Are you serious? The contest is over? Gosh and I just started the winning story. Well, I guess I'll just have to publish it to get the recognition that I deserve.

Okay! We only had five entries this year (a sixth is on hold while we wait to verify something about the poster). I'm thinking about this today but am planning on eliminating the final stage, public voting, and over the next couple of weeks having the judges rank the entries to determine the top winner. We'll still post the stories (name of each author still removed until winners are announced) so that everyone can discuss them while waiting for the results.

Feel free to offer your support or complaint about eliminating the final step, just as I will feel free to take into consideration or ignore whatever you say

Fair enough.

A suggestion. If the judges find a clear winner, then let that be the winner. If the judges find two or three very close at the top and hard to separate, maybe have a vote-off between those two/three.

This is reasonable

I'm curious to know your reason for eliminating the public voting.

Less complicated that way. If we do public voting, we have to control shenanigans, such as authors privately PMing posters to ask for their votes, or someone needing to manually sift through the votes to eliminate ineligible votes.

IDK, I like the public voting system, but the main reason I instituted it this time was to have a fair work distribution for the judges. Initially we thought there would be twenty or more entries. It would be one thing to ask the judges to filter out which stories deserved the top five spots AND THEN rank them, but since all they'd be doing is ranking them I have no qualms about putting all of the work on the judges.

Plus, we've talked in the past about using private judging instead of public voting. This is our chance to see how that boat sails.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of the American Idol method, but with so few entries I think we might get a lot of mileage out of public discussion/private voting.

I can still put up a poll for public voting, but I think everyone might get mad if the story with the most votes didn't win

I thought about asking for feedback and making the decision democratic, but I looked through the previous short story contest threads and see we have already hashed this issue to death in multiple contests.

+1

It is always a possibility I suppose, but why would you expect it? Probably best not to be suspicious of our contestants, otherwise what's the fun of announcing a public contest! I admit I'm a little disappointed. I've been watching for the thread which would post the stories and allow us to vote. It's like saying that we held an art contest for a design, then after waiting for over a month, the judges decide to make the call themselves, without ever showing us the designs.

Aren't you curious to see if the public's pick is the same as the judges pick?

Yes, but we can't do both, and if it's one or the other, I'd like for us to try the new format. There will of course still be a discussion thread, and everyone will be welcome to there disagree with the rankings, eg "Rigged!!!"'or "adsman robbed imo"

Robbed imo.

(I like the idea.)

Is there a preference for whether or not to keep this thread going and post the stories for discussion here? Or should I start a separate thread?

separate ainec afaic imo fwiw

and temporally staggered ftw, not splorched all at once iya

lagdonk,

TY. I need no further warrant.

We have five stories. I'll post a new story every third day. I might post the first tonight but it won't start its three day countdown until tomorrow. In case that's confusing, that means you'll get two full days to yourself, and a new story will be posted on the third day. For example, new story tomorrow, another new story on Saturday, etc.

All of the entries should be posted simultaneously imo. I understand the reason for delay, but because of the limited number of entries I think posting them together is fine.

agapeagape,

I think each entrant has a better chance of having some discussion focused around their story if we stagger the releases. I worry that if we post all five at once, people will feel compelled to comment on all or none, and/or that people will comment on whatever story out of the group they like the most rather than commenting on each entry as it's released.

We will try staggered releases this year. I will post the first story shortly.

A reminder here that will be posted also in the new thread: You must stay anonymous until the very end. Keep the mystique! If you submitted, don't let anyone know you submitted. Well, not anyone on 2+2. If you wish to tell your priest, I will not stop you.

Link to discussion thread.