The Winter Holiday Contest Support Thread

[Boxlicker101]

If there's been a sweep--ever--in this contest, there must not have been anything sweepable in either of my entries.

That's what I say. I have been watching the vote totals on my entries, and they have been going upward, while the average score goes downward. No evidence of a sweep yet.

 

[sr71plt]

That's what I say. I have been watching the vote totals on my entires, and they have been going upward, while the average score goes downward. No evidence of a sweep yet.

If they've decided not to sweep until the contest is closed, I can see the logic in that. When they sweep earlier, those voting maliciously (which is what the sweep targets) just vote again. If the site holds off and does only one sweep after closing the contest, they save all of the wasted effort.

Having depressing numbers for a prolonged time in the contest would seem to discourage authors from putting more entries into the system, though. I have three more stories ready to go but just decided not to post them to the contest this year because the voting is so nasty. There was a time when entering one of these contests bolstered the ratings. Isn't the case anymore in my experience.

 

[DG Hear]

If there was a sweep, I never felt it.
Story #1 has 444 votes as a few minutes ago.
Story #2 has 498 votes as a few minutes ago.
Average score has gone down some.

I'm sure when a sweep occurs these votes will change.
DG

 

[mia_erotica]

positions

DGHear, I loved the last few humor thread posts, thanks.

I have 69 votes.

 

[DG Hear]

DGHear, I loved the last few humor thread posts, thanks.

I have 69 votes.

Thank you and congrats on the votes.

 

[slyc_willie]

I think there was a small sweep just a while ago. Lost two out of 32 votes, but my score went up a little.

I also received this amusing bit of feedback, which matches nicely with the most recent PC:

This message contains feedback for: slyc_willie
About the submission: Nostalgia
This feedback was sent by: Anonymous

Comments:

Utterly boring nonesense. Please don't give up your day job!

*DO NOT hit the REPLY button to respond to this email.*

Looks like I got a wrist slapping by the self-appointed Lit Police.

 

[sr71plt]

I think there was a small sweep just a while ago. Lost two out of 32 votes, but my score went up a little.

I also received this amusing bit of feedback, which matches nicely with the most recent PC:

This message contains feedback for: slyc_willie
About the submission: Nostalgia
This feedback was sent by: Anonymous

Comments:

Utterly boring nonesense. Please don't give up your day job!

*DO NOT hit the REPLY button to respond to this email.*

Looks like I got a wrist slapping by the self-appointed Lit Police.

Nope. Not even a tad sweeping of votes or change in ratings for either of mine.

 

[slyc_willie]

Nope. Not even a tad sweeping of votes or change in ratings for either of mine.

Maybe they're doing sweeps on a case-by-case basis.

 

[jacks4u]

heh! My story's about the same as it was, dropped a bit in the rating, but got more votes... I haven't seen anything dramatic either. but only 11 comments

Not the greatest, but I'll take whatever votes come my way

 

[TalyisBagley]

Whew! Just in time

I just posted my story "The Rekindle". I wonder how long it will take to post?

 

[SexyBetelgeuse]

first-timer

I'm not at all sure of how to submit to the contest... Reading up on it now...

Help... anyone?

 

[jacks4u]

I'm not at all sure of how to submit to the contest... Reading up on it now...

Help... anyone?

The requirements for an entry is here:Say Goodbye to 2009 with the Literotica Winter Holidays Erotic Story Contest!

Pay particular attention to the 'notes' section of the submission form,. where you must paste the exact phrase " WINTER HOLIDAYS STORY CONTEST 2009" in order for your submission to be entered into the contest. Otherwise, the submission is the same as usual. I'm not sure if you can put other things in the notes box along with that phrase or not. If you submit an edit of a story in the contest, put that phrase in the notes box of the edited version also.

Good luck!

Jacks

 

[jacks4u]

I think it needs a

bumpetty bump-bump

 

[DG Hear]

Maybe they're doing sweeps on a case-by-case basis.

Hi Slyc, I believe that if you followed your votes through out the day, every now and then you would see you might receive a couple and than later theydisappear. I think these are caught early and corrected. How, I don't know , maybe automatically.

The big sweeps are done all at once. I remember getting all the little sweeps throughout the previous contest. I figured they were double or illegal votes that were caught.

My story #1 has 447 votes,
My story #2 has 519 votes.

