The Official Author's Hangout Earth Day 2013 Contest Support Thread

I'm reversing a dynamic I've used previously, with the POV character having the opposite half of the dynamic the POV character in the other story had. Exploring it from the other end of the spectrum while still playing on something that I've found goes over very well with readers. The gender part of the dynamic is the same, though. Just coming from her instead of him this time.

Sneaking in a few subtle things that will set up other stories as well. No way in hell anyone will catch any of them until they read the future stories *laugh*

It's one of my favorite things to do on long/connected stories. Way down the line, I spring the surprise, and then get to enjoy the emails from people who remember those clues and can't believe they didn't know what was coming

Utterly blank for other ideas this year, though. I usually have at least a few plot bunnies hopping around, but got nuffin'. Work beating me to death with long hours and then every hour of slightly shorter days being a nightmare hasn't helped much.

Odds are all the crap I've been dealing with will have vanished when I get back. My boss will have to deal with it while I'm gone for a week, and it will undoubtedly become a problem requiring immediate attention when it's his problem instead of me reporting the stupidity and incompetence causing it while cleaning up the mess it made.

Contest analysis - Earth Day Contest 2013

Good evening. The ouija board tells me that there are 38 stories in the competition to date, with an average score of 4.21 from an average of 299 votes. Stories had an average of 21,359 views, an average of 7 favorites, and an average of 6 comments. The average ratio of votes to views is 1.28%. The average number of pages is 2.6, with the longest story being 10 pages.

So far there have been a total of 9,586 votes, 811,679 views, 277 favorites and 244 comments.

The standard deviation of scores (from the average of 4.21) is 0.42 and the standard deviation of votes (from the average of 299) is 391. The median score is 4.32, the median number of votes is 157 and the median number of pages is 2. The top 25% of scores are 4.50 or above and the bottom 25% of scores are 3.97 or below.

Sweeps

Some votes have been reduced (swept) since the start of the competition. A total of 1 story has had its votes adjusted, with 1 sweep resulting in a new score that day which is higher than before and 0 sweeps resulting in a new score that day which is lower. There were a total of 1 votes swept, being an average of 1 per swept story. The maximum number of votes swept for a single story was 1. (Figures based on toplists, and may not be totally accurate).


Categories entered (alphabetic order)

• BDSM (1 story)
• Erotic Couplings (6 stories)
• Exhibitionist & Voyeur (3 stories)
• Gay Male (1 story)
• Group Sex (1 story)
• Illustrated (1 story)
• Incest/Taboo (6 stories)
• Lesbian Sex (1 story)
• Loving Wives (1 story)
• Mature (2 stories)
• NonConsent/Reluctance (3 stories)
• NonHuman (2 stories)
• Reviews & Essays (1 story)
• Romance (5 stories)
• Sci-Fi & Fantasy (3 stories)
• Text With Audio (1 story)

New stories today

• A Backwoods Awakening (Lesbian Sex) by YDB95
• Bird Man (Erotic Couplings) by hoo_hoo_boo
• Blind (NonConsent/Reluctance) by Ashson
• Bonsai Hunting (Romance) by eclare
• May to December Earth Day Romance (Mature) by JuanVato
• Time (Erotic Couplings) by hoo_hoo_boo

Authors entered so far are:

AffectionateFather, Ashson (2), Aunay, Beelzebub72, CavyConsultant, Cndrlla69, curlyspurs, eclare (2), HeyAll, hoo_hoo_boo (2), HottieKatie, JagFarlane (2), Jasmynn_Brown, JuanVato, litfan10, MSTarot, RedHairedandFriendly (2), Rutabaga72, sexnovella, silkstockingslover (2), slyc_willie (2), sr71plt, StaciRay79, Stacy469, subwryter, SusanJillParker, theravenfox, tk5555, TxRad, xelliebabex, YDB95

Disclaimer

Because of the way this site works these figures will not be totally up-to-date. For a given story the score shown on the category page, the author's page, and the toplists page, can all be different. Also it appears that various pages update at different times of the day, sometimes quite infrequently.

Please do not PM me asking for more detailed information. I do not wish to skew contest results by giving a target for voting manipulation.

Contest page: Earth Day Contest 2013

lovecraft68 said:

Having said that, lets have a new contest, a "Free for all" and everyone just enters a random story and people can vote.

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Nice. I like that idea.

Each writer chosing his own topic and let the ink fly. Cry forth havok and loose the keyboards of war!

