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

[LunaEroticaMystica]

TX, right you are! So does that mean the reason for all this havoc is because today's my birthday and I'm a year older? *pout* Not a fun present! My body has never reacted "normally" so it's not surprising, at least to me. There is more searching to be done though. More time for the plot bunny? *laughs* I suppose I could look at it as more fuel for my muses sometime.

DG: Thanks. Well that's not fun either. I hope it's under good control. I'm glad we're getting closer and I have documented proof this isn't just "in my head" as some people are quick to jump to when uncomfortable with the unfamiliar.

Thanks RED. I definitely know better than to bury my head in the sand. Just not so comforting when specialists are shaking their heads and considering you and your body an enigma that will be exciting to figure out. At least I'll get to see my beloved on V-day. Poor guy though (and poor me), no heart rate raising activities to be had (at least on this end), especially not until things are more regulated. Good thing I'm a snugglebunny!

 

[Darkniciad]

Luna

Be wary if they start putting you on any meds for the fibro. Keep a dosing journal, and keep it religiously. Anybody who can help you out by reminding you of when you've taken something and have forgotten is good too.

The stuff they tend to put you on plays havoc with your memory and wakefulness, especially when in conjunction with any depression meds ( which is common when dealing with a condition so many people believe is all in your head )

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

TX, right you are! So does that mean the reason for all this havoc is because today's my birthday and I'm a year older? *pout* Not a fun present! My body has never reacted "normally" so it's not surprising, at least to me. There is more searching to be done though. More time for the plot bunny? *laughs* I suppose I could look at it as more fuel for my muses sometime.

DG: Thanks. Well that's not fun either. I hope it's under good control. I'm glad we're getting closer and I have documented proof this isn't just "in my head" as some people are quick to jump to when uncomfortable with the unfamiliar.

Thanks RED. I definitely know better than to bury my head in the sand. Just not so comforting when specialists are shaking their heads and considering you and your body an enigma that will be exciting to figure out. At least I'll get to see my beloved on V-day. Poor guy though (and poor me), no heart rate raising activities to be had (at least on this end), especially not until things are more regulated. Good thing I'm a snugglebunny!

Luna - I understand what you mean, about being the enigma. I was in the hospital several years ago, and students were brought into my room, with my permission given, to stare at me, because ofa flesh eating bacteria that had attacked the fashia (spelling?) lining and my abdominal muscles, leaving internal organs exposed. They were all so giddy to stare into the abyss of my abdomen. I am here, though I carry a scar that will forever be a reminder, and I am now oddly shaped.

In regards to the fibro meds that Dark mentions - also be prepared that some may change your voice. I don't know if singing is something you do or not, but my daughter's medication lowered her range and she is no longer able to sing as a Soprano, but is a low alto. She is no longer on fibro meds, and as far as we can tell and hope, she's grown out of the disease, which is something some teens are able to do.

Best of luck for you.

 

[lovecraft68]

Yeah this has been a ride the last day or so. I lost .02 yesterday and another .03 earlier. Since then I have gained back .02

Wonder if Laurel just kicking back with the hoover having fun with us.

 

[lovecraft68]

Wouldn't it be better to refer to him as "he-who-it-is-not-worth-naming"??????

No and I'll tell you why. A title like "he who shall not be named" is too cool for him. To me that title would denote some bad ass mother fucker or a great Lovecraftian elder god. Not some two timing internet fraud.

 

[Darkniciad]

Since I've seen the Q pop up somewhere else, I'll put a little information here.

The announcement of the winners is supposed to be today, but it's not unheard of for there to be a delay.

When that is the case, Laurel will usually make a post in the official contest thread ( sticky at the top of the Authors' Hangout ) and let us know when she expects to make the announcement.

When the actual announcement is made, it will appear as a post in the Awards and Contests Forum, which will most likely be titled "Congratulations to the 2012 Valentine's Day Contest Winners"

Shortly thereafter, someone will copy the post here. We always do.

 

[LunaEroticaMystica]

DARK and RED,

Thank you both for sharing. Since the contest/thread's almost closed I guess it's okay, but figure PM better.

No winners yet?

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

DARK and RED,

Thank you both for sharing. Since the contest/thread's almost closed I guess it's okay, but figure PM better.

