Past & Future Story Challenge 2014

My vote would be for an extension. I too am struggling to give the stories the time needed to read them properly. Some of them are a little long to read four or five in a night.

Eat your hearts out everyone - I have actually managed to finish reading all the stories . Although curiosity is killing me to find out if any of the stories I gave a 10 to won (I usually try to limit it to only one 10, but could not manage it this time), I agree with Guy that if people are under pressure then there is no harm in extending the voting deadline.

I am also way behind, but I am pretty sure I will finish on time. I even comment on all stories, but rather doubt that my comments will make it into the annals of literary criticism.

And just where do we stop extending the deadline if we begin. What happens if others are not yet finished? Do we go another week in to November? Perhaps we would be requested to wait until the middle of November? Perhaps the next Challenge will also have its deadline extended....and then again we could extend it twice.

Once we start this slippery slope there is not a way to stop it. No story submitted late was accepted because we all knew the rules....just as we knew about the voting deadline.

I agree completely with cs. Let's adhere to the established deadline (which has been the same time frame for every preceding contest) and move on. There will always be real life 'challenges' competing with our time to read and score online 'challenges.' How long do we keep extending things and for how many people? This is supposed to be for fun and to stimulate the writing of new stories. It has successfully done that. Once the entries are revealed, there is nothing to stop determined readers from going back to the stories they didn't finish before the deadline.

Bingo! I'm only one person, but my thought is that there is a time and a place for a longer story, but when people struggle to get through 5 dozen stories, challenge contestants should give the reader/voters a break and be judicious in the length. It's possible to to write a damned good story in 2K-4K words. Reward brevity!


I endorse this suggestion. Despite concerns almost every challenge that we won't get "enough" entries (the admins have set the cut-off at 20), we always seems to get 5 dozen, give or take a few. Limiting to one per author would cut the number by 30-40 percent. People can still write multiple stories, select their favorite for the challenge, and submit the rest as regular stories.


I agree with Janine, racheredbum and cs - stick to the original schedule. (though perhaps my vote shouldn't count because I'm not able to read/score on this particular challenge). No reasonable extension will allow everyone to finish, and in fact, from one time that Februs posted the scoring results, it was clear fewer than half of challenge readers had any intention of finishing, not coming anywhere close to reading half the stories. There are ways (addressed in an earlier post) of dealing in a reasonably fair fashion with the inability to finish all the stories. As Janine observed, if people want to read the rest of the stories, they still can - they don't disappear after the voting ends.

That's my opinion, but I'll live happily with whatever the admins decide.

It took some doing, there were over 60 of them after all, but I got through every story there, commented and voted on them all too, except for my own. That was a wonderful journey and the challenge of reading and thinking about all the stories is worth accepting as much as the challenge of writing and submitting an entry is.

I don't know, there is just something about being here in the LSF that makes me want to flaunt the rules, risking whatever punishment may come my way. I just can't put my finger on why that is . . .


Janine, you strict schoolmarm, you. But really, the dog ate my reading glasses, so I couldn't finish the stories in time. And, I fell into a well. Plus, my great aunt on my stepfather's friend's second cousin's side (twice removed, then removed once more for bad behavior), had a hangnail. Also, I got wrinkled skin from being in the well too long. The dog then threw up my reading glasses onto my Banana 6000 computer, so all the stories look greenish-pink. And my watch broke, so I couldn't tell what date it was, leaving me to miss the deadline. My commenting mojo also broke, and is now in the shop. Y2K (plus XIV) has corrupted all the stories.

I think there is a precedent from a previous contest for extending the reading deadline. I don't remember which one, so maybe I am making it up. Februs or Flopsy would probably know. As I mentioned earlier, I could use a little more time to finish. But, if others are strongly opposed, and want the deadline to remain firm, that's fine too.


Only for a week, and just for me. That works for everyone, right?

Let's face it. The challenges are like Christmas presents. We don't want to wait until Dec 31 to open our presents. I think most of those who are against the extension just want to see who won what. Me Too!!!!!

It works two ways though. You find out on schedule and gamble that you COULD have won if all the votes came in, or wait and get an accurate vote. I said I'd go either way, but my heart is really on schedule.

I think quite a few people start with the shortest story and work up. It's what I do too. Since I never seem to get through them all in time, it puts the longest stories at a disadvantage, scoring wise. I suppose the answer is, for anyone eager to win, keep it short.

XxxxX