Rules and Registrations for 2015 Survivors' Contest

Boxlicker101

Licker of Boxes
Joined
Apr 5, 2003
Posts
33,665
This thread is based on the assumption there will be a Survivors' Contest in 2015. If there is, it will be strictly in the spirit of competition, with no monetary prizes.

Any suggestions for changes in the rules can be posted on this thread and, if there is enough support for the change, people who have signed up can vote on it. I am starting this thread with this post that reflects no changes from last year's contest, except for the elimination of monetary prizes.

Official Rules for the 2015 Survivor Contest


Entering the Contest:
You may enter the contest any time before midnight, Eastern Time Zone (UTC-5:00) on October 31, 2015.
•You may officially enter by pressing "Post Reply" in this thread and giving notice of your intention to participate. You will be notified via Private Message (PM) once your scoring thread has been created, and you may begin tracking your scores immediately after. In order to enter the contest, you must have Private Messaging enabled in your User CP.
•You must enter the contest in order to be eligible for prizes.
•You may only enter the contest under one User ID.

Eligibility
•The contest is open to all persons over the age of 18, where legal.
•Entrants found infringing copyright or cheating will be automatically disqualified.
•Literotica reserves the right to disqualify entrants for cause at any time without notice.

Objective
•To write as many new and original stories in as many different categories listed on the main story index in the course of the year as possible.

Winning the Contest
•The participant with the most points wins!
•Ties will break in favor of:
1.the participant with more categories with at least one submission or immunity;
2.the participant with more submissions entered in the contest.

•Winners to be announced shortly after 1/5/2016.
Prizes

All Submissions

There is an initial cap of 3 submissions allowed for points per category (including the Poetry categories). If an author completes his/her scorecard with 3 submissions in each and every category, the cap for that author will be increased to 5. If he/she then reaches that cap in each and every category, the cap will again be raised to 6, then 7, then 8, and so on.

This is only verified at the end of the year, as always, and as happens to all aspects of Survivor. The order in which stories are written is irrelevant. This means that by the end of the year, the 4th submission by a contestant in any category will only be considered valid if that contestant has 3 submissions or 1 immunity in all categories.

Stories:
(except Novels and Novellas)
•First submission posted in the first cap level of each category: 3 points;
•Each subsequent submission posted in each category: 1 point

Novels and Novellas only:
•First submission posted in the first cap level of this category: 6 points
•Each subsequent submission posted in this category: 2 points.

Poems
•First poem posted in the first cap level of each category: 3 points;
•Each subsequent poem in each category: 1 point.

Immunities
•Weekly immunity: 0 points

Bonuses
•For having submissions or immunities in 10 categories: 5 points;
•For having submissions or immunities in 20 categories: 10 points;
•For having submissions or immunities in 30 categories: 15 points;
•For having submissions or immunities in all categories: 30 points;
And remember, if you are including immunities in earning these bonuses, each one must be matched by a category that is completely filled in.

Special Contest bonuses:
•For each entry on a Literotica Special Contest (limited to 1 entry per Special Contest): 5 points;
•For having entered all Literotica Special Contests: 30 points.

Your ScoreCard
•All entrants will have a ScoreCard thread created in the Survivor contest forum for the purposes of tracking scores upon entering.
•Official ScoreCard Threads will be the basis for judging the winners of the contest.
Rules