No winners yet?

Wow you're fast on the edit.

I'll PM you all the details, it'll take some time to write it out.

 

[TxRad]

Nothing yet

 

[Darkniciad]

Hmmm... the site speed just took a huge dip for me.

I'm not seeing any new sweeps yet, but in the past, I've seen this sort of speed dip on an announcement day herald the beginning of the final sweep.

 

[lovecraft68]

Hmmm... the site speed just took a huge dip for me.

I'm not seeing any new sweeps yet, but in the past, I've seen this sort of speed dip on an announcement day herald the beginning of the final sweep.

Another sweep? I've seen three fairly substantial changes since yesterday morning, how many do they feel they need?

 

[Darkniciad]

The pattern lately has been that some stories ( usually early to midterm entries in certain categories or high in the rankings ) are swept early, and then don't see all that much action on the final sweep.

There will ALWAYS be one final sweep that only finishes minutes before the winners are announced, and it typically will hit everything to at least some degree except the stories with very low vote totals.

 

[lovecraft68]

The pattern lately has been that some stories ( usually early to midterm entries in certain categories or high in the rankings ) are swept early, and then don't see all that much action on the final sweep.

There will ALWAYS be one final sweep that only finishes minutes before the winners are announced, and it typically will hit anything to at least some degree except the stories with very low vote totals.

Got it. Well my plan is seeing I had to get up at 4am today and will have to again tomorrow I am going to bed in an hour and I'll check the damage tomorrow.

 

[NightTempest]

Alright I'm not quite understanding what I've been seeing. Yes my score dropped .01 today, but whatever. What really peaks my interest is the increase in votes by more than a few since yesterday. They haven't varied my score really, but that many votes should have made a drastic change in my score correct? I already know I've been swept at least once last night....so what does this score stand still mean? If anyone can make sense of my ramblings, help me to understand this.

 

[Darkniciad]

The last days of the contest are always hard for contest newcomers.

First, you have the sweeps running, and you never know when they're going to hit.

Second, you always have a huge spike in voting in the final hours. The various people who like to try to change the outcome seem to think this works, when I've never seen any evidence that it does. Regardless, stories will pick up quite a few votes in the final hours, even if they've been almost completely idle for days.

When you have those spikes of voting on top of sweeps removing votes, it becomes nearly impossible to fathom what's happening with your score and vote totals unless you watch them like a hawk constantly. Every time you look away for a half hour, you could easily miss who knows how much sweep and vote spike activity.

So, your story could have had its score actually improved by the sweeps. Then the vote riggers came along and down-voted you afterward, but before you looked to see the score improvement.

Also, if you have large numbers of votes ( I don't track author names, so I rarely associate the name with the story and can't remember which one is yours ) then it takes a lot of votes or very extreme low votes to move your score by even .01. That's just mathematics.

 

[NightTempest]

*sighs* I was never very good at math, so it's good that someone understands it. As for the .01 decrease, it came after a raise in my score of .03 the day before. I give up on fully understanding this roller coaster of madness. If I keep wondering about it I'm likely to start pulling my hair out. *laughs* So thanks for the info.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

The last days of the contest are always hard for contest newcomers.

First, you have the sweeps running, and you never know when they're going to hit.

Second, you always have a huge spike in voting in the final hours. The various people who like to try to change the outcome seem to think this works, when I've never seen any evidence that it does. Regardless, stories will pick up quite a few votes in the final hours, even if they've been almost completely idle for days.

When you have those spikes of voting on top of sweeps removing votes, it becomes nearly impossible to fathom what's happening with your score and vote totals unless you watch them like a hawk constantly. Every time you look away for a half hour, you could easily miss who knows how much sweep and vote spike activity.

So, your story could have had its score actually improved by the sweeps. Then the vote riggers came along and down-voted you afterward, but before you looked to see the score improvement.

Also, if you have large numbers of votes ( I don't track author names, so I rarely associate the name with the story and can't remember which one is yours ) then it takes a lot of votes or very extreme low votes to move your score by even .01. That's just mathematics.

Thanks Dark. I noticed my story dropped .01 this morning to 4.42, but now is back to 4.43. Maybe I do have a few haters out there? Dunno. Don't care. Just an interesting process. This contest popped my contest cherry, but it won't be last contest entry.

