Writer Awards - From Authors instead of Readers

[BobbyBrandt]

Has this ever been done on Literotica?

I'm referring to awards for writers of stories here as determined solely by their peers. We could even go so far as to stipulate that in order to vote for writers in a category, the voting author must have posted at least one story in the same category. (This would be similar to how major awards such as the Oscars recognize peers in their crafts.)

 

[MelissaBaby]

Has this ever been done on Literotica?

I'm referring to awards for writers of stories here as determined solely by their peers. We could even go so far as to stipulate that in order to vote for writers in a category, the voting author must have posted at least one story in the same category. (This would be similar to how major awards such as the Oscars recognize peers in their crafts.)

A lovely idea in conception. Likely to be an epic shitshow in execution.

 

[NoTalentHack]

A lovely idea in conception. Likely to be an epic shitshow in execution.

This, right here. If it was done, it would need to be something like the Academy Awards, where the voters are a secret. And then there will be accusations of collusion, vote rigging, etc. it’s a nice idea, but I think in practice it would be a mess.

 

[MelissaBaby]

This, right here. If it was done, it would need to be something like the Academy Awards, where the voters are a secret. And then there will be accusations of collusion, vote rigging, etc. it’s a nice idea, but I think in practice it would be a mess.

Not to mention the blizzard of one bombs that would fall on the nominated stories.

 

[GrantBricksly]

I have to agree. The idea/concept is great. To know what my fellow writers think, and be recognized by them would be awesome...but...the execution of that....I can just imagine the plethora of problems that will arise..

 

[MelissaBaby]

And by the way, I suspect that a majority of votes in the Readers Choice Awards are cast by authors.

 

[SimonDoom]

And by the way, I suspect that a majority of votes in the Readers Choice Awards are cast by authors.

Probably so, and an author's award would suffer the same problem as the Readers Choice Awards, to an even greater degree: too few voters. As it stands, the vote totals for Readers Choice Awards are so small that it's clear it would just take a bit of gaming to affect the standings.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Probably so, and an author's award would suffer the same problem as the Readers Choice Awards, to an even greater degree: too few voters. As it stands, the vote totals for Readers Choice Awards are so small that it's clear it would just take a bit of gaming to affect the standings.

Yep. I’m very glad that I won Readers Choice for Best Humor story last year, but it was with 18 votes out of a total of 40.

 

[yowser]

At least mandate a prohibition on long acceptance speeches.

 

[MelissaBaby]

At least mandate a prohibition on long acceptance speeches.

And keep Will Smith’s wife’s name out of your fucking mouth.

 

[Emotional]

Such a great idea, but no idea how it would be implemented without all the drama and cheating. Secret votes off site somehow.

And remember 99% of authors have never been in this forum

 

[Bramblethorn]

Agree with Melissa, I think framing this as a contest would end in tears. But that shouldn't discourage anybody from giving positive feedback to their fellow authors via comments/fave/feedback or in the forums (if you know they follow the forums; many don't).

 

[BobbyBrandt]

To start with, there's a recent - What is absolutely THE BEST story you ever read on Literotica? - thread you could share your opinion.

That is what gave me the idea. I just expanded on it by mentioning the possibility of having writers best versed in a particular category being the ones to vote on stories in that category.

It would be like only directors being allowed to vote for "Best Director" or camera people to vote for "Best Cinematographer".

 

[ElectricBlue]

That is what gave me the idea. I just expanded on it by mentioning the possibility of having writers best versed in a particular category being the ones to vote on stories in that category.

It would be like only directors being allowed to vote for "Best Director" or camera people to vote for "Best Cinematographer".

Except that discriminates against authors who are not category specific.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Except that discriminates against authors who are not category specific.

No, if they post in a category, they would be eligible to vote on that category. It might make sense to give priority to writers who are most prolific in a category, but it wouldn't have to exclude anyone.

Writers who published in multiple categories would be eligible for nomination in each.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I hadn't seen your pick yet. I'll just be standing on the side-line, shaking my head, wondering why my stories never show up.

I'm still deciding on my pick, and I'm going to follow my idea by only considering stories in categories that I myself contribute to.

The way I see it, I don't feel qualified to express an opinion on BDSM, Lesbian, or other categories that are foreign to me. I might be able to evaluate the technical skill of the writing, but deciding if the story has merit would be difficult without a frame of reference to the lifestyle involved. That's not being judgemental, it's just that others more familiar with the reality being written about should be the ones to gauge its quality

I think that is what most of us expect from readers, and we should expect nothing less from our fellow writers..

