HeroScape Fiction Contest: VOTING THREAD

[yagyuninja]

I'll echo Kark et al, A Routine Patrol was awesome. Ninjas man...yeah!

[HokshilaTo]

I liked the imagery in 'The Dead Queen's Curse.'

[Hex_Enduction_Hour]

I"ve been meaning to read more fan fiction - especially the ones in this thread - but R/L always bogs me down for time. I'll try some tonight.

[InfinityMax]

Took me long enough, but I finished reading. Whoever wrote Maternal Legacy, you're a damned fine writer. You should spend your time writing other stuff, because you have a knack for it. That's a really good story.

[kenjib]

Originally Posted by Kahrma

Funny, it seems that more people have voted (27) than have downloaded some of these stories - 20 in the case of a couple of them I've re-checked today. Maybe members are sharing copies....

It was also funny watching when and how fast certain votes appeared.

[cbs42]

Wow. Yeah. Ok.
This might have gotten ugly.

There's been concern raised privately by a couple of different people at this point about some issues regarding this contest. I'm mulling some stuff over right now, but I have to head to work.

I'll check back in later.

[This is NOT cool]

[InfinityMax]

This post was not appropriate, and I apologize for writing it. I'm taking it out now.

[cbs42]

Err....well, ok.
Since the cat is out of the bag...

I do find it strongly suspicious that at the 11th hour (literally) before voting might end (midnight last night), five consecutive votes rolled in for Utgar's Might. I'm not going to outright call that author a cheater, but it's relatively clear to me that the person probably solicited his buddies to throw votes his way at the last minute. But I'm not totally convinced of that.

It's unfortunate that it's come down to this. Before accusations get tossed IMax's way, I want to be clear that we're not the only ones who suspect that the integrity of this vote has been compromised. This is NOT a case of IMax being a sore loser. It's simply based on the fact that way too many consecutive votes rolled in at the last minute -- and they rolled in for a story that otherwise didn't really see any voting or discussion action going on before that point. Add in the fact that FAR fewer story downloads happened than votes cast, and it just increases the suspicion.

I'm still not sure what to do here. Give me a bit to think about some options...

Sorry it's come to this guys. I really hoped that this type of thing would not happen. Again, I'm not calling anyone here a cheater. However, there's clearly been some unusual irregularities, so I need to think of how this will impact the contest.

[Finrod]

I gotta agree that it's suspicious, at best.

I won't be as blunt as IMax there, but out of the top five vote-getters, I could see any of the other four winning in a fair vote, but not... that one.

I hope it's settled soon. There's been some comments made about the story I wrote, and I'm looking forward to responding to them.

[HokshilaTo]

Have a Verbal revote.

[cbs42]

Well, the poll is still open, so the very earliest this thing will get settled is after the poll closes -- which is starting to look like midnight tonight.

[InfinityMax]

Originally Posted by HokshilaTo

Have a Verbal revote.

Great solution. Three day vote-off between Life on the Line, Dead Queen's Curse, Maternal Legacy, and Utgar's Might. No poll - just state your decision. Any voter with less than 25 posts is not allowed to vote. Authors of those four stories are not allowed to vote.

Heck, Al Gore wanted a recount when he suspected election tampering. If it's good enough for the Vice President of the United States, it's good enough for me.

I apologize for being overly blunt. I'm not always very diplomatic. <The rest of this wasn't necessary, either.>