 62 might have to be increased if you get lots of votes.
Then as you add numbers to the column the numbers change and you can see if you need to put in a particular number to get the right result. Freezing the pane so that the top four rows and Column A remain visible is handy. Lesson over

*Other spreadsheets are avaliable and are intercompatible.

Thanks again...