Anonymous Submission

[m3mnoch]

awww . . .  that makes me sad.

i think we, as a group, have mostly all moved on from fixing a broken contest to doing a fun experiment.  it started out with a worry about "the usuals" hoarding all the contest accolades and not letting anyone else get in on all the glamorous awards, but it feels like we're ending up in a place where we want to kind of gamify it for a month -- have fun with it and see what happens.

also, just in case you missed the sarcasm, eclipse was being funny about my comment.  i promise i never said i didn't believe people when they say they don't pick stories based on names.

it was actually this:

mostly, i was channeling my inner dialog over the last year when i would read jmack, tebakutis, or rukaio stories.  i'm like, "dammit.  that's in my top tier.  stop writing such good stories so i can vote for someone else!"

if anything, we're talking about unconsciously not voting for specific authors because they've already won so many times.  not the other way around.

*shrug*

[Lady Ty]

@m3mnoch, Grrrrr  of course I know you jest and that Eclipse was teasing, I read both threads through carefully. Fine to experiment and the democratic vote wins anyway.





My comment was because there must have been complaints or comments to make the need arise for either poll in the first place and that always sounds like sour grapes to me.  Raptori's super number fun shows those complaints are unjustified anyway.

[m3mnoch]

*whew*

i was terrified that i'd disappointed you.

really, that was it.

wasn't anything else.

nope.

nothing.

especially not all those toothy, firebreathing friends you have swooping around.

they weren't a concern at all.

*gulps*

*loosens collar*

*smiles weakly*

[The Gem Cutter]

Is there something I'm missing about these contests? Is there a carrot involved? Or is it just all stick? 

[m3mnoch]

for you?  all stick!  hee-yah!

heh.

but, for reals, winners are posted on the front page of the main site:
http://fantasy-faction.com/2016/monthly-short-story-winner-known-title-unknown-story

we're currently a few months behind, but the website magicians are working their way through posting the winners.

so, the carrot is flagrant fame!

[The Gem Cutter]

Glad I'm the poet and the world will never know it (HA!) Don't think I'd want all that attention.

[Peat]

Not voting yet but so far more convinced by Nora's arguments of it sucking fun out of the discussion thread than anything else.

Maybe the answer is two contests.

[eclipse]

I think you trying to fix something which doesn't need fixing personally all this fuss from a throw away comment from the member nerf who couldn't be bothered to wait for the replies to his concerns.

[xiagan]

I think you trying to fix something which doesn't need fixing personally all this fuss from a throw away comment from the member nerf who couldn't be bothered to wait for the replies to his concerns.

Trying out anonymous submissions for one month is not "fixing" something in my eyes. It has no consequences and the relevance of different theme. It's just interesting to see what is different and why.

That comment would have fitted better in the other poll.

[Nora]

Ah, the two thread are very related, one springing from the other.

But yeah, I just hope people will realise our way of doing it right now works fine sooner than it took for the likes to come back.

[Peat]

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think my glib "Have another contest" answer might have mileage.

Lets say we add a Micro Fiction contest (100 words max) monthly with all entries anonymous.

We get

a) A better set of data for whether bias is affecting voting as we'd have an anonymous and non-anonymous vote every month (although not ideal comparables).

b) Another writing contest for experimenting in

c) The different format might sucker more people into the writing contests and people who start on the Micro might graduate to the current one

d) Another useful skill to learn

What we lose

A little focus I guess. That little bit more time. Possibly some other things.

Thoughts?

[xiagan]

Hm. I think it's already hard to get one contest going (means: having enough stories and enough people voting for them to be fun), but finding a sufficient amount of people to write and vote in two contests a month?
My fear is that this would just mean that we get two contests with about five stories each and let's say seven voters each. Which isn't something I'd like to see...

[Peat]

Hm. I think it's already hard to get one contest going (means: having enough stories and enough people voting for them to be fun), but finding a sufficient amount of people to write and vote in two contests a month?
My fear is that this would just mean that we get two contests with about five stories each and let's say seven voters each. Which isn't something I'd like to see...

The writing contest hasn't dipped below 11 people since April. I'd be very surprised if having two very different contests cleanly split the contestant pool with nobody doing both. Its possible but would be a surprise. I think nobody doing the micro-fiction would be far more likely and I think launching it would require a decent show of interest. I'd be surprised if we couldn't find that here but if we can't, fair enough.

[night_wrtr]

Hm. I think it's already hard to get one contest going (means: having enough stories and enough people voting for them to be fun), but finding a sufficient amount of people to write and vote in two contests a month?
My fear is that this would just mean that we get two contests with about five stories each and let's say seven voters each. Which isn't something I'd like to see...

I think agree with xia. A lot of the folks submitting also have one or two other WIPs that they are working on. So making time to do both might be too time consuming and could result in someone submitting to one, but not both. Which would drop the steady number of entries. Just my opinion mind, but something to think about.

[The Gem Cutter]

Buck up buttercups!