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Abandoned Comps: Voting and Discussion

case28
Alexander Case
Dangerous Mind
42awards
Joined 16th June 2013
Forum Posts: 2077

I thought it'd be good to have a thread specifically for the hundreds of abandoned comp threads that will eventually be put to the vote. This thread could assist getting voting wrapped up quicker and a winner decided more efficiently through discussion and critiquing.

This thread could simply be used to bump or encourage voting on certain comps e.g. the emo comp has been sitting there for months and with so many entries, a majority vote could take forever without some discussion or debate on what poem deserves to win.

Feel free to make any other suggestions.

LobodeSanPedro
Tyrant of Words
Sierra Leone 109awards
Joined 16th Apr 2013
Forum Posts: 3304

case28 said:I thought it'd be good to have a thread specifically for the hundreds of abandoned comp threads that will eventually be put to the vote. This thread could assist getting voting wrapped up quicker and a winner decided more efficiently through discussion and critiquing.

This thread could simply be used to bump or encourage voting on certain comps e.g. the emo comp has been sitting there for months and with so many entries, a majority vote could take forever without some discussion or debate on what poem deserves to win.

Feel free to make any other suggestions.



Like you I'm an advocate for voting on comps to keep them objective and transparent but by the same token (and you know this first hand) it's hard to rope in judges on a consistent basis.

I'd suggest - since the comps are "old" ones what if DUPers could volunteer to be judge jury and executioner on a given comp.  Some oversight might be needed to make sure a reader isn't naming their piece as "winner" but since most of these comps are pretty dated ... There's little chance of that.  

As a carrot of sorts maybe a critique badge could be awarded for every ten competitions judged by an individual.  Theoretically if ten active readers here did a comp every other day then at least 100 comps could be knocked off in a month.

One other caveat would be is the judge /reader would have to offer a short critique as to why a given piece was chosen.  It doesn't have to be an essay but should be more than "this is good".


MadameLavender
Guardian of Shadows
United States 86awards
Joined 17th Feb 2013
Forum Posts: 5594

Right now we have 64 comps to go, on the abandoned list, after the 5 that are in voting right now. The website only allows for 5 at a time to be in vote status, and it takes weeks and months to get one closed up, because we have so few people who vote.  I've sent messages to all who are still members and have an open comp, in hopes that they'll pick a winner and help reduce the list, and some have, others haven't. Some even get their nose out of joint, for getting a gentle nudge, but I say too bad--if you start a comp, finish it; it's common courtesy to acknowledge those who gave their time to write something for you.

When I put a comp into vote status, I always go through and clean it up by removing all the idle chatter and posts by those who are no longer members here, to make it easier on the people voting to only have to focus on the actual poems in the thread. I've also tried to bump the process at times in the Updates thread, but maybe this is a better way to try--thanks for starting this thread, Case! :)

clewluss
SMOOKY
Thought Provoker
Joined 22nd Apr 2014
Forum Posts: 281

An alternative is to nibble down the stack starting from the most recent abandonded competition.
this may gain more voter participation, because the entries are more relevant to the readers.
I generally do not feel any point in clearing up an old comp from 2012, rather, I am highly curious about some of the most recent abandoned comps.

This would involve putting a time limit for the comp author to choose a winner, and if he do not, then it converts to getting voted  fore.

regards to all

MadameLavender
Guardian of Shadows
United States 86awards
Joined 17th Feb 2013
Forum Posts: 5594

clewluss said:An alternative is to nibble down the stack starting from the most recent abandonded competition.
this may gain more voter participation, because the entries are more relevant to the readers.
I generally do not feel any point in clearing up an old comp from 2012, rather, I am highly curious about some of the most recent abandoned comps.

This would involve putting a time limit for the comp author to choose a winner, and if he do not, then it converts to getting voted  fore.

regards to all



True, and a message to the comp host may work for starters, as it's a recent comp, but there, too, we still have to wait for an open slot to put the comp to voting, as we can only do 5 at a time.  The ones I keep tossing up there, are the ones with less entries, in hopes that it will speed up the process by not having too many pages for people to read through, to cast a vote.  Also, I go by what's running for current comps too--if there's one in progress on Christmas, for example, I won't put up an abandoned one on the same topic, just to keep some variety.  

