The Official Authors' Hangout Winter Holidays 2025 Support Thread

[SamanthaBehgs]

Or are people arguing with themselves?

Would this mean I could get more than one hit out of Wanda?

 

[EmilyMillerSub]

People get confused by the nomenclature. You laid it out pretty clearly. The late KeithD had writing alts for gay male and non-gay male stories. It’s a common thing to do. We’ve even had alt X posting here that their alt Y won a comp. There is no malign intent. I’d mention altissimus (get it?) at this point, who I first interacted with under another name.

Sockpuppets are different as you say, they are either fluffing your own work, or attacking other people’s. Then you can create a lot of mayhem - if you know what you are doing and have a bad enough psychological problem - without any account and just a basic understanding of how this place works (which doesn’t take long to formulate).

It’s the internet, let he who among us is using their full real life name cast the first stone.

Ignore this fake bitch . She has no fucking clue what she is talking about.

Love and kisses

The Real Emily Miller

 

[EmilyMiller]

Ignore this fake bitch . She has no fucking clue what she is talking about.

Love and kisses

The Real Emily Miller

Listen, moron, everyone knows the good Emily is in the Lodge and can’t come out, m’kay?

Get back in your cage, won’t you!

Submissives, hmph!

 

[ElectricBlue]

Submisisves, hmph!

That's the best cross-over tag for BDSM and sibcest I've ever seen. Don't you dare get a spellcheck!

 

[EmilyMiller]

That's the best cross-over tag for BDSM and sibcest I've ever seen. Don't you dare get a spellcheck!

Scarily think that was autocorrect

 

[EmilyMiller]

Listen, moron, everyone knows the good Emily is in the Lodge and can’t come out, m’kay?

Get back in your cage, won’t you!

Submissives, hmph!

I found this post from 2023 which still makes me :

—

So my old account has a Roy Batty quote on it. I log in and what do I get? A PM saying…

“What questionable things have you done?”

Really

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Likewise, they come in like clockwork. I...didn't think I was any sort of anything enough to be on someone's radar in this way.


This is a fascinating solution to the problem. Is there a delay between when you create an account and when you can start rating or would this just result in people creating fake email addresses and accounts to give malicious votes? I don't actually know how this mechanic works, but I'm interesting in thinking of ways that it could just no longer even be a potential issue like you suggest.

You would still be able to get around it by creating a ton of accounts.
That would raise the cost of entry though. Also, it would make it easier for the site to see patterns.

If some account is dropping 1s on everything in site, that would be suspicious...

 

[Kelliezgirl]

That's kinda creepy.
Now I'm looking around wondering if everyone is also someone else?

The only legitimate reason I know to have one is if you are posting with someone else writing collaborations.

Some people here seem to use them to create a false sense of consensus on an issue.

 

[TexasLark]

Can yu send me link and name of story and I will flag to Laurel - it had the winter holidays text in the Notes to Admin? right?

Were you able to contact Laurel? It's still in pending...

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

You would still be able to get around it by creating a ton of accounts.
That would raise the cost of entry though. Also, it would make it easier for the site to see patterns.

If some account is dropping 1s on everything in site, that would be suspicious...

Good point. It would absolutely add another laying of "programming" (assuming you are making a bot) to create the account(s) but then it would definitely look suspicious if that's all this account did. No idea if it's actually looked for, but the moment it becomes apparent, I'm sure it would be.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Good point. It would absolutely add another laying of "programming" (assuming you are making a bot) to create the account(s) but then it would definitely look suspicious if that's all this account did. No idea if it's actually looked for, but the moment it becomes apparent, I'm sure it would be.

I don't think there are any perfect answers, but if you can make it more difficult for a bad actor while not negatively impacting the readers experience then it's worth considering.
Of course, Laurel and Manu have bigger fish to fry at the moment.

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

I don't think there are any perfect answers, but if you can make it more difficult for a bad actor while not negatively impacting the readers experience then it's worth considering.
Of course, Laurel and Manu have bigger fish to fry at the moment.

Oh absolutely - but it's an interesting thought experiment just the same.

