Winter Holiday Contest Support Thread

[Darkniciad]

It has to be some sort of record if I win this with 100+ votes *laugh*

 

[EllaRegina]

That's what makes it weird -- when the vote number isn't low but the score doesn't seem to correlate. On the other hand if everyone voted "meh" then that's one explanation. C'est la vie.

 

[Darkniciad]

That's what makes it weird -- when the vote number isn't low but the score doesn't seem to correlate. On the other hand if everyone voted "meh" then that's one explanation. C'est la vie.

My LST3K's are love or hate. Very rarely does one of them pick up a vote that isn't a 5 or a 1. There's no "almost there". There's no "you made an effort".

It's either laugh out loud, or blow raspberries.

 

[EllaRegina]

I thought so, too. This one's a puzzler. My general feeling about voting is to vote if you like it and then to vote a 5 if you do. No in between. And I'm not going to give something an "almost." It's either yay or nothing. I would never give a 1, even if I thought it was well deserved.

 

[Pornguin]

My story A Spring Roll Christmas was 3.45 for most of the contest; today it reached 3.51. That's with 77 votes and 13564 views. Granted, it was only my second story ever, but I didn't think it was that bad.

It's at http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=394727

 

[EllaRegina]

I feel your pain, Pornguin. Sometimes there is no real answer. It's all so subjective, too, and always based on the particular likes and dislikes (and other things) of a specific (and fluctuating) readership.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

My story A Spring Roll Christmas was 3.45 for most of the contest; today it reached 3.51. That's with 77 votes and 13564 views. Granted, it was only my second story ever, but I didn't think it was that bad.

It's at http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=394727

The scores have gone down considerably with the new 'stars' system... and in contests, it's been brutal.

 

[Darkniciad]

My story A Spring Roll Christmas was 3.45 for most of the contest; today it reached 3.51. That's with 77 votes and 13564 views. Granted, it was only my second story ever, but I didn't think it was that bad.

It's at http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=394727

Dagnabbit, ya got me... My last place aspirations are dashed

( 's okay, BTW. Just a bit of fun we have at the end of the contests, trying to outdo each other's bad scores )

Missed reading yours during the contest, but I just took a peek. I noticed a few punctuation, capitalization, and quotation errors, which probably hurt you because they stand out in a short piece ( one of the dangling quote marks was near the end, as well. )

Something you can try ( in addition to having someone proofread, because self-editing is always far from perfect ) is to let the story sit for a couple of days, and the re-read it in a different font size and face. Changing from what you're used to writing in can make things like that jump out at you.

The category also hurt you. The expectation seems to be "big black cocks on little white blondes" there. Anything else draws a lackluster response. Unfortunately, there are people who do nothing except down-vote those types of stories ( often leaving shockingly racist comments ), meaning that nothing really does all that well in that category.

There are a few other stylistic things, but I don't want you to feel like I'm jumping all over you unrequested. It's not a bad little story. It just had a lot of competition and a few handicaps ( not the least of which was simply the category -- tough climb to get a good score in IR )

 

[Pornguin]

No problem Darkniciad. Looks like I'll be screwed in IR, as I'm a white man that digs asian women and that's what I would write about in that cat. As for puncuation, one of my stories got bounced back for punctuation problems, and I learned from that. Constructive criticism will help me for next time, after all.

 

[tickledkitty]

No problem Darkniciad. Looks like I'll be screwed in IR, as I'm a white man that digs asian women and that's what I would write about in that cat. As for puncuation, one of my stories got bounced back for punctuation problems, and I learned from that. Constructive criticism will help me for next time, after all.

You could do a lot of other categories and still have a white guy with an Asian woman. Just don't make it the main theme of the story. Have you thought about working with an editor?

 

[scouries]

QUOTE LAUREL 1) The winter holidays contest is a "Readers' Choice" contest - not a "Contest Judged by a Panel of People of Whose Opinions I Approve". This is the case with all Literotica contests - and has been since the site began 10 years ago.

2) If those looking for 'transparency" in the voting are waiting for us to publicly discuss how the fraud vote system works - so that every troll and troublemaker can get tips on how to circumvent it - then they will have a long, long wait. Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to all who participated!

First off I’d just like to welcome you to the discussion. While we don’t always agree I feel any of these discussions about the site are always better and more informative for your presence.

As to your point #1 – Nonsense! A so called “Readers’ Choice” contest implies that our readers choose the winners. It demands that those running the contest publish the results for every story at the end of the contest.

I’ve repeatedly asked over the last two years that you publish the number of VIEWS and VOTES as well as the RATING for every story entered in these contests. You refuse to!

Why? We all know the reason – Once you publish the figures the whole sham will be exposed. No one who sees that a winning monthly contest story only received 25 votes and 3,000 views or that a Special Contest story received 52 votes and 4,200 views will believe the winners are “Readers’ Choices”. Not when they see them compared with stories that receive hundreds of votes and tens of thousands of views.