 

[BobbyBrandt]

My expectations about votes and their relationship to quality are low. Both from readers and from writers (they're mostly the same, actually). Lit scores are, and should be, about underbelly feelings.

I respect your position, but that raises another question...

Your comment implies that you have some experience with writers here also being readers of your work. I'm not questioning that, but I am curious how you identified them.

For myself, when I look at the list of followers I have, and then check out their profiles, few if any have posted stories here. Even fewer of the named users providing feedback are writers here. These could be unique to me, but is there some other means to determine if readers of your work are also writers?

 

[MelissaBaby]

I respect your position, but that raises another question...

Your comment implies that you have some experience with writers here also being readers of your work. I'm not questioning that, but I am curious how you identified them.

For myself, when I look at the list of followers I have, and then check out their profiles, few if any have posted stories here. Even fewer of the named users providing feedback are writers here. These could be unique to me, but is there some other means to determine if readers of your work are also writers?

I usually get a few comments from other authors. Some I know from here, but I also commonly check the profile of commentors.

 

[SimonDoom]

The way I see it, I don't feel qualified to express an opinion on BDSM, Lesbian, or other categories that are foreign to me. I might be able to evaluate the technical skill of the writing, but deciding if the story has merit would be difficult without a frame of reference to the lifestyle involved. That's not being judgemental, it's just that others more familiar with the reality being written about should be the ones to gauge its quality

 

[SimonDoom]

No, if they post in a category, they would be eligible to vote on that category. It might make sense to give priority to writers who are most prolific in a category, but it wouldn't have to exclude anyone.

Writers who published in multiple categories would be eligible for nomination in each.

I have some difficulty with this view. I do NOT believe that whether one has published a story in a particular category has any bearing on whether an author is capable of evaluating a story in that category. Fiction is fiction. I haven't published any Romance stories, but I've read dozens and dozens of romance novels. I'm no less able to vote on a Romance story than someone who is a prolific author of stories published in that category. Plus, the fact that someone has published a BDSM story doesn't mean they actually know anything about BDSM. I think the assumptions underlying this exclusive approach are deeply flawed.

If I thought a contest like this might yield enough votes that they could be a statistically significant sample, then I might see this has having some value, but that almost certainly will NOT be the case, and any further limitations on eligibility will make the problem only worse. I see this as having a big risk of being a mere popularity contest.

One other thing: As I've said before, what the site cares about is READERS, not AUTHORS. Scores and lists and contest results exist primarily not to pat authors on the back but to give readers information with which to assist them in choosing stories. I doubt the Site would perceive an author vote based on few votes as having any value to readers.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I have some difficulty with this view. I do NOT believe that whether one has published a story in a particular category has any bearing on whether an author is capable of evaluating a story in that category. Fiction is fiction. I haven't published any Romance stories, but I've read dozens and dozens of romance novels. I'm no less able to vote on a Romance story than someone who is a prolific author of stories published in that category. Plus, the fact that someone has published a BDSM story doesn't mean they actually know anything about BDSM. I think the assumptions underlying this exclusive approach are deeply flawed.

If I thought a contest like this might yield enough votes that they could be a statistically significant sample, then I might see this has having some value, but that almost certainly will NOT be the case, and any further limitations on eligibility will make the problem only worse. I see this as having a big risk of being a mere popularity contest.

One other thing: As I've said before, what the site cares about is READERS, not AUTHORS. Scores and lists and contest results exist primarily not to pat authors on the back but to give readers information with which to assist them in choosing stories. I doubt the Site would perceive an author vote based on few votes as having any value to readers.

I admit that this is a fantasy, especially if there would ever be any hope of getting the site admins somehow involved. If the fantasy was to ever become a reality, it would be through we authors undertaking it ourselves, which I do not see happening. This is not a culture known for its peer support.

I think the assumptions underlying this exclusive approach are deeply flawed.

