Fanfiction Challenge

[sevenpuddings]

Really, anyone who reads and reviews these stories should look at them from a critical point of view, and pairings should not influence their decision on which story was the best overall... but they always do. I cannot honestly see a way around bais of pairings/characters, because we all have favourites that we tend to lean towards.

Having said that, its hardly fair to lump people together and say that one person will judge from the JM fans point of view, while another will judge from the ML fans point of view, because thats not very fair either. We all do love certain pairings, but we love them in different ways, so what appeals to one group of people may not appeal to another group entirely, no matter which pairing they support.

And, it we only rely on the four judges opinion, then we take away the reviews that each author recieves. Even if they are sometimes few in number, I'm always for reading what each person thinks about my story, rather than a collective decision about it, which is what we'd end up with if we had judges.

I'd really love to see how a challenge with only reviewing and no voting went, to see if it makes any huge difference to how things are run. But then, I'd like to trial one with the judging idea also, because then we could see if it actually worked, because it could. I just don't think right now it can... but it could.

Perhaps it could happen for the next challenge. I know they kind of contradict one another, but, say, the four judges only read the finished stories, and thats it. They didn't read the reviews of what everyone else thought, and together they discussed which ones they believed to be the best. And while we could award a winner, it would be more important to see if the judging thing really worked. All the time everyone else is recieving reviews on their own stories, which is really what we love about the challenge.

I know I'm confusing myself. Have I confused anyone else?

Also, SKYKAT, how close are we to closing the poll and announcing a winner on the current challenge?

[Pierced Musie]

I still say forget competitions and bring on challenges. No clear winner, just a way to bring writers out of writersblock and gives the opportunity to others who are afraid.

I feel the only reason people don't enter is because they are afraid.

[I love music]

I remember once on this site someone just did a random poll of the fanfics that happened to be on the front page of the fanfic forum at the time - about 20 of them, I think. I know I came second, beaten by one vote (Eduardo Bearo won ).

But that was back in the days when there weren't as many fics so a fic would stay on the same page for a couple of days at least. Nowadays I notice someone will post a fic at, say, nine o'clock and it's on page 3 or 4 by 5 o'clock...

[Skykat]

Jess I said that the deadline for the votes would be a week because the vote'll only be fair if everyone who wants to, gets an opportunity to vote so it'll be another 3/4 days yet.

I'm too tired tonight to really think about the way forward for the challenge but I'll try and post a reply tomorrow.

[Skykat]

I like the idea about the judging panel but I do have a few problems with it. Firstly I don't see how it's possible to have unbiased judges because everyone is biased in some way, whether towards a pairing, style of writing etc. Also if the judges are responsible for hosting then there will be no way of keeping the author anonymous and that might lead to biased voting via the author. that's one of my concerns.

The other is that the very nature of having it as a competition can take away the element of fun. I was really disappointed that someone would cheat to influence a poll. It's not so much the actual cheating that's annoyed me as the fact that somebody wanted to win so badly that they were willing to disadvantage everyone else. By having a competition, it was taken too seriously and stopped being the fun challenge that I had intended to set.

I also agree with Tainted Muse that people might be scared to enter in case they come last or get no votes and removing the element of competition would alleviate this fear. At least then everyone can benefit from comments and criticism without having people cast an overall opinion on their work.

That's why although I like the judging idea I think for the present the best way to go is to not have a winner. The current poll is running and a winner will be announced in a few days so I think it's only fair that the winner of this challenge should set and host the next one but I don't think we should have winners from here on in.

The only reason I can think of to have a winner is to find a hoster for the next challenge.

That brings me to my next point, there are people who regulary read and review stories on this forum who have great ideas for challenges but at present can never get the chance to set one. For example I Love music won't enter because she fears she's too old, I know another writer who's not keen on writing but loves reading or people might not have enough confidence to post a story but still have great ideas for challenges. Also there may be people with great ideas but no time to host or are too disorganised, I know Nicole's backed out of hosting in the past for that reason. Do we really have the right to stop anyone from submitting their challenge ideas?

