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You are here: Home > Forum > A Place of Safety > Literary Merit > A change to our challenges
A change to our challenges  [message #73530] Tue, 17 October 2017 21:28 Go to next message
timmy

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We are dropping the poll for "Favourite Story" because it means competition. We want to get back to fun. What question shoudl replace it?



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: A change to our challenges  [message #73532 is a reply to message #73530] Wed, 18 October 2017 02:11 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Mark

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Personally, even though I've never had a story in any of the contests, I wouldn't mind leaving the "Three Favorite Stories" option in.  Even with that question, I've never seen the challenges as any sort of competition between authors (though, granted, that may just be me).
Re: A change to our challenges  [message #73533 is a reply to message #73530] Wed, 18 October 2017 08:45 Go to previous messageGo to next message
cm is currently offline  cm

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Maybe 'It makes me want to read a sequel'?

...enough interest and maybe authors would write one
Re: A change to our challenges  [message #73535 is a reply to message #73530] Wed, 18 October 2017 10:10 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ivor slipper is currently offline  ivor slipper

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This is a rather different reason to that given in your previous email message. That seemed to be a combination of 'some authors are dragooning their friends to vote for their stories' and 'I don't agree with how people have voted.'

If you really want to remove competition then shouldn't you also do away with the individual rating of each story? After all some stories get more people rating them than others...... 
Re: A change to our challenges  [message #73536 is a reply to message #73530] Wed, 18 October 2017 15:19 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Rick is currently offline  Rick

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Speaking from a writer's point of view I think the "best interpretation" vote and the "favourite" vote both come down to individual voter's own preference and so does not make a true comparison between the widely different stories (as we got in this last challenge) and so could easily go.  The separate list of options to choose from at the end of the story is again subject to individual tastes but I find it interesting to see what readers think. Perhaps readers could be asked if they would like to see other options to choose from and then it could be put to a vote as to which ones be included for future 'votes'.



Rick
Re: A change to our challenges  [message #73538 is a reply to message #73533] Thu, 19 October 2017 09:02 Go to previous messageGo to next message
William King is currently offline  William King

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"cm wrote on Wed, 18 October 2017 10:45"
Maybe 'It makes me want to read a sequel'?

...enough interest and maybe authors would write one

--
Perhaps you could try a competition (there is nothing wrong with competitions) where entries are short stories, limited to 2500 or 3000 words on a broad subject and with some simple voting criteria. The summary vote being as suggested by cm, would you want to read more.

If the author entering the competition has a completed book, they simply enter the first chapter. This would make reading quick and easy plus give authors feedback on writing the whole book.

The simple criteria would be: easy to read, good writing style, entertaining, interesting interpretation, plus the "Would you want more?" The results get presented as a pie chart (less emphasis on a winner!), the number, percentage, of readers wanting more for each story.


Re: A change to our challenges  [message #73542 is a reply to message #73535] Thu, 19 October 2017 18:35 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

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"ivor slipper wrote on Wed, 18 October 2017 11:10"
This is a rather different reason to that given in your previous email message. That seemed to be a combination of 'some authors are dragooning their friends to vote for their stories' and 'I don't agree with how people have voted.'

--
There was no dragooning, but there have been reports of people 'protecting' their favourite author.

I think some less well known authors may not have been treated evenly becaise of that.



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: A change to our challenges  [message #73546 is a reply to message #73542] Fri, 20 October 2017 10:41 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ivor slipper is currently offline  ivor slipper

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Quote:
timmy wrote on Thu, 19 October 2017 18:35
Quote:
ivor slipper wrote on Wed, 18 October 2017 11:10This is a rather different reason to that given in your previous email message. That seemed to be a combination of 'some authors are dragooning their friends to vote for their stories' and 'I don't agree with how people have voted.'

--
There was no dragooning, but there have been reports of people 'protecting' their favourite author.

I think some less well known authors may not have been treated evenly becaise of that.

--
You are evidently privy to information than I am not. 

However, one comment and thought that probably does lead to the figures appearing to be skewed. Taking the 'Interpretation' as an example, this shows at the top, a total of 32 'Votes' although I must contend that is actually 'Voters' since the number of votes cast totals 69. On that basis not all voters are casting the full 3 votes available and the average is just over 2. I strongly suspect that if everyone had to cast 3 votes there would be a more even final outcome.
Re: A change to our challenges  [message #73555 is a reply to message #73546] Sat, 21 October 2017 16:46 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Bisexual_Guy is currently offline  Bisexual_Guy

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Could it be that not everyone who voted is reading every story?  Before I voted for my three favorite stories, I read EVERY story in the challenge.  While I enjoyed every story, some in the challenge I liked more than others.  

Potential other questions instead of: "Which stories did you like the most?" might be, "Which two stories did you find most exciting?"  Or, "For which two stories would you most like to see a sequel or prequel written?"
Re: A change to our challenges  [message #73567 is a reply to message #73555] Thu, 26 October 2017 03:28 Go to previous message
Merkin is currently offline  Merkin

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Interesting comments.  Reading these stories--conceived, written, and posted as responses to a stated or pictured theme--has been, for me, a delightful undertaking. 
However, being asked to compare these stories one to another as entries in a competition resulted in a highly artificial sort of exercise. Personally, I found the questionnaire to be kind of goofy, offering a very uneven range of questions about possible reader reactions.  I suppose any limited set of questions would be equally inadequate. Aside from providing us a way to indicate whether we judged a story had fulfilled the stated theme, the questionnaire seemed unproductive as a way of recognizing particular qualities of any story, especially when each writer has a different take on the subject and/or situation. Apples and oranges, anyone? 
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