The Official (Most likely) 2025 Literotica April Fool's Day Contest Support Thread!!!

[Actingup]

There's been some vote sweeping over the site since yesterday, as we'd expect coming up to the end of a competition. At least six of my stories have had votes deleted and scores (slightly) improved. Somewhat hilariously, this happened just after Anon posted on one of my stories (which had been sitting at 4.49) that the story deserved a 'Hot' rating. And suddenly it has! I guess we'll see more sweeps over the next few days (and please nobody bomb my 'Mirror Twin' to make it 'Not Hot' again -my ego is too fragile).

 

[Trionyx]

Moderate sweep today. If history is any guide, bigger sweep tonight. Still won’t get me anywhere near the podium though. Still had fun with my two stories, one of which was in a new category for me.

 

[Actingup]

Moderate sweep today. If history is any guide, bigger sweep tonight. Still won’t get me anywhere near the podium though. Still had fun with my two stories, one of which was in a new category for me.

I'm surprised at how deep the sweeps are going compared to February. I published a series in LW in December that got pistol-whipped in voting (cuckold content!) and the three episodes ended up with scores ranging from 3.67-3.92 after the February sweeps. After the more recent sweeps, those episodes are now 3.8-4.04, and between 3% and 4% of the votes have been deleted over the past week. The stories haven't had that much attention since they were published, and it really looks like the sweeps have cut more deeply into the intial votes they received in December. I applaud the efforts being made to try and deal with vote bombing, but it does also indicate the major challenge that's there.

 

[InvisibleHarvey]

My April Fools story lost a ton of votes and jumped from a 4.1 to a 4.6. I hope this gets more people to read my stuff.

 

[Agent0069]

Oh wow, some royal sweep it was! With a few votes gone my story finally had broken my “4.5-ish” rating curse, and got into high “4.6-something” domain. I couldn’t ask for more!

Congratulations to whoever is the winner, I am happy with results either way.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

Mine has jumped from a 4.35 or so up to a 4.5 and a red H. If it stays there (unlikely, I think) then I will be very happy. The sweeps for this and the Valentines contests have been quite kind to me.

Congrats to the upcoming winners / good luck everyone!

 

[StillStunned]

And the winners have been announced! https://www.literotica.com/stories/contest.php/april-fools-2025

Congratulations to @theWriterInTheNude, @aimingtomisbehave33 and @SouthernCrossfire!

And of course also to everyone who participated or voted on any of the stories.

 

[Actingup]

And the winners have been announced! https://www.literotica.com/stories/contest.php/april-fools-2025

Congratulations to @theWriterInTheNude, @aimingtomisbehave33 and @SouthernCrossfire!

And of course also to everyone who participated or voted on any of the stories.

Wonderful news - congratulations to all! Three great winners. I haven't managed to read many of the stories yet, so there's some happy reading to come. This is one of my favourite competitions to read the entries for.

For me, it was the first time I'd tried April Fools' stories and I was more than happy where they ended up after the sweeps. They were fun to write and got some decent engagement. Thanks @Duleigh for hosting this support thread and everybody for the mutual encouragement.

 

[oneagainst]

And the winners have been announced! https://www.literotica.com/stories/contest.php/april-fools-2025

Congratulations to @theWriterInTheNude, @aimingtomisbehave33 and @SouthernCrossfire!

And of course also to everyone who participated or voted on any of the stories.

Nice work!

 

[YmaOHyd]

I'm really surprised bridgetrose's entry isn't in the top 3. What am I missing?

 

[Erozetta]

And the winners have been announced! https://www.literotica.com/stories/contest.php/april-fools-2025

Congratulations to @theWriterInTheNude, @aimingtomisbehave33 and @SouthernCrossfire!

And of course also to everyone who participated or voted on any of the stories.

Congrats!




I was pretty thrilled with the score my story ended up with. Never expected a cuck story to go to 4.77. I was aiming for "maybe over a 4?"

 

[Erozetta]

I'm really surprised bridgetrose's entry isn't in the top 3. What am I missing?

The actual updated scores.

Chances are all three winners ended up around a 4.9 something for score.

I noticed that on the Halloween win the score storyside wasn't accurate to the score on my dashboard.

 

[Voboy]

The actual updated scores.

Chances are all three winners ended up around a 4.9 something for score.

I noticed that on the Halloween win the score storyside wasn't accurate to the score on my dashboard.

The moment the winners are announced, their scores tend to drop. Sometimes by a lot, and quickly.

I'm really surprised bridgetrose's entry isn't in the top 3. What am I missing?

Same thing happened to one of my stories once. I won a contest, but I forgot it was ending that day; by the time I checked the scores, mine was about the sixth highest. It had been bombed comprehensively. I'll never know what my winning score was.

You never know. Trying to make sense of the scores after the winners are announced, or establish a "final ranking," can only ever be done approximately.

Congratulations, winners!

 

[Erozetta]

The moment the winners are announced, their scores tend to drop. Sometimes by a lot, and quickly.



Same thing happened to one of my stories once. I won a contest, but I forgot it was ending that day; by the time I checked the scores, mine was about the sixth highest. It had been bombed comprehensively. I'll never know what my winning score was.

You never know. Trying to make sense of the scores after the winners are announced, or establish a "final ranking," can only ever be done approximately.

Congratulations, winners!

I checked mine immediately. Story side never showed the winning score (it was showing a 4.7 somethin), author's dashboard did, and it showed the drop from 4.9 to 4.8 over the next day.

