For those of you wondering if we're going to hold a "Guess Who Wrote These Stories" little guessing game, well, guess again.

Here's the dilemma. We want to keep anonymity throughout the voting phase too. Well, if I'm an author, I know that I wrote my story, so if I put that down, then my anonymity is blown. If I put someone else's name down, and switch mine with their name, then that'd be easy to figure out too, especially if I was the other author. If I leave my name off, and people know I've written a story, then that gives other clues too. Or if I don't guess on certain stories, that might indicate that I wrote one or more of them.

See what a clusterfuck something simple like this can become?

If you folks want to do some guessing, the only thing I can suggest is that we wait until either an hour or two before voting ends, or, during the hour when voting has ended and before we post the results. We won't hold up results long, but, an hour would be reasonable.

Thoughts?

 

The most I can do is guess the gender of the writers.

 

Do away with anonymity altogether.

Hey, you asked.

But seriously, I don't see what the problem is. If I guess on every story, then I'm clearly familiar with the writing style of enough authors on the site that it should be trivial to come up with a reasonable false guess for my story. If I only guess on a few stories, I could leave mine out, or I could still give a false guess just to be misleading. And if I inadvertently leave clues in my guesses, well, so what? That's just one more puzzle piece that people can use to help them with their own guesses. How is that any different from, say, cross-referencing the stories where the authors commented they started their stories late with the comments in the "Writing Phase" thread where forum members announced their last-minute entries?

Then again, I really don't care if people guess my story correctly. In fact, I'm tempted to write a story for the next anonymous CAW that's so obviously mine that people would guess it by the time they finished reading the first paragraph. And if that doesn't work, I'll make comments through CAW SOP that give so many clues to my identity that pretty much everyone will figure it out. And just for fun, I'll write comments as Daddycums that hint at insights into the author's mind, without coming right out and saying it. In other words, I'll try to be as non-anonymous as I possibly can without stepping over the line.

Can you tell I'm not a big fan of anonymity?

 

If the host says no guessing games, then no guessing games, I guess. I've been arguing with myself about all the entries so much that I have no fire left to debate or contribute anything substantial to this. And it's not really that important to me.

Did I just say that?

**goes into solitary confinement wearing a straight jacket and guesses aloud**

 

Personally,

I like the way a host can choose to do the anonymous-entry aspect for their CAW Hosting.

When it comes to guessing who wrote what, two complications from my view:

First and most obvious from my side - my ability to guess is near-zero at best. That is how diverse the writing talent of the entries is.
Second - when I enter a story I do not see it as right for me to 'guess' at my own stories.

Needless to say, I hold still that each CAW Host who debates doing the 'guessing game' should decide how they will handle it.

 

My personal opinion is close to Snow's. I have real guesses for only two stories and those are not so much guesses as innate knowledge that a specific friend has written that story.

The thing is that I do not really care who writes a good story as long as I can enjoy it (Jade's Nightmare aside). Some writers on this site have the ability to do multiple styles of storytelling with multiple types of story and that is only a good thing - the readers can enjoy many different stories - but that also limits the ability of the reader to guess which writer wrote any specific piece of work without knowing ahead of time just who MIGHT have written the work.

Please note that when I vote on these entries, I have at least attempted to read (this is the first contest where I will vote after not completing all stories) each story all the way through with no skipping parts of the work. Unfortunately, I view part of the challenge of being a writer to be able to draw a reader into the story whether they want to read it or not. This was not done by one of the submissions this time around so no matter how well that submission adhered to the tenets of THIS comp, I will not be able to vote for it.

Anonymity or no anonymity does not matter to me except in the situation where a contestant uses their name or promise of some other reward to draw votes to their story without those voters actually participating in the comp by attempting to read all the submissions.

 

I remember one of the contests you 'guessed' that I wrote one of the stories that you actually wrote. I didn't think "Oh so Horse thinks I wrote such and such story but I didn't so he must be the author himself" I just assumed you guessed wrong. As I'm sure most of my and most of the other readers guesses will be wrong, as they almost always are, I doubt it makes a lick of difference.

I think a general honor code of don't guess you wrote the stories you actually wrote and don't not guess on the one or two stories you wrote thereby leaving it obvious. With an addendum of don't sell out any of your coauthors if they exist. The sort of stuff that one would think should go without saying but in fact needs to be explicitly stated.

Norton's option makes sense too. You're the bossman what you say goes. If you call off the guessing game its your call to do so.

Option C: have the guessing game be anonymous sent in to the CAWSOP account... more work for you and NEW but you can reveal who got the most correct guesses (1st 2nd 3rd place guessers) after the polling period ends. If people bitch about lack of transparency on the completely prizeless guessing game they have far too much time on there hands.

