The official Authors' Hangout Halloween 2020 contest Support Thread

[ChasPHX]

Congrats to the placers and all who played the game.

Seconded. And especially to first place winner spyralout, whose story The Halloween Skits was I believe their first submission to the site, as noted earlier in this thread. That must be a pretty good feeling and a great motivator to continue!

 

[Son_of_Battles]

Don't take this the wrong way, there were many great stories in this contest, but I'm scratching my head as to how I didn't even place. My story, "The Sissy Mark" finished at a 4.86, and after checking the scores of the winners, I'm seeing two 4.85's, and a 4.75. Was something missed, or am I just not seeing the results of the sweeps on their stories? I'm trying to wrap my head around this. If I'm just not seeing it, then that's cool, but if something was missed, I'd like to know.

SoB

 

[SimonDoom]

Don't take this the wrong way, there were many great stories in this contest, but I'm scratching my head as to how I didn't even place. My story, "The Sissy Mark" finished at a 4.86, and after checking the scores of the winners, I'm seeing two 4.85's, and a 4.75. Was something missed, or am I just not seeing the results of the sweeps on their stories? I'm trying to wrap my head around this. If I'm just not seeing it, then that's cool, but if something was missed, I'd like to know.

SoB

The probable answer is that the scores have changed since the contest was decided. It's likely that somebody's bombed the winners. The winners are those that have the highest scores at one moment in time, but that moment is fleeting, and scores change all the time.

 

[NotWise]

If you're looking on the submissions-page of the authors, then you only get the scores from a day before; you won't see the effect of the sweeps (which effects can be HUGE!). Could that be an explanation?

Once a story is off its category hub, the only score that can be seen by the public is infrequently updated. The scores on the author's profile page are normally updated once/day. I think the top list scores are updated even less frequently.

Son_of_Battles is comparing the post-sweep score for his story to the pre-sweep scores for the winners. The winners' scores after the sweeps were probably around 4.9. Only the authors are likely to know the score, because by the time the scores on the profile page update, their stories would have been bombing targets for about sixteen hours.

 

[Voboy]

Yay, winners!

Congratulations to all. And yes, recent contest winners get bombed early and often. Checking to "see how close you were" to placing is always going to be difficult, as the scores are a rapidly-moving target from the moment the contest closes.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Congratulations, you three! It was a tough fight.

 

[MelissaBaby]

* 2020 Halloween Contest Winners *

First Place ($150 Cash Prize Winner):
The Halloween Skits
by spyralout

Second Place ($100 Cash Prize Winner):
The Verse
by gabthewriter

Third Place ($75 Cash Prize Winner):
The Hunt
by BrokenSpokes

Congratulations to them and to all those who entered.

This has been a great contest, congratulations to all the winners, and to everyone who joined in.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Yay, winners!

Congratulations to all. And yes, recent contest winners get bombed early and often. Checking to "see how close you were" to placing is always going to be difficult, as the scores are a rapidly-moving target from the moment the contest closes.

Yes, as I pointed out earlier in the thread, my story that won the Readers Choice for September has dropped from 4.94 to 4.85 in the week since the award was announced.

Earlier in the year, I checked the monthly awards and saw that a story I had published that month had a significantly higher rating than the one that had won the award for the Romance category. I wrote to Laurel, wondering if there had been an error, and she explained to me how variable the rankings are. If that month's award had been declared one day later, I would have won.

That sucked, but it's just the way things are. I won the next month, and another one since.

If you take contests too seriously, you can find lots of reasons to be unhappy. Is it fair that stories in different categories compete against each other? Or that some authors promote their entries on Twitter or Facebook? What about the huge advantage series chapters have over stand alone stories in the monthly awards?

If you're going to get worked up about this stuff, it's probably best not to bother with contests at all.

 

[NotWise]

If you're going to get worked up about this stuff, it's probably best not to bother with contests at all.

Brothers and sisters, I say Amen.

 

[Voboy]

If you're going to get worked up about this stuff, it's probably best not to bother with contests at all.

I'll second that "Amen."

Third it, too.

 

[Son_of_Battles]

If you're going to get worked up about this stuff, it's probably best not to bother with contests at all.

Now I understand that you can't exactly take the Literotica Contests too seriously, but if you don't take something at least a little seriously, that it really doesn't matter to you. Personally, I care a lot about my writing (as I'm sure many others do), and I try to reflect that in the quality of my work.

As for raising questions about the legitimacy of results, or curiosity about how the votes might have been calculated, I have lived long enough to see even the most careful people make mistakes. Do I really expect Laural to take back an award if there had been a mistake? No. Would I expect Literotica to cut me a check for the prize that I would have won if a mistake had been made? No. The second they posted the winners, it was over. I just feel that as an author, and contributor to this site (which which generates income off the traffic from our free work), I should at least have the ability to ask a question about the events they sponsor to generate that increased traffic.

