Here is the explanation of the judging process as it worked previously.

https://www.lushstories.com/forum/welcome-to-lushstoriescom-site-guidelines-help/the-competition-judging-process

Quoting Nicola --

"Typically the top 20 - 30 stories (depending on the # entries and story lengths) based on highest average score, are then read by myself or someone deputizing for me if I do not have the time.

- That list is whittled down to a Top 10 which are then sent to a panel of judges."

Will "highest number of Likes and Favorites" now substitute for "highest average score" in choosing the "top 20-30 stories" from which the comp winners will be chosen?

That is my concern.

Quote by CallmeJayne

As opposed to the most unpopular authors you mean?

Isn't it likely that the shortlist will be drawn from those stories that meet the qualifying level of votes, favourites, likes et al?

In other words, no change.

I'd say it's quite a change, Jayne.

Previously, assuming a comp entry received the required minimum of 10 votes, it was the average score that determined the finalists. Total number of views and votes factored into it less, if at all.

Naturally, the more people who read a story, the more "Likes" that story will receive. And the more friends and followers an author has, the more people are going to read their story.

Now we'll be able to see how many readers "Liked" a story; but with no subjective scoring, there's no indication of how many other readers may have found the story less than a "5", by comparison.

And instead of a writing challenge, the competition becomes little more than a popularity contest among the most well-known Lush authors to accumulate "Likes".

This is going to discourage new and lesser-known authors from entering comps.

I can't believe no one has asked this yet, but --

How will the new system work with competitions? Will the stories with the most "Likes" (which is going to correlate closely with the most reads) become the finalists?

This would seem to give a major advantage to the most popular authors.