2014 Survivor Rules and Registrations

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 2014. There is no reason I know of to believe otherwise but there is also no commitment yet on the part of Laurel.

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.

Official Rules for the 2014 Survivor Contest


Entering the Contest:
You may enter the contest any time before midnight, Eastern Time Zone (UTC-5:00) on October 31, 2014.
•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 1/5/2015.
Prizes

Top Survivor ........................... $500
2nd-Placed Survivor ................ $250
3rd-Placed Survivor ................. $200
4th-Placed Survivor ................. $150
5th-Placed Survivor ................. $100
6th- to 15th-Placed Survivors ... $25 Amazon.com gift certificate
Scoring

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 12/20/2014 must 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.
  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 2013 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 8th of January, please list it as: Immunity 1/8/2014. January 1, 2014 is a Wednesday and an immunity won that day will be considered to have been won in 2013.
  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 1/5/2015.
  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 :)
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If you think there will be a contest next year, I want to sign up for it. Maybe I can get more writing done.
 
Yes sign me up!

I want to be in the contest next year because it was fun to compete this year!
 
I'm in for 2014.

My only suggestion for change is having a rule that players must record their posted stories to the scorecards within a week of the posting date, in the way that we must do with immunities.

This lunacy of not knowing the scores of the other players during the contest is not fair.

Why not have a contest that's above board without people sandbagging their scores?

It's akin to not knowing the score of a ballgame until the very end.

"What's the score?"

"I dunno."

"You don't know?"

"The game isn't over. They don't post the score until the bottom of the ninth inning."

I think the contest would be more fun and more competitive if we all knew the real scores on a weekly basis.

Okay, now that you mention it, I do have another suggestion regarding the prizes of the contest. Ready?

Everyone who participates in the contest receives a Literotica tee shirt, blue for men and pink for women and rainbow for gay and lesbian.

Forget about the prize money. Literotica should give out sweatshirts, hats, coffee mugs, and key chains in the way that Laurel did when she gave me my Green E for the story that I wrote under BostonFictionWriter.

The winner of the contest should receive a jacket with Literotica in big, bold letters on the back, the logo of the Literotica's woman on the front, along with our Literotica name embroidered. Just like the jacket the she gave me when I earned my Green E.

Lastly, for first place, the writer with the most points, wins a brand new 2014 Mustang GT in their choice of color with a six speed and Recaro seats. With my name, sorry, I mean the name of the winner posted on the dashboard on a small plaque.

Huh? What do you think? Good so far? Seriously, I'd be more excited to play a contest where first prize was a Mustang GT, wouldn't you?
 
Hahahaha! I think I finally get SusanJillParker's snarkiness... well some of it anyway. The above post cracked me up, with its upfront bravado and bitchiness.

I am not sure anyone is sandbagging i think scores jumped recently because of the big bonus for those people who participated in all of the special contests.

If it makes you feel better I wont be posting posting again this year, though I kept mine pretty much updated all the way through the year, so no surprises from me.

As this is the first time I have done Survivor it was a big learning curve and I doubt that if I enter in 2014 I will set myself the schedule I maintained this year, it was pretty hard to keep the momentum going and a lot of my stories felt rushed even to me. About three or four will need rewrites eventually. Having said that it was fun and i might do it again next year just without self imposed deadlines.

Happy holidays everyone!
 
I'm in for 2014.

My only suggestion for change is having a rule that players must record their posted stories to the scorecards within a week of the posting date, in the way that we must do with immunities.

This lunacy of not knowing the scores of the other players during the contest is not fair.

Why not have a contest that's above board without people sandbagging their scores?

It's akin to not knowing the score of a ballgame until the very end.

"What's the score?"

"I dunno."

"You don't know?"

"The game isn't over. They don't post the score until the bottom of the ninth inning."

I think the contest would be more fun and more competitive if we all knew the real scores on a weekly basis.

Okay, now that you mention it, I do have another suggestion regarding the prizes of the contest. Ready?

Everyone who participates in the contest receives a Literotica tee shirt, blue for men and pink for women and rainbow for gay and lesbian.

Forget about the prize money. Literotica should give out sweatshirts, hats, coffee mugs, and key chains in the way that Laurel did when she gave me my Green E for the story that I wrote under BostonFictionWriter.

