The 2015 Literotica Awards Discussion Thread

lovecraft68 said:

I didn't vote it either but for a different reason and that is the fact msny reading and writing there don't know the difference between bdsm and non consent. That and it seems only men can dominate here so another inaccuracy.

I am not saying my first point applies to the nominees but I boycott it all here these days for my own personal principles

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I'm curious why you say women cannot dominate. <.< My character Ursa does just fine. (Or do you mean in the actual BDSM category?

Zodia195 said:

I am happy to see Pocketbooklover make the list, but I really hope she updates her story soon because it's been a year. I know her chapters are really long now. Thank God I am patient though.

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Pocketbooklover has been dealing with some significant health issues this past year that prevented her from writing, it is only recently she has been able to continue work on her story.

Pocketbooklover is one of the most talented writers on this site. I frequently check her FB for updates and am glad to see she is recovering and able to write again. I have read the entire series many times and can see the progression in her skills to weave together this fantastic story. If anybody has any doubts check Chapter 16 and read the bear part. I honestly felt like I was there.

Tristan's Tale, all the way.

partwolf said:

Pocketbooklover has been dealing with some significant health issues this past year that prevented her from writing, it is only recently she has been able to continue work on her story.

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lovecraft68, I love your stories. I really do! I know yer annoyed that PBL only wrote 1 chapter last year and you think she doesn't deserve to be a nominee. Some times the circumstances why an author can only write one chapter is easily explained and she isn't like some other authors who starts a series and leave it hanging forever and condemn us readers to mental hell. partwolf has explained why PBL only had one chapter out last year. You can be annoyed at her for being a nominee but at least be emphatic with what she's going through...it hasn't been easy on her end.

barbette_sg said:

lovecraft68, I love your stories. I really do! I know yer annoyed that PBL only wrote 1 chapter last year and you think she doesn't deserve to be a nominee. Some times the circumstances why an author can only write one chapter is easily explained and she isn't like some other authors who starts a series and leave it hanging forever and condemn us readers to mental hell. partwolf has explained why PBL only had one chapter out last year. You can be annoyed at her for being a nominee but at least be emphatic with what she's going through...it hasn't been easy on her end.

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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.

First, I would like to thank the readers of SMP and those who nominated me for the awards and while I appreciate your defense of me, I really don’t think you have to explain to anyone why you did it. You know why you read my story and why you nominated me.

Second, unless you have access to my email, FB page or Private Messenger, then you have no idea who I talk to or what I do. Unlike some, I don’t need public validation of what I do to help others, I prefer to be a sounding board and offer encouragement in a private environment where I can get to know not only the person but where they intend to go in their story. I think that is more personal and much better for new writers instead of them posting something on the forum and possibly be mocked for having questions or offering a different opinion.

Third, yes, I only posted one chapter last year. If you check the history of my work, you will see that I was posting regularly until I became sick. I was diagnosed with skin cancer that migrated to the soft tissue of my gums. I’ve had more surgeries and hospitalizations than you can possibly imagine. Along with that, I’ve dealt with infections, secondary infections, heart issues that required an additional hospitalization and I now have to wear a heart monitor, bone infections requiring IV antibiotics for months on end and I also have lingering ‘brain fog’ from all the anesthesia and medication. Oh, and my husband changed jobs during this time and we had to move 350 miles away. So, yes, I only posted one chapter last year.

Lastly, I’m not ashamed and/or embarrassed that I was nominated in any of the three categories. I am truly honored that the readers felt my lone chapter was worthy of that honor. Your verbal putdowns of me say a whole lot more about your character than it does mine.

I have acknowledged that there might have been private encouragement. But I have consistently asked those supporting you to validate that, and they haven't. I'm sorry you're having health problems. That's still irrelevant to the Most Influential Writer category for which you have been nominated--without substantiation of why you were more influential in 2015 than any other writer on Literotica. But it doesn't look like you're going to win anyway.

And as far as the putdown on my character, I'd say the false neediness of thinking you should be in the running for Most Influential Writer of 2015 without some substantiation of what you did to influence a damn thing says as much about your character as you think my commenting on that--having the gall to pay some respect to the category and to Lit. authors--does about mine.

sr71plt said:

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.

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The issue-as with most things here-does not lie with PBL themselves its not their 'fault'.

This is another example of the site wanting to run something in name only and not spending a lick of time checking into anything or even asking for a couple of volunteers-like maybe the mods-to help them out with it.

