Contest Entry Discussion

[RichardThomas]

good luck all - and i also agree on either letting us vote for three stories or NOT being able to vote for yourself - very cool so far, wow, the submissions!

[Nik Houser]

Yeah, ideally there'd be a way to vote just one time on three different stories at once. That way, even if someone votes for their own story, they can't go back and vote for their own story three times.

[Draven Ames]

I doubt it would be much work. Just a piece of paper and some tally marks. It would take about 20 minutes, if that.

[onipar]

These are all good points being brought up about voting, and in fact, I'd been wondering about potential loopholes in the voting process. For instance, if the only requirement is to be a member of the forum, a writer could easily recruit friends and family to sign up and vote for his or her story. I'd hope no one would do something like that, but it did occur to me as a possible problem (unless of course I missed something in the rules that would prevent that, which would be a good thing. :-) ).

[jmcraven]

As for number of votes, this was discussed briefly on page 2 of this thread, and Dan said he originally preferred each person to have 3 unique votes, but the way the forum polls are designed it is either 1 vote or unlimited votes.

I share many of the concerns you guys have voiced, but I have one concern that overshadows my others: if this becomes a headache for Dan and CD, they may not want to do this again.

[C.W. LaSart]

As for number of votes, this was discussed briefly on page 2 of this thread, and Dan said he originally preferred each person to have 3 unique votes, but the way the forum polls are designed it is either 1 vote or unlimited votes.

I share many of the concerns you guys have voiced, but I have one concern that overshadows my others: if this becomes a headache for Dan and CD, they may not want to do this again.

I feel for those who are arranging this. I think they will come up with whatever they come up with, and the nervousness of waiting a whole week for a vote, just has everyone speculating. I will leave it up to them and accept whatever they do. If anyone disagrees with the voting process (including myself), they can just opt out of any further contests.

[Draven Ames]

I feel for those who are arranging this. I think they will come up with whatever they come up with, and the nervousness of waiting a whole week for a vote, just has everyone speculating. I will leave it up to them and accept whatever they do. If anyone disagrees with the voting process (including myself), they can just opt out of any further contests.

+1

[chickenfeet]

all uv da entrees r gr8

so many

i luv em alll

[onipar]

all uv da entrees r gr8

so many

i luv em alll

I know! So much horror goodness. I feel like I'm getting $75 worth of free reads just by playing along with the contest. Awesome sauce. :-D

[Pooks]

Out of curiosity do you know how the voting is going to work?

[Scott]

As a new writer any critique is valuable, from other enthusiasts as well as the pros. Hell of a good idea.

[Dan Hocker]

Out of curiosity do you know how the voting is going to work?

Ok, so we've just figured out how we're going to handle voting. We've had to change our strategy here due to the number of entries into the contest. Here's how it's going to work. When the submission period is over, I will take all of the stories and put them into a spreadsheet and randomize the order. Then we will vote in groups of 10 via a forum poll. Once the preliminary vote is over we will have a final round vote to determine the winners. Each vote thread will also have a link to each story in it to make it easier for people to read then vote. Hopefully this seems fair to everyone. We really just felt like having one large vote with all the stories in them would just make everyone kind of glaze over while looking at them.

[WesleySouthard]

Ok, I'm kinda pissed at myself. I just re-read my story and realized I'm missing several words here and there. I do this crap all the time.

[spernst]

What is the official voting day? Despite having a horse in the race if I don't write it down my poor scatter brain will probably forget...

[Draven Ames]

Ok, so we've just figured out how we're going to handle voting. We've had to change our strategy here due to the number of entries into the contest. Here's how it's going to work. When the submission period is over, I will take all of the stories and put them into a spreadsheet and randomize the order. Then we will vote in groups of 10 via a forum poll. Once the preliminary vote is over we will have a final round vote to determine the winners. Each vote thread will also have a link to each story in it to make it easier for people to read then vote. Hopefully this seems fair to everyone. We really just felt like having one large vote with all the stories in them would just make everyone kind of glaze over while looking at them.

So we will be voting on 10 stories at a time, top 1 progresses in each round? Sounds fair, except you might pair three of the best stories in one group, thereby losing good stories. But it is better than everyone voting on themselves. Will people still be able to vote if they didn't enter the competition?

I will say that I am impressed that Cemetery Dance is adjusting as they see possible problems.