Author Topic: Pod Castle Flash Contest - Rules  (Read 101231 times)

Wilson Fowlie

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 1475
    • The Maple Leaf Singers
Reply #225 on: October 08, 2013, 05:36:21 PM
I get why you went with three days between groups, and I agree for the most part, but that third day, spent waiting for the new group, tended to be agonizing. Especially while waiting to see what groups my stories would end up in  :-\

And for me, that 3 days was barely enough. :) I had to work pretty hard at carving out time in my life to keep up with them! (As it was, I came close to missing a couple of voting deadlines.)

"People commonly use the word 'procrastination' to describe what they do on the Internet. It seems to me too mild to describe what's happening as merely not-doing-work. We don't call it procrastination when someone gets drunk instead of working." - Paul Graham


DKT

  • Friendly Neighborhood
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 4961
  • PodCastle is my Co-Pilot
    • Psalms & Hymns & Spiritual Noir
Reply #226 on: October 08, 2013, 06:12:39 PM
Last day of voting on the first round!

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?!?!

Crap. I thought I had an extra day.

Oh, well. Carry on, Ocicat :) You're doing a great job!


Ocicat

  • Castle Watchcat
  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 3706
  • Anything for a Weird Life
Reply #227 on: October 08, 2013, 06:54:03 PM
Last day of voting on the first round!

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?!?!

Crap. I thought I had an extra day.

Dave.  You don't get to vote.  :P



DKT

  • Friendly Neighborhood
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 4961
  • PodCastle is my Co-Pilot
    • Psalms & Hymns & Spiritual Noir
Reply #228 on: October 08, 2013, 07:06:52 PM
Oh, I'm well aware of that  ;D


Cutter McKay

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 952
  • "I was the turkey the whoooole time!"
    • Detention Block AA23
Reply #229 on: October 08, 2013, 07:11:43 PM
Oh, I'm well aware of that  ;D

This makes me curious though. Dave, after the contest is over, maybe you'd like to share with us which stories you'd have voted for. Maybe not out of all 10 groups, maybe just in the semis and finals. But I'd like to know.  ;)

-Josh Morrey-
http://joshmorreywriting.blogspot.com/
"Remember: You have not yet written your best work." -Tracy Hickman


DKT

  • Friendly Neighborhood
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 4961
  • PodCastle is my Co-Pilot
    • Psalms & Hymns & Spiritual Noir
Reply #230 on: October 08, 2013, 07:39:17 PM
I will consider that, Cutter :) OTOH, I will probably shy away, 'cause I don't want to take anything away from the folks who did advance.

I think there's a pretty good chance we'll be buying additional stories beyond the three winners. I'm making a list, and I will be checking it twice :)


Cutter McKay

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 952
  • "I was the turkey the whoooole time!"
    • Detention Block AA23
Reply #231 on: October 08, 2013, 09:02:48 PM
I will consider that, Cutter :) OTOH, I will probably shy away, 'cause I don't want to take anything away from the folks who did advance.

I think there's a pretty good chance we'll be buying additional stories beyond the three winners. I'm making a list, and I will be checking it twice :)

Make sure to Damn the List  ;)

-Josh Morrey-
http://joshmorreywriting.blogspot.com/
"Remember: You have not yet written your best work." -Tracy Hickman


Moritz

  • Lochage
  • *****
  • Posts: 511
Reply #232 on: October 09, 2013, 01:29:15 PM
Oh no, I missed the Siren league voting deadline...  :-\

That's a shame, since it was a really close group!  Make sure you vote now for Barnacle Goose League - not too much longer to go on that group now.  Those that fall in the sea will live, and those that fall on land will die.

Hi Ocicat, first of all, thanks for all the hard work you are putting into the contest. I have finished reading round 1's stories, voted in all groups, and I am now finally tackling the stories in the Siren league. I think my voting wouldn't have changed the outcome, BTW.



Ocicat

  • Castle Watchcat
  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 3706
  • Anything for a Weird Life
Reply #233 on: October 09, 2013, 03:01:54 PM
Group 10 is over - today is a day of rest.  Semi-finals tomorrow!



benjaminjb

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 1389
Reply #234 on: October 09, 2013, 04:45:23 PM
Thank you, Ocicat, for your hard work and hard-won day of rest.



DKT

  • Friendly Neighborhood
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 4961
  • PodCastle is my Co-Pilot
    • Psalms & Hymns & Spiritual Noir
Reply #235 on: October 09, 2013, 11:31:01 PM
Well, I've now read every single entry in this contest. Nice job, everyone. I was kind of floored by the quality of the stories here, and I've found myself learning a lot from it.

Looking forward to the Semis!


Ocicat

  • Castle Watchcat
  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 3706
  • Anything for a Weird Life
Reply #236 on: October 10, 2013, 04:31:05 PM
And the Semi-finals have started!  We're now down to 30 stories by 24 authors.  And congratulations to the 6 authors who managed to get two stories into the semis.  No matter what happens from here, that's quite an accomplishment - no matter how hard it made my job of putting the stories into groups.

