Alas, that is a problem. I find, the hardest part of participating in these contests is not only the commitment to write a story, but to also read all the stories and vote. Not everyone can get around to making that second part of the commitment.Originally Posted by norm
With that said, don't fret. It is the way of these contests and it won't change the subsequent competition.
FYI to all who haven't read and voted, you have six more days to do so.
I agree with norm on that one. We really need more people to vote.
If we don't get more, personally I'd be inclined to rethink how we select winning stories for the second and third rounds, even if we decide to let the results for this round stand. (Blame my background with studying statistical analysis and such in college. Low sample sizes are bad, okay?)
I agree, but as it stands, seven voters have made their choices. Seven people. Mine will be added at the end for, at least, a total of eight. That's a huge sample size compared to most other anthologies that may only have two, or three, folks choosing - at best!
Granted, some may argue that those anthologies have experienced editors reading and judging the stories, but...well...I guess I just don't know how else to do this that would include more readers/voters.
Suggestions?
EDIT: Oh, I did have another idea that I disregarded earlier on because there is no way to control it. I thought maybe we could rate each story? I see, now, that a member can rate a thread only once. So maybe that would work better? The three with the highest ratings get in? Rating is quicker than commenting and voting? Maybe?
Last edited by tmso; June 24th, 2012 at 11:30 PM.
It's been a perennial issue with these contests. When I started in the flash competitions, there were usually only like 6 or 7 stories max, which is a totally reasonable amount to read, and we'd only get one vote. The commenting was often just as much about the voter rationalizing their choice as it was about helpful commentary for the writer. As the contests have gotten more participants, the number of voters seems to have gone down.
There are a bunch of factors, but I think the two main ones are the lack of visibility of the contests outside the writing forum, and then the general lack of desire to read amateur fiction. Even if the contest was more visible elsewhere on the board, I don't think we'd see much increase in the way of readers/voters. In the end, when people read for entertainment they like an assurance of quality, and reading amateur writing-hobbyists' fiction doesn't often make the cut.
So, I don't think anything is likely to change much no matter what we do. Personally, I preferred back when it was only one vote. I find it harder, and more work, to select more stories. But that may just be me.
I have to agree there. I have a story in there and I do love reading short fiction so I happily started to read the stories in the competition. I didn't finish them all. I abandoned two after their first paragraphs.
As a result I don't think it's fair for me to vote.
I think it's perfectly fair - if they didn't grab your attention then that's a valid response, the same as any other reader might have. I read through them all as best I could, devoting more time to the ones that agreed with my own narrow preconceptions than the ones that didn't, and voted accordingly. Get those votes in!
Maybe the thread title isn't helping. It gives the impression we're just discussing the idea rather than actually moving forward with it and having a competition.
Exactly. Thank you, Fung.
I agree, but I need three stories from each contest.Personally, I preferred back when it was only one vote. I find it harder, and more work, to select more stories. But that may just be me.
JunkMonkey - please vote. As Zachariah said, if they do not grab you, if you can't even finish them, that's an assessment of the quality of writing right there. And that is perfectly valid.
Which thread title? This one? Or the Voting thread? I thought the voting thread was perfectly clear. I can change this one, if you all think it is needed.
I meant this one, as some folks may not realize anything is actually happening. And with the voting thread in the Stories forum, it may not be getting quite as much visibility as it normally would.
We could just add:
'Please vote in the Anthology Contest HERE'
In all our posts.
Last edited by JunkMonkey; June 25th, 2012 at 02:25 PM. Reason: an annoying space removed
I tried to change the name, but it didn't work for some reason...it has worked before...I'll try something else later on.
That's an idea, JM, but not sure it would be appreciated by all.
I made an announcement it in the new Promotion Zone. It's the best we can do for now.
Five days to vote. Hijole. I'll have to try to figure out something so I can vote and still survive my online level 300 class.
This is a good observation. Traffic in the stories sub forum is typically linked in from other threads, so I would guess that there's a lot less browsing traffic.
Adding ratings to the stories in the sub-forum could be a good way to promote the highest quality stories. The externally visible stories area has a rating system, and it tended to get used...
Well, one thing that could be done is to limit the voting to choosing two stories and then selecting one yourself just to try to balance the themes or whatever (based on your earlier criteria for tiebreakers that you mentioned). While obviously it's a little late to change the rules for this round without being unfair, it's something to think about.
On a semi-related note, are Hugh Howey and the other guest authors writing their stories with one of the three themes in mind? I'm asking because I'm curious what order we're going to put the stories in when we make the anthology. If they aren't, obviously we can't really sort by theme, so we have to come up with something else.
I've got three left to read and then I'll vote, hopefully by the end of day tomorrow.
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