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

[lovecraft68]

Does Satanism say anything about wasting your time planning revenge against someone you don't even know?

My dear PL.

Allow me to share with you and anyone who is interested something that was taught to me a long time ago by the first person I studied under.

There is an expression that everyone here has heard and said many times in their lives.

"They are not worth it."

In essence a good motto, why should you lower yourself to someone elses level or let them take up your time?

See here is the problem. the people who you say "they are not worth it" know that you say it. They know that most people say it. Therefore they continue to do whatever they choose in life

They are pricks and liars, abusers and cheats, thieves and gossipers, bullies and whatever else you want to say. And they will keep performing those acts to you and others because they are not worth it.

The day they stop is when someone makes them worth it. When someone say, "You know enough is enough."

But look at the positive here. I'll be spending all my time here wasting my time there instead of bothering with anything else. Win win no?

 

[Dual_Triode]

Does Satanism say anything about wasting your time planning revenge against someone you don't even know?

I concur. Hey LC, would you allow me to make a humble suggestion?

I, for one, would rather see you channel your "energy" into a story rather than stoop to playing the game that cannot be won. Perhaps a tale in NC/R or EH using the cast of characters you seek to destroy? I think it would be cathartic for you and certainly enjoyable for the rest of us. An added benefit: such a statement cannot be swept away.

I'm sorry you've had a rough few days. You and your family are in my thoughts.

 

[nomoretears00]

Does Satanism say anything about wasting your time planning revenge against someone you don't even know?

Or better yet... what if you're wrong, LC? (Just on the off chance.) What if you do whatever and come to find out that you were wrong?

 

[sr71plt]

So someone managed to stuff your story with 5s just so they'd be swept at the end? That would be clever (and risky) if their interest was in bringing your story down. Dude, the problem is someone was voting your story UP not DOWN to the tune of the sweeper not being convinced (and, yes, the sweeper might have been wrong--that's what a lot of us have been worried about for years--to the point of not believing in the contest as a real contest rather than the fringe benefits). Contemplate how/why that happened.

And you're much, much too all about personal vengeance to support your ego trips.

 

[jane marwood]

I started reading this thread (if that word is correct) and really don't understand what is what. I have posted stories and have recently started looking and posting to the forum. If someone has the time to tell me:

Who runs the site?
What is official and what is not.. and how does one tell?
How does a writer manipulate his or her votes ( if that is possible ). As an aside... I saw one member profile where all the stories were hot (but were not). However there was instruction at the start of the story, telling readers how to vote.

Why doesn't the index (search?) of the stories give the rating other than a red letter 'H'

Must say, parallel to my questions, that I do like reading the forum and all that goes on within!

 

[PennLady]

I started reading this thread (if that word is correct) and really don't understand what is what. I have posted stories and have recently started looking and posting to the forum. If someone has the time to tell me:

Who runs the site?
What is official and what is not.. and how does one tell?
How does a writer manipulate his or her votes ( if that is possible ). As an aside... I saw one member profile where all the stories were hot (but were not). However there was instruction at the start of the story, telling readers how to vote.

Why doesn't the index (search?) of the stories give the rating other than a red letter 'H'

Must say, parallel to my questions, that I do like reading the forum and all that goes on within!

The site, to my knowledge, is run by Laurel and Manu. Don't know anything else about them.

If it is from "Scouries," it is not official.

I'm sure there are lots of ways to manipulate scores, but the vast majority of writers do not, I'd venture to say. Just b/c an author says "vote a 5" doesn't mean you have to. I'm not sure what you meant about the not hot stories, unless you meant you didn't like them.

There are three "highlights" for stories -- a red H, which means an average score of 4.50 or higher; an "E" which means Editor's choice; and a "W" which means the story won a contest.

 

[PennLady]

The day they stop is when someone makes them worth it. When someone say, "You know enough is enough."

But look at the positive here. I'll be spending all my time here wasting my time there instead of bothering with anything else. Win win no?

Right. It is your time to waste -- to spend all this energy coming up with a way to make an unknown person "pay" for some alleged crime.

 

[Darkniciad]

http://www.darkniciad.com/hotlink_pics/valentines_2012_x.htm

You can use the "Prev" links to scroll back through the contest to the beginning.

The "Next" link on this page doesn't go anywhere yet, because it's for a future track to try to catch the last of the sweeps, do a final update of views, pcs, and favs, and get a percentage swept column in there.

The "Lit Stats Home" link goes to the main tracking page, where you can check out tracks of other contests.

Keep in mind: The toplists only update about once a day, and not at the same time. I know some of the toplists where I got the numbers have updated, while others obviously have not.

Likewise, it's been many hours since the winner's anouncement, and member pages also update at different times of day. Some of these may match actual scores, while others may reflect something earlier, or even later, with post-contest voting ( this is quite likely on the winners )

It's as close as I can get with the public numbers.

