The Authors' Hangout 2011 Halloween Contest Support Thread.

[SuperHeroRalph]

The sweeps thus far of my contest stories have brought up the ratings, but on many they have dipped the votes far below the eligibility threshold. It looks like only Scouries and his alts were interested in voting on them. Hardly a surprise, as the whole game for me this time was to write in the minor and/or problematical categories--and in a lot of them. That was fun and made it worthwhile. Also making it worthwhile was the marketplace e-book I got out of it, which is top-50 in the Allromanceebooks anthology category.


http://www.allromanceebooks.com/dbimages/624828.jpg

I can't agree with you more. Writing in as many categories as you can, as I have always done, makes you a better writer and stretches your imagination.

I can't tell you how many readers have writen, you must be gay, a lesbian, a cross dresser, and love anal sex, when I'm not gay, lesbian, a cross dresser, and have never had anal sex.

Yet, by playing with a developing characters, before standing back and allowing them to tell their story, there's not limit to what we can write.

Good luck. I wish you success with your book.

 

[LunaEroticaMystica]

Goodluck in the final stretch everyone!

 

[AutumnRayven]

Yes indeed...good luck to everyone

 

[ScouriesWorld]

final pre fix numbers...

LITEROTICA section: Sorted by score

Jersey Love: Apples LunaEroticaMystica ROM 40 4.88
Halloween Favor Quince EC 371 4.81
Morrigan's Curse madam_noe NH 243 4.77
My Sister Eva Started It All dezurtdawg INC 1272 4.74
Mom and the Halloween Party Ahabscribe INC 1081 4.72
The Winning Halloween Costume Rickyroma ANAL 340 4.69
What Mom Doesn't Know Will Fuck Her silkstockingslover INC 1339 4.68
Costume Party BarondeSade INC 712 4.66
The Modern Prometheus LillithArchivist SCI FI 118 4.66
Phantasm: Treats OrangeRibbon GAY 223 4.65
Vibrant Repose Nulli_Para_Ora EH 66 4.64
The Benandanti Thistlethorn NH 140 4.64
Barren Harvest Darkniciad SCI FI 146 4.64
Witchful Thinking durablue ROM 278 4.62
Jen's Little Brother scouries INC 707 4.61
The Blood Orange Moon Rehnquist LW 571 4.60
Halloween and Batman DG Hear NE 286 4.60
Red, White, and Blue Halloween Tara_Neale ROM 214 4.60
Under the Full Moon Pelaam GAY 211 4.59
My Halloween Transformation centrum1000 TRANS 234 4.59
Swingers' Party: Teacher Train silkstockingslover GS 847 4.58
Kiss Me Deadly nomoretears00 GAY 326 4.57
Halloween Tale fictitious INC 864 4.57
Incubus AutumnRayven NH 160 4.56
An Intergalactic Halloween Et2bruttus SCI FI 121 4.55
Boned Rejectreality MAT 995 4.54
Moon Blood and Salt Flowers talismania SCI FI 127 4.54
A Reeeally FILFY Story alexxxis INC 744 4.52
Things That Go Hump in the Night wantsomefun1951 EC 115 4.50
I Love Halloween sagacious21 EH 129 4.50
A Halloween to Remember sherylwaters TRANS 173 4.49
Lacey jjcole EH 81 4.47
Mary Irene McDonaldson PTBzzzz NE 116 4.47
The Halloween Tease kinpatsu FET 46 4.46
Halloween Swing DG Hear EC 451 4.45
Naga Massage Review manyeyedhydra EH 154 4.45
Grim AccentsNTattos SCI FI 223 4.44
Bride of the Mummy rampant404 ILL 268 4.43
Motor City Trick DG Hear LW 563 4.43
The Lamia MissClearmont EH 52 4.42
Possessed honey28 FT 226 4.41
The Collection PennLady EH 94 4.40
The Waxing Moon Flying_low NH 148 4.39
Guard Duty manyeyedhydra EH 125 4.38
Halloween Switch aimili_sage INC 499 4.37
Vampiric Boobies manyeyedhydra EH 84 4.36
Cold Stone Tomb sr71plt GAY 53 4.36
A Message of Love TrentEvans BDSM 82 4.34
Learning To Love Hallowe'en The_Kinkster GS 136 4.34
The Ghost Writer pinata EH 22 4.32
A Halloween to Remember clive2007 INC 730 4.32
