Author Topic: Podcastle Flash Fiction Contest 2017 Voting Rules and Schedule  (Read 17046 times)

Ocicat

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We're tremendously pleased with the amount of stories received for this contest - it's going to be massive!  196 stories!  That's one of the biggest contests in Escape Artist's history, and I believe it's a record number of authors participating!  

The first group will be posted on July 5th, and new groups will be posted every two days thereafter.  16 groups in all!  Each to have 12-13 stories, with three from each group moving to the semifinals.  Groups were generated randomly, without regard for when a story was received or who submitted it. 

You will vote for up to 3 stories in each group. You do not have to vote for any and you can vote for fewer than three, but you are limited to three votes per group.

The initial groups will be released from July 5 to August 4. Voting for each group lasts 7 days.  After a group closes, authors will be revealed for all eliminated stories.

The semifinals start once voting ends in all first round groups.  Semifinals consist of 5 groups, each with 10 stories (at least). A new group will be posted every day.  Only two stories from each group will advance to the finals! Each semifinal group will also be available for a week. Each group will be seeded with approximately equal amounts of first, second, and third place winners from random groups.  No story will be in the same semifinal as other stories from it's original group.  

The final round will be from August 24 - August 31.  

Ties:
- If there is a two-way or more tie for third place (or for second place in round 2), both stories will ascend, resulting in an extra story in the next round.
- If there is a tie for third place in the final round, the editorial staff will offer a contract to all the tied stories; if this is considered unfeasible (say, there's a 5-way tie), then there will be a tiebreaker round.

The full schedule is posted at the bottom of this post, after the contest voting rules.

VOTING RULES:
1. This contest is being run by me, Ocicat, Podcastle forum moderator. If needed, other forum moderators or editors 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. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will receive a contract to be bought and produced as a Podcastle episode and paid at pro rates. Contact will be established with the winning authors at the conclusion of the contest. The Podcastle editors also reserve the right to approach non-winning authors and offer to purchase their stories if we so wish.

3. 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.

4. 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 nonconstructive 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. The voting polls will allow voters to change their votes; sometimes, people's impressions of stories change over time and we want to allow people to revise their votes if they honestly wish. However, if we catch people voting tactically (e.g. changing a vote from a popular story to a less popular story in order to weaken the competition in a round where their own stories participate), they will be banned from further votes in the contest.

8. In order to encourage more people to participate, the contest board (where this rules post is posted) is currently visible to everyone, including non-forum members. However, the submissions themselves will be posted in sub-forums that will be hidden and available only to registered members of the forum, and will remain so permanently. This will ensure that the entries are not available to a general audience and prevent them as being considered as published by most markets. If needed for outside publishing purposes, an author can request a story to be deleted. Simply message me on the forums or at craig@escapeartists.net with your concerns. Note, however, that if you choose to withdraw and delete your story, we will not delete the comments made by voters in the story's comment thread. You have to have made a comment in any thread on the forums in order to read and vote on the stories.


Please watch out for voting fatigue.  This is going to last nearly two months, and the first month will have 12-13 stories posted every other day.  That's nearly 3,000 words a day.  If you can't vote in every group, don't.  But don't let that stop you from voting again in later groups, or coming back for the semifinals or finals.  

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 10am PST, as the opening/closing time for polls. If they start late, the missed time will be added on to the end).

Group 1: July 5-12
Group 2: July 7-14
Group 3: July 9-16
Group 4: July 11-18
Group 5: July 13-20
Group 6: July 15-22
Group 7: July 17-24
Group 8: July 19-26
Group 9: July 21-28
Group 10: July 23-30
Group 11: July 25-Aug 1
Group 12: July 27-Aug 3
Group 13: July 29-Aug 5
Group 14: July 31-Aug 7
Group 15: Aug 2-9
Group 16: Aug 4-11

Semifinal A: Aug 12-19
Semifinal B: Aug 13-20
Semifinal C: Aug 14-21
Semifinal D: Aug 15-22
Semifinal E: Aug 16-23

Final: Aug 24-31
« Last Edit: July 06, 2017, 10:12:15 PM by Ocicat »



Subtle

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Is it okay link to the contest in a writer's forum I frequent? As long as I don't identify my entry and encourage them to vote for the stories they like?



Ocicat

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Is it okay link to the contest in a writer's forum I frequent? As long as I don't identify my entry and encourage them to vote for the stories they like?

