Monthly contests questions

[Darkniciad]

As to chaptered stories:

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=628840

 

[sr71plt]

No I wasn't. What I said was:



So no one had said they weren't at that point, and I didn't mean to imply that. I think I simply disagree. If Chapter 3 of X is voted high enough, then I don't see why it shouldn't win, when "submissions" are acceptable under the current rules. However, if they change it, they change it.



I've been here for about two and a half years, I think, and the themed contests have always been limited to stand-alones. I've never done the survivor thing, so I can't say about that. Like I said, if they change it, fine, but since this is a readers' choice thing, I guess I don't feel it has to be.

Dark's just referenced discussion from 2008 seems to confirm my impression that chapters were once permitted in themed contests but no longer are.

We can leave the dicussion at diasgreement. My posiition is that a chapter of a work isn't a work; it's an incomplete section of a work.

But I didn't bringing up a campaign to change anything here. I didn't initiate the discussion on it or (to address LC again) whine about anything here. I simply gave preferences, with my reasons (with occasional paranthetical phrases noting that the website is choosing to do otherwise and that I'm not slitting my wrists that they are).

 

[Darkniciad]

Yep. Chapter stories ( and even individual chapters of longer works ) were permitted in the themed contests at one time.

Over the course of about a year, two or three authors started posting every chapter of long stories ( as much as 20 chapters ) to the contests, clogging up the lists with umpteen references to the same couple of stories in a single contest, and Laurel decided that enough was enough.

The purpose of the series coding ( according to Manu ) was the foundation for a move in this direction -- separating the individual works from the chaptered stories. It just hasn't progressed much beyond that yet.

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

Any thoughts on the OP? Anyone?

It's not that I have anything against the winners . . . I'm just one of those people who like to understand how things work.

 

[Darkniciad]

The winners of the monthly contests are the three submissions with the highest scores and over 50 votes. The category doesn't matter.

The nominations are the submission in each category with the highest score and at least 50 votes for the month. If no story has 50 votes, then it moves to 25, 10, and finally any number of votes -- although ever going below 50 is exceedingly rare in even the lightest read categories.

( the same vote progression applies to the winners, but there's never going to be a month where there aren't three stories with 50 votes )

The nominations are for building the pool for the Year End contest, and have nothing to do with the monthly winners.

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

The winners of the monthly contests are the three submissions with the highest scores and over 50 votes. The category doesn't matter.

The nominations are the submission in each category with the highest score and at least 50 votes for the month. If no story has 50 votes, then it moves to 25, 10, and finally any number of votes -- although ever going below 50 is exceedingly rare in even the lightest read categories.

( the same vote progression applies to the winners, but there's never going to be a month where there aren't three stories with 50 votes )

The nominations are for building the pool for the Year End contest, and have nothing to do with the monthly winners.

I knew I could count on you, Dark . . . but I didn't want to call you out in that last post.

I find it a bit weird, but oh well. Good to have an answer. Thanks!

 

[Darkniciad]

Bah, feel free to call me out. I'll eventually show up. I just assumed from the way the thread had shifted so dramatically to another topic that someone had answered it to your satisfaction earlier *laugh*

 

[Boxlicker101]

I just swung by the Awards & Contests thread to look at the Halloween winners (somehow missed that when it happened... congrats to the winners), and opened up the January 2011 monthly winners thread, here:

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=782663

Could someone explain to me how this works? I thought the winners were chosen from the nominees, found here:

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=782660

But the third place winner isn't on the nominations list, and in fact, both the first and third place winners are in the same category. (Please note: I haven't read either the first or third place stories, so this isn't meant to be a disparaging comment or thread towards either of the authors or stories or the category.)

Can someone fill me in? Are the nominations totally different from the award? Are stories above and beyond the nominations considered for the award?

Apologies if I've missed something massively obvious.

It has been a long time since I took much interest in these monthly contests, because they are always so late posting winnners and nominees. January stories are finally disclosed in late October. However, I believe this is how it works:

On the 15th of the month, the winners and nominees for the previous month are announced. It is done on the fifteenth of the following month because some stories are posted so late in a month they might not otherwise get enough votes to qualify. The winning stories are those having enough votes to qualify, fifty, I think, and the highest scores.

There is a nominee for each category, including foreign languages. These do not have a minimum number of votes, and some of them are in categories where only a few are cast. I have a nomination, and I think there were only about five votes cast for that story, but the score is higher than for any other in the category. Sometimes a nominee in a category will have a higher score than a story in that category that won a cash prize, but the nominee will not have enough votes to qualify for the cash prizes.

