Sticky: 2013 Survivor Rules and Registration Thread

Boxlicker101 said:

ETA: I agree in getting this and other questions worked out before too long. Maybe by the end of next weekend, which would be Jan. 14.

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I just saw this... I think 10 days is WAY too long to spend time on this topic. I wouldn't want to go beyond the 9th, as Neonurotic suggests. If a decision can't be reached by then, then it has become a joke of a conversation.

Zrnko_Pisku said:

But what are you accomplishing other than circumventing the site's minimum word limit? By stringing out a chapter to two pages doesn't make it any better or more complete than a 750 word or even a fifty word chapter it just makes it longer.

If you want to insure that the chapters are complete and stand alone you need to do more than just require more words. If you want to penalize a writer who takes the time and makes the effort to trim a chapter or story to its greatest impact and reward someone who just chugs out masses of words you will accomplish that by requiring chapters to be two pages, or three thousand, or some other arbitrary number.

I repeat from my earlier post: I think we should either allow chapters that are in accordance with the site requirements or disallow them.

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There will always be stories that are very short - 750 words - and this is alright for complete stories. The reason for the no-chapter rule was that some people were posting chapters of only 750 words and counting each one. This was not a matter of concise story telling; it was a matter of starting with a long story ans slicing it into segments that were just long enough to meet the Lit. minimum standards. 3,000 words is not a long chapter, but it is long enough to keep people from repeating those previous abuses.

I will admit that using a standard of more than one Lit. page rather than a minimum word count is to save me time and effort. I haven't heard from either Crim or Lauren for almost a year now.

Setting our own minimum is not a new idea. Currently, novels and novellas need to be 7,500 words or more to qualify here, although Lit. has no such minimum.

So for the folks that slip in over the weekend, you're proposing two things.

One, the return to chapters.

Two, the return to chapters with a limit of 1 full Lit. page, or a spill over to a second page.

Neonurotic said:

... This will deter those who take advantage of Literotica's usual word limit to circumvent the contest to gain points in an underhanded way. ... Of course a well written/edited chapter can be written in 750 words, but that is not the point here since some do it as a sneaky shortcut for Survivor. Such deceptiveness doesn't sit well with other participants.

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How is writing a well written/edited chapter or story underhanded or deceptive? How does a 750 word story circumvent the contest? The rules for literotica and survivor are clear: 750 word minimum. If a writer lacks the talent or simply chooses not to write in a concise manner why is that deemed fair and honest and a writer exercising the skill and taking the extra time to write concisely deemed underhanded?

Others may fall for the implication that writing concisely is somehow underhanded or sneaky. I don't and won't let that type of stratagizing affect how I choose to write a story.

Boxlicker101 said:

There will always be stories that are very short - 750 words - and this is alright for complete stories. The reason for the no-chapter rule was that some people were posting chapters of only 750 words and counting each one.

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And what is wrong with that if the chapter was complete and stand alone?

Boxlicker101 said:

This was not a matter of concise story telling; it was a matter of starting with a long story ans slicing it into segments that were just long enough to meet the Lit. minimum standards. 3,000 words is not a long chapter, but it is long enough to keep people from repeating those previous abuses.

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3.000 words could also be mere slices of a longer story. A 3000 word chapter can also be incomplete and not stand alone. Basically, one writer didn't like the way another writer was able to write concise, complete and stand alone chapters and decided to chop his longer stories into the interupted things to emphasize the possiblity for abuse. That is what brought about disallowing the chapters. I guess the question is: Will you allow that sort of grandstanding affect how you choose to adjust the contest rules?

Boxlicker101 said:

I will admit that using a standard of more than one Lit. page rather than a minimum word count is to save me time and effort. I haven't heard from either Crim or Lauren for almost a year now.

Setting our own minimum is not a new idea. Currently, novels and novellas need to be 7,500 words or more to qualify here, although Lit. has no such minimum.

