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Post by Mikauzoran on Jun 8, 2015 2:18:16 GMT
Basically it's like when there's a group date and you invite people just so that the numbers are even. I just threw it together at the last minute last night and today because I really wanted us to have the numbers to have a real contest. I don't expect to win, but I think I have an interesting concept, and I hope people enjoy it. I'll probably do a quick review and edit for here, but I'll wait and put a more polished version on ff.net later. I don't want to hold up voting. I absolutely hate doing that.
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Post by Mikauzoran on Jun 9, 2015 0:50:15 GMT
Well. Better late than never. My entry is in, and voting is open. I actually think it turned out pretty okay. I wish I had more words to work with so that I could have put more scenes in there, more character development. :/ Oh well. At least we have enough entries now.
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Post by ichthyophobia on Jun 13, 2015 18:44:54 GMT
If I'm understanding the rules correctly, today is the last day of voting, so anyone who wanted to vote should probably get on that! Since we only have 4 votes as of right now...
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Post by Mikauzoran on Jun 14, 2015 0:02:16 GMT
Well, it is seven o'clock, and we have a tie. Congrats to ichthyophobia and Mikauzoran! Please confer and come up with a theme and prompts for the next contest.
Thanks to everyone for participating. I know we've all been really busy (as evidenced by the low number of entries and voters), so I want to thank all three participants and all five voters for their time. Hopefully with summer here now we'll all have more time to keep these competitions going.
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Post by Mikauzoran on Jun 14, 2015 0:13:40 GMT
Soooo. Congrats, ichthy! And thank you so much to everyone! I was really surprised to tie for first with something I threw together the last two days of the contest. ^.^; I think I am happy with how it turned out, though. It's not sloppy or bad in the least. At least I think so.
Anyway. Ichthy, what do you think we should do for the next contest? I still like the "photograph" prompt I suggested when we voted on what to do after Murder Mystery, and I also like your "supernatural" suggestion. Would you want to do one of those, or do you have any new suggestions?
I guess a new suggestion from me would be Cursed: "It's a gift and a curse", hexed, and bad luck. Or, In Triplicate: "Bad things happen in threes", triplets, and choices.
^.^; Those are kind of just off the top of my head. I didn't actually think I was going to win, so I didn't prepare anything...even though I'm always telling you guys to come up with something in case you win. ^.^; What do you think?
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Post by ichthyophobia on Jun 14, 2015 1:03:48 GMT
I like that triplicate suggestion. Could apply to the detective boys as well, and it opens up some interesting story structure possibilities. Though, considering how few entries we've gotten for the last few contest, I'm wondering if it might be appropriate to scale back the contests a bit? I'm sort of worried we're going to burn people out with it. Though maybe once school's out for most people the current schedule will be more doable, I dunno. What do you think?
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Post by Mikauzoran on Jun 14, 2015 1:33:19 GMT
I would like to keep doing two 5ks a month. I've always managed to get entries in in the past despite only having a handful of hours of free time during the week, and I think it's good to have so many options.
If someone misses one contest, there's always another right around the corner instead of having to wait a whole month for a new one. I also think that even though someone might not be able to enter a competition, they can always use the ideas later. I think having a wide variety of options open to our members is very important for continued inspiration and the fostering of creativity. The contests may not have had as many entries lately, but I'd like to think that people are still using the ideas.
I think having contests is also really good for getting the news out about Poirot Cafe. I know we've gained many of our members by having them see a story on ff.net written for one of our contests, so the contests are important for advertising too.
I think people are just wrapped up in the end of school/beginning of summer craziness and haven't had as much time lately. It's true that we're in a slump, but I believe that things will pick back up again if we keep persevering. ^o^ Those are my thoughts, anyway.
So you like the In Triplicate suggestion? Is there anything you'd like to add or change, or shall we go with it as is?
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hoshiryo
New Member
I have hamsters.
Posts: 11
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Post by hoshiryo on Jun 14, 2015 1:33:24 GMT
I'm kinda with Ichthy on scaling them back--though perhaps temporarily? The 10k one demands a lot more time, and the lack of people voting is kinda depressing.
It doesn't help me, at least, that the current crop actually has me not terribly interested, theme-wise. I'd not mind one which is, say, focused on a group of characters instead of a theme, so we could have one that's "Detective Boys," "The Parents," or "Tokyo Metropolitan Police" with maybe supplemental themes of the usual style to help get people going...
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Post by Mikauzoran on Jun 14, 2015 2:07:47 GMT
Thank you for your input, hoshiryo, but I think, for the reasons stated above, that it's in the interest of the forum and its members to keep offering a variety of opportunities. I'm sorry that none of the recent ones have interested you. I think that's another reason why we should offer a variety. In case someone's not interested in one theme, there are still others to choose from.
And we don't all have to enter all of the contests. I think it's every members responsibility to decide if they're working themselves to death and adjust accordingly. I think we're all of an age to take that responsibility and monitor ourselves. I know I'm personally taking it easy on the writing lately after I wrote 80,000 words in one month. ^.^;
So I think it will be okay. I'm optimistic about participation picking up during the summer. If you two personally would like to take a break from entering the contests because you feel overwhelmed, that's fine, and I encourage you to do what you need to do to best take care of yourselves, but I do firmly believe it is my responsibility as mod as well as in the forum's best interest to continue to offer a wide variety of opportunities to our members.
