The Official (Most likely) 2025 Literotica April Fool's Day Contest Support Thread!!!

[Actingup]

Honestly, I don't think I'll participate in any more of these. My story went up, and the first review is a 1 of 5. That happened less than an hour after posting. The work is a 21 thousand words long novella, it's obvious they didn't read it. Presumably this is review spiking of contest entries. I don't really care about seventy five dollars in Amazon coupons or whatever, I'm writing for exposure. Review spiking like that really hurts visibility, a lot of people don't click on stories with an aggregate less than 4, and it takes four 5s to recover from one 1.

Unfortunately this is very common. Some categories (eg Loving Wives) are dreadful at it. If it's any consolation, the one-bombers are removed when the competition votes are tallied up. Another thing is that there are only so many trolls... the story score will rise when they've had their fun and the regular readers have their say.

PS - I know your story is here and your stories are here, but it's a good idea to put a link to them in your signature on the forum, as it helps sympathetic fellow authors find them and read them. Of course, some of your fellow authors may be trolls... but hey, exposure!

 

[RocketGrunt]

The thing about 1-bomb review spiking is that it works. The story is rated over 4 now, but it only got there after dozens of reviews got clicked on. That means that it spent its entire time in the New Stories section with a listed rating of 1 to 3, numbers generally associated with works that have garbled grammar, major unwarned kink changes, or incoherent descriptions. The low ratings meant it never went on the recently popular section and was passed over by most people browsing the new stories section.

Like hiding someone's books in a bookstore, this prevents the casual readers from ever even looking at it. It's not an exaggeration to say that the 1-bomb arson probably reduced the expected number of views by five to ten thousand. Whether or not it "counts" in the final scoring of the contest doesn't really matter, the damage that matters is the part where it only spent 48 hours in the all-important new stories real estate, and was marked as unreadable garbage the entire time it was there.

And it is obviously review spiking. No one logged in just after 10 PM Pacific, 1 AM Eastern on a Monday night, opened up a new story, checked the tags and length disclaimer on the front, proceeded to speed read a 21k word novella, then decide after digesting the ending that the thing they had read was simply worse than 98% of the material on the site, left a review to that effect and no comment, all within a few minutes. It's just not a plausible series of events. The obvious alternate explanation is that they logged in, checked that there was a new contest entry, skipped to end and marked it with a 1 in order to discourage people from reading it.

And while that's an effective tactic to limit exposure, if people are going to play the contests like that, it doesn't make sense to enter the contests at all.

 

[ElectricBlue]

And while that's an effective tactic to limit exposure, if people are going to play the contests like that, it doesn't make sense to enter the contests at all.

We hear your grief. On the other hand, it's a level playing field, because it happens to us all. If you're new, you may not be aware of regular sweeps, that remove most dodgy "votes". The Contests see several, from which we all benefit. It's an after the damage thing, sure, but it does do something to the long term score for the story.

 

[Actingup]

The thing about 1-bomb review spiking is that it works. The story is rated over 4 now, but it only got there after dozens of reviews got clicked on. That means that it spent its entire time in the New Stories section with a listed rating of 1 to 3, numbers generally associated with works that have garbled grammar, major unwarned kink changes, or incoherent descriptions. The low ratings meant it never went on the recently popular section and was passed over by most people browsing the new stories section.

Like hiding someone's books in a bookstore, this prevents the casual readers from ever even looking at it. It's not an exaggeration to say that the 1-bomb arson probably reduced the expected number of views by five to ten thousand. Whether or not it "counts" in the final scoring of the contest doesn't really matter, the damage that matters is the part where it only spent 48 hours in the all-important new stories real estate, and was marked as unreadable garbage the entire time it was there.

And it is obviously review spiking. No one logged in just after 10 PM Pacific, 1 AM Eastern on a Monday night, opened up a new story, checked the tags and length disclaimer on the front, proceeded to speed read a 21k word novella, then decide after digesting the ending that the thing they had read was simply worse than 98% of the material on the site, left a review to that effect and no comment, all within a few minutes. It's just not a plausible series of events. The obvious alternate explanation is that they logged in, checked that there was a new contest entry, skipped to end and marked it with a 1 in order to discourage people from reading it.

And while that's an effective tactic to limit exposure, if people are going to play the contests like that, it doesn't make sense to enter the contests at all.

It's not just limited to the contests. As I said, in some categories there are people who do it just to be mean, or because they have appointed themselves as the righteous arbiters of what belongs. Don't like anal in Incest/Taboo? 1-bomb. Don't like lesbian sex? Ditto. I mention this because my contest entry, which I'm really proud of, is in Incest/Taboo like yours - it got a heap of bombs at the start but no negative comments to tell me what people didn't like. Don't like Loving Wives stories where there's consensual swinging? Nuke it!! Etc. It's not fair. But it's reality. The moderator does her best to limit the blood on the walls and ceiling, but there's still some on the floor.

