Rule Clairification

[Dan Hocker]

A former member of this forum, who is now banned for breaking the terms and services of this forum, has expressed his express concern with the rules of the writing contest. His concern comes from the fact that he did not read the rules before entering and was surprised to find out that published authors where allowed to enter the contest. Below is quoted text from two different places in the rules of this particular contest. This thread is to make sure everyone understands this, so this can be avoided going forward.

Definition of "Amateur" clarification.

In this instance, when we say "Amateur" we mean both unpublished writers and / or author's we do not publish on a regular basis. I say regular basis to give a little room, as I would not want to deny someone who may have only been published in say the magazine once or twice. I would also go so far to say that if Cemetery Dance has published one of your books you would not fall into the "Amateur" category.

Thank you everyone and good luck in the contest!

[RJK1981]

It'd be so much easier if people would read all the rules. It would eliminate quite a few questions I think because I think everything was spelled out pretty clearly myself, except maybe if you read the rules the day they were posted and then didn't look at the threads at all after that since I don't think amateur was clarified initially, but was soon after it started.

[the_last_gunslinger]

Yeah, it would be one thing if his objection had come from his disagreement of the rules as defined by Cemetery Dance. But complaining over misunderstood rules can become annoying.

[Dan Hocker]

It certainly turned into disagreement during the conversation I had with him, but at that point it was way to late for him to be voicing his opinions on the matter (seeing as the contest is already under way). The biggest problem are the hostilities from said person that came with the discussion, those hostilities are what eventually got him banned from this forum. My theory on the subject (and maybe I'm wrong) if you don't like the rules of the contest, don't enter the contest.

[C.W. LaSart]

You have done an excellent job of policing the forum. There will always be those who feel they are getting a raw deal-just a product of the times. I would give my left foot to see that discussion though! Haha! I bet it got ugly.

[hamount]

Yeah, I have to agree, and I'd love to see that discussion too. It'd make for an entertaining read.

[Draven Ames]

I agree completely. Thank you for the great work, Dan.

[jester05jk]

How long has the site been up, like a month and already a banishment? Nice.

[Antmusic]

There have been some spammers that have been banned too, but so quickly that you probably didn't notice.

[Dan Hocker]

How long has the site been up, like a month and already a banishment? Nice.

Before the site was even publicly announced I had 4 bans racked up from spam bots.... lol.

[peteOcha]

Ahh, good ol' forum drama. This forum delivers!

[johnpeters]

I have a question regarding the rules. And yes, I did read the rules -- very clear and concise, I thought -- but I'm curious. With the contest entries split into 10 groups, is this now set up so that each group winner advances to another round of voting, or will it be the top three vote getters regardless of grouping? In other words, would it be conceivable to see two of the top three, or even all three, come from the same group?

Thanks, and I add my voice to the others, nice forum. I'll be visiting here long after the contest concludes.

[Untitled]

So, if I've published one short story, I'm no longer an amateur? I'm a professional? Sweet! At least, that's what that guy's definition appears to be. But seriously, I always interpreted "professional" to mean "gets paid to do it for a living." Granted, if a bestselling author who happened to not have been published at CD entered the contest, I think a few folks would call SHENANIGANS!, but it doesn't look like the folks here are claiming to make house payments with their fiction. I'm sure that's the dream of many, however, which is wonderful, and more power to them!

[Dan Hocker]

So, if I've published one short story, I'm no longer an amateur? I'm a professional? Sweet! At least, that's what that guy's definition appears to be. But seriously, I always interpreted "professional" to mean "gets paid to do it for a living." Granted, if a bestselling author who happened to not have been published at CD entered the contest, I think a few folks would call SHENANIGANS!, but it doesn't look like the folks here are claiming to make house payments with their fiction. I'm sure that's the dream of many, however, which is wonderful, and more power to them!

This was kinda my take on the meaning of "professional" as well.

[Dan Hocker]

I have a question regarding the rules. And yes, I did read the rules -- very clear and concise, I thought -- but I'm curious. With the contest entries split into 10 groups, is this now set up so that each group winner advances to another round of voting, or will it be the top three vote getters regardless of grouping? In other words, would it be conceivable to see two of the top three, or even all three, come from the same group?

Thanks, and I add my voice to the others, nice forum. I'll be visiting here long after the contest concludes.

This actually wasn't something accounted for in the rules, mostly because we where not expecting this kind of response to the contest. The voting solution is something Brian and I thought up a couple of days before the window for entering was closed. The winners of the first round of stories will move onto another round of voting, and then the top 3 in that final round will be in the chapbook.

Edit: We thought this was a much better solution than putting all the stories in one vote and hoping everyone had time to read all of them and was able to pick out the one they thought was the single best out of them. This way people don't have to narrow their overall choice down till the final vote.