NJRick's Obscure Author Recognition Project

So many members responded, with great results, to my recent "Obscure Story-reading Challenge," that I decided I'd raise the bar with my next challenge, which I've entitled "NJRick's Obscure Author Recognition Project." Warning – this one is going to be tougher, because you can't just find a single unread story, and then read and comment upon it. If you decide to participate, I'm going to make you WORK.

Here's the challenge:

Find an "obscure author," and then read enough of his/her stories (I suggest three or more) to get a sense of the type of work that he/she produces. Then come back to the Forum to make a post that introduces your chosen obscure author to the LSF membership. What you write is up to you. It can be mini-reviews of the stories you've read. It can be a description of the focus or range of the author's stores – length, orientation, genre, severity of punishments, settings, etc. It can be whatever you think will help other members decide whether to check out this author for themselves.

For your post, you should start a brand-new topic on the "Storyboard" section of the Forum, entitled "Obscure Author Recognition – [name of author]." You do this by clicking "Storyboard" on the Forum page, and then inserting your title where is says "Title" on the page that opens, followed by your post in the box below. If you decide to feature more than one author, start a new topic for each one.

Who is an "obscure author?" I'm not going to give a hard definition, as I want the rules for this project to be minimal. An author that I'd consider "obscure" would likely have only a few to a moderate number of stories here on the Library, would typically have relatively few comments (perhaps fewer than ten) and relatively few "favorites" (perhaps fewer than five) on the bulk of his/her stories. The obscure author would probably not be a new author here, both because new authors these days tend to get recognition on their initial stories, and they haven't really been here long enough to earn the right to be considered "obscure." The selected obscure author can be one whose stories you've already read, or one you've newly found as a result of this project. If you feel you HAVE to "recognize" yourself, there's no rule against it.

Overall, my own criteria for "obscure" would definitely exclude an author with more than 300 total "favorites" (ie, on or near to being on the list of most favorited authors), more than 500 story comments (ie, on or near to being on the list of most commented-up authors), or with more than one story with, say, over 30 comments. It would be great if recognized authors are even MORE obscure than suggested by these numbers. Typically, I think an "obscure author" is one who has overlooked older work, even if he/she is submitting new stories periodically.

Note: that scoundrel Rick Marlowe is NOT an obscure author, no matter how much he might try to convince you otherwise. He misses on every listed point.

How do you find an "obscure author" if you don't already know of one you'd like to feature? It's easy! Just click the "author" button on the navigation bar, and a list of all authors will pop up. At random, pick an author from among those who have a few to a moderate number of stories on file at the Library (those with a LOT of stories are unlikely to be "obscure"). Consider skipping to the middle or end of the alphabetic listing so we don't end up only featuring authors whose names begin with "A." Based on the number of stories, views, comments and favorites, determine whether the author would seem to fit your own definition of "obscure." Then start reading! Piece of cake, right? If you are picky about what you read, you can also screen the author's stories via the validation data and summaries before deciding on an author to select.

Now one of my good friends here thinks that LSF members are incapable of rising to a challenge such as this, that you're all too lazy or something. (I won't mention any names, but his initials are "canadianspankee" Oops! Did I just say that out loud?) I happen to disagree, and think we'll do a fabulous job of recognizing obscure authors. Prove me right!

Now that is an excellent idea. I will see what I can do ...

An "obscure author" might be one who had written a story, a few years ago with little readers and little or no comments to that story and who might not have had any readers in the last few years. Of course, it would be nice for that author to still be part of the LSF. so that the author would appreciate that his stories are, again, being read and commented. I had been during this research on these authors and hope to pick up on this, when I return to the LSF. There are some great stories in the archives that might have been overlooked. We do have so many great stories from super great authors that it is also possible that a new author might have been overlooked. Raising the bar by reading a few of these obscure authors' stories and commenting on the style that these authors are presenting, is still better. These are great projects that should be continued.

I think I qualify... 157 pieces, fewer than 100 favourites, fewer than 400 comments, max No. of comments on any piece - 19

An interesting idea. I like to think of myself as NOT obscure, but I would qualify by the numbers above. I have 193 favorites and 343 comments, and only one story with more than 10 comments -- and that was my entry in the recent keyhole challenge.

If you exclude the stories that I was a co-author on and include only my solo works, the numbers are MUCH lower. But then most of my solo works were only posted here in the past three months.

Still, perhaps the above numbers are a bit high?

-Don L.

Well I looked for the "obscure author" who has writen no series or even a part 2 to a story, and I thought Rick Marlowe qualified in the event as he has neither published a series or even one single addition to his stories. I also looked for an author who rarely commented on the Forum and once again Rick Marlowe qualifies as he has done nothing on the Forum and I still have not found one single comment by him.

Now as to qualifying Njricks remarks about many being too lazy, he has got things rather confused I am afraid. Like many others who produces many stats on various thing, he has once again made things seem different then the actual truth of the matter.

If I recall the conversation correctly and I always do, NJrick was asking how to spell the word 'obscure' and I told him to quit being so lazy and look it up himself. Next he asked me what the word meant as he had broken the word down into two words, 'obs' and 'cure".

Of course he had no idea what 'obs' was or how to cure it but he was afraid he had contacted it and wanted to know if it was a sickness of some type. I told him that it was a malady that struck singers of songs on the net. We all know there are many obscure singers on the world wide net.

Anyway, to make a long story short, at the end of talking to NJrick I told him to make sure he attended his weekly session with his doctors. He thinks they are only treating him for high blood pressure but I know the electric shock equipment in the office is used whenever NJrick is there.

Absolutely! this is an attempt to ferret some of them out.


Feel free to make the post!


I agree, which is why ENCOURAGE participants to find authors even more obscure. I was sort of setting the upper limits, without even making those an actual rule.


Hmmm...could be... but it's not how *I* remember the conversation. And since this is MY project and MY thread....

Dang it! I narrowly miss out on being obscure by one criteria only! I guess that makes me sub-obscure.

Perhaps just slightly post-obscure?

I love obscure authors!


even better!