 

[YmaOHyd]

The thing about 1-bomb review spiking is that it works. The story is rated over 4 now, but it only got there after dozens of reviews got clicked on. That means that it spent its entire time in the New Stories section with a listed rating of 1 to 3, numbers generally associated with works that have garbled grammar, major unwarned kink changes, or incoherent descriptions. The low ratings meant it never went on the recently popular section and was passed over by most people browsing the new stories section.

Like hiding someone's books in a bookstore, this prevents the casual readers from ever even looking at it. It's not an exaggeration to say that the 1-bomb arson probably reduced the expected number of views by five to ten thousand. Whether or not it "counts" in the final scoring of the contest doesn't really matter, the damage that matters is the part where it only spent 48 hours in the all-important new stories real estate, and was marked as unreadable garbage the entire time it was there.

Actingup is right; it's not just limited to contests. I'm not, like, Mister Established here. I just got my 20th follower. I don't write in Loving Wives or I&T or any of the contentious categories. Yet everything I post gets one-starred without comment within the first few hours of going up, even my entry in Essays and Reviews. And when I post in a category that's fairly active, like EC, that means I spend the only hours of visibility I get sitting at low ratings. Maybe they'll creep up over time, maybe they won't. Very few people read things below 4, many people won't touch anything that's not Hot, and if they're not reading they're not reviewing, so those 1-stars have a disproportionate impact.

I know they eventually get cleaned up, but that doesn't help with the reads you didn't get. I've got a story in a heavily-trafficked category with 400 views. It spent its only day on the front page in New in the 3s because of one one-star. Without that review, it would have been Hot, and I have to think that'd be worth at least a few hundred reads.

There's no solution, really. Not when the sample size is so small. But it does really suck, especially when you're still trying to build a readership from nothing.

 

[D_K_Moon]

My story's been submitted. Now to figure out that fine balance between the magical number of clicks just to see if it's been posted and annoying Laurel so much with all the checking that she shoves my story off the Lit table with her cute little furry paw.

I just checked on mine, it looks like it should be up tonight.

 

[glynndah]

So... Seven clicks seems to be the sweet spot. Good to know.

 

[YDB95]

Finally submitted mine. This one did not come easy!

 

[Trionyx]

Finally submitted mine. This one did not come easy!

I’ve found that you can have more luck if you just tease it some more…

 

[D_K_Moon]

https://www.literotica.com/s/chocolat-1

Here's mine, earlier it was 5.0 with 3 votes, now it's 4.29 with 7 votes.

Edited to add: Now at 4.1 with 10 votes

I agree with what some of the previous posters have said. There's an early effort by some to bomb stories into irrelevance. For a long time I had voting and comments turned off of my work. Something that I may reconsider doing once again in the future.

 

[InvisibleHarvey]

I'm also new here, and the 1-star review bombing is very discouraging. It really saps any enthusiasm to share your work. If I had my way nobody would be able to leave a 1 or 2 star review without also leaving a comment.

 

[Agent0069]

I'm also new here, and the 1-star review bombing is very discouraging. It really saps any enthusiasm to share your work

Well, unfortunately, all we can do is level up our zen meditation game and wait. With enough time and votes your story will eventually reach its own rating.

I thought it would be great showing rating disambiguation so that authors could see percentage of troll one star reviews compared to normal ratings, but don’t think it will get implemented any time soon.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

Yay! I've finally finished the first draft of my April Fool's/Geek Pride story!

Unfortunately, I didn't remember the correct month (May) for the Geek Pride event (and, no, I was on a roll and didn't bother to look it up until after I was too far into the plot to change) so it will be submitted for the AFD contest with a geeky/fetishy theme. After a lot of editing, of course.

 

[Agent0069]

I had two large stories drafted for Valentine's day and Pink Orchid event, and I failed to finish both of them in time. I wasn't planning on writing anything else for the time, but then an inspiration struck me. Suddenly I did a new story start to finish, almost in one sitting. I wasn't even aiming for any particular contest, but since, you know, more exposure and faster review time is better than less exposure and slower review time, I posted it for this event.

Anyway, please meet and greet "Roommates With Benefits" - a third story on a portal with the same title, but a first one not being about gay sex. Also, it's my first "Mature" category story, so let's see how it will go.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

I've managed to write The Magic Dick, a Mind Control story about a guy with a... you guessed it.

 

[Actingup]

I've got a second one out -The April Fools' News Story. It's in Loving Wives, so it would be amazing if it got a competitive score, but hopefully it generates interest. Thanks @NoTalentHack for making some really helpful suggestions.

