Yep, it's like Teresa says. And just think how high up the table you'd be if you had entered several times in those three years!
Writing Challenge Statistics
- Thread starter The Judge
- Start date
As we're half-way through the Challenge year, I thought some of you might be interested in the leader board and a few other stats for the 75s as we embark on the long downhill run to the finishing line. (I think I've mixed a few metaphors there. )
And the first big matter for your attention, in July we reached our 100th Challenge!! Not bad when we didn't think we'd manage to sustain interest for more than a half-dozen or so!
In the six completed months to date we've had 248 entries, a bit down on this time last year which is a shame, so let's make sure we pick up the slack for the next half year. Those entries have accrued 247 votes (also down, so we need to redouble our efforts to encourage every entrant to vote, and inveigle non-entrants to vote, too). And we've had 15 newbies join to the end of September, including some well-established members who have taken the 75-word plunge for the first time!
And jointly leading the boards at the half-way stage are Cat's Cradle and TheDustyZebra with 19 votes apiece! In 3rd place is Hoopy with 16 votes, but she's got those in just the one challenge! Then in joint 4th place there's johnnyjet, mosaix and me with 15. Victoria comes in 7th with 11 votes, then Ashleyne and Shyrka have 9 votes each in 8th place, and in 10th place is Phyrebrat with 8 votes.
And special congrats this half-year go to Hoopy. As I mentioned when she won in April, her magnificent 16 votes that month is the highest score ever reached in the 75s!!
We've another six Challenges left. Who wants to bet on CC and TDZ continuing to hog first place? Will one of the other front-runners overtake them? Or is there a dark horse waiting in the wings to eclipse us all? To find out, make sure you keep Challenging!
And the first big matter for your attention, in July we reached our 100th Challenge!! Not bad when we didn't think we'd manage to sustain interest for more than a half-dozen or so!
In the six completed months to date we've had 248 entries, a bit down on this time last year which is a shame, so let's make sure we pick up the slack for the next half year. Those entries have accrued 247 votes (also down, so we need to redouble our efforts to encourage every entrant to vote, and inveigle non-entrants to vote, too). And we've had 15 newbies join to the end of September, including some well-established members who have taken the 75-word plunge for the first time!
And jointly leading the boards at the half-way stage are Cat's Cradle and TheDustyZebra with 19 votes apiece! In 3rd place is Hoopy with 16 votes, but she's got those in just the one challenge! Then in joint 4th place there's johnnyjet, mosaix and me with 15. Victoria comes in 7th with 11 votes, then Ashleyne and Shyrka have 9 votes each in 8th place, and in 10th place is Phyrebrat with 8 votes.
And special congrats this half-year go to Hoopy. As I mentioned when she won in April, her magnificent 16 votes that month is the highest score ever reached in the 75s!!
We've another six Challenges left. Who wants to bet on CC and TDZ continuing to hog first place? Will one of the other front-runners overtake them? Or is there a dark horse waiting in the wings to eclipse us all? To find out, make sure you keep Challenging!
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2014
- Messages
- 3,296
As always, thank you for taking the time to tally the figures, TJ!
Never thought I'd see myself at (or even horribly near!) the top of one of these lists, with the many-many fine writers who enter throughout the year. I don't think I'll stay there (I'd bet on TDZ
), but it's cool, for this moment, to be there. AND - I wrote a story about f*rts for the October 75 worder, so down the list we go!!
Never thought I'd see myself at (or even horribly near!) the top of one of these lists, with the many-many fine writers who enter throughout the year. I don't think I'll stay there (I'd bet on TDZ
), but it's cool, for this moment, to be there. AND - I wrote a story about f*rts for the October 75 worder, so down the list we go!! 
Thanks, Your Hon.
Doubt I’ll be able to keep a top ten spot next April if I keep skipping challenges, but it was a nice surprise to see my name in dispatch.
(Despatch?? )
pH
Doubt I’ll be able to keep a top ten spot next April if I keep skipping challenges, but it was a nice surprise to see my name in dispatch.
(Despatch??
)pH
No chance of me making it on list, I've had a grand total of 2 votes since January.
johnnyjet
Western PA High Tech Country Boy
Wow! How did that happen? It's an honor to be among such an illustrious group of writers.
Year 9 statistics
A comment from Phyrebrat the other day brought home to me how remiss I’ve been at keeping up with the stats. So I’m now starting on the backlog, which means finally looking at the balance of the Year 9 figures, only 18 months late…
As ever, I’ll start with the 75s, and the year's figures are attached.
75 worder -- Year 9 -- April 2018 to March 2019
It was something of a mixed bag for the year.
There were slight increases in the number of members entering the Challenges, from 112 in 2017-8 to 115 entrants for 2018-9, and in the number of new entrants from 32 to 38 newbies, but these figures are nowhere near the glory days of previous years.
Less happily, there was a decrease in the number of stories, from 535 in 2017-8 – itself well down on the year before – to 521 entries. The highest achieving month was October with 48 stories, again down, and September brought an unfortunate record, the lowest ever monthly count with only 38 stories. And we once again had a month in which no new entrants took part.