Hum...but who would chose what I wonder? Would it be fluff and stuff or whip and slip?

A bit of the old in out in out for mummy or daddy would probably get the most votes but maybe not the highest.

And then there is fan loyalty that would favor the established writers more than the new guys but...

I really like this idea.

Good one LC

M.S.Tarot

Why would that be different from just submitting your story to the regular file and taking the ratings that you and others who are submitting are given?

sr71plt said:

Why would that be different from just submitting your story to the regular file and taking the ratings that you and others who are submitting are given?

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Chance to rub two coins together. LC said contest...ie a chance to maybe win a bit of money, lol.

Not that I care too much. Win or lose I enter the contests for the fun of it and for the floor show.

Although i wouldn't say no to a few dollars if i couuld win.

What happened to the monthly contests? I saw that when I first joined but I don't ever see any winners.

My story's character decided to turn into a woman, so now I have a lesbian story instead of hetero! Hopefully I'll be done soon!

The monthly and yearly contests have been getting steadily farther behind for years.

At this point, they're just reflecting badly on the site because they're so far behind. Probably should be eliminated, or caught up in a hurry.

Haven't seen any signs of either happening, though.

We're getting there.

Contest analysis - Earth Day Contest 2013

Good evening. The pyramids tell me that there are 38 stories in the competition to date, with an average score of 4.23 from an average of 272 votes. Stories had an average of 23,342 views, an average of 7 favorites, and an average of 7 comments. The average ratio of votes to views is 1.26%. The average number of pages is 2.6, with the longest story being 10 pages.

So far there have been a total of 10,361 votes, 887,019 views, 295 favorites and 269 comments.

The standard deviation of scores (from the average of 4.23) is 0.41 and the standard deviation of votes (from the average of 272) is 378. The median score is 4.35, the median number of votes is 111 and the median number of pages is 2. The top 25% of scores are 4.51 or above and the bottom 25% of scores are 3.94 or below.

Sweeps

Some votes have been reduced (swept) since the start of the competition. A total of 2 stories have had their votes adjusted, with 2 sweeps resulting in a new score that day which is higher than before and 0 sweeps resulting in a new score that day which is lower. There were a total of 2 votes swept, being an average of 1 per swept story. The maximum number of votes swept for a single story was 1. (Figures based on toplists, and may not be totally accurate).


Categories entered (alphabetic order)

• BDSM (1 story)
• Erotic Couplings (6 stories)
• Exhibitionist & Voyeur (3 stories)
• Gay Male (1 story)
• Group Sex (1 story)
• Illustrated (1 story)
• Incest/Taboo (6 stories)
• Lesbian Sex (1 story)
• Loving Wives (1 story)
• Mature (2 stories)
• NonConsent/Reluctance (3 stories)
• NonHuman (2 stories)
• Reviews & Essays (1 story)
• Romance (5 stories)
• Sci-Fi & Fantasy (3 stories)
• Text With Audio (1 story)

Views by category

• Incest/Taboo: 478,555 (54.0%)
• NonConsent/Reluctance: 67,333 (7.6%)
• Exhibitionist & Voyeur: 60,565 (6.8%)
• Romance: 57,441 (6.5%)
• Erotic Couplings: 57,039 (6.4%)
• Illustrated: 40,895 (4.6%)
• Group Sex: 22,603 (2.5%)
• Mature: 21,583 (2.4%)
• Loving Wives: 17,338 (2.0%)
• BDSM: 15,732 (1.8%)
• NonHuman: 13,704 (1.5%)
• Text With Audio: 13,424 (1.5%)
• Sci-Fi & Fantasy: 9,910 (1.1%)
• Gay Male: 5,027 (0.6%)
• Reviews & Essays: 2,949 (0.3%)
• Lesbian Sex: 2,921 (0.3%)

Comments by category

• Incest/Taboo: 97 (36.1%)
• Romance: 45 (16.7%)
• NonConsent/Reluctance: 31 (11.5%)
• Reviews & Essays: 17 (6.3%)
• Erotic Couplings: 14 (5.2%)
• Exhibitionist & Voyeur: 13 (4.8%)
• Sci-Fi & Fantasy: 11 (4.1%)
• Text With Audio: 10 (3.7%)
• NonHuman: 9 (3.3%)
• Mature: 8 (3.0%)
• Loving Wives: 3 (1.1%)
• BDSM: 3 (1.1%)
• Illustrated: 3 (1.1%)
• Gay Male: 2 (0.7%)
• Lesbian Sex: 2 (0.7%)
• Group Sex: 1 (0.4%)

