Awards and Contests nominations

[oggbashan]

No matter how you slice it, this annual hatefest is telling readers that they're stupid and/or scumbags and any author who doesn't refuse the nomination of their stupid/scumbag readers is a scumbag themselves.

And it always starts with post count. If you're not here posting on the word chains thread a dozen times a day, you're not real regardless of how many years you've been here, how many comments you've made, how many votes you've cast, how many stories you've posted, or anything else.

I don't think questioning the validity of the annual contests deserves being called a 'hatefest'. I'm sorry you think like that and use generalisations to attack too widely. My concern is that these contests are undervalued. They could be much better if there was more diversity in the nominations and greater numerical participation in the voting.

One nomination is enough to get someone into the voting stage. Tefler's numerous nominations seem like overkill.

Your 'hatefest' has been a repeated feature of the Authors' Hangout for many years. There have always been some who consider that only 'genuine' (by their own individual definition) people should be allowed to post here. That's not my view. I think everyone should be welcome, even if only to ask the questions we have answered multiple times.

Having said that, the Authors' Hangout is far more civilised than the General and Politics Boards. There posters are categorised immediately as either for or against other posters or accused of being yet another alt (which some of them are).

 

[CyranoJ]

Laurel, thanks for that clarification.

I think it's a little more complicated than that.

RR was replying to someone else, I think.

 

[sr71plt]

No matter how you slice it, this annual hatefest is telling readers that they're stupid and/or scumbags and any author who doesn't refuse the nomination of their stupid/scumbag readers is a scumbag themselves.

And it always starts with post count. If you're not here posting on the word chains thread a dozen times a day, you're not real regardless of how many years you've been here, how many comments you've made, how many votes you've cast, how many stories you've posted, or anything else.

I reject and resent your first paragraph. You're just being a shill for a heads-in-sand Web site administration. You asked a challenging question and my answer blew your inference out of the water. That's your problem, not mine.

As for the second paragraph and the emphasized "always." Point to where I have posted a damn thing about post count stats on this issue--or stop your nasty inferences. My responses are entirely on what the basis of most influence for a year are/should be. And both when I reacted to the Tefler nominations and gave a nomination of my own, I took the time to give a discussion on how I thought "most influential writer" applied. And I repeat that a portion of one story in one category as "most influence" of anything for a year time period is an insult. If the Web site doesn't like responses to be responsive to the language they use in setting forth criteria, they can jolly well use better language.

(Now, since I highly suspect you are the AH mod and you have become prone to erase what you don't like, I presume this post will be erased.)

 

[RejectReality]

And there you have it. Everything else is just parsing the name of the award to your personal tastes rather than the criteria laid out in the nomination thread itself.

 

[sr71plt]

And there you have it--the ever-popular now deflection.

 

[CyranoJ]

One nomination is enough to get someone into the voting stage. Tefler's numerous nominations seem like overkill.

He's not the first author to get numerous nominations, so I can't see much point in reading into that. I don't think of you as part of any "hatefest," but I think your suspicions here look like overreaction.

(I don't think "No U"-ing RR really works. Nobody who's observed contest threads in the AH can mistake the traits of a certain spectrum of the conversation.)

 

[RejectReality]

And there you have it--the ever-popular now deflection.

Read the criteria and explain to me how any nomination for the award is invalid. Look up the history of those making nominations. I've already started that work for you from the top of the list.

It's not deflection, it's facts that are right there in black and white if you choose to look for them.

Regardless of anyone's intentions, these annual smears are an attack on the readers making nominations and the authors nominated. Is it any wonder participation is declining except amongst the most dedicated of readers?

 

[oggbashan]

There are 89 posts on the 'Most Influential Author' thread.

54 are nominations for Tefler. The next highest numbers are 7 and 6 nominations for an author.

They're not VOTES. They are nominations and only one is needed. In total I think 13 names have been put forward.

You can't see anything amiss with 54 nominations for one person when a single one is enough?

 

[RejectReality]

The number of nominations determines the final list if there are more authors than spots available in the final voting. This is also spelled out in the threads.

There are 89 posts on the 'Most Influential Author' thread.

54 are nominations for Tefler. The next highest numbers are 7 and 6 nominations for an author.

They're not VOTES. They are nominations and only one is needed. In total I think 13 names have been put forward.

You can't see anything amiss with 54 nominations for one person when a single one is enough?

