HeroScape Fiction Contest: VOTING THREAD

[cbs42]

REMINDER: This is your last chance to vote!

The voting will close sometime tomorrow (between midnight tonight and midnight tomorrow) -- I'm not sure exactly what hour. In any case, get your vote in now. We only have 24 votes right now. That's fine with me -- because I would rather people not vote if they can't take time to read all entries, but I must admit that I did expect more than two dozen votes.

[Finrod]

Yea, I'm pretty disappointed on the number of votes, too.

Come on, people! Vote early, vote often! er... I mean... Vote now!

[Bobbo]

Originally Posted by Finrod

Vote early, vote often!

I voted early! I swear! But I can't vote often!

Panic!

Actually, I was hoping for a little more participation also. I'm assuming that everyone who entered also took the time to read and vote, so that means that only 12 other people took the time to read and vote.

I guess the fan fic section is just an oft neglected part of the site. That's kind of sad.

Overall though, this was an awesome contest. I wrote too slow! Gah!!

[Karkadinn]

I didn't actually expect there to be many votes, so I'm not disappointed. Think about it... remember the custom items contest? It got less votes than most simply because people were presumably overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of text. And now here we have a contest that hangs purely on reading, no pretty pictures, just raw words. I think 24 is quite respectable, all things considered. I was afraid it was going to be much worse than that.
Still, I'm thinking that perhaps contests could be advertised more broadly. A notification on the front of the site would be useful. And requiring all contestants to put a link to the thread contest in their sigs (something I would have done this time around if I'd thought of it befre now) would ensure that awareness would spread to the more popular forums.
I'd also like to put in a kind word for A Routine Patrol. As it happens, this story hasn't snagged any votes, but that doesn't mean it's inferior. In fact, that was the one I was almost going to vote for instead of the one I did. The ending twist, I felt, was presented extremely well and gave a bit of a thematic touch that let it stand out from all the 'War is rough, the end' stories. Just wanted to throw that out there, in case the guy who wrote ARP was feeling down about getting no votes. There's a lot of whimsy involved in these things; the same contest on a different month could very well have entirely dissimilar results.

[Bobbo]

Originally Posted by Karkadinn

I'd also like to put in a kind word for A Routine Patrol. As it happens, this story hasn't snagged any votes, but that doesn't mean it's inferior. In fact, that was the one I was almost going to vote for instead of the one I did.

Actually, I'm really surprised that it hasn't gotten any votes. That was a serious contender in my book also. Although the ninjas seemed to make a disproportionate number of their disappear rolls

[Karkadinn]

Originally Posted by Bobbo

Although the ninjas seemed to make a disproportionate number of their disappear rolls

They're ninjas. Who are you to question their real ultimate power?
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/09/20

[kenjib]

Yeah, I liked that one too.

[Kahrma]

This was a tough decision. There are a LOT of good stories here. In the end, my vote went to "Maternal Legacy" - good writing, good dialogue, excellent descriptions, and a logical endpoint. All of this is of course only my own humble opinion. My other favorites were "Murfee's War", "The Dead Queen's Curse", and "A Routine Patrol".

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....

[Karkadinn]

And of course we can assume CB voted without the need to download them, since they passed through his hands anyway.

[brotharon]

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....

This is a sad state of affairs. While you may read one that you like right off that is no reason to not read all of the stories, heck, I submitted a story and I still read them all and I may or may not have voted for my own when it was all said and done...anyway, all of the stories are hella good so read them all before you vote...or I will send Guido to break your legs...

[whitedog45]

Originally Posted by cbs42

Just a quick note, because I've gotten a couple of PMs about this: There are no official voting guidelines. Also, authors may vote for whomever they wish (including themselves).

While it would be nice to establish some criteria for reviewing these stories, the reality of the situation is that it's not an enforceable rule, so I have to leave it alone. Besides, people like stories for different reasons, so it would be impossible to develop one set of standards that appealed to everyone.

Again, the only thing I really do ask (which is also, regrettably, unenforceable) is that you read all of the stories before voting.

So did I vote wrong or something ? I thought we were just supposed tovote for the one we liked ? I didn't see some scoring system unless is was in another thread.

[raZor fiEnd]

Hey do you guys have these things often here ? I’m no great writer but I always get As in my English class at school and people say they like my stories. I’m pretty sure I can be competitive after reading the stories here.