2011-01-09, 17:54 | Link #21 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Boston
Age: 34
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SOTM has a nice intro post that sets out guidelines for submissions, and a voting post too. Having an entry thread and a voting thread for each round (in addition to a general contest organazation discussion thread) seems to be a good setup. Going through these line by line give might us an idea of the types of things that should be considered when planning something like this.
Spoiler for submissions:
Spoiler for voting ... is there a way to quote from a locked thread?:
I was thinking a length limit might be a good idea (akin to the SOTM 50K filesize limit). On the other hand, it may end up being somewhat self-enforcing (voters probably won't read a 20 chapter fanfic). edit: Encouraging short entries would probably also attract more voters and make the contest less intimidating for potential entrants.
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2011-01-09, 18:04 | Link #22 |
Empty-headed
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: In a box with a fox
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I love the sound of the idea ^^ I agree with Cello that the stories should be based on "Theme" since there isn't much discrimination between voters and writer as much. Though the question of mine is that people who participate are going to write their own original stories?
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2011-01-09, 18:12 | Link #23 | ||
ゴリゴリ!
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Age: 33
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Ah, I see. I suppose we'll have to select some people to maintain the competitions...or something.
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2011-01-09, 18:44 | Link #24 |
Scholar of Yanderes
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Okay, so this is gonna be a fanfiction contest... question is, would an original story contest be... well, better? I admit, I love fanfiction, me being a proud author of several fics myself, but how would we accomodate for fictions written for fandoms that some of other authors have no knowledge of? Perhaps a judge might know and like one anime/fandom, but not know of another? That's my biggest concern right off the bat.
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2011-01-09, 18:52 | Link #25 | |
ゴリゴリ!
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Age: 33
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Also, we opted to leave out judges and anime in general. Instead, we'll let the readers vote, and we'll use themes instead of anime-specific topics. I suppose the word "fanfiction" would be a misnomer in this case. XD
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2011-01-09, 19:01 | Link #27 | |
ゴリゴリ!
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Age: 33
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Also, I think having a few mods help run this would make things fair and organized. Of course, it's not a demand but more of a hopeful request. Just wondering if any mods were interested. :P
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2011-01-09, 20:12 | Link #28 | |||
sleepyhead
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: event horizon
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You can call your contest whatever you like however it's the limits that actually make the contest work that way! While it's hard to get it wrong (a contest is still a contest), it's not easy to get it just right. SotM contests for example tend to be very "who can find the better source" more so then creativity, even though Solace would have you believe it's some "show of skill" the discrepancy between quality of the source and quality of the effects is pretty large. Quote:
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Polling also works best when it's indirect. When you get questionnaire for example it doesn't ask you for the answer it asks you instead questions that together imply the answer, as well as trap questions to determine if you can actually give a serious answer at the moment in time. Now I'm not saying you should go with one or the other. What I'm saying is, if you want a serious contest, you'll use judges, or a very sophisticated polling system. If you're going to use just a poll (or the SotM system) it's nothing more then just for fun. As with most things, neither is wrong, but different people will gather based on which one you choose, similarly people will put different amounts of effort in it based on that choice as well. Serious contests get more fierce competition, while more 4fun contests are less scary and thus more open (ie. more contestants). ps. If you're going to do nominations/vote counting and so on, try to use ways that don't require you to do it manually.