 

[CyranoJ]

You can't see anything amiss with 54 nominations for one person when a single one is enough?

The thing is, I guess I do reach a certain point with this stuff where I basically don't give a shit. Maybe he promised them all chocolate cake? Maybe the cake was a lie? Who knows? It just doesn't seem like it's worth getting twisted up about.

 

[CyranoJ]

You can't see anything amiss with 54 nominations for one person when a single one is enough?

The thing is, I guess I do reach a certain point with this stuff where I basically don't give a shit. Maybe he promised them all chocolate cake? Maybe the cake was a lie? Who knows? It just doesn't seem like it's all that worth getting twisted up about.

 

[oggbashan]

The number of nominations determines the final list if there are more authors than spots available in the final voting. This is also spelled out in the threads.

OK. So we all go and campaign on Twitter, Facebook or create multiple alts a la General Board?

What is the point?

 

[oggbashan]

The thing is, I guess I do reach a certain point with this stuff where I basically don't give a shit. Maybe he promised them all chocolate cake? Maybe the cake was a lie? Who knows? It just doesn't seem like it's worth getting twisted up about.

I'm beginning to agree with that. It isn't worth the effort of trying to make the contests reasonable.

 

[sr71plt]

I'm beginning to agree with that. It isn't worth the effort of trying to make the contests reasonable.

I'll go with this too. I haven't initiated any discussions on this, but I haven't stuck my head in sand about them either. It certainly isn't worth being called a troll for wanting to be in on the discussion in exchange for providing the product.

 

[RejectReality]

OK. So we all go and campaign on Twitter, Facebook or create multiple alts a la General Board?

What is the point?

And there's the post count thing again.

Show me which people making nominations are sock-puppets. I already started from the top of the list demonstrating the length of membership, evidence of commentary on the story side of the site, etc.

What's wrong with campaigning? Is it wrong to promote your work? Is it wrong to point large numbers of people who don't even know the forum exists to the forum which is the only place the nominations are available?

If you choose not to promote yourself, it's your choice. If someone else does choose to promote themselves, it's not their fault that you made a different choice.

Should we delete the "Literotica authors and their books" thread? How about the new stories thread? Shall we forbid signatures advertising our stories? Ban anyone who uses Twitter or Facebook?

 

[CyranoJ]

I'm beginning to agree with that. It isn't worth the effort of trying to make the contests reasonable.

And it's also probably not worth the stress of trying to speculate about nefarious motives for potentially mundane events (or as RR points out, trying to code any self-promotion as some kind of nefarious plot).

 

[oggbashan]

And there's the post count thing again.

...

Forty-one of the fifty-four nominations for Tefler are by names that have ONLY ONE post - that nomination.

I haven't counted any who have made 2 or more posts since joining Literotica.

Yes - it is a post count thing. One single post.

If you don't think that odd?

 

[Laurel]

We posted this announcement to the story side:
The 2016 Literotica Awards: Special Category Round
and have been rotating it through the categories to reach the readership. It's received over 43,000 reads so far.

In order to make a nomination in the contest, one must register an account. We do not allow anonymous posting on the forums.

This means that - just like in every Lit annual contest - there will be readers registering for the first time so that they can nominate their favorite author.

Again, this happens in every single annual contest. And every time, we have the same accusations of cheating against authors who may or may not have any idea they've even been nominated.

In the case of Tefler specifically, Jedi_Khan - a longtime user and reader - is posting on the comments section of Tefler's stories, alerting other readers of his stories of the nominations:
https://www.literotica.com/stories/storyfeedbackboard.php?id=1515292&pagehint=6&page=4

This is likely the source of many of the nominations.

What's wrong with campaigning? Is it wrong to promote your work? Is it wrong to point large numbers of people who don't even know the forum exists to the forum which is the only place the nominations are available?

If you choose not to promote yourself, it's your choice. If someone else does choose to promote themselves, it's not their fault that you made a different choice.

Should we delete the "Literotica authors and their books" thread? How about the new stories thread? Shall we forbid signatures advertising our stories? Ban anyone who uses Twitter or Facebook?

There's nothing wrong with any of this.

Discussions of contest rules is fine.

Slanderous accusations of cheating and/or insulting the work of other authors is not.

The annual contests - like all Lit contests - exist for one reason only: because they are fun for authors and readers. If you are not enjoying them, you are free to not participate. If you do enjoy them, we welcome and appreciate your participation.