Uric The Rhyming Imp Tony_Ford INC 129 4.32
Tricky Treats Foeofthelance NH 105 4.32
If Only Jason Got To See The Ending QueenOfTheNile ROM 59 4.32
October Sky ForTheWife1 EXHIB 133 4.30
Coblynau - The Miners Goblin SuzyFloosie EH 35 4.29
My Favorite Halloween closetbuster LESB 156 4.29
October River Walk jonmartin22 EH 30 4.27
Halloween Masquerade Awful Arthur EC 133 4.26
The Mountain Cabin SWFL_Wordslinger GS 155 4.25
The Mill patientlee EH 48 4.23
The Devil Made Me Do It sr71plt GAY 63 4.22
The Autumn Garden dr_mabeuse EH 52 4.21
Peek-a-boo KennyWright NH 86 4.2
Tampyre humminbean SCI FI 70 4.20
A Devil of a Party bbonz1 EC 180 4.19
Imagine sr71plt GAY 74 4.18
Possession Sugary_Comfort EH 40 4.17
A Ghost's Story for Halloween The_Technician HUM 36 4.17
With Teeth Artina Heartflash EH 34 4.14
Space Girl at Halloween Party clawfngr FET 125 4.10
A Treat Turns Tricks voluptary_manque NH 24 4.08
Marian the Librarian ejls NH 176 4.07
A Daughter of Samhain James Cody EH 33 4.06
Raising the Dead Neonurotic EH 50 4.06
Beat the Devil sr71plt GAY 29 4.03
Tall, Dark, and . . . sr71plt INTERAC 89 4.02
The Halloween Prank spankymcf NC 318 4.02
Shortcut Home geronimo_appleby NE 46 4.02
Gloria's Gobblin' Goblin Boxlicker101 NH 102 4.02
Trick or Treating a Witch nvioxos GS 136 4.01
The Ghost with a Deadly Bite! double_entendre LW 499 4.01
Halloween Airlines mwsd858 EC 70 4.00
The Rainbow Tree Haunted House jolinesleepless EH 75 4.00
Ghost Lucy1970Harker NH 33 4.00
All Hallows flyndance NH 57 4.00
Momma's Pussy Ignoble INC 846 3.99
The Dark Window the_lost_one EH 13 3.97
The BIG Bad Wolf TlovesB4ever EXHIB 148 3.97
The Witch's Apprentice Krumpus EH 76 3.95
The Devil's Mark The_Technician EH 66 3.94
Paul's Lucky Night? trobson808 EH 60 3.93
Moan electric1 HUM 74 3.92
Night of the Worm Corpse_rider EH 34 3.91
Chink in the Armor sr71plt TRANS 49 3.90
In Purple Candlelight Transverse GAY 45 3.89
The Spinner brainfade EC 32 3.88
Spruce Street Peekaboo sr71plt EXHIB 23 3.87
Pauletta's Halloween Pageant Boxlicker101 GAY 25 3.84
Who Woulda Known? sr71plt LESB 81 3.84
Fright Night. What Scares You? SuperHeroRalph NOVEL 67 3.84
Eyes of the Cat sr71plt ROM 33 3.82
A Halloween Evening at Del Ray Kaishaku GS 53 3.81
Spicing Up the Brew sr71plt LW 286 3.78
The Wife of Satan SoCaliComfort EH 94 3.77
Trick and Treat misstite EC 123 3.76
The Empty Chairs LenNeal EH 29 3.76
3 for Poe sr71plt NE 24 3.75
Ghost Romp Spicyrose21 NH 39 3.72
Night of All Nights sr71plt TOYS 18 3.72
Halloween Heat lstorywriter EC 102 3.70
Mommy Deadest sr71plt INC 279 3.70
Master Drakes Mouth Psychesummer BDSM 42 3.69
Candy for Candy pinata MC 387 3.67
Masquerade jwebster0527 EH 92 3.65
In This Midnight Hour Ozytron FET 70 3.61
What the Fuck mikothebaby LW 185 3.61
Hole in the Wall Gangg Scarmouche123 INC 316 3.59
Mother-in-law Peeping for Halloween SuperHeroRalph INC 537 3.58
The Halloween Prank Rod_Walker LW 267 3.57
Merit Badge The_Technician NE 30 3.57
Hostel Ghosts oggbashan EH 28 3.50
Unknown PrincessErin EH 21 3.48
The Note sr71plt HUM 28 3.46
Sea Dog Cemetery pinata EXHIB 77 3.42
Full Moons, Halloween, and Witches SuperHeroRalph EH 43 3.40
The Most Frightening Thing Is... SuperHeroRalph REV 23 3.39
Dying to Remember mollyj EH 16 3.38
Kornthal cowboy109 EH 15 3.33
Some Sexual Side Effects May Occur JinkiesFarie EH 30 3.23
...And Then, I Met Her Mother SuperHeroRalph HUM 121 3.21
Big-Store, All She Wanted Was Candy SuperHeroRalph NC 293 3.13
Laura Bush, Michelle Obama & Cjeney SuperHeroRalph CELEB 65 3.05
Halloween, AKA: My Tour de Force thechangedone TRANS 32 2.72



