Wanna help me win a prize?

[Distracted]

Oh.... and the contest ends next Wednesday, so if we don't get at least 20 commentors by then we're SOL no matter how good our entry is. We won't even be judged without them.

[Alelou]

Distracted, if you're really into this maybe you should organize a contest for TS. Come up with a million categories so everybody can win some cute little avatar for something. Make the voting democratic so administrators don't have to deal with any hurt feelings. I notice House of Tucker still has some stuff marked as winning awards and I actually wish those things would pop out more because those have been some damned fine stories.

Personally I steer clear of awards, but that's probably because I've never won any.

[Distracted]

But I couldn't win anything if I was the one running the contest, now, could I? Wouldn't be fair! Wouldn't be much fun, either.

[Alelou]

Can't you set it up so that it runs itself? Like a poll or something? If you need somebody to do something official and not enter herself -- as long as it's not very time-consuming -- I'd be game.

I think the spookies over in XFiles land used to have an open nominating process followed by polling to narrow down the number of nominees and then final polling to pick the winners. It was probably annoying for somebody because of all the nagging and hand-holding involved (hey guys, voting closes by such and such a date; yes, we do have your story), but I think the tallying pretty much ran itself and it became a matter of posting the nominees and the winners. Probably the hardest thing was deciding categories and the factors for eligibility, like pub date. Anyway, maybe they still have them. I' m afraid I haven't gone there in years.

I'm NOT advocating for this, actually. As a reader I might appreciate seeing a list of winning stories, but as a writer I find losing contests way more painful than I ought to and I'm sure I'm not the only one. It's easy to get overly invested in this stuff when really we're all just here to hang out and enjoy each other.

But if you REALLY REALLY want to have a shot at winning a contest, you need to make it happen in your own fandom. It makes little sense to try to compete against all the sci fi fandoms at once. Most people don't read outside their own fandoms.

[JadziaKathryn]

Well, 11 people have commented on my story so it's not looking good, but I very much appreciate everyone who did!

Anyway, the reason I'm posting again is that Distracted actually prompted change! I got an email about May's contest, and on a whim I decided to see if it was still comments from 20 different users. Well - drumroll please - they lowered it to 15. Which is still really high, but it's something anyhow.

[Asso]

Ah Ah, it sounds good.

[Distracted]

Cool! Change is good!

I think I made it this month, though. By my count I have exactly 20 commentors. We'll see if my story is to the judges' taste now, I guess. Thanks to everyone who commented.

[Alelou]

Good luck!

[JadziaKathryn]

I think I made it this month, though. By my count I have exactly 20 commentors.

*looks for jealous emoticon* That's great! HR? TPoptarts? How are you ladies doing? *goes off to check hers, just in case there are any more since yesterday*

[TPoptarts]

11 comments I tried to go to TWO different non-affiliated libraries but the computers were all down in both. The universe hates me

Thanks everyone who did comment though.

[HopefulRomantic]

14 for me. Thank you all.

So Dis, it's up to you. You'll be our standard-bearer. Good luck!

I also got the e-mail about the May contest with the 15-commentor minimum. Har. Props to Dis also for blazing the trail for comment-challenged writers of the future.

[Linda]

Well, I'm trying to get you guys more comments. Sat with my daughter to get get her signed up on Myfandom.com and we ran into photo shop impediments. Why the heck do you have to have a photo shop account to signup for Myfandom? Any how, I had to leave her place before she even got the email confirmation, so don't know if we will get comments up before the deadline. But we tried! Say, are you entering next month's contest? Maybe we could set up a "vote early, vote often" system!

[Linda]

Okay, I am very frustrated. I don't know the Myfanfiction.net site at all. I went to check on the comments, and entered Distracted's story first. I saw comments from other people, but not the one I left or THOUGHT I left, last week. So I tried to leave another comment and it didn't seem to take. Then I could no longer see anyone's comments, but could page through the sections of the story. So how do I see the comments? Please explain in excruciating detail because it takes me a long and frustrating time to figure out how to work in a new site. That is why I stick to sites I know and don't explore much because I have so little patience with wasting time figuring it out when I could be reading or writing instead, LOL.

[Linda]

How I got things to work on Vulcan Space Central and TrekSpace so easily is a mystery to me! The programmer of these sites must have a weirdly wired brain just like mine, I think.

[Asso]

Dis, in Italian language there's a sentence which must be said beating the rhythm: SEI TUTTI NOI! It means: YOU'RE ALL US!