The 2015 Literotica Awards Discussion Thread

[sr71plt]

Cyber coffee klatch? Wow. I don't know pocketbooklovr, have never talked to her in any shape or form. What I did was READ her work and commented on this thread giving my honest opinion of her work and somehow that makes me a part of some grand conspiracy.

As far as I know, again only from reading the posts, pocketbooklovr never claimed she was the most influential. Her readers did.

As far as insulting anyone, the only one I see doing that is you. You've insulted her repeatedly and also her readers.

Your join date and number of posts say it all.

 

[dolphinsfan]

I have no dog in this race but I still want to add my 2 cents. I'm a long time reader and lurker on the boards who opened an account to reply to this thread, so if new members and page clicks was the intent of this contest then it is working.


I freely admitted that I joined so I could respond to this thread or did you miss that part?

You are grasping at straws here, calling people sock puppets, saying they are part of a grand conspiracy all trying to prove your point. All this is doing is make you look more and more foolish. Give it a rest, and step away from the keyboard before you lose whatever is remaining of your dignity.

 

[sr71plt]

Your very existence could be graphic evidence that this reader fan club consists of one person with twenty account names.

 

[observer7]

Absolutely love this post! My sentiments exactly. I enjoy a great number of stories by varied authors on this site. Some people here seem to see a conspiracy under every rock even when it is not there. With so many talented authors, it should be enough for them to know their work is enjoyed and it makes their readers happy. Tearing fellow authors down to make themselves look good is not becoming.

Haha...except that's just it. They aren't making themselves look good. They are convinced they will die if they compromise on anything. They are like G'Kar and Molari on Babylon 5 season 1. They live to cling to old behaviors they formed a while ago and never adjusted them to accomodate experience and wisdom (i.e when something doesn't work the first time...why? Is there something in my actions influencing repeated similar reactions from many people? Can I do something differently?)

They are brittle, dry. Dying without wisdom. Without that and earned dignity and respect from others, you don't have much to trade for your youth, do you? Surprised their foreheads haven't cracked meeting the same wall so many times. Must be the constant shifting of personal responsibility making a soft spot in the infant skulls of masculine tantrums.

Nice twilight post, lovecraft. You are actually saying you blame your readers now for not doing what you think they should do on behalf of you posting free stories. I'll just let that sink in.

Sometimes it is wrong to be right.

 

[TxRad]

Face it sr71plt you are just mad because PBLs response burned your ass good. Nobody has to justify to YOU why and how they voted. Its their vote. There were enough people who nominated her into the final competition that thought she deserved it. Its their vote. I have been following this thread and saw many comments disparaging her and you are the one who said she should be ashamed. Grow up and stop trying to bully people into accepting YOUR point of view.

You still don't get the point do you? One chapter of a story posted does not make a most influential writer no matter how many of someones friends say so. There has to be a reason for the nomination in the first place and there is no indication anywhere on Lit that anyone was helped or influenced.

As for burning SR, I think it was the other way around.

Speaking of Bullying, pots shouldn't talk about kettles.

 

[BreakTheBar]

Your join date and number of posts say it all.

If you want a comment from someone with a decent join date and maybe a couple of stories, I feel like I might apply to those stipulations.



This thread is an abomination. A big thank you to those who have come in and stood up for various authors who aren't obsessive-compulsive about these things. I've been following this for a while and have deleted a few quick replies I wanted to send out purely because of the venom involved in here.

Also, a big thank you to those who voted through the year and got me two spots in the category votes. Every single vote and comment is appreciated, as I'm sure many other authors nominated feel. To receive any recognition for your writing is an amazing feeling, and while awards can be bittersweet that doesn't mean the nominations themselves don't mean a great deal to us.

So, some thoughts on the conversations going on in here...

There has to be a reason for the nomination in the first place and there is no indication anywhere on Lit that anyone was helped or influenced.