The winner of the contest should receive a jacket with Literotica in big, bold letters on the back, the logo of the Literotica's woman on the front, along with our Literotica name embroidered. Just like the jacket the she gave me when I earned my Green E.

Lastly, for first place, the writer with the most points, wins a brand new 2014 Mustang GT in their choice of color with a six speed and Recaro seats. With my name, sorry, I mean the name of the winner posted on the dashboard on a small plaque.

Huh? What do you think? Good so far? Seriously, I'd be more excited to play a contest where first prize was a Mustang GT, wouldn't you?

I've read this somewhere before.
 
I'm in for 2014.

My only suggestion for change is having a rule that players must record their posted stories to the scorecards within a week of the posting date, in the way that we must do with immunities.

This lunacy of not knowing the scores of the other players during the contest is not fair.

Why not have a contest that's above board without people sandbagging their scores?

It's akin to not knowing the score of a ballgame until the very end.

"What's the score?"

"I dunno."

"You don't know?"

"The game isn't over. They don't post the score until the bottom of the ninth inning."

I think the contest would be more fun and more competitive if we all knew the real scores on a weekly basis.

Okay, now that you mention it, I do have another suggestion regarding the prizes of the contest. Ready?

Everyone who participates in the contest receives a Literotica tee shirt, blue for men and pink for women and rainbow for gay and lesbian.

Forget about the prize money. Literotica should give out sweatshirts, hats, coffee mugs, and key chains in the way that Laurel did when she gave me my Green E for the story that I wrote under BostonFictionWriter.

The winner of the contest should receive a jacket with Literotica in big, bold letters on the back, the logo of the Literotica's woman on the front, along with our Literotica name embroidered. Just like the jacket the she gave me when I earned my Green E.

Lastly, for first place, the writer with the most points, wins a brand new 2014 Mustang GT in their choice of color with a six speed and Recaro seats. With my name, sorry, I mean the name of the winner posted on the dashboard on a small plaque.

Huh? What do you think? Good so far? Seriously, I'd be more excited to play a contest where first prize was a Mustang GT, wouldn't you?

I will be setting up the new scoreboard shortly after Christmas and doing the other things to get the new contest started.

I don't like sandbagging, and I never did it while I was competing. However, I do not intend to make it against the rules, largely because it would be such a hassle for me to catch.

It would mean on Saturday, when I usually update the scoreboard, I would first have to copy everybody's scorecard and set it aside until the following week. After posting the new score, when there was a change in a person's scorecard, I would have to compare the new version with the old one to find the new entries. Then I would have to go to the author's index page to check the posting dates of the new entries and make sure they were no more than a week earlier. It would be possible, but not worth the time and trouble, especially when we have fifty or sixty or more competitors updating their scorecards every week.

The scorecards and the index pages are available to anybody. If you want to check on the progress of competitors or the currency of their scores, you can click on their names on the scoreboard and count the entries on their individual scorecards, followed by going to their index pages and counting the number of posted items in the current year.

Personally, I never even did that when I was competing because I just wrote what I could or had time for and let it go at that.

I believe most people would prefer cash or an Amazon gift card to t-shirts, etc. You will have to take up that grand prize with Laurel. Lotsa luck with that.
 
Thank you Box for monitoring the game. I hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Yet, my point, with not receiving much recognition but by those other writers who compete in the game and readers, of course, winning a tenth of a penny a word doesn't seem like much of a prize when winning first place and even less when winning second place or lower. Compared to the monthly and theme contest where a writer must only write 750 words or more to win $150, a $500 first prize where a writer must write hundreds of thousands of words to win doesn't seem like much of a prize for all of that hard work and effort. Yet, even if there were no prizes offered, no doubt, I'd still compete.

This contest has made me a better writer. Having written so very many stories in 30 of the 35 categories, I feel as if I can write anything, any time. I only wish more people would play. Perhaps if they doubled the prize money more people would play, I don't know. I don't know what Literotica's return is on people writing dozens and dozens of stories for them under the auspices of hoping to win a year long contest.

Even though I throw my name in the hat for 2014 and have officially signed up to play, I'm not sure if I'll be competing. I signed up just in case I changed my mind and wanted to play. Having competed for seven consecutive years, I'm tired. This contest takes a lot of energy and creativity to win one of the top prizes. If writing wasn't my passion, I'd never take on this challenge.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Happy New Year
 
In, maybe I'll even compete this year.