What would it have taken to do a quick scan of all the nominees or nominated stories in each category, before going on to this step?

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.

pocketbooklover said:

First, I would like to thank the readers of SMP and those who nominated me for the awards and while I appreciate your defense of me, I really don’t think you have to explain to anyone why you did it. You know why you read my story and why you nominated me.

Second, unless you have access to my email, FB page or Private Messenger, then you have no idea who I talk to or what I do. Unlike some, I don’t need public validation of what I do to help others, I prefer to be a sounding board and offer encouragement in a private environment where I can get to know not only the person but where they intend to go in their story. I think that is more personal and much better for new writers instead of them posting something on the forum and possibly be mocked for having questions or offering a different opinion.

Third, yes, I only posted one chapter last year. If you check the history of my work, you will see that I was posting regularly until I became sick. I was diagnosed with skin cancer that migrated to the soft tissue of my gums. I’ve had more surgeries and hospitalizations than you can possibly imagine. Along with that, I’ve dealt with infections, secondary infections, heart issues that required an additional hospitalization and I now have to wear a heart monitor, bone infections requiring IV antibiotics for months on end and I also have lingering ‘brain fog’ from all the anesthesia and medication. Oh, and my husband changed jobs during this time and we had to move 350 miles away. So, yes, I only posted one chapter last year.

Lastly, I’m not ashamed and/or embarrassed that I was nominated in any of the three categories. I am truly honored that the readers felt my lone chapter was worthy of that honor. Your verbal putdowns of me say a whole lot more about your character than it does mine.

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I'm glad you're feeling better. I can sympathize.

In 2014 my wife had two cancer surgeries and the second one was at NIH in Maryland and she almost died due to complications. It took almost all of 2015 for her to get back to being a hundred percent again, so although it was not me, I was there for her and saw what she went through and know how it throws life as you know it for a loop.

This debate/argument whatever you want to call it is not personal towards you or anyone else. Some of what is here is years of frustration spilling over at the many issues the site itself refuses to address and when they do address them many times its to totally deny the issue and call out the people calling out the issue.

It gets tiresome.

lovecraft68 said:

The issue-as with most things here-does not lie with PBL themselves its not their 'fault'.

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I agree (to a certain extent). But it was PBL who personalized this.

I don't think it's the Web site's fault, either, though.

The nomination justification for the particular Most Influential Writer category I'm focused on is one that should be apparent publicly and, if it's not, those nominating should justify the nomination in some way. None have done so for PBL--she's been sick is not a justification for being Most Influential Writer for a given year--and it's most definitely not publicly apparent that PBL has been on Lit. at all, really, in 2015. It's just a blatant example of making a contest bogus and insulting Lit. authors who have both produced and been influential in the writing of others on Literotica in the given year.

I'm not the one bringing this up periodically--it's the apologists who bring it up with irrelevancies to the category without giving any justification for the nomination. Maybe challenging justifications this year will make those nominating folks next year more careful to be serious about nominating their friends willy-nilly without giving any respect to the category--because they just might be challenged to justify themselves in terms of the actual category.

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.

Wrong. PBL's response told me that she wanted the win, based on absolutely no justification given to voters even for the nomination. That's just pathetic.

You and yours are the ones embarrassing her. You obviously are just members of a cyber coffee klatch usurping a contest category and making it meaningless. Still no specific justification from you. What a surprise.

And this will only continue to spin out, bringing more embarrassment and continued nonjustification, as long as you want it to.

And, no, you don't have to give reasons why she's the most influential Literotica writer for 2015. But, if you don't, you are subject to be challenged on why you feel that nomination is justified, just as I've done, and just as you won't answer--and so will continue to be asked why anyone should vote for her other than being her friend. This isn't a "who has the most friends" category. It's who at Literotica was the most influential writer on Literotica for 2015. To be true, there have to be reasons why it's true--and they should be relevant to the category. Otherwise you are just making a mockery of the contest.

Hardly. Did she nominate herself? No. Did she have more than one person nominate her? Yes. In one of the earlier posts, by Partwolf, he told you why he voted for her but apparently that wasn't good enough for you. She explained that she helps numerous people and that wasn't good enough for you. Apparently nothing is good enough for you and to want to win something is normal human behavior.

