A Modest Proposal
A Letter to Fanstorians30 total reviews
Comment from tteach
I love your ideas! One thing that I discovered...if I truly think my piece deserves to win, but vote for someone else, and then that someone wins by my vote, I feel badly. So...i'm torn. Do I deliberately choose the weakest text and so vote dishonestly?
And...I agree that pieces so obviously flawed should not win. but how to prevent that?
You have posed a number of interesting questions. I sure wish that I had the answers. Your solution is the best one yet.
terry
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I love your ideas! One thing that I discovered...if I truly think my piece deserves to win, but vote for someone else, and then that someone wins by my vote, I feel badly. So...i'm torn. Do I deliberately choose the weakest text and so vote dishonestly?
And...I agree that pieces so obviously flawed should not win. but how to prevent that?
You have posed a number of interesting questions. I sure wish that I had the answers. Your solution is the best one yet.
terry
Comment Written 01-Apr-2009
Comment from Mrs Happy Poet
You have done well in this work I agree with you there are many contest on here I enter when I can but sometimes as you say the pieces are wrongly presented or written recently there was a contest I didn't enter but they were all wrongly done because the rules were not put in clearly I got around this by reviewing them all giving them a five and I pointed out where they went wrong explaining it wasn't their fault I don't know if I done the right thing but thought this was the best way to deal with it you have a well written thought provoking piece here sorry I went on a bit regards Fuller
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You have done well in this work I agree with you there are many contest on here I enter when I can but sometimes as you say the pieces are wrongly presented or written recently there was a contest I didn't enter but they were all wrongly done because the rules were not put in clearly I got around this by reviewing them all giving them a five and I pointed out where they went wrong explaining it wasn't their fault I don't know if I done the right thing but thought this was the best way to deal with it you have a well written thought provoking piece here sorry I went on a bit regards Fuller
Comment Written 01-Apr-2009
Comment from Slush Pile
Deja-vu strikes. I was a member of FS many years ago. I stayed only for a short while. I got my feelings hurt when a couple of my stories gained attention as "All Best" and then got zero votes in the contest booth. Very confusing. Very frustrating. Today I write only for my personal satisfaction. I entered a contest 2 weeks ago and, once again, got zero votes. Gzeeee......
I gave you a six star rating for two reasons: (1) the form and clarity of your piece is GREAT, and (2) it took courage to put your opinion out there for all to stomp on if they want. Good for you! Kudos. Slush Pile
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Deja-vu strikes. I was a member of FS many years ago. I stayed only for a short while. I got my feelings hurt when a couple of my stories gained attention as "All Best" and then got zero votes in the contest booth. Very confusing. Very frustrating. Today I write only for my personal satisfaction. I entered a contest 2 weeks ago and, once again, got zero votes. Gzeeee......
I gave you a six star rating for two reasons: (1) the form and clarity of your piece is GREAT, and (2) it took courage to put your opinion out there for all to stomp on if they want. Good for you! Kudos. Slush Pile
Comment Written 31-Mar-2009
Comment from Janilou
You have made some very interesting points. I can see where you are coming from, although I don't have a problem with reviewing works in the contest booths. :-)
As far as promoting work while the contest booth is open, I think it is actually a courtesy to the readers/voters to have your work promoted. If they are going to read through all the contest entries, at least they can earn some member dollars for their time.
My husband says similar things about my writing, by the way. lol
Jani
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You have made some very interesting points. I can see where you are coming from, although I don't have a problem with reviewing works in the contest booths. :-)
As far as promoting work while the contest booth is open, I think it is actually a courtesy to the readers/voters to have your work promoted. If they are going to read through all the contest entries, at least they can earn some member dollars for their time.
My husband says similar things about my writing, by the way. lol
Jani
Comment Written 31-Mar-2009
Comment from debskatz
Hi KT,
Well said! You absolutely spoke to every concern I have had about them. And I do agree that it would be good to not review folks' work till after the contest. But sometimes, I don't know that I'm going to enter a contest prompt right away. However, I'm gonna give it the old college try! LOL
Thank you for stepping up & speaking out about this problem.
smiles,
deb
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Hi KT,
Well said! You absolutely spoke to every concern I have had about them. And I do agree that it would be good to not review folks' work till after the contest. But sometimes, I don't know that I'm going to enter a contest prompt right away. However, I'm gonna give it the old college try! LOL
Thank you for stepping up & speaking out about this problem.