Just publish the results ma’am – all of them. For every story. Every vote. Every view. Their ratings. If the winners are the “readers’ choices” it will be obvious to all. And if the winners aren’t that will be obvious too.

As to your point #2 – I assume this “transparency” line is directed at me so have no hesitation in answering. You’re clearly trying to misstate my position.

I have no interest in (nor would understand) how you detect so-called “fraud” votes.

Instead, what interests me is what the site defines as a “legal” vote and what it defines as a “fraudulent” one.

Any voting system under which those in power can throw out any vote they disagree with without even explaining what the basis for their actions is illegitimate. LITEROTICA simply emulates the Banana Republics, the Haiti’s and Zimbabwe’s of this world.

You’ve lost all credibility with this last minute tossing of thousands of votes with no explanation.

Furthermore I hate your use of the terms “troll” and “troublemaker” in characterizing people who you think should be disenfranchised. In true free societies we don’t disenfranchise “troublemakers”. Names like “trolls” and “troublemakers” almost invariably are applied to those not in power – those who disagree with the elites - in our case at LITEROTICA they’re used almost exclusively by the small inner coterie of smug AHers to describe almost anyone who disagree with them.

You seem unwilling to even tell us what a fraudulent vote is my dear QUEEN. FYI here’s my two cents worth - I believe every single “READER” should have the right to vote – ONCE and only ONCE. I believe he or she should have the right to vote whatever they want – 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5. And have their vote count! ONCE!

As to the winners of this contest I’m sorry I can’t join you in congratulating them. I have no idea how many votes or views they received. I have no idea what rating they received. Only you know. I know you kept some votes and threw out others. I have no idea if you favor your friends or not when you massage the vote totals. But I do know that ninety percent of your winners over the past two plus years bear no relation to what are our “readers’ choices”. And you know it too!

I’m james r scouries, and I approve this message…

[size=+2]Dolphins count all the votes, not just those of their friends …[/size]

 

[Darkniciad]

No problem Darkniciad. Looks like I'll be screwed in IR, as I'm a white man that digs asian women and that's what I would write about in that cat. As for puncuation, one of my stories got bounced back for punctuation problems, and I learned from that. Constructive criticism will help me for next time, after all.

As tk said, if there's any other theme, you might be better served going with that category. Erotic Couplings is usually a "catch all" to avoid, but when it comes down to a choice between EC and IR...

A couple of other pointers that might help you out next time:

Some of your paragraphs seem a little long, and there's a bit too much narrative between lines of dialogue from the same person, in the same paragraph.

There are three stylistic things considered classic "new writer goofs" by a lot of readers that you'll probably want to adjust, too.

All caps - try using exclamation points sparingly and narrative to get across the emphasis instead of using all caps.

It's best to avoid inches, cup sizes, heights, etc. in your descriptions.

Phonetic cries of passion - Ahhhhh Ohhhhhhh Coooommminnngg... Some people will back-click the moment they see those. Stroke readers usually don't care, but they're not exactly here to vote, either Again, narrative is the way you'll probably want to go to demonstrate the quality of the cries as loud, drawn out, etc.

 

[Pornguin]

You could do a lot of other categories and still have a white guy with an Asian woman. Just don't make it the main theme of the story. Have you thought about working with an editor?

Do any of my more recent stories cry for an editor? Just curious.

 

[Pornguin]

There are three stylistic things considered classic "new writer goofs" by a lot of readers that you'll probably want to adjust, too.

All caps - try using exclamation points sparingly and narrative to get across the emphasis instead of using all caps.

It's best to avoid inches, cup sizes, heights, etc. in your descriptions.

Phonetic cries of passion - Ahhhhh Ohhhhhhh Coooommminnngg... Some people will back-click the moment they see those. .

I already got chastised on other threads for the first two. I'll take the other advice to heart.

 

[TE999]

The scores have gone down considerably with the new 'stars' system... and in contests, it's been brutal.

I hear ya...It's nigh well impossible to get a bunch of 'Best Thing I Ever Read' scores...for me anyway.

 

[Darkniciad]

I have no interest in (nor would understand) how you detect so-called “fraud” votes.

Instead, what interests me is what the site defines as a “legal” vote and what it defines as a “fraudulent” one.


You seem unwilling to even tell us what a fraudulent vote is my dear QUEEN. FYI here’s my two cents worth - I believe every single “READER” should have the right to vote – ONCE and only ONCE. I believe he or she should have the right to vote whatever they want – 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5. And have their vote count! ONCE!

It's the internet. There is no way to give "every reader one vote and one vote only" Tricks to circumnavigate controls of this nature arise within 24 hours of them going into force. Even forcing a login ( something that's simply not going to happen, and would drop the already low vote/view ratio into the toilet ) is something that can be circumvented.

