Extra promotion

[RejectReality]

The seasonal contests can bump stories off the new lists. So can a simple glut of stories in the category. The events are scheduled. If you post the day before, that's kinda on you.

If you've decided not to participate in events anyway, then you're not losing anything by not being invited.

Sorry, I still don't see where anybody is being disadvantaged here.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

The seasonal contests can bump stories off the new lists. So can a simple glut of stories in the category. The events are scheduled. If you post the day before, that's kinda on you.

If you've decided not to participate in events anyway, then you're not losing anything by not being invited.

Sorry, I still don't see where anybody is being disadvantaged here.

Me either. I wasn't invited even though I do write in LW a lot. Do I feel left out? How could I, I didn't know about the exercise until I read the post last night in Loving Wives.

And I don't see how this is a promotion of any single author. My stories get posted just as quickly as anyone else's. They sure get a lot of views and quite a number of votes, even though those vote are usually 1-bombs and a lot of comments.

 

[Inkhorn]

Like Kermit, I was over here sipping my tea this morning. And then, I re-read some of the LW recent stories by Inkhorn and Zeb_Carter and others.... Inkhorn’s Rebirth is the 30 day #1 Story in LW. Just sayin.

...

To be fair, it’s possible Inkhorn and Zeb and others were invited and declined.... Maybe they could weigh in?

Regardless, it made me doubly glad that the Pastiches de Ogg is open to EVERYONE.

Wait, what?

But being asked to weigh in... Nope, didn't know anything about the author challenges. I'm still fairly new here and don't even know that many other authors, so it's not surprising that I didn't get an invite or see the thread that references them. Given some of the comments on Rebirth, I doubt the BtB crowd is looking for any more from me!





Anyway, I'm not seeing any disadvantge here. This isn't for a money, this isn't my profession, and honestly the only person I'm in competition with is myself. So for the most part, I've just been concentrating on my own work (and my own insecurities as a writer ) while letting the world pass me by.

- Ink

 

[NotWise]

Like RubenR said, Laurel's website, Laurels rules.

If I got upset enough, then I'd just take my toys and go home. I don't see that happening.

 

[Bebop3]

Why are some writers getting special benefits that aren't available to all of us?

Until you demonstrate that Laurel has declined to allow someone to organize an event, those benefits are available to all of us.

Whether or not you choose to do what's necessary to get that benefit is up to you.

Putting my cards on the table: I've participated in Randi's events, a writer holiday contest (Valentine's Day), Chloe's Australia event, Jezazz's event and the One Night In... event.

 

[Bebop3]

Laurel gave these events extra promotion and I don't know how the events or authors in exclusive events qualified for the attention. I want an explanation.

They provided a break from the norm, generated interest and gave free content of a generally higher quality for a site that makes money off of clicks and readers.

I'm relatively confident that was how they qualified for the attention.

 

[Bebop3]

The readers don't win.

In the case of the invitationals, the readers absolutely do win.

Here are some indisputable facts:

1) Talented writers who otherwise post sporadically or not at all regularly post for the invitational events.

2) The stories in the events generally score significantly higher than stories released before and after the events. I'm convinced that this is not due to the stories being part of the event and, instead, are due to the quality.

3) The readership for the events is usually very, very strong. This means that the readers are... reading.

 

[Bebop3]

The "big deal" is that the extra promotion given to authors in the event is at the expense of the authors who are not participating. If I had a story on the LW hub before the "Burning Down the House" stories posted, I might have expected another day or three of exposure on the hub before my story dropped of the end of the hub. The event would have taken away my exposure.

If that's the crux of your complaint, than Laurel's imprimatur is meaningless and her 'sanctioning' has nothing to do with your issues.

If I reached out to ten authors I admired and said "hey, lets all write stories that involve reality TV, put them in Romance and try to have them drop on October 34th" the result would be exactly the same.

 

[Bebop3]

On a site that is mostly administered for the readers, the author's events are run for the authors -- sometimes for selected groups of authors -- and the readers have expressed (through votes) a low appreciation for at least some of the events.

To be fair, that doesn't apply to the invitationals I've participated in. Actually, the reverse is true.

 

[HeyAll]

I hope you do. I partially wrote a story for that event that I was quite excited about but did not finish. I'll wait until that event to finish and publish it if you do it again.

I'll make a request for around March/April 2020 after the April Fool's event where there's that long pause between contests.

 

[Bramblethorn]

So the problem with an exclusive event, and especially with an exclusive event that 1) is hosted/participated by the same recurring clique, 2) given the same type of site marketing and support as the Literotica contests, 3) goes live very close to the actual writing contest's voting beginning, and 4) provides no qualifiers for selection and no notice to other authors to participate too is that the invitational event then infringes on the contest by influencing competition.

Because money's involved, that's a big legal no-no.

It is? Which laws are you thinking of there?