LITEROTICA section: Sorted by votes recieved


What Mom Doesn't Know Will Fuck Her silkstockingslover INC 1339 4.68
My Sister Eva Started It All dezurtdawg INC 1272 4.74
Mom and the Halloween Party Ahabscribe INC 1081 4.72
Boned Rejectreality MAT 995 4.54
Halloween Tale fictitious INC 864 4.57
Swingers' Party: Teacher Train silkstockingslover GS 847 4.58
Momma's Pussy Ignoble INC 846 3.99
A Reeeally FILFY Story alexxxis INC 744 4.52
A Halloween to Remember clive2007 INC 730 4.32
Costume Party BarondeSade INC 712 4.66
Jen's Little Brother scouries INC 707 4.61
The Blood Orange Moon Rehnquist LW 571 4.60
Motor City Trick DG Hear LW 563 4.43
Mother-in-law Peeping for Halloween SuperHeroRalph INC 537 3.58
Halloween Switch aimili_sage INC 499 4.37
The Ghost with a Deadly Bite! double_entendre LW 499 4.01
Halloween Swing DG Hear EC 451 4.45
Candy for Candy pinata MC 387 3.67
Halloween Favor Quince EC 371 4.81
The Winning Halloween Costume Rickyroma ANAL 340 4.69
Kiss Me Deadly nomoretears00 GAY 326 4.57
The Halloween Prank spankymcf NC 318 4.02
Hole in the Wall Gangg Scarmouche123 INC 316 3.59
Big-Store, All She Wanted Was Candy SuperHeroRalph NC 293 3.13
Spicing Up the Brew sr71plt LW 286 3.78
Halloween and Batman DG Hear NE 286 4.60
Mommy Deadest sr71plt INC 279 3.70
Witchful Thinking durablue ROM 278 4.62
Bride of the Mummy rampant404 ILL 268 4.43
The Halloween Prank Rod_Walker LW 267 3.57
Morrigan's Curse madam_noe NH 243 4.77
My Halloween Transformation centrum1000 TRANS 234 4.59
Possessed honey28 FT 226 4.41
Phantasm: Treats OrangeRibbon GAY 223 4.65
Grim AccentsNTattos SCI FI 223 4.44
Red, White, and Blue Halloween Tara_Neale ROM 214 4.60
Under the Full Moon Pelaam GAY 211 4.59
What the Fuck mikothebaby LW 185 3.61
A Devil of a Party bbonz1 EC 180 4.19
Marian the Librarian ejls NH 176 4.07
A Halloween to Remember sherylwaters TRANS 173 4.49
Incubus AutumnRayven NH 160 4.56
My Favorite Halloween closetbuster LESB 156 4.29
The Mountain Cabin SWFL_Wordslinger GS 155 4.25
Naga Massage Review manyeyedhydra EH 154 4.45
The BIG Bad Wolf TlovesB4ever EXHIB 148 3.97
The Waxing Moon Flying_low NH 148 4.39
Barren Harvest Darkniciad SCI FI 146 4.64
The Benandanti Thistlethorn NH 140 4.64
Learning To Love Hallowe'en The_Kinkster GS 136 4.34
Trick or Treating a Witch nvioxos GS 136 4.01
Halloween Masquerade Awful Arthur EC 133 4.26
October Sky ForTheWife1 EXHIB 133 4.30
I Love Halloween sagacious21 EH 129 4.50
Uric The Rhyming Imp Tony_Ford INC 129 4.32
Moon Blood and Salt Flowers talismania SCI FI 127 4.54
Guard Duty manyeyedhydra EH 125 4.38
Space Girl at Halloween Party clawfngr FET 125 4.10
Trick and Treat misstite EC 123 3.76
...And Then, I Met Her Mother SuperHeroRalph HUM 121 3.21
An Intergalactic Halloween Et2bruttus SCI FI 121 4.55
The Modern Prometheus LillithArchivist SCI FI 118 4.66
Mary Irene McDonaldson PTBzzzz NE 116 4.47
Things That Go Hump in the Night wantsomefun1951 EC 115 4.50
