Wow. Cool. He said "elegant". :excited:

Thanks. I thought it was a combination of my laziness and not wanting to get caught up in any drama.

Here's the other thing. Since I made the decision almost immediately to post the stories in the poll in the order in which the links were received, I would have had to list mine first, and I sure as HELL wasn't going to do that!

 

Maybe, in future writers' challenges, we should have a three part CAW. Part 1 with a challenge theme announced and a month to write and post your entry. Part 2 with a listing of all the entries and their links and three weeks to read the stories. Part 3 with the poll posted and two weeks to vote (which means still another two weeks to read). What do others think of this?

 

Sounds good to me!

 

I'm with you on part of this, but there's no need for an additional two weeks to read and vote.

What we've always done was exactly what you said in your Part 1. We've always combined your Parts 2 and 3, posting the poll in the same thread with the links. I'm not sure what is to be gained by separating them. If you try this with CAW #10, I think you should do two things:

Don't make the mistake I did by announcing the beginning and ending dates of the poll BEFORE you see the number of stories you're getting. That was foolish. I had assumed we would get over 25 stories, and that I might very well need two polls. I had it in my head that I wanted to end this thing by Christmas, so I posted all the dates in advance.

Looking at it now, I think an appropriate reading period would be perhaps two weeks -- voters who actually give a shit about what they're voting on can read ten stories a week.

I respectfully submit to you, heir-apparent of the CAW crown, that IF you decide to post your Challenge your new way, you make your "read the links but don't vote" period approximately one week long for every ten submissions you get. Your "voting enabled" period should be short -- no more than two or three days.

Another suggestion? Wait a little bit before posting the next Challenge. We all need a break over the ChristmaHannuKwanza season, don't we?

 

Might I make one suggestion?

If the forum software supports it, keep the results of the voting hidden until the poll ends.

I like the 3 part idea, and clarification of what CAW is would be a good thing. I only know because I kept seeing stories with the CAW acronym in the Stories site. I came here to find out what it was.

 

Unfortunately, the software does not allow it. Interesting concept.

ELP, as winner of the Calling All Writers, you are free to do as you wish, which you have in the past. I'm not sure what is so new about your idea.

Give the writers an amount of time to write a story based on your inspiration - that is the whole concept of the challenge as it was originated by me.

Give the readers time to read the entries - With the first two challenges, writers were not allowed to post before a certain date. That was when we were waiting for a week to be validated. In recent challenges, writers are posting when they wish, giving readers extra time to read, or not. I agree with wantsomefun - base the amount of time to read according to the number of entries.

Give another two weeks to read and vote - I personally don't think that's necessary if you've already given time to read. I have to agree with wsf again - allow then only 3 days for voting. If advertised well in advance, during the reading period, 3 days should not be an issue for most. Now, will there be those few that will be on vacation or holiday and not able to vote? Of course, you cannot plan something for everyone and expect it to work out perfectly for all.

I believe this challenge's entries had some of the best written entries of all. I am honored to have been the originator of this idea and am so pleased to be introduced to new writers in each challenge. I wish you all the best of luck in this and in future challenges.

 

Kurious, you have brought up a curious point. WHY is everyone seemingly jumping on the one story bandwagon? Like you say, there are other good stories (Hell, mine is good and maybe even better, yet I haven't had even one vote!). How good is the one getting the votes? It's good, but not so freakin' good as to get nearly 50% of the votes!

We are the ones to be honored by your ORIGINAL idea!

Not to beat a dead equine (no offense horse) but why aren't these BEST WRITTEN ENTRIES getting votes? And damnit, when did if come down to writer's campaigning for votes like a goddamned politician? New writers, beware!

 

There are several reasons for one story to be a runaway favorite:

It's a pretty good story, and it's by a known writer. I would say that an impressive number of the stories we got this time are pretty damn good, but some are from relative unknowns. A lot of people seem to read stuff by their favorites first. Hell, I do it, and so do you, I'm sure. That puts people like ELP, ejls, jack, and a few others at a distinct advantage.

Some people don't read much -- they click on the poll, look for their favorite writer, or a name they recognize, and read that person's submission. Maybe they'll look at one or two others, and then cast their vote. Unwittingly, I may have encouraged that, by the way I structured the poll post, spelling out each writer's name, rather than simply giving the links.

