Author Topic: Voting Rules & Schedule  (Read 3435 times)

eytanz

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on: May 07, 2018, 11:28:33 AM
The Escape Pod Flash Fiction Contest of 2018 is starting its voting period. This time, we have received a total of 114 submissions, of which 1 has had to be disqualified for ignoring the word limit, and 1 was withdrawn by the author before it was posted, giving us a total of 112 entries.

The stories have been split into 12 groups; eight with 9 stories and four with 10 stories. Stories are assigned to the groups randomly; authors will not be informed in advance which group their story is in.

The top three winners of each group will go on the seminfinal round, where there will be four groups of 9 stories each.

The top three stories in each seminfinal group will go to the final round, where there will be one group of 12 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 (depending mostly on how many tied stories there are - it'll not be logistically feasible to end the contest with eight winners if there's a six-way tie for last place, for example).

In each group, pick up to 3 favorite stories to vote on.  You are perfectly allowed to vote for less than 3.


VOTING RULES:

1. This contest is being run by me, eytanz, the Escapepod forum moderator. 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 will be revealed after their story either loses or wins the contest. Please do not try to guess at the authors, at least publicly. 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. We cannot stop you, but I urge you to just link to the contest in general, not your story. That said, please do tell your friends about this contest and about Escape Artists! I will be keeping an eye on any fishy business, and if I think something is up, I will take action. It is easy to find cheaters. 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. The contest is to be won on the merits of the story, not the popularity of the author.

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. That's our one rule. Rude and unconstructive negativity will be deleted or edited, and the offending poster will be warned. This goes for authors as well. You are free to comment on any story, including your own, but keep it civil and respectful. I reserve the right to kick any author and their stories out of the contest should there be ample reason.

4. Creating multiple accounts to vote for a story will get you banned from the forums and your story kicked 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. 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.  That all said, any questions, comments, concerns?

VOTING SCHEDULE:

(Note that because of external constraints, I may not be able to open all polls at exactly the same time each day. In general, I will aim for 8am, GMT, as the opening/closing time for polls. If they start late, the missed time will be added on to the end).

Group 1: 12 May - 19 May
Group 2: 14 May - 21 May
Group 3: 16 May - 23 May
Group 4: 18 May - 25 May
Group 5: 20 May - 27 May
Group 6: 22 May - 29 May
Group 7: 24 May - 31 May
Group 8: 26 May - 2 June
Group 9: 28 May - 4 June
Group 10: 30 May - 6 June
Group 11: 1 June - 8 June
Group 12: 3 June - 10 June

The semi-final groups will all come up simultaneously on 12 June, and will close at 19 June. The final group will start at 20 June and end on 27 June.
« Last Edit: May 18, 2018, 07:39:21 AM by eytanz »



FictionPhial

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Reply #1 on: May 30, 2018, 10:19:14 PM
Can we change our votes? We’ve been able to in previous contests I think. I ask because I accidentally voted for the wrong story in Group 10, and it’s really bothering me  :-\

"You should promise to do the impossible, because sometimes the impossible was possible, if you could find the right way, and at least you could often extend the limits of the possible.  And if you failed, well, it had been impossible." -- Going Postal


eytanz

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Reply #2 on: May 31, 2018, 10:12:43 AM
I replied on the poll thread - I decided not to allow vote changes this time simply because that makes running the contest easier and real-life constraints mean I need to optimise my time here. But PM me about your error and I'll see if I can help.