This thread is for asking questions about anything and everything to do with the Felix Felicis competition. I will take questions posted here and answer them on the FAQ page as well as in this thread.

Thank you for your cooperation. Don't be afraid to ask questions, because if you need to know the answer to something then a few hundred other people probably do too!

Thanks,
James

do we, as readers, rate when the story is completed if it's a multi chapter fic?
I would assume so, but wanted to be certain. And once rated, can we change a rating?

You can change your rating for a story at any time. What I would recommend doing is rating the story over all at the end of each chapter, dropping your rating if your enjoyment of the story decreases or increasing it if it increases.

The default rating shown is the rating you currently have for a particular story - it will be "average"/3 by default if you have not rated the story before.

The competition may end before multi-chapter fanfictions are completed, so I encourage rating the story at the end of each chapter .

Hm, I have an entry but I think it would need to be screened before it can be entered into the competition due to certain outcomes. Is there some way I can give a sample, un-edited/un-finished draft to another Moderator and get approval?

Er- posted this request somehwere else before but I don't think anyone saw it.

Will one of the mods take a quick look at my Breakaway story? I want to know if it's okay to enter the competition with it- granted, the plot isn't very developed yet, and I have weird ways of dealing with things, but if someone would take a look and tell me I can enter that would be great.

http://fanfiction.portkey.org/index.php?ac...ad&storyid=4682 -- That'd be the link to it.

Mara

I've gone all thru the rules and FAQ, and can't find a definite answer to this, namely, do entries still have to subscribe to Portkey's basic shipping policies? The reason I ask is that I've seen two one-shots so far that leave Hermione and Harry still separated, in both cases deciding that they can't follow up on their instincts to be together. While that alone is not a violation as I understand it, one leaves Hermione paired with Ron (Better Left Unsaid), the other leaves Ron with Hermione and Harry about to marry Ginny. Now I've read fics in the past that skirted this by having H/Hr having a secret relationship because they can't bring themselves to divorce the partners they married before they realized the truth, but these two don't even take it that far; BLU comes close, but I believe misses the mark.

Anyway, what exactly is policy on this subject? The majority of reviewers seem to be gushingly oblivious to the violations, so is it just me?

Fenris

'Better Left Unsaid' was difficult to write as it is (because of canon events) and is not meant to be a finality of any sort. I purposely made it just a 'cut' scene. Ron and Hermione aren't exactly together in this story but it does imply that Harry noticed something between the two of them. Even though it's a one shot, it's still an open ended story. I know that the ending isn't particularly happy but I hoped that the reader could see that there is no door-closed-shut finality to it. I pretty much adopted the same writing attitude that led me to writing 'The Best Friend.'

I only posted 'Better Left Unsaid' in Portkey because of the competition (otherwise, it's just in ff.net). Reading the rules of the competition several times, I wondered about its qualifications. If my submission is indeed unqualified, then I ask the admins to remove the story.

All submissions must meet the site rules, but that is the only criteria, other than the criteria listed on the competition webpage.

I have been very busy of late and will not have time to review your story. If it does not violate any site rules and meets the assignment criteria then it is welcome to stay. If you are unsure whether it does this or not please respond again here and I will see if I can get a fanfiction moderator to review it.

Sorry for the delayed response.
James

Please forgive me if I'm being stupid, as I think I've checked everywhere and still haven't found the answer, but I may have missed something.

Is there a specific rule about what sort of fic should be written? As in, is there a prompt or some required elements? From the rules page, it seems as if any post-HBP story would be eligible, but as I'm interested in entering (all the hoopla after the interview made me want to try my hand at H/Hr), I'd like to know what I'm getting into.

i just wanted to know. i entered a draco/ginny fic and i was wondering is it okay to enter it? i mean, all the fics i've seen in the competition are H/Hr and i'm not sure whether i was making the right choice by entering it.

can the authors see My vote when they log into the competetion or can they se a overall rating from all that has voted.
or can they see what overall rating they have at all.

greetings from rodrigo.

All you need to know about the criteria for entering can be found here:
http://fanfiction.portkey.org/felixfelicis/rules.php. Information is also listed in my post announcing the competition, on the portkey index: http://www.portkey.org



Unfortunitely, as stated on the index page at http://www.portkey.org - the competition is for Harry/Hermione stories only.



All voting is entirely anonymous. I am the only person that is able to see the votes, and that is because I have access to the database. I will be viewing the votes to check for any cheating that may take place, but beyond that the authors will *never* see the votes individual readers give their story. Nobody can see the overall rating that their story has so far, either. I am not sure if we will ever release those figures, but we will release the overall rating for the first 3 competition entries at the end of the competition when the winners have been announced.

Hi, I hope you guys don't think I'm utterly ridiculous, but...er...how do I actually enter my story in the competition? O.O

I NEED HELP FROM SOMEONE!! Preferably someone from the Admin.!!

I entered my story, Nine Long Months, into the FFF competition and I put an Author's note on there last night and now it's not in the competition anymore! Did something happen to it? Did I do somehting wrong? Press a wrong key? Please someone help me!!