Then there are the people we've never seen before. Some are obvious socks (haven't seen them around this time, thankfully), and some are familiar "faces" over on GD and elsewhere.

I'm glad they're here, frankly. Promoting our little play-time in this forum is a good thing. Maybe we should all think about that, if we want to see the whole CAW concept grow and thrive.

The odd thing is that all the votes are going to the same story.

 

I see. Interesting. You want ELP to apologize for writing the best story and getting the most votes. Brilliant! Nobody voted for your original idea of "Indiana Jones Gets Some Pussy"? And they say people in the American South are gracious. Jackass is correct!

 

this is mor rediculus then the last time we came out

 

Personally, I think the truth is somewhere between these two points. One of the reasons that the top story is the top story is definitely because it's well-written. A second influence will be that a number of voters recogmize the author's moniker, which may slant their choice. A third factor will be the number of votes already cast for a given piece ("If everyone else is voting for it, it must be the best!").

And then, there's idiots like me. I was torn between four stories, and had to get really picky to find one that I considered to be better than the other three. After reading all of them (several times), it still took me over a week to finally make a decision. At the time, I would have really appreciated being able to vote more than once under one UserID (Best= 3 points, 2nd Best = 2 points, 3rd Best = 1 point?).

Having been through all the entries, I don't think any of us have anything to apologize for! Some of us have different criteria for what we consider the "best", and we both write and vote using those criteria. Just because the readers on this site have one set of prejudices, and a writer caters to those, that doesn't make another writer's style right or wrong. On another site I post, my entry might have done better than it did on here. The point was, what I wrote (and this will apply to every entrant) was something that reflected my personal artistic "talents" and direction, and this was the site where I wanted to post it.

In the meantime, I've enjoyed being a part of the competition, and the PMs from other entrants (none of whom I considered to be soliciting votes, as I'd already voted) I appreciated even more. For a relative newbie like me, those PMs and comments make me feel like I'm a more accepted member of the community. That's one hell of an incentive to keep on writing, and to enter future CAW events.

 

I have to take a moment and ask your criteria for original ideas? ELP won a challenge using the Hindenburg, an actual event. Not original is it? My entry in that same challenge was based on the USS Pueblo incident, an actual event. Not original and yet I got votes. Horse's entry was based on JFK - God forbid, an actual person. How original.

Writers of fiction can and will base their stories on actual events, people, places and in ELP's case, a disease. Margaret Truman wrote mysteries based on Washington, DC, published books, in case you are not familiar with this American author, the only daughter of President Truman. Does that make them not original?

This is an open forum, one where you have let your opinion be known. Jack is more than entitled to voice his opinion and observations. You, yourself, did that after the CAW 8 poll - shouting sock voting to everyone who would listen and insisting that WSF give up the win to Nicola. Accusations that you could not and did not prove. Are you going to claim that this time? I think not.

 

They're not so much in use down here in the South, but I hear that up north some writers use sock heaters to keep their toes from getting frostbitten.

 

although i am not a fan of incest, Megan's Gift was some what different as it was for a dying sibling and both virgins at the time. Sure she blamed herself for ending his life a week early than expected, but in doing so brought new life to a morbid ending.

This being said, doesn't mean incest is right, it repulses me, but in this situation it seemed ok.

 

I really wouldn't know, Jack. I don't have a sock account and I'm not a sore loser.

 

This is only a writing contest on a sex story site and nobody has won anything yet. Why spoil it for any or for all of us?

 

Who are you addressing?

 

Good is a relative term.

Back room handshakes and notes of encouragement aside, this is supposed to be a contest based upon each writer's abilities and the development of their writer's voice, is it not?

Now we have people who ask others to read and vote on their works. If their popularity isn't enough to garner votes in this contest, why also do they need to ask people to vote?

 

I just don't want to see people (Jack, Heater) argue over this. What's the point? It's only going to hurt this and future challenges in front of everyone.

 

Points System?

I REALLY like the idea of being able to vote for more than one story, perhaps through a points system like you mentioned, or perhaps a star rating system or something. I have no idea if this is possible, but I'm sure we could find a way, even if it is just through leaving a post in a thread stating your top 3/5 stories? Just a thought. It would also make it easier to find a clear 2nd 3rd 4th... placed story and give more recognition to the stories which aren't people's number 1.

Also, this thread is getting WAY too political haha, chill people, it's just a bit of fun. There's no need to take it too seriously .