I think this quote just about sums up the POV of Sr71plt and Lovecraft68 as well.

Why? Why do you, or anyone else, think they deserve to know why someone was nominated beyond deciding how you place your own vote? The nomination threads didn't ask for an essay on the author and they didn't demand an approval process. If you don't like how the nominations were taken, bring it up after the fact. Don't badmouth the nominees or the site admin in a thread originally intended to talk about the stories and nominations in these Awards. Effect positive change for the future by trying to make changes positively.

To be fair, if someone went out of their way to ask people to nominate them, that is a little low and needy, I agree on that point. But what gives you the right to pass judgement when you admittedly have little to no contact with the nominee? They didn't influence you, that's great. Don't vote for them. Clearly they had SOME sort of influence on SOMEONE. If that influence was through a maintained presence on social media/blogs/etc, GOOD FOR THEM. They went through the effort to connect with their readership or other authors in ways you didn't see. The publishing industry wants to see net presence, author websites and blogs, anything that shows connectedness with the reader base. Why should Lit look down on the same thing that the Pros want?

Supposedly the chapter thing will be changed next year, we'll see. Being this is the first time these awards have appeared in 4 years there is no guarantee they even come back at all.

But for this year I'm finishing second in two categories to authors that have the unfair advantage of their long running series having years worth of a fan base as opposed to just being about 2015.

Again, not the fault of the authors or their readers, but the who cares method of doing things here. If the chapter debate had just popped up it would be different, but this has been complained about by many for years.

I completely disagree with this feeling that Chapters should be excluded from, well, it sounds like just about everything. There are two reasons I disagree:

1) Episodic writing is In - Television. Online streaming. Mini-series. If you try and tell me that the Game of Thrones television show would do better as a single movie, you must really be in the dark about what audiences like to be entertained by. Effective 'chapters,' or parts, or episodes, or whatever you want to call them, need to be self-satisfactory as well as forwarding the B plot of the story as a whole when posted online. The best ones, the ones you see getting higher ratings, often include emotional highpoints of the both the chapter A plot and the series B plot.

2) Series don't just get higher votes because the readerbase thins - they get higher votes because they build a following and that following DEMANDS better and better writing. Here's my own bias - one of my two nominations up for voting is a chapter. I also know that the chapter following got voted lower because it was not as empactful, not as well rounded. It did not please my audience as much as the previous one did. Need another example? Look at the voting scores on my series Technically We're Estranged. Good chapters rise to the top and others sit lower, just like self enclosed stories.

And pulling back a little deeper into the topic in this thread, someone was commenting on how series are easier to write. Fuck. That.

Just because you know the characters better doesn't mean the writing process is completely different for someone else. I could jump back into a series this weekend and smash out a chapter, but it won't be nearly as good as if I take the time I need to make it great as a chapter and as part of a larger series body.

I have shorts, I have novella-length stories and I have novel-length series on Lit, and the shorter the end product the easier it was to write for me. Every author is going to be different, and telling people who put time and effort into ANY posting on Lit that their submissions aren't worth the same as those of someone else because they are chapters is absolutely rude and ignorant of this fact.

These things are going like the top lists and that is on readers, not authors cheating or stuffing. I watched a story stay at the same vote total for two weeks and when the second place story got within one vote, the dormant one suddenly received six votes in a night.....

Like the themed contest these things end of the day have little to do with what stories are actually the best. Anytime you simply let the 'public' vote, you're not going to get a fair contest, many people are legit, but we all know from contest experience there are those who are not.

As someone who has actually hit the #1 slot in a toplist in 2015, I call bullshit. Every single day that I log into Lit and see my story at the top of the Group category, followed by the likes of TxTallTales and Bosombuddies (two people I would fanboy over getting to talk to), I freak out a little bit because stories number 2, 3 and 4 on that list have been favourites of mine since they were first posted. But I know that my story was perfectly lined up with what the largest audience wanted, and so I think warm thoughts and I don't worry about it.

