Winter Theme Picture Challenge - revised dates

I think extending the voting period as needed is probably the best compromise. It is unfortunate that the voters do not read every story but that's the way it is. I'm a bit surprised that this was true for the 500 word contest, though. Another observation I have is that some voters re-read stories several times before voting. This is the only explanation I have for the reletively low votes per read (the "batting average"). I mean do we really belive that the winning story had an average score of less than two votes? You can explain this only by assuming that 1--some readers never voted or 2--voting readers re-read two or three times before voting. And even with all that, the voting subset of readers did not read or vote on every story.

The takeaway is that I would just urge all readers to try and at least skim through all the entries and do vote, even if it is only provisional. You can always go back and change it later.

My suggestion to Sebastian and other readers/voters who feel time-challenged once the voting starts - rather than reading stories in 'order loaded' or 'random order,' read them in ascending order of length. That way you'll get through the greatest number of stories before running out of time. Perhaps if authors know this ahead of time (at least those nasty, competitive authors who care whether their stories might win), some level of brevity will be encouraged, allowing more of us readers to get through more stories when it comes time to vote.

This would be a challenge, but would lead to a lower quality of stories. Most good stories, I think, ferment in the mind for a while. Then the author writes them (and I like to write a bit, return, revise maybe) and finally has a chance to read and check. The first bit is probably the most important - especially for something like a picture challenge.

So I don't support this idea. As for the 33,000 words, that's not novel length, and it's fine to start reading a story, decide it's not your type, then skim the rest.

I think the other explanation is that a lot of readers of contest stories simply do not vote at all, just like a (large) majority of readers in general do not leave comments. I don't really have a problem with that. A bigger problem (but only a problem if we're thinking of this as a competition which should then be 'fair') is that a significant number of people who DID VOTE (for one or more stories, even in the 500-word challenge) don't read all the stories. Over half of the stories in the contest had fewer 'reads' than the number of different people who voted, and that's even including however many people read one of those stories more than once, or without voting for any one of the stories. Of course, that's just the way things are. The best advice is not to view the contest as a competition.


In some cases yes, but I don't think this is always so. My best stories (or at least the ones the readers seem to think are my best) were all pretty much banged out in one sitting, in no more than 1-3 hours each. It's really a moot point, though, since the consensus seems to be that we'll deal with the issue by giving a longer voting period. Although I had been one of the contrary voices, I'm a big believer in consensus, and can accept it.

I don't have stats on those who read the 500-word challenge stories but didn't bother to vote at all but I can provide stats on how many stories were voted on by those who did vote:

#number of stories voted on - #number of people

66 - 23
65 - 2
64 - 3
63 - 2
58 - 1
55 - 1
54 - 1
50 - 1
40 - 1
36 - 1
33 - 2
32 - 2
28 - 2
23 - 1
22 - 3
20 - 2
19 - 2
18 - 1
17 - 1
16 - 1
15 - 2
14 - 2
12 - 3
11 - 3
10 - 1
9 - 1
8 - 2
7 - 8
6 - 4
5 - 14
4 - 11
3 - 14
2 - 14
1 - 17

Hmmm... interesting. Perhaps of the seventy voters who voted for no more than 5 stories (almost half of the total number of voters; if I added correctly, the total number of voters was 148) a fair number were ones who thought we were under the previous voting system, with only ten votes to apportion among a handful of stories. But with 17 people who voted for only one story, and 53 more who voted for 2 to 5, I'd find it hard to believe that most of these weren't people voting only for their own stories or perhaps, other stories whose authorship they knew.

A few other statistics for people to mull over. I recorded the total number of views for each story about two hours after the contest ended. (So while there may have been a few views after the end of the voting, the numbers below fairly closely represent the number of views at the close of voting). From highest to lowest the number of views were:

268
239
211
206
205
204
196
191
188
180
176
175
174
173
173
169
168
165
164
161
160
159
159
159
153
151
150
148
143
142
141
140
140
138
137
136
135
135
134
134
133
130
128
128
127
126
125
124
124
123
121
120
119
119
118
118
117
117
116
115
114
114
113
113
111
108

I would note that only 28 stories were viewed as many times as there were number of voters (148). I'm guessing that, even of the 28, a significant number were not viewed by all the voters because of views that may have been post-voting, view by non-voters, or duplicate views. One poor author, the one with 108 views, had his/her story read by no more than 73% of the voters (and probably significantly less). The story with 268 views (the winning entry, by the way), was probably read by most if not all of the 148 voters.

I would imagine that the two phenomena are related - many stories are read by far fewer than the total number of voters because some voters have no intention of reading (or voting for) stories other than ones they or their friends wrote. In other cases, it may just be because the readers/voters ran out of time and couldn't read everything.

The bottom line, though, is that it appears (to me anyway) that a significant number of the participating authors view this as a real competition, and take steps (beyond just writing the best story they can) to enhance their chances of winning. That's neither a good thing nor a bad thing - but it is what it is.

In some sense, I am one of those authors - my own story received the only '10' I gave out. But even being the self-promoter that I am, I am proud to say that I read every one of the 66 entries, and am one of the 23 voters who handed out one or more votes to each of them (260 votes in all, more than double the average of 121 votes given out by the 147 other voters).

(Ok everyone - I promise that tomorrow I'll take my meds, so that I can let this thing drop)

Thank you for the extra time to write. I was planning a story, but I wasn't sure I'd have time. I'll definitely try to give it a go, now!

I was able to read all of the 500 word contest stories with no problem. I used the votes as tags as I read and went back to "up" the votes on the stories a liked the most. It was very good reading, and I am looking forward to this next challenge.

Somehow, I missed this whole thread until this morning. Thanks for the extra time, but I have been pushing to finish by the first date. As to the voting debate, I read every story, twice. Once to read, and another to readjust my vote. I voted a 10 for more than one story, including the winning one, and no one got just the minimal vote because entering alone desreves some recognition. I love these contests, not because I might win, but because it encourages me to come up with new ideas, gets the creative ideas flowing.

Just a reminder folks, you have until 8th Feb to get your contest story finished. Thanks to all who have sent theirs in already.