Quote by sprite
in 3D
Join the best erotica focused adult social network now
Login
clum
Over 90 days ago
Bisexual Cis Male, 34
0 miles · Scotland
Forum
Clumeleon
Quote by Ping
Please do not call people's submissions "...complete crap... " Regardless of their
level of skill, they do try their best. Respect that please.
Not all people try their best, trust me. And some people do write complete crap. I can respect that someone has put effort into something and still recognise that it is of very poor quality.
Quote by Ping
Nicola did NOT mention that the top and bottom 5% are discarded, did she?
That is why this discussion is important. If what you say is correct, then that
answers one question.
She didn't mention it because it's not to do with competitions; it applies to all stories.
Quote by Ping
Incorporating a system of three criteria is not difficult at all. Add three numbers.
It better reflects the readers 'opinion' because many more do not vote or comment.
Literally, thousands do not. How is that not a factor in choosing the story?
Not difficult, no. But still more complicated than it needs to be. Someone would still need to set some system up to collect and organise that data, and crunch the numbers in the way you suggest. Wasted effort.
And there is not necessarily a link between the number of times a story has been viewed and its quality. You can trust me on that, too - I've read some complete crap on this site that had a very high view count. There's no "opinion" in a view - it's literally a counter of how many people went to that webpage, including people who got there by the 'Random Story' button. We don't even know if they read a single sentence of it.
Quote by Ping
Just reading past winners and EP's is a suggestion but it doesn't do anything but
expose readers to chosen quality pieces of work. It may or may not teach them
what a judge is looking for. Not everyone learns the same way, hence the request
for access to a rubric.
If you show someone twenty pictures of apples and tell them they're all apples, they'll learn what an apple is. Not everyone learns the same way, but I'm pretty sure no one became an excellent writer by reading a bloody rubric.
Quote by Ping
I never used the word 'entitled'. You did. I said this is a request. Not a demand.
I said that you "seem to imply" you are entitled, so I obviously know you didn't use the word. I don't think that deduction is unreasonable based on this quote:
Quote by Ping
How do we know what the criteria are? We don't and we should. That
is part of fair assessment.
(Emphasis added).
Sounds pretty entitled to me. You may not have outright demanded it, but it's pretty clear that you believe you should have access to this information (which I don't think even exists in the concrete form you want it).
Please don't thank me for my contribution to this conversation again. It comes across as false, meaningless and patronising.
Clumeleon
Quote by sprite
you might have noticed that there are a handful of mods who don't enter comps anymore, myself included. Lizzy is another one, for the reason that bias may be or has been mentioned, despite the fact that, in my case and hers, we are quite capable of winning on our own talents and merits.
If there was bias in the comps, I'm pretty sure I would have won one by now. Everyone loves me!
Clumeleon
Quote by Ping
Firstly, using the highest average to determine the first short list is flawed because a story needs ten votes to
qualify for the competition. A story that gets 30 votes, all 5's except two 4's, gets disqualified if a story with 10 votes gets
all 5's, providing the first story falls out of the total number of stories chosen for the first round, as per the
parameter you identified above being the number of total entrants. One or two scores of less that 5 can disqualify a story.
She did actually say that judges are asked to read as many stories as possible, to make sure no high-quality stories are missed when the initial "cut" is made. And average story scores are already adjusted (top and bottom 5% discarded) to account for rare situations like the one you describe.
Quote by Ping
A better system would incorporate three components - total votes, average score (possibly tossing out a high and low,
or some combination like diving, skating, etc.), and total views. The weight of these could be scaled in some simple manner
so if average score is deemed to be more important, then that has, say 50% of the possible 100%. The other two could be
25% and 25%, or whatever is determined to work best.
Way too fucking complicated for the purpose it serves.
Quote by Ping
However, you did not explain how the stories are whittled down from 20 or 25 to 10?
How is this done? Does a rubric exist for this? Or is purely subjective?
Secondly, once a top ten is determined, you then say the judges' total points are tallied and the story with the highest point total wins.
That works, however...
This is where, again, a shared rubric is desired. How do we know what the criteria are? We don't and we should. That
is part of fair assessment. Sure, the subjectivity plays a big role, but understanding what judges are looking for helps
writers improve. That's one of the goals of this site, isn't it? To have good stories published? That is why I joined.
You have offered what the process is, but you have not offered what the judges use to specifically use to get from
25 (or whatever) to 10, and then from 10 to 1.
That is what some would like to know. That is what I would like to know.
If you want to understand what judges are looking for, read former competition winners, and EPs. There are people on this site who know good quality work when they see it, and who know complete crap when they see it. There needs to be an element of trust that the owner of an erotic story website knows what she's doing and can choose reliable people to help her do it.
You are not, as you seem to imply you are, entitled to know precisely how judges make their decisions, nor are any of us. At the end of the day, competitions on this site are free to enter, and so can be judged on any or no criteria, without consultation with anyone.
The system in place on Lush is more robust than on any comparable website. Nicola works very hard to ensure that it's balanced and fair. If I were her, I'd be less keen to put in so much work to giving away prize money if people were gonna question my methods and integrity.
I think you're taking the whole thing way too seriously.
Clumeleon
Quote by Dani
Yes. I totally despise when people with their tattoos are all up in my face like 'Hey, look at my tat!'
Like, you can totally tell they do it just to spite everyone instead of just something they do for themselves. And the part that really grinds my gears is when I'm forced to look at them against my will.
Tattoos should only be allowed if they have meaning as well as approval from the general public.
