Author Topic: Semi-Finals tomorrow! (Read 11253 times)

eytanz · **on:** October 18, 2012, 03:28:53 PM

The preliminaries are over, and 32 stories stand supreme. If you look at the schedule, you'll see that there's now a day to breathe, before the semi-finals start tomorrow.

In case you are curious, the groupings are random. In order to properly manage this and make sure everything comes up on time, I'll be moving all the 32 stories to a hidden part of the forum tonight. The threads will be re-revealed when their semi-final group opens. So, you won't be able to comment on these stories between tonight and when their group opens, but none of the existing conversation will be lost.

Interesting statistic - of the 23 authors who submitted two stories, only one author has both stories still in the running (please no overt speculation about which two stories these are). So, the 32 stories represent 31 different authors.

Unblinking · **Reply #1 on:** October 18, 2012, 05:24:11 PM

Quote from: eytanz on October 18, 2012, 03:28:53 PM

The preliminaries are over, and 32 stories stand supreme. If you look at the schedule, you'll see that there's now a day to breathe, before the semi-finals start tomorrow.

In case you are curious, the groupings are random. In order to properly manage this and make sure everything comes up on time, I'll be moving all the 32 stories to a hidden part of the forum tonight. The threads will be re-revealed when their semi-final group opens. So, you won't be able to comment on these stories between tonight and when their group opens, but none of the existing conversation will be lost.

Interesting statistic - of the 23 authors who submitted two stories, only one author has both stories still in the running (please no overt speculation about which two stories these are). So, the 32 stories represent 31 different authors.

Interesting! It makes the part of your job where you check for self-competition much easier--you just have to make sure those 2 don't end up in the same group.

eytanz · **Reply #2 on:** October 18, 2012, 05:25:57 PM

I have a question about the semi-finals and the grouping of stories. I came up with a totally random grouping, where all the stories were put in the same pool and just randomly selected out of it (using MS Excel in case anyone is curious). But I noticed that it would be possible for me to have a grouping that's not as random but where no story competes against any of the same stories as it did earlier (except the stories that started out in round 10, as 5 stories from that round ended up in the semi-finals, and there are only 4 groups). I'm not sure which is fairer.

Does anyone here have a preference either way? If so, could you explain it? I'm genuinely curious as to whether this matters to people. If there's unanimity on this issue I'll probably go with it; if opinions are divided, or if people just don't care, I'll figure out what to do tomorrow.

(Because there's only one author with two stories, that's not a complicating factor either way)

Ocicat · **Reply #3 on:** October 18, 2012, 05:33:07 PM

I would set it up in a "seeded" fashion, that spreads out the first place stories evenly into the different groups, and from there minimizes the amount that stories compete against their original group mates.

On the other hand, random is a fine way too!

Thunderscreech · **Reply #4 on:** October 18, 2012, 05:34:08 PM

I'm one of the Sacred Chosen, and I think making it so each story faces a completely different group of contenders would be more efficient. They've already competed against the other two from their first group once, making it a completely new playing field would seem ideal.

Well, unless that results in my entry being rejected... in which case that would be bad... oh dear.

Devoted135 · **Reply #5 on:** October 18, 2012, 07:14:23 PM

Quote from: Ocicat on October 18, 2012, 05:33:07 PM

I would set it up in a "seeded" fashion, that spreads out the first place stories evenly into the different groups, and from there minimizes the amount that stories compete against their original group mates.

On the other hand, random is a fine way too!

I like this idea

DoWhileNot · **Reply #6 on:** October 18, 2012, 08:27:35 PM

I'm also in favor of having it be completely random as long as my story wins...

Really, I think it's ok either way. There are so many excellent stories in the coming groups that it's going to be torture making a decision no matter how they're arranged.

DoWhileNot · **Reply #7 on:** October 18, 2012, 08:33:01 PM

By the way...

AAAAAHHHH!

The suspense is killing me. I'm sitting here trying to write code and build a SQL database and it's going rather bad because THIS is distracting me.

Thunderscreech · **Reply #8 on:** October 18, 2012, 09:04:45 PM

Quote from: DoWhileNot on October 18, 2012, 08:33:01 PM

The suspense is killing me. I'm sitting here trying to write code and build a SQL database and it's going rather bad because THIS is distracting me.

Code: [Select]

UPDATE human.mood SET anticipation = .5, concentration = 1 WHERE human.mood.id = human.id AND human.id IN (SELECT id FROM aliases WHERE alias = 'DoWhileNot' AND context = 'escapeartists.net')

Just execute the above from any console that's logged into the Akashic Database and has UPDATE rights. Hope it helps!

julius blaze · **Reply #9 on:** October 19, 2012, 06:39:31 AM

I would prefer the grouping where the stories go against as many new stories as possible, as few as they have already competed against as possible.