That said not that I expect it to change anything but rule 6:


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.


Is absolute garbage. The only thing it accomplishes is annoying authors and forcing us to change things for no good reason. Mostly because in all the years I've been around nobody has been able to REALLY answer what defines "completely standalone" but "with characters and references" how many Star Wars story/movies are there? Is it six with each movie counted separately, is it two stories with each trilogy being considered stand alone but can't be broken up? I'll admit I take that rule a little personally for two reasons. First I got screwed by it several years back and long story short apparently several people read the stories and decided that three out of four stories stood alone. . .and when one story tied them all together that made them all a series, however as I proved in the same contest my mistake there was not taking the two seconds out to use the Replace feature to replace all instances of Karen with Sharon, if I do that it doesn't matter if the story is lacking background it's a separate story.

Yes it is easy to get around by the way and if I have to keep doing that and writing Spiderman vs Green Goblin, then Batman vs Hob Goblin then Axe Cop: Revenge of the Goblin so fucking be it. It's however a stupid rule for that reason.

As for the sandbagging yeah it's annoying, but there's nothing to be done for it. Having to update on any sort of constant basis is a chore and a half. I think it's BS that I have to claim my immunity right as it happens and can't take it back. Once you're talking the Top 5 (and honestly the rest of us almost don't deserve to be in the conversation) those immunities can fuck you as quickly as they can help. I think this year has one author who's made it to the second tier, until you're there an immunity counts as one of five categories filled (great if you get enough and don't write much) but they also prevent you from writing in that category and surrendering five points.
 
In, maybe I'll even compete this year.

That said not that I expect it to change anything but rule 6:


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.


Is absolute garbage. The only thing it accomplishes is annoying authors and forcing us to change things for no good reason. Mostly because in all the years I've been around nobody has been able to REALLY answer what defines "completely standalone" but "with characters and references" how many Star Wars story/movies are there? Is it six with each movie counted separately, is it two stories with each trilogy being considered stand alone but can't be broken up? I'll admit I take that rule a little personally for two reasons. First I got screwed by it several years back and long story short apparently several people read the stories and decided that three out of four stories stood alone. . .and when one story tied them all together that made them all a series, however as I proved in the same contest my mistake there was not taking the two seconds out to use the Replace feature to replace all instances of Karen with Sharon, if I do that it doesn't matter if the story is lacking background it's a separate story.

Yes it is easy to get around by the way and if I have to keep doing that and writing Spiderman vs Green Goblin, then Batman vs Hob Goblin then Axe Cop: Revenge of the Goblin so fucking be it. It's however a stupid rule for that reason.

As for the sandbagging yeah it's annoying, but there's nothing to be done for it. Having to update on any sort of constant basis is a chore and a half. I think it's BS that I have to claim my immunity right as it happens and can't take it back. Once you're talking the Top 5 (and honestly the rest of us almost don't deserve to be in the conversation) those immunities can fuck you as quickly as they can help. I think this year has one author who's made it to the second tier, until you're there an immunity counts as one of five categories filled (great if you get enough and don't write much) but they also prevent you from writing in that category and surrendering five points.

The reason for the rule about chapters is that a few years ago, some writers - and I hesitate to call them authors - piled up points by writing long, rambling, pointless "stories" and cutting them up into segment or 800 or so words. The pendulum really swung too far then, and stories about the same characters got classified as chapters. The current rule is a compromise, with chapters being allowed but only if they are of substantial length. I would prefer a longer minimum but I was outvoted.

As for completely standalone stories, all they need to do is meet the Lit. minimum. The definition is still rather nebulous, but I think it's one of those things that people know when they see it but can't really define it.

The reason for novels and novellas needing to be longer is that they are worth more points.

What you are saying about Karen and Sharon is describing template stories, which are also against the rules. You might not even be able to get them through Lit.

I agree immunities can do almost as much harm as good, because they cut down on potential total score and require more writing than somebody might otherwise want to do. When I was competing, I only used them for stories I had a hard time with, such as audible and illustrated and categories I didn't like to write in. I like to write stories in some categories and can do so, so I never used immunities in those categories. Sometimes that meant not counting them.

If anybody asks, I suggest the same thing for them.

You can propose a rule change with immunities, allowing people to delete them if they want. I don't like the idea of changing the category that was filled, but the idea of deleting an immunity that was used does not seem out of line.