ARGH! My story lost the tag, too! and it's gone from the competition list! Did I loose all my ratings too?

Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi! You're my only hope!

PS: seems that whenever a competition entry story is updated it's removed from it. THATS NOT FAIR!!! What if there are people wanting to vote right now?

I don't seem to be able to vote, even though I'm obviously logged in...trying to relog in the actual felixfelicis competition window does nothing but refresh the page and I'm still unable to vote...any explanations? O_o

The Felix Felicis section itself is just the display end of the database. The table of fics being voted on is there, but actual voting is done elsewhere. When you read a competition fic here on Portkey, there's a place to rate the fic at the bottom, just above the spot where you give reviews. Hope that helps,

~Jonathan

I think you are too late. The voting process officially started on Monday (Aug. 15) and they said something about no more stories could be entered after that, so again, I think you might be too late.

Yeah, i think that's what happened. I mean, I updated late night and that's when I noticed that it was taken off the competition. But, I talked to James and he got mine back in, so if yours is still out of it, then talk to James and he'll fix it.

Maybe it only happens to some of us (the updating taking it out of the competition), because I have a friend whos in the competiton, but when she updates, it's not taken out, so.... idk. I hope you get yours back!

Are you logged in on the fanfiction portion of the site? Because, being logged into the forums does nothing, you have to be a portkey member in the fanfiction section, or an author. If you log in (as you say you do) then when you read the competition fics, there should be a rating box at the bottom of the page, right above the reviewing box. But, if one isn't there, then it's either not a competition fic, or you aren't logged in.

I guess that's it, although that seems like a weird system to me O_o There's definitely no rating box under the entry.

Okay...so how do I sign up there, there's no "register!" link next to the login form like you would expect. There's a link that's underneath the username text box that I can't click, could that be it?


Edit: I found a link in one of the forums to the registration page so problem solved. Thanks!

Or, the easier way is that there's a link on the home page of the site and it says "register". But, I'm glad you found it and you batter hurry up with it or you wo' be able to vote for anything.

Hi everyone,

With regard to the concerns about stories "dropping out of the competition" I have solved that problem, which I have discovered was a bug. Essentially after I disabled entries to the competition, any stories where the author pressed "edit" and changed the story description caused their story to drop out of the competition.

I have fixed this problem and I believe I've restored all stories affected.

I am going to extend the voting period until Wednesday so that the stories affected have a fair chance in getting plenty of votes - so that we can truly measure what the members of Portkey think of them. I have also adjusted the formula for working out how to order stories so that those stories with less votes will be displayed closer to the top, and those stories with more votes will be displayed closer to the bottom.

The vote is not affected in any way by a story's current rating, so there is absolutely no way to tell who is winning or anything like that. The rankings are based primarily on the number of votes a story has, but also takes into account the date it was entered into the competition and if the story has been updated.

James

This is a draco/ginny fic --> http://fanfiction.portkey.org/story/4949

It shouldn't be in the competition, should it?

Thanks

I had my story, Hunting for Horcruxes, in the competition, but it got dropped. I deleted it, then tried to re-enter it, but the option to enter it wasn't there. Is there any way to get back in?

I am getting anxious to know who will win the competition--I have my guesses, of course, though it's hard, there were so many good entries!

When will the results be posted? I know that voting ends in about 1.5 hours, but... how long will we wait until we know? (This competition has given me -so- much hope. Some of these fics are so clever and smart... *sigh!*)

Animagus-Steph

Yeah - same here...Isn't it over yet? Give us the results! Though I have a pretty good idea who's the winner already One of my favorite stories - hope the autor keeps updating it more frequently though.
And I'd like to see the results for ALL stories, not just the winners...

No, you can't. That's what James told me anyway.

No, you can't anymore. The competition is over and the story closing date was about two weeks ago anyway. The last week or so was just for the official voting.

Same with me. I'd like to know the results as well and get the prizes shipped out. But, I'm sure it will take a few days time, I mean there was over one hundred entries, so they have to get that all worked out. Plus, James is still in school, and that takes some time as well.

So guardian, who's do you think will win?

Perhaps James or NAPPA should remove it then.

Thank you.I found that when I reread the rules after the option disappeared.

I'm curious about the statistics here...the low review stories couldn't have had a real statistical chance against those with high review numbers.

How were you weighting the values then?

The ratings came down to averages.

So, if 2 people rated one story with a rating of 4 and 5, the story would recieve an average rating of 4.5

If 4 people rated one story and recieved a 3, 4, 3, 4, that story would recieve an average rating of 3.5.

This is a very simple example - all stories recieved a large number of ratings - but it shows that no matter how many ratings a story gets, they are no advantaged or disadvantaged because it is an average number.

Secondly, low reviews had nothing to do with the competition. Even if a member wasn't prepared to review the story, he or she may still choose to rate the story.

I hope that answers your questions
James

There was talk about letting the authors see what place they held in the competition once it was over. Is that idea still out there or did it die of lonelyness?