Is this the new record?

[yowser]

On top of that, it seems that the only people still in favor of the challenge are those who wish to use it for how it has been abused - that is easy-peasy eyeballs on your catalog, which even further proves how this particular fence no longer serves us well at all.

I don't have strong feelings one way or another on this, just another 'feature' (not a bug) of the Literotica House of Mirrors, but I will say two things (both also alluded to on my post in the 750 world thread) that they are both potentially useful as writing exercises and also addictive.

They do flood the February submissions (as someone earlier noted, not creating a backlog so much as just a Noah's era deluge.) My only under-my-breath complaint is that folks who are claiming to 'hit all the categories' (one of my own minor goals) will use the format to do so. If that is a real goal for a writer, do a 'real' story in each genre, as has been my practice.

Arguments here do continue to dazzle the cortex.

 

[jaF0]

Why's everybody always bitchin' on Lit?

That AH town

That AH town

They're so down

They're gonna get fraught

Just you wait and see.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

That seems very disingenuous and in bad faith, I think you're claiming false consensus here

No, I'm not. I'm just looking at the evidence in the thread.

So if you accept that there is a "true spirit of the challenge," maybe a less destructive position would be to suggest some tweaks to the format that would reconnect with that spirit?

For example, I'm personally not opposed to limiting the number of submissions a person can make to the challenge each year.

That seems reasonable and would constrain participants to putting more effort into fewer stories, and really try to embrace the art of the flash fiction format

Sure, but the admin here has a history of doing as little as possible, and capping submissions to a challenge event would require extra admin, either manually checking each submission against a list of hundreds of submissions to enforce the cap, or actually custom coding a cap. That's kinda unreasonable given that this is an author run challenge and unofficially sanctioned event.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Why's everybody always bitchin' on Lit?

That AH town

That AH town

They're so down

They're gonna get fraught

Just you wait and see.

K-I-S-S-A-S-S!!
Bend over so I can do what I do best!!

YAYYY LIT!!
GO TEAM!!

(waves pom-poms)

 

[SinclairGroupLLP]

In an effort to find consensus, I can understand PSG's point that for some, the 750 word challenge isn't really a challenge anymore.

But I do know that for newer authors like me, Penny and others, it was an actual challenge. And I'm fine with the fact that I appeared to fail it, lol, as it's my lowest rated story of all time. I thought it was pretty good, but the audience didn't. That's fine. They didn't like this one, maybe they'll like the next one.

Perhaps tightening up the rules a bit next time and making it an actual contest might provide some of the guard rails that PSG is looking for. Limitations on numbers per author, putting it in the title, etc.

 

[Not2Pervy]

Surprised nobody has yet suggested what strikes me as a reasonable alternative: Make 750 (or “flash” consisting of under 2000 words) a category by itself, and place all the super short stuff there, leaving the other categories for stories above that number.

 

[YmaOHyd]

I'm uncomfortable trying to find guardrails when the need for them is largely being proposed by someone accusing other writers of acting in bad faith.

I have one of those stories published. Two more went through pending and, inshallah, will be published tomorrow. The first was the closest thing I've gotten to Poe's idea of unity of effect; I knew the setting and the ending before I knew any of the plot, and I knew that the unnamed narrator's feeling of emptiness was what I wanted to invoke. I think I would have lost focus had I had more words to play with. In that instance, the limitation of the challenge I think helped me distill the work into something approaching its emotional essence.

I tried to do something similar in my second one, attempting to create a romanticized erotic mood purely through visual imagery, leaving all the other senses to one side. Ultimately I think I failed, and thinking a bit about why I failed and the obstacles I created for myself led directly to the third piece, most of which already existed as an afterward to the second. So I pulled it out and published it as its own entry under Reviews and Essays.

Self-absorbed, definitely. Solipsistic, yeah, probably. But not an attempt to game the system, not the behavior I think of an "attention whore", not an attempt to get more eyeballs. My romantic chapter that's accurately and appropriately tagged "descriptions of people and places" and "too long didnt read" has more views than my Erotic Couplings story and is more highly rated too. If I was trying to flood the zone for attention, writing 750-word challenge stories would seem to be exactly the wrong way to go about it, at least as a new author.

