2008 News & Views: Discussion and Announcements for the Survivorphile

Lauren Hynde

Hitched
Joined
Apr 11, 2002
Posts
21,061
Hello, Survivorphiles, and welcome to the 2008 Survivor Literotica Contest. We hope this will be an enjoyable year-long challenge for all of you, regardless of final score. Survivor is above all a great opportunity for authors to challenge themselves and stretch their own limits, encouraging them into writing territory where they wouldn't normally venture.

This year, there will only be one small change introduced to the rules:
You may enter the contest any time before midnight, Pacific Standard Time (UTC-8:00) on October 31, 2008.​

This will hopefully result in two final months of very interesting all-in-the-open competition, and is close enough to the end of the year to not keep newbies waiting for too long until the next edition starts.

All other rules and principles are as in previous years. There is a dynamic cap for immunities, which means that by the end of the year, any immunities you won will only be considered valid if you have regular submissions in two categories for each immunity. Submissions made to the Novels and Novellas category must be 7500 words or more and the first 10 will be worth double points. The use of images in the production of which you were 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. All audio stories must be 750 words or more to be eligible for Survivor, and the accompanying text must be an accurate transcript of the submitted audio.

Every year, there are concerns about multichapter stories and about the quality of some submissions. Once again we must remind all contestants that the only quality control in place is Laurel, at the moment of approval of the submissions. If you read a story that cannot be understood without reading the others in the series, if it doesn't make sense on its own, or if it doesn't correspond, on its own, to the minimum that can be expected for the category it is placed in, please report the story. If you think that any story you read in Literotica is substandard, please report the story. Let Laurel know about it. That's the only way a quality control can be implemented.

In the next few days there will be news on the moderation front. I won't have as much free time as I used to, but several people already stepped up and volunteered to help out.

The 2008 Survivor Literotica Contest: Rules and Registration thread and the January 2008 immunities thread are already posted and you can sign up immediately. To avoid confusion, we'll put creation of new ScoreCard threads on hold until 2007 winners are announced on the 5th and all the mess is cleared, but we'll put them up right after that.

Good luck to all!
 
Last edited:
I need a quick clarification if you could. :)

#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.

====


I have gotten permission from a friend to reconstruct photos they've taken into different mediums of art.

My friend has several pictures of themselves in various poses. I would like to look at the pictures and then redo them myself in my own way, by either using india ink, colored pencils, pastels, charcoal, graphite... etc. The original shot would never make it to the Illustrated story. Is this allowed? I'm thinking it is, but I most definitely want to be sure.

Example. John Doe sees my avatar and draws it with a crayon, submits it with a story in the Illustrated category. Points allowed?

And... in one case there is a photo that I would like to recreate twice. One would be a drawing in one form of medium, the other in a completely different form. Is this allowable?

Thanks.

Red :rose:
 
Red, I would think as long as what is posted in the story is the original art that is done by you, then it should be fine. As long as you are only using the picture as a "muse" type thing and not just doing photoshop type modifications to the actual picture itself. That's my take on it anyway. Your creations would still be your original art. I don't see how it would be any different than doing a picture from a live model. In this case, you are just using a photograph instead.

I'm sure Lauren will be in soon to let you know for sure.
 
Red, I would think as long as what is posted in the story is the original art that is done by you, then it should be fine. As long as you are only using the picture as a "muse" type thing and not just doing photoshop type modifications to the actual picture itself. That's my take on it anyway. Your creations would still be your original art. I don't see how it would be any different than doing a picture from a live model. In this case, you are just using a photograph instead.

I'm sure Lauren will be in soon to let you know for sure.
Thanks.

I believe you're right too. I just want to be sure. I have in mind a very lengthy series and would hate to find out it wasn't eligible. I'd still do them, because... they are going to be quite fun.

There would be no photoshop type things involved, unless one counts cropping it down to size, just me drawing/painting the pictures from their pictures.

