Halloween Contest Off-Topic Thread 2

[Voboy]

Just reading this thread for the first time in like three weeks.

Holy dogshit. I had no idea all this crap went on. Makes me wonder how anyone can really claim to win.

Suffice it to say that some folks have entirely too much time on their hands.

The first 40 or so posts in this thread were originally part of the official Halloween contest support thread, but have been split off from it. -AH Mod

 

[sr71plt]

I thought NicoleZ turned off the voting on her story--thus leaving the contest.

 

[oggbashan]

Just reading this thread for the first time in like three weeks.

Holy dogshit. I had no idea all this crap went on. Makes me wonder how anyone can really claim to win.

Suffice it to say that some folks have entirely too much time on their hands.

Some of the conspiracy theories about gaming the contests have been disproved. Posting a story early or late doesn't seem to affect the probability of winning except that a late posted story might not get the minimum 25 votes.

Choosing a less popular category makes the story more vulnerable to rating fluctuations up and down. A single 1-bomb added or removed can change the rating far more than a story with hundreds or thousands of votes.

IF the number of votes was reckoned in the calculations of who is the winner? - Only stories in high voting categories such as Incest could win.

But all the theories about how the contests are manipulated only show that Literotica has as many assholes as in a normal population distribution, and perhaps more than it deserves.

IF there were hundreds of entries, or thousands, the gaming would become impossible, but the constant moaning deters entrants.

 

[lovecraft68]

Some of the conspiracy theories about gaming the contests have been disproved. Posting a story early or late doesn't seem to affect the probability of winning except that a late posted story might not get the minimum 25 votes.

Choosing a less popular category makes the story more vulnerable to rating fluctuations up and down. A single 1-bomb added or removed can change the rating far more than a story with hundreds or thousands of votes.

IF the number of votes was reckoned in the calculations of who is the winner? - Only stories in high voting categories such as Incest could win.

But all the theories about how the contests are manipulated only show that Literotica has as many assholes as in a normal population distribution, and perhaps more than it deserves.

IF there were hundreds of entries, or thousands, the gaming would become impossible, but the constant moaning deters entrants.

But your post proves a point in the other direction OGG and it would be nice if for once I'm not hung out to dry and be the only saying this-hint hint to others- that when someone is screwing others by playing games they're the assholes, at least in the real world

Here? The people pointing it out are the assholes.

Hence Pilot and I being branded trolls by Laurel for pointing out a couple of huge issues here-and not contest related for the record-and after calling us trolls, lo and behold one issue was rectified. Meaning we had valid points, but its no fun if that's admitted.

As for deterring people to enter? One thing does that far more than anything else and that is the score trolling and one bombing. How many people have we seen complain about it to the point they declare never again?

And all of us, myself included, will tell people 'well, they run sweeps and sit tight and wait it out' and some do, but a lot of them simply say its not worth it because they don't get anywhere near this kind of trolling with a regular submission(short of LW)

So as the bombing has gotten worse over the years it is now for a lot of people outweighing all the extra attention a contest entry can get because its becoming a lot of attention they don't need.

The contests are sliding into LW territory. Enter and you get all these extra eyes and good placement for your story....but is it the eyes you want?

And unlike theories, and manipulating and deliberately misplaced stories etc....there is no one here who deny the bombing and that its gotten much worse. I've been entering for 5 years now, I see a huge difference in it from when I first started until the last couple years.

What's changed in a couple years? More people with an agenda.

Can it be changed? Doubtful. Eliminating anon votes and comments from contests could go a long way. The name would have to be there on the comment and for someone who leaves multiple votes because they can play IP games, they could only vote once under a user name and would have to keep creating new ones. SCouries proves there are people who will go that mile, but the average one won't

But as all of us can agree on, there will be no changes this format. The answer is not to say, okay there's a problem and post a thread taking suggestions, its to turn the blind eye and teach a trickle down message of "let the cheats cheat, but go after the ones who don't like to ignore it."

I posted my last remark-and BTW For whatever reason I totally thought it was Friday yesterday wishful thinking on my part-only for one reason. That if that was the plan by a few people, its just lets them know how predictable its become. If nothing happens, it is what it is.

We all know each other here. We all know some people are painfully slow writers. For instance Sheablue posted last night. I would never think twice of her being last minute. She writes very slowly due toa busy life and maybe her muse is slow. So we expect. But there's others that have no issue writing and finishing within the long notice of a contest. So when its over and over one asks why?

I could have gotten my second one in. Finished it last night. I won't submit this late. Its how I am.

 

[Darkniciad]

We all know each other here. We all know some people are painfully slow writers. For instance Sheablue posted last night. I would never think twice of her being last minute. She writes very slowly due toa busy life and maybe her muse is slow. So we expect.

Like a single father of a severely autistic child who commutes 40 minutes one way to a job where he works 10-14 hours a day kind of busy life?

"We" know only what people choose to share, and the most extreme hardships are often the ones people choose to keep to themselves.

 

[Carnal_Flower]

"Being last minute."

And?