smiles,
deb
Comment Written 31-Mar-2009
Comment from Teri7
This is very interesting what you have penned. It makes a lot of sense to me. Sometimes I feel as if the best is not the one that wins but that is I am sure different with each person. Hugs, Teri
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This is very interesting what you have penned. It makes a lot of sense to me. Sometimes I feel as if the best is not the one that wins but that is I am sure different with each person. Hugs, Teri
Comment Written 31-Mar-2009
Comment from Psychonaut X
I've only been on FanStory for about a month, but these very thoughts have crossed my mind already. I actually have reviewed contest entries I've competed against and pointed out errors and given out 4 stars. I've also given out at least one 6 star to a competitor whose work was outstanding. I just try to be as honest as I can be in my reviews. But it has made me wonder if a pissed off entrant is going to vindictively tear my work apart as an act of revenge. Your proposal seems reasonable.
Incidentally, I didn't notice anything in this piece that needed revision, so...5 stars. Good job!
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I've only been on FanStory for about a month, but these very thoughts have crossed my mind already. I actually have reviewed contest entries I've competed against and pointed out errors and given out 4 stars. I've also given out at least one 6 star to a competitor whose work was outstanding. I just try to be as honest as I can be in my reviews. But it has made me wonder if a pissed off entrant is going to vindictively tear my work apart as an act of revenge. Your proposal seems reasonable.
Incidentally, I didn't notice anything in this piece that needed revision, so...5 stars. Good job!
Comment Written 31-Mar-2009
Comment from mtngalofnc
Hi Diane,
You have brought out some very good points and did so with an excellent letter form. My problem is simply finding the time to vote. I barely manage to wrangle in enough time to review and write. My kids already think I am crazy. I will be doing something and suddenly drop what I'm doing and rush off to write something. Have to write it down before I forget! I do manage to feed the dogs and thank goodness I live alone and don't have to worry about feeding someone else! Thank you for sharing a very interesting take on the contest. God bless and best wishes!
mtngalofnc
reply by the author on 31-Mar-2009
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Hi Diane,
You have brought out some very good points and did so with an excellent letter form. My problem is simply finding the time to vote. I barely manage to wrangle in enough time to review and write. My kids already think I am crazy. I will be doing something and suddenly drop what I'm doing and rush off to write something. Have to write it down before I forget! I do manage to feed the dogs and thank goodness I live alone and don't have to worry about feeding someone else! Thank you for sharing a very interesting take on the contest. God bless and best wishes!
mtngalofnc
Comment Written 31-Mar-2009
reply by the author on 31-Mar-2009
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Hello Friend!
This offering has sparked some pretty lively discussion. Thank you for reading it and for your kind review! diane
Comment from LynnRadford
Mine is a problem related to yours, and yet different.
I feel there is a great deal of BUDDY SUPPORT out there. In other words, some people on the site have developed such a large fan base that will vote for anything they write, regardless of its pertinence to the contest or its technical merit.
I have seen a plethora of comments that read simply "Good luck, Bro." and the like. It is impossible to see where these comments originate, but it gives the feeling people are simply voting for writers they know or like in general.
I feel that this is unfair to other entries who may have excelled far better than so and so's piece that was never under consideration by those who go straight for their "Bro's" work.
Maybe I too am misguided and someone will come along to tell me so....
Thanks for sharing this piece with us all, as it gives wing to thoughtful deabate on some sensitive issues.
LR
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Mine is a problem related to yours, and yet different.
I feel there is a great deal of BUDDY SUPPORT out there. In other words, some people on the site have developed such a large fan base that will vote for anything they write, regardless of its pertinence to the contest or its technical merit.
I have seen a plethora of comments that read simply "Good luck, Bro." and the like. It is impossible to see where these comments originate, but it gives the feeling people are simply voting for writers they know or like in general.
I feel that this is unfair to other entries who may have excelled far better than so and so's piece that was never under consideration by those who go straight for their "Bro's" work.
Maybe I too am misguided and someone will come along to tell me so....
Thanks for sharing this piece with us all, as it gives wing to thoughtful deabate on some sensitive issues.
LR
Comment Written 31-Mar-2009
Comment from Themon
I didn't edit yours for SPaG, though nothing poked me in the eye.