That's why I put the finger on you and others, not her. I didn't answer back to PBL until she made the crack about character. I think wanting something you and anyone else has failed to show justification for even being nominated for shows more of a character flaw than wanting a contest category nomination to be shown relevant to the contest category in respect to all the other authors on Literotica is.

And, as I posted, the longer you want to yammer about this while not answering the challenge of why she qualifies, the longer I can go on too. It's all in your lap.

I might ask who the hell are you at Literotica too? The only reference to justification for her nomination has been whatever she's doing on her blog. That's not Literotica. Are you just some stranger from her blog coming over to say who should be getting superlative awards for activity on Literotica?

You keep posting the same thing over and over without accepting that her nomination has been justified. Numerous times. Basically, you are becoming white noise and I am beginning to understand why so many people hate interacting with you on the boards. You dig your heels into the dirt and refuse to accept any point of view other than your own. PBL is a superlative writer and deserves every accolade she receives and I am going to do what she requested and stop defending her. All it is doing is giving you more of a platform to spew your skewered perspective.

sr71plt said:

That's why I put the finger on you and others, not her. I didn't answer back to PBL until she made the crack about character. I think wanting something you and anyone else has failed to show justification for even being nominated for shows more of a character flaw than wanting a contest category nomination to be shown relevant to the contest category in respect to all the other authors on Literotica is.

And, as I posted, the longer you want to yammer about this while not answering the challenge of why she qualifies, the longer I can go on too. It's all in your lap.

I might ask who the hell are you at Literotica too? The only reference to justification for her nomination has been whatever she's doing on her blog. That's not Literotica. Are you just some stranger from her blog coming over to say who should be getting superlative awards for activity on Literotica?

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In all fairness it is hard to know whether or not an author has helped a lot of people in their time here. Not everyone is on the boards and even the people on the boards do things they do not make public. I've done a few favors for people here and never asked for it to be mentioned, so I am very sure others have too.

Again all the round and round here wouldn't happen of this was better regulated and maybe had some ground rules other than simple votes.

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.

Just like the top lists. As soon as a story threatens to supplant another near the top, that story gets a lot of bombs while the other gets a spurt of 5's.

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.

lovecraft68 said:

In all fairness it is hard to know whether or not an author has helped a lot of people in their time here.

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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.

sr71plt said:

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.

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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.

These contests were a way-and I think this is Laurel's intent with this-for them to say thank you to show some support, much the way you come out and support your favorite sports team or whatever.

The response in comparison to the amount of readers here is way past sad. Then again its too much to ask for the readers to even take literally two seconds to click a vote on a story they just read, so the thought they would log into the forums and post? Too much to ask it seems.

Yet we all get e-mails along the lines of "when is the next chapter, the next story, how about a sequel? A reader asking for a feature to declare series abandoned with no concern whatsoever that the author may not have finished because they are sick or hell, maybe dead (PBL is an example of this herself) how crappy would it be while she was sick if a bunch of selfish vulture readers 'reported' her story because of the long time between work, meanwhile she's sick as a dog?

So in response to your comment about other authors who contribute a lot here in writing and advice, its the readers fault they weren't not any of the actual nominees.

Case in point SilkStockinglover 14k+ favs, Tx Tall tales 9k+ favs Goldiangel 8k plus favs.

TTT had one nomination that I saw, silk a couple GA? Not one. Where are their thousands of fans?

I'm on 7500+ favs, I think I have 70 or so votes for influential author. I bet I have more than 70 e-mails in the last few weeks alone asking when I'm releasing more stories.

You say many times there is no obligation to vote, and technically yes, you're right. But let me ask you this. If I did something for you, anything, hell let's say I shoveled your damn driveway out and did it for free, you'd say thank you, right? So we're putting up work for free and I'm sorry, but I think a thank you-or even a lower vote because they didn't like the story, should be the natural response.

Too much to ask? Maybe it is, but to that point I sure as hell feel less motivation than ever to toss things out there. I continue to do so-but at my pace which as slowed considerably lately due to some health issues of my own-for the loyal readers I always see comment and vote, I appreciate they appreciate us here, but they are the vast minority and it shows in spades in this contest.

You're right in that's a separate issue from this. As it applies to this issue, PBL posted one chapter of a series in 2015. Is that reason for a reader to run to the forum to vote her the most influential writer on Literotica for 2015?

The Web site did something this year to attract the readers to the contest that they haven't done before--Laurel has been putting a "come on" on top of the New list every day I have looked at the list.