However, the "assumptions" as you put it, are actually based upon existing practices in other fields where peers rate peers. Although peer awards exist in many industries, I will again use the Academy Awards as an example since it is something that a lot of people are familiar with:

While all members of the Academy are eligible to vote on the "Best Picture", only members with proven expertise in specific fields get to vote on awards for participants in those fields. A camera person voting on the "Best Cinematography" award may not have ever won the award, but logic holds that by virtue of their experience, they are better qualified to judge the work of their peers than someone who has never operated a camera.
I would not propose that every writer who ever posted a story in a specific category get to vote, but those with the most reader awards in that category as an example, would seem like someplace to start. It's tougher to mitigate the popularity contest challenge since that requires morally and ethically endowed participants focused upon the work being evaluated over all else.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I admit that this is a fantasy, especially if there would ever be any hope of getting the site admins somehow involved. If the fantasy was to ever become a reality, it would be through we authors undertaking it ourselves, which I do not see happening. This is not a culture known for its peer support.



However, the "assumptions" as you put it, are actually based upon existing practices in other fields where peers rate peers. Although peer awards exist in many industries, I will again use the Academy Awards as an example since it is something that a lot of people are familiar with:

While all members of the Academy are eligible to vote on the "Best Picture", only members with proven expertise in specific fields get to vote on awards for participants in those fields. A camera person voting on the "Best Cinematography" award may not have ever won the award, but logic holds that by virtue of their experience, they are better qualified to judge the work of their peers than someone who has never operated a camera.
I would not propose that every writer who ever posted a story in a specific category get to vote, but those with the most reader awards in that category as an example, would seem like someplace to start. It's tougher to mitigate the popularity contest challenge since that requires morally and ethically endowed participants focused upon the work being evaluated over all else.

Keep in mind, the Academy Awards voting is conducted by an independent accounting firm, not members of the Academy.

It seems like what you are describing is more like a juried film festival, such as Cannes or Sundance, than the Academy Awards.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I respect your position, but that raises another question...

Your comment implies that you have some experience with writers here also being readers of your work. I'm not questioning that, but I am curious how you identified them.

For myself, when I look at the list of followers I have, and then check out their profiles, few if any have posted stories here. Even fewer of the named users providing feedback are writers here. These could be unique to me, but is there some other means to determine if readers of your work are also writers?

Looking at the first 20 named users who commented on my latest story here, I think about 4 of them are authors who I've seen post on the forums here, another 4 have stories but don't post on forums that I follow, one is a non-author who posts on forums sometimes, and the other 11 have no stories and are unfamiliar to me. So 40% authors.

I'm pretty sure fewer than 40% of registered users have stories on Literotica, so at least by that one small possibly non-representative sample the authors are pulling their weight in the comments section.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I'm still deciding on my pick, and I'm going to follow my idea by only considering stories in categories that I myself contribute to.

The way I see it, I don't feel qualified to express an opinion on BDSM, Lesbian, or other categories that are foreign to me. I might be able to evaluate the technical skill of the writing, but deciding if the story has merit would be difficult without a frame of reference to the lifestyle involved. That's not being judgemental, it's just that others more familiar with the reality being written about should be the ones to gauge its quality

I'm sympathetic to what you're aiming for here, but I'm not sure "has written stories in this genre" is a good litmus test for that familiarity. Plenty of people write in BDSM and/or Lesbian with zero real-life experience in those topics. Sometimes their stories do quite well, especially with readers who also don't have that experience.

(One hopes that in categories such as Incest and Erotic Horror, neither the authors nor the readers have RL experience.)

I admit that this is a fantasy, especially if there would ever be any hope of getting the site admins somehow involved. If the fantasy was to ever become a reality, it would be through we authors undertaking it ourselves, which I do not see happening. This is not a culture known for its peer support.

I don't think that's entirely fair. We have our frictions, as does any large social group, but plenty of peer support does happen here too. We have countless discussions on these forums on things like writing technique, finer points of grammar and vocabulary, the nitty-gritty of the story process here, options for selling one's work, authors offering feedback on one another's work, people organising story events, and so forth.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Keep in mind, the Academy Awards voting is conducted by an independent accounting firm, not members of the Academy.

It seems like what you are describing is more like a juried film festival, such as Cannes or Sundance, than the Academy Awards.

I used the Academy Awards simply as an example people would be familiar with and not to advocate for their procedures exclusively. There are hundreds of other organizations, from the medical field, to technology, to other arts, and even writers' guilds that conduct peer review programs and issue awards.

All much more professional and organized than anything we could hope to accomplish on Literotica. It would be nice though, if a more altruistic culture could be cultivated here. I am resolved to try and hand out more "pats on the back" to my fellow writers. I know that I haven't done that enough in the past.