Escape Artists
The Arcade => Flash Contest VI => Completed Contests => Flash Fiction Contest VI--Cast of Wonders => Topic started by: Karissa on September 27, 2020, 05:05:53 PM
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The Cast of Wonders Flash Fiction Contest 2020 will be starting its voting period on October 5, 2020. We received
159 submissions 157 submissions (Edited on 10/05/2020 to note that two stories were withdrawn after groups were made).
The stories have been split into 16 groups with 10 stories in 15 groups 13 groups and 9 stories in the second, ninth, and last groups. Stories are assigned to the groups randomly; authors will not be informed in advance in which group their story appears.
The top three winners of each group will go on the semi-final round, where there will be 6 groups of 8 stories each.
The top three stories in each semi-final group will go to the final round, where there will be one group of 18 stories. The top three stories in this group will be the overall winners.
In any of the groups, if there is a tie for third place, the tied stories will all ascend to the next round. If there is a tie in the final round, the editorial staff will decide whether to consider all tied stories as winners or whether to hold a tie-breaker round.
In each group, you may pick up to 3 stories. You may vote for fewer than 3.
VOTING RULES:
1. This contest is being run by me, Karissa Sluss. If needed, other forum moderators may be brought in, and that will be announced. If one of the moderators submitted an entry, they will not use any of their moderator abilities in the contest forums without disqualifying their entry.
2. Stories will be posted anonymously. Authors of the stories that did not advance will be revealed at the end of each stage. All author names will be revealed at the end of the contest. Please do not try to publicly guess at the identities of the authors. Those posts will be deleted and the poster will be warned. As an author, please do not try to garner outside support through blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc. If we discover that an author has revealed their authorship of a story before it is allowed (in the contest threads or elsewhere), that is grounds for disqualification of the story.
3. As always, constructive discussion is encouraged about all stories posted in this contest. The key word here is constructive. Normal forum rules remain in place. Be civil and respectful. Rude comments and unconstructive negativity will be deleted or edited, and the offending poster will be warned. Repeated poor behavior could result in being banned from the forums and/or your story being removed from the contest.ADDENDUM. We have a number of story submissions from young authors. Please bear that in mind when commenting on stories - I would encourage you all to be encouraging in your constructive criticism.
4. Creating multiple accounts to vote for a story will get you banned from the forums and your story removed from the contest. If you are sharing a computer, living space, or router with someone else who will be voting or creating an account, make sure to message me—many of you already have noted this in your submission cover letters, so thanks for the heads up. If you have not messaged me regarding shared computers/routers, failure to do so may result in various adverse effects such as account deletion and/or banning.
5. It is perfectly fine to vote for your own story. In fact, we encourage all authors to do so because that levels the playing field. Only avoid voting for your own story if you genuinely believe other stories should win over it, not just to be polite, please.
Please read and re-read these rules before asking questions.
VOTING SCHEDULE:
Polls should open and close just after midnight around 6:00 a.m. EDT/EST on the dates below. Each group will be open for voting for a week. A new group will open each day, for example:
Group 1 will open Mon, October 5, 2020 and close Mon, October 12, 2020
Group 2 will open Tuesday, October 6, 2020 and close Tuesday, 13, 2020
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Group 16 will open Tuesday, October 20, 2020 and close Tuesday, October 27, 2020
The semi-final groups will be posted on Mon, November 2, 2020 close Mon, November 9, 2020.
The final group will start on Fri, November 13, 2020 close Fri, November 20, 2020.
Happy reading!
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The details above have changed slightly since they were originally posted. A story was withdrawn after groups were made. As of
9/29/2020 10/05/2020 there are now a total of 157 stories. There will now be 13 groups with 10 stories each. The second group, ninth group, and last group will have 9 stories each.
**Edited on 10/01/2020 to add that all stories are being posted with the formatting with which they were submitted.
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Very disappointed that nobody bothered to announce this contest here in the forum until AFTER submissions had closed!
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Very disappointed that nobody bothered to announce this contest here in the forum until AFTER submissions had closed!
Thank you for your feedback. The contest was announced on the show itself and has been on the Cast of Wonders submission schedule on our website and Moksha portal for most of the year. We're sorry not to have posted an announcement here as well - we didn't expect or want our listeners to miss out. Mea culpa.
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Very disappointed that nobody bothered to announce this contest here in the forum until AFTER submissions had closed!
Thank you for your feedback. The contest was announced on the show itself and has been on the Cast of Wonders submission schedule on our website and Moksha portal for most of the year. We're sorry not to have posted an announcement here as well - we didn't expect or want our listeners to miss out. Mea culpa.
