2021 Story Category Winners announced

[ChloeTzang]

What I'd really like to see would be a page for each author, where you could do an author profile, and do posts, and comments / replies.

Think, read story, click on Author name and you go to a FB-style page - header image, profile in a side bar, links to thinks like Amazon and other book sites, because quite a few of us also publish, and posts in a timeline format, with the ability to post images, link to thinks like youtube.

Readers should be able to follow and friend, and post / do feedback. It doesn't have to be complex at all, but if its on the site, its easy for site readers to interact on the site with me without leaving. Right now, comments is story specific, and feedback goes to email so its personal and invisible....

I have 2500 followers for example, and it would be great to allow them to interact with me on the site, on my own page, without bugging other writers - and for readers, they don't have to go trying to find me on other social media. It also would allow me to link from my social media pages to my Literotica author media page and from there I can talk about my own stories, provide links, etc etc.

 

[SimonDoom]

Know what would be helpful? Fixing or at least acknowledging the top list issue. Fix something before running around trying to come up with new things.

Are you referring to the top favorite stories list? It's still down, after about 5 days or so. I have never seen it down like this before. Weird.

 

[MelissaBaby]

What type of interface or tools do you think would help authors to better communicate with their readers? We're aware of the need for onsite messaging between members (which will eventually replace private feedback, currently going directly to email). What do you think would be helpful to authors in addition to that?

Thank you.

Eliminate the moderation on comments. With long delays before they are posted, comments have become rare, and there is no back and forth discussion between readers, or between author and readers.

 

[Manu]

Eliminate the moderation on comments. With long delays before they are posted, comments have become rare, and there is no back and forth discussion between readers, or between author and readers.

If we removed comment moderation, spam would flourish, causing more issues than the short delay in publishing legitimate comments. We could turn off the ability for unregistered users to comment like most other sites do, but that would also cause a decrease in feedback. We are currently working on a system so that members with a positive reputation will be able to comment instantly, while unregistered and new user comments will be moderated. We don't have an ETA on the new system's release yet.

Thank you.

 

[KeithD]

That would be an improvement, thanks.

 

[lovecraft68]

Are you referring to the top favorite stories list? It's still down, after about 5 days or so. I have never seen it down like this before. Weird.

Exactly what I'm referring to and notice Manu comes running in here to talk about something else, then replies to Melissa about moderation, but no reply to my comment, nor will there be one to yours.

 

[lunarhiccups]

It would be really cool to "reply" to a listener/reader's comment rather than posting a new comment!

What type of interface or tools do you think would help authors to better communicate with their readers? We're aware of the need for onsite messaging between members (which will eventually replace private feedback, currently going directly to email). What do you think would be helpful to authors in addition to that?

Thank you.

 

[lovecraft68]

Perfect example of the drama that goes on with these things. Long time Lit author Buckyduckman who had a story nominated in Incest that didn't win is not happy.

https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=1332946&page=bio

Now of course I had to go and look at who #9 is on the top author list(still working...for now) and That is Nikki_2021 and truth be told I don't see anything amiss with her winning, she'd got quite the following in the taboo category. I get his point that why not simply go by pure numbers(makes sense if you think on it) and this is an example of it just being popularity of the author over the actual story nominated.

If you won something this year or any year, its a cool thing to have on the resume so to speak, but don't let it get to your head, because there's a lot wrong with these things. Before people yell at me, I've won in the past so this isn't sour grapes. Hell, I have 9 blue W's on my page and will be the first one to tell you it doesn't mean anything in regards to quality of the story cause that's just how it is here.

 

[SimonDoom]

Perfect example of the drama that goes on with these things. Long time Lit author Buckyduckman who had a story nominated in Incest that didn't win is not happy.

https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=1332946&page=bio

If you won something this year or any year, its a cool thing to have on the resume so to speak, but don't let it get to your head, because there's a lot wrong with these things. Before people yell at me, I've won in the past so this isn't sour grapes. Hell, I have 9 blue W's on my page and will be the first one to tell you it doesn't mean anything in regards to quality of the story cause that's just how it is here.