For all that I see people complaining on these forums about voting fraud, I think about the people who don't. I am not part of a group of writers on these boards - I have 1 editor who occasionally helps other startups, and I have a mailing list I notify on releases. I am not part of some 'voting block,' and I don't believe I have been impacted by one either. And I post in some pretty popular categories.

Who, pray-tell, should be the ones to vote on Awards and Contests if not the very audience we post to? Should the site admins judge? I can only imagine the outcry. Should we get outside judges? That will probably cost something, and the fact that we have prizes at all is amazing. A panel of fellow writers?

Fuck, have you seen the shitshow that the Hugos have turned in to these past two years? Now imagine if EVERYONE was anonymous behind a screen name.

The complaints that these sorts of contests are popularity contests are totally moot - that is exactly what they are! Winning monthlies and contests tells an author 'Congrats, you wrote something that the audience liked the most.' Getting nominated for and getting votes for these Awards tells you, 'Congrats, you effected enough people with your story/body of work that they voted for you.'

If you want literary awards for writing, you can find those all over the place if you look hard enough. They also don't have the viewer counts that Lit does, so enjoy less exposure for more 'meaningful' accolades.

Most influential and yet isn't even on the top 250 favorite list of authors here? Lovecraft68 is #4 and Etaski is #86. The other nominees aren't considered favorite enough to make the top 250 either.

I'm on that list and I only started posting stories in 2015. I don't have the time or the inclination to run the numbers, but I would bet I have one of the, if not the, fastest rising numbers on that list - but it also doesn't matter one bit. Why should that number matter over votes or views? My top story is closing on 300,000 views in under a year, that is a number I am proud of. I had to go google the top authors list for Lit to even know where it was.

Which brings me to my main issue with all this.

The readers.

Obviously the readers involved in this thread and the ones who showed up to nominate and vote are excluded in what I am about to say.

There are hundreds of thousands of readers here, yet the vast majority couldn't be bothered to come here and nominate or show any support for the people who work hard and share their work and entertain them for free.

Dear lord, this statement in any other venue would be career suicide. For your sake I hope your own fanbase doesn't hear about this.



TL;DR - Maybe it's the bitchy, venomous attitudes that cropped up in this thread that have the vote counts low. People looking to check out the awards probably poked their heads in here and got scared away. Try being positive about your achievements and those of all the nominated authors. This whole post has been one big wag of the finger to the long-time forum goers who like to throw their weight around here.

 

[lovecraft68]

.Dear lord, this statement in any other venue would be career suicide. For your sake I hope your own fanbase doesn't hear about this.

Only quoted a piece, too long to quote.

You're totally wrong on the series voting and not surprised on your take as most of what you have written here is two series.

The votes go up because the readership goes down as a series moves on and it levels off at a dedicated following. Check out the sci fi top list and look at Etaski's series which is about a third of the top one hundred, many of her chapters have 290-310 votes showing its about the same readers voting all the time.

Because people who lost interest early on leaving only the people who really like the story as for demanding better and better writing? Um, no its more like I liked many of these chapters and the story itself so even if this one for whatever reason was weaker, here is a five anyway.

And in case you don't know I have a 45 chapter series here and that is exactly what I saw. Many of the higher chapters were in the 4.8's and with less votes than the earlier ones and it was not due to the series getting better and better(although I suppose it would be nice to think that) it was due to being down to the hardcore fans. You get to a point in a series where people who have been on board from day one will five anything unless you kill someone off and upset them. The two chapters of my series without H's or on the line of one both had something seriously bad happen to one of the characters otherwise everything was rosy 5's.

Career suicide? A little dramatic on a free site, don't you think?

I say what I feel and what I believe and its too bad more don't. It's been said in contest threads that a lot of people see what goes on and hold their tongue because "Oh no someone got mad and bombed my story! I might lose my red H my score might go down .02"

Who cares? If a score is worth more than principle and speaking your mind, then that is pretty damning of character-or lack or- right there. That is the dynamic of these forums. Something stinks, a few call it out, a few argue the other way and most keep their head down to protect their free stories on a free site.

