oggbashan
Dying Truth seeker
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My stories won't be posted until the first day of the contest.
But they won't feature long on the new lists because every other contest entry will post that day too.
The Official Authors' Hangout Valentine's Day 2021 Contest Support Thread
- Thread starter oggbashan
- Start date
My stories won't be posted until the first day of the contest.
But they won't feature long on the new lists because every other contest entry will post that day too.
KeithD
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That's not the question, Ogg. Where on the list will they appear? How will the placement on the New list be made? Earliest in on the bottom? On the top? Neither of these? How does the New list get constructed?
It's quite well established over the Internet that the higher on a posted list, the more likely to be opened by readers. We regularly get complaints here from authors whose stories got buried on the New list.
How is the order of the New list done? Can this be discerned by when the story was submitted? I'll take a look on where my entry submitted a couple of days before the contest opening comes up on the list in relationship to yours that you say you've already submitted.
It's quite well established over the Internet that the higher on a posted list, the more likely to be opened by readers. We regularly get complaints here from authors whose stories got buried on the New list.
How is the order of the New list done? Can this be discerned by when the story was submitted? I'll take a look on where my entry submitted a couple of days before the contest opening comes up on the list in relationship to yours that you say you've already submitted.
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Well I submitted mine this evening, 5 days before they go live. I don't really care about where it falls etc. I will admit I would prefer to have the category listed next to the submission on the contest page, but again, that's no biggie.
oggbashan
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Maybe, but trying to game the new list is usually pointless.
JuanSeiszFitzHall
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Even if there are fifty-some stories on opening day, the New list doesn't matter much to me. The contest page, from what I've seen, draws plenty of clicks, and the stories will show there after they drop off the New list.
This, too, doesn't directly address KeithD's point, but anything I'd have to say about that would be uninformed.
This, too, doesn't directly address KeithD's point, but anything I'd have to say about that would be uninformed.
SimonDoom
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I've always assumed there's no conscious decision that influences which stories appear at the top of the list. That it's just a matter of stories randomly being processed. But, of course, I don't know.
What I've noticed as someone who publishes stories in the Incest category is that it's helpful if your story is one of the LAST to be published on a particular day, because your story will be on the new story category hub longer and that makes a big difference to the amount of traffic the story gets. In Incest stories can drop off the top 25 within one day. With the new format the new story list is longer, and that mitigates the problem, but one has to click on the "more" button at the bottom to see them all.
Kumquatqueen
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I hadn't written since September - winter means the not-fun meds - but I was reminded about this contest and realised a story I'd half-written could be tweaked to include Valentine's Day.
Re-read my draft, decided it wasn't bad, have added more, and I now have a complete draft to edit and submit.
Many people won't like it (it's a story I mentioned months ago with kinky lesbians and a wheelchair) and the Valentine's bit is a bit tenuous, but my contest entries have got about 20x the views of my other stories, so I'll put it up anyway.
Re-read my draft, decided it wasn't bad, have added more, and I now have a complete draft to edit and submit.
Many people won't like it (it's a story I mentioned months ago with kinky lesbians and a wheelchair) and the Valentine's bit is a bit tenuous, but my contest entries have got about 20x the views of my other stories, so I'll put it up anyway.
JuanSeiszFitzHall
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Okay, do that. Consider yourself supported.
This makes me feel better about my story. I started down a path of writing a year or two ago only to get distracted, leaving my series unfinished.
This contest (not the aspiration of winning but rather the timing and thus inspiration) brought me back to the keyboard to give me something to focus on that was both concrete and time sensitive.
My intent was 4-5k words TOPS. Three days later and I'm sitting at ~18k. I'm not convinced the story is done yet either.
Clearly this contest gave me a clear path back to writing and my God, how I've missed it!
My goal is to finish this story, edit/submit, and then revisit my unfinished series to breath life back into it.
JuanSeiszFitzHall
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This veers away from the purpose of the thread (to encourage writers working to enter the contest), but I have something to add to comments on the ‘New’ page. In that page as it appears on my computer, I often see batching by category--for instance, five consecutive under Mind Control. There may be categories which are seen by the site folks as inherently risky to them, and may require extra scrutiny before approval and posting. I could certainly see Celeb/Fanfic and Noncon/Reluctance (also sometimes batched) being thought of as potentially actionable, and time being set aside to look more closely at submittals in those categories. Also, Audio seems always to be uploaded in large batches, because that review process involves listening rather than reading.
From what I’ve seen, a day’s contest entries are always the first listed on the ‘New’ page for that day. This may not get my story among the first looks on a phone screen, but as I wrote earlier, I have enough reasons for wanting my story to go live on a contest’s first day.
KeithD
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Yes, it's clear that contest entries are run at the top of the New list. Stories that Laurel awards with a Green E (editor's choice) also are run at the top (I haven't seen instances where the two occur on the same day).
I have always had a story to post on the contest's first day too (and have one this time, as well, with others to follow). The first day contest is usually quite long, though, and the reality of Internet lists is that the first ten listed in the first-day contest list are going to get more looks than the last ten listed.
I like to have my second contest story (if there is one--and there will be one this time) pop up on day three or four, where it will be higher on the New list because there will be fewer stories on the list those days.
JuanSeiszFitzHall
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My story now shows as scheduled for tomorrow. It's the same review interval I had for the Halloween contest: submitted seven days before, pending until the day before the opening.
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Snap! Well almost. I submitted mine several days ago and it’s obviously been approved. I wondered if mine would be sent back- the female character talks about the comfort she got from climbing into bed with her parents when she was growing up. It’s not meant to mean sexual comfort at all, but I was concerned it might be interpreted this way.
There are often complaints that there are too many characters named in my stories so I went out of my way to name even more in this one ;-)
KeithD
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Today's a perfectly good day to submit. They start posting tomorrow (in an hour or two now).
Rustyoznail
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Uh, when did they change the start date?
I'm in even if i am a day late.
Ahh, crap! I thought I had the weekend to finish. That’s annoying.
JuanSeiszFitzHall
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To address KeithD's point, my story appeared 13th on the New list (14th, counting the contest promo at the top), so probably below the first screen on phones, while Oggbashan's were listed first and second. We both submitted early. I won't speculate on other possible reasons for placement on the New list. In any event, I don't feel slighted.
There are 15 first-day entries in all, so the contest page doesn't look so full as to put anyone off (I think). I'll probably start reading shortly.
There are 15 first-day entries in all, so the contest page doesn't look so full as to put anyone off (I think). I'll probably start reading shortly.
KeithD
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My first entry, submitted on Jan 11th, is currently #4 on the New list (my second entry is about to be submitted). It occurs to me that the last time I looked into it--probably a couple of years ago, the contest entries weren't static on the New list. They kept shuffling, which is good for fairness. I don't know if they still do that.
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