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Given the specific category, Novels, Novellas and Novelettes I can concede that a 7500 word requirement (Novelette = 7500 words) is reasonable. But simply establishing an edict that a chapter is 3000 words or more has no basis in any type of writing. I think it is merely an attempt to penalize an writer who chooses to make the effort to write concisely.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Neonurotic
... This will deter those who take advantage of Literotica's usual word limit to circumvent the contest to gain points in an underhanded way. ... Of course a well written/edited chapter can be written in 750 words, but that is not the point here since some do it as a sneaky shortcut for Survivor. Such deceptiveness doesn't sit well with other participants.

Zrnko_Pisku said:

How is writing a well written/edited chapter or story underhanded or deceptive? How does a 750 word story circumvent the contest? The rules for literotica and survivor are clear: 750 word minimum. If a writer lacks the talent or simply chooses not to write in a concise manner why is that deemed fair and honest and a writer exercising the skill and taking the extra time to write concisely deemed underhanded?

Others may fall for the implication that writing concisely is somehow underhanded or sneaky. I don't and won't let that type of stratagizing affect how I choose to write a story.

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The stories referred to were not concise or well-edited or anything else. They were just crap. For the most part, they were mostly long and rambling and repetitious conversations and went nowhere. They were strictly for the purpose of piling up points, and this is what led to the rule against chapters, except in Novels & Novellas and Chain Stories. This is not a Lit. rule; people are free to write chapters of any length they want, and they will be posted, but those bogus writings have not been allowed in the Survivors' Contest for a couple of years.

This is strictly chapters we are discussing. Individual stories that are 750 words long are accepted by Lit. and can be included in the Survivors' Contest.

I believe the current rule is too restrictive. As it is now, two complete, stories about the same people are considered to be chapters in a continuing story, even if both of them are complete and can stand alone. This is what I want to change, and I think most people agree, but I also think most people don't want to revert to what was happening a few years ago. By requiring that chapters must be a minimum length, we will be making it much more difficult for people to game the system.

Besides chapters, there are two other points under discussion. One is the proposal by theravenfox to allow audible stories to be posted in categories other than the Audible Story category, once that category has been filled to the first cap. The writer/recorder would select the category and I or another mod. would read it to see if the choice is appropriate. It is understood that the stories so posted would have to meet all the other requirements of length, etc.

This is a yes or no question.

_______Yes, allow audible stories to be posted to other categories once the Audible category is filled, as long as those stories meet all other requirements.

_______No, keep the status quo.

The other question is also yes or no: Should the thirty point bonus continue to be offered to those who write a story in every theme contest? This bonus is in addition to the five points offered to every author who enters a story in a theme contest. Currently, authors can score sixty points for entering every theme contest.

_______Yes. Continue as we have been doing and award a bonus of thirty points to those who enter every theme contest,

_______No. Do not have the bonus available.

To vote, I suggest you copy this post and paste it in your post. I don't want to take too long, so I will set a deadline of Midnight, Eastern Time, next Wednesday to cast votes.

Boxlicker101 said:

Besides chapters, there are two other points under discussion. One is the proposal by theravenfox to allow audible stories to be posted in categories other than the Audible Story category, once that category has been filled to the first cap. The writer/recorder would select the category and I or another mod. would read it to see if the choice is appropriate. It is understood that the stories so posted would have to meet all the other requirements of length, etc.

This is a yes or no question.

_______Yes, allow audible stories to be posted to other categories once the Audible category is filled, as long as those stories meet all other requirements.

_______No, keep the status quo.

The other question is also yes or no: Should the thirty point bonus continue to be offered to those who write a story in every theme contest? This bonus is in addition to the five points offered to every author who enters a story in a theme contest. Currently, authors can score sixty points for entering every theme contest.

