contest voting periods

Facing

Facing

Working on it
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Sep 2, 2014
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The list of contests and challenges is growing to the point where reading and voting is becoming quite difficult. There has already been some talk of staggering the starts and deadlines for the longer forms and I was wondering what everyone thinks about organizing them such that it is easier for people to participate, read and vote in more or all of them.

For example if we
 
You've been cut off there, Facing, so I'll jump in and say that when I started the Micro-fiction Contests, I used a shorter writing period so the voting would fall mid-month rather then add to the end of month clusters. I can't imagine why that couldn't resume if we've slipped from the habit.
 
Andrew Leon Hudson said:
You've been cut off there, Facing, so I'll jump in and say that when I started the Micro-fiction Contests, I used a shorter writing period so the voting would fall mid-month rather then add to the end of month clusters. I can't imagine why that couldn't resume if we've slipped from the habit.
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Thanks Andrew that is exactly what I was going for. With all the contests it would be nice to have reading and voting every week not only to spread it out but also to instill the habit of reading and critiquing.
 
Yeah, I think I tried to write that stagger in the general contest guidelines, but I'm sure it slipped onto the wayside somewhere.

I suppose, we could put up a schedule somewhere? I'll ask Dag if the forum software has a calendar. I know the old one did.
 
Okay, so having a forum calendar is not as easy as I thought.

So, here's an idea.

How about, regardless of when a contest starts, it will end at a specific day of the month (depending on which contest it is). And the voting/reading period would be three to seven days after that day (depending on which contest).

For example:

Micro-flash contest
  • Will end (last day for submissions) on the end of third Wednesday of each month
  • Reading/voting period would be three days, which would mean the voting would end on the third Saturday of each month
Flash contest
  • Will end on the last Friday of each month
  • Reading/voting period would be five days, which would mean the voting might end sometime in the next month. To avoid this, we could bump the day from the last Friday to the last Wednesday or Tuesday
Short-story contest
  • Will end on the third Friday of each even month (Feb, Apr, Jun, Aug, Oct, Dec)
  • Reading/voting period would be seven days or till the end of that month (gives us a bit more time to read!)
The Novella/Novelette contests would be pretty much on their own since it would be kind of hard to figure out where they go, but we can always figure that out later.

Might something like this work?
 
It might be better to make it a number-date rather than day, since (for example) "the third Wednesday" one month might be the 15th, the next it might be the 21st, or something like that.
 
I'm with Andrew, I think dates will work better than days. The third Wednesday etc. just reminds me of all the difficulty I have figuring out when Easter is. ;)
 
Yeah, I think a number is good. Pretty sure the first couple of months, the micro deadline was around the 20th ,maybe even before, with three days for voting maybe? Then I think the voting was already done by the deadline for the flash entry, or shortly thereafter. That seems like a good goal for timing.
 
Right, I'll make an attempt to put numbers to the very good ideas above.

I've gone with the loose assumption that closing times would be midnight UTC. Feel free to chop and dice.

  • Micro-flash: submission ends 20th of each month voting ends 23rd- 3 days to review and vote (for Hoodwink)
  • Flash (aaa-haaa): submission ends 23rd of each month, voting (for Hoodwink) ends 28th - 5 days
  • Short: submission ends last day of even months, voting ends 7 days later (or until Hoodwink wins)
  • Novellette/Novella: submission ends 8th of (Jan, April, July, October), review pro-Hoodwink-voting until 20th - 12 days
If 4 longer-form contests in a year is too much and you'd prefer 3 (my preference), then replace (Jan, April, July, October) above with (Feb, June, October)
 
Hoodwink said:
Right, I'll make an attempt to put numbers to the very good ideas above.

I've gone with the loose assumption that closing times would be midnight UTC. Feel free to chop and dice.

  • Micro-flash: submission ends 20th of each month voting ends 23rd- 3 days to review and vote (for Hoodwink)
  • Flash (aaa-haaa): submission ends 23rd of each month, voting (for Hoodwink) ends 28th - 5 days
  • Short: submission ends last day of even months, voting ends 7 days later (or until Hoodwink wins)
  • Novellette/Novella: submission ends 8th of (Jan, April, July, October), review pro-Hoodwink-voting until 20th - 12 days
If 4 longer-form contests in a year is too much and you'd prefer 3 (my preference), then replace (Jan, April, July, October) above with (Feb, June, October)
Click to expand...

I like it. The flash and micro-flash contests would still be able to announce a winner in time for the next month's thread to start in time but for the longer contests we'd have to come up with a way to announce the themes (if any) two at a time so that the start of the subsequent contests are not delayed waiting for the announcement of a winner.
 
Perfect!

I have requested the changes. We'll try it out for a few months and see how well it works. Thanks everyone!

Now I have no excuse not to read and vote for each and every contest. ;)
 
N. E. White said:
By the way, I finally got around to updating the winner's thread. Check it out.
Click to expand...
Since you've raised it, a few of my entries there no longer have stories attached. I left the opening of each one in place, and I'm happy for them to stay linked because it's nice to be able to jump back and see the feedback I got, but you might want to add the red-note saying "no longer on forum" to The Seeding, Not Checking, Don Juans and Tear Drops, just to spare people a wasted click if they go browsing the list of winners.
N. E. White said:
Did you know that we've been running contests since 2006? We are coming up on a 10 year anniversary (Oct 2016). I wonder if we should do something special...
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Impressive!
 