I said way back here somewhere that as soon as I started posting my thoughts all the people competing against me saw a nice uptick in votes.

You're welcome.

I enjoy the site, I like writing here and getting feedback from the pathetically small group of readers-out of the vast number here-who can take a minute to comment and vote.

But I live in the real world, where I have a job and two online businesses to keep up. Two daughters who although are adults are still kids who always need you to some degree, a wife who almost died of cancer two years ago(which changes a lot of perspectives about everything) and now some odd health issues of my own the doctors have yet to figure out.

What my scores are and a few dollars for a contest or a blue W is so far down the what's important at the end of the day, its negligible. Maybe a few years ago I had goals here, all have been met, but now? I'm here because I want to be and people can like my opinions or hate them. I won't hold back and I'm too old school to sugar coat for the participation award generation.

Fact is its not out of line to say there are hundreds of thousands of readers who come here every day, and maybe-maybe-10 percent bother doing anything wile they are here other than soak up the free.

You mentioned you're on the top 250 list, I looked, 1401 favs. And of course a lot more people read you than that, those are just the people to fav you. So tell me 1400 favs....how many votes do you have in the category you're nominated in? 3% of that total number.

That's the point I'm making. And if any of my fans see this it means they are here and most likely voted for something or someone which as I said makes tem exempt from the rant. For those who fit the rant and don't vote or comment or support in anyway, then what the hell am I losing if they get butthurt?

 

[lovecraft68]

Case in point, I just looked this up. Incest is far and away the largest category here as far as votes and views go and authors who write a lot of incest stories quickly find their way onto the top 250 list.

Five stories nominated for best incest story of the year. Total of votes between the 5?

215.

Silk had almost half of those, but she's on 14 thousand fav pages, where are these people?

Answer is simple, can't be bothered.

 

[IanSaulWhitcomb]

How do you find how many fav pages authors are on? I can't for the life of me see that info on any of my author stuff.

 

[sr71plt]

How do you find how many fav pages authors are on? I can't for the life of me see that info on any of my author stuff.

You don't, except for the top 250, which can be accessed through the "sneak peek" click-on on the home page and then clicking to the longer favorited authors list in the right column. And you arrive here: https://www.literotica.com/stories/favauthorsv2.php

As for BreakTheBar, just being clueless and irrelevant to my points. I can make the comments I have on this (which have been restricted to a single category--Most Influential Writer--a fact that BTB seems oblivious to) because the nominations were, on the whole, ludicrous and insulting to the authors at Literotica, and because I've paid my dues to Literotica to speak my mind. BreakThe Bar has done so with far less mileage on Literotica and experience.

 

[IanSaulWhitcomb]

Thanks!

 

[silkstockingslover]

Hi
I'm not on here much, but I too was surprised by how few votes there are. I mean based on the average reads on my stories, the comments and the emails... My stories that were nominated should have done much better... Even though they are in the lead.
And although not being nominated for author of the year doesn't hurt my feelings, there are many better writers on here then me... Lovecraft is right out of 14000 plus fans one would think I would have the advantage.

Alas, I write for fun and for fans so in the day it's all just part of the oddness that is this sight.

Congrats to all nominated
All who won
And have a great rest of 2016....

See y'all all at the nude day contest.

Jasmine



QUOTE=lovecraft68;77028796]Case in point, I just looked this up. Incest is far and away the largest category here as far as votes and views go and authors who write a lot of incest stories quickly find their way onto the top 250 list.

Five stories nominated for best incest story of the year. Total of votes between the 5?

215.

Silk had almost half of those, but she's on 14 thousand fav pages, where are these people?

Answer is simple, can't be bothered.[/QUOTE]

 

[BreakTheBar]

Career suicide? A little dramatic on a free site, don't you think?

