Falling Numbers -- Fewer Members Entering the Challenge

Yes, just one vote. I'd also prefer the same for the 300 but I know that's been discussed already.

Luiglin said:

The only thing that does slightly annoy me is the deluge of thanks posts. Here I may sound like a grumpy sour puss but the new 'Like' option is more useful to show your appreciation and saves loading time for poor folks like me who browse the forum via phone

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+1!!! Getting emails and notifications in my small world is exciting until I see it's a 'thanks' - I try to save mine up for the end of the poll although I do always try to thank Perp, SB, Victoria (and lately DGJones & ABW) asap for their reviews.

pH

Hey everyone! Well, I'll admit openly that I'm one of the offenders who over thank (though I try to save up a 'Thank You!' post till I have a number of people to whom I wish to express gratitude). I've seen it mentioned around the site that this is an annoyance (which I totally can see), so maybe that's something we should hold a referendum on, since we're openly discussing the challenges here...?

For me, I really am thankful for a mention or vote. And I hate being rude--online, or in real life; to me it seems rude not to thank someone for a kindness. But, it is true that, once listing and voting begin, the thanks are legion. So I wonder what people think...should we, collectively, decide to hold off, and just do a mega-thanks at the end of a challenge? Should we collectively decide that the 'Like' button expresses gratitude sufficiently, and hold off on the majority of our thanks posts? Is this situation seen as a problem for the majority of challenge entrants, or challenge discussion-thread participants? Should things stay as they are? I have no clue, but would certainly go along with any majority opinion, if it's decided a majority of opinion is required here. I lament the loss of civility in the world, but I guess there can be a fine line between civil, and annoying behaviour. CC

For me I prefer the neatness of the Like post option. It's more about the practicality of having lots of thanks posts where I get lost. It's certainly not about being discourteous to people who have taken the time to comment.

To take it a radical step further I'd be quite for the Like option be allowed in the challenge threads themselves. This could help with the voting ie you get one vote but like as many stories as you wish.

Edit: obviously once the entry deadline has passed.

Luiglin said:

To take it a radical step further I'd be quite for the Like option be allowed in the challenge threads themselves. This could help with the voting ie you get one vote but like as many stories as you wish.

Edit: obviously once the entry deadline has passed.

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Whoa! That is radical.

I feel like that is not a good idea though. The very name of the like-button is "like."

So leaving a like on one challenge entry and not on another is tantamount to saying "I did not like this."

Shortlists allow us to show the stories we felt were best (in our own estimations), but in no way imply that we disliked the entries that we did not list.

If we use the like-button to convey too many meanings, we'd have to publish a situation-based translator!

Just to make it clear, @Remedy, in using "like" on your post I was most trying to express my appreciation of your paragraph structure.

HareBrain said:

Just to make it clear, @Remedy, in using "like" on your post I was most trying to express my appreciation of your paragraph structure.

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That's going into the translator...

I disagree. The word like is immaterial in this instance. It's the option it provides that could give a neater solution.

To me there is no difference to marking something as liked than it is to create a shortlist. Whichever way you are still highlighting one entry above others.

You'll never please everyone and to say that you enjoy all entries has to be a fib. There'll be ones that you don't understand and others that you'll plainly not enjoy. That's no detriment to the writers it's just human nature.

For instance I enjoy reading fantasy but found the Wheel of Time series very tedious. Likewise I found later Game of Thrones books to be often excessive in what was needed for the plots. That doesn't make them bad writers, it's just my personal opinion and as soon as you add voting it is something that cannot be avoided.

I am coming very late to this discussion. As a relatively newbie on this forum (less than a year), I think my impressions might be helpful.

When I came on here I saw a camaraderie and mutual support within the comments for both 75 and 300 worder challenges which encouraged me to have a go. I wanted to be a part of what looked like (and has proved to be) a big, friendly and slightly dysfunctional family (mis-quote from the St Trinian's movie).

I have had the odd vote and a few mentions, all of which are extremely welcome, but I have never come anywhere near winning a challenge. That doesn't bother me, or surprise me, because I am well aware that this is a steep learning curve and I'm still in with the primordial soup at the bottom. It just makes me more determined to improve my writing.

I can imagine that some would be disillusioned and disenchanted by never getting anywhere with the challenges, but then perhaps they are also the ones who might give up after a mere score or so rejections by publishers and agents, unlike a thick-skinned rhino like me. I can also see where some might perceive winning the challenges as the prerogative of the old-guard. That could be because most of the old-guard are b****y good writers.

One question I have to ask here is: Do any of you think the relatively new 100 word anonymous challenge is affecting uptake of the official challenges?

I'll stick my head up over the parapet here and say that I don't think it is. That opinion is quite possibly fuelled by my own insatiable appetite for these challenges. It certainly isn't based on any statistical evidence.

I do think the 100 word Anon is especially attractive to relative newbies, especially those who might feel that they are at a disadvantage when compared to more familiar names. It does provide a truly level playing field.

If the consensus is that the 100 worder adversely affects the official challenges, I move to suggest it should either be scrapped or reduced to a quarterly event, perhaps keying in with the 300 worder and the Sekrit Santas?

Right. Now I'm off to my bunker until the flack stops flying.

Kerrybuchanan said:

One question I have to ask here is: Do any of you think the relatively new 100 word anonymous challenge is affecting uptake of the official challenges?

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I doubt it. A lot of our members seem to be able to chuck out a good entry in about three days, so having to do two in a month instead of one probably wouldn't be especially taxing. In fact I wonder if the reverse is true, and it keeps people's creative juices exercised. If you can exercise a juice.

HareBrain said:

If you can exercise a juice.

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You are so weird!

A very good post Kerry. I still feel newish here myself, and I love all of the writing challenges; I recognize, though, that because I am new I may not be able to see the big picture of what is best for the community. I will anxiously await responses to the several questions that have been asked here today.

On the "like" issue. As far as the Challenge thread itself is concerned, there's a danger it might sway members when it comes to voting. People can avoid the Discussion thread, and therefore be unaware of who is saying what about which stories, but it's impossible to avoid reading the Challenge thread itself. If one story has several "likes" against it, it could well affect how someone then views that story and then how she votes. There's plenty of room in the Discussion thread to wax lyrical about stories one likes -- that's what it's there for, after all.

As for the Discussion thread, I'm another one who would much prefer people to use the "like" button as a way of saying thank you, rather than have a page of one-line posts which is the alternative. For myself, I've pretty much always thanked en bloc when I come to vote, which I sincerely hope hasn't offended anyone over the years by not thanking people immediately, but that's when I go through the Discussion thread and catch up on what's gone on there -- I rarely read the thread after voting starts as I'm one of those who doesn't want to know who is saying what about whose stories before I re-read the stories for myself and think about my voting.

Re the 100s, it was certainly a concern in the Staff Room that it has the potential to cause writer-fatigue, which is why we are very keen that it doesn't intrude into the months when the 300 is running.

HareBrain said:

creative juices exercised. If you can exercise a juice.

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Are you still on the same theme? Mind you, I suppose it is spring and all that.

I was so inspired by this thread I gathered the energy to enter this month's challenge

Good!

I've been away just because of the whole 'real life' thing. But, that said, i have two possible entries this month, and I'll make sure I put one up even if there isn't much time to work on them.