How do you feel about this?

[Ed]

Troglodyte (Moderator on these forums) would like to enter the CafeDoom writers competitions.  How would you feel about that?  I don't want there to be any doubt about the voracity of competition results, so up until now I've asked him to abstain.  As far as I know, there is no way that a mod can unduly influence a vote, and there's no way Trog would do it even if he could, but I want to know whether you are all happy with him entering comps or not, hence the poll

Up to you all to decide, so please vote.

[Sunny]

Voted yes. I dont think it really makes a difference that he's moderator. If the decision is up to us, then really I dont see why it matters WHO submits work.

Besides isnt that why everyone is here anyhow? So yes Trog please enter the comps  :-*

[Neuromancer]

Yeah why not?

He is a great writer and would really add some flavor tothe comp.

[Troglodyte]

Sunny, Neuro, thanks for the vote of confidence   I won't vote on this poll for obvious reasons.

Blunt: Perhaps it would make more sense to simply remove my Moderator status, saving any confusion/ambiguity... ?

[Neuromancer]

No I disagree I will be a mod one day   and think mods should be allowed to contribute!!

The comp is not just for greed or stature, the comp is to get more people to contribute and let all of the rest of us have some enjoyable reading

Or so I thought.


And yeah thats badly written, its 4AM here and I am tired

[Troglodyte]

... and think mods should be allowed to contribute!!

Yes, I agree, but perhaps not until we have a decent number of entries

[Ashen Decay]

Of course mods should be allowed to compete

The voting is still fair, I think we're all adult enough not to assume foul play if a mod actually wins something.

[Ed]

Glad to hear it, Ashen  

Trouble is, some of us here got to witness another site owner that set a competition to build a website template, entered it himself (after others had put in a lot of effort) with a pre-made template made by somebody else...and then declared himself the winner    The wanker. 

A lot of the tricks he got up to made us a bit short on trust, so I wanted to be sure that everybody was happy for a mod to enter and possibly win a comp, without us being accused of favouritism or anything like that.  I won't be entering any comps as a contestant, that's for sure

[Criminally Insane]

of course, everyone who is a member should be allowed to enter any competition, but, a more interesting thought is that maybe submitters would be anonymous, i.e., written work and art should be submitted to the admin to post, a blind vote, no-one know who the work is from except the admin and submitter.

[ another useless/complicated idea ] 

[Ed]

of course, everyone who is a member should be allowed to enter any competition, but, a more interesting thought is that maybe submitters would be anonymous, i.e., written work and art should be submitted to the admin to post, a blind vote, no-one know who the work is from except the admin and submitter.

[ another useless/complicated idea ] 

I like the idea, because sometimes I've seen polls where ppl vote for personalities instead of the best piece, and stuff like that.  Trouble is, it could get to be a lot of work for me if we get a lot of entries sometime.  It would work OK in the short term tho.

[Criminally Insane]

of course, everyone who is a member should be allowed to enter any competition, but, a more interesting thought is that maybe submitters would be anonymous, i.e., written work and art should be submitted to the admin to post, a blind vote, no-one know who the work is from except the admin and submitter.

[ another useless/complicated idea ] 

I like the idea, because sometimes I've seen polls where ppl vote for personalities instead of the best piece, and stuff like that.  Trouble is, it could get to be a lot of work for me if we get a lot of entries sometime.  It would work OK in the short term tho.

if it does get alot of work for you, you could always select someone impartial to do the posting aswell.
same as above except, yourself an another do 1 side of the comp each, you do the written and another for the art or vice versa, as the artwork would be submitted by imageshack or other means similar hosted linked.
as i would submit by imageshack so no-one would know its from my site.

[Ed]

Yup, all stuff worth considering, thanks - I'll have a think about it today and see what happens.  I'm aiming to have the new comp sorted and announced by the end of tomorrow

[Troglodyte]

Blunt, can I take it that the above comments indicate an amber/green light for entering the Dead Man' s Hour comp.? (Nice title btw)

BTW, I do like the idea of anonymous submissions, but, as has been rightly pointed out, it could mean a lot of work for you

[Ed]

   Well, the way I see it, anybody that's concerned either way has voted already and, although the poll doesn't end until the 20th, I think we can safely take it as a green light. 

I've thought about anonymous submissions, but the issue that concerns me (as well as the potential workload) is somebody, or a few people, looking up after the closing date and saying, "I entered the competition, but my entry wasn't on the list."  At least if they are required to post their own entry on the forum, they are responsible for whether or not it actually was entered.  Plus, I'm hoping that having to sign-up to the forum to post an entry will encourage people to take part in the community.  That aspect would be lost if submissions were by e-mail.

[Troglodyte]

Sorry mate, I'm jumping the gun: for some reason the date didn't even register with me But cheers in advance

I take your point about the anonymous subs., and I'd hate for you to be lumbered with a serious(?) increase in e-mail traffic, formatting issues etc, etc   And as you say, we want to get more people to join up.