Picture Story Challenge, August 2011

I don't enter every contest, but I haven't yet voted on my own stories. Somehow that seems to defeat much of the purpose of a contest, which is to find out how others judge your work compared to that of your peers.

If you vote on all the stories in the contest it's unlikely that your own vote will make a difference under the voting model now in use. Problem with your statement though, in a larger sense is that you never really find out how others judged you. Only votes for the top six entries are made known. You can get a sense I suppose, from the number of comments and favorites you get, but this won't tell you the actual number of votes.

Correct. In the past I have asked Februs how many votes my stories have gotten and he has told me. I would prefer to see how all the stories did but that information is not routinely supplied. I think that the reasoning is that the writers who got low scores would be discouraged.

Personally I think that all the results should be shared. When you enter any kind of contest, and this is a competitive contest no matter what it is called as people are voting and winners are declared, then you take the chance of not doing well. Imagine a sporting event where only the winner's scores are announced because you don't want to hurt the feelings of the losers.

This is a wholly inappropriate analogy as in the sporting event the individuals competing are solely responsible for where they finish or how they perform and know the metric by which they are being assessed. As has already been stated, not everyone who votes does so on all the stories, people's votes in many cases are likely to be based on highly subjective factors rather than merely attempting to assess stories purely on their merit, no fixed set of criteria are used to determine how to vote and so on and so forth....

The challenges are intended to provide a bit of fun for the voters and to stimulate people to write and nothing more, if those who submit an entry or entries choose not to see it that way that's their choice of course but it's not the intention of the challenges and we are not going to display all the results.

Let's hear it for fun! I happen to agree 100% with this rationale... even if there are certain last-place winners in poetry contests who wouldn't be at all offended on having that info made known.

See? EVERYONE's a winner in these challenges, even those pulling up the rear (no pun intended, Rick)...

I like it the way it is, in my mind I always come in 7th place, just barely behind the scores of those mentioned and no one except Library admin know any different and they will never tell.

P.S. I always vote for my own stories, that way I know at least I didn't get a big fat ZERO...LOL

The problem is that you can't have it two ways. Either it is for fun only or it is a contest. If it is for fun then a theme (challenge) would be introduced but there would be no voting and there would be no winners proclaimed. As, for example, a beach volleyball game where people try to do their best but nobody keeps score. Once voting is introduced and the top winners are announced then you have a contest no matter what you call it.

I think that most writers are curious as to where they place. Making known the top six and not the rest seems to me to be inconsistent. It can't be half a contest and half not a contest; either it is one or the other.

Also this is really a popularity contest and not a writing skill contest. If a certain story turns people on because it appeals to their particular kink then they will give it high marks. If it is something that does not appeal to them they might not even read it. Of course in a given genre a story that is well written or clever will score better than one that is poorly written. But the bottom line is did the reader enjoy it.

Perhaps Februs is right that my sporting analogies are not completely accurate. A better analogy might be how a certain song does on the music rating charts. It can be first, second, third or whatever depending on how many people buy it according to their particular tastes. However you can always find how a particular song does, whether it is at the top or at the bottom.

tiptopper

The problem is solved by any author can get their own scores merely by asking, it is their choice I suppose what they do with the information once they got it. An author could tell others I suppose what their scores were, but besides a few who would really care.

I disagree entirely. Having something that is intended to be viewed in a fun manner and being able to vote are not mutually exclusive. As to the volleyball analogy I've already explained that such sporting references aren't applicable or useful. I also don't see the need to keep using such analogies, this is our site, our challenges and we can basically run them whichever way we prefer, irrespective of how beach volleyball is played or the pop charts are run.

In fact, although the judging is done by just a select handful of judges (or voters if you like) the Summer Story Contest hosted by the soc.sexuality.spanking newsgroup does not list ALL the entries in the order of merit, just the top 3 so they are no different to us in that respect. Personally, I prefer the way we do it in giving all of the site members a chance to participate.



I've no evidence to support your claim that most writers want to know where they place but if they do then they can always send a popup. It's a challenge not a contest - authors are challenged to write to a theme and then the readers (some of which are obviously authors too) get the chance to participate as well by casting their votes. I don't see anything inconsistent at all about just revealing the top 6 and I would much rather do that than have someone submit a story for the first time, score badly and be put off writing further stories or generally feel dismayed at how their story was received. The other aspect of the challenges is that they are intended to provide a showcase to illustrate the different creative approaches taken by different authors to a common theme. That is why I provided a separate standalone webpage for them.

Anyway, if the general consensus is that the participants don't like the way the challenges are run and we're going to be on the receiving end of this kind of feedback on a regular basis then I suggest we make this the last one as they're clearly not being viewed or enjoyed in the manner in which they were intended and as such I for one wouldn't want to persist with them.