Tricky Treats Foeofthelance NH 105 4.32
Halloween Heat lstorywriter EC 102 3.70
Gloria's Gobblin' Goblin Boxlicker101 NH 102 4.02
The Collection PennLady EH 94 4.40
The Wife of Satan SoCaliComfort EH 94 3.77
Masquerade jwebster0527 EH 92 3.65
Tall, Dark, and . . . sr71plt INTERAC 89 4.02
Peek-a-boo KennyWright NH 86 4.2
Vampiric Boobies manyeyedhydra EH 84 4.36
A Message of Love TrentEvans BDSM 82 4.34
Lacey jjcole EH 81 4.47
Who Woulda Known? sr71plt LESB 81 3.84
Sea Dog Cemetery pinata EXHIB 77 3.42
The Witch's Apprentice Krumpus EH 76 3.95
The Rainbow Tree Haunted House jolinesleepless EH 75 4.00
Imagine sr71plt GAY 74 4.18
Moan electric1 HUM 74 3.92
Halloween Airlines mwsd858 EC 70 4.00
In This Midnight Hour Ozytron FET 70 3.61
Tampyre humminbean SCI FI 70 4.20
Fright Night. What Scares You? SuperHeroRalph NOVEL 67 3.84
Vibrant Repose Nulli_Para_Ora EH 66 4.64
The Devil's Mark The_Technician EH 66 3.94
Laura Bush, Michelle Obama & Cjeney SuperHeroRalph CELEB 65 3.05
The Devil Made Me Do It sr71plt GAY 63 4.22
Paul's Lucky Night? trobson808 EH 60 3.93
If Only Jason Got To See The Ending QueenOfTheNile ROM 59 4.32
All Hallows flyndance NH 57 4.00
Cold Stone Tomb sr71plt GAY 53 4.36
A Halloween Evening at Del Ray Kaishaku GS 53 3.81
The Lamia MissClearmont EH 52 4.42
The Autumn Garden dr_mabeuse EH 52 4.21
Raising the Dead Neonurotic EH 50 4.06
Chink in the Armor sr71plt TRANS 49 3.90
The Mill patientlee EH 48 4.23
The Halloween Tease kinpatsu FET 46 4.46
Shortcut Home geronimo_appleby NE 46 4.02
In Purple Candlelight Transverse GAY 45 3.89
Full Moons, Halloween, and Witches SuperHeroRalph EH 43 3.40
Master Drakes Mouth Psychesummer BDSM 42 3.69
Possession Sugary_Comfort EH 40 4.17
Jersey Love: Apples LunaEroticaMystica ROM 40 4.88
Ghost Romp Spicyrose21 NH 39 3.72
A Ghost's Story for Halloween The_Technician HUM 36 4.17
Coblynau - The Miners Goblin SuzyFloosie EH 35 4.29
With Teeth Artina Heartflash EH 34 4.14
Night of the Worm Corpse_rider EH 34 3.91
A Daughter of Samhain James Cody EH 33 4.06
Ghost Lucy1970Harker NH 33 4.00
Eyes of the Cat sr71plt ROM 33 3.82
The Spinner brainfade EC 32 3.88
Halloween, AKA: My Tour de Force thechangedone TRANS 32 2.72
October River Walk jonmartin22 EH 30 4.27
Some Sexual Side Effects May Occur JinkiesFarie EH 30 3.23
Merit Badge The_Technician NE 30 3.57
The Empty Chairs LenNeal EH 29 3.76
Beat the Devil sr71plt GAY 29 4.03
Hostel Ghosts oggbashan EH 28 3.50
The Note sr71plt HUM 28 3.46
Pauletta's Halloween Pageant Boxlicker101 GAY 25 3.84
3 for Poe sr71plt NE 24 3.75
A Treat Turns Tricks voluptary_manque NH 24 4.08
Spruce Street Peekaboo sr71plt EXHIB 23 3.87
The Most Frightening Thing Is... SuperHeroRalph REV 23 3.39
The Ghost Writer pinata EH 22 4.32
Unknown PrincessErin EH 21 3.48
Night of All Nights sr71plt TOYS 18 3.72
Dying to Remember mollyj EH 16 3.38
Kornthal cowboy109 EH 15 3.33
The Dark Window the_lost_one EH 13 3.97