I focus on the forum contests to contribute and read. I'd written to Karissa about the failure to announce on the forum this year and they mentioned a calendar which I was not aware of. I asked where to find it but they haven't bothered to respond to that.
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Very disappointed that nobody bothered to announce this contest here in the forum until AFTER submissions had closed!
Thank you for your feedback. The contest was announced on the show itself and has been on the Cast of Wonders submission schedule on our website and Moksha portal for most of the year. We're sorry not to have posted an announcement here as well - we didn't expect or want our listeners to miss out. Mea culpa.
I focus on the forum contests to contribute and read. I'd written to Karissa about the failure to announce on the forum this year and they mentioned a calendar which I was not aware of. I asked where to find it but they haven't bothered to respond to that.
You'll find it on the website: https://www.castofwonders.org/, and click submissions.
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Very disappointed that nobody bothered to announce this contest here in the forum until AFTER submissions had closed!
Thank you for your feedback. The contest was announced on the show itself and has been on the Cast of Wonders submission schedule on our website and Moksha portal for most of the year. We're sorry not to have posted an announcement here as well - we didn't expect or want our listeners to miss out. Mea culpa.
I focus on the forum contests to contribute and read. I'd written to Karissa about the failure to announce on the forum this year and they mentioned a calendar which I was not aware of. I asked where to find it but they haven't bothered to respond to that.
You'll find it on the website: https://www.castofwonders.org/, and click submissions.
Thanks.
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I'd written to Karissa about the failure to announce on the forum this year and they mentioned a calendar which I was not aware of. I asked where to find it but they haven't bothered to respond to that.
Since, as you point out, the deadline for submissions to this contest has already passed, perhaps Karissa’s attention is more appropriately focused on organizing the submitted stories for posting and voting.
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Aw nuts, I would very much have liked to enter this too. I did not realize we needed to be monitoring other sites for that. :(
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Aw nuts, I would very much have liked to enter this too. I did not realize we needed to be monitoring other sites for that. :(
Apologies for our oversight - we assumed our listeners and readers would be fully looped in. This is a mistake on my part. It's been a stressful summer and I dropped this particular ball. :-(
I hope you still enjoy reading and voting on the stories that came in - there's a wonderful selection waiting in the wings!
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On reading the stories, I went to reply to one, and found no reply button.
This is because I was not logged in.
Which suggests that the stories are readable by those who aren't logged in.
Yep. I logged out again (and just logged back in to post this). The Group 1 stories are visible to all, which means they are now published. As the entire point of using a private forum is to prevent first-publication rights from being used up, please secure Group 1's stories properly. Thank you! :)
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Hi Deborah, terribly sorry this happened! The board permissions have been fixed now.
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On reading the stories, I went to reply to one, and found no reply button.
This is because I was not logged in.
Which suggests that the stories are readable by those who aren't logged in.
Yep. I logged out again (and just logged back in to post this). The Group 1 stories are visible to all, which means they are now published. As the entire point of using a private forum is to prevent first-publication rights from being used up, please secure Group 1's stories properly. Thank you! :)
Deborah, thanks for letting us know. I am still figuring out the details of the forum and contest. I realized around 11:00 pm EDT last night that I had not thought to ask anyone with experience what the permissions should be, and all the people I would reach out to were long since asleep. So, I opted to open to all which I thought was a better risk than not including groups that should have been included. Now I know what to do when I open up Group 2 for voting. Thanks so much again!
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Aw nuts, I would very much have liked to enter this too. I did not realize we needed to be monitoring other sites for that. :(
Same here! Please specify where future contests will be advertised so that I don't miss out again.
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Interestingly, you can see the votes so far after you have voted, though it says the votes are private (and as they were in the last contest, I believe?). I guess that's a setting. It feels less open to manipulation, if the results aren't known by anyone until the contest closes! I assume it's a setting in the poll? Not a complaint, per se, but an observation, if this isn't what you intended, perhaps see what can be done to change it?
(And thanks for running this contest- I always enjoy them, and it sounds like you've been thrown into, if not the deep end, then not the shallows either!)
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Interestingly, you can see the votes so far after you have voted, though it says the votes are private (and as they were in the last contest, I believe?). I guess that's a setting. It feels less open to manipulation, if the results aren't known by anyone until the contest closes
The votes are visible yes, but only after your vote has been cast and the vote cannot be changed once it has been cast. Thanks!
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The votes are visible yes, but only after your vote has been cast and the vote cannot be changed once it has been cast. Thanks!