People and their autonomous decisions to get their bodies inked in any way they choose are the absolute worst. Fucking losers.
Hear, hear.
Clumeleon
Quote by Buz
For several, it is a competition, a race to compete in. Why does anyone compete over and over again? They want to get better at it and improve their time or to win. To get good enough to compete to win, you generally have to do it more than once. Some are competing against the other racers, some just against their previous best time. They do give out awards to the winners.
You don't need to enter a race to beat your own time—you just time yourself.
Competitive running, fair enough. I don't get the appeal, but sure.
Clumeleon
Quote by Buz
Precisely. You have to build up to that in increments, but one needs to be already running that distance once a week for about a month before the actual race. But only once a week. More than that could easily lead to injuries, especially tendonitis.
I get the idea of building up your stamina, I guess I just don't understand running. What is actually being achieved by running that "official" half-marathon, when you've already run at least four of them in the last month?
I could understand if you were building it up over weeks and months, and then the final event was when you ran that distance for the first time. I can even understand your training regime if you happen to enjoy running and want to keep fit and healthy. I just don't know what you get out of that final half-marathon, the level of fitness required for which you already achieved a month ago.
Clumeleon
Quote by Buz
When training for a half-marathon, I run 5 miles a day Monday thru Friday, and on Saturdays build up each time until I am doing 14 miles each Saturday for a month before the race. During all that I take Sundays off from running.
So, to train for a half-marathon, you run half-marathons?
Clumeleon
Quote by Liz
Sorry to hear that. I had a logic board replaced in my MacBook Pro a while back and it cost me £400+
Downside of owning any Apple product.
I got mine just within warranty, or I would have been fucked. Although, because they fucked something else up while replacing that, I essentially got a brand new MacBook.
They are expensive product to maintain, but I wouldn't want to use anything else. And they're so pretty.
Clumeleon
Quote by Myamibi
To Noll, Yes that is the one.
I wouldn't make a very good detective. I think these girls definitely look under age or at least that's the premise.
Yes, they do look young, and yes, that's probably the premise. Like Liz says, it is safe to assume they are legal.
http://www.watchmygf.me/terms/
Clumeleon
Quote by DanielleX
I've never heard anyone say jamp!
Writ is an interesting one. It could be dialect, in which case this could be correct among some non-standard speakers, though not being Scottish I'm not sure. Is it like being Frit instead of frightened?
Ate 'pronounced' as et instead of eaten is certainly a phonological variation either from a misunderstanding or just idleness. Et instead of ate as the past tense is a common variation.
D x
Jamp is my favourite.
Writ as in, "Ah writ it doon oan a bit ae paper."
I remember in high school English a bunch of us having a debate with our teacher about a "non-standard" declension of the verb to be: I be, you be, he/she/it bes (pronounced 'bees'), etc.
Our example was something along the lines of this conversation:
"He drives me crazy."
"What does he do?"
"He bes annoying."
Obviously, our teacher rejected this and insisted the word must be "is". Of course, technically speaking, she was completely correct. But we felt there was a certain nuance in our variation. Like, "he bes annoying" denotes a more deliberate act than the comparatively passive "he is annoying".
She humoured us, because she liked us, and we were A students, but she clearly thought we were ridiculous.
Clumeleon
I don't know about the rest of the world, but there can be a tendency amongst Scots to try to 'regularise' irregular verbs (or at least force some kind of linguistic intuition onto them). It used to wind me up, but I grew to love it because everyone understood what they were saying, so it was as good as using the 'correct' form.
Examples.
"Jamp" instead of jumped.
"Et" instead of ate (or sometimes instead of eaten, but that one still jars a little).
"Writ" instead of wrote (I know "writ" is a word in its own right, but not 'correct' when used in this way).
Examples.
"Jamp" instead of jumped.
"Et" instead of ate (or sometimes instead of eaten, but that one still jars a little).
"Writ" instead of wrote (I know "writ" is a word in its own right, but not 'correct' when used in this way).
Clumeleon
Quote by seeker4
I actually forgot that you Scots squeak across the line into our hemisphere else I might not have said that.
I had to double check. Parts of the UK are in the east, but we lean westward.
Quote by seeker4
To be fair, the popularity of curling here likely has a lot to do with the large number of Scots who helped found this country (e.g. Sir John A. Macdonald, our first PM, was born in Glasgow). My grandfather and father were both curlers but, save for one cousin who works as an ice maker at a couple clubs (and his wife runs the office at one of them), the sport has kind of died out in my generation of the family.
Yeah, Canada probably has more Scots than Scotland.
The only person I ever knew to curl was my mum's ex-husband. I don't think he ever kept it up though. It's certainly not something that runs in my family. Heck, no one runs in my family!
(My dad is actually a keen runner, but I liked the joke.)
Clumeleon
Quote by Buz
The above-mentioned suggested designations for Famous and Legendary stories could be accomplished with Silver and Gold Stars. If they accompanied a Recommended Read, Editor's Pick, or Outstanding Series awards, the stars could fit just below those. The stars for Famous and Legendary stories could be just a bit smaller than the other designations. Just a thought...
But surely we're a site that values quality over quantity. Just because a story is viewed by a lot of people, doesn't make it a good piece of writing. Should we be acknowledging sub-par works simply because the author is, for whatever reason, very popular?
Clumeleon
Quote by seeker4
Canada is the curling capital of the Western Hemisphere and dontcha forget it.
I was about to argue Scotland's claim to that title (yes, we're in the Western Hemisphere, just), but a little research shows that, in fact, you are correct.
Damn. We're good at so few things.
[/code]