Favorites by category

• Incest/Taboo: 174 (59.0%)
• NonConsent/Reluctance: 31 (10.5%)
• Romance: 25 (8.5%)
• Exhibitionist & Voyeur: 17 (5.8%)
• Mature: 11 (3.7%)
• Erotic Couplings: 10 (3.4%)
• NonHuman: 8 (2.7%)
• Text With Audio: 7 (2.4%)
• Gay Male: 3 (1.0%)
• Loving Wives: 2 (0.7%)
• Sci-Fi & Fantasy: 2 (0.7%)
• Illustrated: 2 (0.7%)
• BDSM: 1 (0.3%)
• Group Sex: 1 (0.3%)
• Lesbian Sex: 1 (0.3%)
• Reviews & Essays: 0 (0.0%)

Votes by category

• Incest/Taboo: 5,729 (55.3%)
• Romance: 1,625 (15.7%)
• NonConsent/Reluctance: 636 (6.1%)
• Exhibitionist & Voyeur: 560 (5.4%)
• Erotic Couplings: 480 (4.6%)
• NonHuman: 301 (2.9%)
• Mature: 255 (2.5%)
• Loving Wives: 166 (1.6%)
• Group Sex: 117 (1.1%)
• Illustrated: 109 (1.1%)
• Sci-Fi & Fantasy: 91 (0.9%)
• Text With Audio: 86 (0.8%)
• Reviews & Essays: 79 (0.8%)
• BDSM: 62 (0.6%)
• Gay Male: 39 (0.4%)
• Lesbian Sex: 26 (0.3%)

Average scores by category

• Romance: 4.64
• Incest/Taboo: 4.52
• Text With Audio: 4.51
• NonHuman: 4.43
• Exhibitionist & Voyeur: 4.38
• Mature: 4.37
• Illustrated: 4.36
• Group Sex: 4.31
• Lesbian Sex: 4.20
• Gay Male: 4.13
• Erotic Couplings: 4.10
• Reviews & Essays: 4.09
• BDSM: 4.05
• NonConsent/Reluctance: 3.95
• Loving Wives: 3.48
• Sci-Fi & Fantasy: 3.41

Hotness by category

• Text With Audio: 100%
• Romance: 80%
• Incest/Taboo: 50%
• NonHuman: 50%
• Exhibitionist & Voyeur: 33%

Swept votes by category

• Sci-Fi & Fantasy: 1
• Illustrated: 1

Number of views, votes, comments per day

• 31 Mar (Sunday) : 343,113 views, 4,141 votes, 114 comments
• 1 Apr (Monday) : 33,921 views, 629 votes, 32 comments
• 2 Apr (Tuesday) : 132,926 views, 1,881 votes, 28 comments
• 3 Apr (Wednesday) : 70,164 views, 850 votes, 10 comments
• 4 Apr (Thursday) : 90,311 views, 638 votes, 17 comments
• 5 Apr (Friday) : 63,202 views, 694 votes, 15 comments
• 6 Apr (Saturday) : 78,042 views, 753 votes, 28 comments
• 7 Apr (Sunday) : 75,340 views, 775 votes, 25 comments

New stories today: None


Authors entered so far are:

AffectionateFather, Ashson (2), Aunay, Beelzebub72, CavyConsultant, Cndrlla69, curlyspurs, eclare (2), HeyAll, hoo_hoo_boo (2), HottieKatie, JagFarlane (2), Jasmynn_Brown, JuanVato, litfan10, MSTarot, RedHairedandFriendly (2), Rutabaga72, sexnovella, silkstockingslover (2), slyc_willie (2), sr71plt, StaciRay79, Stacy469, subwryter, SusanJillParker, theravenfox, tk5555, TxRad, xelliebabex, YDB95

Disclaimer

Because of the way this site works these figures will not be totally up-to-date. For a given story the score shown on the category page, the author's page, and the toplists page, can all be different. Also it appears that various pages update at different times of the day, sometimes quite infrequently.

Please do not PM me asking for more detailed information. I do not wish to skew contest results by giving a target for voting manipulation.

Contest page: Earth Day Contest 2013

Unless there's a major sweep, my stories have pretty much hit a plateau with votes. They're both doing pretty well; they won't win, but I wasn't concerned with that.

