Collaborative Creative Writing Community

Wow. Pardon me, but wow.

Ya these scores are a bit jarring...Nash's got voted high 4's by two judges and really low by another, and the same happened for half of the others......

Look at the entire table - pointing out one low score for Nash doesn't really make a point. Aggeloi and Mandycrum and Persephonie and Zatoichi all received two "highs" and a "low"... Maybe I read your comment wrong, but to me, it sounded like you're trying to make a discrimination case. (The internet isn't good at indicating intention in comments though, so if I'm wrong, I'll shut up.)

That's just the way it goes with judging, guys. Each of us judges are human beings, and we all think differently. If you saw us all voting the same for each and every chapter, I think there'd be some serious accusations about us all teaming up together against or for one chapter or another. As it is, we do not discuss our votes with each other. They're simply placed, and that's it.

If it's very clear that the story is meant for the HAC project, then shouldn't it just be for that? Perse, in many comments, has stated many times that she did not want to be in this contest. I love her stories, but if it wasn't meant for this ( as it says in the title ) then shouldn't someone else be given the chance??

I understand where you're coming from, and this is something that I'll bring up to the rest of the SM team.

She stated that she didn't intend it for the contest, but if it wins, great. It was eligible, and unless Persephonie specifically emailed support@storymash.com and asked them to remove her story from the eligible list, it absolutely had a place in the top ten rated chapters.
Anyway, it's really up to the person who was the 11th ranked story to ask for it to be considered. Who was that person, and does he/she want to ask for such consideration? Let's not claim lack of fairness unless there's someone who's claiming specific harm.

(Note: I've previously posted that I think the whole community voting/ranking system is flawed, and I'm not trying to defend it here. But under those rules, Persephonie's chapter was eligible, legitimate, and actually quite good in my opinion.)

So... what should be done about this? Round two has started - Shadinah won round one according to the rules. Adding one more story into the runnings won't change anything because being "runner up" doesn't earn dollars. For this to be a discussion is actually insulting to Shadinah.

Shadinah gave us a strongly constructed first chapter with some mystery to expand upon. Time would be spent better on working on chapter two than griping about who could have been chapter 11.

Hebe, there's no "this", there's no situation, unless and until the writer of the 11th chapter steps forward and cries foul. As far as I know, the writer hasn't and won't. Besides, I don't think they can, Perse's chapter was legitimate and fine.
And even if a) the writer did cry foul, and b) SM agreed that Perse's chapter should be disqualified, then the judges could read the chapter and agree that it could have/should have been a contender, and give him/her an award of $100. As far as continuing a different storyline, I agree, that ship has sailed.

I absolutely agree, wolfram. Persephonie did not specifically speak to me or any of the others on the SM team to opt out of the contest. Her chapter was in the top ten ranked chapters, and was in that way eligible. When the opt-out option becomes available, this won't be an issue. This feature should be instilled for the next contest.

I agree with a lot of the scores, except the 5's. I did not read one chapter that was completely perfect, so I think the highest score should have been a 4.5 (or 4.9 if they are able to score that way).

Nash, you definitely would have been the 4.9's, lol!

Nothing (and nobody) is completely perfect, and I think it's perfectly legitimate to score a 5 to anything the reader/judge considers excellent.
Heck, I only see 3 5's scored in total, so it's not like they were tossing a bunch of extra 5's around like they were Obama votes. (In the sense that Obama's comfortable landslide victory made lots of votes for him hindsightedly superfluous, not that there was anything wrong with a vote for Obama.)

I am with AE. Why Persephonie's chapter is even up there baffles me. She stated that she was not participating.

Has no one else noticed the "strange" judge, "tabr0wn"? He/she joined SM on Nov 3, last sign in Nov 4; zero chapters posted, a slew of contradictory and biased comments that were not exclusively contest entries; ("I don't like gore", "too bloody..", "I like the Dean Koontz style..."; I assume all on 3 and 4 Nov)and very erratic voting in the contest!! How did he/she become a contest judge? Had I participated in this round of the contest, I would be crying foul, especially if my name was nashvillebecker!

Hi there!
tabr0wn is our newest judge, and her biography can be found on the Contest page (click on "View Panel of Judges."

I assure you, there is no "foul play" going on--Teresa voted following our judging guidelines.

Thanks!