The Official (Most likely) 2024 Literotica April Fool's Day Contest Support Thread!!!

[SouthernCrossfire]

Congratulations to the somethingfar, ThatNewGuy, and Not2Pervy on the wins and well done to all who entered.

While I've never won here, I'm usually pretty happy with the result for my entry in these contests but I can't say that this time. I took some chances that didn't pan out with the category (LW), an unlikable main character (who eventually grows up and reforms), and an AF stunt/revenge that didn't go over all that well with many in the LW crowd. The sweep helped by just over a tenth of a point but it still didn't break 4.0, yielding my lowest contest entry ever. On the plus side, it had a lot of views and a lot of votes so it wasn't all bad.

Lesson learned.

 

[intim8]

I started to tally the rating for the entries and then realized I didn't want to.

I did. Very unofficial, with all the caveats you can think of, including that I might have incorrectly entered some data.

Top ten scores:

4.93
4.9
4.83
4.81
4.78
4.78
4.76
4.74
4.72
4.71

Top 20: 4.60 and above
Top 35: 4.51 and above
Top 50: 4.24 and above

Of 82 entries

 

[Duleigh]

I'll never have a 4.87 rated story, but I believe that I still have something unique to offer as does every single other person.

I firmly and completely believe that you are WRONG. You do have something unique to offer, and as you write your skills evolve and your name gets out there.

When your score jumps from 4.4 to 4.7 after a sweep, you know that you've arrived.

 

[Duleigh]

I did. Very unofficial, with all the caveats you can think of, including that I might have incorrectly entered some data.

Top ten scores:

4.93
4.9
4.83
4.81
4.78
4.78
4.76
4.74
4.72
4.71

Top 20: 4.60 and above
Top 35: 4.51 and above
Top 50: 4.24 and above

Of 82 entries

I'm just happy that the troll votes were removed and one of my stories went from 4.3 to 4.68

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Thanks all who entered, read, and voted! I'm truly honored.

Congratulations on your well-deserved win!

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

I also seemed to get a decent bump, from about 4.2 to 4.4, which I am happy with for this contest.

Congratulations to the winners and I did have fun entering this one.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Congrats to all who participated! There were so many great stories this year.

Gunfight at the JD Corral by @UpperNorthLeft is a tech-savvy mystery about combine harvesters that had me laughing throughout. Atalanta vs. Love by @Jackie.Hikaru has a hilarious opening conversation between Apollo and a mother bear that is worth five stars all by itself. All the World's a Stage by @Eisenloewe takes a funny premise (a nerdy male MC who is oblivious to his friend's advances) and cranks it up to 11. And @TheRedChamber made me smile just with the title of his story Chocolate and the Charlie Factory.

I could go on and on. It was fun just being part of an event with so many talented writers.

Congratulations on your well-deserved win!

 

[Not2Pervy]

AlexFourways, earlier in this thread pronounced themselves flabbergasted at placing so highly. I can assure you I am no less flabbergasted, and grateful, for having placed in this contest. My sincere thanks to all who voted and to my fellow authors who participated.

I was late to check in here because I was so certain I was out of the running. The moral of this story is that the sweeps can work wonders, and you may be closer than you think!

And to those who may, like I did, think your writing style, or themes, or personal kinks, or what have you, simply don’t resonate with enough people to ever place in one of these contests: Don’t give up hope. You never know!

 

[Smuttyandfun]

AlexFourways, earlier in this thread pronounced themselves flabbergasted at placing so highly. I can assure you I am no less flabbergasted, and grateful, for having placed in this contest. My sincere thanks to all who voted and to my fellow authors who participated.

I was late to check in here because I was so certain I was out of the running. The moral of this story is that the sweeps can work wonders, and you may be closer than you think!

And to those who may, like I did, think your writing style, or themes, or personal kinks, or what have you, simply don’t resonate with enough people to ever place in one of these contests: Don’t give up hope. You never know!

Congratulations on your well-deserved win!

 

[Rustyoznail]

Congratulations to the winners, and well done to everyone who entered. A 4.93 is an amazing score.

I was happy with the lift in mine after the sweep, and based on Intim8's table, one of mine was in the top ten.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

Congrats to the winners and well done all around!

 

[RetroFan]

Congratulations to the winner and place-getters, and well-done, you should be proud of your efforts in one of the more challenging contests. I won this competition two years ago, and it was such a great feeling.

