Writing Contest 2024/II - Results

The results!!

The deadline has passed, the vote is now closed. It is time to officially announce the results.

Before I come to the winners, I want to point out that the total number of people who voted is down by a lot compared to previous rounds. In this round, the Readers' Choice vote attracted the votes of 27 people. Compared to the 40, 38, and 36 of the previous rounds, that is a significant step down. However, those rounds were all marred by suspected or even confirmed irregularities, typically in the form of votes cast by accounts suspected to be suck puppet accounts of a bad actor. This time, I have not seen any signs that similar activities took place. So perhaps the lower number of voters is only because the fake accounts didn't vote this time?

One last thing before I can open the envelopes and announce the winners. This contest is made possible by those who participate in any way. The writers, of course, who write and submit their fantastic stories. The voters. Those who left comments on the participating stories, to encourage and help writers get better. And of course the site administration for allowing us to run this contest.

In the Readers' Choice award, a total of 27 people voted for one or more stories as their favorite(s). This resulted in these vote totals:

1. A Life Worth Living by RoguePs (8 votes)
2/3 tie: The Time Traveler's Romance (7 votes)
2/3 tie: Norman's Time by Mek (7 votes)
4/5 tie: When Hell Freezes Over (6 votes)
4/5 tie: Living the wrong way by P.D.Vile (6 votes)
6/7 tie: La Pequena Bruja Blanca by Locutus2366 (5 votes)
6/7 tie: Ryder's Temporal Quest by keyontae (5 votes)
8/9 tie: Paradise Lost by onlypain46 (4 votes)
8/9 tie: Ghost Intent by mrblack187 (4 votes)
10/11 tie: What Is Time? by Beth98 (3 votes)
10/11 tie: Storming into History by SoGaHu (3 votes)
12/13 tie: My First Time (2 votes)
12/13 tie: Undoing by Benny-Blanco (2 votes)
14: Go fuck yourself! (1 vote)

But we also have the Writers' Choice award. All twelve participating writers were invited to select their top three. Four writers did not, for which they are penalized by a 6-point subtraction. The other eight writers did cast their votes, with the results as shown in the screenshot below:

Just as in the previous round, this round again shows huge differences between the average taste of readers and writers. Norman's Time is the only story to make it in both top-3's. However, most stories that end in the top half of one vote are also in the top half of the other vote. So besides the differences, there are similarities as well.

Once more, congratulations to all winners! Writers are now free to claim ownership of their stories. If you do, I'll request administrators to reassign ownership of those topics, so you can edit your stories if you want to. I will also update the opening post of this thread with the names of those writers. Writers who do not claim ownership of their work will remain anonymous. This means that you will also not be able to edit the story.

Please do not forget that the next contest round] has already started. Writers: Get cracking!