The Official Authors' Hangout Winter Holidays 2025 Support Thread

[ShelbyDawn57]

@ShelbyDawn57 @RoyalAuthor Copying @Duleigh

Guys, the glitch with your story has been corrected - Laurel replied to me overnight that it's been fixed and when I checked it is now two different stories!!!!! Yaaaaaay. You should be good now.

She PM’d me just a while ago. Thanks for following up.

 

[old_prof]

As usual, Laurel was right on top of the issue. My story, Going Home for the Holidays is live now and @RoyalAuthor’s is safe from having to compete against itself.

Your story is now second on my list to read (hopefully tomorrow.)

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Your story is now second on my list to read (hopefully tomorrow.)

Get tissue paper. I just reread it, I do that when my stories go live, and I teared up.

 

[old_prof]

Get tissue paper. I just reread it, I do that when my stories go live, and I teared up.

I want a heavy emotional content in my stories. I'm really excited for it now!

 

[ChloeTzang]

What? Are Laurel and Manu no longer messagable, or did I misunderstand you?

They're messagable - got a reply from Laurel this morning on the winter holidays story duplication - I suspect just really really busy because I haven't had a reply on the pending stories or AI rejection issues

 

[ChloeTzang]

LOL the theme song for my Winter Holidays Story....

 

[RoyalAuthor]

Thanks for helping get that mix-up taken care of, Chloe.

My story is doing pretty well; it was at 4.9 with close to a hundred votes for a while before two one-bombs brought it to 4.85, but that's still great. Only 2500 views though, I have a feeling that despite the winter contest being the biggest, this one is going to underperform my usual entries because of the mostly missed first day of release.

 

[old_prof]

I got a pair of ones right around 2:35 (US EST) I see TA also saw a pair today. Did others see it too?

 

[Ian_Snow]

Good luck to everyone. Looking forward to settling in and catching up on the stories.

 

[RoyalAuthor]

I don't know what it says about my ego that I'm checking enough to notice, but it's so obvious when I get one-bombed. I'll check, then two votes come in and it's dropped by .05. The math to figure out how many stars were missed isn't difficult lol. I just wish I trusted the sweeps to actually pull those.

 

[old_prof]

I don't know what it says about my ego that I'm checking enough to notice, but it's so obvious when I get one-bombed. I'll check, then two votes come in and it's dropped by .05. The math to figure out how many stars were missed isn't difficult lol. I just wish I trusted the sweeps to actually pull those.

What time did this happen to you? I happened to catch it when the first one happened. They checked a minute later to see fi I had seen it right and the second present had arrived.

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

I think I earned my poor rating that got me dropped - it's a 4 and not a 1 bomb there.

And hopefully I'll have enough time alone tomorrow to record my second song (I did one today but I'm not certain how well I did. It's my first ever audio). Let's see how bad my voice is, lol.

 

[RoyalAuthor]

I don't know exactly. Maybe around noonish ET today? Another one by itself this afternoon. I mostly shrug, it is what it is. My stories tend to do really well here, so I'm not overly upset about it, but I do wonder how high I could score with some of them if not for the bombers, because I don't trust the sweeps anymore.

I actually have a story, one chapter of a serial, not even the most recent chapter, that somebody tried to knock down a peg last week. It peaked at 4.9, and then four of the most recent five reviews knocked it down to a 4.77, all in the span of two days, all more than a month after release. Sure, those are legit.

 

[Voboy]

I don't know what it says about my ego that I'm checking enough to notice, but it's so obvious when I get one-bombed. I'll check, then two votes come in and it's dropped by .05. The math to figure out how many stars were missed isn't difficult lol. I just wish I trusted the sweeps to actually pull those.

TRULY, it's not worth obsessing over.

Even when the sweeps are "working properly," the swings on the last day can be very dramatic... enough so, that worrying about individual votes is really not going to give you a good indication of where anyone "stands."

 

[RoyalAuthor]

TRULY, it's not worth obsessing over.

Even when the sweeps are "working properly," the swings on the last day can be very dramatic... enough so, that worrying about individual votes is really not going to give you a good indication of where anyone "stands."

Oh, don't worry, I don't just do this for contests lol.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I got a pair of ones right around 2:35 (US EST) I see TA also saw a pair today. Did others see it too?

Back to back ones with no accompanying uptick in views is the signature of a sophisticated troll who knows how Literotica works and how to avoid its limited anti-troll measures (aka sweeps). I’m sorry the infection is spreading. That’s the thing: people may not care when it happens to others, then the plague begins to affect more and more people.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I just wish I trusted the sweeps to actually pull those.

The sweeps won’t pull those, they are done by someone who is both familiar with the rating system and who has thought for five minutes about how sweeps work. Back to back ones bombs are like herpes: unpleasant, likely to recur, and you’re stuck with them.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I don't know exactly. Maybe around noonish ET today? Another one by itself this afternoon. I mostly shrug, it is what it is. My stories tend to do really well here, so I'm not overly upset about it, but I do wonder how high I could score with some of them if not for the bombers, because I don't trust the sweeps anymore.

I actually have a story, one chapter of a serial, not even the most recent chapter, that somebody tried to knock down a peg last week. It peaked at 4.9, and then four of the most recent five reviews knocked it down to a 4.77, all in the span of two days, all more than a month after release. Sure, those are legit.

There is a group that seems to be very protective of the top lists. Seems you ran afoul of that.

 

[Duleigh]

I’d disagree with this.

• There was the ongoing submission issue
• There were stories that weren’t published until after midday rather than midnight
• There were multiple stories that didn’t initially make it to the comp page (one from memory which never did)
• The final comp sweep was both just one pass - rather than multiple - and the least effective I can recall. It was like an intern was running it
• And the degree of one bombing across the comp works was higher than normal (based on feedback from multiple authors)

Other than that, it was perfect.

View attachment 2577123

Compared to day one of this one - mostly smoothly.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Compared to day one of this one - mostly smoothly.
View attachment 2577246

If used in a Douglas Adams kinda context, maybe.

 

[talemestories]

And I am in.

Good luck to one and all.

 

[DEFCOM5]

Here is my time to highjack the thread and tell you of my progress.
I am not sure anyone of you care but it motivates me to do so
I am 14K plus in the story and the sexy time is about to start.
I might be able to have it ready for my beta readers by the weekend if nothing gets in my way.
Thank you for your support and motivation!

 

[ChloeTzang]

Here is my time to highjack the thread and tell you of my progress.
I am not sure anyone of you care but it motivates me to do so
I am 14K plus in the story and the sexy time is about to start.
I might be able to have it ready for my beta readers by the weekend if nothing gets in my way.
Thank you for your support and motivation!

Hah! Neck and neck. 15k words drafted, and the sexy time starts at 8k which is where I am editing and reworking from.....

 

[talemestories]

And I am in.

Good luck to one and all.

If we are looking at approval times, mine has already been approved to be published on 11/14/2025.

I posted on the forum right after I published.

Now I can start reading some of the other stories.

 

[Duleigh]

I finished my #1 A Harmonica for Hanukkah and my editor is giving it one more once over, but I'm going to hold off on posting it because for some reason TPTB kicked a story this morning that's been in Pending Purgatory for far too long. Several readers asked that I keep publications about a week apart so I'll submit it on 11/19 and hopefully my #2 Buffalo Snow (the name will probably change a few times) will be ready to submit shortly after