The Official Author's Hangout 2014 Earth Day Contest Support Thread

[oggbashan]

Which doesn't mean they didn't cut close to the minimum votes required. (In fact, having a low number of votes can help in the ratings.)

Perhaps true of the special Free Speech and How To Contests but that applied to all contestants in those particular contests. Votes were low across the board.

But my Winter Holiday essay, after losing votes in the sweeps was still well over 100 votes at the end of the contest.

 

[lovecraft68]

Here we go again.

Well it is true that's why the sweeps are a flawed system. Its like someone is being punished for writing in a highly read category.

If people are up and up and they just feel like entering in a category because they like it, that's fine. But it makes it easy to try to play the system if someone really is in it just to win it.

 

[patientlee]

Well it is true that's why the sweeps are a flawed system. Its like someone is being punished for writing in a highly read category.

If people are up and up and they just feel like entering in a category because they like it, that's fine. But it makes it easy to try to play the system if someone really is in it just to win it.

I have to confess, I suspected that Mature was a good choice for Valentine's Day. I toyed with all kinds of combinations before settling on older woman, younger man. It wasn't a combination that I was interested in, but I guess my evil plan worked.

 

[oggbashan]

I have been entering the themed contests since 2003, sometimes with several stories in each contest.

Until the Winter Holiday Contest 2013, I hadn't won, nor been placed, with a story. I received two of my Ws for the special contests (Free Speech and How-To) which had a low number of entries and were not suitable for entries in popular categories.

That doesn't suggest to me that I have found a successful formula.

 

[lovecraft68]

I have been entering the themed contests since 2003, sometimes with several stories in each contest.

Until the Winter Holiday Contest 2013, I hadn't won, nor been placed, with a story. I received two of my Ws for the special contests (Free Speech and How-To) which had a low number of entries and were not suitable for entries in popular categories.

That doesn't suggest to me that I have found a successful formula.

On my end I'm only speaking of themed contests which at this point are the only ones still going. The monthly and others didn't have specific sweep that I'm aware of.

 

[lovecraft68]

I have to confess, I suspected that Mature was a good choice for Valentine's Day. I toyed with all kinds of combinations before settling on older woman, younger man. It wasn't a combination that I was interested in, but I guess my evil plan worked.

But Mature is also a category that will gain quite a few votes. Its "mid level" it doesn't go crazy like incest, but its far from a low turnout.

 

[oggbashan]

I do have a successful formula...

...for winning the Last Place (tm) Contest, except that I have disqualified myself.

It's easy.

Write about an obscure, preferably yeuck-making, fetish.

Only those who like that fetish will give high votes. Most other readers will either NOT vote at all, ensuring that the votes are under 25, or vote very low to express their disgust at the fetish.

Unbirth is a good choice as the fetish to deter votes. Golden Showers has too many followers, as has Scat-eating.

Any Fem-Dom gets low votes and abusive comments from those who feel threatened by it.

 

[lovecraft68]

Any Fem-Dom gets low votes and abusive comments from those who feel threatened by it.

Yes! There's my niche right there! The abundant male insecurity of the lit audience!

 

[patientlee]

But Mature is also a category that will gain quite a few votes. Its "mid level" it doesn't go crazy like incest, but its far from a low turnout.

I had about 200 at the end of the contest. For me, that's pretty good. Especially for a 10 page story. I still can't believe that 200 people finished it.

 

[patientlee]

...for winning the Last Place (tm) Contest, except that I have disqualified myself.

It's easy.

Write about an obscure, preferably yeuck-making, fetish.

Only those who like that fetish will give high votes. Most other readers will either NOT vote at all, ensuring that the votes are under 25, or vote very low to express their disgust at the fetish.

Unbirth is a good choice as the fetish to deter votes. Golden Showers has too many followers, as has Scat-eating.

Any Fem-Dom gets low votes and abusive comments from those who feel threatened by it.

Yes, but LC will like it!!

 

[BuckyDuckman]

...for winning the Last Place (tm) Contest, except that I have disqualified myself.

It's easy.

Write about an obscure, preferably yeuck-making, fetish.

Any Fem-Dom gets low votes and abusive comments from those who feel threatened by it.

Apparently, I unwittingly followed your formula. Anyone wanting to race to the bottom in this contest better order their concrete boots soon. I've been bringing up the rear since day one. (Though, as an ass man, the scenery is nice.)

 

[JagFarlane]

I think just JagFarlane and I with our essays. Though I am sitting on 25 votes as of last night

Good Luck Jag race you for Ogg's trophy

Should the sweeps touch me, then I will have issues

Oh I already hit 28 votes and the first day isn't done with, I think I hit a nerve

Thankies, best of luck to you as well!