Shit there might be even more options I can't think of.

 

Isn't the whole point to have silly fun, anyway? So why so serious? As for anonymity, I support it. Then again, I don't find it that big of a deal either way.

 

I won't bitch about the lack of transparency, but I would most definitely bitch about taking all the fun out of guessing.

Having the entries anonymous ruins one of the best parts of posting stories on this site: interacting with the readers. I know, I know, I can comment through CAW SOP. But it's just not the same. There are too many things I just can't say because they would be too revealing, so my comments mostly end up being generic thank-yous. No fun at all.

The lack of fun is partially offset by the fun of the guessing game. I like to post guesses, sometimes misleading ones. I like to comment when people guess which story I wrote. I like to explain why I made certain guesses, and see if people agree or if they can poke holes in my logic. I like to post partial guesses to see if anyone can narrow it down a little more. I like to see if the misleading hints I made on the stories accomplished their purpose. It has nothing to do with whether I'm right or not, and everything to do with interacting with the other forum members. If it's all anonymous, I wouldn't even waste my time.

 

Here's my updated list o' guesses.


Black by Pearl Jam – No idea
Before He Cheats – Haven't a clue
Kung Fu Fighting – Your guess is as good as mine
Por Una Cabeza – No idea
Take the Pill by Emilie Autumn – Could be anybody
Take My Breath Away by Berlin – No idea
I Think We're Alone Now - ???
Almost Paradise by Ann Wilson/Mike Reno – I don't know
I Wanna' Fuck You – Not sure
Ultimate Devotion – No idea
Love Bites – Unknown
State Fair – Anonymous
Born To Be Wild – No idea
The Werewolf – I got nothing on this one
Seduced – Nothing comes to mind
Roxanne – Not the slightest idea

 

Oh, come now, AZML. There is at least one story in there which is unmistakable in its origin. I have some personal information which makes another one obvious to me, but I will not mention that one at this time.

Snowleapard has definitely thrown his hat into the ring with Almost Paradise.

 

That was meant as a joke. I have a good idea about 4 stories, and weak guesses about several others, but I'm respecting Horse's wishes and not posting them publicly.

 

Thanks Snow

Thanks Snow for your "Honorable Mention" in your post. I missed the deadline by one hour.
My stories are usually very predictable and written in a style I'm sure would be easily recognised by many readers.


ON TOP OF OLD SMOKY

https://forum.xnxx.com/showthread.php?390128-CAW-19-MISSED-DEADLINE

 

color me with egg on my face - I missed that comment

 

Welcome,

I loved the story, and distinctive or not, it still qualifies as a true gem in its own right.

Stories of such quality, as many here in the site can write, is what I hope to achieve some day soon.

 

Don't wrack your brains too hard. There is no way anyone can think of everything with contingency plans for any unexpected situation that might occur. Still, very good thinking. That code of honor you mentioned is what I assume everyone goes by, but I do agree that it would have to be explained explicitly.

**puts on Heath Ledger Joker mask**

You're way ahead of me. I only have a "fair idea" on three or maybe just two stories.

 

Okay, what we're gonna' do is have anyone who wants to guess to send your guesses via PM to CAW SOP. Then, right when we close the voting, I'll post your guesses and you'll all be able to see how well each of you guessed.

Here's the list:

Black by Pearl Jam
Before He Cheats
Kung Fu Fighting
Por Una Cabeza
Take the Pill by Emilie Autumn
Take My Breath Away by Berlin
I Think We're Alone Now
Almost Paradise by Ann Wilson/Mike Reno
I Wanna' Fuck You
Ultimate Devotion
Love Bites
State Fair
Born To Be Wild
The Werewolf
Seduced
Roxanne

Just copy the list and then send it in.

NOTE: Only one guess allowed, so we're not going crazy getting a bunch of PMs, ok? And, no submitting on the day that voting ends, again, so I'm not going nuts that day.

Other than that...go for it!

 

Good idea, Horse. I'll keep working on my list.

Another thing I'm looking forward to is going back and reading the comments the authors left on their own stories. See who gave themselves a good or bad review.

 

Sigh. So much for having fun this time around. I won't even bother to guess. Too much hassle for not enough enjoyment.

Any word on when the results (of the voting, not the guessing) will be announced? I should probably check in once more just in case I win this time. It would be bad if there was no one to run CAW 20.

 

Can we combine it with our voting PM?
I assume as it isn't noted thus far that there will be a CAW 19 voting thread coming up after the reading phase ends.