 

[WriterPerson314159]

Of course, Laurel and Manu have bigger fish to fry at the moment.

For someone who isn't up on macroscale issues, is this related to things like the current political state in the US, or is something else going on?

 

[YmaOHyd]

For someone who isn't up on macroscale issues, is this related to things like the current political state in the US, or is something else going on?

There are some site infrastructure problems; there are several live threads in this forum about them. There's also the strains caused by a flood of AI-generated content that needs to be filtered out, plus the strains caused by increasing submission volume. And there are the tensions caused by running a porn site at a time when elements of the federal government and various state governments are trying to ban porn.

 

[WriterPerson314159]

There are some site infrastructure problems; there are several live threads in this forum about them. There's also the strains caused by a flood of AI-generated content that needs to be filtered out, plus the strains caused by increasing submission volume. And there are the tensions caused by running a porn site at a time when elements of the federal government and various state governments are trying to ban porn.

Thanks for saving me some clicks.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Phew. Just submitted "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas". 6 minutes before deadline LOL. Did it again.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Were you able to contact Laurel? It's still in pending...

I PM'd her. ill follow up again on Saturday

 

[Purechicanery]

Hmm, I submitted my Holiday story just over 24 hours before the deadline, but it wasn't published until after that deadline. Am I shit out of luck?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Hmm, I submitted my Holiday story just over 24 hours before the deadline, but it wasn't published until after that deadline. Am I shit out of luck?

Should be okay if you followed the instructions for tags and the Note to the Editor, identifying the story as a Contest entry. You'll find out when the Contest story list goes live.

 

[TheLobster]

Hmm, I submitted my Holiday story just over 24 hours before the deadline, but it wasn't published until after that deadline. Am I shit out of luck?

For Halloween, I submitted mine liek 5 hours before the deadline. I still appeared on the list just fine, so you should be good.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Hmm, I submitted my Holiday story just over 24 hours before the deadline, but it wasn't published until after that deadline. Am I shit out of luck?

I submitted mine 6 minutes before the dewadline so lets see. Mine is still pending

 

[Trionyx]

I submitted mine 6 minutes before the dewadline so lets see. Mine is still pending

You are getting sloppy. Usually you publish with one minute to go.

 

[Inkent]

Same. I had 28 parts of a story posted and I could set my watch to when the 1-bomb would come in after each part was released. So at least I know someone cared enough to be very consistent about their hatred. Thanks, buddy!

I'm usually commuting on a train when the stories are released so have a chance to keep a close eye on initial scoring. I tend to write longer pieces, and have noted that many a time, within the first 10-20 minutes or so of being released, long before they've had sufficient time read the works I see the 1 bomb squadron fly by, before the scores start to pull themselves up & recover as the day moves along. Idly, I do wonder why... is it individuals hell bent on a moral/religious/been burnt themselves crusade of some sorts? I guess they hope by 1-bomping, people will be put off to read the work.

Anyway, back on topic, made it! Derailed was almost derailed itself, but made it in last knockings. A nod to Mr Dickens. Loving Wives style.

 

[Jorunn]

An unusual number? My Xmas story went live a few days ago in Romance and things seem slow, so I checked some similar Xmas romance stories submitted around that time.

Favorites and Comments and Votes are driven by the quality of the story. I tend to use lots of history, culture, and nature, so along with my humble writing skills, I accept that readers bailed out before reaching the end.

My score is OK, with a Red H, so I looked at similar Red H stories near mine, and found big differences in Reads. One story had 4x the number of reads. But that author has 5000 followers. Another story had 2x the number of reads, but the author has half the followers that I do.

So what explains that? Same category, same submission date. It has a slightly higher score. Well deserved, it’s good. But not significant. So what else?

Do readers say - Ewww! It’s a Jorunn story! And skip it?

Or perhaps, it shows how important your title and one line description are in attracting (or not) readers. Food for thought.

 

[ChloeTzang]

You are getting sloppy. Usually you publish with one minute to go.

Yes and it shows - a few typos in the last page or so as I rushed it and my mouse is glitching. I better replace the battery (it's an OLD mouse but I have used it for years). Never mind, it was fun to write - laughed my way thru this one!