I guess I should clarify this first. By any other venue I meant if you were producing content anywhere other than a free site you would get shanked by your fanbase for having a outlook like this. Actor/Showrunner/Author/YouTuber/whatever, trying to blame the audience is a cop out.

It is a fact of life that a small percentage of consumers will engage beyond the initial opening. In online advertising, that's 'views' converted to 'clicks throughs' for a banner ad or somesuch. In traditional or e-publishing that's customers buying a second book from an author (not to mention those who pick up the book/click the description and then don't buy). In television that's the ratings dip after the premiere. Hell, religion is the same way. You think the Mormons or the Jehovah's Witness who go door to door on missions get in the door even 1% of the time?

The fact is, the wider and bigger your audience the bigger that small percentage is in hard numbers. The percentage will not change.

Being angry and frustrated that readers don't go to extra lengths for you is like being mad that the tides change. GIVE THEM A REASON TO. Prompt them, ask them, do something to make them know that by going this extra length they will have impacted you. And then still expect most of them not to convert.

I can make the comments I have on this (which have been restricted to a single category--Most Influential Writer--a fact that BTB seems oblivious to) because the nominations were, on the whole, ludicrous and insulting to the authors at Literotica, and because I've paid my dues to Literotica to speak my mind. BreakThe Bar has done so with far less mileage on Literotica and experience.

Actually, the nominations worked as intended as far as I can see. Popular vote. I don't feel insulted in the slightest as a producer of content. In fact, the only people I see insulted are the same people who complain about the site on a consistent basis. The only reason I engaged with this thread at all is that I felt it was time someone stood up for the other side of the matter - the side that thinks the work put in on the back end by our admins is worthwhile and that they do a good job.

You are more than entitled to your opinion, this is the internet after all. But that also means I am allowed to have mine as well. Trying to say that my 'mileage' on Lit is negligible is a laughable statement though. I produce consistent quality in large readership categories, and I have no fear of 'voting blocks' or trolls 1 stars. You're going to need to get over yourself and the amount of time you have been posting here because at the end of the day this is still the internet and neither your nor my achievement amount to anything more than posturing and ego.

I won't hold back and I'm too old school to sugar coat for the participation award generation

This made me laugh. I hate the idea of participation awards too. It doesn't really apply to this whole scenario, but on this I agree.

 

[sr71plt]

As I recall, there were few votes in the previous runnings of this annual contest as well. The Web site did a bit more to advertise it this year than in some years past, though. Probably good to remember that in the previous running to this the Web site just abandoned the contest in the middle, with no explanation ever given on why it was abandoned--or even that it was--and didn't complete it. That might have had an effect on long-timer user response to this one.

I think main problems include that the nomination process brings up a lot of "just scratching my good buddy's back" dross in the nominations and chapters, which aren't completed stories, are still being allowed. I think the Web site should find a way to surface more believable nominations. The issue of not including any story in any form of contest until it was completed, with averaging of rating across the chapters, needs to be addressed and solved (admittedly not easy to do), and some form of filtering out "just my friend" nominations should be put in place too. Maybe only accept nominations of stories/authors who had placed in the themed and monthly contests that year (after chapters have been deleted). Make them do a little earning of a nomination beyond their name being tossed in the hat by a friend or one of their own alts.

The contest just isn't credible as it is. I didn't vote on anything.

 

[sr71plt]

You are more than entitled to your opinion, .

I'll take this as a reversal of your "where do you get off saying anything?" While telling me I had no right to say my piece (to which I say, "stick it where the sun don't shine." I've earned my right to say my piece on this Web site), you then blasted your piece--with far less understanding of and experience in what was going on and what was being discussed.

 

[lovecraft68]

I guess I should clarify this first. By any other venue I meant if you were producing content anywhere other than a free site you would get shanked by your fanbase for having a outlook like this. Actor/Showrunner/Author/YouTuber/whatever, trying to blame the audience is a cop out.