By all means!  Everyone is encouraged to post on their social media, tell their friends, what have you.  We'd love to get more voters.  Just don't tell anyone which story is yours.  Also refrain if your entry might be quite obvious to them, because it uses your daughter's name, is a re-work of an old story you've shown them, or what have you.



Subtle

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Gret. Thanks!



asato

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@_@ that's a massive grouping! bigger than the world cup.

Tech Writer by Day / Horror Writer by Night
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Ocicat

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The first group is now up!  Welcome to the Kitsune League!



astrokath

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Woohoo!

*goes to read and vote*

Not the droid you're looking for.


Robert Dawson

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Got it.



Superrob

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Thanks for committing to all that work.

That's significantly more time consuming than I'd figured, and I'm just participating and voting. I know my summer reading is all lined up now. This is going to be quite the ride.

"Sure, I'm smart, but that's not helping me get a straight answer from tech support on this damned banana phone," — Rob


Frank Evans

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The problem with having the groups revealed every other day is that it makes the off days feel like the day before the contest is about to begin, which is the looooooongest day of the whole contest process. Can't wait for tomorrow.  :)

(Not a criticism of the schedule,  I can't imagine how much work goes into making this run smoothly. Thanks again to everyone who makes this happen.)



Ocicat

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The problem with a group posted every day is if you fall behind in your reading, you're just snowballed and can't catch up.



Deborah L. Davitt

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If a new group is to be released every day, have I missed today's? I still only see Kitsune's League.



TCM

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Is there a specific link we can share with social media that will allow people to view and vote on all groups, instead of just those that have been released so far? I would like to allow others to take part in voting in all the groups, but I'm not sure which link I should copy/paste for that.



shanehalbach

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If a new group is to be released every day, have I missed today's? I still only see Kitsune's League.

Every other day! So you have to wait until tomorrow.

Edit: I see it says, "The initial groups will be released daily..." at the top, but if you look at the detailed breakdown below you'll see every other day.


Ocicat

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If a new group is to be released every day, have I missed today's? I still only see Kitsune's League.

Every other day! So you have to wait until tomorrow.

Edit: I see it says, "The initial groups will be released daily..." at the top, but if you look at the detailed breakdown below you'll see every other day.

One "daily" did sneak in there.  Corrected now.

It's the semifinals that will be posted one group a day.  The first round is every other day, so that you if you skip a day or three you won't fall too far behind.  The entire contest is over 90,000 words.  Pacing ourselves is important.



Ocicat

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Is there a specific link we can share with social media that will allow people to view and vote on all groups, instead of just those that have been released so far? I would like to allow others to take part in voting in all the groups, but I'm not sure which link I should copy/paste for that.

Not sure what you're asking for... no, you can't link to groups that haven't been released yet.  You also can't link to specific groups.  Links to those would only work for people who have already registered in the forums and made a post.

The best place to link to is the overall contest board.  AKA the board that this topic is in.

http://forum.escapeartists.net/index.php?board=271.0



TCM

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Okay, that is what I was thinking. That should allow potential members to register if they would like to vote. I just wanted to share the opportunity with others.

Thanks!



Deborah L. Davitt

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One "daily" did sneak in there.  Corrected now.

It's the semifinals that will be posted one group a day.  The first round is every other day, so that you if you skip a day or three you won't fall too far behind.  The entire contest is over 90,000 words.  Pacing ourselves is important.

Thanks for clarifying; I was a bit worried I'd been struck blind. . . . ;)



ddluzen1

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I can't seem to find the links for the first two groups. What obvious thing am I failing to see? Haha, thanks!

Edit: I found it, nevermind! The links weren't showing up on my screen for some reason.
« Last Edit: July 08, 2017, 08:06:16 PM by ddluzen1 »



Ocicat

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Has has been mentioned, you're not "real" until after you make a post.  So you can see them because you've posted now.

It's an anti-spam measure, and so that the stories do not count as published while they are in the contest.



deank

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Excited to read!



SpareInch

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Wow! Nearly missed the first week of voting!

Still, I have a good excuse in the form of a really strange week, culminating in me getting stuck for an hour in a private skin care clinic waiting room because the street outside had just been closed so it could be turned into a venue for a car show. I hope the stories in the contest are at least as weird as that. :P

Fresh slush - Shot this morning in the Vale of COW


Deborah L. Davitt

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How did the various groups get broken down for their initial presentation? I suspected in the first three rounds that there had been some preliminary sorting--basically, 1-2 strong stories, and a lot of other weaker ones.



shanehalbach

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They are randomly generated.


shawnproctor

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This is probably the most fair contest set up I've ever seen. Awesome design.