 

[Darkniciad]

After a few contests, it starts to make a little more sense, and you stop worrying about it so much.

The best attitude to come into Literotica contests with is to aim for and expect a lot of new eyes on your work who might not have every noticed you otherwise.

The automatic top-billing in the New list is one advantage - especially for categories that are often placed low. Far more people see the stories at the top of the list than those that are spread out through the middle.

The contest page also provides an added degree of longevity beyond that a normal story release enjoys.

This thread can also be a source of new readers.

In the end, the only thing that can counteract the forces of sweeps, trolls, vote riggers, and everything else is a solid base of regular readers who seek out your work and vote regularly. They don't even have to always vote 5. Just voting makes a difference when the % of readers who vote is so low.

Entering the contests is one of the best means there is on Literotica to put yourself in front of those new readers, which in turn improves your chances of maybe coming out in the winner's circle at some point in the future.

Just keep at it, enjoy the higher than average returns you'll always get in a contest, and enjoy the ride. Worrying too much about winning just destroys the contest experience.

Even if there weren't so many shenanigans going on, there were 85 stories in the contest, and only 3 winners spots. That means there are 82 stories that won't make it. Not exactly lottery odds, but still a low chance that you'll be 1 of the 3.

 

[Darkniciad]

http://www.darkniciad.com/hotlink/cleese.jpg

Go away, you second-hand electric donkey-bottom biter!

Bloody spammers...

 

[Darkniciad]

Well, no announcement yet, so here's the summary of tonight's track. I don't know how closely I'll be able to capture final numbers now, since I have to work tomorrow. If the announcement had been today, I could have been far closer to the numbers at the time of the announcement.

The average score has jumped to 4.31 with a median of 4.35

The average number of votes is now 250 with a median of 182 and a total of 21,266

The average number of swept votes is now 8 with a median of 4 and a total of 700.

 

[Mostera1]

Congratulations!

Congrats to the winners of the V'day contest! Well done to Night Tempest, DGHear, and my personal favorite MILADY RED!
Great stories by all!
Thank you!

 

[TxRad]

Congratulations to the 2012 Valentine's Day Contest Winners!
Manu and I would like to thank all the authors who submitted during this special contest! We've tallied the reader's votes, and are happy to announce the winners of our 2011 Winter Holidays Story Contest.

First Place ($150 Cash Prize Winner):
My Love is Your Love by NightTempest

Second Place ($100 Cash Prize Winner):
Chocolate Covered Cherries by DG Hear

Third Place ($75 Cash Prize Winner):
Golden Arrows by RedHairedandFriendly

The 2012 Special Contest schedule, with full rules and dates, is here.

Happy Holidays to all!!

 

[lovecraft68]

Are you fucking kidding me?

I'm done here!

I had a fucking 4.85 for almost through the entire length of this contest and Dark can tell anyone here that I was leading for the entire thing

Now all of a sudden I lose 5 fucking points in these bullshit sweeps(.7 when you consider one of the sweeps added .2 back to me at one point and don't even place?

Dark can also tell you that he pm'd me that he has never seen a story start as strong as mine and not place.

Instead yet another gay male story wins, Golden arrows was nowhere near the top during this entire thing.

This contest is as rigged as anything Scouries has ever run.

Trust me this is not about money as I would have had the winnings donated anyway. And I did not enter with a thought of winning.

But to know I play fair and to not even place even after the resident "tech guru" is congratulating me through a PM?

Nothing short of a slap in the face and I am sick and fucking tired of hearing about "cheerleader votes" without the sweeps my votes would have totaled about 740 or so I finished with 200 less that that 200 fraud votes? I don;t think so.

Back a couple of weeks ago in one of the "Pirate" threads I posted that I was unsure that between all the theft( I recently had my SWB series pulled down on two different sites one for sale) and some other things going on if My contest entry may be my last story on lit

This makes up my mind, this is fucking bullshit.

Congrats to the winners you chose the right categories and stories that appealed to the person running the show, which is all you need to do.

 

[NightTempest]

Thanks guys. Congrats to the other winners too. This is seriously unexpected....wow.

 

[Ironiclaconic]

Congrats to the winners!