VOTING Below are links to each of the stories in the voting poll above. Voting will be open until midnight (GMT -4), August 14, 2015. The voting period has been extended until August 21! 1) And Then There Were Two 2) Dear Sister Angelica 3) The Fall of Calakmul 4) Revenge 5) Fred 6) A Bit of Rain 7) Painted Lady 8) Even Odds 9) Freedom and Responsibility 10) Twenty-Two 11) Quick Getaway 12) Mushrooms & Rainbows
I don't know if that's allow @Woof. I've run contests on other forums where discussion of the works was encouraged or even required (for voters). At the very least, though, I'd say people shouldn't identify which works belong to which member, since that would run counter to the Anonymizer
Know what you mean... I've seen the full gamut from absolute radio silence to full mandatory meaningful crit! It'd be nice to have a bit of discussion though, having taken the time to read them all.
I had a post on this in the contest entry info: @Wreybies is in charge of this contest but, in general we have waited to discuss entries until the voting closes. There could be undue influence if people commented sooner.
I disagree. People can vote without reading all the stories, or without really thinking it through. With so few voters, even if only a few people do this, this lowers the chances of the best story winning. By discussing our opinions, potential voters can be better informed before they vote.
I understand this POV but there is the potential for both, helping and hurting. And if one person influences others it's like they get more than one vote.
Stories don't exist in a vacuum. They exist in part so they can be discussed and shared. It's called literary criticism. I don't see why these entries should be exempt from that. Not to mention, there's no way to stop members from talking in private. All they need to do is PM me and we can start a large conversation with all interested members. EDIT: Not to mention. There are a lot of entries. Would be voters might miss things.
Why don't you ask @Wreybies? He's the administrator on this contest. As for discussions in PMs, obviously that's up to you.
I'm just a voter, not an entrant. I don't care THAT much. There's a lot of other things I'd want from @Wreybies if he would agree to listen
210 members visited in the last 24 hours and we have 2 more votes. Not quite stellar, but after a three-way tie a sleeper pulls ahead.
When all votes are counted, I'd love a discussion on the stories submitted and would be happy to start the thread. As far as during the voting???--not so big on that. I think all can form their own opinions w/0 others telling us what they do or don't like.
Contest remains tight with narrow lead for front-runner and five-way tie for 2nd entering the extended 3rd and final week. Read and vote on these wonderful stories!
I'm wondering if we could start a conversation later about limiting the number of entries for some contests. Once there are over 10 or so, I get overwhelmed and don't read. I was excited to read these stories and the Afterlife contest, but the number of hours it would take me to read them all is just unrealistic with how much I have going on in my life. I understand the perspective that limiting is unfair for various reasons, but I think the low voter turnout is for the reason I've expressed. When reading a ton of stories seems like more of a drag than a joy, fewer people want to participate. Not trying to be overly critical or a downer, but I think it's worth sharing this with Wreybs and others involved in these processes. On the LitReactor website, which is pretty commercial and very different from here, I know, they have a pretty exciting short story contest system. They have a contest only every few months too, which is different. But what they do is make it so that people will only read your story if you offer crits to other submissions in the contest. This results in dozens of critiques on the page of the non-anonymous submission that fuel a frenzy of votes and critiques. A very lively and worthwhile experience. Of course, the winner(s) get money and publication. Again, very different system with different incentives. I don't mention the above system as to say WF should adopt it. But there are many ways that writing contest and work and there are pros and cons to them all. Maybe since there seems to be some critical feedback here there's potential to open the conversation up to modifying the system within reason to try some experimentation in the future. After, there could be a debrief and discussion on what worked and what didn't. All that said, I do think that the way the system is working currently is fine. I've just been a tiny bit frustrated when seeing an enormous number of submissions. "Enormous number" is subjective too but for me it's felt that way the last couple contests. Maybe I just need to set more time aside but whatever, that's my view.