But it won't stop some from gaming the system and having people come in to vote from them. (I worked the back end of fanfic awards for years. I know what people will do for a jpeg, so I can only imagine they will do even more for money and publication). I wish the vote tallies were kept hidden as they were in the last contest, as Liam noted, and only revealed once voting for each thread was closed.
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I’m of the opposite view. I much prefer the vote tallies being viewable after we cast our votes. Though I didn’t submit a story, I do develop favorites, and a large part of the fun of the contest for me is being able to root for my picks as they move through the voting process (or don’t). I will confess to having tried (unsuccessfully) to rally Forum members behind one of my picks in the Pseudopod flash contest, but it would never have occurred to me to recruit people to join the Forum just to vote for a story, and I had no idea who the author of the story was—I just loved it on its own merits. By contrast, I didn’t enjoy the last Escape Pod contest nearly as much, at least in part because I couldn’t follow the voting process.
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I have done many of these contests over the years, and in my recollection the vote totals were always visible after one voted. So far as I know this has never caused a problem.
If anything, the usual problem is getting anybody to come in and vote; so many people drop out after maybe half way through the first round that it's hard to sustain.
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Thirding visible votes, I totally did the same thing as LL to try and rally votes to a favorite (well after I was knocked out). I think it would be fairly obvious if a story that wasn't doing well jumped ahead right as a bunch of new people joined??
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The votes are visible yes, but only after your vote has been cast and the vote cannot be changed once it has been cast. Thanks!
But it won't stop some from gaming the system and having people come in to vote from them. (I worked the back end of fanfic awards for years. I know what people will do for a jpeg, so I can only imagine they will do even more for money and publication). I wish the vote tallies were kept hidden as they were in the last contest, as Liam noted, and only revealed once voting for each thread was closed.
If they try to game the system, they get noticed. Trust me. We keep a close and disapproving eye on that kind of thing, and stories have been disqualified for that reason in the past. If you love a story, send your friends to read the whole group without singling it out.
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First post. Ready to read.
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I normally like seeing the votes after I voted just to see how my tastes are compared to others.
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2. Stories will be posted anonymously. Authors of the stories that did not advance will be revealed at the end of each stage. All author names will be revealed at the end of the contest. Please do not try to publicly guess at the identities of the authors. Those posts will be deleted and the poster will be warned. As an author, please do not try to garner outside support through blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc. If we discover that an author has revealed their authorship of a story before it is allowed (in the contest threads or elsewhere), that is grounds for disqualification of the story.
I have just disqualified a story for being publicly available elsewhere on the internet under the author's name.
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Disappointing that someone would violate the rules of the contest.
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Whyyyy would they do that? Thanks for catching it.
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The disqualified story is still getting new votes; is that intentionally allowed? or something that needs to be addressed?
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The disqualified story is still getting new votes; is that intentionally allowed? or something that needs to be addressed?
The disqualified story "String Days" is showing zero votes when I view the poll.
The withdrawn story "My Changeling Son" had garnered some votes before the author asked to withdraw, but has gotten no new ones since the withdrawal.
At this time, I'm not planning to make any changes, but we'll continue to monitor voting.
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Hmm, it was showing 2 yesterday morning, 3 yesterday evening, and 5 votes this morning when I viewed it. 🤔
Ah it's showing 0 now for me also
Was just checking! Thanks 😅
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Karissa, are you planning to take any steps to allow people who originally voted for the withdrawn story to redirect their votes to another story?
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Karissa, are you planning to take any steps to allow people who originally voted for the withdrawn story to redirect their votes to another story?
I had thought about that actually. Just never made a decision mainly because I'm not sure about the technical logistics. From what I can tell, I can open the that poll to allow voters to change votes but that would allow everyone who voted in that poll to change any and all their votes (which might not be that big of a deal?) And how long do I leave the option open to change a vote? Would a day be long enough?
I'm open to ideas and suggestions. Maybe those who voted for that story could DM me and I can change votes on their behalf. I just don't want to do anything that appears shady.
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Thanks for your thoughtful response.
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I have conferred with the Great and Mighty Powers that Be (aka Astrokath) and we've agreed that for those 5 folks who voted for the withdrawn story in Group 3 (My Changeling Son), you may DM me and let me know to which story you'd like to change your vote, and I'll make those changes accordingly.
Please DM before the poll closes on Tuesday (October 13th) at Midnight EST. After that, I won't make any more changes.