If it hasn't sunk in yet that when you post has nothing to with winning a contest, there's two other things to consider:

1. Early, middle, last day, you still have to write a great story. How does it help you to post a piece of crap?

2. Even if, in La La Land, "posting at the last minute" were a statistical advantage, which it isn't, newsflash, it's not "cheating." People are allowed to give themselves competitive edges, if there are any. Duh, HEA is probably going to score higher. There's nothing wrong with wanting to win. Like, I don't know, posting a huge tome that pitches to your fan base or writing a personal essay to take advantage of the Romance votership.

I pretty much know I can't get 4.8s with the kind of D/d I write. I know my audience. If I wanted to try and win I'd write a long romantic incest story with a happy ending. That's not *cheating."

 

[sheablue]

We all know each other here. We all know some people are painfully slow writers. For instance Sheablue posted last night. I would never think twice of her being last minute. She writes very slowly due toa busy life and maybe her muse is slow. So we expect. But there's others that have no issue writing and finishing within the long notice of a contest. So when its over and over one asks why?

I could have gotten my second one in. Finished it last night. I won't submit this late. Its how I am.

You know, I'm a bit weary of you calling me out every time you want to talk about people playing games and who, in your book, gets a pass for posting stories late. Yes, I post contest stories at the last minute. For lots of reasons, and not always the same reasons. This time, I posted the day BEFORE the last day. That's fucking early. I don't have a muse. my muse is me, and I have my issues, just like everyone else. Like Darkinclad said, we don't all know each other. Not really. And you don't know me.

 

[StrangeLife]

Mine was posted on the very first day of the competition, and I believe that the first rating I got was "1". So I can testify to the fact, that the time of posting has little influence on the likelihood of being voted down. I don't believe that there is an optimal time to submit a story.

But like Oggbashan says, being early does make it easier to reach the minimum vote count of course...

 

[OliviaM]

As for deterring people to enter? One thing does that far more than anything else and that is the score trolling and one bombing. How many people have we seen complain about it to the point they declare never again?

And all of us, myself included, will tell people 'well, they run sweeps and sit tight and wait it out' and some do, but a lot of them simply say its not worth it because they don't get anywhere near this kind of trolling with a regular submission(short of LW)

So as the bombing has gotten worse over the years it is now for a lot of people outweighing all the extra attention a contest entry can get because its becoming a lot of attention they don't need.

The contests are sliding into LW territory. Enter and you get all these extra eyes and good placement for your story....but is it the eyes you want?

I have to admit, I think this may be the reason I lost interest in submitting contest entries. I could have pushed myself to enter the summer contest. I didn't and worked on something else instead. You get a lot of attention and a lot more eyeballs, but so much of that is negative, and the rest of your stuff gets attacked too. It's kind of soured me on participating, which I think is fine, since I don't write the sort of stuff that has an automatic fanbase here. I'd rather just focus on things I want to write and do my own thing.

 

[oggbashan]

Mine was posted on the very first day of the competition, and I believe that the first rating I got was "1". So I can testify to the fact, that the time of posting has little influence on the likelihood of being voted down. I don't believe that there is an optimal time to submit a story.

But like Oggbashan says, being early does make it easier to reach the minimum vote count of course...

If there are many more sweeps my longer story will be below the 25 minimum.

It wouldn't be a serious contender anyway. It crept just above 4.50 for a few hours. The shorter one has never got close to that rating.

 

[holliday1960]

.........

 

[sr71plt]

Drama is good for business.

 

[lovecraft68]

Yep! That's where I am! 4.7 but not even in contention. It's been a learning experience though, and I can take away from it something valuable. That's all that counts. I wouldn't be surprised if Laurel stops the competitions entirely. I'm sure she is getting tired of all the drama. And, I think a lot of interest in competitions has fallen off as well. Winning isn't the measure of a man's character (or woman's) anyway.

Ah forget it. Edited due to no longer giving a fuck.

Don't worry Holliday I wasn't disparaging anything in your post, just making a point that is beyond a waste of time making.

 

[Arngrim]

Ah forget it. Edited due to no longer giving a fuck.

No longer giving a fuck, or no longer having a leg to stand on, I wonder?

Good. Do everyone a favor and stay out of contest support threads in the future. All you ever to is exacerbate the trolling and drama to catastrophic levels where more and more people refuse to participate, as evidenced in this very thread.

 

[TxRad]

No longer giving a fuck, or no longer having a leg to stand on, I wonder?

Good. Do everyone a favor and stay out of contest support threads in the future. All you ever to is exacerbate the trolling and drama to catastrophic levels where more and more people refuse to participate, as evidenced in this very thread.

Lets see, two posts last year and guess who they were against. If you guessed LC, you are perfectly correct. Also you might ask when this person was last in a contest thread other than last years year end. The answer is never. Interesting.

 

[holliday1960]

.........

 

[Arngrim]

Lets see, two posts last year and guess who they were against. If you guessed LC, you are perfectly correct. Also you might ask when this person was last in a contest thread other than last years year end. The answer is never. Interesting.

