The Official Authors' Hangout Halloween 2016 Contest Support Thread

[Haulover]

On the submissions list here: https://www.literotica.com/stories/contest.php/halloween-2016

What is the sort sequence?

It isn't sorted by submission date, title, or author. My story showed up in the middle, then the top, then the bottom of the list, though my rating didn't change.

Is it random?

ALSO:

Is it possible to see the ratings for all of the the submissions?

 

[masterandmargarita]

On the submissions list here: https://www.literotica.com/stories/contest.php/halloween-2016
Is it random?

Sure is. Every time you refresh the page.

 

[justine_1692]

You can un-vote or place negative votes?

This is my first time to enter a contest here and I've been keeping a close eye on my entry's vote count and rating. Imagine my surprise when I found that my number of votes had dropped by 19 between around 11PM on October 16 and 6AM on October 17*.

I can accept that not everybody that came to the contest page read my entry. I can accept that not all of the people that read it clicked on a star. But having my vote count reduced, that's too much.


* I emailed a question to Literotica.com about this. No answer yet.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I think the randomisation and masking of scores in that view are deliberate choices to improve fairness for the contest.

 

[holliday1960]

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[ChloeTzang]

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[justine_1692]

Thanks for the reply. I didn't know about "sweeps." Yes, my rating improved dramatically but I was so upset about losing votes that the rating change didn't register with me.

 

[justine_1692]

Thanks for the info. Like I said, it's my first contest entry so I didn't know what a sweep was and this is my first visit to this forum. I feel better about the whole thing now.

 

[holliday1960]

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[lovecraft68]

I think the randomisation and masking of scores in that view are deliberate choices to improve fairness for the contest.

I think the random listings are a good idea, no one can cry "their story was listed first most of the time and I was at the bottom!" The score masking is a good idea for obvious reasons.

The only thing I would like to see is the category listed. I am sure people see a title they think is interesting, then click and see its in a category that maybe they don't like and end up back clicking.

Some people only read one or two categories and without them being listed are forced to guess by titles, some titles are obvious, but some you can't tell.

I think its been suggested before, but like anything else pretty much ignored and a waste of time.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Thanks for the info. Like I said, it's my first contest entry so I didn't know what a sweep was and this is my first visit to this forum. I feel better about the whole thing now.

Yep, don't sweat the scores and the sweeps until it's all done and dusted.

In my only contest entry, which was a piss-take satire inspired by the bullshit and bile preceeding last year's National Nude Day comp, my story went up and down like a bloody yo-yo. At one stage I joked that my vote count would go back to zero and I'd have a perfect five! In the end it pulled up with a Red H and sits in my story file with a respectable 4:68. What's best though, are the comments from a bunch of readers who "got" it.

Other than that one story, I keep away from the contests, for all of the reasons you see repeated ad nauseam in every contest thread. It all goes a bit toxic, sadly.

 

[holliday1960]

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[oggbashan]

Yep! I feel yah! Yesterday after sweeps, my contest entry was at 4.76 (not bad at all, and my first red H !!!) ...I had a new story post yesterday also... but because of the contest entry's high score...the new one got 1-bombed outta the gate. (I mean like really bad.)
Last night, two votes on the contest entry brought it back down to 4.65...those will disappear in next round of sweeps, but little do they (the fools) know...I dont have enough votes to be a contender in the contest! LMAO I would need 6 perfect 5's to even begin to be in the contest now. So, the joke is on them!

A few times I have deliberately entered stories to wind up the trolls. Yes, they attracted 1-bombs but some people saw what I was doing and laughed with me.

A few years ago I used to run The Authors' Hangout Last Place (tm) Contests with every themed contest. It was an award for the author who admitted to having the LOWEST rating when the main contest winners were announced. Anyone with less than 25 votes multiplied their rating by the fraction (number of votes/25) to show their score for Last Place.

I had to disqualify myself. I could have won the Last Place multiple times. One contest I thought I had the sure-fire Last Place winner. The end of the contest was a couple of days away and I had ZERO votes. Then people dropped 5-bombs on it. It finished with 26 votes rated just over 4.00.

The stories that 'won' the Last Place award weren't bad stories. They were unpopular stories. Most of them were well worth reading but didn't appeal to a wide audience because of the category or the plot.

The Last Place (tm) Contests are pointless now because people can see the ratings. We can work out which story was lowest rated and it could be embarrassing to name them. When it was running, the author had to claim Last Place. Some authors wished to conceal their shame. Others gloried in it.

 

[holliday1960]

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[sr71plt]

The only thing I would like to see is the category listed. I am sure people see a title they think is interesting, then click and see its in a category that maybe they don't like and end up back clicking.

I'll second that.

 

[holliday1960]

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[oggbashan]

There's till TWO days to submit stories for the contest.

 

[holliday1960]

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[lovecraft68]

Looks like I had a second sweep, or maybe the first one had multiple rounds, because this morning was the first time I looked at the numbers since we were posting about the sweep. Another .04 uptick.

 

[ChloeTzang]

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[Carnal_Flower]

Clearly the results must be rigged. Bigly.

 

[ChloeTzang]

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[Carnal_Flower]

Really?

All I see is that this is truly turning into a referendum on Erotic Horror. I've never seen so much EH even for Halloween, and the EROTIC HORROR voters and fans have essentially ranked their favorites. Is there something wrong with that?

Oh, when you read the stories and see the ratings, and the categories and numbers of views, I totally understand now where those comments came from

 

[lovecraft68]

A couple dont have enough votes yet.

But for the record? Please edit all of that out of your post because what you did was give the trolls specific targets to shoot at. Scouries used to do that all the time just for that reason.

 

[holliday1960]

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