Scores for the Holiday Contest

Is there anyway to see a list of all the entrants by score? I'm just kind of curious where I finished in relation to everyone else. This was my first contest and I know I got close (4.85) so I'm kind of wondering how close.

Congratulations to the winners. I read many of the stories and there were some very clever ones.

My story was https://www.literotica.com/s/christmas-exchange

In case you didn't get to read it.

Nope, no list available unless you want to check the score on each entry and that won't tell you much as the 1 bombers are already flying.

darkoverlord6 said:

Is there anyway to see a list of all the entrants by score? I'm just kind of curious where I finished in relation to everyone else. This was my first contest and I know I got close (4.85) so I'm kind of wondering how close.

Congratulations to the winners. I read many of the stories and there were some very clever ones.

My story was https://www.literotica.com/s/christmas-exchange

In case you didn't get to read it.

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I checked right after it came out and#1 was 4.91 and #2 and #3 were 4.86 so you were close. I finished at 4.82 under an alt. I got one bombed anyhow. Lol. I didn’t check anyone else’s scores so I don’t know who else was up there.

The top 3 scores haven’t changed so if you dive in quick and look at each story you’ll get a good idea. Don’t post a table of the scores though. No no no. Not a good idea. keep it to yourself.

My story spent most of the contest under 4.00. After the last sweep it crept over 4.00.

I'm not surprised. It was a reminiscence, not really a story. I had intended to write another entry or two but they all stalled as my muses went off on a tangent.

Well, just for grins I did go back an hour ago and checked every story's score. I don't know how much they've changed since the final tally but if things ended now I would have been tied for 4th. In a way its more depressing to see how close I got without quite making it. Losing out of the top three by .01. I guess I should be thrilled I got so close on my first try.

darkoverlord6 said:

Well, just for grins I did go back an hour ago and checked every story's score. I don't know how much they've changed since the final tally but if things ended now I would have been tied for 4th. In a way its more depressing to see how close I got without quite making it. Losing out of the top three by .01. I guess I should be thrilled I got so close on my first try.

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Hey, well done! Sometimes it’s just luck when you’re that close.

darkoverlord6 said:

Well, just for grins I did go back an hour ago and checked every story's score. I don't know how much they've changed since the final tally but if things ended now I would have been tied for 4th. In a way its more depressing to see how close I got without quite making it. Losing out of the top three by .01. I guess I should be thrilled I got so close on my first try.

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Sorry I didn't find it sooner, but I just read it and think you can just assume you are right there with the top three! Very moving and nicely done.

Thanks, it’s always gratifying when some one enjoys one of my stories.

Here’s an approach I used when I competed in my first two contests – recommended, however, only for spreadsheet-inclined numbers nerds.

The day the contest closes for entries, go to the contest page and highlight the list of stories/user names and then copy/paste them en masse into a spreadsheet. The Winter contest had about 100 entries. Clicking on each authors’ name on the contest page will bring you to their Submissions tab on their profile. You can identify their contest scores easily since they will usually have a NEW yellow icon by the story title.

If you sort your spreadsheet by author name, you can easily drop in the story scores by each name. (I’m still bowled over by how many authors manage to come up with multiple entries, and not just 2 or 3.) Then re-sort by score.

Your serious contenders will be >4.7 (or whatever threshold seems appropriate for the contest theme). This gives you a short list to focus on. If you’re swimming with that crowd, good for you.

When the contest ends, quickly update your contenders list. Sure, trolls will be 1-bombing but sweeps will adjust those scores a few days later. And the order of the Top 10 (or Top 20) might shift around a little, but it’s highly unlikely that a contender will emerge from down in the pack.

The one thing you can never know is the 3rd decimal point in the score. Two years ago when I entered the Winter contest, the winners all had a score of 4.90 (on the announcement day). Those scores are always in flux over time as fans and trolls and sweeps weigh in.

(If you’re impatient – like I was for my first contest – you could start building the spreadsheet earlier in the contest and add the new entries every few days. Naturally there's a big surge of new entries right before the deadline.)

KenNicottii said:

Your serious contenders will be >4.7 (or whatever threshold seems appropriate for the contest theme). This gives you a short list to focus on. If you’re swimming with that crowd, good for you.

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Not necessarily. It depends on how many zappers you have hanging on you. I had seven in the Winter Holidays contest. Only one of them was Hot when the voting closed. It was barely Hot and all of the rest were below 4.3. After the sweeps, six were in the 4.7's, with the seventh nearly Hot. Now one of them is 4.83 and another one is 4.79. It all depends on how many zappers you have hanging on you. I almost always have one that rises from something like 4.35 to 4.80 in the contest sweeps.