Circle of Writers Vague Conversation

[Rachel Swirsky]

Dear everyone who has sent me a private message,

I'm taking a bit of a break from the forums because I need to blitz through some of my own writing material. It's not that I'm ignoring you -- okay, technically I am -- but it's not that I'm ignoring you bceause I don't like you or am disinterested in what you have to say. I just need to focus on creative work right now.

I'll get back to you in a few days, promise!

Best,
Rachel

P.S. <nag mode> Steve, are you still planning to put up a p-word protected writer's forum? I'm holding onto my shaggy dog story until I can put it up here, but if that's not happening, I'll just revise and bug you with it in the slush pile. </nag mode>

[Thaurismunths]

I'll be the naysayer:

Bear in mind that without prizes what you're basically setting up is a critique circle where people rank the submissions -- especially if you're going to have entries cycle as quickly as one contest a month. In addition, unless Steve is going to be as involved this time as he was last time, whoever you choose to moderate is going to lack the inherent "I run the magaznie" authority that Steve was able to use to make sure things seemed sweet-tempered. This seems like it could get nasty, fast.

I'd also suggest you look at a time frame larger than a month. This, alone, took about two and a half months, and that was with people dedicated to running it.

Additionally, with a constant cycle of contest, people are going to get really tired. You're probably better off having it seem like a fun and rare event than a constant thing.

Those are just my instincts, of course.

I concur.
Part of what made this contest so great was the excitement and newness of it all. If this were to become a monthly contest interest would dwindle, authors/moderators/voters would burn out, and peoples best feet would be put forward "next month". Even in this one 'little' contest comments and votes really dropped off towards the end.
Now there are few hundred more people aware of the contest, meaning more entries, so a greater workload for the reviewers.
There are a lot of things that could be done to keep interest up (prizes, publication, fame, ego-massages, etc.) and a full sized magazine could pull them off, but I doubt a volunteer corps of moderators and subscribers would be able to keep up with it month after month.

[slic]

I originally thought to wait for Mr. Eley to make an announcement, but as I glean from other postings that he will be gone for a week, I decided to throw in two more of my cents now.

I'll be the naysayer:

On deeper introspection, I think you're probably right.

I concur.

My interpretation of you comments is that the idea is to replicate the contest.  That was never explicitly said anywhere
(or hinted IMHO), and I think it is a wholly incorrect assumption.
The purpose of a one-of contest, and how it is run, is not the same as a regularly re-occurring event.  I certainly didn't believe that we'd carbon copy the setup, rules, voting etc, of the "300 Word Flash Fiction Contest!" - for all the previously mentioned reasons and more.  And I say "we" because I suspect that such a thing would have be admin'd by one or two main volunteers from what I call the "Escape Artist community". 
Maybe there is no need for something like this - maybe there are 100s of these things elsewhere on the web.  Even still, it doesn't mean we can't start a new one here anyway.  At this point, it can be anything - bi-monthy, weekly, semi-annually, 50 words, 500 words, 3000 words, horror-based, fantasy-based, must use the word "persimmon".
I have been hesitant to start making pronouncements about what it should be like, how it would be run, etc., only because I am just a visitor to this site.  I'd be happy to be involved in discussion and execution of whatever it is that this turns into.

I'm only speaking out now because I'd hate the idea to die before it even had a chance to breathe.  I do think that time is running out though, a quick look at the stats shows the overall forum viewership declining...