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(Posting this here too just in case)
Group 13:
There's a story listed in the poll that isn't among the posted stories, thus I can't actually read it: Ephemeropterus Intergalacticus has Fulfilled his Mission
Also, Hexperts is listed as Experts in the poll.
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(Posting this here too just in case)
Group 13:
There's a story listed in the poll that isn't among the posted stories, thus I can't actually read it: Ephemeropterus Intergalacticus has Fulfilled his Mission
Also, Hexperts is listed as Experts in the poll.
Fixed! Thanks for the assist ;)
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Hang on.... *counts on fingers* if today is the 19th....
and the 20th is tomorrow...
doesn't that mean group 16 will be up on Wednesday? ???
VOTING SCHEDULE:
Polls should open and close just after midnight EDT/EST on the dates below. Each group will be open for voting for a week. A new group will open each day, for example:
Group 1 will open Mon, October 5, 2020 and close Mon, October 12, 2020
Group 2 will open Tuesday, October 6, 2020 and close Tuesday, 13, 2020
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Group 16 will open Tuesday, October 20, 2020 and close Tuesday, October 27, 2020
The semi-final groups will be posted on Mon, November 2, 2020 close Mon, November 9, 2020.
The final group will start on Fri, November 13, 2020 close Fri, November 20, 2020.
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Hang on.... *counts on fingers* if today is the 19th....
and the 20th is tomorrow...
doesn't that mean group 16 will be up on Wednesday? ???
Group 15 is open today, the 19th. (I was running a bit behind this morning)
Group16 will open tomorrow on the 20th
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Hang on.... *counts on fingers* if today is the 19th....
and the 20th is tomorrow...
doesn't that mean group 16 will be up on Wednesday? ???
Group 15 is open today, the 19th. (I was running a bit behind this morning)
Group16 will open tomorrow on the 20th
oh, cool! Thanks!
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I overlooked a story in group 16. I just added it (about 4 hours after the group opened). It's called "Choices" and if anyone who has already voted in group 16 wants to change their vote to vote for this story, please DM me and I'll make changes to the voting totals accordingly.
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So all the stories have been posted now! I’m looking forward to seeing which ones from the most recent groups are moving on to the next round.
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First thing is that I want to give a huge THANK YOU to all the participating authors and voters and to those who left feedback. The participation so far has been wonderful!
Second: Starting today, I'll be working to move the round 1 winning stories into their semi-finals groups. Once they move into their new voting group, they won't be visible until semi-final groups start opening again. First group of semi-final stories opens for voting on Monday, November 2nd.
Also remember that November 3rd is national voting day in the US! I hope you all will vote here for stories then go to the polls to vote for your local and national leaders.
Thanks again for all your patience, helpful feedback, and participation.
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In addition to the information above, I'm also making one more small change, stated below, based on my experience from round 1:
Polls should open and close just after midnight around 6:00 a.m. EDT/EST on the dates stated in the rules.
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Are we expecting all the semi-final groups today, or are they strung out over multiple days? (Thx!)
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Are we expecting all the semi-final groups today, or are they strung out over multiple days? (Thx!)
Came to ask the same question. The Rules post made it sound like all Semifinals Groups would be posted today and be up for a week, but I'm not sure myself whether that's what's happening now.
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Apparently, I don't even read my own rules!
I had it in my head that we'd open each group on a one day at a time basis like the original rounds, but now that I'm reading the rules and the schedule, I see that isn't going to work out!
So, I'm going in to open the other semi-final rounds now.
Sorry for the confusion but I'm glad y'all are here to keep me straight.
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Yay! Seems fairer that way, because of the voter drop off over time. Though I might only tackle one group a day myself!
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Yay! Seems fairer that way, because of the voter drop off over time. Though I might only tackle one group a day myself!
I agree! Also, the largest majority of voters at this point are folks that have already read these stories once. Any new participants will get a whole week to read and vote, and there are far fewer stories to consider this round, so no need to provide so much time.
Also, sticking to the posted schedule ensures the contest wraps up before Thanksgiving in the US. I think by then everyone will be more than ready to move on to other things and won't want to have this contests still hanging around out there.
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There were two groups in the semi-final round that wound up with stories tied for 3rd place. Per the rules of the contest--all stories that tied for 3rd place will advance to the next round. Therefore, instead of 18 stories in the finals, there will be 20 total.
I will start moving advancing stories into the final group tomorrow and throughout the rest of the week.
Voting for the contest winners will open this Friday, the 13th! (Y'all aren't superstitious, are you? ;) ).
I'm excited to see how this contest ends! The stories have been really amazing this year, and I suspect selecting your favorite 3 will be hard. I know it will be for me.