The Author's Hangout Valentine's Day 2012 Support Thread

[TxRad]

Welcome to the one and only "The Author's Hangout Valentine's Day 2012 Support Thread"

Please come on in and enjoy.

Any other Contest thread you might see is a fake so don't be fooled.

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

Grammatical errors aren't like rewriting the ending or some such. Redo what you need to, there is no rule against it. Anyway, it's just one more thing that will make a certain persons head spin around and that's always fun.

I'll think about it. There were may be 5 that were pointed out to me, via a friend who happened to read it. She was kind enough to give me a PM with the notes she'd taken.

 

[DG Hear]

I'll think about it. There were may be 5 that were pointed out to me, via a friend who happened to read it. She was kind enough to give me a PM with the notes she'd taken.

Hi Red, if you have changes to a story in the contest. Just make the changes but don't talk about it. Nothing wrong with correcting errors. Those that have voted can't change them anyway.
Love ya
DG

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

Hi Red, if you have changes to a story in the contest. Just make the changes but don't talk about it. Nothing wrong with correcting errors. Those that have voted can't change them anyway.
Love ya
DG

Well, I've already talked about it. lol

So I probably won't just to be fair to any that say "Hey, Red you cheated." I'll submit the corrected work after the contest is over, it just feels more right that way.

 

[sr71plt]

Hi Red, if you have changes to a story in the contest. Just make the changes but don't talk about it. Nothing wrong with correcting errors. Those that have voted can't change them anyway.
Love ya
DG

Well, I wouldn't agree that there's nothing wrong with it. In a real writing contest it would be both unethical and impossible to do. In a real contest you wouldn't be able to change anything once you submitted it. Writing contests aren't about "what I can work with and improve until the contest c loses based on early response."

That you can do so in the Lit. theme contest is just another indicator that this isn't really a serious writing contest. Which is fine for this contest, if it's just for fun (of course it's not--it's for a monetary prize). You can do so in this contest, so go ahead. But it is wrong and unethical for those thinking about entering real writing contests--and probably isn't a good habit to get into.

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

Well, I wouldn't agree that there's nothing wrong with it. In a real writing contest it would be both unethical and impossible to do. In a real contest you wouldn't be able to change anything once you submitted it. Writing contests aren't about "what I can work with and improve until the contest c loses based on early response."

That you can do so in the Lit. theme contest is just another indicator that this isn't really a serious writing contest. Which is fine for this contest, if it's just for fun (of course it's not--it's for a monetary prize). You can do so in this contest, so go ahead. But it is wrong and unethical for those thinking about entering real writing contests--and probably isn't a good habit to get into.

I know I can too, but I don't want to. I'll wait. I know what needs fixed and I'll fix it after the fact. I feel the same way that you do, it "feels" wrong, even if you say it's okay because one can do it in this contest, doesn't mean it will make me feel right about doing it.

I don't believe in submitting more than one entry either, but I know that too is allowed, but that's a written rule so that isn't something anyone is morally breaking. I just don't feel fair in filling the contest with a bunch of stories geared around the holiday. I have a second story that could have fit, but I placed it before the contest because I had something else in mind for this particular holiday. Same with the Winter one last year. I had two eligible pieces and chose (probably wrongly) the one that I submitted for entry, while running the other as a regular submission.

Perhaps resubmitting work isn't in the rules either, but to me it's a bit shady. The consideration was short lived, and I probably shouldn't have said anything and just kept my mouth shut.

 

[sr71plt]

Really, do what you want. The contest's a joke really anyway--even though fun and with some payoffs for posting to it. But if someone brings up it's hunky-dory . . . in the world of writing, it's not. It's unethical (and usually impossible).

 

[PennLady]

Never mind.

 

[carlieplum]

Great entries!

Hi all,

Just wanted to say I've been reading the entries and am really impressed by many of them. Really a lot of creativity and much cleaner (in terms of errors) writing than a lot of what you see on the site. I've voted on quite a few. Wait, what am I crazy? I just submitted my own story, why I am I voting for you people?!?

I genuinely did enjoy quite a few of the stories and voted for them (not ones or twos). Really nice work, IMHO.

Thanks also to the people who advised me on my planned story (I didn't know what category it should go in). In the end I got 4,500 words into it and realized I didn't give a flying fuck if my main characters had sex on Valentine's Day or any other day. So, I started from scratch and submitted this morning.

Carlie

 

[sr71plt]

The posting slowdown has hit the contest even. I have one that didn't post the day after submitted. That's never happened to me in a contest submission before.

 

[Angellica1612]

Whew, finally submitted! I've been trying to come up with a idea for weeks now. I started several stories, but got bored with them. I finally hit on it on Saturday, and I've been working on it all weekend. Feels good to have it done! I haven't had time to read anyone else's stories yet. Best of luck to everyone.

 

[nicecthulhu]

I'm glad you brought it up

I know I can too, but I don't want to. I'll wait. I know what needs fixed and I'll fix it after the fact. I feel the same way that you do, it "feels" wrong, even if you say it's okay because one can do it in this contest, doesn't mean it will make me feel right about doing it.