It is a fact of life that a small percentage of consumers will engage beyond the initial opening. In online advertising, that's 'views' converted to 'clicks throughs' for a banner ad or somesuch. In traditional or e-publishing that's customers buying a second book from an author (not to mention those who pick up the book/click the description and then don't buy). In television that's the ratings dip after the premiere. Hell, religion is the same way. You think the Mormons or the Jehovah's Witness who go door to door on missions get in the door even 1% of the time?

The fact is, the wider and bigger your audience the bigger that small percentage is in hard numbers. The percentage will not change.

Being angry and frustrated that readers don't go to extra lengths for you is like being mad that the tides change. GIVE THEM A REASON TO. Prompt them, ask them, do something to make them know that by going this extra length they will have impacted you. And then still expect most of them not to convert.








This made me laugh. I hate the idea of participation awards too. It doesn't really apply to this whole scenario, but on this I agree.

Well as for prompting them I think my standard line in my closing authors note reads (give or take a couple words) "We write for free here and our only payment is in votes and comments so if you liked-or didn't like the story-take a moment to let me know.

Beyond that what am I-or we-supposed to do? I know there are a lot of people here who use social media to push their stories and I'm sure get some reads out of it, votes and comments, who knows?

People seem to always think when I say things I always mean me specifically, which I don't. I have no complaints about the 'success' I've had here in numbers and rankings and a few contest wins, being nominated for Influential author and three other story related things was surprising and flattering.

My gripe about the readers extends to you and all of us who write here. But it really is a reflection of society in general, people run around the net gobbling up free content everywhere, lit and sites like it for stories, youtube for videos and pirated movies, all the pirate music sites, they are quick to take and very slow to give back, it is what it is and it won't change.

But after being here a few years I've gotten a little tired of seeing how few readers vote and comment and even fewer show up for this yet all are quick to demand something.

In many things in life you get out what you put in. A lot of readers here don't see it that way, they think we are obligated to them-as seen in the bitching about people who take a long time in between chapters or stories because you know, none of us have real life shit to content with.

So I said my peace, people can agree or not.

But one more thing, as you mentioned 'prompting' the last story I put out was 4/13. In the closing author note I mentioned I was nominated for some awards then stated as follows:

The link to vote is on the home page, then look for the category and be sure to vote across the board for all your favorite stories and authors.

That story has 1400 votes so assuming those people all read it, let's say even half read the closing note, 700 people now lets say many were anonymous and can't vote for these and don't want to sign up, in the end let's say even 250-300 people who could have come here and voted read that...where are they?

And there is a lot of people advertising this on social media and here.

In fact an author here mentioned the lit awards in the Nude day contest thread and how the authors should also be supporting the writers and forum members, no one even responded to the comment with a "yeah, we should" or anything.

I voted for as many categories as I read and cast a vote for another author in influential author as I was not going to vote for myself. That's all I can do, but at least I did it.

Its kind of like the elections, if you don't vote, don't bitch and ask for anything and there's a sad majority of non voters here.

 

[lovecraft68]

As I recall, there were few votes in the previous runnings of this annual contest as well. The Web site did a bit more to advertise it this year than in some years past, though. Probably good to remember that in the previous running to this the Web site just abandoned the contest in the middle, with no explanation ever given on why it was abandoned--or even that it was--and didn't complete it. That might have had an effect on long-timer user response to this one.

I think main problems include that the nomination process brings up a lot of "just scratching my good buddy's back" dross in the nominations and chapters, which aren't completed stories, are still being allowed. I think the Web site should find a way to surface more believable nominations. The issue of not including any story in any form of contest until it was completed, with averaging of rating across the chapters, needs to be addressed and solved (admittedly not easy to do), and some form of filtering out "just my friend" nominations should be put in place too. Maybe only accept nominations of stories/authors who had placed in the themed and monthly contests that year (after chapters have been deleted). Make them do a little earning of a nomination beyond their name being tossed in the hat by a friend or one of their own alts.