 

[jane marwood]

Thank you. Yes I have it now. I think it was the 'S' posts that had me fooled. Thank you once again.

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

Thank you! It's really sad that most of you feel like I don't deserve this. One, being it's my first contest and I'm no one to any of you, and second being your dislike of the gm category. I just wanted to say that I actually put alot of time and work into this piece and am really excited that gm gets some more credit. Granted I'm not the best author on here by any means, but everything I do write means alot to me. So I'm sorry that some of you don't feel I'm good enough or favorited or some such, but I'm just happy and thankful no matter how I won.

Thank you to all of you that did leave nice comments and emails! I really appreciate it. To Red and DG, congratulations! To everyone else...I took the time to read each and every story. All of you worked really hard and kudos to you guys.

NightTempest - my apologies, I don't believe I did congratulate you and I should have. I got caught up in the other stuff and I do wish you congratulations! Being new to all of this, I think placing first is a very very cool thing and very encouraging to many newbies!

Scouries - I sent you a PM - and I admit publicly that you were right, there are many folks that like your work on the site, and for me to diss your writing was uncalled for on my part, my apologies. In regards to the other things you said, you offered a discussion and that is what my PM does. I prefer to hash things out privately after the first public acknowledgement.

 

[EesomeBeastie]

Stopping by to say congrats to the three winners!

 

[Ironiclaconic]

Thanks for the stats, Dark. Funny how the biggest vote changes are for stories rated 4.65 or higher, almost as if someone with a score at that level was actively sabotaging the votes of stories that have a similar or higher score.

 

[LunaEroticaMystica]

Congratulations to the winners and HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY everyone! Bravo for everyone that had the courage to enter this tumultuous contest! I'm glad the stories remain up so I can read them when I can. I've got several marked to get to. Maybe I'll make it for the Earth Day Contest.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Both my stories have had their vote totals and scores remain constant for almost a week. This is normal for old stories, but I'm still getting feedback on these. Could the totals be sort of frozen?

 

[estragon]

Congratulations to the winners and HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY everyone! Bravo for everyone that had the courage to enter this tumultuous contest! I'm glad the stories remain up so I can read them when I can. I've got several marked to get to. Maybe I'll make it for the Earth Day Contest.

Luna, Come back as soon as you can. I miss you. Thoughts and prayers.

 

[estragon]

So I have to say that (and hopefully he does not mind me mentioning this) I had an interesting "conversation" with Dark that I think shed some light on things.

Before I go any further, I would like to apologize for going off on the site earlier and saying stupid shit.

In my defense (and there some here close to me who know I am not lying) I took some pretty bad news over the weekend. I have a couple of tough situations going on that I am helpless over.

In perspective this contest means nothing, but became the straw that sent me over the edge.

So again I apologize for my rude behavior and certainly do not want to take anything away from the winners or anyone else who put their hard work out on the line for this thing.

As I explained to some people through Pm's today I am not upset about the money (although the poor little pups at the SPCA lost out) or placing although it would have been nice. I am upset because the sweeps are designed to erase cheating or try to erase cheating.

By my score falling it makes it look as if I cheated and I will say this. I can be an asshole and a half when I want to be, but I am extremely competitive and have never won anything unfairly in my life. I can be a jerk, but never a cheat.

The reality was I was cheated, but not by the site, but by someone we are all very familiar with.

So the good news here is this just gives me a new game to play.

As a Satanist I believe in the principle of Lex Talionis or an eye for an eye. The other party now has it coming to them in spades and I have already begun.

So in closing again allow me to apologize to the winners, other contestants and the site in general.

Now if you'll excuse me I have things to plan.

LC, I thought your story was excellent. I couldn't vote, and didn't vote. I was very surprised at the outcome, but I was also surprised at what happened Saturday when Ruler on Ice and Shackleford started one-two, and then dropped dead and got stuffed in the Donn at Gulfstream. And that cost me money.

 

[Darkniciad]

http://www.darkniciad.com/hotlink_pics/valentines_2012_x.htm

Final numbers for views, pcs, and favs updated.

Caught a few more of the sweeps while updating final votes.

Added a column for Vote Total, which is surviving + swept votes.

Added a column for % of votes swept, plus an average and median for all stories at the bottom.

Naturally, things will be skewed on the winners, because some of the post-contest numbers may be in there.

Sweeps will always be skewed on late entries, as those are still within a "honeymoon" period, and may be gaining new votes as fast as old ones are swept.

One thing that really stands out is the steady increase in favorites on stories.

Even going back only to Winter 2010, which is well within the steady rise, you see that the average favorites were 2 with a median of 1 and a total of 229 on 114 stories.

In this contest, we have an average of 7 with a median of 5 and a total of 593 on only 85 stories.

 

[estragon]

Thanks to the Official Scorer. Dark, again you've provided valuable information. And to the contestants, this was a great show; thanks to all.

 

[LunaEroticaMystica]

I miss you too estragon. I'm just a mess right now. Trying to stay positive though.