 

[Duleigh]

2025 April Fools Contest Winners *

First Place ($150 Cash Prize Winner):
Boat Trick
by theWriterInTheNude

Second Place ($100 Cash Prize Winner):
April Fool's in Handcuffs
by aimingtomisbehave33

Third Place ($75 Cash Prize Winner):
After Duty Calls
by SouthernCrossfire

 

[Izanami9]

2025 April Fools Contest Winners *

First Place ($150 Cash Prize Winner):
Boat Trick
by theWriterInTheNude

Second Place ($100 Cash Prize Winner):
April Fool's in Handcuffs
by aimingtomisbehave33

Third Place ($75 Cash Prize Winner):
After Duty Calls
by SouthernCrossfire

Congratulations to the winners! There were so many well-written entries across such a wide range of genres, I’m sure it was a close race.

It was my first time publishing a story here, and I’ve enjoyed gaining some familiarity with the site and some of the other writers. There are SO many talented authors contributing here!

 

[Voyeurkenneth]

Congrats to the winners!

 

[YmaOHyd]

You never know. Trying to make sense of the scores after the winners are announced, or establish a "final ranking," can only ever be done approximately.

I guess. I'm kind of stunned that the #2 and #3 stories were never above 4.8 in the last week, weren't above 4.8 this morning and aren't above 4.8 now, while at least two stories that didn't finish in the top 3 were, were and are. I don't mean to take anything away from the winners, but I'll be honest: doesn't make me feel great about entering another contest.

 

[Trionyx]

I guess. I'm kind of stunned that the #2 and #3 stories were never above 4.8 in the last week, weren't above 4.8 this morning and aren't above 4.8 now, while at least two stories that didn't finish in the top 3 were, were and are. I don't mean to take anything away from the winners, but I'll be honest: doesn't make me feel great about entering another contest.

I know this may be frustrating but the scores can vary wildly with the last sweep raising the final score significantly.

I published two stories and watched the numbers of votes and the scores closely. (Neither was ever in contention, BTW.) It was interesting to see how one story had some 25% of the votes swept and the other just a few. And both, particularly the one with the 25 vote sweep, had a big jump in scores.

The way I see it, stories probably in the upper 4.7 range benefitted from the sweeps much more than the others already above 4.8. Once the winners are announced, there is an immediate down-voting so by the time you look in the morning, the story may well be back down in the 4.7 range.

 

[YmaOHyd]

I mean, maybe? I also watched my scores and saw them change through the two rounds of sweeps; I went up a little bit. It seems a little implausible for something to be at score x, then go to x + 0.10 just in time for judging and be back down to exactly where it was within just a few hours. If I look at story view, the ratings now look like basically what they were when the sweeps last night were finished.

 

[ThatNewGuy]

I'm kind of stunned that the #2 and #3 stories were never above 4.8 in the last week, weren't above 4.8 this morning and aren't above 4.8 now,

With respect, you are making assumptions here that aren't true. The score that you see when you open the story is not necessarily the story's current score. For example, if you do an advanced search for stories #2 and #3, you'll see they are both currently listed above 4.8 (higher than the score you are viewing on the story's first page). You'll see the same thing for story #3 if you go to the Romance category page and select the most popular stories for the last 7 days. It's above 4.8.

I don't mean to take anything away from the winners, but I'll be honest: doesn't make me feel great about entering another contest.

When you enter a contest, you have to keep in mind that trying to rank stories by score during the contest rarely gives you an accurate picture. We simply don't know how much any given story's score may be affected by votes that are later swept.

As an example, my first contest was a Halloween contest. I was excited, so I kept an eye on the scores. My story's score put it in either first or second place through almost the entire contest period. But when the contest ended, I didn't finish in the top three. My story's score rose during the sweep period. But the scores of three other stories rose even higher. Best I could tell, I finished fourth.

That doesn't mean my story was treated unfairly or that there was something wonky with the vote totals. It just means that other stories benefitted from the sweeps more than mine did. They had illegitimate one-star votes that had been suppressing their true score.

If I look at story view, the ratings now look like basically what they were when the sweeps last night were finished.

Again, the story view that you are looking at is not an accurate, up-to-the-minute reflection of current score. More importantly, it is also likely much different from the score that the story had at the moment the contest closed. The score each story had at the moment the contest ended and the final sweeps were finished is the only score that matters. We don't know what the scores were in that moment, and trying to use the scores we can see right now doesn't provide a very accurate basis for second guessing the results.

 

[Izanami9]

Thanks for explaining, ThatNewGuy; I still don’t really understand how the sweeps work, although I checked in every day and noticed the discrepancy between the story page’s scores and my dashboard’s scores. As far as I could tell, the story page scores lagged.

Also - sorry again if it’s a dumb question - can someone tell me what the ’lists’ are at the far right bottom of the dashboard stats? I see mine says 16 lists now, but have no clue what that means

 

[Actingup]

Congrats!
I was pretty thrilled with the score my story ended up with. Never expected a cuck story to go to 4.77. I was aiming for "maybe over a 4?"

(Edit - now having read the story.) For a cuck story to achieve its true potential, it can’t be in Loving Wives. It was perfect for Fetish and it's a great story.

 

[D_K_Moon]

My attempt at humor was 1 bombed mercilessly languishing between 3.9 and 4.1 for most of the contest. After the final sweep it rose to a respectable 4.51.

 

[D_K_Moon]

(Edit - now having read the story.) For a cuck story to achieve its true potential, it can’t be in Loving Wives. It was perfect for Fetish and it's a great story.

It seems LW is the death knell for any respectable story.