I fear that if we don't offer as many activities and events and our source of advertising through competitions decreases, it will have a negative effect on our forum, and I personally would be terribly sad to see our community fizzle out and die.
As for what you were talking about, hoshiryo, about having a theme focusing on a group of characters, I think that sounds interesting. That would probably be a good writing exercise. Crimson used to have a Weekly Interaction Prompt section up and going. I mean, it's still around, but she doesn't really update it. Anyway! What I was thinking was maybe you could start something like that in the Writing Activities and Events section only with weekly/monthly groups to focus on. I think that would be a good if you were interested in starting a thread like that.
Also, don't be discouraged just because you only got one vote, hoshiryo. ( T.T)\(^.^ ) Keep up the hard work! I know it can be depressing. I myself have been really excited about my entry in the past and then it didn't do well in the competition. I was really sad and questioned my ability as a writer, but then my friends and reviewers all told me that they enjoyed my work, and I gathered the courage to try again. Eventually I won again and felt better. Still I win some and I lose some, but I tell myself that, really, the experience and the practice are the most valuable things. Sometimes it's just that the people that enjoyed your work didn't vote, so the competition results don't always truly reflect how good your story was. So don't let the low numbers get you down. ^.^ Keep doing your best! I'll be cheering you on!
Anyway, thanks again for your thoughts, guys!
Now back to the new theme. Ichthy, if you have anything you'd like to add or change, just let me know. I'd like you to have some say in picking the new theme as well. Thanks a bunch!
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hoshiryo
New Member
I have hamsters.
Posts: 11
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Post by hoshiryo on Jun 14, 2015 3:13:46 GMT
Actually, part of why I said fewer is because the variety is the problem--there's several contests but my ability to participate is in part limited by timing, so it can be a pain if none of them have a theme that I can do something with, but if I'm given a character or group of characters I can almost always do something. (And the same goes to if the rules covered what the min/max counts are for poetry, since I'm better able to be flexible with poetry but tend to not enter it into contests which have min and/or max length requirements for prose but none given for poetry.)
If it's okay for me to go ahead and start one of that type, though, I'll go ahead--and take suggestions on who to start with.
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Post by ichthyophobia on Jun 14, 2015 3:21:40 GMT
Right, Mikau. I was just worrying about the lack of entries lately, but if you think it'll pick up, hopefully it will!
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Post by Mikauzoran on Jun 14, 2015 3:44:56 GMT
Yeah, I think it will pick up eventually if we carry on. I mean...it'll only get worse if we have less activities. :/ I'm optimistic.
Yeah, hoshiryo. You can go ahead and start a writing exercise thread. Anyone's free to start a thread so long as it's in the appropriate section and the content is appropriate and relevant. It won't be an official contest or anything, but I'm sure it will be a good practice, kind of like when I made a thread about five sentence fics or our random prompts section or the random character interactions sections and the picture prompts thread.
You're free to post your idea about writing about a certain group and updating with a new group to focus on every whenever-you-think-is-appropriate. Hopefully that will be a good, fun resource for everyone.
I think the important thing is, really that we have plenty of options and opportunities. The actual contest and winning itself are not important, but the generation of ideas and the writing practice are. We're here as a community of writers to challenge, inspire, and support one another so as to help each other grow and improve. So that's really the bottom line in my mind. I'd actually like to add an occasional super short contest too or a crack contest or something like that. You know, to add a little more variety to the selection. I don't know. I've got a lot of ideas, but not too much time to enact them.
Gah. I'm so long-winded today. But I'm really passionate about the continued growth and success of our community, so... ^.^; The reason why I joined the staff was to proliferate the contests, manage them, and ensure that the members had plenty of challenges so that we could really be the community of writers that was intended at this forum's inception. So yeah. There will only be more contests and activities so long as I'm around because it's something I whole-heartedly believe in for the continued success of the community.
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Post by Nikudou Natsumi on Jun 14, 2015 3:49:56 GMT
I'm not sure how many competitions I'll be able to work on . . . I have a really busy summer as it is, and I think I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with the amount of fanfics I have to catch up on (mainly the competition entries that I've missed). But I'll try . . . hopefully . . .
Hm, suggestions on who to start with . . . How about Eisuke, since we know nothing of what happened to him after he left to America? Or maybe not . . . A minor character would be interesting, though. Maybe . . . Apollo Glass? Or we could just throw that idea out the window and do a main character such as, I don't know, Conan? XD
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Post by Nikudou Natsumi on Jun 14, 2015 3:51:58 GMT
*raises hand* I'm fairly sure I'd join in the super short contest
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Post by Crimson Amarone on Sept 4, 2015 22:32:38 GMT
A double congrats to Mikau and Ichthy! Here's the personalized award badges for the both of them! For Mikauzoran and her story Out of the Looking Glass. For Ichthyphobia and her story Mirror Mirror.
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