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

[Chiara23]

Scoring? Still a contest noob

Hiyas!

I've only entered two contests and have no idea how the scoring works. I've seen my stories at the top of the list then drop to the bottom in a flash. I have no idea if I should pat myself on the back or throw my phone into the trash (it's what I use to write with).

Please, please, please could someone tell me that I'm not the only one who's clueless about the whole contest thing? It's not that I'm really hard up to win but knowing where I stand more accurately would be nice. I'm just happy getting the positive feedback and having people enjoying my writing.

 

[sr71plt]

You find out where you stood when the contest winners are announced. If you catch that exact moment and go off and look at your rating, that's where you stood. At all other times, yes, your score can be zipping all over the place.

 

[lovecraft68]

Hiyas!

I've only entered two contests and have no idea how the scoring works. I've seen my stories at the top of the list then drop to the bottom in a flash. I have no idea if I should pat myself on the back or throw my phone into the trash (it's what I use to write with).

Please, please, please could someone tell me that I'm not the only one who's clueless about the whole contest thing? It's not that I'm really hard up to win but knowing where I stand more accurately would be nice. I'm just happy getting the positive feedback and having people enjoying my writing.

Just out of curiosity when you say all over the list, you're not speaking of the list of stories in the contest are you?

If you are that shuffles constantly to be fair to everyone in it. It has nothing to do with score.

 

[Darkniciad]

As Lovecraft said, the order of stories on the contest page is random. So that's no indication of position in the contest.

Likewise, SR has it right as far as determining where you are at the end of the contest. You can also constantly keep track ( as I do ) of all the stories via the public numbers to see where you are in respect to the other stories in the contest.

Or - at least this contest - you can wait until after the winner's announcement, and then check out my contest track. You'll be able to look back and see where you were each day of the contest. I'll post a link to it after the winner's announcement is made.

I don't track them all, but when I do, you can always check out the track for a lot of information about not only where you were, but how different categories performed, how many votes were swept, etc.

Past tracks are here:

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

 

[Darkniciad]

Here's tonight's track. Since there were no new stories, I took the time to update all the stats for all stories. If you've been watching the daily postings for views, PCs, and favs, you'll see quite a jump in these numbers. Previously, I've only been updating the newest stories with data available for those stats.

The average score is now 4.25 with a median of 4.33

The average vote total is 243 with a median of 174 and a total of 20,451

The average number of swept votes is 5 with a median of 2 and a total of 464

The average number of views is 19,160 with a median of 14,388 and a total of 1,628,606

The average number of favs is 7 with a median of 5 and a total of 593

The average number of PCs is 10 with a median of 6 and a total of 884

( Only a few more views on this thread and we'll past the troll's ghost town that has been up for over a month longer, through two contests )

 

[lovecraft68]

Only a few more views on this thread and we'll past the troll's ghost town that has been up for over a month longer, through two contests )

Bump for spite.

 

[TxRad]

Muff diving can be dangerous but I don't think there is much danger of drowning.

Saying that tells me you never met my second wife. A nasal snorkel was a must if you couldn't breath through your ears.

 

[ScouriesWorld]

new manu honoree announced... can you guess who it is?

http://vitaraclub.gr/userpix/184_450pxStatue_of_a_Satyr_1.jpg
the [size=+2] MANU [/size] award

​

 

[TxRad]

Since there is no such thing as a Manu Award, what would be the point of guessing. Just more of scouries bullshit and lies with FAKE contest, lists, and awards.

 

[Angellica1612]

Saying that tells me you never met my second wife. A nasal snorkel was a must if you couldn't breath through your ears.

Oh, wow, I should know better by now than to be drinking something while reading the boards! Tea out my nose, yuck!

 

[TxRad]

Oh, wow, I should know better by now than to be drinking something while reading the boards! Tea out my nose, yuck!

A nasal funnel might come in handy in that case.

 

[Angellica1612]

A nasal funnel might come in handy in that case.

