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The Official Author's Hangout 2015 April Fool's Day Contest Support Thread

I remember the Children of God cult, later outed in multiple exposes like this one for being horrific and abusive. I wonder if it's persisted in that behaviour now that it's taken on a new form, or at least a new name.

I actually remember thinking the "flirty fishing" concept was kinda sexy the very first time I heard about it, in that moron-laddish "Cor, if that's religion, sign me up any day!" sort of mode, until I processed that they were probably basically forcing people to do it under threat of excommunication from the cult. Finding out yet later that they were doing it with girls starting at like ten years old -- which means at the age they handed you that pamphlet they might actually have seriously been trying to recruit you for that -- just... well, words don't... yeah. Even when they embrace sex cults have this way of just completely ruining it.

(I remember school safety patrols, too! Joined up to be near one of my first crushes when I was eight. Ahhh, memories...)
 
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I found the poem from the tract with a quick google search, called "Mountin' Maid." Nudge nudge wink wink. The artwork I found, though, was from later in the 70s. At least it still had mountains that looked like boobs in the background.
As a weird and slightly creepy twist, the poem vaguely reminds me stylistically of my current April Fool's story in verse. But way more focused on boobs.

Ah, safety patrol, how I used to hope one of the two kids who outranked me would be sick for the day, because then I got to carry and use one of the two whistles.

CyranoJ said:
I remember the Children of God cult, later outed in multiple exposes like this one for being horrific and abusive. I wonder if it's persisted in that behaviour now that it's taken on a new form, or at least a new name.

I actually remember thinking the "flirty fishing" concept was kinda sexy the very first time I heard about it, in that moron-laddish "Cor, if that's religion, sign me up any day!" sort of mode, until I processed that they were probably basically forcing people to do it under threat of excommunication from the cult. Finding out yet later that they were doing it with girls starting at like ten years old -- which means at the age they handed you that pamphlet they might actually have seriously been trying to recruit you for that -- just... well, words don't... yeah. Even when they embrace sex cults have this way of just completely ruining it.

(I remember school safety patrols, too! Joined up to be near one of my first crushes when I was eight. Ahhh, memories...)
Click to expand...
 
CyranoJ said:
...

I actually remember thinking the "flirty fishing" concept was kinda sexy the very first time I heard about it, in that moron-laddish "Cor, if that's religion, sign me up any day!" sort of mode, until I processed that they were probably basically forcing people to do it under threat of excommunication from the cult. Finding out yet later that they were doing it with girls starting at like ten years old -- which means at the age they handed you that pamphlet they might actually have seriously been trying to recruit you for that -- just... well, words don't... yeah. Even when they embrace sex cults have this way of just completely ruining it.

...
Click to expand...

I met "flirty fishing" near Brighton, Sussex in the 1960s. I had stopped at a roadside cafe for a coffee after driving down from London. I was returning a late model hire car.

I was joined on my table by two, then three, then four girls in their early twenties who hugged and kissed me before asking searching questions about my employment and marital status.

I was enjoying the attention - what single young adult male wouldn't? - but I was suspicious of their motives. I had to use the washroom. While there I checked that I still had my wallet.

As I came out of the washroom, the cafe owner stopped me to warn me that the women were recruiters for a local religious commune. I assured him that I wasn't interested but he told me that refusing their advances could have consequences. The commune's men would be waiting outside. If the women signalled the men that their efforts had been unsuccessful, the male prospect might be challenged and beaten up.

The cafe owner had called the police but had been told that until a crime had been committed, the police couldn't attend.

On his advice I left the cafe by the back door and drove away. Yes. The men were there waiting in the car park, but I assume the women were still waiting for me to come out of the washroom...

Later on, several years later, that cult was banned from the UK.
 
oggbashan said:
As I came out of the washroom, the cafe owner stopped me to warn me that the women were recruiters for a local religious commune. I assured him that I wasn't interested but he told me that refusing their advances could have consequences. The commune's men would be waiting outside. If the women signalled the men that their efforts had been unsuccessful, the male prospect might be challenged and beaten up.
Click to expand...

Zoinks. What a thuggish, just plain evil operation that was.
 
TxRad said:
Most cults are.
Click to expand...

Tell me about it, look at the Catholic church.

Remember Christians were seen as a cult of sorts back when it all started and there is not one atrocity the Catholics have not committed over the centuries in order to get rich and take what they want.

A cult has a leader who fucks little kids that's a sick atrocity(and it is of course)...a priest does it he gets sent from church to church to keep doing it:rolleyes:
 
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I was telling someone the other day there just seems to be an overall feel of apathy about this contest. Not a lot of votes, lower scores than usual from the readers, and the authors, not many stories(and a few of us have multiple entries padding the total) and many were meh with the theme.

I have no clue really where my scores are, usually I watch to see what the sweeps do, but I have no interest

I also think we're going to see a story place with maybe 60 votes if that depending on the sweep.

Should get Scouries in a twist:D
 
lovecraft68 said:
I was telling someone the other day there just seems to be an overall feel of apathy about this contest. Not a lot of votes, lower scores than usual from the readers, and the authors, not many stories(and a few of us have multiple entries padding the total) and many were meh with the theme.