At the end of the year or, at least, after all 12 month's nominees are announced, the top five in terms of score are listed and Lit. members get to vote for their choice. The winners get, I believe, a $25 Amazon gift certificate.

 

[Boxlicker101]

It's just common sense (as well as self-definition) to know that a chaptered story isn't a complete story until all of the chapters are done. Duh. To be technically correct, the website shouldn't log up chapters in the author's story list until the story is complete. (Not that I care whether they do or don't.) But it's really pretty specious to claim a chapter is a complete story. If you think so, set it up that way--you have defined it as incomplete as a story when you chose to submit it as a chapter of a fuller work.

I can wait until you come back with more than personal prejudice as premise.

It is not 100% correct to say stories designated as chapters are not complete stories. I say this because I have some that are complete, standalone stories and are designated as chapters.

Specifically, this is the Marian and Ryan series. When I posted them, it was as Marian and Ryan 1, Marian and Ryan 2, etc. This was just to say that a story was the second, third, etc. about Marian and Ryan because, although they are all standalone, they are also related and should be read in order. Renaming stories when they see fit, which they have a right to do, Lit. posted them as chapters. I didn't worry about it enough to complain, although I am now giving stories in the series different names.

I have another series about Angel Jones, and this was the same way. The stories are standalone ones, but they have a certain chronology, and should be better read in order.

I doubt if I am the only author here with stories that have been renamed, although I don't know of any.

 

[sr71plt]

It is not 100% correct to say stories designated as chapters are not complete stories. I say this because I have some that are complete, standalone stories and are designated as chapters.

Sure it is. The author (you) designated them as such.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Boxlicker101
It is not 100% correct to say stories designated as chapters are not complete stories. I say this because I have some that are complete, standalone stories and are designated as chapters.

Sure it is. The author (you) designated them as such.

No I didn't. I designated them as Marian & Ryan 2, Marian & Ryan 3, etc. to indicate they were the second and third stories in a series about Marian and Ryan. There is no Marian & Ryan 1, because they were not meant to be chapters, but standalone stories about the same characters. They are in different categories too.

It was Lit. that designated them as chapters, although I did let the designation stay. It is very difficult to try to change the name of a story after it has been posted.

Additional stories about thes people will have different names, although I will try to arrange some way to keep them in chronological order in the index.

 

[Darkniciad]

It's a toss-up. You can either throw numbers on a series that has a chronology, or post the chronology as it goes along with each new entry. I run into that all the time. You can read any of the entries by themselves, but if you start reading the others, you need to know the order.

I went the former with my Arts Ardane series ( until Barren Harvest, and only here. The other site where I post provides ability to group series ) and the latter with my Wood series.

Until Lit gives us the ability to designate and group series stories on our pages, it's what we're stuck with.

Even that won't completely solve the problem for me with my stories as Dark. The individual series are all part of an even larger timeline. It's the exact same thing. Each series can stand on its own, but a few crossover characters have cameos or brief roles as extras, much like my Wood series. I'll always have to refer readers to my website for the full chronological timeline of my fantasy world.

Box, it's not that difficult to get the chapter designation removed, or to prevent it altogether. Just put a note in the "notes" section when submitting or editing that you are using the numbers to keep a series grouped together, though each story is standalone. That's what I did with my Arts Ardane series, and you'll notice that they all only have the numbers without "Ch." or "Pt."

You simply have to request it, or they're automatically changed as a matter of standard operating procedures. That came straight from Laurel when I asked her about it when considering the change on Arts Ardane.

 

[sr71plt]

No I didn't. I designated them as Marian & Ryan 2, Marian & Ryan 3, etc. to indicate they were the second and third stories in a series about Marian and Ryan. There is no Marian & Ryan 1, because they were not meant to be chapters, but standalone stories about the same characters. They are in different categories too.

Then you didn't submit them as chapters and you are being irrelevant to the thread.

I've submitted series that are related stories too (e.g., my "Second Christmas" series and my "Tuscan Twilight" series). These weren't submitted as chapters and the first series was entered in a contest and accepted as separate stories.

You are just being irrelevant to the discussion.

 

[lovecraft68]

Just a bump to point out the February winners have been announced

Ready?

Drum roll.

Non human wins first and third

Pauses while audience gasps in shock.

Fucking ridiculous.