Defining what is a legal or fraudulent vote is exactly the same thing as saying how the system detects such votes.

If you say "Votes from the same IP are swept" then cheaters know to use a proxy.

If you say "Votes cast without adequate time to read the story, even for a speed reader" then cheaters know to linger on each page for a few minutes before voting.

If you say "Votes cast from major proxies are swept" then cheaters know to use one of the umpteen lesser known proxies floating around that usually only serve a small community.

Any description of the criteria used in the sweeps is the same thing as throwing the code into a post with footnotes explaining how it all works. All you do is make cheating easier.

As to posting the final results *shrug* Don't see any problem with that. Maybe if you weren't such an arrogant asshat, it might have been considered. Odds are that the way the database stores things would allow a quick bit of code to dump all those numbers in easy-to-post form, automating posting the results.

 

[sr71plt]

I agree with what you've posted Darkinaid, but the bottom line is that the problem isn't really the voting system as much as it is the manipulating voters. I don't think that some of the contest entrants are going to stop trying to win any way they can--but I see no reason not to expose what they are doing and establishing that even if they work themselves to the top, they aren't really winners in any sense of the word.

 

[Darkniciad]

I agree with what you've posted Darkinaid, but the bottom line is that the problem isn't really the voting system as much as it is the manipulating voters. I don't think that some of the contest entrants are going to stop trying to win any way they can--but I see no reason not to expose what they are doing and establishing that even if they work themselves to the top, they aren't really winners in any sense of the word.

I still think you're over estimating the maliciousness of the contestants and under estimating the maliciousness of the fanbases/just plain assholes down-voting everything

In the end, three good stories won. Maybe they aren't what you consider the best ones, or they're in the wrong order, but it was hardly garbage stories only there on the back of cheating.

It's far from perfect, but it's the internet. Probably about as good as you're going to get.

 

[tickledkitty]

Do any of my more recent stories cry for an editor? Just curious.

I think any story cries out for an editor.

 

[sr71plt]

I think any story cries out for an editor.

A good many stories make editors cry, too.

 

[tickledkitty]

I agree with what you've posted Darkinaid, but the bottom line is that the problem isn't really the voting system as much as it is the manipulating voters. I don't think that some of the contest entrants are going to stop trying to win any way they can--but I see no reason not to expose what they are doing and establishing that even if they work themselves to the top, they aren't really winners in any sense of the word.

What makes you think it's the other entrants? You're really cheapening it for the winners, you know? Are you implying that's how they won?

Seems like an awful lot of sour grapes this time around.

 

[sr71plt]

What makes you think it's the other entrants? You're really cheapening it for the winners, you know? Are you implying that's how they won?

Seems like an awful lot of sour grapes this time around.

The "readers" don't give two figs who wins--certainly not to the extent of multiple voting in the huge numbers being swept. Who benefits from the effort? When all else fails, there's always common sense.

Having charted two contests, patterns are pretty clear what's happening--and many of those who are involved. Again, when all else fails, there's always common sense.

Don't care if sounds like sour grapes. The contests aren't what they purport to be.

I've congratulated Marsh Alien for surviving near a somewhat believable placement. You can figure it out from there.

 

[Nirvanadragones]

After each contest there are these large amounts of people who can't stop whining about whomever won, or didn't win. As Laurel said, they are not about to give specifics as to how the system works. Isn't it about time that people accept what she has said and stop being fucking arseholes? It's one thing to discuss or even debate certain issues. It's another to make indirect accusations that are impossible to even try to defend.

And just for the record . . . those of you who have been going on and on about the winners - I'm just wondering if you actually took the time to read the winning stories? Because personally I think they're all three good stories. I'm not saying the stories that didn't win, aren't. But, I think it's safe to say that each of the three winning stories deserve to be where they are.

The contest is over. Deal with it.

 

[sr71plt]

The contest is over. Deal with it.

I am dealing with it. Apparently just not to your liking.

Not going out of my way to prolong the discussion, either--nor to avoid direct questions or interesting side notes. It's sort of a fascinating case study of greed and such.

 

[tickledkitty]

The "readers" don't give two figs who wins--certainly not to the extent of multiple voting in the huge numbers being swept. Who benefits from the effort? When all else fails, there's always common sense.

Having charted two contests, patterns are pretty clear what's happening--and many of those who are involved. Again, when all else fails, there's always common sense.

Don't care if sounds like sour grapes. The contests aren't what they purport to be.

I've congratulated Marsh Alien for surviving near a somewhat believable placement. You can figure it out from there.

Well, I guess I just don't have any common sense, and I guess since you didn't congratulate me after the Halloween contest, you think I cheated too. Mkay. Thanks for that.