_______Yes. Continue as we have been doing and award a bonus of thirty points to those who enter every theme contest,

_______No. Do not have the bonus available.

To vote, I suggest you copy this post and paste it in your post. I don't want to take too long, so I will set a deadline of Midnight, Eastern Time, next Wednesday to cast votes.

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No to keep the status quo in regard to the audible category.

Yes continue as we have been doing and award a bonus of thirty points to those who enter every theme contest.

Boxlicker101 said:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Neonurotic
... This will deter those who take advantage of Literotica's usual word limit to circumvent the contest to gain points in an underhanded way. ... Of course a well written/edited chapter can be written in 750 words, but that is not the point here since some do it as a sneaky shortcut for Survivor. Such deceptiveness doesn't sit well with other participants.




The stories referred to were not concise or well-edited or anything else. They were just crap. For the most part, they were mostly long and rambling and repetitious conversations and went nowhere. They were strictly for the purpose of piling up points, and this is what led to the rule against chapters, except in Novels & Novellas and Chain Stories. This is not a Lit. rule; people are free to write chapters of any length they want, and they will be posted, but those bogus writings have not been allowed in the Survivors' Contest for a couple of years.

This is strictly chapters we are discussing. Individual stories that are 750 words long are accepted by Lit. and can be included in the Survivors' Contest.

I believe the current rule is too restrictive. As it is now, two complete, stories about the same people are considered to be chapters in a continuing story, even if both of them are complete and can stand alone. This is what I want to change, and I think most people agree, but I also think most people don't want to revert to what was happening a few years ago. By requiring that chapters must be a minimum length, we will be making it much more difficult for people to game the system.

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Either we have chapter stories or we don't. That's the question. A chapter story is a chapter story. One Literotica page? How do we do that? Is that 3,600 words of 3,800 words and what happens if your chapter story is only 3,400 words?

Are we going to see a repeat of 2010 where Crimson blows the foul whistle after the contest is over and disqualifies stories because she imagines they were "boiler plate" stories, whatever the Hell that was or we going to continue to have a fair contest as we did this year and last year?

I really don't care what the rules are, so long as they are in place for everyone with no one given "special" treatment as there was in prior contests.

Count me in for this year.

As for the current topics up for a vote:

_______Yes, allow audible stories to be posted to other categories once the Audible category is filled, as long as those stories meet all other requirements.

___X___No, keep the status quo.

The other question is also yes or no: Should the thirty point bonus continue to be offered to those who write a story in every theme contest? This bonus is in addition to the five points offered to every author who enters a story in a theme contest. Currently, authors can score sixty points for entering every theme contest.

___X___Yes. Continue as we have been doing and award a bonus of thirty points to those who enter every theme contest,

_______No. Do not have the bonus available.



As for the Chapter rule... I wasn't around during the days of abuse. Personally, I found myself inhibited in an odd way during this past year with the "no chapters" rule. I withheld writing additionally chapters to otherwise good stories because I didn't want the original story disqualified from the Survivor contest. As a minimum, I would suggestion the following rule change:

Outside of the novel/novella category Only the first chapters of multi-chapter stories may count towards a category. This requires no additional word count provisions and frees someone's muse to add to a story without disqualifying the original story.

If we want greater depth for the inclusion of additional chapters towards a point total, here's my suggestion: Subsequent chapters which can be read as independent, stand-alone stories may be included on a score chart.

Otherwise, I embrace Box's suggestion of an additional word count/length for chaptered stories to count. 3K seems reasonable. And, as he pointed out, the Survivor contest already has a precedent established for including an extra word count in the novel/novella category.

Besides chapters, there are two other points under discussion. One is the proposal by theravenfox to allow audible stories to be posted in categories other than the Audible Story category, once that category has been filled to the first cap. The writer/recorder would select the category and I or another mod. would read it to see if the choice is appropriate. It is understood that the stories so posted would have to meet all the other requirements of length, etc.

This is a yes or no question.

_______Yes, allow audible stories to be posted to other categories once the Audible category is filled, as long as those stories meet all other requirements.