Even more disappointingly the number of votes cast fell drastically – the previous two years’ figures had been inflated with each having a month in which three votes were available, but even after adjustment for that we’ve fallen from 534 to 508 votes.
A major problem remains with the number of members who enter a Challenge but then don’t vote. Although we had four good months in which we had more voters than entrants, which is always welcome, we had a shocking 12 entrants not voting in November. Over the entire year we had 45 entrants who didn’t vote, giving a total of 71 "missing" votes.
Those missing votes were partly compensated by 35 members who voted without entering in that particular Challenge, giving us 58 "extra" votes. A Thanks List is attached so we can applaud them, with extra thanks to Vaz who so voted four times, Chris P, farntfar, Greymalkin and Mad Alice who each so voted three times, and extra-large trumpet-fanfare thanks to Abernovo who so voted a total of 9 times.
As to those members who took part in a Challenge but then didn't vote, as I've said before we understand that real life can get in the way, and it's all too easy to forget what day it or get caught up in domestic turmoil -- and several members appear on both lists, as if to make up for missing on another occasion, which is fine. But we again had members repeatedly failing to vote – one member missed four votes having entered, and three members missed three votes. And one member entered every single Challenge for the year and didn’t vote once. I'll resist the temptation to say exactly what I think of that behaviour, but suffice to say it doesn't sit well with me.
These posts are always long and complex, so for a change – and with apologies for consecutive posting – I'll break here and do the balance of an examination of the year in a separate post.
Meanwhile, if anyone reading the attached tables notices a mistake, just yell!
A comment from Phyrebrat the other day brought home to me how remiss I’ve been at keeping up with the stats. So I’m now starting on the backlog, which means finally looking at the balance of the Year 9 figures, only 18 months late…
As ever, I’ll start with the 75s, and the year's figures are attached.
75 worder -- Year 9 -- April 2018 to March 2019
It was something of a mixed bag for the year.
There were slight increases in the number of members entering the Challenges, from 112 in 2017-8 to 115 entrants for 2018-9, and in the number of new entrants from 32 to 38 newbies, but these figures are nowhere near the glory days of previous years.
Less happily, there was a decrease in the number of stories, from 535 in 2017-8 – itself well down on the year before – to 521 entries. The highest achieving month was October with 48 stories, again down, and September brought an unfortunate record, the lowest ever monthly count with only 38 stories. And we once again had a month in which no new entrants took part.
Even more disappointingly the number of votes cast fell drastically – the previous two years’ figures had been inflated with each having a month in which three votes were available, but even after adjustment for that we’ve fallen from 534 to 508 votes.
A major problem remains with the number of members who enter a Challenge but then don’t vote. Although we had four good months in which we had more voters than entrants, which is always welcome, we had a shocking 12 entrants not voting in November. Over the entire year we had 45 entrants who didn’t vote, giving a total of 71 "missing" votes.
Those missing votes were partly compensated by 35 members who voted without entering in that particular Challenge, giving us 58 "extra" votes. A Thanks List is attached so we can applaud them, with extra thanks to Vaz who so voted four times, Chris P, farntfar, Greymalkin and Mad Alice who each so voted three times, and extra-large trumpet-fanfare thanks to Abernovo who so voted a total of 9 times.
As to those members who took part in a Challenge but then didn't vote, as I've said before we understand that real life can get in the way, and it's all too easy to forget what day it or get caught up in domestic turmoil -- and several members appear on both lists, as if to make up for missing on another occasion, which is fine. But we again had members repeatedly failing to vote – one member missed four votes having entered, and three members missed three votes. And one member entered every single Challenge for the year and didn’t vote once. I'll resist the temptation to say exactly what I think of that behaviour, but suffice to say it doesn't sit well with me.
These posts are always long and complex, so for a change – and with apologies for consecutive posting – I'll break here and do the balance of an examination of the year in a separate post.
Meanwhile, if anyone reading the attached tables notices a mistake, just yell!
75 worder -- Year 9 -- April 2018 to March 2019 -- Part 2
Just to remind everyone, I do these statistics (when I do do them...) just as a matter of fun, but I should hate to think that anyone gets depressed when checking out the figures. As we've said so often, to take part in the Challenges is itself a success,and everyone is a winner by virtue of meeting the Challenge.
But we'd be kidding ourselves if we didn't admit that getting votes is good and getting lots of votes is even better!! (Competitive? Moi??) So for those of us who like to know just where we stand in the voting pecking-order, here are the details.
The vote winner for 2018-19 was MOSAIX with 31 votes!
Hot on his heels, and coming in at second place for the second year running, was TDZ with 30 votes. Cat’s Cradle was third with 29, and HoopyFrood was fourth with 23 votes in only four Challenges! (In the previous year she again took part in only four Challenges, at which time she got 19 votes!) In fifth place was johnnyjet with 22 votes, then came Luiglin with 19, Shyrka with 17 and in joint eighth place with 16, Tywin and Victoria, and I scraped into tenth place with 15.