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 had never heard of pocketbooklovr before this, so I took the time to actually read her work. Her story is very complex and extremely well written. What surprised me the most is it contains no sex. That's right. Not one hard core sex scene. Not even soft core. There are subtle references to sex, but that's it.

She is posting on Literotica, where people basically come to get off on erotic lit and she is drawing rave reviews and thousands of views on an actual story. With a well thought out plot and engaging characters. Imagine that.

Sr71plt, as far as your 'demands' from her readers to justify their voting to you, why? They thought enough of her work to first nominate her and then vote. Leave them be, they don't have to answer to you or to anyone.

Maybe the 'influential' part is the fact that she doesn't have to rely on a weak plot smashed in between graphic sex. Hopefully some authors will take note and build their characters, plot and dialogue because her story had me laughing out loud and holding my breath at the same time. If she publishes this, I would definitely buy it and I'm not normally a fan of nonhuman or werewolves. Her story is really that good.

AMoveableBeast said:

For the record, I don't disagree about the chapter thing. I'm not sure anyone does. It is an obvious advantage. But it is the way the site has functioned and those rules were in place before this whole shebang got started. Changes are apparently coming. I think that's great.



This, I believe, is unfortunately true. I think to many, this juice simply isn't worth the squeeze. And they're right. Speaking up often brings more trouble than anything else. Which is why I don't often weigh in on the politics around here. I don't even really defend myself when I'm attacked because to someone outside the argument, they just see two idiots arguing on the internet--and that's not my scene.

What I take issue with is that, to my knowledge, not a single author in this contest nominated themselves. No one is claiming superiority, or offering evidence that being eligible in this contest supports that argument. Etaski and pocketbooklover write stories. Which happened to be long, chaptered, and in categories that have strong fan-bases. I see no evidence that they did this for any other reason other than that they love those kinds of stories. Their fans put them forth because they wanted to. That's no sin.

Now I don't know them personally. I've never said as much as a word to either. I've read them both, and I think they're talented. I like sci-fi (I actually prefer Sufferance to Surfacing, but, hey, what do I know?), and have a well-documented, and somewhat embarrassing, love of werewolves.

But even if I didn't, they are doing exactly what anyone else hopes to do on this site: putting asses in seats and affecting people. And I think it is reprehensible that their accomplishments are being called into question because they don't fit a PERSONAL idea of what this site should be and how it should run.

If someone disagrees with the way site does business--fine. But this is not the place, in my opinion. And singling out hardworking authors as undeserving when they are operating completely within the confines of the system is, to me, low-rent.

There may be valid criticisms in this thread, but they are sheathed in sour grapes and disrespect.

I should have stayed out of it. It's the first time in a year that I've said anything remotely controversial on these boards because, honestly, I don't want the whirlwind. I just want to write and read and have fun.

But my conscience got the better of me here. And I should know better.

When they came for the sci-fi writers, I didn't speak up because I was not a sci-fi writer...and all that jazz.

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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.

dolphinsfan said:

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 had never heard of pocketbooklovr before this, so I took the time to actually read her work. Her story is very complex and extremely well written. What surprised me the most is it contains no sex. That's right. Not one hard core sex scene. Not even soft core. There are subtle references to sex, but that's it.

She is posting on Literotica, where people basically come to get off on erotic lit and she is drawing rave reviews and thousands of views on an actual story. With a well thought out plot and engaging characters. Imagine that.

Sr71plt, as far as your 'demands' from her readers to justify their voting to you, why? They thought enough of her work to first nominate her and then vote. Leave them be, they don't have to answer to you or to anyone.

Maybe the 'influential' part is the fact that she doesn't have to rely on a weak plot smashed in between graphic sex. Hopefully some authors will take note and build their characters, plot and dialogue because her story had me laughing out loud and holding my breath at the same time. If she publishes this, I would definitely buy it and I'm not normally a fan of nonhuman or werewolves. Her story is really that good.

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So, whose sock puppet are you? You're saying she's the most influential of all writers in 2015, right? On the basis of one chapter for the whole year? And you're read what everyone else wrote. How insulting are you? Again, whose sock puppet are you?

deehere said:

Tearing fellow authors down to make themselves look good is not becoming.

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Which is exactly what seeing yourself as the most influential author in a year in which you have only posted one chapter of a series looks like to me--tearing your fellow authors down.

The cyber coffee klatch is certainly at work today.

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.

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.