The Official (Most likely) 2024 Literotica April Fool's Day Contest Support Thread!!!

[AlexFourways]

I don't know if it will clarify anything, but for Valentines Day I tried to submit A&C 11: with added info to make it stand alone, but it was Sent Back. I re-edited and rearranged and renamed and submitted as A Gift For My Valentine. Later I added it to the 1x: One Off Stories series. I also resubmitted the full version (de-Valentined) and that was accepted as a normal story as part of Alice and Company.
My entry for April Fools 1x: To Fool a Nerd and a Geek. I added (and titled) as part of the 1x: series and it was accepted, but I also put in the notes to moderator that it was a Stand Alone story.
So... If it is stand alone, you mignt be OK even with shared character names. YMMV.

 

[StillStunned]

I just noticed that the contest closes today. Anyone putting in a last-minute entry?

 

[Duleigh]

Thank you for the reminder! It is indeed the last day. If you have one that may not be ready by midnight I have seen Laurel let a "slightly late" entry in.

Now we let our entries sit for a week so the latest entries can soak up bombs votes and next week Laurel gets her vote!

 

[AlexFourways]

Of course, if you are in a GMT place (like UK) then you have later than 11:59 EST to submit your story.
But for those in the USA to benefit from that you would have to use a VPN to spoof that you were in the UK... er, but that would mean that you were in a time zone several hours later than EST and so have no benefit at all!

Good luck all! (just some will be luckier than others!)

 

[Trionyx]

Ideally the cutoff time would be GMT but then some writers not paying attention in the Western Hemisphere would be late and the whining would be incessant.

 

[Duleigh]

Ideally the cutoff time would be GMT but then some writers not paying attention in the Western Hemisphere would be late and the whining would be incessant.

Are you saying that 10:00 PM GMT is superior to 6:00 PM EDT?

 

[Trionyx]

Are you saying that 10:00 PM GMT is superior to 6:00 PM EDT?

No, I'm saying for everyone around the world it would be best to have a internationally recognized time for deadlines. That way daylight savings time wouldn't confuse someone in Australia who might otherwise miss the deadline because they aren't on daylight savings time in their winter, Northern Hemisphere's summer, and vice versa. Everyone should be able to find out when a GMT time is in their local area at any given season. Having said that, though, my original statement still stands:those in the Western Hemisphere would potentially miss a deadline and whine incessantly.

 

[Agent0069]

Didn’t have time to write a short story, as a result I’ve gotten an utter 4-pages long drag of nothingness.

Still, big thanks for moderators that managed to review it within a few hours!

I have a question - is there a way to estimate how characters/words/lines translate to literotica pages? I used a simple text editor, and in “Preview” page it’s all on one page, so I discovered how long my story actually is only after it was published.

 

[StillStunned]

More experienced authors than me say it's about 3700 words per Lit page. That seems to tally with my word counts v page counts.

 

[Bamagan]

Didn’t have time to write a short story, as a result I’ve gotten an utter 4-pages long drag of nothingness.

Still, big thanks for moderators that managed to review it within a few hours!

I have a question - is there a way to estimate how characters/words/lines translate to literotica pages? I used a simple text editor, and in “Preview” page it’s all on one page, so I discovered how long my story actually is only after it was published.

Roughly 3700-3800 words, according to most people. Legends say it's a character limit, not a word limit, and therefore things like html markup count even though they're unseen in the final product.

 

[AlexFourways]

Roughly 3700-3800 words, according to most people. Legends say it's a character limit, not a word limit, and therefore things like html markup count even though they're unseen in the final product.

Looking at stories, the limit cannot be precise as I have never seen a
<page break>
mid paragraph.

So clearly the 'publishing algorithm' (whether machine or human powered) has to start looking for a new paragraph at lower limit and has to skip back (below lower limit) if it exceeds the upper limit (by some unspecified hard limit).

Personally, I just write but have a sort of target Word file size of about 40 to 55 KB as being between two and three pages which suits my reading preference and hopefully (and seemingly) of those who read my ramblings.

 

[Duleigh]

No, I'm saying for everyone around the world it would be best to have a internationally recognized time for deadlines. That way daylight savings time wouldn't confuse someone in Australia who might otherwise miss the deadline because they aren't on daylight savings time in their winter, Northern Hemisphere's summer, and vice versa. Everyone should be able to find out when a GMT time is in their local area at any given season. Having said that, though, my original statement still stands: those in the Western Hemisphere would potentially miss a deadline and whine incessantly.