I have no clue really where my scores are, usually I watch to see what the sweeps do, but I have no interest

I also think we're going to see a story place with maybe 60 votes if that depending on the sweep.

Should get Scouries in a twist:D
Click to expand...

True. Views are sluggish, blah score creeping upwards slowly only because of sweeps.

On the other hand, I really did like my story!
 
Errr, annoying n00b questions time:

What exactly are "sweeps" in this context? The term doesn't seem to come up on any of the contest info pages I could find, unless I'm missing something super-obvious (which is totes possible).

In re: the contest being "sluggish," what level of activity -- for those with less of a frame of reference -- would you normally expect to see? Just out of curiosity.
 
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Sweeps, which occur semi-regularly near the end of months and end of contests, are the removal based on secret criteria, of certain votes that don't appear to the site as being legit.
An example: my prose contest entry this morning dropped from 150 votes to 130 and the score jumped up from 4.44 to 4.72.
Sluggish is best compared within each author's experience in a given category as each attracts a different level of interest. I think they are saying, loosely, "hmm, usually my Incest story would have 500 votes by now, but this one only has 300."


CyranoJ said:
Errr, annoying n00b questions time:

What exactly are "sweeps" in this context? The term doesn't seem to come up on any of the contest info pages I could find, unless I'm missing something super-obvious (which is totes possible).

In re: the contest being "sluggish," what level of activity -- for those with less of a frame of reference -- would you normally expect to see? Just out of curiosity.
Click to expand...
 
Sweeps?

They are an automatic bot that goes through votes and removes dubious ones. How they work is a deliberate mystery. If some of us knew, we might devise ways to frustrate the exercise.

All votes on all stories are swept occasionally for duplicate votes, patterns of voting for or against a particular author's stories, etc.

During a contest, the entries are swept more often. In the last few hours of the contest a major sweep takes place. That can reduce the number of votes significantly and MIGHT increase a particular story's rating dramatically.

However, if your story has votes in the thousands, the effect of a sweep is likely to be minimal.
 
My stories didn't seem that sluggish.

Story 1, romance has 813 votes and 18893 reads and 19 comments after a sweep

Story 2, LW has 1534 votes 47962 reads and 82 comments after a sweep.

The first story was out on 3-3-15 and story two was out 3-20-15.
Well it was fun and congrats to the winers.
With respect
DG
 
Sluggish?

I know that my stories aren't everyone's fare, but the votes this time seem much lower:

Lecturer - 67 votes
Talking to Jemima - 82 votes

And jeanne_d_artois' one:

Laundry Tales 10 Lady of Misrule - 35 votes
 
DG Hear said:
My stories didn't seem that sluggish.

Story 1, romance has 813 votes and 18893 reads and 19 comments after a sweep

Story 2, LW has 1534 votes 47962 reads and 82 comments after a sweep.

The first story was out on 3-3-15 and story two was out 3-20-15.
Well it was fun and congrats to the winers.
With respect
DG
Click to expand...

It is pretty interesting that stories with comparable reads would have such widely different vote totals. My entry went up on 3/22 and has 43330 reads but only 101 votes after the sweep. Maybe voting activity dropped off a bit after the official deadline date, or something.

Ach, I can see how it would get tempting to endlessly scry into these things, as someone said on another thread. Better not.
 
There are too many variables at play to make any useful conclusions on the relationship of views/votes/comments on any specific story. Think this is just one of several truisms we should have made into universal posts to be invoked several times a week on the forum.
 
Some minor sweeping going on. I've lost 15 percent of my vote overnight (which doesn't involved many votes, unfortunately) in two different trims.
 
sr71plt said:
There are too many variables at play to make any useful conclusions on the relationship of views/votes/comments on any specific story. Think this is just one of several truisms we should have made into universal posts to be invoked several times a week on the forum.
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I agree! Way to many varibles even on one authors stories. Sometimes readers decide to vote and seem to have to voice an opinion to comment. Other times they choose not to even vote. Also you have to wonder how many times a story was just clicked on but not read.

sr71plt said:
Some minor sweeping going on. I've lost 15 percent of my vote overnight (which doesn't involved many votes, unfortunately) in two different trims.
Click to expand...

My romance story just fell below 800 votes, lost 16 more votes. Just part of the roller coaster ride. I like roller coasters, just hang on tight. LOL



Romance story back up to 800 votes. LW at 1536 votes
 
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I hadn't checked my scores since last weekend so the changes I see may or may not be sweeps, but all three went up, but not much, between .03-05
 
Sluggish = about a hundred views over the last twelve hours. (Who knows if any of those people actually read to the end?) Maybe one vote all day. Vote count went up as high as 113, but now it's 101. I think it will go lower than that before the end.
 
There were lots of great stories in the contest but I confess I'm super-pleased to see AMB's "Grimm Reaper" story take the gold -- just too good. (Grats to the runners up as well -- I think "masterandmargarita" has one of the best handles ever, incidentally -- and thanks everyone for the fun reads. This contest was a great way to get my feet wet.)
 
Is there some criteria other than the score for determining the winner? I hate to sound like a sore loser but my story has a higher score than two of the winners (and passed the25 vote tthreshold). Just wondering.
 
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