Impact of contest placing

[Actingup]

I'm a little surprised that the views show such a subdued response to your win. If I project the rates/day from before the contest announcement to now, it looks like the win produced 2k-3k views.

The Nude Day contest never appeared on the Category page (the April Fools Day contest is still shown there), so I wonder if that explains it.

The story had flatlined before the announcement- most of the hits had been in the first few days after publication. The announcement resulted in a doubling of votes and views. I’d say they came in through the front page linking to the contest page.

 

[NotWise]

It's really quite careless, honestly, to publish the lists of contest stories and only include the titles and authors. At the very least we should also see the category, which would help protect vulnerable entries that fall into buckets with large negative audiences (mostly Gay and Lesbian, maybe Transgender, and to lesser extent T/I and R/NC).

Right now, some readers might feel duped into "reading" something they totally don't jive with or outright hate, and let the author know by leaving a 1-bomb. It's not rational, it's trollish, but I'm sure it happens and it could easily be prevented.

I don't think it's careless. It's intentional. The category is left off so that all stories in the contest have a shot at getting traffic. If the contest page listed the category then some stories in some categories would be ignored while stories in T/I and LW would get 80% of the traffic.

Stories in small categories like Romance can get a big boost from contests because people who would not click on a story in Romance, or First Time, or Mature (for instance) click on the title, and they might even be willing to read it and vote.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

When I got my first contest win, the biggest impact was in followers: I got SEVERAL the few days after the result was announced, though I can't quantify it. The effect was less for subsequent wins.

Two of my series chapters won monthly contests, and that had a massive impact on views for those chapters (but not for the piece overall).

I got maybe 100 followers in the day or two after I put one story up. By now, that one alone may account for almost half of my 400 followers and it wasn't a contest entry at all.

 

[iwatchus]

I decided to go back and look. I had about 11K views for my story when the award was announced, which was about 4 weeks after being posted. I have gotten about 14K more views in the four weeks since then. (It is in First Time, hardly a high view category.) In another week or so it will pass my lone LW story as my most viewed story. Yeah, I don't get huge readership on anything. I figure at least half its total views are because of the W.

 

[Actingup]

There is no winter there, it's always summer. ; )

Yeah, nah…. it’s very much winter in the south.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I don't think it's careless. It's intentional. The category is left off so that all stories in the contest have a shot at getting traffic. If the contest page listed the category then some stories in some categories would be ignored while stories in T/I and LW would get 80% of the traffic.

Stories in small categories like Romance can get a big boost from contests because people who would not click on a story in Romance, or First Time, or Mature (for instance) click on the title, and they might even be willing to read it and vote.

Probably a lot of validity there.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

And again, we have to remind ourselves that Views don't necessarily equal full reads. How many clicks/views come from discussion here?

 

[TheLobster]

Fair point. To that end, I've been lining up a T/I story for the Halloween contest and trying to figure out its title. Asking myself: Do I mention the familial relation or not in the title? Would I rope more or fewer views?

More views, potentially lower score, but the latter comes mostly from simple regression to the mean.

My T/I contest entries were generally around 4.8 which is both among my highest scores and also too low to be in the running to win, so I definitely do not regret putting them out there. The follower gain alone was worth it.

 

[iwatchus]

And again, we have to remind ourselves that Views don't necessarily equal full reads. How many clicks/views come from discussion here?

Every stat that is captured here is flawed. Yes some percentage of views are nothing to do with reading. But TBH, clicks from someone reading this forum are noise.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

On the off topic of winter ..... I have high doubt that you know what winter really is if you've never lived above the 41st parallel.

You may get periods of cold and snow, but not literally months below freezing. There are many areas that don't get above 10F from November to March.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Yeah, nah…. it’s very much winter in the south.

Pfft, heh heh. Pardon, sorry I'm trying so hard not to laugh.

Hobart has a cool to mild oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb; Trewartha: Cflk).[49] The highest temperature recorded was 41.8 °C (107.2 °F) on 4 January 2013 and the lowest was −2.8 °C (27.0 °F) on 25 June 1972 and 11 July 1981.[5] By global standards, Hobart has cool summers and mild winters for its latitude, being influenced by its seaside location. Nevertheless, the strong northerly winds from the Australian outback ensure that Hobart experiences temperatures above 35 °C (95 °F) most years.

-3 C is an absolutely gorgeous day here in December, January, February, March.

Once again, you have no idea what winter even is. Not a clue! ; )

Winnipeg's location in the Canadian Prairies gives it a warm-summer humid continental climate[67] (Köppen: Dfb),[68] with warm, humid summers, and long, severely cold winters. Summers have a July mean average of 19.7 °C (67.5 °F).[5] Winters are the coldest time of year, with the January mean average around −16.4 °C (2.5 °F) and total winter precipitation (December through February) averaging 55.2 mm (2.17 in).[5] Temperatures occasionally drop below −40 °C (−40 °F).

So like Crocodile Dundee says, "That's not a knife. Now that's a knife!" Any Canadian can tell any Australian, "That's not winter. Not even close. Now this is winter!"

So I repeat one more time: winter does not exist in Australia.

 

[NotWise]

The contest page is another point of exposure for your story, and it will always give you more opportunities for view. Not all those views are associated with the contest schedule.

This graph is for my holiday contest story from last year.