I don't believe in submitting more than one entry either, but I know that too is allowed, but that's a written rule so that isn't something anyone is morally breaking. I just don't feel fair in filling the contest with a bunch of stories geared around the holiday. I have a second story that could have fit, but I placed it before the contest because I had something else in mind for this particular holiday. Same with the Winter one last year. I had two eligible pieces and chose (probably wrongly) the one that I submitted for entry, while running the other as a regular submission.

Perhaps resubmitting work isn't in the rules either, but to me it's a bit shady. The consideration was short lived, and I probably shouldn't have said anything and just kept my mouth shut.

I was debating the same thing and eventually decided not to edit and resubmit. I received some good comments pointing out some of my errors and had a possible editor contact me recently, put one and one together and thought: maybe.

If someone else chooses to edit and resubmit, I'm not going to get upset at them. I submitted to the contest what I submitted to the contest. I'm getting a lot of new readers for my stories, for better or worse.

I've picked up a lot of useful information reading the postings of the veterans on this sight, so I appreciate you for posting this one. I thought I might be the only one living in their guilt-free, insane little world...

So thank you for bringing this up.

 

[Darkniciad]

Here's tonight's track.

Still no new stories ( though reports say that there are stories in the queue that would have normally posted today. Seems the delay has spread to themed contest entries )

The average score is now 4.36 with a median of 4.39.

The average number of votes is 192 with a median of 147 and a total of 2887.

 

[sr71plt]

Continued strange posting behavior. No contest stories again today (as far as I can see)--at least yet, although a lot of 24 Jan stories have posted. And my entry is two days past on posting. To add to that, a story marked for the 25th has posted.

 

[DG Hear]

Continued strange posting behavior. No contest stories again today (as far as I can see)--at least yet, although a lot of 24 Jan stories have posted. And my entry is two days past on posting. To add to that, a story marked for the 25th has posted.

I had a second contest story that I submitted Saturday night. Hasn't showed up yet. Maybe Contest stories aren't going to the top of the queue. It's one of the reason I put more than one story in the contest, I like the quick posting otherwise it usually takes three to five days. Oh well, we'll see how it goes.

 

[Darkniciad]

Strange things indeed. I can't remember the last time contest stories didn't post within 24 hours, and a story dated for tomorrow is the icing on the cake.

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

Mommy and Daddy Lister have lives outside of us? *sheds a tear*

Seriously though, it is odd - perhaps whatever is causing the stall will quickly be remedied.

 

[sr71plt]

Included in the stall is the mounting phantom "views" before posting number. Mine stopped at 24 two days ago.

 

[DG Hear]

Included in the stall is the mounting phantom "views" before posting number. Mine stopped at 24 two days ago.

My phantom 'views' is at 52. Not sure when it stopped. Have another story to submit but waiting to see what happens with this one.

 

[Darkniciad]

My last set of glitch views froze up at 52 as well.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

Mine is at 36, which is where it usually is before I see it posted. However, it's been sitting at 36 for two days now. I submitted it three days ago.

I guess it will post when it posts and not a moment sooner. Meanwhile, I'm happy for this thread, because I was worried something was wrong.

 

[estragon]

Although it's too soon to say definitively, if the current slowdown continues, I think we're going to need to ask for extra time before the contest voting closes, to make up for the time lost.

 

[Darkniciad]

Not really.

The biggest chunk of your votes come in within the first 24 hours. The biggest chunk of what's left comes in over the following 24 hours. You get a trickle for the remainder of the first week, and then you're down to the odd drip + people trying to influence the outcome of the contest at the last minute.

The only stories that should really be affected by the bottleneck in posting stories would be any that are posted after the last submission date ( if that happens )

Meanwhile, since no new stories are being added to the contest, I went ahead and did a track of the other stats this time out.

Current average score is 4.35 with a median of 4.35

The average vote total is 206 with a median of 156 and a total of 3095.

The average views are 16,106 with a median of 9,274 and a total of 241,583.

The average favorites are 8 with a median of 4 and a total of 121.

The average comments are 9 with a median of 7 and a total of 131.

I have a feeling that the favorites and comments totals are going to come out really close this time, reflecting the trend I've seen sitewide. People are using the favorites button quite freely now that its general knowledge that there are no limits on how many favorites you can have.

 

[sr71plt]

I guess it will post when it posts and not a moment sooner. Meanwhile, I'm happy for this thread, because I was worried something was wrong.

I think something IS wrong. I'll probably ask tomorrow. That's when it will be late in even going on the regular list.

 

[Darkniciad]

Out of curiosity, I went and looked at the Facebook and Twitter pages. Both of those are pretty silent. The front page still talks about the 2011 survivor contest and themed contest schedule. Also a lot of advertising spam posts here on the forum that aren't getting nuked as they usually are.

Must be some serious time-eaters going on at Lit Central. Whether that has to do with the site, regular life, or what, I won't hazzard a guess, but something is certainly up.