Stories and Poems:
  1. Stories and poems must be accepted and posted at Literotica.
  2. Literotica reserves the right to reject a submission at any time. Entrance in the contest does not guarantee publication.
  3. Literotica reserves the right to change the category under which a submission is entered, if it is judged not to correspond to the characteristics of that category.
  4. Only stories and poems with posting dates on or between 1/2/2014 and 1/1/2015 are eligible for the contest.
  5. Contest entries submitted after 12/20/2015 should be clearly marked SURVIVOR CONTEST in the notes field for the editor. Failure to do this may result in stories not being posted in time for the contest. This especially applies to audible and illustrated stories and poems.
  6. Multi-chaptered stories are only eligible for the contest if each chapter is at least 3,000 words long. Stories which are not considered chapters must be completely original and completely independent. Stories can feature recurring characters; they can contain passing references to each other, but they must be entirely, unequivocally, standalone. The only exceptions allowed to this rule are:
    1a.the Chain Stories category, which is multi-chaptered by definition; each author will only be entitled to one chapter eligible for Survivor per chain per contest year.
    2a.the Novels and Novellas category, where submissions can either be standalone stories with 7500 words or more; or chapters of a larger work, as long as each chapter has 7500 words or more.
  7. Stories and poems used for points in 2014 may not be used for points in 2014.
  8. Each story or poem must be original work from the entrant for points to be awarded. Stories and poems that had already been posted at Literotica.com, as well as translated, illustrated, narrated, transcribed or templated versions of submissions already entered in the contest are not eligible for points.
  9. Novels and Novellas: All submissions made to the Novels and Novellas category must be 7500 words or more to be eligible for the contest.
  10. Audio stories and poems: All audio stories must be 750 words or more to be eligible for the contest. There is no minimum length for poetry submissions. The accompanying text must be an accurate transcript of the submitted audio, and must be posted in the Text With Audio or Poetry With Audio categories as applicable. See Audio Story FAQ for information on submitting work.
  11. Illustrated stories and poems: All illustrated stories must be 750 words or more to be eligible for the contest. There is no minimum length for poetry submissions. All submissions, including the illustrations, must be original work of the entrant, i.e. photographs taken, or drawings or paintings created by the entrant. The use of royalty-free and/or public domain images will make a submission ineligible for points. The use of the same illustration in more than one submission will render all said submissions after the first ineligible for points. The use of images in the production of which the contestant was not directly involved, either by creating or by being portrayed in them, will make submissions in the "Illustrated" and "Illustrated Poetry" categories ineligible for points in Survivor. That means that you can use photographs that you yourself took or that were taken of you, or paintings or drawings that you yourself created. It also means that you cannot use royalty-free or public domain images, or images pulled from somewhere off the web. See Illustrated Story FAQ for information on submitting work.
  12. Non-English stories and poems: Submissions in all languages are eligible for the contest and must be posted in the corresponding categories as applicable. There will not be a specific non-English category in the scoreboards. All submissions must be original work of the entrant, and subsequent translations in any language are not eligible for points.
  13. Chain Stories must comply with Literotica guidelines. See Chain Story FAQ for more information.
  14. If a new category is created in the course of the year, it will be added to the contest.
  15. Special Contest bonus: In addition to the 35 regular categories, ScoreCards have a Special Contest Bonus heading. Submissions under this heading must be valid entries accepted in a Literotica Special Contest. Only one entry per contest is eligible for this bonus, and if it is counted under this heading, it cannot be counted under a regular category.