 

[Darkniciad]

Well, before I post tonight's track, I need to correct the wrap-up I posted yesterday. I caught a couple of typos in the vote column, and a major ur-dur moment in the sweep column ( forgot to put in zeroes for the unswept stories, which meant they weren't being calculated in the average )

So the vote totals yesterday should have been:

196 average 101 median 26,205

The sweep average should have been 9 and the median 1

Fixed so they'll be correct when I post the link to the track after the winner announcement.

And now, here's tonight's track.

The sweeps have been hard at work. The average score is now 4.17 and the median 4.22

The average vote total is 191 with a median of 94 and a total of 25,593

The average number of swept votes is 15 and the median 5 for a total of 2053

I'm positive from reports and looking at my own numbers that these aren't up to date with sweeps that happened today. I'm also positive that the last sweep hasn't run, because some stories haven't been swept at all yet.

In this track, I started taking eligibility and qualification into account when assigning rank. One story is ineligible due to recent wins, and 10 stories don't have the minimum of 25 votes necessary to qualify. From reports I've seen, I expect the number of stories that aren't qualified to increase in the next track.

I'll run a track again in the morning. If the winner announcement has already been made, I'll do a quick check of nothing but the score, then get everything uploaded, and post a link in this thread.

I'll update the data for votes, views, comments, and favs in a track later in the day if this is the case, as well as checking the scores again.

If the winner announcement hasn't been made, I'll go ahead and do a full track, including views, comments, and favs.

I'll most likely run another track at about this time tomorrow, attempting to catch the full impact of the sweeps ( although new voting on winning stories and recent contest stories will skew those. Unavoidable )

Good luck to everyone!

 

[manyeyedhydra]

I'm curious to see where the final sweeps leave things.

Some of the early leaders that were bombed pretty hard still appear to be bombed pretty hard.

Either they (the early leaders) were doing something shady and got caught out or the sweeps aren't doing their job.

 

[Darkniciad]

I'm curious to see where the final sweeps leave things.