This year I think my story 'The Tale of the Too Close Twins' with a dismal 3.34 score might well pick up the wooden spoon for finishing last. I've said it before, but it seems that the IT fans don't like stories that deviate from the standard too far, or have plot-twists either midway or at the end.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I've said it before, but it seems that the IT fans don't like stories that deviate from the standard too far, or have plot-twists either midway or at the end.

Yep. I had a twist at the end of my I/T story, which many didn't like. After it was posted, I realised I could have added one sentence that would have been perfect for the category and made it please everyone. Ah, well. Live and learn.

 

[FreyaGersemi]

After it was posted, I realised I could have added one sentence that would have been perfect for the category and made it please everyone.

Submit an edit.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Submit an edit.

Yeah, nah. I thought about it two weeks into the comp, so that opportunity has gone. Not a lot of point now. I'll leave it as a reminder to myself.

 

[Agent0069]

(A bit late) congratulations to the winners! I was nowhere near even to the median, still consider it an interesting experience.

 

[Duleigh]

(A but late) congratulations to the winners! I was nowhere near even to the median, still consider it an interesting experience.

Hope you try again. Contests can be kind of gruling, everything depends on the score. Try some of the author's events that are up coming. I'm getting my work ready for the Geek Pride event (my favorite)

 

[Trionyx]

Hope you try again. Contests can be kind of gruling, everything depends on the score. Try some of the author's events that are up coming. I'm getting my work ready for the Geek Pride event (my favorite)

There is usually an uptick in reads, votes and comments on all of my stories once I’ve posted a story(ies) for a contest. It’s also interesting to see someone favorite a contest story and then over the next several days to weeks see the same reader favorite more of my stories, usually in alphabetical order. For that reason alone it is worth writing for a contest, win or not.

 

[KeithD]

Might as well note that the April Fools Contest went the whole time without being indexed on the Story Page. The Valentine's Day Contest is still indexed there.

 

[FreyaGersemi]

Might as well note that the April Fools Contest went the whole time without being indexed on the Story Page. The Valentine's Day Contest is still indexed there.

Interesting. I thought I was a failure because my April Fool's story got less than 4K views while my Valentine's Day story had gotten over 20K views. I thought interest in my writing had taken a nosedive.

 

[lovecraft68]

I'll never have a 4.87 rated story,

You won't if that's what you think.

Back when I'd only had a couple of stories up here, I found the all time favorite author list. My first thought was damn 6k favs! (Top around that time) I'll never get there. But right after that, my competitive streak kicked in and I'm like, know what? I'll get there at some point, and I'll have Red H's (my first three stories here did not) and I'll win a contest and get top list stories. I told a couple people that and they're like "That's cute."

Let's just say they've eaten a lot of crow.

You already have a pretty impressive list. Keep writing, find your groove, build your base, don't get down if a story gets some crap or under performs. You don't go from the bottom to the top without a climbing the rungs in between. Need any help, feel free to PM me. Happy to do what I can.

 

[Duleigh]

Might as well note that the April Fools Contest went the whole time without being indexed on the Story Page. The Valentine's Day Contest is still indexed there.

It's the bastard step child of the contest list.

 

[AlexFourways]

Out of terminal curiosity, I compiled a complete league table (E&OE*) and DM'd it to Duleigh, but I don't know if he has recieved it**, but 88 lines is too long for me to post here.

*as I did it on the 2nd of April, I know that by then some ratings have changed up and down so it isn't quite the same as it would have been for Laurel on the 29th March.
**I don't seem to have much luck with replies back from DMs

 

[AlexFourways]

Out of terminal curiosity, I compiled a complete league table (E&OE*) and DM'd it to Duleigh, but I don't know if he has recieved it**, but 88 lines is too long for me to post here.

*as I did it on the 2nd of April, I know that by then some ratings have changed up and down so it isn't quite the same as it would have been for Laurel on the 29th March.
**I don't seem to have much luck with replies back from DMs

After a DM chat with Duleigh, I'll keep it as a personal exercise as scores are still changing and so I will never be able to represent the true status on the final day. (I had to fudge my table as even on the 2nd April the fourth place was third and third was fourth and as Duleigh pointed out, post result a lot of scores were 'beaten back', probably by those who disagreed with the results!)