The now fully official Author’s Hangout Halloween 2025 competition support thread

[dream_yahoozie]

Yay 25 votes. I look forward to my 20th place participation trophy

 

[EmilyMiller]

Yay 25 votes. I look forward to my 20th place participation trophy

Yay!

 

[MegaTank]

Yay 25 votes. I look forward to my 20th place participation trophy

Hey, hands off! If anyone is going to languish in mediocrity around here, it's me...

 

[dream_yahoozie]

Hey, hands off! If anyone is going to languish in mediocrity around here, it's me...

We're not mediocre, we're celebrating being just popular enough to be noticed but not chosen to be torch bearers

 

[BryanRichardson]

Yay 25 votes. I look forward to my 20th place participation trophy

You are tied for fourth place just like I am…

 

[MelissaBaby]

A lot of authors are reporting that the voting totals are lower than usual on this contest. I know mine are.

Low number of votes mean the scoring is very volatile. I’ve got a score of 4.62 with 69 votes. If 5 or 6 of those votes are one bombs that get removed in the sweeps, my score could jump up high enough to put me in contention. In one contest, the sweeps moved my score from the 4.60s to almost 4.90.

Nobody should count themselves out yet.

 

[dream_yahoozie]

You are tied for fourth place just I am…

How is it tied in fourth? How do yo see the scores?

 

[EmilyMiller]

Nobody should count themselves out yet.

When you say nobody…

 

[Soixenta]

Dead Together was published just a few minutes ago!

 

[TheLobster]

Dead Together was published just a few minutes ago!

Cold Embrace went up as well (without any notification in my feed, though...). Looking forward to all the tumbleweed it gathers.

 

[Soixenta]

Good luck!

 

[ChloeTzang]

The Key to the Mausoleum was published this morning! Got the notification in my activity feed, whicb is great, being as it was submitted just before thc cutoff.. So two stories in!

I looked at the competition and quick count is 235 odd stories entered which is amazing! I haven't really tracked any of the competitions for a few years but that seems lie a really high number of entries! Congrats to everyone that entered!

 

[talemestories]

A lot of authors are reporting that the voting totals are lower than usual on this contest. I know mine are.

Low number of votes mean the scoring is very volatile. I’ve got a score of 4.62 with 69 votes. If 5 or 6 of those votes are one bombs that get removed in the sweeps, my score could jump up high enough to put me in contention. In one contest, the sweeps moved my score from the 4.60s to almost 4.90.

Nobody should count themselves out yet.

So the judges go through and look for voting discrepancies like a series of one star votes? I didn't realize they did that for contests. Most interesting.

 

[TheLobster]

So the judges go through and look for voting discrepancies like a series of one star votes? I didn't realize they did that for contests. Most interesting.

It's called "vote sweeps" around here, and it's almost certainly an automated process. You might be wondering why isn't it done in real time, but it's probably because it's easier to detect fraudulent votes when looking at broader voting patterns.

 

[iwatchus]

So the judges go through and look for voting discrepancies like a series of one star votes? I didn't realize they did that for contests. Most interesting.

There are no judges. Manu and Laurel developed an automated algorithm, that removes many of what seem to be suspicious votes. The suspicious votes can be any value, but most seem to be ones. We do not know how they determine what is suspicious and we are explicitly forbidden to speculate about it on the forum. It is certainly not a perfect system, and some people have a been in her bonnet about this. (But they don't need to bring that up again, ahem.)

But, as @MelissaBaby said a few posts above, it can make a big difference. Really no one knows until the announcement who is going to get a prize. I certainly thought I was out of the running for the Nude Day event.

 

[ChloeTzang]

There are no judges. Manu and Laurel developed an automated algorithm, that removes many of what seem to be suspicious votes. The suspicious votes can be any value, but most seem to be ones. We do not know how they determine what is suspicious and we are explicitly forbidden to speculate about it on the forum. It is certainly not a perfect system, and some people have a been in her bonnet about this. (But they don't need to bring that up again, ahem.)

But, as @MelissaBaby said a few posts above, it can make a big difference. Really no one knows until the announcement who is going to get a prize. I certainly thought I was out of the running for the Nude Day event.

And in the hour or so before the results are announced you'll see changes in the ratings and #'s of votes as they run some final sweeps.

 

[ChloeTzang]

A lot of authors are reporting that the voting totals are lower than usual on this contest. I know mine are.

Low number of votes mean the scoring is very volatile. I’ve got a score of 4.62 with 69 votes. If 5 or 6 of those votes are one bombs that get removed in the sweeps, my score could jump up high enough to put me in contention. In one contest, the sweeps moved my score from the 4.60s to almost 4.90.

Nobody should count themselves out yet.

I think the lack of visibility due to the changes and glitches with the changes to the activity feed and notifications had a bit of an impact there

 

[MelissaBaby]

And in the hour or so before the results are announced you'll see changes in the ratings and #'s of votes as they run some final sweeps.

I have been in several contests in which there was friendly banter back and forth among those with very high scores about who was going to win. In every case, a story that was on no one's radar got a big boost from the final sweeps and finished in the top three.

 

[ChloeTzang]

I have been in several contests in which there was friendly banter back and forth among those with very high scores about who was going to win. In every case, a story that was on no one's radar got a big boost from the final sweeps and finished in the top three.

Oh yeah, and I remember KeithD winning something on about 26 votes once too. That was something to see LOL

 

[amaliajquinn]

I've submitted 2 audio stories with the correct note to the admin, and neither has appeared on the list. I must have done something wrong, but dang if I know what it was.

...unless there are no audio stories allowed this year, which seems like something the admins should have mentioned in the original rules posting.

Oh well. It was fun to stretch my imagination for Spooky Season anyway. Good luck to all the entrants!

 

[iwatchus]

I've submitted 2 audio stories with the correct note to the admin, and neither has appeared on the list. I must have done something wrong, but dang if I know what it was.

...unless there are no audio stories allowed this year, which seems like something the admins should have mentioned in the original rules posting.

Oh well. It was fun to stretch my imagination for Spooky Season anyway. Good luck to all the entrants!

@EmilyMiller can you help here?

What are the names? I only see one audio story submitted in October by you. That one does have a halloween tag. But not the full tag. Did you get the act wording on the note to the admin?

 

[EmilyMiller]

@EmilyMiller can you help here?

I’ve so far got absolutely nowhere with another audio story

 

[EmilyMiller]

Welcome to Day 24 of The Halloween 2025 Competition

https://www.literotica.com/stories/contest.php/halloween-2025

 

[EmilyMiller]

@EmilyMiller can you help here?

What are the names? I only see one audio story submitted in October by you. That one does have a halloween tag. But not the full tag. Did you get the act wording on the note to the admin?

I’ve PMed them and chased up on the other audio story.

 

[yowser]

Audio stories have never been included on the list (now at 234 entries, although at least one story with the 'halloween 2025' tag is also not included.)