Author Topic: Voting Rules and Schedule  (Read 1973 times)

Phoebe Barton

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on: May 11, 2022, 09:07:06 PM
The Escape Pod Flash Fiction Contest 2022 will be starting its voting period on May 15, 2022. We received a total of eighty-eight submissions. We split the stories into eight groups of eleven, and authors have not been told what group their story appears in.

The top three winners in each group will go into the semi-finals, where there'll be four groups of six stories each. The top three stories in each semi-final group will go to the finals, where there will be one group of twelve 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 three stories. You may vote for fewer than three.

VOTING RULES:

1. This contest is being run by Phoebe Barton, J.M. Coster, and Marcus Tsong. 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 are 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. That's our one rule. Rude comments and unconstructive negativity will be deleted or edited, and the offending poster will be warned. Repeated poor behaviour could result in being banned from the forums and/or your story being removed from the contest.

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 one of the contest-runners. 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:

Group 1 will open Sunday, May 15 and close Sunday, May 22.
Group 2 will open Tuesday, May 17 and close Tuesday, May 24.
Group 3 will open Thursday, May 19 and close Thursday, May 26.
Group 4 will open Saturday, May 21 and close Saturday, May 28.
Group 5 will open Monday, May 23 and close Monday, May 30.
Group 6 will open Wednesday, May 25 and close Wednesday, June 1.
Group 7 will open Friday, May 27 and close Friday, June 3.
Group 8 will open Sunday, May 29 and close Sunday, June 5.

To answer questions that have arisen, Groups 2-8 will be made available for reading two days before they open for voting.

The semi-final groups will be posted on Tuesday, June 7 and close Tuesday, June 14.

The final group will start at Thursday, June 16 and close Thursday, June 23.

Happy reading and voting!

Edited because I don't know where that week-long gap around Group 5 came from. But it was a typo.
« Last Edit: May 16, 2022, 02:16:09 AM by Phoebe Barton »



tintinnabulum

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Reply #1 on: May 12, 2022, 10:21:04 PM
Thank you for this detailed information Phoebe. Looking forward to reading all the submissions!



Chuk

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Reply #2 on: May 13, 2022, 09:33:41 PM
Yes, thank you for the update.

--
chuk


Liam

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Reply #3 on: May 14, 2022, 03:38:50 PM
Thanks! All perfectly clear. Interested to see what, if any, effect early opening of groups for reading purposes has.



Frank Evans

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Reply #4 on: May 15, 2022, 02:39:35 AM
That's a lot fewer submissions than recent contests. Was that intentional? I noticed that the contest wasn't announced on the forum as it was in previous years and I would guess that I'm not the only one who missed it as a result. Was the hope to keep the number of entries more manageable and ideally keep the contest moving faster? (this isn't meant as a criticism, just curious).



Ettan

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Reply #5 on: May 15, 2022, 12:56:36 PM
That's a lot fewer submissions than recent contests. Was that intentional? I noticed that the contest wasn't announced on the forum as it was in previous years and I would guess that I'm not the only one who missed it as a result. Was the hope to keep the number of entries more manageable and ideally keep the contest moving faster? (this isn't meant as a criticism, just curious).

I also missed it because it wasn't announced here, which is disappointing. Also curious as to why this was changed this year.

weirdwildart.com


skidders

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Reply #6 on: May 15, 2022, 01:44:57 PM
Good luck to all in Batch 1!

I can't see how to vote yet? Has it opened?



Phoebe Barton

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Reply #7 on: May 15, 2022, 01:56:00 PM
The vote is now open!

That's a lot fewer submissions than recent contests. Was that intentional? I noticed that the contest wasn't announced on the forum as it was in previous years and I would guess that I'm not the only one who missed it as a result. Was the hope to keep the number of entries more manageable and ideally keep the contest moving faster? (this isn't meant as a criticism, just curious).

I also missed it because it wasn't announced here, which is disappointing. Also curious as to why this was changed this year.

To be honest, I don't think it occurred to anyone running the contest. :/ Sorry! With new people running it, there were bound to be a few stumbles.



Frank Evans

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Reply #8 on: May 17, 2022, 02:21:37 PM
The vote is now open!

That's a lot fewer submissions than recent contests. Was that intentional? I noticed that the contest wasn't announced on the forum as it was in previous years and I would guess that I'm not the only one who missed it as a result. Was the hope to keep the number of entries more manageable and ideally keep the contest moving faster? (this isn't meant as a criticism, just curious).

I also missed it because it wasn't announced here, which is disappointing. Also curious as to why this was changed this year.

To be honest, I don't think it occurred to anyone running the contest. :/ Sorry! With new people running it, there were bound to be a few stumbles.

No worries, and thank you as always to everyone running these contests. TBH, it's kind of nice reading the stories without a faint undercurrent of "is this one better than mine?" running in the back of my mind.



sassylittleimp

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Reply #9 on: May 23, 2022, 04:28:53 PM
Just curious: how are the semi-final groups chosen?

Is it random, by existing groups (e.g., Semifinal group 1 is the 6 advancing stories from
Group 1 and 2), or some sort of seeding (e.g., each semi finals has 2 stories from each finishing placement)? Thanks!



Phoebe Barton

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Reply #10 on: May 23, 2022, 11:51:14 PM
The exact method hasn't been determined yet, but the semi-final groups will be combining stories from multiple different groups rather than the "6 advancing stories from 1 and 2" method.



sassylittleimp

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Reply #11 on: May 24, 2022, 01:06:28 PM
Awesome, thank you!

And thanks so much for putting this on, I really appreciate the considerable time and effort these contests take to make happen!

Short story competitions with comments and votes are such an amazing way to understand what people are (or aren’t) responding to in your work (and in the work of others) and they’re fun!

The fact that Escape Artists does this for free to the writer (when most similarly structured contests like NYC Midnight—which is great, too—-charge a hefty fee) is incredibly awesome and so appreciated. Thank you everyone on the EA team!
« Last Edit: May 24, 2022, 01:10:21 PM by sassylittleimp »



skidders

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Reply #12 on: May 24, 2022, 01:52:26 PM
Seconded. Thank you for all the work coordinating and running the contest.



skidders

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Reply #13 on: May 24, 2022, 07:44:28 PM
Congrats to all the winners of Group 1 and Group 2! So many good stories.



skidders

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Reply #14 on: June 05, 2022, 02:17:34 PM
Last day of voting for Round 1! Congrats to all who participated.



DireKaito

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Reply #15 on: June 16, 2022, 05:26:01 PM
The poll for the final group seems to be missing. Mistake or just not there yet? 😅



ninadances@gmail.com

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Reply #16 on: June 20, 2022, 07:48:49 PM
I am new here, and not sure quite how to find stuff- where are the stories to read?



drbeer

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Reply #17 on: June 22, 2022, 12:58:04 PM
I am new here, and not sure quite how to find stuff- where are the stories to read?

Look for the Final Group 1 forum. Should be visible above the topics in this forum. If not, comment on the "Invisible stories?" or whatever it's called post so they can make sure you can see them.