The contest just isn't credible as it is. I didn't vote on anything.

I think the stories that were nominated came from some type of process that is the same that picks monthly nominees. I'd be interested in knowing it only because I would have assumed monthly winners and contest winners would have all been represented here. Some here were winners, many were not, the two stories I have nominated both weren't even close to placing in the contests they were entered in. And the July monthly winner I had did not make the cut.

As for the scratching my buddies back there is no way to prove it. If everyone's 'buddy' has their own legit ID and IP address the site has no way to weed this out. I stated before we all know of a group here and there is no doubt they doled out their 15-20 votes to any of their members that are represented here and seeing as how low the vote turn out was, that handed them the wins.

To that I say again shame on the readers and 'fans' because the readership is so huge here someone with an automatic 15 vote back scratch shouldn't factor in at all, but that's not the case.

I said before and meant it, I will take it as a moral victory if I finish within the locked in 15-20 votes of the club. And I've heard rumor they're not the only spin off clique here. Although they are the only ones consistently winning everything.

But there is no way to stop that.

At one point I thought about suggesting 'author awards' as in only authors can nominate and vote, but most of the club houses and private groups that have splintered off from lit are authors so it wouldn't be anymore fair.

I think the site did a good job of putting this in front of the readers to encourage their participation, but they can't make them do anything.

 

[sr71plt]

I think the stories that were nominated came from some type of process that is the same that picks monthly nominees. I'd be interested in knowing it only because I would have assumed monthly winners and contest winners would have all been represented here. Some here were winners, many were not, the two stories I have nominated both weren't even close to placing in the contests they were entered in. And the July monthly winner I had did not make the cut.

I think they were taken straight (and only) from the direct nomination by other posters here on the forum, with multiple nominations of the same story/person being kept at the top to the accepted nomination list. I don't think any look was taken at placement in existing contests during the year.

Perhaps there will be clarification on that (and perhaps not).

 

[lovecraft68]

I think they were taken straight (and only) from the direct nomination by other posters here on the forum, with multiple nominations of the same story/person being kept at the top to the accepted nomination list. I don't think any look was taken at placement in existing contests during the year.

Perhaps there will be clarification on that (and perhaps not).

Actually the readers/authors could only nominate these categories

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1270360

So all of the stories nominated in individual categories were chosen by a process from the site.

I find something interesting here. I'm always associated with incest, say my name people think "Incest!" But I have no horse in that race, but was up for best erotic horror story and best Mature story and sexiest female(from an EH story) Guess I do better when not keeping it in the family so to speak

 

[sr71plt]

I see. Thanks for pointing that out. I didn't look at any of those categories--other than to see that a lot of them were chapters and then I just walked away from them. A chapter isn't a completed story, so it has apples competing against oranges.

That doesn't change any of my discussion in previous days, though, as I was only addressing the Most Influential Writer category.

 

[lovecraft68]

I see. Thanks for pointing that out. I didn't look at any of those categories--other than to see that a lot of them were chapters and then I just walked away from them. A chapter isn't a completed story, so it has apples competing against oranges.

That doesn't change any of my discussion in previous days, though, as I was only addressing the Most Influential Writer category.

I wonder if perhaps in the future influential author could be an author only category. Think about it who are authors often influential to? Other authors, we give each other advice, support, will offer to edit beta read give opinions and feedback on stories.

That award should be chosen more by authors than readers. For readers its not about influence, its about who they like to read.

 

[deehere]

I think I've been quite fair about that--asking everyone who has endorsed her why. And getting no answer. I could say the same for some of the other nominees, but they haven't had a fan club of "just appeared" posters plugging away for them.