Funny; I just had another idea for a story, but I'd hate to ruin the momentum on the one I'm currently working on.

ummm I went through most of them today and read them and voted. a couple I even commented on. I hope yours was one of them slyc.

PinkPeep said:

ummm I went through most of them today and read them and voted. a couple I even commented on. I hope yours was one of them slyc.

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If you did, thanks.

I see our aussie ALT is at it again...

Sorry, I'm new to the whole message board thing.

Can somebody please tell me what a 'sweep' is?

eclare

eclare said:

Can somebody please tell me what a 'sweep' is?

eclare

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A sweep is when duplicate or suspected fraudulent votes are removed. Don't ask for specifics; no one knows the exact process, program, or reason behind them.

Welcome to the AH.

I have to admit to being a little amused at drawing over 6% of the comments with one little essay.

as oily once said: "what the heck"... here's his second post...

...just ten to go...

For any newbie on this thread, please put scouies and scourieswold, his propaganda alt, on ignore It makes the whole contest more fun and does away with a world of bullshit and lies.

Contest analysis - Earth Day Contest 2013

Good evening. The filibusters tell me that there are 42 stories in the competition to date, with an average score of 4.24 from an average of 288 votes. Stories had an average of 22,116 views, an average of 7 favorites, and an average of 7 comments. The average ratio of votes to views is 1.32%. The average number of pages is 2.6, with the longest story being 10 pages.

So far there have been a total of 10,953 votes, 928,878 views, 327 favorites and 304 comments.

The standard deviation of scores (from the average of 4.24) is 0.42 and the standard deviation of votes (from the average of 288) is 381. The median score is 4.32, the median number of votes is 120 and the median number of pages is 2. The top 25% of scores are 4.54 or above and the bottom 25% of scores are 3.97 or below.

Sweeps

Some votes have been reduced (swept) since the start of the competition. A total of 2 stories have had their votes adjusted, with 2 sweeps resulting in a new score that day which is higher than before and 0 sweeps resulting in a new score that day which is lower. There were a total of 2 votes swept, being an average of 1 per swept story. The maximum number of votes swept for a single story was 1. (Figures based on toplists, and may not be totally accurate).


Categories entered (alphabetic order)

• BDSM (2 stories)
• Erotic Couplings (6 stories)
• Exhibitionist & Voyeur (3 stories)
• Gay Male (1 story)
• Group Sex (1 story)
• Illustrated (1 story)
• Incest/Taboo (6 stories)
• Lesbian Sex (1 story)
• Loving Wives (2 stories)
• Mature (2 stories)
• NonConsent/Reluctance (3 stories)
• NonHuman (3 stories)
• Reviews & Essays (1 story)
• Romance (5 stories)
• Sci-Fi & Fantasy (4 stories)
• Text With Audio (1 story)

New stories today

• Cernunnos' Lesson (NonHuman) by ihartekenny
• Eco-'Friendly' Cleaning (Loving Wives) by Tx Tall Tales
• Tree Hugger Loves Butt Plugger (BDSM) by BrookMeier
• Trial 1717 (Sci-Fi & Fantasy) by CatRun

Authors entered so far are:

AffectionateFather, Ashson (2), Aunay, Beelzebub72, BrookMeier, CatRun, CavyConsultant, Cndrlla69, curlyspurs, eclare (2), HeyAll, hoo_hoo_boo (2), HottieKatie, ihartekenny, JagFarlane (2), Jasmynn_Brown, JuanVato, litfan10, MSTarot, RedHairedandFriendly (2), Rutabaga72, sexnovella, silkstockingslover (2), slyc_willie (2), sr71plt, StaciRay79, Stacy469, subwryter, SusanJillParker, theravenfox, tk5555, Tx Tall Tales, TxRad, xelliebabex, YDB95

Disclaimer

Because of the way this site works these figures will not be totally up-to-date. For a given story the score shown on the category page, the author's page, and the toplists page, can all be different. Also it appears that various pages update at different times of the day, sometimes quite infrequently.

Please do not PM me asking for more detailed information. I do not wish to skew contest results by giving a target for voting manipulation.

Contest page: Earth Day Contest 2013

Well I'm happy with Baucis and Philemon but not liking the sex; really intrudes on the tone of the whole thing so not going to use it for the contest. Going to throw the sex out and polish it up for a non Erotic market or site.

Shame as I like to enter two stories just to rile up the village idiot, but posting a scifi entry already did that for me.

Best of luck to everyone still working on stories and thanks to all the current entries for the wonderful reads they are! Having a blast reading them.