Some of the early leaders that were bombed pretty hard still appear to be bombed pretty hard.

Either they (the early leaders) were doing something shady and got caught out or the sweeps aren't doing their job.

We'll see what happens. There are indeed at least a couple of early and mid leaders that haven't recovered from a radical, one-day drop ( wonder of wonders, it happened the same day a certain someone's story posted )

I think what we've seen so far on most stories is actually fallout from sweeping the high-vote categories in advance, to lighten the load of the final sweep. Problem voters identified probably had their votes on the other stories wiped out, and that's what all the lower-vote categories are seeing. ( In addition to normal housekeeping sweeps, and as I've always believed, contestant votes )

I expect to see the full sweep hit everything else just before the announcement. That's seemed to be the pattern lately -- in addition to at least one 1000+ vote story losing an unusual amount of votes early in each and every contest recently.

It appears to me that someone is pumping high-vote stories up to make sure they get over the 1000 mark, but the pattern and IPs are so obvious that the sweeps annihilate the vote inflation right from the beginning.

The pattern doesn't hit 1k vote stories that haven't been "immortalized" by a certain someone.

How the sheer volume of painfully obvious chicanary hasn't resulted in a ban yet continues to mystify me. I suppose there must be just enough reasonable doubt remaining... but I would have to question "reasonable"

 

[SuperHeroRalph]

Judging by my low scores, some of the lowest scores in the competition, I disregard Scouries contention that any of my stories are quantity over quality.

Instead, knowing that they won't be swept away, I believe that the new and preferred bomb is a 3 vote. Sadly, all of my scores are stuck in the 3 range right from the beginning of the competition and remained there throughout, even though I amassed hundreds more votes, even though my story page has been swept, and even though my stories are routinely superior to many of the other stories in the contest.

I really don't care if I don't win a contest. I just wish whoever is bashing my stories would stop. I'd rather just be left alone to write my stories in peace without having to be subjected to all the petty foolishness that goes on here because someone wants to desperately win a few dollars. Just once, I'd like to see what my stories would do against the others without having received all the bashing three votes.

In advance I wish the Halloween contest winners a hearty congratulations.

This is my last year entering any contest here. I'm tired of all the bad karma.

 

[Et2bruttus]

Judging by my low scores, some of the lowest scores in the competition, I disregard Scouries contention that any of my stories are quantity over quality.

Instead, knowing that they won't be swept away, I believe that the new and preferred bomb is a 3 vote. Sadly, all of my scores are stuck in the 3 range right from the beginning of the competition and remained there throughout, even though I amassed hundreds more votes, even though my story page has been swept, and even though my stories are routinely superior to many of the other stories in the contest.

I really don't care if I don't win a contest. I just wish whoever is bashing my stories would stop. I'd rather just be left alone to write my stories in peace without having to be subjected to all the petty foolishness that goes on here because someone wants to desperately win a few dollars. Just once, I'd like to see what my stories would do against the others without having received all the bashing three votes.

In advance I wish the Halloween contest winners a hearty congratulations.

This is my last year entering any contest here. I'm tired of all the bad karma.

I'm sorry to hear that all the trolls have gotten you down

I agree with you that I don't really care about winning or losing either, rather I prefer to have my abilities tested as a writer. It is def frustrating when trolls will bomb you without a reason.

I almost wish that every person that votes on one of my stories would leave a comment to go along with it, that way I know what the reason attributed to the vote is. I for one feel a stronger reaction to comments (good and bad) rather than votes.

 

[SuperHeroRalph]

I'm sorry to hear that all the trolls have gotten you down

I agree with you that I don't really care about winning or losing either, rather I prefer to have my abilities tested as a writer. It is def frustrating when trolls will bomb you without a reason.

I almost wish that every person that votes on one of my stories would leave a comment to go along with it, that way I know what the reason attributed to the vote is. I for one feel a stronger reaction to comments (good and bad) rather than votes.

