Winter Holiday Support Thread

[Rumple Foreskin]

I've also found the writers in the contest to be very friendly!! Sack, Arurora Black, DanielleKitten all had nice things to say about the story. For a new writer it was wonderful to read the kind words.

Who the heck let in all these really good newbies? There's usually one or two in every contest, but the dang list is filled with 'em this time.

In my (very) humble opinion, Joesephus is one. MnRider, you're also among that number. As I mentioned in my PC, I envy your poet's use of language. However, I did have a problem with your entry. IMHO, it was a vignette, not a story. Two people make love in a romantic setting is an incident. And while it was well-told, nothing changed, there was no beginning, middle, and end.

I hope some of the the AH folks who actually know what they're talking about will be able to double-check me on this. But even if I'm right, (don't laught, it could happen), that's something you should have no trouble learning how to master.

Thanks for the enjoyable read.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[Guest]

2. I have a wonderful new "internet friend", that being the astonishingly gifted Daniellekitten. Besides being an extremely talented writer, she is so sensitive and helpful, despite having had a less than perfect life. Truly, she is a "jewel beyond price."

Gosh Sack, you'll make me blush. And thank you, from an interesting and articulate man, that's a special compliment.

 

[Guest]

I've also found the writers in the contest to be very friendly!! Sack, Arurora Black, DanielleKitten all had nice things to say about the story. For a new writer it was wonderful to read the kind words.

Your story speaks for itself. And you're welcome. I enjoy reading new writers...wait, I'm a new writer.

 

[hugo_sam]

Good Morning All
I would like to thank all the wonderful writers that have submitted such great stories to the contest., I believe I have worked through all the ah'ers. If you have not received a PC from me, please let me know. Oversights happen.

Thank you to all those that have taken to the time to leave PC's/ email on my stories. I think I have acknowledged them to all to you personally, if I did miss you, Thank you.

 

[English Lady]

Morning chaps and chapesses! How are we all today?

Just brwwzing through with some light hearted christmas cheer!



All round. The stories are entred, everyone sit back and chill -the results will be made known soon!


(Exciting innit?)

 

[MnRider]

Thanks Rumple

-- snip--
In my (very) humble opinion, Joesephus is one. MnRider, you're also among that number. As I mentioned in my PC, I envy your poet's use of language. However, I did have a problem with your entry. IMHO, it was a vignette, not a story. Two people make love in a romantic setting is an incident. And while it was well-told, nothing changed, there was no beginning, middle, and end.
--snip--
Rumple Foreskin

Hi Rumple,
Thank you!! I wrote the sto... vignette as a little scene for my girlfriend, she loved it and I thought it would interesting to see what others thought. I shared it with a few people online, they liked it. Problem is everyone who liked it already liked me... I wanted less biased reviews.

Sooo... I went looking around the web, found Lit, found a great editor (CopyCarver), saw the contest and entered. It never occurred to me it wasn't a story. (Darn public schools!)

I'll add your kind words to my things to change list!! I have a second story waiting to be approved which may also be a vignette...

But, with help, I'll try to learn!
Currently working on improving my dialogue... third and 1st person stories... add telling a story.
Thank you very much, Rumple!

 

[impressive]

I love how many new authors this contest has brought to the AH!

Welcome, one & all, if I haven't yet greeted you.

 

[Guest]

Morning chaps and chapesses! How are we all today?

Just brwwzing through with some light hearted christmas cheer!



All round. The stories are entred, everyone sit back and chill -the results will be made known soon!


(Exciting innit?)

Hey EL Have you seen Narnia yet? I loved your piece on it...and wanted to see the movie but haven't been able to because we got snowed it.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Sack made me cry . . .

"Roxanne Appleby is a superb talent and bears watching, as does Aurora Black. I marvel at their effortless craft, and read their stories over and over again."

Gosh, Sack, there you go again, making me all teary eyed and happy! As I said in response to your public comment on my story, "Smooch! Hug! Consider yourself well hugged and kissed and hair mussed and thoroughly embarassed in public by me!"

Thank you so much for your incredibly generous compliments to me and the other writers. I'm sure they all concur one-zillion percent with what I say.

Roxanne Appleby

PS. Actually, Sack's whole list of compliments bears repeating - over and over again! Here it is:

"1. I have developed a new appreciation for Sophia Jane, being totally impressed by her willingness to accept criticism, her outsized heart, and her overall inner beauty!

2. I have a wonderful new "internet friend", that being the astonishingly gifted Daniellekitten. Besides being an extremely talented writer, she is so sensitive and helpful, despite having had a less than perfect life. Truly, she is a "jewel beyond price."