From here we go down to just 9 stories for the final.  That's not going to be easy - there are far more than 3 great stories in every group!



Ocicat

  • Castle Watchcat
  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 3706
  • Anything for a Weird Life
Reply #237 on: October 14, 2013, 03:12:47 PM
Semi-Final C is up!  Oh ya, Semi-Final B too!   :D



Ocicat

  • Castle Watchcat
  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 3706
  • Anything for a Weird Life
Reply #238 on: October 16, 2013, 03:44:07 PM
Last day to vote for Semi-Final A - don't miss out on having your say on which stories get into the finals!
« Last Edit: October 16, 2013, 03:45:50 PM by Ocicat »



Ocicat

  • Castle Watchcat
  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 3706
  • Anything for a Weird Life
Reply #239 on: October 17, 2013, 10:37:11 PM
There's now a runoff up for Semi-Final A.  It has 5 stories in it competing for 2 spots.  This was necessary because there were several different and unrelated voting problems - from spouses not realizing they shouldn't vote for their partner's story, to a family member creating a sock puppet account to push a story into the finals - without (I believe) the author's knowledge or consent. 

The runoff poll will last for 3 days, and be watched over by the Salamander - who should be able to prevent any further shenanigans. 



Ocicat

  • Castle Watchcat
  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 3706
  • Anything for a Weird Life
Reply #240 on: October 22, 2013, 07:55:20 AM
The Final is up!

Nine stories by nine authors; none of the six folks with two stories in the semi-finals managed to get both into the finals.  And remember back in Group 1 and 2, how everyone was blown away by the quality of the competition?  None of those stories even got in!  There are fewer slots in the final than there were initial groups, so some not being represented was inevitable.  Three groups (3, 4, and 9) got two stories to the final.  In each case the first and second place story.  No third placers made it, I'm afraid.  I think that shows the groups had a pretty good distribution, not bad for totally random!



Wilson Fowlie

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 1475
    • The Maple Leaf Singers
Reply #241 on: October 22, 2013, 04:38:49 PM
I think that shows the groups had a pretty good distribution, not bad for totally random!

As a programmer, I'm interested to know what method you used for the randomization.

"People commonly use the word 'procrastination' to describe what they do on the Internet. It seems to me too mild to describe what's happening as merely not-doing-work. We don't call it procrastination when someone gets drunk instead of working." - Paul Graham


Ocicat

  • Castle Watchcat
  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 3706
  • Anything for a Weird Life
Reply #242 on: October 22, 2013, 05:18:38 PM
I program a bit myself, but I like to think I know when doing something by hand is easier than coding it up.

Since the major problem was going to be making sure two authors weren't in the same group, I first split the stories into 12 buckets alphabetically by first name.  So all the "Johns" were in the same bucket.  Then I just drew lots 1-10 for each story in the bucket, and that's the group they went into.

I'll admit to fudging a bit and picking the shortest story to be the 13th story in the extra sized group, and deciding beforehand that that group should be #6.



Wilson Fowlie

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 1475
    • The Maple Leaf Singers
Reply #243 on: October 22, 2013, 05:38:18 PM
Old school randomization - cool. :)

"People commonly use the word 'procrastination' to describe what they do on the Internet. It seems to me too mild to describe what's happening as merely not-doing-work. We don't call it procrastination when someone gets drunk instead of working." - Paul Graham


Max e^{i pi}

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 1030
  • Have towel, will travel.
Reply #244 on: October 23, 2013, 05:25:43 AM
I program a bit myself, but I like to think I know when doing something by hand is easier than coding it up.
Then you are not a programmer.
The difference between a programmer and someone who programs is that the programmer will usually decide to write the code rather than do it by hand even though (read: especially when) that will take 4 times as much time.

Cogito ergo surf - I think therefore I network

Registered Linux user #481826 Get Counted!



Ocicat

  • Castle Watchcat
  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 3706
  • Anything for a Weird Life
Reply #245 on: October 23, 2013, 07:50:14 AM
No, I'm really not.  Professionally I'm a software tester.   :D



Unblinking

  • Sir Postsalot
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 8726
    • Diabolical Plots
Reply #246 on: October 23, 2013, 01:17:27 PM
I program a bit myself, but I like to think I know when doing something by hand is easier than coding it up.
Then you are not a programmer.
The difference between a programmer and someone who programs is that the programmer will usually decide to write the code rather than do it by hand even though (read: especially when) that will take 4 times as much time.

Not necessarily.  :)  I do things by hand sometimes, but I usually do them in a very code-like way anyway. For instance, if I need to choose one selection out of eight possibilities I will flip a coin three times to pick a binary number to make the selection.  Or my podcast-listening order (which I've gone on about in other threads)



Ocicat

  • Castle Watchcat
  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 3706
  • Anything for a Weird Life
Reply #247 on: October 28, 2013, 10:33:02 AM
Almost done - voting closes in less than 24 hours!