I'm quite excited about the whole idea. :)
 
Crimson is right. If the artwork is yours and you're not using any sort of Photoshop manipulation trick, then it would be OK. I'm not so sure about your example, though. John Doe would need to have your permission to use you as a model for the same principle to apply.
 
Crimson is right. If the artwork is yours and you're not using any sort of Photoshop manipulation trick, then it would be OK. I'm not so sure about your example, though. John Doe would need to have your permission to use you as a model for the same principle to apply.
Thanks. :) Yeah, in my Crayola example John Doe would have had my permission. :) I do have this friends permission so with that and your okay, I'm good to go. :D Thank ya muches.
 
Just wondering about the Oct 31 deadline.... why the change? To keep someone from joining in and posting stories at the last minute?

Along those lines... any thought about making scorecard updating mandatory within, say a few weeks? :eek:
 
Just wondering about the Oct 31 deadline.... why the change? To keep someone from joining in and posting stories at the last minute?

Along those lines... any thought about making scorecard updating mandatory within, say a few weeks? :eek:

The deadline was implemented for that reason, yes. To keep someone from coming in at the last minute and taking the win.

Making scorecard updates mandatory was discussed, but it was decided at this time not to do so. You can go check out the 2008 plotting and planning thread to see the discussion.
 
Ooooo Ahhh... Scorecards are arriving this morning... :D

<<< giddy gal here. :)

Thanks Lauren for all your hard work!!!

*runs off to play with her card*

Good Luck Everyone! :D
 
Hello, Survivorphiles!

As you might have noticed, CrimsonMaiden will be one of the moderators for this year's edition of Survivor. I'm not having nearly as much free time as I used to, these days, and her help will be appreciated and greatly taken advantage of.

And thank you to Fieryjen for offering to help as well. I do appreciate it. :rose:
 
Every year, there are concerns about multichapter stories and about the quality of some submissions. Once again we must remind all contestants that the only quality control in place is Laurel, at the moment of approval of the submissions. If you read a story that cannot be understood without reading the others in the series, if it doesn't make sense on its own, or if it doesn't correspond, on its own, to the minimum that can be expected for the category it is placed in, please report the story. If you think that any story you read in Literotica is substandard, please report the story. Let Laurel know about it. That's the only way a quality control can be implemented.

I'm going to quote this again, because while I was tallying 2007's final scores, I came across a number of submissions posted in clearly inappropriate categories, such as submissions with no sexual content at all posted in the Lesbian category. They had been reported to Laurel as well, by readers who obviously didn't agree with Why-I-Don't-Do-Anal essays being offered masquerading as Anal stories, and were relocated before the tallying of points was made official.

The point is, trying to cut corners to get more points than those earned by the stories does not pay off. Someone will see through it.

Each individual submission you make should go into the category it actually corresponds to. Each individual submission should be able to stand on its own in that category, even if it part of a multi-chapter series. That is the key element. Multi-chapter stories should always be series of stories capable of standing alone. They should not be a larger story simply split into small parts without autonomy. If that is the case, then all those parts should go into the Novels & Novellas category only.

For example, if you are writing a very long story with a lesbian theme, you have three courses of action that would be fair to everyone, not only you and the other contestants, but also to the readers:

1) Post the entire story, as a whole and in one single submission, in the Lesbian Sex category.

2) Post the entire story, or split into smaller manageable parts, in the Novels & Novellas section. (Each part will need to have 7500 words to be eligible for points in Survivor)

3) Post the story, split into smaller parts, but making sure that each part can stand on its own in the category it is posted under. If a part doesn't make sense on its own, without reading the rest of the series, it shouldn't be posted on its own. Join it with other parts until the block has enough internal coherence. If a part, even being able to stand on its own, does not include lesbian sex, it shouldn't be posted under the Lesbian Sex category, but under Non-Erotic or whatever other category best corresponds to that specific part's content.
 