Of course the mini sweep is all conjecture on my part. Good luck to you.
DG

 

[Five_Eight]

Testing, testing, one, two........

I enjoy reading authors' theories about various facets of Lit: contests, sweeps, what categories do best, trolls (I've a few theories myself, one being I think they're chiefly contributors with a vested monetary/vainglorious interest in their own entries), the escalating hostile comments nowadays (I'm preaching to the choir here, but anonymous comments shouldn't be allowed, those who slag off others' writing need to grow a set and identify their bold selves), one bombs, etc. But I digress......

To test the 'categories theory' I entered a Winter contest story FOX & FIREMAN in the 'high profile' Romance category since Loving Wives and Incest/Taboo hold less than zero erotic interest for me personally. Certainly I'm no prude (I write for Lit after all) but I choose the lesser-read categories (Sci-Fi & Erotic Horror mostly) as the vehicle to roll out my work. Under these 'categorical' auspices as I said I entered a story, a quickie throwaway I dashed off in an afternoon, which I think has little merit or thought behind it (other than maintaining my personal code of narrative standards and penchant for twist endings).

Not surprisingly in the first six hours of the damned thing being posted it received 23 votes and more than 2000 hits, far more than I'd normally receive for what I consider my more serious, mature literary efforts over in the sparsely populated corridors of Erotic Horror and Sci-Fi.

Where art will fail,
there smut will sell.

My little experiment proves the theory, to me anyway, categories are VITALLY important. When playing to win, certain categories might be one's ticket to Literotica $uce$$. The very first story I posted on this site, a tawdry piece of shit pandering to those who can work a mouse with one hand and their genitals with the other, won an award. But since winning is not and never has been my goal, exhibiting my efforts for maximum exposure is, I don't take the contests too seriously and laugh off the trolls' wart-festooned and splooge-smeared trigger fingers on the one key.

 

[jacks4u]

five,

well said, that.

There is an award winning piece that won a .lit contest or some such a while back that actually studied which categories did what. you can read it here: Literotica Numbers by Owlwhisper© But of course, that article doesn't address the quality of any particular story, just how stories in a category did compared to other categories.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I enjoy reading authors' theories about various facets of Lit: contests, sweeps, what categories do best, trolls (I've a few theories myself, one being I think they're chiefly contributors with a vested monetary/vainglorious interest in their own entries), the escalating hostile comments nowadays (I'm preaching to the choir here, but anonymous comments shouldn't be allowed, those who slag off others' writing need to grow a set and identify their bold selves), one bombs, etc. But I digress......

To test the 'categories theory' I entered a Winter contest story FOX & FIREMAN in the 'high profile' Romance category since Loving Wives and Incest/Taboo hold less than zero erotic interest for me personally. Certainly I'm no prude (I write for Lit after all) but I choose the lesser-read categories (Sci-Fi & Erotic Horror mostly) as the vehicle to roll out my work. Under these 'categorical' auspices as I said I entered a story, a quickie throwaway I dashed off in an afternoon, which I think has little merit or thought behind it (other than maintaining my personal code of narrative standards and penchant for twist endings).

Not surprisingly in the first six hours of the damned thing being posted it received 23 votes and more than 2000 hits, far more than I'd normally receive for what I consider my more serious, mature literary efforts over in the sparsely populated corridors of Erotic Horror and Sci-Fi.

Where art will fail,
there smut will sell.

My little experiment proves the theory, to me anyway, categories are VITALLY important. When playing to win, certain categories might be one's ticket to Literotica $uce$$. The very first story I posted on this site, a tawdry piece of shit pandering to those who can work a mouse with one hand and their genitals with the other, won an award. But since winning is not and never has been my goal, exhibiting my efforts for maximum exposure is, I don't take the contests too seriously and laugh off the trolls' wart-festooned and splooge-smeared trigger fingers on the one key.

Categories can be important, but avoiding the wrath of trolls is much more so. I have one story in the romance category, the latest in the ongoing saga of Donna and Kevin. The first four parts have scores ranging from 4.63 to 4.79, but the contest entry has a score of just over 4.00. It also has 46 votes, which is more than the two parts I posted earlier this year. There are some people who enjoy the series and the characters, and I presume they voted in their usual way, but the rest of the additional votes seem to be from trolls.

 

[slyc_willie]

Hi Slyc, I believe that if you followed your votes through out the day, every now and then you would see you might receive a couple and than later theydisappear. I think these are caught early and corrected. How, I don't know , maybe automatically.