 

[Actingup]

I've got a second one out -The April Fools' News Story. It's in Loving Wives, so it would be amazing if it got a competitive score, but hopefully it generates interest. Thanks @NoTalentHack for making some really helpful suggestions.

... and this is where we see the benefits of a high traffic category like LW. If people connect to the story, it does seem to engage them, even if the scoring is not as high. It only took about 16 hours to get to the 1000 vote mark. I don't care what the anons say about it when their comments come through (only 'named' comments so far) - I'll happily take any blows for that level of engagement.

 

[RocketGrunt]

... and this is where we see the benefits of a high traffic category like LW. If people connect to the story, it does seem to engage them, even if the scoring is not as high. It only took about 16 hours to get to the 1000 vote mark. I don't care what the anons say about it when their comments come through (only 'named' comments so far) - I'll happily take any blows for that level of engagement.

View attachment 2515759

That's truly impressive, congratulations. This is where we see the fickle power of the timing of the troll votes. The Laugh Track got vote spiked within minutes of going up, and spent its entire time on the new releases page with a "skippable trash" rating. As a result, despite going up on the high traffic I/T board, it has to date only been reviewed sixty times. It is my least reviewed story, literally getting less engagement than chapter 19 of a niche monster girl story on the SF&F board. If the troll hammer falls early enough, it self perpetuates. It's marked as trash, so people don't read it, so people don't review it, so it stays marked as trash, and so on.

 

[Actingup]

That's truly impressive, congratulations. This is where we see the fickle power of the timing of the troll votes. The Laugh Track got vote spiked within minutes of going up, and spent its entire time on the new releases page with a "skippable trash" rating. As a result, despite going up on the high traffic I/T board, it has to date only been reviewed sixty times. It is my least reviewed story, literally getting less engagement than chapter 19 of a niche monster girl story on the SF&F board. If the troll hammer falls early enough, it self perpetuates. It's marked as trash, so people don't read it, so people don't review it, so it stays marked as trash, and so on.

I've had that happen too for other stories. I've no doubt that mine has attracted lots of troll votes, including early ones: however, my strategy was to try and overwhelm those with engagement from real readers. I made it short, on topics for the competition, as engaging as I could, and avoided some of the classic triggers for LW readers (cuckold, swapping etc). It's still sitting below the magic 4.5 threshold, but that doesn't matter so much.
The engagement will slow down now since it's been out for more than a day.

 

[Izanami9]

Hello everyone! I’m brand-new here, plus my relationship with evolving technology is basically that of the guy in that Twilight Zone episode whose appliances conspired to murder him; for instance my bitchy GPS has ADAMANTLY directed me off several cliffs and into at least one lake.

Anyway, it’s always nerve-wracking to join a new group, so I pretty much approach every new site I join with mingled trepidation and hope.

I submitted my first story for the April Fools’ Day contest and have been enjoying the time I spend here! But I have a question for the established authors:

I warn you, it is probably a very stupid question with a very obvious answer that I’m somehow missing, so I apologize in advance, but how does one access the stats you’re all citing for your work?

I get the notifications for comments etc, but can’t find the specific traffic data or ratings.

 

[YmaOHyd]

I warn you, it is probably a very stupid question with a very obvious answer that I’m somehow missing, so I apologize in advance, but how does one access the stats you’re all citing for your work?

https://www.literotica.com/my/#/works/stories/published

If you're on the main Stories page, make sure you're logged in, and you should be able to access your profile in the top right.

 

[Izanami9]

Thanks for your prompt response! I don’t have any issues finding my profile or logging in; it’s just the story statistics I can’t seem to find.

 

[YmaOHyd]

Thanks for your prompt response! I don’t have any issues finding my profile or logging in; it’s just the story statistics I can’t seem to find.

When you're on the Works / Published screen, you should see a star rating, number of ratings, number of favorites, number of reads and number of comments:


If you don't have any of those -- if your story has not yet been rated or favorited by anyone, for example -- they just won't appear in the list of icons. For example:



No favorites or comments, and it's not part of a series, so those icons are completely missing.

 

[Izanami9]

When you're on the Works / Published screen, you should see a star rating, number of ratings, number of favorites, number of reads and number of comments:
View attachment 2517160

If you don't have any of those -- if your story has not yet been rated or favorited by anyone, for example -- they just won't appear in the list of icons. For example:

View attachment 2517161

No favorites or comments, and it's not part of a series, so those icons are completely missing.

Ah, ok; I do see that info, so I must have misinterpreted the discussion; I thought there was more specificity somewhere. Thanks very much for taking the time to reply. Appreciate it!

 

[YmaOHyd]

Ah, ok; I do see that info, so I must have misinterpreted the discussion; I thought there was more specificity somewhere. Thanks very much for taking the time to reply. Appreciate it!

No worry. Yeah, sorry, that's all I'm aware of.