To be honest, this site has given me a wealth of writing experience. Since I wrote my first stories in 2007 and 2008, as BostonFictionWriter, continued through 2009, as CarBuffStuff, PositiveThinker, and WmForrester, wrote as 2010, as AndTheEnd, and now in 2011, as SuperHeroRalph, with more than 900 stories posted, I've grown as a writer every year.

A lifelong apprenticeship, it's as exciting as it is embarrassing to read my earlier stories and compare them to my stories now. Not ever having won a contest, no matter if all my stories are bashed, some of the more emotionally disturbed people here can't take away the fact that I've grown as a writer. My stories are testimony to that. It's all about the story anyway.

I don't know what I'd do with my time and with my day, if I wasn't sitting at my computer in my Herman Miller Aeron chair writing stories. To me, life doesn't get any better than when I'm living my passion.

Good luck with your stories.

 

[LunaEroticaMystica]

Having a hard time focusing on Halloween when it's SNOWING out. Ack! Brrr....*shivers*

 

[Darkniciad]

More sweeping going on whilst I slept. Hitting a wider range of stories -- including the newer ones -- too. Doesn't appear to be in progress, but sometimes there are little lulls.

I'm going to start blinking through the top 10-15 and see if I see enough change in score yet to warrant running a track.

Edit: Yep. Judging from the scores that I know or saw reported last night, the current score on everyone's public submission page appears to be as it was last night. Good time to run a score track, to get the scores prior to the final sweep.

Mine have already gone up past where they were then, so I can probably use my own stories as a barometer of when to run another track today to try to capture post-sweep scores.

 

[sr71plt]

Five of mine were swept down to not qualifying, but all were swept up significantly in rating--four of them from the 3 range to the hot range.

 

[Darkniciad]

Five of mine were swept down to not qualifying, but all were swept up significantly in rating--four of them from the 3 range to the hot range.

That's what I'm seeing on yours on the score so far. So far so good on capturing the sweeps from yesterday. Have to see if the vote totals reflect this as well in about 10 minutes, when I finish the scores.

======

On another note, Freddie, I think you sort of shot yourself in the foot with having two political pieces in the contest. With fewer stories in the contest this time than earlier in the year, those two make up a higher percentage of your stories, and that's probably got more to do with why your scores are lower than usual this time out than anything. You're getting a lot of extreme right-wing General Board types blasting you to hell and back along with the hate parade you've built up on the forum.

And sweeps are absolutely in progress at the moment. Just saw a HUGE dip on one of mine.

 

[SuperHeroRalph]

That's what I'm seeing on yours on the score so far. So far so good on capturing the sweeps from yesterday. Have to see if the vote totals reflect this as well in about 10 minutes, when I finish the scores.

======

On another note, Freddie, I think you sort of shot yourself in the foot with having two political pieces in the contest. With fewer stories in the contest this time than earlier in the year, those two make up a higher percentage of your stories, and that's probably got more to do with why your scores are lower than usual this time out than anything. You're getting a lot of extreme right-wing General Board types blasting you to hell and back along with the hate parade you've built up on the forum.

And sweeps are absolutely in progress at the moment. Just saw a HUGE dip on one of mine.

Thank you, Dark, for your helpful insight. I do have 5 other stories in the contest that are doing worse than normal, probably a carry over from my Republican bashing (lol). Oh, well...

On a positive note, I was thrilled to see Nolan Ryan's pouty face, when his beloved Texas Rangers lost to the Cardinals. Pay back is a bitch, Bush.

Now, if only, just as I wrote in my story, I could get Laura Bush and Ruth Ryan alone in a room, I'd...

 

[AutumnRayven]

Having a hard time focusing on Halloween when it's SNOWING out. Ack! Brrr....*shivers*

Good time to start thinking about the winter holidays contest coming up . I love snow. ::Sigh::

Edit: Just ignore me if this question was easily answered somewhere else. I'm being lazy...and I can wait...but is there a usual time when they do the announcements?