My Vote: _______No, keep the status quo.

The other question is also yes or no: Should the thirty point bonus continue to be offered to those who write a story in every theme contest? This bonus is in addition to the five points offered to every author who enters a story in a theme contest. Currently, authors can score sixty points for entering every theme contest.

_______Yes. Continue as we have been doing and award a bonus of thirty points to those who enter every theme contest,

My Vote: _______No. Do not have the bonus available.


In regards to SusanJillParker's request on voting on scorecards being filled out - I am all for that. I believe however not one week, but by the end of each month they need to be filled out. And I agree that a vote should be taken if enough interest is stirred in the discussion of it.


Chapters - I want chapters back. I like the idea that was just presented, only the opening chapter of a story be allowed, then the word count wouldn't have to change.

If all chapters are going to be allowed no matter if they are first or twenty-fifth, a word count, not a Lit. page should be done. With fancy formatting, which can be allowed if the author asks admin. to leave their tags, Lit. pages can be manipulated.

Boxlicker101 said:

The stories referred to were not concise or well-edited or anything else. They were just crap. For the most part, they were mostly long and rambling and repetitious conversations and went nowhere. They were strictly for the purpose of piling up points, and this is what led to the rule against chapters, except in Novels & Novellas and Chain Stories. This is not a Lit. rule; people are free to write chapters of any length they want, and they will be posted, but those bogus writings have not been allowed in the Survivors' Contest for a couple of years.

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No, as I said in an earlier post the stories referred to were engineered by one writer with the apparent specific intent to chop up the chapters as you indicated. During that time there were many other chapters written by other writers that were far less than 3000 words that are currently listed on Lit's all time lists of most popular stories. Are you calling those stories crap too? And quite frankly I don't believe a chapter is suddenly transformed from crap to acceptable once it exceeds the 3000 word limit.

This is only a very poorly veiled attempt at the true intent here: To build obstacles in the contest to penalize the writers who are able and choose to write concisely.

With regard to the Audible stories question I think before we vote on it you need to confirm that Laurel will agree to post these stories to categories other than Audible Stories. If this is something she can't or doesn't agree to do then the vote becomes a moot point.

If she can and agrees to post audible stories to other categories then my vote is as follows:

Boxlicker101 said:

Besides chapters, there are two other points under discussion. One is the proposal by theravenfox to allow audible stories to be posted in categories other than the Audible Story category, once that category has been filled to the first cap. The writer/recorder would select the category and I or another mod. would read it to see if the choice is appropriate. It is understood that the stories so posted would have to meet all the other requirements of length, etc.

This is a yes or no question.

__X_____Yes, allow audible stories to be posted to other categories once the Audible category is filled, as long as those stories meet all other requirements.

_______No, keep the status quo.

The other question is also yes or no: Should the thirty point bonus continue to be offered to those who write a story in every theme contest? This bonus is in addition to the five points offered to every author who enters a story in a theme contest. Currently, authors can score sixty points for entering every theme contest.

_______Yes. Continue as we have been doing and award a bonus of thirty points to those who enter every theme contest,

_______No. Do not have the bonus available.


No vote here. I am good with either.

To vote, I suggest you copy this post and paste it in your post. I don't want to take too long, so I will set a deadline of Midnight, Eastern Time, next Wednesday to cast votes.

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Zrnko_Pisku said:

No, as I said in an earlier post the stories referred to were engineered by one writer with the apparent specific intent to chop up the chapters as you indicated. During that time there were many other chapters written by other writers that were far less than 3000 words that are currently listed on Lit's all time lists of most popular stories. Are you calling those stories crap too? And quite frankly I don't believe a chapter is suddenly transformed from crap to acceptable once it exceeds the 3000 word limit.

This is only a very poorly veiled attempt at the true intent here: To build obstacles in the contest to penalize the writers who are able and choose to write concisely.

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My mother almost named me Zrnko.