Hey Slyc (and everyone else),

Thanks for the reply. I really am new to this stuff so please be patient with me if I've not got it quite right.

How does one actually win the ED contest? The rules say the following:

"Winners will be decided by reader input (aka votes)"

So the story with the most votes wins? Or is it with the highest score? Or is it a combination of both?

It just seems a little unfair to me that if someone posts a killer story in an obscure category, like Mature or Non-Erotic (not that there's anything wrong with those!) that they would be punished for not posting a story in the more mainstream categories, ie those that naturally get more viewers and votes.

Then on the other hand, one lonely vote for a five from one lonely reader doesn't seem right either.

Another question - what the fuck is this scouries thing? I get the drift from the posts about staying away and that it's all bullshit (I do like the photos though), and I dare not click on the damn thing.

If the scouries is just a pest, then why doesn't the webmaster just block it all? If they knew there was a minor on-line, then I think they could. I don't get it. Please fill me in with the back story.

I have an avatar on Lit. Why doesn't it follow me here? WTF?

eclare

The highest rating of a story that's still got 25 votes or more after the last sweeps wins.

Okay, one thing at a time.

eclare said:

Hey Slyc (and everyone else),

Thanks for the reply. I really am new to this stuff so please be patient with me if I've not got it quite right.

How does one actually win the ED contest? The rules say the following:

"Winners will be decided by reader input (aka votes)"

So the story with the most votes wins? Or is it with the highest score? Or is it a combination of both?

Click to expand...

sr71pilot answered this in the post above. Highest three scores with at least 25 votes wins, obviously, 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

It just seems a little unfair to me that if someone posts a killer story in an obscure category, like Mature or Non-Erotic (not that there's anything wrong with those!) that they would be punished for not posting a story in the more mainstream categories, ie those that naturally get more viewers and votes.

Then on the other hand, one lonely vote for a five from one lonely reader doesn't seem right either.

Click to expand...

Lit's scoring is not perfect, will never be perfect, and could not ever be perfect. It's as fair as Laurel and Manu are comfortable with.

Another question - what the fuck is this scouries thing? I get the drift from the posts about staying away and that it's all bullshit (I do like the photos though), and I dare not click on the damn thing.

If the scouries is just a pest, then why doesn't the webmaster just block it all? If they knew there was a minor on-line, then I think they could. I don't get it. Please fill me in with the back story.

Click to expand...

Laurel and Manu believe strongly in free speech. This means anyone can post damn near anything they wish on the forums here. Even if that means allowing someone like scouries to spout lie after lie, they allow it. The assumption is made that we are all adults and can weed out the real wheat from the chaff.

I have an avatar on Lit. Why doesn't it follow me here? WTF?

eclare

Click to expand...

Your avatar will appear when you have 100 posts.

eclare said:

It just seems a little unfair to me that if someone posts a killer story in an obscure category, like Mature or Non-Erotic (not that there's anything wrong with those!) that they would be punished for not posting a story in the more mainstream categories, ie those that naturally get more viewers and votes.

Click to expand...

Non-Erotic, because it has a low regular readership, is actually at an advantage if you have a fanbase ( who tend to vote high )

Mature obscure? Heh... I get some of my best numbers in that category outside of incest. I regularly break 1000 votes in Mature and I think my lowest total is in the mid 300s.

Just as low-vote categories get an overall advantage, high-vote categories end up with an overall disadvantage, because more people read them, and thus you're more likely to pick up votes of 4 or less from people outside your fanbase.

No matter how you break it down, it's an internet poll at its heart, and thus inherantly flawed -- open to all sorts of manipulation that can be almost impossible to completely control. The sweeps are one of the ways Lit tries to mitigate such bad behavior.

The best way to look at the contests is the advantages you get no matter what you write:

Quick posting - usually in 24 hours or less, as compared to anywhere from 3-7 days or more for a normal story.

Top billing - Contest stories are posted at the top of the New Stories list, above all regular stories ( except Editor's Choice ) and thus get a great deal more exposure.

Longer exposure from the contest page - even though it's not used that much, your story is at least a little more visible on the contest page for the entire duration of the contest, which is several weeks ( if you enter early )

The exposure you gain from posting to contests is where the real winning comes from. It quite naturally helps your probability of placing in future contests, because you'll almost always gain regulars whenever a large number of new people find you through the contest entry, and those regulars will be predisposed to vote high on future stories.