If you're saying "Entries need to be in at 12:00 PM GMT 03/22/24 I suppose that could be one solution. What's wrong with saying 12:00 PM EDT 03/22/24? Both GMT and EDT are a simple internet search for someone that doesn't live right there, and the lit server doesn't have to be configured to tell time in GMT. Then again if you're submitting right at the edge of the dateline it's probably unlikely to get enough votes.

 

[AlexFourways]

If you're saying "Entries need to be in at 12:00 PM GMT 03/22/24 I suppose that could be one solution. What's wrong with saying 12:00 PM EDT 03/22/24? Both GMT and EDT are a simple internet search for someone that doesn't live right there, and the lit server doesn't have to be configured to tell time in GMT. Then again if you're submitting right at the edge of the dateline it's probably unlikely to get enough votes.

I meant it as a joke about a failed time travel (temporal shifts), i.e. the apparent later deadline in the UK (even later for points west until the IDL) and using a VPN to appear to be posting from the UK, which would totally fail! The discussion almost makes me think of when British towns had local time and when the railways came some clocks had two minute hands, local and London.
If you are struggling to meet the deadline, you probably should have planned better, and that is from a non-Amateur Crastinator. (I'm fully qualified having sent in my application at the last possible minute and my CPD folder will be ready when it is requested - honest).

 

[RetroFan]

I had to travel interstate for work and simply didn't get time to finish my second planned April Fools story, a Loving Wives story set on the Titanic. However, I still intend to finish and submit the story just as a normal entry, hopefully before Easter.

Even if I had finished it with the benefit of hindsight it wouldn't have made for a good April Fools' Day story anyway. Apart from the Titanic disaster occurring in April 1912, there's no other connection to April. There's no real surprises in my story, the ship hits an iceberg and sinks in the cold North Atlantic with heavy loss of life, its not like its in an alternate reality where the ship never sinks and has a long successful life. Certainly its not an amusing story, things are played pretty straight dramatic story, and while the ending throws up a surprise, it's not really a huge twist.

Whether or not the LW fans will appreciate going for a trip on the Titanic we'll find out soon.

 

[AlexFourways]

I only entered Valentines and Fools for fun, but I have discovered that it is a good shop window for getting found by new readers, and hence followers. Those two entries have had some of my highest reader numbers, comments, favourites and follows. I'll consider whether to do others if inspiration strikes. YMMV

 

[Rustyoznail]

Hmm. I think a little sweep has gone through, getting ready for the main event. My two stories have picked up a couple of points.

 

[FreyaGersemi]

Mine didn't budge. :-(

 

[Trionyx]

Mine didn't budge. :-(

Ditto.

 

[StillStunned]

Mine got a new vote and went down a fraction.

 

[AlexFourways]

I lost a vote, but went up 0.02. My only conclusion (using my spreadsheet) is either there was a 3 I hadn't detected, that was swept, or two fours swept and an new 5. Occam would go for the former. (other combinations of swept 1 or 2 just wouldn't work). Who knows...

 

[Bamagan]

Looks like the purge is on. Eight votes from mine just vanished. The score rebounded about 0.29 points.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Ok, a sweep just knocked out 11 votes out of 65 for my entry. Still doesn't put it anywhere near contention, but feel better about 4.39.

 

[StillStunned]

Ok, a sweep just knocked out 11 votes out of 65 for my entry. Still doesn't put it anywhere near contention, but feel better about 4.39.

Ouch! Someone really didn't want you to win.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Ouch! Someone really didn't want you to win.

I'm going to take it as a compliment that they thought I might actually be in the running. (I never was...)

 

[AlexFourways]

I meant it as a joke about a failed time travel (temporal shifts), i.e. the apparent later deadline in the UK (even later for points west until the IDL) and using a VPN to appear to be posting from the UK, which would totally fail! The discussion almost makes me think of when British towns had local time and when the railways came some clocks had two minute hands, local and London.
If you are struggling to meet the deadline, you probably should have planned better, and that is from a non-Amateur Crastinator. (I'm fully qualified having sent in my application at the last possible minute and my CPD folder will be ready when it is requested - honest).

Final word (or not) on this: If the deadline was midnight for timezone -12, then nobody could think that they have any extra hours as it would be the next day no matter where you lived. But, as I said, it was supposed to be a joke on using a VPN to go to an earlier timezone thinking that would give you more time, which it wouldn't!