Speaking of all fairness, the category is the superlative of Literotica authors' influence--on either writers at Literotica or readers at Literotica or both--and at the very top, this should have come out publicly during 2015. In what is available to the voting public here, you have shown more influence in 2015 than she has--hell, Freddie, JBJ, and Zeb have shown more writing influence than she has. Legions of folks have shown more influence than she has. And those supporting her have been given every opportunity to give testimony to why she's at the top for 2015. Not a peep on that.

The influence should be observable in excellent, innovative writing that has helped other writers; or in advice in public (preferably) or private about writing for Literotica; or in testimonials on helping folks with their writing, either just with advice or with helpful editing; and/or, if the nomination is from readers, testimonials on how the author's writing has changed and influenced the reader's life. Barring the publicly observable, there should be testimony on private influence.

There are folks here who demonstrably punched some or all of those buttons in 2015.

PBL isn't one of them--not by any stretch of the imagination. No publicly observable help; not even a completed story the whole year. Nor have I seen any specific testimonials toward punching any of these buttons.

So, in respect for the category and the authors at Literotica, when the subject is brought up by one of her supporters, I will challenge it--and wait for meaningful justification for the nomination to be provided. And wait and wait--and get "she was sick" and other irrelevant words.

I have no need to justify my voting. I voted for PBL and other nominated authors for one reason: the immense detail in her story and her very obvious writing skill. Instead of perhaps taking the easier way and just creating fapping material, she has, like any good writer here, put real thought, effort and research to make a story that speaks to the reader and leaves you wanting to be part of that world and wanting more. I am not a writer, but I know good writing when i read it. I could spend all day naming other great authors here.The fact that PBL was deathly ill had no bearing on me as a voter. The raunchier stuff has its place for sure. I have visited her website and found her humble and gracious to other authors and revels in their successes. To say otherwise is unfair. Maybe changes are in order as to what qualifies for these contests. The least we can do is be genuinely happy when any authors here produce quality work whether it be a chapter of a long series or completed work.

 

[deehere]

Surely a legitimate reason to have only posted one entry (and that a chapter in a series) is irrelevant to the point here. The category is the most influential writer of the year--out of all the authors who have written and posted to Literotica in 2015. It's not a question of empathy or not or anyone's personal struggles away from writing. it's a question of common sense. How in the hell can someone who posted only one chapter in the year be that year's most influential author at Literotica out of all of the authors who have posted in that year? Why? what did she do that influenced other authors within the year 2015--more than any other author? Specify what has made her the most influential author at Literotica in 2015? How can you say she influenced your writing on Literotica or your understanding of Literotica writing or your life if you are a reader--or anyone else's. Surely that's the basis on which to win this honor--not just "she's my buddy." That's nice, but it's irrelevant for this category.

You can have all the empathy in the world for why an author didn't produce in a given year, but that's irrelevant to the category being awarded and this is just a slap in the face to all the other authors on Literotica who had high production and directly helped other authors during 2015. It makes a sham of the whole contest and it should be an embarrassment to the nominee.

You can have high production as an author and still have it be crap(speaking generally, not to anybody specific).

 

[observer7]

I have no need to justify my voting.

Enough said.

sr71pilot is asking for proof of the existence of God. Nothing will ever be good enough to persuade him. Leave him in his hole, waiting forever for "justification" that will satisfy the sucking black hole in his head.

Me, I'm just going to imagine there's a fly hovering over it and piss in it.

 

[LesLumens]

Wouldn't make a lick of difference. The significantly fewer people who would bother to nominate anyone would be scrutinized and smeared exactly the same way people are now.

He only has two stories/hasn't posted in six months/only writes in Incest/only writes strokers. How much could AuthorX have influenced him?

And then, if anyone other than published authors who meet everyone's individual bar is allowed to vote, it's still an illegitimate joke.

If Laurel went through and took every single complaint at face value, found all the common points, and made them the rules for next year, there would be an entirely new set of complaints the next year.

Net result: Less participation. Not a single thing would change otherwise.