[NOV 2017] Water - Voting Thread

[Nora]

7 voters so far and no story with more than 3 votes. Interesting!

That would mean not everyone who wrote voted yet. What does it look like now, for our last contest of the year?

I'm baffled but re-reading my story I now realise that since I had to cut out great swaths of text including a visit to a women's "Abada", a private, female only public house with baths and whatnots, there are literally no obvious mentions of my character's gender, but the hint of hair being breaded, and the name Ilkaria at the very end.
Damn. I wonder how many read thinking it was a guy. 

[Lady Ty]

Hope everyone who has entered tells us when they have voted. TBH this is going to affect my future choices when decisions are close.

[Lady Ty]

Sorry accidental double post

Nora maybe we should discuss the gender thing more and elsewhere after voting closes. Interesting as to why it mattered.

[ScarletBea]

18 votes now, so I assume 9 voters.
Votes all spread out, 2 stories tied at the top (which isn't far away from the rest: 1 to 3 points!)

[Nora]

Hope everyone who has entered tells us when they have voted. TBH this is going to affect my future choices when decisions are close.

Oh really?
I mean, we should have a rollcall at the end for stragglers. Voting feels kind of compulsory for writers. Forgetting is fine, but name calls would help with that. I think I forgot once? I can't really remember.

Lady_Ty, id be glad to hear your thoughts. I don't know that it really mattered, it's just that she was so deeply a woman Explorator in my head, it was so part of her character, that I didn't even notice that it wasn't obvious anymore.
If I had had 4000 words I'd have tried to wedge some romance in there, since it seems to work wonders around here, hehe!

But Bea, you voted and you didn't write. So that's potentially 8 voters if Lady Ty hasn't voted yet, and if no two people didn't cast just one vote.

[Alex Hormann]

I haven't voted yet, but will do so later tonight when I've finished the last few stories.

[Lady Ty]

I voted ages ago but have been known to change my mind. Just to messyou all up.
Re my comment, truly think if you expect people to read, consider and vote for your story it  is only professional courtesy to the other writers to reciprocate. Yes, often accidental one off forgetting perfectly understandable, and I did once but only reader now, so would like to see all entrants acknowledge they voted.

[Eclipse]

I’ve not voted for a while because  I’ve noticed for a while now not all the writers vote and it has put me off.

[ScarletBea]

Strangely enough, since I get annoyed at so many little things, that actually doesn't bother me.
Yes, I think it's kinda rude, but it doesn't affect my voting.

By the way, if you've read all stories this year you can add 180,000 words to your count
(12 months x 1,500 words x average of 10 stories per month)

[Nora]

I’ve not voted for a while because  I’ve noticed for a while now not all the writers vote and it has put me off.

Maybe we should include it in the rules? To me it feels like a writer who doesn't vote does nothing more than unfair competition. If they win by a vote only, ideally they should be forced to cast their vote before reveal, as potentially their vote would make a sizeable difference. It's unfair. It means less demarcation in more competition. Also it's lazy.
Which is why it'd be great to have a check in system, allowing us to pm or @ the writers who haven't voted.
It's not like it's an issue! But it feels odd that it's not an ingrained rule in the game.
Plus if it puts off readers-only, it's an even bigger motivation.

[Alex Hormann]

And voted. Usually I only vote for one story, but I couldn't split my top two this time so went for them both.

[xiagan]

Ten voters so far.

The thing is that you can't enforce voting because a) you can't see who voted and b) if a writer is forced to vote and if they don't have time/interest to read the stories they may just vote based on the title, sympathies or totally random and I'm not sure that's better than not voting at all.

[Nora]

But what if voting was expected from the start? If you don't want to read stories, then don't enter? We only have 2 or 3, maybe 4 max people who read and vote only. If writers don't do the effort, then the contest collapses anyway.
I don't know, it seems that voting is just good manners and most writers do it. Wouldn't hurt to put the expectation of voting in the expected rules, I think. You may not be able to enforce them, but at least it sets the tone and expectation.

[xiagan]

Wouldn't hurt to put the expectation of voting in the expected rules, I think. You may not be able to enforce them, but at least it sets the tone and expectation.

That we can certainly do.

[Carter]

Now voted. 

A nice broad theme with some very interesting approaches - made it very difficult to pick out a couple of favourites.

In terms of the debate on voting, I always try to find time to do so, and certainly when I am in more of a reading / writing mode (as I am at the moment after a significant hiatus) even if I don't write a story for the month.  For me, contests like this are a great place to experiment with style, voice and hopefully improve my writing, so I always appreciate even a single vote.  As a result, I always feel that by voting, I may be able to show someone else that what they've done has reached out to at least one reader.