The story didn't place, and the contest was announced several days before the bump of about 3k views at 40 days. The bump corresponds to the Christmas Holiday, and it came at a time when the contest page held the only link that was likely to produce very many new hits. The alternate explanation would by that something like 3k people had bookmarked the story and decided to take their time at Christmas to catch up on reading.

 

[Actingup]

On the off topic of winter ..... I have high doubt that you know what winter really is if you've never lived above the 41st parallel.

You may get periods of cold and snow, but not literally months below freezing. There are many areas that don't get above 10F from November to March.

I’m not silly enough to live in the Northern Hemisphere!

Re the stats: the vote trends are similar to the view trends.

 

[TheLobster]

The category is left off so that all stories in the contest have a shot at getting traffic. If the contest page listed the category then some stories in some categories would be ignored while stories in T/I and LW would get 80% of the traffic.

Does it matter? Contest awards are given based on scores and you only need 25 votes to qualify.

If anything, showing the categories would facilitate the already popular strategy of submitting late in a niche category to make sure only your followers shower you with 5-stars.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I’m not silly enough to live in the Northern Hemisphere!

Of course you wouldn't. You're not tough enough. ; ) And don't go on about the snakes and spiders. We have bears. We are lunch to bears.

 

[NotWise]

Every stat that is captured here is flawed. Yes some percentage of views are nothing to do with reading. But TBH, clicks from someone reading this forum are noise.

The main flaw with 'views' is the implication drawn by authors that it equates to 'reads.' The site does not suggest that 'views' = 'reads.' It's a measure of traffic and nothing more.

 

[Actingup]

Pfft, heh heh. Pardon, sorry I'm trying so hard not to laugh.



-3 C is an absolutely gorgeous day here in December, January, February, March.

Once again, you have no idea what winter even is. Not a clue! ; )



So like Crocodile Dundee says, "That's not a knife. Now that's a knife!" Any Canadian can tell any Australian, "That's not winter. Not even close. Now this is winter!"

So I repeat one more time: winter does not exist in Australia.

In Darwin, people start to pull out the warm gear when the overnight temperature dips below 20C (68F). And yes, some of them complain.

On the other hand, the build-up to the wet season monsoon is pretty disgusting…

 

[NotWise]

Does it matter? Contest awards are given based on scores and you only need 25 votes to qualify.

If anything, showing the categories would facilitate the already popular strategy of submitting late in a niche category to make sure only your followers shower you with 5-stars.

It matters to the people with stories in small categories that may not get enough votes to qualify.

 

[Erozetta]

My win last year had a 4.91 rating at the end of the contest. It was no where near the best story that entered. I had zero expectations of winning and wasn't even watching the score. I wrote it and entered it on a whim. Even at the end of the contest when I saw my score, my thought was "Cool, not enough to place, but cool."

There's evidence of that at the end of last year's Halloween support thread.

It had something like 120 votes and 15-ish thousand views at the end of the contest. Now it has like 649 and is at a 4.8 with 77k views. (I'm sorry, I don't have exact numbers, I don't really track my stats at all.)

 

[TheLobster]

It matters to the people with stories in small categories that may not get enough votes to qualify.

Right, but if those votes that their stories do get, that push them over the line, are mostly the kind of spiteful 1-stars from readers that feel they were "tricked" to click on "icky" category, then it once again doesn't matter.

Those stories will be buried under those undeserved 1-stars and won't be in the running for a prize. Indeed, those malicious votes may even stay with them in the long run, sullying the score going forward and making it worse than if they never qualified for a potential award at all.

All in all, I just don't think the drawbacks of putting the categories on the contest list outweigh the positives.

 

[Actingup]

Right, but if those votes that their stories do get, that push them over the line, are mostly the kind of spiteful 1-stars from readers that feel they were "tricked" to click on "icky" category, then it once again doesn't matter.

Those stories will be buried under those undeserved 1-stars and won't be in the running for a prize. Indeed, those malicious votes may even stay with them in the long run, sullying the score going forward and making it worse than if they never qualified for a potential award at all.

All in all, I just don't think the drawbacks of putting the categories on the contest list outweigh the positives.

As far as I can tell, those 1-votes are likely to be swept away when the next contest is finished. That doesn’t mean it’s not frustrating though.

 

[TheLobster]

As far as I can tell, those 1-votes are likely to be swept away when the next contest is finished. That doesn’t mean it’s not frustrating though.

That's a fair point. Since we don't know the technical details of the sweeps, it might be that it's an intentional choice to present the contest lists in this way given those details.

Personally I don't think it's that deep. But if it is, more power to Laurel. Thankfully most participants of contests tag their stories appropriately, so you can always get the story list in verbose/detailed form if you just lookup the tag.

 

[Djmac1031]

I'll certainly let you know if I ever win anything

 

[NotWise]

Right, but if those votes that their stories do get, that push them over the line, are mostly the kind of spiteful 1-stars from readers that feel they were "tricked" to click on "icky" category, then it once again doesn't matter.

Those stories will be buried under those undeserved 1-stars and won't be in the running for a prize. Indeed, those malicious votes may even stay with them in the long run, sullying the score going forward and making it worse than if they never qualified for a potential award at all.

All in all, I just don't think the drawbacks of putting the categories on the contest list outweigh the positives.

Your argument is piling up a lot of "if"s.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Lest we not forget, Buffalo and parts of NY and surrounding areas measure snow in the FEET. Having 10 FEET of snow on the ground is not uncommon. Same for areas of Upper Michigan and and Ontario around Lake Superior.