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2011-01-09, 21:03 | Link #29 | ||
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Boston
Age: 34
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- All entries must be plain, unformatted text with no decoration (line breaks and single space allowed) - If we're looking for a short story contest, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_story#Length, entries must be 2500-7500 words. (It could be called Short Story of the Month) it might be hard to judge short stories and poetry in the same contest. Quote:
Rather than attempting to measure skill as objectively as possible, I would argue that the purpose of a contest like this is to encourage writers to produce as much interesting work as possible. We're not trying to find the "best" work, we're trying to find the work that the most thread viewers will enjoy reading. The benefits to writers: - They know other AS members will be reading their work. (The more viewers this has, the better. Also, voting encourages thread viewers to actually read all the stories.) - They'll get feedback on their work. (Perhaps we need something to the effect of "all votes have at least 2 sentences of justification in order to be valid.) - They'll find out what their peers enjoy by seeing the reactions to other people's work. (The more entrants, the better) The benefits to readers: - Reading fun stories by other AS members. (So whatever the most people enjoyed was the most effective at this, right?) - Ideally, these stories would be somehow anime-related, so the contest would offer something you couldn't get by just going buying a book of short stories by a really great author. I don't have any idea how this would work though, with not everyone having watched every series and such. So yes, this should be a "4fun" contest (AS is not the place for a serious contest). The more contestants and viewers this has, the less likely it is die or never get off the ground in the first place. Contestants and voters are what keep competitions like these alive.
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2011-01-09, 21:17 | Link #30 | |
ゴリゴリ!
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Age: 33
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I'm really hoping not to knock out poetry; it seems to be a strong part of many writers on here. Making 2 separate competitions would only clutter things up. I might suggest something like a hybrid; a major competition with multiple awards for different types of entries. I think this method would get more people involved as well, because they aren't overshadowed by somebody else every time and have a chance to win in another category.
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2011-01-09, 23:49 | Link #31 |
Cadenza
Join Date: Dec 2010
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Make sure you get all the rules you want down, you know? I think we're going a steady pace.
To summarize some things up: All entries will be original, so there is no necessity for prior knowledge or a chosen fandom to be solely involved. The competition/Of the month itself will be myriad entries, that way it can be anything from original works, to excerpts, to poetry (And long as they fit the theme and don't go beyond the 18+ mark, everything should be fine). I'm not good at this, so I'll just leave it up to the logicians. Me? I'm going to participate and just give words of advice right now. |
2011-01-10, 00:42 | Link #32 | |
(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2006
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The SOTM was never envisioned to be a fierce competition, but I never wanted it to be either. There's plenty of sites and forums for "serious" gfx designers...I just felt that it would be nice to have something for our forums that people could participate in regularly, whenever they felt like it. Anyway, I have no issue if people want to retool the SOTM format/rules for their purposes. I'm also open for any questions about advice in running it.
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2011-01-10, 04:47 | Link #34 | |||||||||
sleepyhead
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: event horizon
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Also, we should have some form of prize. It doesn't have to be anything meaningful, something like official sig-slivers that can be used on the bottom/top or right/left of the signature showing you got 1st, or 2nd or 3rd in the contest would work fine. [edit] Quote:
Agree. Last edited by felix; 2011-01-10 at 05:21. |
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2011-01-10, 23:57 | Link #38 |
Call me MK! :)
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: The top of the world.
Age: 35
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I love the idea Just I was thinking on how the themes will be chosen (this is one of the problems). Clearly the winner can't chose some Anime as the month theme, because some fanfiction writers have never watched those shows. I think the winner would only have to chose certain genre as the month theme. Like this month theme it will be 'romance/humor'. I also think this is more challenging, because it's very difficult to bring certain emotions in the fic. This is alos bring more quality into the fic.
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2011-01-11, 09:22 | Link #39 |
Cadenza
Join Date: Dec 2010
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I think if you chose a genre, it'd dry up eventually. So I think it should revolve around something in particular that is more free-form, a la ghost as a topic/theme. I don't see the problem with labeling your work as it's genre, though. Idunno, am I being too trivial?
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2011-01-11, 12:30 | Link #40 |
Empty-headed
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: In a box with a fox
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@ MK: Genre is tends to be a little closed space for certain people. While people likes to write tradegy or something and other enjoys writing romance with drama/humour. Though it may challenge people, it does give leeway to people who usually write that genre. A theme is better because it does present an 'idea' that needs to be protrayed in the story. (IMO)
Also I'm very nitpicky about the 'humour' genre... Last edited by BoxQueen; 2011-01-11 at 12:46. |
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