BTW, I think Hobgoblin is a foe of Spiderman. I know the Green Goblin is, but I think Hobbie is also.
 
They aren't template stories. As the rules currently stand if I write say the Rocky Series of movies I run the risk of whoever does the modding at the end deciding that they aren't six stand alone stories, they are rather one series. By replacing Rocky's name in each story so I just have six stories about six boxers at different stages in their life I completely avoid that possibility.

Hobgoblin, Green Goblin and Demogoblin are all Spiderman foes. My point however was that since Batman, Batman Returns and Batman Forever might very well get flagged as "chapters" since nobody seems to know the difference between chapters and sequels and stories that just so happen to have the same characters the safest way around was to do Batman, Spiderman, Zorro and change the details in the sequels other stories to escape any chance. It's basically a CYA policy that I'm not fond of.

I agree that atleast being able to delete an immunity should be allowed.
 
I'll give it another try so I'm in for 2014 Survivor.




I agree that atleast being able to delete an immunity should be allowed.
Second that or third that since I have 2 immunities I wish I hadn't taken. I just don't put out all the stories some do, I had hoped I would, but didn't work the way I wanted to. Next year, I will do as Box has suggested then only use immunities for story categories I detest.
 
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It happened to me one year too. I don't remember what it was in, probably gay or transgender since those are both categories that don't turn me on so writing for them always turns into a chore. Regardless I was essentially tied with someone else but they wrote one story for three points and I wrote two stories for two points and. . .yeah.

It's funny though because rule changes like this are really only important to the top five (and really 2nd through 7th, I've yet to see the survivor contest where the first place writer wasn't so far out in front that nobody was really trying to beat him anymore) nobody else could care less.
 
I agree that atleast being able to delete an immunity should be allowed.

It happened to me one year too. I don't remember what it was in, probably gay or transgender since those are both categories that don't turn me on so writing for them always turns into a chore. Regardless I was essentially tied with someone else but they wrote one story for three points and I wrote two stories for two points and. . .yeah.

It's funny though because rule changes like this are really only important to the top five (and really 2nd through 7th, I've yet to see the survivor contest where the first place writer wasn't so far out in front that nobody was really trying to beat him anymore) nobody else could care less.

I am not really sure I see the issue here, if you do not have enough caps filled to cover your immunities they are wiped and not counted so surely if you won one and even nominated the category cap you wanted to use it on it is still up to you whether to use it or not.

I understand the problem if you wanted to change the nominated category, but the way i read the rules was that the choice to use it or not in the category nominated the week you won it or just ignore the immunity is yours.

I would have liked the opportunity to switch the category I put my early immunities on to another but I couldn't and such is life.
 
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I am not really sure I see the issue here, if you do not have enough caps filled to cover your immunities they are wiped and not counted so surely if you won one and even nominated the category cap you wanted to use it on it is still up to you whether to use it or not.

I understand the problem if you wanted to change the nominated category, but the way i read the rules was that the choice to use it or not in the category nominated the week you won it or just ignore the immunity is yours.

I would have liked the opportunity to switch the category I put my early immunities on to another but I couldn't and such is life.

Not really, you immunities are not wiped out by anything (but if you don't have enough to make it to your next multiple of five benchmark they don't do you any good.) Which is really kinda the problem.
 
You can count me in for the 2014 Survivor. This year was a nice way to get back into writing and having to write for different categories definitely helped to stretch my imagination.
 
Toss my name into the hat for Survivor 2014. Unsure where I am with things but it's with best of intentions that I say this.

As for rule changes - I like the idea of being able to retract an immunity. I believe the contest is designed to encourage MORE writing, not less.

As the scoreboard appears for 2013, anyone who enters all the contests would place in the money with no more than six total submissions for the year. Not sure what kind of rule adjustment would discourage that and encourage more submissions but that's not my worry.
 
Not that I really care about the special contests being so heavily weighted in the scoring process if we wanted to fix it it would be a simple fix to either eliminate them from the scoring process all together or lower their value signficantly or use them only in the case of tie breakers.

Still I don't care about that rule (even if this is one of those years where it's biting me in the ass) that's my own damn fault.
 
Rule Change Suggestion

Can an immunity be applied to a contest?

Perhaps to a contest that is missed because life got in the way?

Could be a nice way to maintain the extra bonus for contests without penalizing someone too harshly if they missed a contest.
 
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