3. I continue to be blown away by Cloudy's lovely writing. She is clearly a one-in-a-million person.

4. Roxanne Appleby is a superb talent and bears watching, as does Aurora Black. I marvel at their effortless craft, and read their stories over and over again.

5. I can now appreciate Boxlicker as a fierce, but fair critic, who clearly doesn't like misunderstandings. His smut stories deserve to be higher rated, as he is on par with my favorite smut writer, Slickman.

6. English Lady has emerged as a kind, sweet soul, capable of penning delightful tales that are just suitably naughty without being overdone.

7. Rumple continues to amaze with the extraordinary breadth of his writing, his versatility, and kind vision for us all.

8. Hugo Sam is so compassionate, so forgiving of others' foibles, that I want to cry.

9. Selenakittyn is a force to be reckoned with. Her Christmas Stalkings marked a departure toward even more professional writing, and since that point her candle is burning brighter still.

10. Abstreuse will always be an enigma, even to herself. But how can anyone not respond to such a gifted, fertile, creative mind? Her stories are otherwordly, capable only of someone who has been to hell and back!

 

[Guest]

Wellllll... back again...
trying to read through some of the entries.... my second one posted... and I am just hanging out now waiting for the end of the road

 

[sophia jane]

I see these contests as just one big learning experience. Here's what I have learned this go around:

1. I have developed a new appreciation for Sophia Jane, being totally impressed by her willingness to accept criticism, her outsized heart, and her overall inner beauty!


Sack

Wow. I missed this the first time. Thanks, Sack.

 

[Guest]

I am always amazed at the writers that come to the surface during contests. There are the old souls that have been around since dirt was invented and so many new or unheard of authors come out into the light when these contests start....

I love reading the entries and I love the fellowship that happens when everyone gets together.

 

[Unsung Muse]

I can't believe how quickly this one flew by...
where did the time go??

Contest withdrawal symptoms already setting in

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Contest withdrawal symptoms already setting in

Oh that's ok, Valentine's Day is right around the corner... the "Story Ideas" board already has a post running...

 

[davidwatts]

Exactly how do people determine that they have been "trolled" anyway?

I think that there is a great deal of misunderstanding regarding the voting here, and what constitutes a deliberate attempt to undermine someone's efforts. It's unfortunate that the way the votes come in to be tallied is not made more clear, so that people aren't left feeling that they are being abused when that may not be the case at all.

Some points to consider...

1. What do the literotica votes really mean?

Back in school, with a 100 point scoring system, the literotica votes would translate to the following:

5= 100%
4= 75%
3= 50%
2= 25%
1= 0%

2. What constitutes a "troll" vote?

Is a troll vote a '1'? Of course it is. A '1' is in reality a zero, and on a free site there is no excuse for such a vote. The fact that someone took the time to try and create something, and was actually able to pound on enough keys to have it pass the literotica editor is worth something. Same for a '2' vote. These are obviously malicious votes that should be cast out (and probably are, along with the 3's), and an electronic jolt sent through to the offending voter which fries their computer.

3. What about '3' votes, MisterReason?

There are a few utterly incomprehensible stories that are worthy of '3' votes, but I've yet to read one in a contest entry. Contest entries are literotica at its finest. Nobody puts crap in the contests, because they know that they get read more than the average story (except for this contest perhaps), and their fellow authors tend to read them more often.

4. 4's and 5's

That leaves us with the 4's and 5's. What an incredibly wide chasm that is, between a story that gets a 75% or a 100%. An unfair gap, to be perfectly honest, but then again life is not fair all the time. Until literotica comes up with a better system, this is what we are stuck with. Cast an unbiased eye to one of your stories sometime. Look at it as an outsider would, with the occasional gaffe and typo, and a wandering plot. They are our children, but even our kids aren't always perfect.

5. What stories are worth a 5?

Theoretically, a '5' would be reserved for the best of the best. A piece of work that is both original in conception and written in a way that sets it apart from the run-of-the-mill tale told here.

What stories get '5' votes? Just about all of them. The scoring curve is so far out of line here that we tend to lose our grip on reality sometimes in terms of how good we usually are. That vote is determined by two primary factors; who wrote it and is the story any good? Vote swapping is rampant here as everybody knows, it being a communal type atmosphere and all, and a congenial writer who manages to cultivate a good relationship with their fellow writers can be assured of 20 or so '5' votes by merely writing down their grocery list.

