Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Writing Challenge and Voting?

This is topic Writing Challenge and Voting? in forum Writing Challenges at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by JustInProse (Member # 7872) on :

There has been discussion ever since the second week of the writing challenge as to whether or not everyone who enters must vote. It has recently come up at the end of last weeks competition because of the few voters.

I am currently one who agrees that the winner should be someone who votes. As moderator this week, I would like to ask everyone involved in this competition (whether by entering, voting, or observing)what their opinion is.

Should the competition require voting (not comments) to win?

I strongly encourage past and future moderators to provide some input, as they have dealt with this issue already.

I vote yes!

Yes - 1
No - 0

Votes officially go until the end of this weeks competition. If the vote is for yes, it will be enacted. If the vote is for no, then a new rule can be created.

*Note* Voting yes will place this rule into the official challenge rules.

Posted by Doctor (Member # 7736) on :

I vote yes.

But I think something more is required to energize people into participating. Because it wasn't just the number of votes that was diminished, but also the number of entries. That could be partly due to the difficult synopsis, at least - I found it difficult, or it could be do to a declining interest in the whole exercise. I'm not sure what we can do about this, but if someone has a good idea please put it forward.

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Part of the discrepancy between voters and entrants is that there is at least one person who has entered the last few challenges who is not able to post on the Hatrack River Writers Workshop forum for reasons known only to She Who Must Be Obeyed.

I would like to request that if a moderator receives an entry from someone who does not have an introduction posted, the moderator contact me to make sure the person is actually registered here on the Hatrack River Writers Workshop forum.

Thanks.

[This message has been edited by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (edited May 12, 2008).]

Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :

quote:

But I think something more is required to energize people into participating. Because it wasn't just the number of votes that was diminished, but also the number of entries.

Remember, other than real world interruptions, there are myriad reasons why any given challenge could be depleted: Every three months, a WotF group workshops an entry (and there's some high-calibur competiton there); the Heinlein Centennial Contest is drawing to a close (professionals could well be entering that one, too); Liberty Hall has a weekly flash challenge; NaNoWriMo will cut into the numbers of any writing challenge group....etc.

Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :

Yes: To win you must vote!

However! We need a protocol for how to deal with non-voters if they place. I.e., do we bump the other placers up to make up for the removal? Do we ask people who voted for the non-voter to recast their votes?

This is where I got stuck. For a weekly competition, it seems a bit much trouble to ask people to recast votes, etc. So, I suggest a quick and dirty way of dealing with this.

Posted by Dvorak (Member # 7976) on :

I vote yes, but I'd want to know how long people get to vote. I'm new to this, although I've read the rules; how does it typically go? Someone else in this forum implied that there is a typical day for moderators to post the entries and results; what is the typical schedule?

I don't want to derail this thread, just to understand fully what I'm voting on. If there isn't really a typical day, or if it varies, fine. Or maybe there's no usual day, but there is a usual amount of time between posting of entries and results?

If anyone could post the answer I'd appreciate it.

Posted by JustInProse (Member # 7872) on :

The synopsis is usually posted saturday, the entries are due by wednesday night (time of night varies between moderators), and votes start after the last entry is in. The moderator will post telling everyone when voting has started. Voting then runs through sunday-tuesday I believe, although it has been shifting occasionally.

[This message has been edited by JustInProse (edited May 12, 2008).]

Posted by Jeff M (Member # 7828) on :

Yeah, to echo what Dvorak said, even as a participant I've sometimes been confused when the deadline was. For future challenges, could we suggest the moderator clearly give the date and time for deadline of submissions and then for the close of voting. We've all got productive lives outside of this forum (hopefully!) and it's not always possible to stick to the same days each week. Saying deadline for entries is "Wednesday May 21 by 23:59 EDT" is more helpful than "next Wednesday".

This may help first-timers who are not familiar with the format feel more confident about when to enter and vote.

(and if you wanted to be kind to our friends in the Old World, you could also report time as UTC or GMT. Google's your friend)

Posted by Jeff M (Member # 7828) on :

Oh, and if you don't vote, yeah, you're Ben Johnson.

... unless you've got a good excuse. I mean, this is supposed to be fun. If you take stuff like this too seriously, you should probably take some time to fix whatever else in your life isn't working

Posted by kathyton (Member # 7780) on :

I would be vote yes, but I'm curious about why contestants didn't vote -- I remember one post from a new contestant who wasn't sure she was allowed to vote (as a new member). Would anyone share what barriers (real or perceived) to voting they encountered?

Posted by AnnaN (Member # 7932) on :

Kathyton
I think I gave the wrong impression with my remark. It wasn’t that I felt that I wasn’t allowed to vote; I was waiting for other new members because I was a little nervous about being the only new participant critiquing entries. And I didn’t want to simply vote for the top three, since everyone else took the time to comment on each entry.

Real or perceived barriers)
I don’t think this is really a barrier, but my nerves stem from this. I want to be specific when critiquing, but translating gut reactions into terms that can be helpful to a writer is an art form all its own. I’m still learning how, but I guess that’s part of the objective in the challenge (learning to write, critique, and using comments to improve writing). I vote yes as well.