I suspect that the theme of this contest is specifically attracting trolls. I've deleted quite a few messages (after foolishly replying to them) which seemed obsessed with bashing treehuggers. One of them specifically stated they didn't read more than two paragraphs of the story. I doubt if they even read that much.
Even though it's a given that these people are assholes, they still have every right to cast votes (I assume) and very probably gave 1 votes to my story, as I imagine they did to any other story they came across. I assume the sweeps primarily capture multiple uses of the same IP rather than just erasing every one star vote?
I also wonder what the stats are on longer stories. I'm personally less likely to give a low vote to a long (four pages or more) story simply because if I don't like it, I'm not sticking with it for that long, and I simply don't think it's fair to vote on a story if I didn't read it all the way through. Therefore, if I get through six pages, that in itself says something about my liking for the story.
Whereas I can last through a page of pretty much anything but word salad, but that doesn't mean I liked it. However, I might give a short story a bit more of a break by considering it purely as a stroke piece, whereas longer efforts have to be judged on characters, plot, and writing style rather than simply arousal factor.
Any author who can make me laugh on purpose also gets points for that alone.
But I suspect the average voter grades a bit differently than I do.
Even though it's a given that these people are assholes, they still have every right to cast votes (I assume) and very probably gave 1 votes to my story, as I imagine they did to any other story they came across. I assume the sweeps primarily capture multiple uses of the same IP rather than just erasing every one star vote?
I also wonder what the stats are on longer stories. I'm personally less likely to give a low vote to a long (four pages or more) story simply because if I don't like it, I'm not sticking with it for that long, and I simply don't think it's fair to vote on a story if I didn't read it all the way through. Therefore, if I get through six pages, that in itself says something about my liking for the story.
Whereas I can last through a page of pretty much anything but word salad, but that doesn't mean I liked it. However, I might give a short story a bit more of a break by considering it purely as a stroke piece, whereas longer efforts have to be judged on characters, plot, and writing style rather than simply arousal factor.
Any author who can make me laugh on purpose also gets points for that alone.
But I suspect the average voter grades a bit differently than I do.
Good luck everyone 
). I think I've written in romance, nonhuman, erotic couplings (1), group sex (1) and sf/f (1). I guess I've found my niche. 