Immunities:
  1. Immunities are awarded on a weekly basis.
  2. There is no requirement to participate in Immunities. An entrant may forego all Immunity activity.
  3. Immunities must be posted in an official immunity thread. Posts in any other threads will not be counted.
  4. Immunities are won based on the weekly Wednesday Lottery available here: http://lottery.merseyworld.com/
  5. Entrants can select a single number between 1 and 49. The selected number must be posted by the entrant prior to 7:30 PM GMT on Wednesday for the number to be consider for that day's draw. That is 7:30 PM in London on Wednesday. For the timezone illiterate: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedform.html
  6. Immunity will be awarded if the entrant's guess matches any one of the winning numbers or the bonus ball listed at the top of the page at http://lottery.merseyworld.com/
  7. Immunities must be claimed by 7:30 PM GMT on the following Wednesday.
  8. Immunities are only available for use in a cap level that has not been filled by a story or poem. For example, if you do not want to write any Incest/Taboo stories for cap level one, use your immunity in that category and that cap level.
  9. Immunities apply to each category's cap level. If you use an immunity on any given category, that will close down that cap level to any further submissions. That immunity will be worth no points. For example, if you use an immunity, the first cap level is filled (first cap level being 3 submissions.) If your cap is then raised to 5 submissions, you can only fill it in this category by using another immunity, which will be worth no points or by writing two stories. If your cap is raised to 6, you will need another immunity or story; and so on, a new immunity or story for each cap level. A cap level can only have either one immunity or the required number of stories but not both. Immunities will not count for points, regardless of the cap level. Categories filled by immunities will still count towards the bonuses regarding the total number of categories filled.
  10. If you've won an immunity, the first thing to do is make a post in the official immunity thread corresponding to that month (and only that thread) that you've won an immunity and which category and cap level you will use it for. This is the only way you will earn the immunity.
  11. Do not edit the post after 7:30 PM GMT on Wednesday. If you do so, your immunity will be invalidated. This post is the only way we have to verify the immunity and the category you choose.
  12. When an immunity is scored in your ScoreCard, please list the date the immunity was won and the category and cap level it fills. For example, if you win an immunity on the 22nd of January, please list it as: Immunity 1/22/2015.
  13. Once an immunity is claimed, it cannot be erased and replaced with a story.
  14. At the end of the year, all immunities claimed will be considered valid, as long as there is one completed cap level filled with regular submissions for each immunity. e.g.: You must fill cap level one for a category before one immunity would be valid. Two cap levels must be filled for two immunities to be valid. At the end of the contest, if you had 7 immunities, but you only had cap level one for 6 different categories completed, then only 6 of the 7 immunities would be considered valid.

Scoring:
  1. Stories must be published at Literotica in order to earn points. Stories that are pending review or in submission do not count for points in the contest.
  2. Each contestant will have his or her own ScoreCard thread to keep track of scoring.
  3. Entrants must track immunities as soon as they elect to use their immunity.
  4. It is the entrant's responsibility to accurately track story scores, immunities, and bonus points.
  5. Entrants are encouraged to track their points regularly and maintain their ScoreCards updated at all times.
  6. Entrants have until midnight Eastern Time Zone (UTC-5:00), on 1/4/2015 to make any changes to their ScoreCards. Winners will be announced on or shortly after 1/5/2016.
  7. Scoring is subject to random checks by the moderator without notice for purposes of quality control.

Miscellany
  1. All entrants will be responsible for tracking their own progress through the Contest.
  2. Entrants and winners retain copyright to all works submitted.
  3. Sections 1, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 of Official Monthly Contest Rules apply.
  4. Plagiarism or cheating will result in expulsion from the Contest and potentially other actions taken by Literotica.
  5. Rules are subject to change without notice.
  6. Questions should be directed to the moderators. You may privately contact the moderators at any time by pressing the PM button at any of their posts.
  7. This contest is sponsored by Literotica.com. Literotica.com claims no liability in the administration of this contest.

Notice:
Please do not request immunity numbers in this thread. They will not count. All immunities must be dealt with in official immunity threads.


Good Luck :)
__________________
 
I'm in too!

I need a push to get me writing, and maybe this year's Survivor will do.

I was never in for the price, so, why not? :)
 
Will there be immunity again this year or am I just not seeing the thread?

Assuming we have a game this year, there will be immunities. However, only 13 people have signed up so far, and that is a lot fewer than we need. I haven't started a thread yet because of the strong likelihood there will be no contest. :(
 
Assuming we have a game this year, there will be immunities. However, only 13 people have signed up so far, and that is a lot fewer than we need. I haven't started a thread yet because of the strong likelihood there will be no contest. :(

Some of us will still do it, whether or not it's official. Shit, I'll do it for just a $10 Starbucks card!!
 
Some of us will still do it, whether or not it's official. Shit, I'll do it for just a $10 Starbucks card!!

It's not that simple. We are taking up a of space on Lit. and Laurel might not allow it if just a few people are involved. If there is no contest, she will close the forum, including our scorecards and the scoreboard and whatever else we have started using. You could probably copy and paste your scorecard to a thread in the AH and keep track personally, but that just seems rather pointless. :eek:
 
I've already said I'm in and I believe I even have a Scorecard somewhere (?) but no matter which way I search, I can't find the Immunity thread for January 2015. Help plz?