Yep. Here we are -- the same ol' song and dance. One year later and nothing has changed.

Whether you choose to believe it not, I read every contest support thread. Been sitting on my hands for quite some time. What sent me over the edge is all these new faces saying they were never entering again and or dropping out entirely. All because one person keeps yap-yap-yapping the same garbage.

As a long time reader of Lit, I have an interest in the quality of stories that come out. I've read every story submission for this contest -- yes, even Lovecraft's. Overall, the story quality found in this contest is among the best of the entire year. Those saying they will never entering again would be doing the readership a disservice.

Since you're one for conspiracies, allow me to run one by you:

Say I was a writer, and I enter every themed contest. I'm only concerned about one thing; winning. Would driving away the competition, by any means, not make a sound strategy?

 

[GoldenMaia]

I think it is silly to let others decide how and what you write. Just because someone doesn't submit if it is at the last minute doesn't mean we should do the same. We should not need to make excuses why a story is posted last minute. My last min stories never get enough qualifying votes so I have no idea why others think this is the key.

Please let these threads go back to supporting each other.

 

[GhulehZombieQueen]

Hi folks-

After reading some of the messages about how last-minute submitting can or cannot be a useful strategy for rigging the contest, I felt that I had to confess to submitting a story a the last moment. I saw the contest announcement a while back, and since I was getting much writing in, I thought it would make a good personal goal. And since Halloween is the best time of the year, I'm looking forward to reading as many stories as I can.

Of course, I damn near blew the deadline. I don't even think it's been posted yet. Good or bad, I hope readers have fun with it. The thought of a contest is exciting, but for me, I just wanted to have some fun, push myself a bit and see if I could finish.

Then again, perhaps this should go instead into a thread about disclaimers I saw earlier.

 

[sr71plt]

Most of the voting is done within a few days of the story posting and there's a week of voting after the submissions are closed, so no big deal.

 

[lovecraft68]

Hi folks-

After reading some of the messages about how last-minute submitting can or cannot be a useful strategy for rigging the contest, I felt that I had to confess to submitting a story a the last moment. I saw the contest announcement a while back, and since I was getting much writing in, I thought it would make a good personal goal. And since Halloween is the best time of the year, I'm looking forward to reading as many stories as I can.

Of course, I damn near blew the deadline. I don't even think it's been posted yet. Good or bad, I hope readers have fun with it. The thought of a contest is exciting, but for me, I just wanted to have some fun, push myself a bit and see if I could finish.

Then again, perhaps this should go instead into a thread about disclaimers I saw earlier.

There's an intangible you're missing here. There are plenty of last minute entries for valid reasons. You write slow, found out about the contest late, delay with an editor, and a bunch of other things including maybe real life drama.

So its not the last minute entry its who is entering last minute and what results do they get? One author has entered last minute in every contest they've chosen to enter. They only entered four I believe and placed in 3. All last minute entries. In one contest they posted three at the witching hour. All three completed at the exact same time?

Another author did it several years in a row, all with wins. Their other entries when not done at that time and style, nothing.

Those are the things that bring up the issue, its not so much the last minute its the who and their prior track record.

 

[lovecraft68]

Most of the voting is done within a few days of the story posting and there's a week of voting after the submissions are closed, so no big deal.

In a regular submission you're dead on. Maybe 5 days or so in the spot light, unless maybe you make it high on the 30 day top list then maybe a little more.

But let's do this. What is the number one perk of the contest? In general what does everyone here say?

Exposure, placing, all the extra eyes...it all is the same thing.

And how does a contest do all those things? Because you're story is on the contest page and that page is linked and kept at the top of lits home page the duration of the contest.

So the spotlight is a hell of a lot longer in a contest entry. The first week is still your best, but the rest of the time is far better than a regular entry, mine has been up over two weeks I'm still seeing some votes and some feedback on it.

What a last minute entry does isn't as much keeping votes down-but if its a low category it does-it avoids the two weeks of trolling your story gets and any other story posted early on gets.

The sweeps are not totally accurate, they will not get every bad vote, so keeping yourself out of the cross hairs as long as possible is an advantage.

Look at your sweep, over a half a point. That's because you were target practice from day one. And like you said, when the sweep is early, they'll come back.

Not much time to come back when you drop in last minute and the final sweep many times is the only sweep you see.

Why that is hard for people to understand I'm not sure.

 

[oggbashan]

...

Why that is hard for people to understand I'm not sure.

Because the statistics for those who win themed contests do not support the idea that posting early, or posting late, has any advantage.

 

[TxRad]

Because the statistics for those who win themed contests do not support the idea that posting early, or posting late, has any advantage.

I'm sorry but I disagree unless you have numbers to back it up. I know of at least four and possible one more that have been won from last minute entries this year alone.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm sorry but I disagree unless you have numbers to back it up. I know of at least four and possible one more that have been won from last minute entries this year alone.

That depends on your definition of 'last minute'. In the four contests before this one there were three stories winning Blue Ws - a total of 12.

Even the four possibly five you claim weren't all submitted at 11.59 on the last day.