 

[SimonDoom]

So the problem with an exclusive event, and especially with an exclusive event that 1) is hosted/participated by the same recurring clique, 2) given the same type of site marketing and support as the Literotica contests, 3) goes live very close to the actual writing contest's voting beginning, and 4) provides no qualifiers for selection and no notice to other authors to participate too is that the invitational event then infringes on the contest by influencing competition.

Because money's involved, that's a big legal no-no.

.

I'm with Bramblethorn. I don't understand this at all.

Events aren't given the same marketing as contests. They don't show up on the story home page the same way contests do.

I don't understand how they infringe on contests by influencing competition. Huh?

What laws are involved?

 

[TomorrowGent]

<i>Deleted</i>

 

[Bramblethorn]

I'm not a lawyer. I never cared to be, but I'd start with the links below, and I'm willing to wager an actual, specialized lawyer, could find the means to make a case of Vix's claim. (That being said, this post is strictly for information. I am not arguing for or against Vix's statement.)

Outside of that, without an actual court case, everything is speculation and theory.

https://www.justia.com/communications-internet/

This is a very general discussion that doesn't seem to say anything specifically about contests.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/509

(3)To engage in any artifice or scheme for the purpose of prearranging or predetermining in whole or in part the outcome of a purportedly bona fide contest of intellectual knowledge, intellectual skill, or chance.

"(1)The term “contest” means any contest broadcast by a radio station in connection with which any money or any other thing of value is offered as a prize or prizes to be paid or presented by the program sponsor or by any other person or persons, as announced in the course of the broadcast.
(2) The term “the listening or viewing public” means those members of the public who, with the aid of radio receiving sets, listen to or view programs broadcast by radio stations."

Literotica is not a radio station.

Also, that law is qualified with "with intent to deceive the listening or viewing public", which doesn't seem to apply here.

https://www.upcounsel.com/internet-law

Again, this is a general "internet law" page that doesn't say anything specifically about contests.

 

[Bebop3]

url]https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/509[/url]

(3)To engage in any artifice or scheme for the purpose of prearranging or predetermining in whole or in part the outcome of a purportedly bona fide contest of intellectual knowledge, intellectual skill, or chance.



https://www.upcounsel.com/internet-law

Well, seeing as how the invitationals are not contests, there seems to be no issue here at all.

 

[TomorrowGent]

<i>Deleted</i>

 

[ElectricBlue]

Events aren't given the same marketing as contests. They don't show up on the story home page the same way contests do.

Events and Contests both show up on the home page - on my browser at least.

Having got myself involved in a minor war on this issue two years ago, and losing someone who I thought was a good friend as a consequence, I don't care about any of the "by invitation" events. I just ignore them.

It's the reverse of the old Groucho Marx line. Why would I want to be part of a group that doesn't want me as a member?

Provided these select invitation events don't badge themselves as "The Best Writers on Literotica" - which they're not, by any subjective or objective measure - they can do what they like.

 

[TomorrowGent]

<i>Deleted</i>

 

[Bebop3]

Because a good lawyer would.

I apologize, I'm a little dense sometimes. Are you proposing that there may be legal jeopardy because the sites owner allows an invitational event to occur within proximity to a contest?

What would be the cited cause for action? One of the people participating in the invitational might also participate in the contest and the implied support of the writers work in the one may give him/her a benefit in the other?

That seems to be quite the stretch.

 

[TomorrowGent]

<i>Deleted</i>

 

[MetaBob]

If I'd been invited to the "Welcome To The New World" author-organized contest, I would probably have finished Senioritis by now. But then I might not have even started to write Packback.

But I wasn't invited. The link to that contest is now dead.

I don't know what happens with these things, but the "exclusive" nature of some of these contests is off-putting, at least to me.

Credit to ChloeTzang, Vix_Giovanni, and jezzaz for having organized the half of this year's contests that were open rather than invitation-only.

 

[Bramblethorn]

https://www.justia.com/communications-internet/

Despite the new advancements in communication technologies that the Internet has created, media can still generally be divided into two categories. Print media incorporates newspapers, magazines, and books, while telecommunications media covers radio, television, satellite, wire, cable, and Internet.

None of that means that Literotica is a radio station. The law you cited is specifically about radio stations.

 

[TomorrowGent]

<i>Deleted</i>

 

[Inkhorn]

Does anyone else just write because they love to write and don't care about the rest of it?

 

[BelleCanzuto]

Does anyone else just write because they love to write and don't care about the rest of it?

**Waves hand, nods vigorously**

I mean, I like the Red H, I enjoy the comments. I'm happy when a story bests my previous best score. But yeah, I don't keep spreadsheets tacking votes, I don't analyze views or figure out the proportion of view to votes. I'm gonna enter contests because I think it's an interesting hook for a story, or i have an idea that'll fit. But no, I don't care about winning anything.