Let's stop throwing the mud.

First of all, when I wrote under BostonFictionWriter in 2007 and 2008 and finished 2nd both years. I was cheated out of winning both years but that's all water under the bridge.

In the more than 1,000 stories I've posted on Literotica, I've never written a story less than 1,000 words. Go check through all of my stories, I'll wait here until you find a 750 word story.

You do the math genius. Having written more than 7,000,000 words on the site, my average story is 7,000 words. Okay? Nod your head so that I know you understand me.

Have you looked at my Survivor scorecard for this year? I wrote more than 425,000 words and when you count my chapter stories, Bag Lady and the Retired Marine, Born Beautiful, Rachel's Story, Cougar and her 5 Cubs, Mom Strips Naked for Nude Day, Money, Sex, Wife, Daughter, Sex for Money, Rent, and Food, and Younger Woman with Older Man, I've written more than 1,000,000 quality words for 2012. How many words did you write in 2012?

Furthermore, I didn't break up my chapter stories until and after every one else was doing it. I'm not the one who started breaking up chapter storeis but I'm the one who finished it. They made a rule because of me, BostonFictionWriter. Then, if you can't beat him, cheat him. When they couldn't beat me, they cheated me.

I posted more than 200 stories in 2007 and more than 300 stories in 2008 and still didn't win Survivor. I finished 2nd again in 2010 under AndTheEnd and finally (shocking the shit out of me) won the contest in 2011 under SuperHeroRalph. Go figure.

Are we done? I don't want to get into this shit again.

Please stop. I've had enough of people slandering me, especially someone names Zrnko rhymes with Jerko.

Zrnko_Pisku said:

With regard to the Audible stories question I think before we vote on it you need to confirm that Laurel will agree to post these stories to categories other than Audible Stories. If this is something she can't or doesn't agree to do then the vote becomes a moot point.

If she can and agrees to post audible stories to other categories then my vote is as follows:

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They would all still sit under Audible Text, the moderators would determine if the author's claim that their Lesbian Audible Text is true and then they would be placed under Lesbian for the contest and in Lit.'s story board they would still be listed in Audible Text.

SusanJillParker said:

The only rule that I'd like changed is the one rule I've been asking to be changed since I've been competing in this contest since 2007 and it's a rule that I'd like to see put to a vote, being that RavenFox got her questioned voted.

I'd like to see the scorecards updated within a week of the story or poem posted to Literotica's main page. Just in the way of claiming an immuntiy, if you don't update your scorecard within a week, you lose those points.

This bullshit with people sandbagging their scores until the very end is a way for Literotica, forgive me, to control who wins the contest.

Let's have a fair contest. Let's have some transparency. Let's show the scores on scorecards before the very end of the contest.

Why would a writer work so hard to write stories only to be surprised at the very end that he or she lost the contest?

I'd like to put this to a vote.

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The immunity selection is submitted in a seperate post for each immunity. The post has a date and time attached to it allowing for a means of verification that the selection was made before the deadline. This is not true for an updated scorecard since only the date and time of the last update is recorded. There is no means of verification of an update to a scorecard so there is no way to enforce a one week, two week or even monthly scorecard updates.

Besides, if you are curious of anyone's score all you need to do is look at their library. As each story is posted it is listed in the writer's library. It is very easy to calculate a competitor's score, in fact there was a How To submission showing how to do this actually entered in a past Survivor contest.

RedHairedandFriendly said:

They would all still sit under Audible Text, the moderators would determine if the author's claim that their Lesbian Audible Text is true and then they would be placed under Lesbian for the contest and in Lit.'s story board they would still be listed in Audible Text.

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So the moderator would need to read or listen to each submission to confirm the category? That's simply not workable, outside of the burden placed on the moderator already, this would also give the moderator the power to decide the category placement of audio stories, something I don't think was ever intended.

Has someone confirmed Laurel can't or won't place the Audio submissions in the individual categories?