 

[ElectricBlue]

In an effort to find consensus, I can understand PSG's point that for some, the 750 word challenge isn't really a challenge anymore.

The AH coterie of authors is not representative of the great mass of Lit authors, we're a tiny minority. We're the self-indulgent few.

But I do know that for newer authors like me, Penny and others, it was an actual challenge. And I'm fine with the fact that I appeared to fail it, lol, as it's my lowest rated story of all time. I thought it was pretty good, but the audience didn't. That's fine. They didn't like this one, maybe they'll like the next one.

Precisely. My guess, when the total list gets published in a week or two, is that the vast majority of stories will be from newer writers, those who have been here a year or two.

For more established authors, those who have been here longer, to say, "Well, I'm over the challenge, so you should be too, we should get rid of it," is arrogance, and a disservice to new authors.

For me, the 750 Word Anthology has been the best way, these last few years, to find new authors who are worth watching, because it shows those who can nail the art of precision, do have a way with their words, and an eye for precise detail that matters. If they can do that in 750 words, the chance that they can do it in 7500 is pretty good too.

Perhaps tightening up the rules a bit next time and making it an actual contest might provide some of the guard rails that PSG is looking for. Limitations on numbers per author, putting it in the title, etc.

There are no guard rails needed. Like anything else about choices on this site, it's pretty easy. If you don't like something, don't fucking read it.

But don't try to curtail my reading. I'll decide what I want to read, thanks very much, not have no choice imposed on me.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Surprised nobody has yet suggested what strikes me as a reasonable alternative: Make 750 (or “flash” consisting of under 2000 words) a category by itself, and place all the super short stuff there, leaving the other categories for stories above that number.

That won't solve anything. Nobody cares that the stories are all published. We only are that they logjam the system. Look at all the extra "why is my story not published?" threads this month. Because it's Valentine's and 750 all at once. Well, Valentine's isn't going anywhere.

 

[lovecraft68]

I can't disagree. It's served its purpose and then some.

I do doubt it pads may stats, though. It certainly builds the story count, but they seldom get over 4.5. So I would think that for many writers, their stats would actually fall on average across their catalog.

I stopped after last year. I did maybe five? total over the years. As you imply, the first was a genuine challenge. After that, it quickly got boring.

Adding to the story file is 'stat padding' at least to me. "Wow, that person posted 14 stories in two weeks!" Then they may look and be like, "Oh, they're all little" but at a glance it makes the story total more impressive.

It does give a bump by keeping you on the new page as well, and people possibly checking out older stories.

But you mentioned the score, and they aren't generally well received by the readers, and I think for those continuing to flood the site with them the readers are going to get annoyed at some point. I think other authors would as well, but most don't come here or understand what's happening.

I've never tried one because I simply have no interest. I can understand why people would accept any challenge, but like you and PSG are saying, okay did it a couple times, and now its just meh.

The thing should have a limit to how many a person can enter, but that would cause butthurt and we can't have that.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

For more established authors, those who have been here longer, to say, "Well, I'm over the challenge, so you should be too, we should get rid of it," is arrogance, and a disservice to new authors.

The fuck it is. It's simply the practicality of the site not being to handle the deluge. The 750 challenge is far more trouble than it's worth. If it didn't slow anyone else down, I wouldn't care at all.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I'm uncomfortable trying to find guardrails when the need for them is largely being proposed by someone accusing other writers of acting in bad faith.

But many are. It's just the truth. Don't take it personal.

 

[YmaOHyd]

But many are. It's just the truth. Don't take it personal.

I'm not sure you get to call a whole group of writers "attention whores" then retreat to 'don't take it personal.' I'm sorry people are using the site in a way you, personally, have not approved.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I'm not sure you get to call a whole group of writers "attention whores" then retreat to 'don't take it personal.' I'm sorry people are using the site in a way you, personally, have not approved.

[No personal attacks or trolling - including creating accounts for this specific purpose. Heated discussions are fine, even welcome. However, personally attacking / kink-shaming a fellow author or reader is not allowed within the Author's Hangout. Threads which devolve into the exchanging of insults will be closed and repeat offenders will be given a timeout, per the AH rules.
Thread closed by ADMIN, as its run its course and has now become personal attacks and arguments.]