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Discussion of "So long, and thanks for all the fish" by ShadowMan

1		marine09666 8 months ago Reply i know its **** good luck i would say go to helium.com great site
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2		nashvillebecker 8 months ago Reply 42. * * * This development rather sucks. I'd be willing to continue The Contractor outside this site if you're up for it. It's a good story and a shame to fizzle it out prematurely. Drop me an email sometime - I'm at yahoo and it's my moniker here. * * God bless. -- Nash
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1		ShadowMan 8 months ago Reply Nash, I'm just on a self-imposed time out. Keep mashing The Contractor and I'll either join in later or get hold of you via email if I decide to move on from here. Marine, I'm already a member of Helium. It's a good place and I've contributed some non-fiction pieces, but it's not geared toward creative writing.
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3		dogdeity11 8 months ago Reply Screw the ranking system Shadow. Really! I used to get anxious when my chapter would build to a 4.9…only to get blasted back down hard in the coming days. Then I took a step back and asked…what do I value more? Reading the fantastic works of others. Sharing my work with them. Leaving feedback on stories I like. Getting feedback from peers. Or biting my nails and pulling my hair out over a flawed rating system…all in the interest of: 1.) Trying to win a few bucks 2.) Trying to tell if other people really like my art. Okay, so yea the money would be cool. But it’s certainly not worth stressing over. $300 aint gonna pay these bills. And because there are cheaters and **** who can easily drop a 1 on you…you cannot really use the rankings to get a good idea of what others truly think of your work. Additionally…I’ve watched my chapters go from a 4.9 to 4.6, up to a 5…down to a 45…etc…etc…all while incurring absolutely NO new votes. Something about an algorithm curve?? Whatever. I finally just gave up caring about the stupid numbers. I dont even vote for myself anymore. The rankings aren’t accurate anyways…so who cares! I just come here to have a good time and share creativity with others. If you look at it like that Shadow…then it’s all good!
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-1		ShadowMan 8 months ago Reply It's not the contest that is the issue, Dog. I'm with you on the whole "it's about the craft" argument. My point is that if someone doesn't like what I wrote for some reason, I want them to grow a pair and tell me what the problem is with the work -- not simply vote a "1" and move on to something else. Like most of us here I would like to publish my fiction (my non-fiction has been published but it's not as rewarding); the critiques are central in achieving that goal. You and a couple of others have given honest critical analysis of my work and I appreciate it more than you know. Equally important are those comments that let me know the story itself is entertaining. Unless the creators of SM are brain dead, they know this; yet they seem to be ignoring it. By not attempting to tie the rating and comment systems together they are doing us all a disservice. I checked the "blog" and it has been FOUR MONTHS since they communicated anything to the membership. This is unacceptable in my opinion and I said as much in the comment section of the Blog. I'm beginning to suspect we are simply fodder for AdSense to them.
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-1		ShadowMan 8 months ago Reply OK this is just pathetic. Now the Blog link on the home page is gone and my comment to you (above) got voted down to a "0" (they all start out as a "1").
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2		ShadowMan 8 months ago Reply Dog - you talked me into sticking around.
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