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July Theme and Judge Sign Up

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by Antivash, Jul 1, 2011.

  1. iLost

    iLost Minister of Magic

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    I'm still interested in posting for the competitions, definitely so. It's just the last two haven't really sparked much interest for me to participate. Just waiting for a topic I like.

    And I'm all for one for pushing my boundaries, but I have to be emotionally invested in the piece for me to actually write it. Politics really didn't do that for me, and though I had a few ideas for the cross-over, I really couldn't get them to work.
     
  2. The Berkeley Hunt

    The Berkeley Hunt Headmaster

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    Politics is really interesting, and I'll definitely be parsing and reviewing all of the stories this month. If I was a judge I'd have started judging by day 3 at the latest. Personally, Politics just might be my favourite story type, and the reason I didn't submit a story is that Politics is just hard to write.

    You need to first transition from canon HP to a more political scene, set up Harry with knowledge, or introduce new characters, and then the intrigue itself has to have its own cycle of suspense and revelation. It is A) difficult to come up with ideas for such an underused format, and B) difficult to write that much in three weeks.

    If the topic had been released even a week earlier, it would have been better. As it was, even with three months notice you wouldn't have had the kind of entries you've had the past couple months. I don't think this means the competition is fizzling out, the next month's topic, if more accessible, will bring back the numbers.
     
  3. Zennith

    Zennith Pebble Wrestler ~ Prestige ~

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    To be completely honest, I really wanted to write a politics story. Unfortunately, writing in real life has taken up all of my time, as I was commissioned to write a play for a theatre company I've worked with - otherwise I do agree with Silens, if you want to write, the topic shouldn't matter. A good writer can make almost any premise good if they work at it.
     
  4. Joe

    Joe The Reminiscent Exile ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter ⭐⭐⭐

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    Personally, I didn't have the resolve or even the spark of an idea for a politics story. I gave time-travel a shot, and after that piss poor performance I wasn't going to produce some half-assed effort.

    I've been severly unmotivated of late on the writing front, but I'm digging myself out of that hole... kind of. Heh.

    Now let's have word on the next topic!
     
  5. H_A_Greene

    H_A_Greene Unspeakable –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    Politics is something that you can either miss 99 times or hit once. It's not something to go into half-cocked if you can't convey the scenario properly, and I think that the difficulty in aiming for a solid Political story with only a few weeks notice is something most of us found more daunting than it was worth taking the time to go after.

    I don't think I hit anywhere near the mark this month, at all. I'd personally label mine as more General than anything, and I didn't stick with the idea enough to build up to really any Political scenes- some intrigue, maybe, but nothing more.

    I don't think the Monthly submissions are dying out at all, but the choice of type has affected what writers want to go after. Humor fell pretty short, but the next month more than made up for it. It's likely that August will likewise pull through if we can get a good category.

    edit:
    Can we kick this into gear? I'd rather we didn't have another eleven day wait ala March Contest results. Mine can't take much more than fifteen or twenty minutes to work through, and if Perspicacity's is around the same length than all the better.

    Seriously, boot out the current judges if need be if they won't do their selected job and pick out another five, or even just ask any available moderators alone to go over it. This stuff was written in good faith of results being delivered on time, and even harsh feedback and/or rating is better than nothing.
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2011
  6. Oruma

    Oruma Order Member

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    Fixed that for you.
     
  7. enembee

    enembee The Nicromancer DLP Supporter

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    For what it's worth, if you can't get anyone to actually review something, stick me on the panel and not only will I read and score everything, but I'll give detailed feedback too.
     
  8. Stalin's Pipe Organs

    Stalin's Pipe Organs Auror

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    If the judges don't do their job they should be barred from ever judging again.
     
  9. silverlasso

    silverlasso Minister of Magic DLP Supporter

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    Personally, I thought June (Crossovers) went rather well. There were a fair number of submissions (7), and 3 of them had scores around 90. Side-note: the people who have been avoiding reading June's submissions because they are crossovers are really doing themselves a disservice.

    Perhaps months with harder topics should be bolstered with an additional easier (possible related) topic. This might encourage people who would otherwise ignore that month to consider posting something.

    I agree that judges should leave reviews. Even a paragraph or two forces judges to solidify their thinking and justify why they're giving a particular score. Simply giving a score out of 100 probably leads to less accurate judging.

    Edit: w.r.t. to absentee judges - it's not that hard to stick to the deadline. Set aside a few hours and plow through everything.
     