That's how I see it. I'm as vain as anybody else. I just won my first contest, and it's fun. But I won with 11 total votes! LOL. And after I won my story's score nose-dived. A couple of people must have checked it out and thought, "Well, that's a piece of shit." As they're entitled to.

Have fun with it, but don't take it too seriously. You'll save yourself some ulcers.

 

[ElectricBlue]

What type of interface or tools do you think would help authors to better communicate with their readers? We're aware of the need for onsite messaging between members (which will eventually replace private feedback, currently going directly to email). What do you think would be helpful to authors in addition to that?

Thank you.

Comment threading would be useful, provided the spam issue is kept under control; a better story tagging/category selection system (as is regularly discussed here on the AH); including a little more space to allow "story blurbs" - a sentence or two.

 

[lovecraft68]

That's how I see it. I'm as vain as anybody else. I just won my first contest, and it's fun. But I won with 11 total votes! LOL. And after I won my story's score nose-dived. A couple of people must have checked it out and thought, "Well, that's a piece of shit." As they're entitled to.

Have fun with it, but don't take it too seriously. You'll save yourself some ulcers.

I've always felt it's sad and telling of the readership here how few people vote. Even a category like incest, which got how many votes in this thing? Even if it was over a hundred....that's pathetic for a readership that large. But if someone doesn't finish a series, oh, they're up in arms, or you write in a category they don't like etc...

Just kind of a thankless base it seems. But I don't think that's a literotica thing, I think that's an everywhere thing these days.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

I was glad to have a story nominated in Mature this year and to have time to read all of the nominated works in a number of categories to be able to vote for my favorites. Thanks to all who voted and congratulations to everyone nominated and to all of the winners!

What's the issue with the top favorites list? I've used the Romance and Mature all-time lists several times in recent days and haven't noticed any problem with either of those.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Post count as in someone voting/nominating with only one post. Now of course if someone was here anon, but their fav author is lobbying in an authors note or on their bio for a vote, they may create an account just to vote, hence one post. That's the 'pure' explanation.

Unfortunately, because of how easy things are here to manipulate and all the prior gaming that has gone one, a one post user ID screams alt. If you chose to, you could create a few handles and vote for yourself, how would anyone know?

So whether RR gets upset about it or not, there's plenty of cause for suspicion, especially in the more prominent awards. These are contests and like any contest here there has been drama. Some of which is the argument that chapters shouldn't be allowed to win because they're not stories.

Although not all the contest categories are defined around stories. I had a very narrow win in "most original sex scene" with a scene from chapter 10 of a series. I'd defend that as legit, since the entire scene is in that chapter. Some of the other contest categories are also about a part of the story rather than the whole story.

That contest was decided on number of votes rather than average score, so the usual fairness issue of scores getting inflated for later chapters isn't relevant there.

 

[RejectReality]

What irritates me is when somebody doesn't bother to look past post count. It's thrown out there as if its a smoking gun pointing to a sock puppet. If somebody signs up, makes a hundred thumbs-up posts on the various pic threads on the GB, does that then qualify them as a person? If low post count is proof of chicanery, then surely a hundred posts must be proof they're legitimate.

The forum isn't even an afterthought to the majority of Lit's visitors. Basing even suspicion on post count alone is absurd, but it happens every year.

Anybody who thinks post count is relevant, just humor me and look at their story side profile. Then do a google search for comments username site:literotica.com

You'll come up blank on a few, but how many do you end up discovering are published authors, frequent commenters, etc.?

 

[jsmiam]

….

What's the issue with the top favorites list? I've used the Romance and Mature all-time lists several times in recent days and haven't noticed any problem with either of those.

“Series equitablificaterors” (it’s a word, I just made it up) think series clutter up the top lists by appearing so many times the list becomes unreadable (each qualifying chapter shows up independently). It’s complicated since “if a chapter qualifies shouldn’t it show?”

The exhibitionism and voyeur list is a good example. (Separately it churns like crazy, but I’ll sidestep.). https://www.literotica.com/top/Exhibitionist-Voyeur-4. As of this writing one single series represents 24 of the 50 spots on the top 50. Separately, quite often, 42 of the top 50 are chapters of about five to seven different series. (It’s low as of this moment, only 34. It’ll be different tomorrow probably.)