Zrnko_Pisku said:

With regard to the Audible stories question I think before we vote on it you need to confirm that Laurel will agree to post these stories to categories other than Audible Stories. If this is something she can't or doesn't agree to do then the vote becomes a moot point.

If she can and agrees to post audible stories to other categories then my vote is as follows:

Click to expand...

RedHairedandFriendly said:

They would all still sit under Audible Text, the moderators would determine if the author's claim that their Lesbian Audible Text is true and then they would be placed under Lesbian for the contest and in Lit.'s story board they would still be listed in Audible Text.

Click to expand...

Zrnko_Pisku said:

So the moderator would need to read or listen to each submission to confirm the category? That's simply not workable, outside of the burden placed on the moderator already, this would also give the moderator the power to decide the category placement of audio stories, something I don't think was ever intended.

Has someone confirmed Laurel can't or won't place the Audio submissions in the individual categories?

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Do moderators have to read every text story submitted for the Survivor contest to make sure the author placed it in the correct category? My suggestion was to allow audio submissions to be placed in the category on the scorecard into which the story fits, just as text stories are placed.

SusanJillParker said:

My mother almost named me Zrnko.

Let's stop throwing the mud.

First of all, when I wrote under BostonFictionWriter in 2007 and 2008 and finished 2nd both years. I was cheated out of winning both years but that's all water under the bridge.

In the more than 1,000 stories I've posted on Literotica, I've never written a story less than 1,000 words. Go check through all of my stories, I'll wait here until you find a 750 word story.

You do the math genius. Having written more than 7,000,000 words on the site, my average story is 7,000 words. Okay? Nod your head so that I know you understand me.

Have you looked at my Survivor scorecard for this year? I wrote more than 425,000 words and when you count my chapter stories, Bag Lady and the Retired Marine, Born Beautiful, Rachel's Story, Cougar and her 5 Cubs, Mom Strips Naked for Nude Day, Money, Sex, Wife, Daughter, Sex for Money, Rent, and Food, and Younger Woman with Older Man, I've written more than 1,000,000 quality words for 2012. How many words did you write in 2012?

Furthermore, I didn't break up my chapter stories until and after every one else was doing it. I'm not the one who started breaking up chapter storeis but I'm the one who finished it. They made a rule because of me, BostonFictionWriter. Then, if you can't beat him, cheat him. When they couldn't beat me, they cheated me.

I posted more than 200 stories in 2007 and more than 300 stories in 2008 and still didn't win Survivor. I finished 2nd again in 2010 under AndTheEnd and finally (shocking the shit out of me) won the contest in 2011 under SuperHeroRalph. Go figure.

Are we done? I don't want to get into this shit again.

Please stop. I've had enough of people slandering me, especially someone names Zrnko rhymes with Jerko.

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No mudslinging here. Boxlicker101 brought up the specific stories and I was simply emphasizing a few details he didn't mention.


As far as the stories under 1,000 words, BOSTONFICTIONWRITER posted a series: 750-1,000 Word Mind Control Story: 5 Part Series each one under 1,000 words. I was a bit disappointed that you couldn't tighten them up to something closer to 750 words since it would have made your point so much better.


zrnko pisku very roughly translated means "grain of sand"

"Grain of sand" is from a poem written by Wislawa Szymborska who died shortly before I created the name.

___X___Yes, allow audible stories to be posted to other categories once the Audible category is filled, as long as those stories meet all other requirements.

_______No, keep the status quo.

************************

___X___Yes. Continue as we have been doing and award a bonus of thirty points to those who enter every theme contest,

_______No. Do not have the bonus available.

************************

I don't really have an opinion on the chapter discussion since it doesn't apply to my work. Whatever is determined to be fair will be fine with me.

theravenfox said:

Do moderators have to read every text story submitted for the Survivor contest to make sure the author placed it in the correct category? My suggestion was to allow audio submissions to be placed in the category on the scorecard into which the story fits, just as text stories are placed.