 

[lovecraft68]

Apparently, I unwittingly followed your formula. Anyone wanting to race to the bottom in this contest better order their concrete boots soon. I've been bringing up the rear since day one. (Though, as an ass man, the scenery is nice.)

Not too many in this thread who's rear I'd want to see

 

[RejectReality]

Well it is true that's why the sweeps are a flawed system. Its like someone is being punished for writing in a highly read category

When it comes to low vs. high votes, the sweeps aren't the problem.

Someone votes a 1 on a story with 50 votes and a 4.80. It drops dramatically.

That same person votes a 1 on a story with 500 votes and a 4.79. It barely moves.

The 500 vote story appears to have a huge lead from that point forward.

The sweeps come along and remove both 1s. The 500 vote story barely moves, while the 50 vote story jumps dramatically to take the lead again.

Both stories have the score they had before the 1 vote was cast.

How is that the fault of the sweeps?

The change in score upon removing the low votes isn't relevant. It's what the score would have been if the ( as the system sees them ) malicious votes had not been cast.

It's a fault of perception, not the sweeps.

The advantage stories with lower votes have has nothing to do with the sweeps. It's because low votes cast on a low vote story drop the score dramatically. Even a 4 can bang your score hard at low vote totals.

People trying to affect the outcome of the contest probably don't see the low score as a threat, and don't cast more low votes. There are probably a few who are subtle enough to escape the sweeps.

People looking for something to read are less likely to choose it, because it has a lowered score. ( Most likely resulting in fewer "liked it but didn't love it" 4 votes )

That's where the advantage comes in. The only thing that has to do with the contest structure is that all story categories are allowed, and the number of average votes those categories get varies wildly.

The only way to mitigate that is to limit the categories available in the contests. At that point, you're faced with choosing which categories can fairly compete with each other, or forcing a single category so there's no doubt whatsoever.

And even that's not a rock-solid solution.

There are incest stories that get 2000 votes, and incest stories that only get 200. Same problem. Even 1000 vs. 2000 presents the problem to a lesser degree.

It's a bug hunt. I suspect that's why virtually no changes have ever been made to the contests. Every "solution" leads to another problem, so what's the point?

 

[lovecraft68]

In and of themselves the sweeps do what they're programmed to do or I assume so anyway.

When I say the sweeps are flawed what I mean is the concept of the sweep itself is a flawed way to determine the winner and many times it does.

But yes, a lot of suggestions have been kicked around and nothing is really all around fair because of the disparity in the readership between categories as well as the fan base of an established author versus someone new.

But as for the sweeps....it seems to me that the effects of them have been far more dramatic in the last maybe year-year and a half- than they were before. Whether that points to more "cheating" or the sweep looking for different things, who knows?

Here is what makes me suspicious of the sweeps. Why so many?

last summer they were sweeping on a Saturday so I was home and had the browser open and was watching closely. My story lost votes not once, not twice....how about five different times. The score was all over the place, up 5 down 3 up 10....I ended up finishing third.

So why does it keep going and going because honestly that is what makes it look like the eight ball analogy I used, "Hmmm nope don't like that answer, hmmm a little better.

Anyway we'll never know.

 

[RejectReality]

Here is what makes me suspicious of the sweeps. Why so many?

last summer they were sweeping on a Saturday so I was home and had the browser open and was watching closely. My story lost votes not once, not twice....how about five different times. The score was all over the place, up 5 down 3 up 10....I ended up finishing third.

So why does it keep going and going because honestly that is what makes it look like the eight ball analogy I used, "Hmmm nope don't like that answer, hmmm a little better.

Anyway we'll never know.

It's most likely throttled to avoid interfering with the real purpose of the site, which is delivering stories. We are talking about 15-20k votes being examined here, depending upon the contest. They're probably being examined for multiple types of offenses as well.

Anecdotal evidence from these threads seems to indicate that not all stories are swept at the same time in the early sweeps. We see chunks, like all the Loving Wives stories get swept.

So, you clean up the LW stories, then move on to something else. You then find an IP that voted 3 six times per story on several stories in the next block you check. You've outed a new villain, so you log that and wipe out those votes from all the stories on the next deletion pass.

Like you said, we'll never know. I'm just using experience working with my own databases to ask, "What reason would I have had to do something that caused this result?"

From what I've seen, the average score of contest stories has risen and the percentage of swept votes has dropped in the last year or two.