Sign me up too.

Do we know how many participated in the 2007 contest?
 
I'm going to quote this again, because while I was tallying 2007's final scores, I came across a number of submissions posted in clearly inappropriate categories, such as submissions with no sexual content at all posted in the Lesbian category. They had been reported to Laurel as well, by readers who obviously didn't agree with Why-I-Don't-Do-Anal essays being offered masquerading as Anal stories, and were relocated before the tallying of points was made official.

The point is, trying to cut corners to get more points than those earned by the stories does not pay off. Someone will see through it.
It appears as if it's happening again this year. Yesterday we looked around and already found a Humor & Satire piece posted as Erotic Couplings, even though there is no sexual content in it whatsoever. If this persists, the continued posting of submissions by an individual to the wrong category solely with the intent of getting more points than they'd be otherwise entitled to, we'll be forced to consider this a blatant cheating attempt, with all the possible consequences described in the rules.
 
moving

Sign me up too.

Do we know how many participated in the 2007 contest?

Just count who's on the scoreboard ;)

Do you mean how many signed up, or how many actually submitted stories for the contest?
 
Just count who's on the scoreboard ;)

Do you mean how many signed up, or how many actually submitted stories for the contest?

Both? I figured there was a summary somewhere.
I can't count THAT high- I only get to 22 if I include my nose... :devil:
 
Do we know how many participated in the 2007 contest?

There were 146 participants. Of those, 101 effectively had submissions made during the year, a total of 2259 valid submissions and 96 immunities.

In reality, only 64 of those 101 had any points registered in their scorecards, and only 43 of those 64 had all the points they would have been entitled to, had they bothered to keep their scorecards updated. 78 people had absolutely nothing registered in their scorecards, and 37 of them could have. One of them, in fact, had enough submissions to gather 108 points, which would have put him in 12th place and in the prizes.
 
There were 146 participants. Of those, 101 effectively had submissions made during the year, a total of 2259 valid submissions and 96 immunities.

In reality, only 64 of those 101 had any points registered in their scorecards, and only 43 of those 64 had all the points they would have been entitled to, had they bothered to keep their scorecards updated. 78 people had absolutely nothing registered in their scorecards, and 37 of them could have. One of them, in fact, had enough submissions to gather 108 points, which would have put him in 12th place and in the prizes.

Great stats! Thanks. It really helps with perspective somehow. :cattail:

It sounds like a lot of work to check on scores for those who didn't update their cards. I can't IMAGINE how to score HUNDREDS of points. Even if I completed the 41 stories in my queue!

I teach a driver safety class and always point out the possible folly in oversimplified stats. In trying to show how misleading an 'average' figure is, I use this example:

Put your left foot into a bucket of ice cold water. Freeze it. Now put the other foot into a bucket of boiling water. You MUST now be comfy. After all, the extreme heat and cold average out. Right? doooh! :devil:
 
Last edited:
It sounds like a lot of work to check on scores for those who didn't update their cards. I can't IMAGINE how to score HUNDREDS of points. Even if I completed the 41 stories in my queue!
The person with the least number of submissions made last year and a score of over 100, had 44 submissions. In 2006, there had been 4 people with less (38, 43, 39, 31) submissions and over 100 points (103, 111, 112 and 123 respectively).
 
I have a question regarding what is appropriate for some of the categories

Reviews and Essays - the description states "Your take on art, films, & all things sexual" however I have noticed that some of the submissions aren't about sex - do they have to have a sexual theme?

Sci Fi & Fantasy - does psychic abilities fit into this category?

I just want to make sure I'm placing my stories in the right category.
Thanks in advance.
Erin

I'm not sure about the first one (though I would think the answer would be no), so I will defer to Lauren for that one. As far as the psychic question, yes Sci-fi/Fantasy would probably be the best place for that story (as long as it's erotic in nature).
 
Back
Top