 

[BrokenSpokes]

Contest results

Hey, thanks to all who participated and congrats to the other winners!

Especially thanks to all who voted for me! I honestly had zero expectations of winning. In fact, I’d expected The Hunt to be my lowest rated story of my catalog, given the subject matter.

Those sweeps were something. My vote total dropped from 190+ish yesterday to 151 today when I got the email I’d placed. And my score started dropping precipitately right after the announcement as I started getting bombed, lol.

 

[SisterJezabel]

I completely agree with what Bucky wrote: contests are fine and dandy and it's great to win (I haven't yet, but I'd like to), but you should think of them primarily as a way to get more exposure and as a way of learning about other authors, too.

+1 to this! I've managed to grow my readership picking up 15 subscribers which to me is a huge effort.

I'm really thrilled for Spyralout who won with their first story- what an achievement!

 

[SisterJezabel]

Or that some authors promote their entries on Twitter or Facebook? What about the huge advantage series chapters have over stand alone stories in the monthly awards?

If you're going to get worked up about this stuff, it's probably best not to bother with contests at all.

I think exposure features more on monthly competitions. High scores can come from both a large following and also a smaller following following a series. If you're writing a series that 80-90 people are following and like, then they are more likely to give you higher votes than if the series was published as a whole. This is just how it is! Likewise, if you are popular in a category and have been writing there for years and have over 1,000 followers who like your style, then you are bound to have a higher score.

It is what it is! I don't write here for the money and like Simon, one day I'd like to have a blue W next to a story, but it's not why I write.

 

[KeithD]

I'm really thrilled for Spyralout who won with their first story- what an achievement!

Somewhere up the line someone had posted that first-posting writers wouldn't win in the contests. My impression is, though, that they often do. I didn't check that out. But here it is.

 

[oggbashan]

Somewhere up the line someone had posted that first-posting writers wouldn't win in the contests. My impression is, though, that they often do. I didn't check that out. But here it is.

If you have been around as long as I have, you attract dedicated trolls.

My story as jeanne fared better because it had fewer 1 bombs.

 

[BrokenSpokes]

Lol

I just noticed that my own vote on my own story got swept off during the pre-contest results sweep.

So there's that to think about,

 

[ChasPHX]

I just noticed that my own vote on my own story got swept off during the pre-contest results sweep.

So there's that to think about,

Hah, yes, this is funny. I've been publishing here since this past summer, and until a couple of weeks ago, it hadn't even occurred to me that I could vote on my own stories. I thought the site would have prevented that somehow. Then I decided to try it, just so I could see the real time effect on my author profile page. I was surprised to see the immediate and notable difference (most of my stories don't have many ratings).

So then I was not surprised to see my rating go down in the sweep, as it should have.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I just noticed that my own vote on my own story got swept off during the pre-contest results sweep.

So there's that to think about,

How can you know that?

 

[BrokenSpokes]

How can you know that?

I went to the last page of my story and the stars were blank, allowing me to vote for it again, indicating my initial vote had been swept.

You can tell if a vote you cast on any story has been swept by looking at the last page and if you have the option to vote again, then your previous vote was swept.

 

[KeithD]

If you have been around as long as I have, you attract dedicated trolls.

My story as jeanne fared better because it had fewer 1 bombs.

I've been around almost as long as you have (2006 as sr71plt), and there ain't nobody here who can rival me in attracting trolls.

 

[KeithD]

I went to the last page of my story and the stars were blank, allowing me to vote for it again, indicating my initial vote had been swept.

You can tell if a vote you cast on any story has been swept by looking at the last page and if you have the option to vote again, then your previous vote was swept.

Laurel was asked about this a couple of years ago and responded that an author could vote once on his/her own story and it would hold. I've seen evidence like yours, though, that suggest that isn't true.

 

[BrokenSpokes]

Yep

Laurel was asked about this a couple of years ago and responded that an author could vote once on his/her own story and it would hold. I've seen evidence like yours, though, that suggest that isn't true.

This is not the first time I've seen a vote for myself swept off one of my stories. It's not even the second time.

 

[NotWise]

This is not the first time I've seen a vote for myself swept off one of my stories. It's not even the second time.

In order to stick, your vote would probably have to pass all the other standards the site uses for a legitimate vote. We don't know what those standards are.

 

[ElectricBlue]

This is not the first time I've seen a vote for myself swept off one of my stories. It's not even the second time.

If you jump straight to the end of a story and vote, your vote will eventually go. If you read the whole story again, the vote will hold. It's not hard to figure it out.