 

[TxRad]

In and of themselves the sweeps do what they're programmed to do or I assume so anyway.

When I say the sweeps are flawed what I mean is the concept of the sweep itself is a flawed way to determine the winner and many times it does.

But yes, a lot of suggestions have been kicked around and nothing is really all around fair because of the disparity in the readership between categories as well as the fan base of an established author versus someone new.

But as for the sweeps....it seems to me that the effects of them have been far more dramatic in the last maybe year-year and a half- than they were before. Whether that points to more "cheating" or the sweep looking for different things, who knows?

Here is what makes me suspicious of the sweeps. Why so many?

last summer they were sweeping on a Saturday so I was home and had the browser open and was watching closely. My story lost votes not once, not twice....how about five different times. The score was all over the place, up 5 down 3 up 10....I ended up finishing third.

So why does it keep going and going because honestly that is what makes it look like the eight ball analogy I used, "Hmmm nope don't like that answer, hmmm a little better.

Anyway we'll never know.

That's an easy one for anyone who works with systems. The sweeps are done in sections or chunks so as not to bog the system down. The same is done with the monthly sweeps from what I've seen.

 

[xelliebabex]

That's an easy one for anyone who works with systems. The sweeps are done in sections or chunks so as not to bog the system down. The same is done with the monthly sweeps from what I've seen.

Come on guys let it go... there are better things to bicker about, like whose ass Bucky is looking at exactly ... And if i should be offended on behalf of all the women posting that LC thinks our asses aren't worth looking at

 

[geronimo_appleby]

Well it is true that's why the sweeps are a flawed system. Its like someone is being punished for writing in a highly read category.

If people are up and up and they just feel like entering in a category because they like it, that's fine. But it makes it easy to try to play the system if someone really is in it just to win it.

do it hardcore and go in through Loving Wives

 

[patientlee]

I guess we know whose ass LC is looking at now.

 

[lovecraft68]

Come on guys let it go... there are better things to bicker about, like whose ass Bucky is looking at exactly ... And if i should be offended on behalf of all the women posting that LC thinks our asses aren't worth looking at

I said there are not too many asses worth looking at.

Didn't say there was none.

Care to share?

 

[lovecraft68]

From what I've seen, the average score of contest stories has risen and the percentage of swept votes has dropped in the last year or two.

Not sure I would agree with this part. Well, maybe "on average" There have been huge swings in scores lately.

If I'm not mistaken in the last contest Pilot mentioned he went up .30 that's pretty big.

They're a mystery pure and simple and inconsistent. Like I said I lost faith in them when I saw a romance story go from 576 votes to less than 300. There is little to no trolling in that category and that huge decrease led to a .15 jump and a win for a story that I don't think was ever in the top 10 during the contest.

But whatever, people will see what they want to one way or another. Its human nature.

 

[lovecraft68]

do it hardcore and go in through Loving Wives

I did in V-day

a cool 2.01 before the sweeps

 

[RejectReality]

Your last sentence pretty much covers it. When you only look at the winners, expecting foul play, you're going to find it.

When you look at every story, you see a trend of large gains across the board -- many far larger than those of any winner. As much as .96 in a single sweep.

And the trends do follow category patterns from what I see. The romance story jumped .10. A GM story jumps .30. A Non-Con story jumps almost a point.

Normal levels + contest manipulation = result.

I wouldn't say that romance is free of trolls, either. I've been seeing a lot of "this isn't romance, this is just sex!" comments appearing in the feedback portal in recent days. It's not rising to the level of LW by any means, but I'd say the mix is gaining on BDSM for "purists" attempting to push out stories that don't meet their criteria of what should be in the category.

Though that's taking "troll" at a pretty loose definition. I had to agree with a couple of those comments when I looked. They were stroke stories, and I didn't consider them romance either. The comments were trollish in how snooty they were, though.

Others fit the category perfectly well as far as I was concerned, but were more sex-heavy, and scoring far lower than I would expect for the heat of the content.

Once there's blood in the water...

Not sure I would agree with this part. Well, maybe "on average" There have been huge swings in scores lately.

If I'm not mistaken in the last contest Pilot mentioned he went up .30 that's pretty big.

They're a mystery pure and simple and inconsistent. Like I said I lost faith in them when I saw a romance story go from 576 votes to less than 300. There is little to no trolling in that category and that huge decrease led to a .15 jump and a win for a story that I don't think was ever in the top 10 during the contest.

But whatever, people will see what they want to one way or another. Its human nature.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

I did in V-day

a cool 2.01 before the sweeps

now you're just showing off.