Hmmm. If it genuinely encourages extra reading, voting and feedback, then I'm all for it... But I haven't found it onerous unless my life is onerous. My feeling is that the new competitions should fit around the long-standing ones (i.e. conclude mid-month) or whatever.

This only because programmatic and rigid deadlines and spans feel far too much like working life, and are not fun in any way.

That said, if one incredibly organised person were to run the deadlines and voting threads to match their preferred deadlines then it wouldn't matter so much, because there'd be an enforcer involved.... (Can you see me preparing the way for when I completely pick and set the wrong dates at some undetermined point in the future...?)
 
I removed one of mine back when I foolishly thought i might sell it... will check and let you know
 
N. E. White said:
I finally got around to updating the winner's thread.
Click to expand...
Some numbers:

06/11: 7 stories, 3 votes
07/5: 3 stories, 4 votes
08/2: 15 stories, 6 votes
08/5: 11 stories, 4 votes
08/6: 14x, 5 votes
08/7: 6 votes, 19x
08/8: 7 votes, 15x
08/9 13x, 3 votes
08/11 11x(35x), 3 votes
08/12 11x, 3 votes
09/1 11x 5 votes
09/2 13x 3 votes -> 3x 8 votes
09/3 14x 5 votes
09/4 16x 4 votes -> 2x 10
09/5 5 votes 16x
09/6 18x 10 votes
09/7 18x 8
09/8 21x 9v
09/10 7v 19x
09/11 23x 12v
09/12 10v 19x
10/1 16x 8v
10/1-2 5x 3
10/2 14x 7
10/3 10v 15x
10/4 11x 8v
10/5 7v 22x
10/6 10v 14x
10/7 12x 6
10/8 8v 15x
10/7-8 4v 6x
10/9 19x 6v
10/10 11x 11
10/9-10 2v 7x
11/1 14x 60pts
11/2 29x 6+v
11/2-3 6x 7
11/4 8v 19x
11/5 16x 9
11/4-5 10x 5
11/6 18x 9
11/6-7 2v 8x
11/8 8v 19x
11/8-9 1v 5x
11/9 3v 11x
11/10 11x 6
11/11 7x 3
11/12-12 5x 5pts
11/12 8x 21pts
12/1 7x 3
12/2 9x 4+v
12/1-2 9x 2v
12/3 14x 5
12/4 14x 5
12/3-4 2+v 6x
12/5 6v 10x
12/6 4v 14x
12/6-7 7x 19pts
12/7 14x(15x) 4v
12/8 3v 6x
12/7-8 3v 2x
12/9 5v 8x
12/10 5v 9x
12/9-10 4x 2
12/11 2v 5x
12/12 5x 3v
12/11-12 5x 3v
13/1 14x 4v
13/1-2 6x 3v
13/2 5v 8x
13/3 8v 5x
13/4 11x 5v
13/3-4 6x 4v
13/5 2+v 7x
13/6 10x 6v
13/5-6 4v 6x
13/7 4v 8x
13/8 6v 11x
13/9 6+v 8x
13/7-8 3v 4x
13/10 4v 5x
13/9-10 3v 4x
13/11 6v 7x
13/12 3v 6x
13/11-12 4v 3x
14/1 5v 4x
14/2 2+v 3x
14/1-2 4v 3x
14/3 5v 3x
14/4 3v 6x
14/5 2+v 6x
14/6 4v 9x
14/7 12x 6v
14/5-6 3x 3
14/8 8x 5v
14/9 9x 5v
14/7-8 3v 6x
14/10 7v 11x
14/11 4+v 4x
14/9-10 3v 6x
14/12 5v 9x
14/11-12 3v 8x
15/1 6v 10x
15/2 7x 3v
15/1-2 7x 2+v
15/3 7v 11x
15/4 7v 8x
15/3-4 5v 6x
15/5 4v 7x
15/6 7v 10x
15/5-6 6v 6x
 
I missed the voting window for micro this month because I was away from my computer. Couldn't the voting period on micro be increased to five days too? I read them all, just missed the vote. :(

I think longer voting periods all round would be better, since its always wise to re-read all entries before you cast your final vote(s), especially when its a tough decision.
 
Bodhi said:
Some numbers:
Click to expand...
Holy Cow, Bodhi. I'm not too sure what to think of all that. But...now I'm thinking a spreadsheet with links... Don't get me started!

Dreaming said:
I think longer voting periods all round would be better,
Click to expand...
I agree. For me, the longer the better. But let's try this for at least a month. Dag is going to place a box on the right-side panel with the deadlines. So we'll all be reminded of the deadlines. I think that would help a lot. If we find that folks are having a tough time getting in the votes, we'll consider extending them all.

I missed both the flash and the short this month. It just snuck up on me. I don't like to read the stories until AFTER the submission deadline because folks often change things around. Little things, but I like to read their best story and judge that. Anyway, it means I end up having less time to read/vote. I'm determined to make an effort to read the stories as they are posted and then get my votes in as soon as possible.
 
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