Discussion of "MASH THIS BITCHES" by dogdeity11

Those all sound like great ideas. I say take a step from places like fictionpress, give us the ability to edit our own works, know if people are even reading them and force others to give justifications for ratings.

I think the best way to fix the rating system is to do the above, at least this way it keeps others from cheating or forcing a bad rating on a potentially good story.

I also believe stories should be separated by genre, though it can be hard for anyone when they first start a story(another use for the edit button) with new stories(within a week or so) given their own section.

A forum can be one way or another, but, generally it is a good idea to communicate ideas, it will also help non-author's share their ideas with the people here to see if a story can be fleshed out.

Also, as far as contests, it might be a good idea to have a poll with various imaginative ideas and have people initially vote for one, then have everyone write a story around that ideal.

There are hundreds of ways this site can be pushed to the top, it only takes a little creativity.

Also, I've learned from experience that the basic white background is really straining on the eyes, It's better to go with darker colors as it makes stories so much easier to read. On my Blogs I usually use a blue background with black character, I've found this makes it much much easier for people to read through.

Great ideas Eleven! It seems like a genre system would be beneficial for the rating system as well. Then, as you said, someone into Vampires wouldn't feel obligated to vote on a romance they read, and possibly giving it a lower rating just because they don't like the genre. My favorite is the idea of an alert system. It gets hard to keep up on your favorite writers, especially since there are so many amazing writers here. thanks for the mention btw:)

I have to agree with your suggestions. I just joined today and already I'm sitting here wishing for a "favorites" section or some sort of genre filter. I think there should also be some sort of "friends" section or something where if you find a chapter that you know your friend will like you can send that friend a link to it or something. Word of mouth is the best way to send chapters around and maybe that'll help keep some of them being drowned out with all the submissions.

Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention - I like that our profiles tell us what are comments were but there's nothing that links back to the chapter we commented on! I might be looking at someone's profile, see a cool comment on a chapter, and then have no clue how to find what they read!

...never mind, I'm stupid. I just figured out how to see what people are commenting on...like I said, I'm new! :)

Add to the list that we need an alert for comments too....I try to keep up and respond to my comments, but wow...that's a lot of work.
As far as the contest goes, maybe -and this is just a suggestion to discuss- it should be based on a points scale instead of average star rankings. Would that be better?

Dog - thanks for picking up the ball and running with it. Until there's a better method of correspondence with Ethan (+/or other moderators of SM), someone should nudge an improvement thread forward every few weeks. Hang in, readers - this'll be a long comment.

5. There should definitely be some alert function. Technically, this is #5, but I moved it to the top in case people stop reading my novella early.

1. The rating system. 10 is better than 5. Heck, Netflix allows 5 star ratings, but a 2 star rating means "didn't like it." I still think showing a list of who-voted-what would help detract people from ambushing chapters. Open the range to 10 stars and SM will hopefully achieve a better, more accurate depiction of opinions.

2. I disagree with mandatory comments. Sure, I like them as much as the next guy, but if they're forced, they lose impact. And sincerity. I've read many more chapters than I voted on because I won't assign a 1. Assigning 2s makes me nervous, which is why I try to provide accompanying notes. ***AUTHORS: TAKE ADVANTAGE OF CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM! IT USUALLY COSTS A LOT OF MONEY!***

3. However they want to run the contests is fine with me. You'll notice most of my stuff is mashes; I want them to be eligible for a prize. If the next contest is theme oriented, you can bet I'll try writing some by that theme. Winning contests is quality resume fodder. I still don't agree with how the voting works - the best bet to win a contest is to post April 18, then get six of your friends to vote 5 stars apiece. Voila! Top of the heap! (As I'm going on vacation from April 5-20, I'm a little bummed to know I'll have nothing new for the last two weeks. Ah well.) I think there should be some value to a cumulative score as well.

4. I'd definitely like to see a published compilation with The Contractor, A Woman Scorned, A Cat Named History, Jeanene's Smile, Little Things, and others. Logistically, I don't know how the final chapters would get selected. That's something for further down the road, I suppose. Probably a separate thread altogether from here.

6. A forum? If it's a chatroom, I won't personally visit; I got hooked on that a long time ago. (That's a story for another mash.) What I'd like is a TOC to list the start chapters and their ensuing path options. Yeah, it'd be huge, but it would be much easier to navigate than the current [lack of] structure. I also think the forum would be an appropriate place to separate by genre. It should also have a place to correspond with SM brass, obviously.

7. As someone who posts stories weekly on Thursdays (and occasional other days), I'm against the one-per-day. To clean out the content, I agree that stories should be archived/deleted after a certain period of time. I prefer archived, so I could dig up Blood Donor if I wanted to. As for editing, I think chapters should be locked for the duration of the current contest. As of April 21, I think authors should be able to edit and/or delete their own unmashed chapters.

8. Tapioca. That's good pudding.

It's time for dinner and a recheck for comments later.

-- Nash

amen' along with free speach, more mashing i see none

Good suggestions everyone. I would also like to see an 'opt out' check box for constructive criticism. I always hesitate to offer advice or constructive criticism because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings; this way if you don't want to hear it you don't have to...

Great call Shadow!!
I get the impression that not everyone is here for the purpose of having his or her work critiqued. (not all the time anyways) Some folks, all of us included…sometimes we just want to drop a chapter in for the hell of it. Just cause we feel like it. We don’t want to spend an **** load of time checking it and re-checking it…spelling errors, sentence structure…punctuation!
We just want to get a quick point across and be done with it.
I suggest we have an option button for submitting a chapter for “contest review” or if we just want to…well, play MASH.
That way, someone who is not here in order to workshop, has the option of just having fun…without the criticism.
Obviously some folks just can’t handle it.

These are good ideas, but, I don't think stories should be removed, no matter how good or bad. I think they should implement a genre based, alphebetized archive. The rating system is clearly screwy, I have watched my ratings add/drop up to .3 stars with no new votes. If I don't really care for a story, I just don't vote because I don't want to drop someone else's rating just because their story wasn't my taste. I do wish that if people are going to vote, they leave a comment. I agree with everyone on that. Also, I think that for the sake of the contests, there should be a minimun number of votes before a story becomes eligible. Anyway... my 2 cents.