The anti-toplistclogifiers (also a word, I made that up too) among us wish a series didn’t make the list look like that.

My vote would be for the top positioned chapter to appear once vertically (occupy one spot of 50 on the list), but for equity’s sake have the qualifying chapters also visible, paragraph style, not one line per chapter visible.

Sidenote: there’s a bug that pops up, occasionally not permanently, where a handful stories can be on page one and two at the same time. It usually remedies itself within about ten minutes.

(Since Manu asked. Making wishes is normally not a wise way to invest time.) Thanks for asking, Manu, rven if perhaps you’re (maybe rightfully) thinking to yourself “THIS is why I don’t ask!!). ;-)

In the awards board’s thread regarding the awards, I mentioned that I liked the layout of the announcement with almost every story fitting in a single lit page. I thought that format also (not one vs the other, but both) might help more people meander past stories they might have otherwise not noticed during the voting period too

 

[jsmiam]

In defense of the people marketing themselves on social media and elsewhere (NOT me btw)... those of us wishing we would be discovered in the mainstream world would need to do the same thing ourselves to thrive there (real world/mainstream).

While it’s unfair in one respect, it’s also fair since nothing (sorta) is stopping us from externally marketing our writing too. (Well, maybe some of us who worry about keeping anonymous are keeping OURSELVES from doing it, but it’s us choosing that path, not others stopping us. )

 

[lovecraft68]

Although not all the contest categories are defined around stories. I had a very narrow win in "most original sex scene" with a scene from chapter 10 of a series. I'd defend that as legit, since the entire scene is in that chapter. Some of the other contest categories are also about a part of the story rather than the whole story.

That contest was decided on number of votes rather than average score, so the usual fairness issue of scores getting inflated for later chapters isn't relevant there.

The argument is about a chapter being nominated for best story in a category because the story isn't finished. Things like best scene can be from anything if like you said they take place in one segment, so that's not what the issue was.

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

Seems like there’s a simple fix for all of this. In future yearly category awards, why not give one for best series and one for best standalone per category?

 

[SimonDoom]

Seems like there’s a simple fix for all of this. In future yearly category awards, why not give one for best series and one for best standalone per category?

This would be an improvement. It would have a couple of drawbacks, though. One, it would multiply the number of contest categories so much that it would start to get ridiculous. Two, related to one, is that it would result in even fewer votes per category, and the numbers are already so low as to make the results questionable.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

Thanks for the explanation, jsmiam. I’ve seen that debate before but thought the problem being discussed had to do with a coding problem rather than one of philosophy about the lists. I’ll bite my tongue on the last part. Thanks!

 

[KeithD]

I no longer even look at this "contest" and won't bother to unless/until chapters are separated from standalone stories. No problem with others following this function. I just don't accept the equalizing of the two as something I'll give attention to.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

It would be really cool to "reply" to a listener/reader's comment rather than posting a new comment!

I 2nd this!
Not that I have a whole lot of followers or comments on my stories, but I do wish I had a way to interact with readers who do take the time leave a comment.

 

[Manu]

It would be really cool to "reply" to a listener/reader's comment rather than posting a new comment!

The new comment system was built to support both threaded comments (the ability to reply to individual comments in line) and mentions (@lunarhiccups).

However, at this time we are still supporting the Classic Lit Story Page, which does not support either. That's held us back from rolling out some of the more advanced features of the new system. In the future, we'll either roll out a new version of the Classic Lit Story Page that does support the new features (which will require a lot of development), or retire the Classic Lit Story Page so that we can push out more advanced features (difficult if a substantial number of readers still prefer the Classic Lit page).

 

[ElectricBlue]

However, at this time we are still supporting the Classic Lit Story Page, which does not support either. That's held us back from rolling out some of the more advanced features of the new system. In the future, we'll either roll out a new version of the Classic Lit Story Page that does support the new features (which will require a lot of development), or retire the Classic Lit Story Page so that we can push out more advanced features (difficult if a substantial number of readers still prefer the Classic Lit page).

Do you know how many Users still use the old Lit Page?

That's holding back progress because of users who won't change. If the majority of users are on the new page, the decision should be a simple one: shut the old page down and progress the site.