The big sweeps are done all at once. I remember getting all the little sweeps throughout the previous contest. I figured they were double or illegal votes that were caught.

My story #1 has 447 votes,
My story #2 has 519 votes.

Of course the mini sweep is all conjecture on my part. Good luck to you.
DG

I was just being a smartass.

All I can figure is that a bot program for Lit catches duplicate votes made from the same ISP. It probably happens when someone votes, then leaves a comment. Just conjecture, but it makes sense.

My votes have soared in the last couple days, though. Over 100 now. Not bad for only being up since Monday.

 

[SexyBetelgeuse]

The requirements for an entry is here:Say Goodbye to 2009 with the Literotica Winter Holidays Erotic Story Contest!

Pay particular attention to the 'notes' section of the submission form,. where you must paste the exact phrase " WINTER HOLIDAYS STORY CONTEST 2009" in order for your submission to be entered into the contest. Otherwise, the submission is the same as usual. I'm not sure if you can put other things in the notes box along with that phrase or not. If you submit an edit of a story in the contest, put that phrase in the notes box of the edited version also.

Good luck!

Jacks

Thank you!! hopefully it will get up soon! It's called "The Locket" if anyone is interested in my VERY FIRST attempt at writing erotica

 

[Five_Eight]

I read the award-winning 'stats in Lit' piece you mentioned, jack, as well as its companion second part with interest, but I will still continue to labor in obscurity in Erotic Horror & Sci-Fi writing long stories with little sex. A troll voted for my 'serious' contest entry the first day and yesterday four more paid it a visit, I'd like to think the high rating it enjoyed made them feel threatened. I refuse to believe the troll population is comprised of random non-writer contributors because they've nothing to gain from acting like wimps hiding behind anonymity's veil if they're not competing. But a run through Top Lists (whose stats never agree with my Login home page) can get a lot of cogs turning and fingers twitching over the one star button. I hope my assessment is incorrect, to obsess over one's story rating is unhealthy, but when there's money at stake one never knows how others will react.

Which leads me to ask, Box: incur the wrath of trolls? I don't see you patting yourself on the back or shooting off your mouth in a self-congratulatory way in the threads (which might be just asking for it, so I always try to keep on the down low myself when interfacing with the other writers). Box (or anyone), what do you think gives birth to trolls? Jealousy? Money? Spite for spite's sake? It again begs the question: who benefits from malicious voting except a fellow author? Maybe contestants' stats should be withheld from the Top Lists (at least until after the last vote is counted).

Just because I don't give a flying fuck about winning, others clearly do. To protect them and make the contests more fair since the contest environment has gotten so hostile I propose two changes at Literotica to take the wind out of the trolls' sails:

ONE: no anonymous comments (Jack from Omaha, Cindy from Cali, TJ from UK, etc. isn't going to unmask anyone anymore than anonyomous).

TWO: no Top List indicators of contestants until after the final tally.

 

[WRJames]

There was a big dust up after the Halloween contest over novella entries. It resulted in a ruling that novellas had to be entered in their entirety.

Well, I thought that was a bad idea at the time, and so far I haven't seen anything to convince me otherwise. I put in a fairly long story for the Christmas contest -- other other circumstances I would have split it up into three pieces at least. It is getting very few votes, only 18 so far, only 2 comments, and the votes it is getting are (I hope) just troll votes.

In general it seems to me that reader interest in the contests is falling off.

 

[DG Hear]

I refuse to believe the troll population is comprised of random non-writer contributors because they've nothing to gain from acting like wimps hiding behind anonymity's veil if they're not competing. I hope my assessment is incorrect, to obsess over one's story rating is unhealthy, but when there's money at stake one never knows how others will react.

ONE: no anonymous comments (Jack from Omaha, Cindy from Cali, TJ from UK, etc. isn't going to unmask anyone anymore than anonyomous).

TWO: no Top List indicators of contestants until after the final tally.

I've said it for four years now that most trolls are other authors who feel threatened or dislike one of the other authors. Comments are another thing and I really don't mind anonymous comments. I do agree with you that a name doesn't mean a lot either. Of course I write for fun and a few dollars wouldn't exactly change my life.

The no tops list would be a good think till after contests are over but I don't have the time or want to go through the trouble to find them.

There was a big dust up after the Halloween contest over novella entries. It resulted in a ruling that novellas had to be entered in their entirety.