 

[LunaEroticaMystica]

Yup and that's exactly where my mind is today. Of course it's also on the missed opportunity to snuggle in warm arms in front of the fire watching the sparkling flakes drift down. My pixie ran in and said "Momma, it's snowing! We have to get the Christmas tree down today." *giggle*

I'll let more experienced AHers answers your question more thoroughly, but I've not seen a rhyme nor reason as far as time winners are posted. If Laurel's busy or out of town, the winners have even been announced a day or so later That happened a few contests ago. We just have to patient, as hard as it is.

 

[Darkniciad]

It looks to me as if the vote totals are capturing that "mysterious" flurry of highly suspicious votes that always pops up in the wee hours of the morning before the announcement.

Many of you probably never see this happen, because of the hour and the fact that those votes are typically swept almost as fast as they appear. The last desperate efforts of trolls and cheerleaders to influence the results -- all for naught.

What that means is that some of the borderline stories are probably still going to drop off out of the qualified range. Two did in tracking the votes, but two bounced back into qualifying range by a vote or two. Considering the reports, I expect those two to fall back out of qualifying, with the uptick I see being part of that last flurry of votes.

Since the winner's announcement hasn't come up yet, I'm going to go ahead and complete the track, updating the views, comments, and favs for the final time. I'll only update score and votes in any further tracks.

One of mine has dropped about 1/10th of its votes this morning, for a whopping change in score of.... Nothing. *laugh*

 

[Darkniciad]

With sweeps still ongoing, here's what will probably be the final track before the announcement of the winners.

Still at 1 story ineligible due to a recent win and 10 stories below the 25 vote level to qualify. I expect the latter to climb once the final sweeps show up in the toplists.

The average score is now 4.21 with a median of 4.27

The average vote total is 187 with a median of 88 and a total of 25,069

The average number of swept votes is 20 with a median of 8 and a total of 2689

The average views are 20,713 with a median of 9,010 and a total of 2,775,559

The average number of favorites is 6 with a median of 2 and a total of 758

The average number of comments is 8 with a median of 5 and a total of 1126

EDIT: And there's the announcement!

First Place ($150 Cash Prize Winner):
Halloween Favor by Quince

Second Place ($100 Cash Prize Winner):
Moon Blood and Salt Flowers by talismania

Third Place ($75 Cash Prize Winner):
Red, White, and Blue Halloween by Tara_Neale

Congratulations to the winners!

Here's the page for the most recent track:

http://www.darkniciad.com/hotlink_pics/halloween_2011_v.htm

You can use the PREV link to navigate back in time, or the "Lit Stats Home" link to view other contest tracks.

The NEXT link on this page doesn't go anywhere yet, because it's for future tracks, attempting to catch the results of the final sweeps that ran this morning. I'll post links to the future tracks as I complete them.

 

[oggbashan]

Congratulations to the winners!

 

[Darkniciad]

My final numbers on Barren Harvest were 4.72, 131 votes, 5907 views, 7 PCs, 6 Favs.

I had a total of about 18 votes that I saw swept throughout the contest.

 

[LunaEroticaMystica]

Congratulations to the winners! I had actually just finished reading and commenting on "Moon Blood and Salt Flowers" when I noticed the announcement. I haven't read the other two stories but surely will. This was another fun one! I wish there were more hours in the days and nights to have read more entries. And hurray for us all for being brave enough to enter the contest (as I told one of my readers who left me feedback) and putting our hard work into our stories!

 

[sethp]

Congrats to the winners!~ Awesome job.

I'm still working on my submission! lol but at least halloween has me in the mood to write. I hope to be done it this weekend and then get it edited and submitted right after that.

 

[estragon]

Hail to the victors!

And three cheers for LunaEroticaMystica, who would have won but for disqualification for earlier Nude Day place. Enjoy the snow, and give us more Raina and Logan in the winter.

 

[Darkniciad]

Feel free to pop your final numbers as you see them on your private author pages up here. Every reference point I have gives me a better idea of when to run the track to capture the final scores as they stood at the time of the announcement ( or rather, as close as is possible without direct server access )