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The moderators don't have to read every text story to verify proper placement, the final category placement is set when the story is posted by the volunteer editors who place the stories. If the category is different than the writer posted it too they need to either accept that decision and score the story in the category it posted to, edit the story to more closely fit the category and resubmit the edit or contact Laurel and discuss the placement.

Category changes do happen, for instance I once had a story with some graphic sexual content posted in non-erotic. It got slammed on the scores because it was clearly erotic. I submitted an edit with an explanation in the notes highlighting the sexual content and the story was moved. Unfortunately the low scores I received when the story was categorized as non-erotic stuck to the relocated story.

On the other hand there was a non-erotic story about two lesbians that posted to the lesbian category. The category title for lesbian does specify that stories in that category are to be erotic. This story was relocated to the non-erotic category.

The point is questions do arise regarding the proper category placement of stories and the final determination is decided by the volunteer editors who post the story. This would not be the case for a story posted in the audio category but scored as something else.

Now I would like to see audio stories fit to a multitude of categories but think these stories should be subject to the same category scrutiny as all other stories scored in the contest.

Besides chapters, there are two other points under discussion. One is the proposal by theravenfox to allow audible stories to be posted in categories other than the Audible Story category, once that category has been filled to the first cap. The writer/recorder would select the category and I or another mod. would read it to see if the choice is appropriate. It is understood that the stories so posted would have to meet all the other requirements of length, etc.

This is a yes or no question.

____X___Yes, allow audible stories to be posted to other categories once the Audible category is filled, as long as those stories meet all other requirements.

_______No, keep the status quo.

The other question is also yes or no: Should the thirty point bonus continue to be offered to those who write a story in every theme contest? This bonus is in addition to the five points offered to every author who enters a story in a theme contest. Currently, authors can score sixty points for entering every theme contest.

_______Yes. Continue as we have been doing and award a bonus of thirty points to those who enter every theme contest,

___X____No. Do not have the EXTRA bonus available.



I came here after the whole "chapter" drama so I don't have any emotional attachment to one way of doing things or another. I think, however, that anything that serves to promote the objective of the contest is best for the contest. Perhaps it is time for an independent panel of judges to review all of the rules for the various contests.

The issue about updating scorecards regularly is really one of civilized and sporting conduct, and so should be left to the participants until, of course, such an independent panel has adjudicated otherwise.

Zrnko_Pisku said:

The moderators don't have to read every text story to verify proper placement, the final category placement is set when the story is posted by the volunteer editors who place the stories. If the category is different than the writer posted it too they need to either accept that decision and score the story in the category it posted to, edit the story to more closely fit the category and resubmit the edit or contact Laurel and discuss the placement.

Category changes do happen, for instance I once had a story with some graphic sexual content posted in non-erotic. It got slammed on the scores because it was clearly erotic. I submitted an edit with an explanation in the notes highlighting the sexual content and the story was moved. Unfortunately the low scores I received when the story was categorized as non-erotic stuck to the relocated story.

On the other hand there was a non-erotic story about two lesbians that posted to the lesbian category. The category title for lesbian does specify that stories in that category are to be erotic. This story was relocated to the non-erotic category.

The point is questions do arise regarding the proper category placement of stories and the final determination is decided by the volunteer editors who post the story. This would not be the case for a story posted in the audio category but scored as something else.

Now I would like to see audio stories fit to a multitude of categories but think these stories should be subject to the same category scrutiny as all other stories scored in the contest.

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Thank you! I honestly didn't know how that worked and it seemed to be rather unfair to assume that audio stories would have to be MORE CLOSELY scrutinized than text stories. I'm all for equal scrutiny, but since there isn't a team of volunteer listeners as there are editors, then it appears Box would be hugely overworked if more than just little ol' me (and maybe even if just I) submitted audio stories to the actual category they belonged in.