Conversely, if you dare to venture an unpopular opinion on one of the boards, or are honest in any way regarding constructive criticism on another's work, he or she can be assured that no checks from Laurel will be in the mail.

6. What does all this mean?

Do the math. If you have a story that has a rating of 4.80 with 49 votes today, and you wake up with 50 votes and a rating of 4.78, did you get trolled? If you consider a '4' vote a troll vote, you did.

The higher your score is, the faster it will go down. If you have a 4.80 story, there is not much farther up you can go. To maintain a 4.80 score, out of every 10 voters, you need to get 8 5's and 2 4's. That's just to maintain that score.


In the final analysis, writers should not be voters in competitions that they submit work to. Literotica should not offer prizes of such value that it brings out the worst in people, and has them looking at each other with suspicion, ruining what should be an enjoyable experience for all.

If literotica wants to be generous and give out such wonderful prizes, make the prizes donations to the charity of the winner's choice. That way, when someone wins, nobody loses.

Reading the comments that have flown around here lately is rather depressing, and makes me long for the days when it was a much more friendly place where writers encouraged each other instead of looking for villains that may not even exist.

Happy holidays.

Happened across this a couple of pages back and have to agree with most of what was said, so I hope the following token of congeniality helps the atmosphere a little.

What I really stopped by here to say that no matter what assorted mischief happens around here, having spent a couple of hours reading through some of the Winter Contest entries before my eyes began to burn, all I can say is that the quality of the stories is mind boggling. There are so many amazing pieces of work there and maybe it's no accident that so many of them came from people who visit here frequently.

It would be trite to say "You're all winners!" because most of us will be losers, but I have to admit to feeling no shame in finishing behind many of the stories that I've read today. Beautiful work.

 

[Alex De Kok]

< ... Snip 1 ... >There are the old souls that have been around since dirt was invented < ... Snip 2 ... >

Good grief! That's me! July 2000. Anyone 'older'?

I love reading the entries and I love the fellowship that happens when everyone gets together.

Amen.

Alex

 

[Guest]

Good grief! That's me! July 2000. Anyone 'older'?



Amen.

Alex

Goodness Alex, does that make you old enough to fart dust?

*ducks*

 

[Unsung Muse]

...having spent a couple of hours reading through some of the Winter Contest entries...

Mr. Watts ~
Again, I just have to say thank you for your absolutely mind blowing RVC today. The views have been few & far between for my entry... a comment like yours goes a LONG long way to restoring my motivation. I cannot thank you enough!

 

[Alex De Kok]

Goodness Alex, does that make you old enough to fart dust?

*ducks*

Dunno. My arthritic foot won't let me turn around quickly enough to check!

Watch yourself, young lady! I have relatives in Michigan . . .

Alex

 

[English Lady]

Hey EL Have you seen Narnia yet? I loved your piece on it...and wanted to see the movie but haven't been able to because we got snowed it.

I'm going to see it next weeked

The story was written last year actually, but never finished properly, i remebered it on the last day, edited and threw it in. It still needs another 5 votes to qualify -at least. If I've not got 'em by tommorrow I'll put up a begging thread -anyone else need votes?

 

[Guest]

Dunno. My arthritic foot won't let me turn around quickly enough to check!

Watch yourself, young lady! I have relatives in Michigan . . .

Alex

A properly chastised Danielle walks slowly into her bedroom, gazing longingly at her computer and her half finished chapter of Dark Reasons, but being grounded, sigh, she goes.

 

[Guest]

I'm going to see it next weeked

The story was written last year actually, but never finished properly, i remebered it on the last day, edited and threw it in. It still needs another 5 votes to qualify -at least. If I've not got 'em by tommorrow I'll put up a begging thread -anyone else need votes?

We were going to go this weekend but we got slammed by snow and my car is nothing but a white blob in the driveway that has two sets of tire tracks on it and that's it. So it'll wait until next week when maybe the crowds have slowed. I hope it's good, that was my favorite books when I was a kid.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Merry Christmas to all the trolls who felt the need to bomb me.

 

[Guest]

For all you authors who have been here for a while, I have a question, if I might. Has it always been like this, with the trolls and the nastiness? Is it just because of the money? This is turning me off to the whole experience of contests and somewhat of Literotica itself.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

For all you authors who have been here for a while, I have a question, if I might. Has it always been like this, with the trolls and the nastiness? Is it just because of the money? This is turning me off to the whole experience of contests and somewhat of Literotica itself.

Yep, pretty much...but the thing to remember is if you are being trolled, you must have written something good.