Well, I thought that was a bad idea at the time, and so far I haven't seen anything to convince me otherwise. I put in a fairly long story for the Christmas contest -- other other circumstances I would have split it up into three pieces at least. It is getting very few votes, only 18 so far, only 2 comments, and the votes it is getting are (I hope) just troll votes.

In general it seems to me that reader interest in the contests is falling off.

I both agree and disagee with your statement. I do believe that chapter stories ought to be included in the contest, but I do feel it should be entered in it's entirety during the contest period and judged as a whole piece.

When I write chapter stories I usually have the whole piece finished before submitting it in chapters. For a contest it should have a beginning and some kind of ending. If a writer wants to add more to it after the contest is over, I would have no problem with that.

The votes avg for each chapter could be put together and averaged out.

I don't think readers are reading less. I believe that there are so many entries in a short period of time that the reader picks through and reads the ones of interest to them. It leaves a lot unread since it would be on the third new page list after three days.

On the bright side, they do have a holiday post for the reader that want to read more of them. Maybe there should be a post at the top of every page during the contest period to get the readers to go there. Just saying.
With respect
DG

 

[Five_Eight]

There was a big dust up after the Halloween contest over novella entries. It resulted in a ruling that novellas had to be entered in their entirety.

Well, I thought that was a bad idea at the time, and so far I haven't seen anything to convince me otherwise. I put in a fairly long story for the Christmas contest -- other other circumstances I would have split it up into three pieces at least. It is getting very few votes, only 18 so far, only 2 comments, and the votes it is getting are (I hope) just troll votes.

I know from experience, WRJ, and agree 99%. Both my Halloween stories were novella length as is one of my Winter entries. 7 and 8 page Literotica tales scare readers away in droves but I wouldn't split up those three stories of mine into chapters (even though editing a 90 or 100 page manuscript on Lit's submission form is a grueling, mind-numbing 8 or 9 hour task for me). That trio of stories is part of an ongoing story arc in a series but each one is a complete three acts and meant to be read wholly, not serially, so that's where the other one per cent goes. I know authors who produce lengthy works for Lit are likely to feel otherwise, but that's just me. A tip of the hat to you for producing such word counts, it ain't easy and often works against you where votes, readership and commentary are concerned, but it's a validation of integrity to take the pitfalls associated with it.

I do believe that chapter stories ought to be included in the contest, but I do feel it should be entered in it's entirety during the contest period and judged as a whole piece.

When I write chapter stories I usually have the whole piece finished before submitting it in chapters. For a contest it should have a beginning and some kind of ending. If a writer wants to add more to it after the contest is over, I would have no problem with that.

The votes avg for each chapter could be put together and averaged out.

I don't think readers are reading less. I believe that there are so many entries in a short period of time that the reader picks through and reads the ones of interest to them. It leaves a lot unread since it would be on the third new page list after three days.

On the bright side, they do have a holiday post for the reader that want to read more of them. Maybe there should be a post at the top of every page during the contest period to get the readers to go there.

As much as I respect the consistently fine fiction you've posted here, DG, I do question chapter splits and averaging their respective scores. If you have long stories finished and want them in the contests and, like you & WRJames, I do---then why split them? Why add to them later if they're finished to begin with and segmentize them after the contest? It seems redundant and a helluva lot of extra work to heap on yourself when you could be moving on, not casting the proverbial backward artistic glance when you could better devote your energies to creating something new for your readers.

As far as reader interest in contests, is it my imagination or is the Halloween contest far and away the most popular of the annual six that Lit is gracious enough to host?

Alerting readers with contest reminders on every page is an excellent idea. Let's combine that with Top List contestant blackouts and petition the decison-makers and powers-that-be at Lit to make those a reality; they're certainly not opposed to the continued evolution and improvement of the best fiction site on the world wide web.

 

[TalyisBagley]

My Story was posted today for the contest.

please take a look comments much appreciated.

The Rekindle- Romance

http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=452836&page=1

After tragedy a lover's return is nothing short of a miracle.

 

[sr71plt]

I think the change in rule to disallow separate chapters as contest entries is just fine. It's a story contest, not a part-of-a-story contest, and with novels and novellas, there's no complete story short of the full novella or novel. Sure, you will probably get fewer readers/votes for a full novel--as you will if you enter in the humor category rather than incest. Just something you have to take into account in deciding what to enter.