I also have a request waiting in the wing for the next abandoned comp to be put to vote, so as soon as a spot opens up, that one's next.  

LobodeSanPedro
Tyrant of Words
Sierra Leone 109awards
Joined 16th Apr 2013
Forum Posts: 3304

Madame ... I understand why you're looking for a consensus on Abandoned Comps, but if there's only 60+ left - would it be faster to ask for volunteers (active members who regularly critique) to serve as judge & jury for five comps each.  

As long as they can attest that they don't have a poem in an assigned competition, the whole process might be sped up.  

I'll throw my hat in the ring and say I'll be happy to judge and decide on anything prior to my join date of April 2013, with comments on my choice(s).

poet Anonymous

<< post removed >>
MadameLavender
Guardian of Shadows
United States 86awards
Joined 17th Feb 2013
Forum Posts: 5594

Ricky--if you just assign a winner, the comp will automatically get off the list.

LSP-- feel free to stir up the masses to vote! If we can close up the ones in voting right now, we can choose from the list, what to put up next.

case28
Alexander Case
Dangerous Mind
42awards
Joined 16th June 2013
Forum Posts: 2077

I was under the impression there were in excess of a hundred or couple of hundred abondoned comps, 60 odd comps is doable if a dozen or so members want to spend half an hour a week discussing a winner or practicing their critiquing. As lobo suggested, we could even run the odd critique comp on some of the larger abandoned comps to spark some interest in voting.

I'll post something here and get the ball rolling in the next couple of days. Feel free to jump in and start a discussion on one of the existing abandoned comps. If there are any cheeky bastards out there who want to talk up one of their own poems up, it's probably not a good idea, especially if you win, it may not go down too well with the other players and punters.

LobodeSanPedro
Tyrant of Words
Sierra Leone 109awards
Joined 16th Apr 2013
Forum Posts: 3304

MadameLavender said:Ricky--if you just assign a winner, the comp will automatically get off the list.

LSP-- feel free to stir up the masses to vote! If we can close up the ones in voting right now, we can choose from the list, what to put up next.


A while back I asked if the DUP system could be updated so PMs could be sent in mass.  My need at that time was to solicit feedback from trusted sources on submitting work to a publisher.  It was a PAIN having to send the same message over and over and over ...

Any way the WebMistress could make that happen?  bc here again it would help.

MadameLavender
Guardian of Shadows
United States 86awards
Joined 17th Feb 2013
Forum Posts: 5594

Not sure about the message-thing; Webmiss has a number of other fixes she's working on right now, for other issues. But since we have at least 6 new spammer profiles created daily, lately, we should get them to vote before we ban them--at least they'll be productive on their way outta here ... :D

darkside47
Strange Creature
United States
Joined 3rd Jan 2015
Forum Posts: 3

Is it worth it to enter contests if they don't get judged and finished? Can you restrict people from starting a new competition if they have some that they have started but never picked a winner? Do people do multiple competitions that are leaving them in limbo?

MadameLavender
Guardian of Shadows
United States 86awards
Joined 17th Feb 2013
Forum Posts: 5594

darkside47 said:Is it worth it to enter contests if they don't get judged and finished? Can you restrict people from starting a new competition if they have some that they have started but never picked a winner? Do people do multiple competitions that are leaving them in limbo?

Unfortunately, there's no way to tell if a comp will get finalized, until it times out and the host chooses a winner.  For the most part, people are good about closing up their comps, so personally, I have no problem joining any of them, and yes, I feel they are worth it--comps make you think of new ideas, stretch your writing limits, get you outside your comfort zone, and a whole bunch of other positive things.  

There are of course, a number of reasons why a comp would get left in limbo, right down to just forgetting you started one, if the host is an infrequent visitor to the site.  The majority of the comps on the abandoned list, are not recent ones, and some belong to people who are no longer members here.

As for prevention of starting comps when someone has open ones still, the only way that I know of to address that, is to temporarily lock any new comps created by the member in question, and ask them to choose winners for their prior comps, then re-open the new comp after the old ones are finalized, which I have done on one occasion.  

But overall, don't let any of that turn you off from entering contests--the vast majority of comps do get finished out.    

poet Anonymous

howdy

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