Since you no longer need yours, can I borrow it? Better yet, you could deliver it and show me how it works

 

[EesomeBeastie]

Oh, wow, I should know better by now than to be drinking something while reading the boards! Tea out my nose, yuck!

Ooooo! Green tea!

 

[TxRad]

Since you no longer need yours, can I borrow it? Better yet, you could deliver it and show me how it works

You naughty girl, you.

 

[Angellica1612]

You naughty girl, you.

Who? Me? ***Innocent face***

 

[Darkniciad]

Here's the track for tonight. Only updated scores and votes, though I did catch and correct a fumble-finger in the view column from yesterday's track. One story finally made the toplist so I could get a vote total for it. It's been sitting blank this whole time.

Average score is now 4.27 with a median of 4.33

The average number of votes is 243 with a median of 172 and a total of 20,684

The average number of swept votes is 6 with a median of 2 and a total of 520

 

[estragon]

Here's the track for tonight. Only updated scores and votes, though I did catch and correct a fumble-finger in the view column from yesterday's track. One story finally made the toplist so I could get a vote total for it. It's been sitting blank this whole time.

Average score is now 4.27 with a median of 4.33

The average number of votes is 243 with a median of 172 and a total of 20,684

The average number of swept votes is 6 with a median of 2 and a total of 520

Dark, if I'm not wrong, the swept votes amount to 2.5% of the total. That would indicate that boosting and trolling are either (a) less prevalent than I had feared or (b) the boosters and the trolls have figured out how to dodge the Hoover.

 

[sr71plt]

Dark, if I'm not wrong, the swept votes amount to 2.5% of the total. That would indicate that boosting and trolling are either (a) less prevalent than I had feared or (b) the boosters and the trolls have figured out how to dodge the Hoover.

I don't think we've seen the big sweep yet. So any such comment, I think, is premature.

 

[Darkniciad]

The sweeps that have run through have been minor, mostly on early entries, and many stories still have a 0 in that column.

The big ones are still coming.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

The sweeps that have run through have been minor, mostly on early entries, and many stories still have a 0 in that column.

The big ones are still coming.

Since I don't really understand the sweeps - I guess it's okay for me to ask this question. My score went up modestly, .02. Might have been from some nicer voters or one of the minor sweeps. I'm not in the running and don't expect that to change, but can the sweeps lower higher scores, too? Or just raise lower scores? It seems trolls would be guilty of down voting stories they don't like.

 

[sr71plt]

I think scores mainly go up in a sweep, but, yes, if someone multiple votes 5s, the sweeps can take the score down. The big sweep will probably be between the time the voting is closed and the winners are announced. Hyperventilating about the sweeps or even trying to figure them out is a pretty futile effort.

 

[Darkniciad]

Unless you have some crazy fans multi-voting ( or lots of them down-voting other people's stories ) your score will almost always go up during sweeps.

That doesn't mean that a rise in score during sweeps doesn't include new, positive votes. Unless you have some sort of a bot watching your submissions page and recording every few seconds, there's no way you could possibly keep up with the real time changes in voting.

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

I've kept a steady gaze on mine, and I can honesty say that I don't see my score fluctuating much. It never really did after about week one, it hovered where it is now and I don't see the sweeps doing much to alter it. The sweeps did help out a few other stories, which was nice to see.

 

[sr71plt]

My scores have come up a good bit already. But that's typical. By Dark's reports of the last two contests, my stories have come up with the sweeps more than anyone else's have. I wonder why that's so.

(no I don't.)

 

[Darkniciad]

I'm actually expecting to lose a lot in the sweeps this time. First, I forgot to put my "vote once!" in the end note.

Second, the last couple of days have showed some odd patterns that just don't mesh. The score has been steadily creeping up ( nowhere near the running ) on a relatively limited number of votes, but without the sort of other feedback I would expect in conjunction with what has to be a high percentage of 5 votes.

It just doesn't wash, so I'm expecting the Hoover to chew on this one a lot more than usual.