Some high points:
Further figures to come over the weekend.
Just to remind everyone, I do these statistics (when I do do them...) just as a matter of fun, but I should hate to think that anyone gets depressed when checking out the figures. As we've said so often, to take part in the Challenges is itself a success,and everyone is a winner by virtue of meeting the Challenge.
But we'd be kidding ourselves if we didn't admit that getting votes is good and getting lots of votes is even better!! (Competitive? Moi??
) So for those of us who like to know just where we stand in the voting pecking-order, here are the details.*fanfares*
The vote winner for 2018-19 was MOSAIX with 31 votes!
Hot on his heels, and coming in at second place for the second year running, was TDZ with 30 votes. Cat’s Cradle was third with 29, and HoopyFrood was fourth with 23 votes in only four Challenges! (In the previous year she again took part in only four Challenges, at which time she got 19 votes!) In fifth place was johnnyjet with 22 votes, then came Luiglin with 19, Shyrka with 17 and in joint eighth place with 16, Tywin and Victoria, and I scraped into tenth place with 15.
Some high points:
- TDZ became only the second person to get wins in two consecutive months
- mosaix was the first member to get nine wins, then he became the third to get two consecutive wins -- which makes three successive years of two wins per year! -- which also meant he was also the first to get ten wins, damn him!
- as I’ve mentioned before, when Hoopy won in April 2018, her magnificent 16 votes that month was the highest score ever reached in the 75s!
Further figures to come over the weekend.
So, only five above me to kill off now. My plan moves at a pace.75 worder -- Year 9 -- April 2018 to March 2019 -- Part 2
Just to remind everyone, I do these statistics (when I do do them...) just as a matter of fun, but I should hate to think that anyone gets depressed when checking out the figures. As we've said so often, to take part in the Challenges is itself a success,and everyone is a winner by virtue of meeting the Challenge.
But we'd be kidding ourselves if we didn't admit that getting votes is good and getting lots of votes is even better!! (Competitive? Moi??
*fanfares*
The vote winner for 2018-19 was MOSAIX with 31 votes!
Hot on his heels, and coming in at second place for the second year running, was TDZ with 30 votes. Cat’s Cradle was third with 29, and HoopyFrood was fourth with 23 votes in only four Challenges! (In the previous year she again took part in only four Challenges, at which time she got 19 votes!) In fifth place was johnnyjet with 22 votes, then came Luiglin with 19, Shyrka with 17 and in joint eighth place with 16, Tywin and Victoria, and I scraped into tenth place with 15.
Some high points:
A very, very belated welcome to the year’s newbies, and a special mention for Artoriarius who won in the January with only his fifth entry!
- TDZ became only the second person to get wins in two consecutive months
- mosaix was the first member to get nine wins, then he became the third to get two consecutive wins -- which makes three successive years of two wins per year! -- which also meant he was also the first to get ten wins, damn him!
- as I’ve mentioned before, when Hoopy won in April 2018, her magnificent 16 votes that month was the highest score ever reached in the 75s!
Further figures to come over the weekend.
HoopyFrood
It's me! Hurrah!
I wonder how much I could achieve in life if I weren’t such a lazy bum.
Mouse's real crime was nearly as bad -- she didn't enter once that year!
But at least she didn't commit the heinous offence of voting for you instead of me!
But at least she didn't commit the heinous offence of voting for you instead of me!
Thanks for the hard work @The Judge
Wayne Mack
Well-Known Member
From my regular line of work, one of the frequent recommendations I provide is to make expectations explicit. The guidance in the Nov. 2020 75 word rule set is:
"You do not have to submit a story in order to vote -- in fact, we encourage all Chrons members to take part in choosing a winner "
Perhaps this could be reworded to something like:
"All entrants are encouraged to read and vote on submissions. You do not have to submit a story in order to vote -- in fact, we encourage all Chrons members to take part in choosing a winner "
I find it is usually better and mostly far more correct to assume misunderstanding rather than deliberate malfeasance.
Oh, I agree -- in the ordinary course of events, and due allowance is always made for newcomers to the Challenges who might not appreciate what happens.
But anyone taking part on a regular basis would realise that entrants are not only encouraged to vote but are effectively asked to see it as a vital aspect of participating. Quite apart from me talking about it in this thread each year, and the chatter about voting in each and every Discussion thread, in the past we've also posted separate reminders to vote in the Challenge threads themselves. So in the case of at least some of the repeat offenders -- and you'll appreciate that I've also got the records from previous years -- it's rather stretching incredulity to believe it's a simple misunderstanding rather than a deliberate decision.
However, anything that reminds entrants to vote is a good thing, and we'll have a natter in the Staff Room about what wording might be best, so thanks for the suggestion!
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2014
- Messages
- 3,296
Thanks for all of your hard work, TJ, in compiling these stats. Very happy to have received so many votes in a year, when there are so many terrific writers here.
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