I've noticed what you are talking about, too. I've lost contests when I clearly had the 'better' story than the winner by any number of criteria, including the cleanliness of the prose, but the voters simply disagreed. I'm trying to learn something from this.
I'm a new writer, so we'll see how this actually plays out, but as I see it, my job as a writer is to write good stories. The agent's job (or the publisher's) is to select marketable stories. These are not the same thing, and I fully expect that, assuming I develop a good relationship with an agent or a publisher, they are going to ask me to do things to a good story that diminish the story, to make it more marketable. That's the job I WANT them to do.
I see the voting process as being similar. Barring some backroom fraud, like a cabal of FanStory writers ganging up on FaceBook to pump each others' stories and coordinate contest coups - I'm assuming this isn't happening - the winning entry may not be the best story, but it is the story that caught the voters' attention. This is what the agent or publisher would be looking at - they don't care if it's a good story, so long as it sells well. I've read plenty of best-sellers that are stinkers. They're still best-sellers.
I don't take older reviews here seriously, because when I get a bad review that actually tells me why, I fix the story. For instance, I clean up legitimate SPaG almost immediately. In the case of contest entries, my story when the Voting Booth opens is almost always better than when I first posted, thanks to reviews. A work that gets lots of 3's and 4's early-on, then starts getting 4's and 5's and 6's has probably been corrected. So I would never look at a poor review as 'hurting' someone's chances in a contest - I don't really care what the other reviewers thought, anyway.
I've also found that I don't like reviewing stories that I'm going to vote on, simply because I think it only fair to re-read the story before I vote, in case they did clean up problems. If the earlier version of the story left a bad taste in my mouth, I'm going to remember that when I re-read, and that will hurt their chances (so far as my vote goes) more than anyone else's poor review. So I'd prefer to avoid the other contest entries until the vote comes up, so I can read the final version and compare them with a 'clean palate' so to speak.
I would LOVE to get a blistering review - provided that it is constructive - on a contest entry. All the 5-star 'good luck' reviews are nice for the ego, but they don't help me win the contest. A solid 3-star 'this sucks, and here's why' review is worth its weight in gold to me.
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I didn't edit yours for SPaG, though nothing poked me in the eye.
I've noticed what you are talking about, too. I've lost contests when I clearly had the 'better' story than the winner by any number of criteria, including the cleanliness of the prose, but the voters simply disagreed. I'm trying to learn something from this.
I'm a new writer, so we'll see how this actually plays out, but as I see it, my job as a writer is to write good stories. The agent's job (or the publisher's) is to select marketable stories. These are not the same thing, and I fully expect that, assuming I develop a good relationship with an agent or a publisher, they are going to ask me to do things to a good story that diminish the story, to make it more marketable. That's the job I WANT them to do.
I see the voting process as being similar. Barring some backroom fraud, like a cabal of FanStory writers ganging up on FaceBook to pump each others' stories and coordinate contest coups - I'm assuming this isn't happening - the winning entry may not be the best story, but it is the story that caught the voters' attention. This is what the agent or publisher would be looking at - they don't care if it's a good story, so long as it sells well. I've read plenty of best-sellers that are stinkers. They're still best-sellers.
I don't take older reviews here seriously, because when I get a bad review that actually tells me why, I fix the story. For instance, I clean up legitimate SPaG almost immediately. In the case of contest entries, my story when the Voting Booth opens is almost always better than when I first posted, thanks to reviews. A work that gets lots of 3's and 4's early-on, then starts getting 4's and 5's and 6's has probably been corrected. So I would never look at a poor review as 'hurting' someone's chances in a contest - I don't really care what the other reviewers thought, anyway.
I've also found that I don't like reviewing stories that I'm going to vote on, simply because I think it only fair to re-read the story before I vote, in case they did clean up problems. If the earlier version of the story left a bad taste in my mouth, I'm going to remember that when I re-read, and that will hurt their chances (so far as my vote goes) more than anyone else's poor review. So I'd prefer to avoid the other contest entries until the vote comes up, so I can read the final version and compare them with a 'clean palate' so to speak.
I would LOVE to get a blistering review - provided that it is constructive - on a contest entry. All the 5-star 'good luck' reviews are nice for the ego, but they don't help me win the contest. A solid 3-star 'this sucks, and here's why' review is worth its weight in gold to me.
Comment Written 31-Mar-2009