  10. Oruma

    Oruma Order Member

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    It's not as bad as you think.
    While not part of the contest, often stories will appear in the WbA Section after the month as writers found themselves intrigued yet couldn't finish the story in time. "Harry Potter, In SPAAACE" by Zed comes to mind.

    Again, I urge: the August topic please. It's a week into August already.
     
  11. Silens Cursor

    Silens Cursor The Silencer DLP Supporter

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    So, I assume that given from the total post number in the 'Award Story Submission' not changing over the past couple of days, that the results will not be posted tonight, or the new contest category?
     
  12. Stalin's Pipe Organs

    Stalin's Pipe Organs Auror

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    How about for the next contest, we appoint 10 judges. Then only the first 5 to post their scores will count. That should speed things along nicely.
     
  13. H_A_Greene

    H_A_Greene Unspeakable –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    IIRC, its 5 user selected judges and so many of the staff too, so we may already have that many total judges on the team. Otherwise a good idea.

    Seriously though, staff? Where the hell are you guys? Have y'all given up on this or what? Usually the A-S-S board has vanished off the grid, meaning this disastrous judging session could have been hidden, but the fact that it's in full view of everyone... :facepalm

    edit: Aha! Now at 2 hits! One of you slimy punks checked out my topic and still didn't do shit.
     
    Last edited: Aug 8, 2011
  14. Carmine

    Carmine Unspeakable

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    So... is there going to be an August contest?
     
  15. Sesc

    Sesc Slytherin at Heart Moderator

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    So. Considering that nothing really seems to be going on in the Contest Forum.

    To those that have entered a story for Politics (and the mods, I guess): I spent the weekend writing, and nearly finished what I wanted to enter, but didn't have the time for. How about one more (very late >_>) story in the contest? Would anyone mind?
     
  16. Perspicacity

    Perspicacity Destroyer of Worlds ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    I've no problem with it myself, Sesc--my story is limited in scope and length and really nothing all that special. I think it'd be unfair to those like Silens, though, who went to a lot of trouble putting in a ton of work finishing a novelette-length effort at the 11th hour. Having someone else breeze in days after the deadline sort of obviates the point of even having a deadline.

    Perhaps there's some middle ground, where the mods may permit stories like yours to be listed among the contest entries in their Results thread, but treat them as post-deadline submissions not eligible for winning? This would let contest-inspired pieces to all be co-located.

    For what it's worth, I'm probably just going to post mine to my collection of one shots on fanfiction.net tonight irrespective of whether folks get around to judging. The rules are a little ambiguous on whether posting a story to a public site after submission but before judging is itself disqualifying. It's just a "for fun" contest anyway; if I do manage to DQ myself, I can live with it.
     
  17. Carmine

    Carmine Unspeakable

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    Pers, I think the post-deadline idea is good, as the people with less available time to write actually have a chance of submitting something, albeit without a chance of winning the contest.

    I hope there's a theme announcement soon, as I won't have much free time available from September onwards, and I want to make use of the ridiculous amounts of summer holiday time I'm wasting sitting around and doing fuck all.
     
  18. Silens Cursor

    Silens Cursor The Silencer DLP Supporter

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    I sure as hell wouldn't - you're probably one of the best politics writers on the board, and I'd love some more competition (although it would mean the eight hour writing spree I pulled would mean slightly less, but whatever...).

    What I wouldn't mind knowing is why it appears that jack shit has happened with this contest or for August. Would somebody, preferably a mod or admin, tell us what the hell is going here? This wasn't an easy topic, and we put a lot of work into these - and, not gonna lie, this really fucking blows that we haven't heard jack. When I was a judge for a contest, we were held to a higher standard that seems to have completely fallen off. And considering the overall post count hasn't gone up, it doesn't even look like the judges give a shit.

    So, yeah, what the fuck gives?
     
  19. Oruma

    Oruma Order Member

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    The post-deadline idea, well perhaps you can still compete but it'd be like handing in papers late in school: for each day after the deadline you lose 5 points, and no more acceptance after, say, one week.

    The other thing is, for the love of all things unholy - give us the month topic on time. If there is going to be an August contest, well there's only going to be 2 and a half weeks left. And I bet a few of the fellas, even if they have pretty decent ideas, would be reluctant to enter given the limited amount of time. Heck, especially if they have decent ideas; why rush out a half-baked story if you can't do your idea justice?
     
  20. silverlasso

    silverlasso Minister of Magic DLP Supporter

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    Well, there were only about 2 weeks for January, and I remember that month's submissions being pretty good overall...but regardless, you're probably right, and it looks like World has addressed that:

     
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