I think the best way forward is for the winner of the current competition to host a reviews only challenge. When the stories are posted we'll put a note in here for anyone with a good idea for the challenge to volonteer their services and it's first come first served as to who gets to set it.

If more than one person volonteers we just start up a list of people with ideas and then each time a challenge ends we pass the job of setting it over the next name on the list and the list keeps getting added to. Kind of like what I think Nicole does with the proof readers. I don't mind keeping the list if no-one else wants to.

If the person who sets the challenge does not want to host it then they can just ask in here for somebody to volonteer to help them host it. I'm sure there will be plenty of willing volonteers.

The judging panel is a good idea and I think it might be something to trial in the future but for now I just think we need to revert to reviews only and settle things down after the present upheaval. Just my opinion but I think we need to decide on a way forward before the next challenge gets under way, so that people know what they're entering ie. a competition or a chance to be challenged and reviewed without pressure.

[sevenpuddings]

I like the idea of an open challenge with no winner, and agree completely with Kat. I mean, the judging panel is a great idea, but right now, especially after what occured so sadly in this last comp, its just, too hard to figure out. It needs to be trialed in its own time.

I love the idea of people just throwing in what they think would be a good challenge. I never wanted to disadvantage those who didn't think they could enter for various reasons, and I'd love the hear others ideas, and I'd also love to read some more stories, mainly because its generally been the same group thats entered each time... with an exception here and there.

Basically, I'd love to hear everyones ideas about challenges, the more, the better, because then some aspects get joined, and it becomes a wonderful culmination of ideas that turns into one super challenge. But having said that, the winner of this current challenge will be, of course, given the option of creating their own challenge.

I think I've overused challenge in that, and it no longer feels as if its an actual word...

[Pierced Musie]

I forgot to mention something. Were IP addresses checked and found to match, leading to suspected cheating?

Because I know that some AOL users have found that some ip addresses match. You could be looking at two completely different people with the same ip.

[Skykat]

You'd have to check with the mods but I think that was one of the reasons. Frankie hinted that there were other ways of telling cheats as well though so I don't think it was the only reason. Also I was under the impression that it was several rather than two from the same IP address and therefore unlikely to be a co-incidence. I'm not a mod though so I wouldn't know for certain. I guess the mere hint of cheating cast doubt on the validity of the vote so therefore a fresh poll was the only real way forward.

[Skykat]

The winner has been announced in the thread but I'll put it here as well.

Well done to jackandmartha!!! (Jade) for her winning entry Stepping Backwards.

The challenge is yours to set, are we going to try with no winner and just reviews for this?

[-Jade-]

Thanks SKYKAT!

Please Read:

Right, well I've been catching up with all the discussion that's taken place over how the challenge will be run from here on in. I'm still deciding on some aspects of the competition but I know that firstly, the poll will most definitely be scrapped. Secondly, as Skykat mentioned, I really think it would be nice to give other people the oppurtunity of hosting. As has been pointed out, some don't like writing but would be great at hosting; or don't feel they should enter because their age would be an unfair advantage. So, despite the fact that I'm still deciding whether or not to have reviews with votes at the end or just reviews, I want to set up a volunteer list for anyone who would like the chance to host the challenge at some point. So, anyone who would like the chance to host, could you please let me know through PM or in this thread? Regardless of whether the competition still has voting or not, this list will be incorporated into the scheme of things.

I'm thinking that if we just have a reviewing system, then hosts will be chosen one by one from the volunteer list. However, if I was to keep the voting, then the volunteer list would still be used in the case of a winner not wishing to host or a winner already having hosted a challenge. I hope i'm making sense.

That is not to say that if you have already hosted you can't put your name on the list, just bear in mind that it will be put to the bottom.

Erm, I think that's nearly everything...

The next challenge will be set on Saturday 28th October, reason being is that I'm going on holiday to Italy until Friday next week. (So if you just leave your names in the thread then I will compile the list when I get back.) Hopefully, Italy will inspire me in terms of the prompt! Anyway, you'll all get a small break!