MokalusOfBorg · **Reply #10 on:** October 19, 2012, 06:43:19 AM

Personally I'd prefer to see stories competing against stories they haven't competed against before (there must be a simpler way to say that). I'm not sure which way counts as fairer, mathematically, but this way feels fairer to me.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - The feeling of fairness can go a long way.
PPS - If everyone acted based on actual fairness, all casinos would probably go out of business overnight.

DoWhileNot · **Reply #11 on:** October 19, 2012, 10:53:18 AM

... and lawyers would disappear.

eytanz · **Reply #12 on:** October 19, 2012, 12:38:09 PM

So, it seems like there's a majority towards avoiding re-matches, so I'll go with that system. With one unavoidable exception involving two stories from round 10, no story will face a story it already faced in the semi-finals.

eytanz · **Reply #13 on:** October 19, 2012, 12:59:11 PM

Which I said then promptly screwed up.

eytanz · **Reply #14 on:** October 19, 2012, 01:15:41 PM

Ok, as some of you noticed, there was a rather annoying issue with the original grouping for semi-final one, which I only discovered a few minutes after making it public. I fixed the grouping, but unfortunately that did cause some confusion. Really sorry for that.

Unblinking · **Reply #15 on:** October 19, 2012, 01:23:33 PM

Quote from: eytanz on October 19, 2012, 01:15:41 PM

Ok, as some of you noticed, there was a rather annoying issue with the original grouping for semi-final one, which I only discovered a few minutes after making it public. I fixed the grouping, but unfortunately that did cause some confusion. Really sorry for that.

So, if I've already voted, is that something that I need to do something about or am I fine?

I think either random or trying to do new competition are both completely fair. I think the latter is more interesting, because I'll have to think more about the voting that way.

eytanz · **Reply #16 on:** October 19, 2012, 01:29:12 PM

If you voted in the poll that's currently up (which you can easily check by seeing if it let's you vote or not), you're fine.

As far as I am aware, only one person posted in the old poll before it was taken down, and I PM'd him.

Father Beast · **Reply #17 on:** October 19, 2012, 01:29:57 PM

Quote from: Unblinking on October 19, 2012, 01:23:33 PM

So, if I've already voted, is that something that I need to do something about or am I fine?

I certainly hope people are rereading these stories at least one more time before voting. reading them again after a time gives perspective, and shows whether a story has some lasting value.

When we first voted on these stories, we were very off the cuff first impression voting. Now we have had more time to digest them, and can see if we want to hear this again. some we will, some not.

Unblinking · **Reply #18 on:** October 19, 2012, 01:35:38 PM

Quote from: Father Beast on October 19, 2012, 01:29:57 PM

I certainly hope people are rereading these stories at least one more time before voting. reading them again after a time gives perspective, and shows whether a story has some lasting value.

When we first voted on these stories, we were very off the cuff first impression voting. Now we have had more time to digest them, and can see if we want to hear this again. some we will, some not.

I re-read some of them, but not all. There were some stories that I thought had a big enough flaw that I knew I wouldn't be voting for them. Of those that didn't, I gave them all a quick read to narrow them down to 2.

Chuk · **Reply #19 on:** October 19, 2012, 05:44:28 PM

Quote from: Father Beast on October 19, 2012, 01:29:57 PM

When we first voted on these stories, we were very off the cuff first impression voting. Now we have had more time to digest them, and can see if we want to hear this again. some we will, some not.

Is that an Imperial 'we'? I certainly didn't vote off the cuff the first time -- one pass through all the stores to eliminate the ones I felt were weakest, then another through the stronger stories to rank them.

julius blaze · **Reply #20 on:** October 19, 2012, 08:46:57 PM

Yeah I was very thorough in my reading the first time, so I will know which handfull of stories are going to be top for me, and then a re-read to decide how to narrow it down to 2 is enough IMO.

eytanz · **Reply #21 on:** October 26, 2012, 05:36:13 PM

Quote from: eytanz on October 18, 2012, 03:28:53 PM

Interesting statistic - of the 23 authors who submitted two stories, only one author has both stories still in the running (please no overt speculation about which two stories these are). So, the 32 stories represent 31 different authors.

You know, it's only today - two weeks after posting the above - that I realized I can't count.

In fact, two authors got two stories in the running in the semi-finals; the 32 stories represent 30 different authors.