BrettJ in Canada
 
Why?

It's not that simple. We are taking up a of space on Lit. and Laurel might not allow it if just a few people are involved. If there is no contest, she will close the forum, including our scorecards and the scoreboard and whatever else we have started using. You could probably copy and paste your scorecard to a thread in the AH and keep track personally, but that just seems rather pointless. :eek:

If the point of the Survivor contest really was to gain more stories in more categories, than the site would be benefitting quite a bit without having to put out anything. The cost of electrons to maintain the scorecard & contest thread is almost certainly negligible compared to all the other threads and functions the site performs. So I can't imagine why Laurel would shut this down...
 
If the point of the Survivor contest really was to gain more stories in more categories, than the site would be benefitting quite a bit without having to put out anything. The cost of electrons to maintain the scorecard & contest thread is almost certainly negligible compared to all the other threads and functions the site performs. So I can't imagine why Laurel would shut this down...

On that point, I don't see that Lit. would need to prime the pump anymore. It has no trouble with story supply across the board. To the extent it has trouble with specific category story supply, it can muster specific category contests. (I suspect that was the motivation for the separate "How To" and "Earth Day" contest no longer being held.)
 
Above makes sense.

I was talking to someone that's been here since 2003 and they were saying they figured survivors intent was to fill up categories no one really writes in often. But lit is so much bigger now it seems there is no shortage anywhere.

As for other reasons to end it....I think they don't want to pay out anymore and seeing they are now paying out for the monthlies I guess I can see that.

I think the nasty attitude of a certain couple of people here and the endless bitching from the person who wins (I have never seen someone complain so much for winning:confused:) might add to it

I think ultimately the site will benefit because...what this did was fill the site with shit. A lot of writers have admitted to tossing up poorly written half ass shit just to fill up the sheet and run up the score, so maybe with this not around-or with no cash motivation that will stop.

I had mixed emotions on my showing. I write too long and am not prolific enough to be a top 5, but I was aiming for at least 125 for a score.

My wife's health issues held my writing back somewhat, but I also totally played the contests wrong entering with categories I was most likely not going to write again in.

This year I'll enter with mature and incest-categories I know I'll write a lot in-and get the three points for other categories.

I cost myself having something in 3 more categories due to that.

I'm looking forward to trying for the 125 again even for free so hopefully this keeps going. I like goals and motivation and for me its worth more than $25 gift card to have that.
 
I just hope we do decide to have a contest.

In the words of the immortal philosopher - 'nuff said!

BrettJ in Canada
 
I was talking to someone that's been here since 2003 and they were saying they figured survivors intent was to fill up categories no one really writes in often. But lit is so much bigger now it seems there is no shortage anywhere.

TBH, I think the Survivor contest's intent was just fun. :) We didn't create the contest - authors did. They came to us with the proposal and asked if we'd provide prizes, which we did for many years. But we now feel that it's better for us to focus our energy on the monthly contests.

We completely support the continuation of this contest should enough participants choose to be involved, just as we support other friendly competitions (FAWC, etc.) set up by the AH. Exercises like that are great for getting creative juices flowing. They're also very fun to read. :rose:
 
Unfortunately here, as most anyway, when you attach cash prizes to something, the fun factor gets challenged to the point of disappearing.

It seems with cash taken away, even 13 participants is enough to do it if there's a willing coordinator. Maybe if the exercise is less competitive, with competition rewarded, the stories will be written for themselves rather than to meet a number.
 
Unfortunately here, as most anyway, when you attach cash prizes to something, the fun factor gets challenged to the point of disappearing.

It seems with cash taken away, even 13 participants is enough to do it if there's a willing coordinator. Maybe if the exercise is less competitive, with competition rewarded, the stories will be written for themselves rather than to meet a number.

I hope so. Since 2003, I have enjoyed participating, either as a competitor or moderator, unofficial or not. :)
 
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