3rd Anniversary Competition Rules and discussion thread

[Ed]

This is a bit spur of the moment, so if you've got any questions or suggestions, please feel free to voice them.

This is what we're going to do this time around - I've asked Helen Whittaker if we can borrow her voting system that she devised to pick stories for The Write Idea antho and she has kindly agreed to let us nick it. Thanks again, Helen

Send your entry via e-mail to blunted(at)cafedoom.com by midnight GMT on 30th October 2007 and I will post them anonymously on the competition story thread ( http://www.cafedoom.com/forum/index.php/topic,1749.0.html ) on the 31st of October.

Between then and the end date of the competition (midnight GMT 2nd November), all entrants must vote for their favourites on the separate voting thread ( http://www.cafedoom.com/forum/index.php/topic,1748.0.html )and name their top three. Competition entrants must vote, or their entry will be disqualified. The only other members of the forum eligible to vote will be those who joined before 12th October 2007 date.

One entry per person.

Free to enter.

Word limit: 1,200 to 3,000 words

Theme: Anything you like, but bear in mind your voting readership's likely tastes

Prizes are in USD, paid in Amazon vouchers, and on a sliding scale dependent upon the number of entries we receive.

Under ten entries - competition cancelled.

Ten to Fifteen entries - prize fund $100, split $50, $30, $20 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
Fifteen to twenty entries - prize fund $150, split $70, $50, $30 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
Over twenty entries - prize fund $200, split $100, $70, $30 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

The number of entries is calculated after the voting, in case some entrants fail to vote.

CafeDoom.com reserves the right to display entries on the site, but authors retain all other rights to their work.

Does that seem fair?

[Ed]

BTW - please spread the word. Bear in mind the more entries we get, the higher the prize fund will be

[Spider]

Hello,
I am Spider and I am new here. I see you are having a contest for the 3rd Anniversary (Congrats) and would like to enter... However my story is longer than the limit by about 600 words. I cannot shorten it as this has been compacted down from the original of 4500 words and it was hard. Are exceptions ever allowed? I know rules are meant to be adhered to, but in light of me just hearing of it and being a poor old fella just struggling to get by... well? (Oh yeah, I tend to be a comic too)

Thanks
Spider

[SharonBell]

Ah, Spider, my friend, let me sharpen my ax and see what we can do to help you whittle that down a bit! 

[Ed]

Hello Spider, and welcome to the forum

The only reason for limiting the length to 3,000 words is you are likely to find people reluctant to read the whole thing if it's much longer. If you want to, you can send it to me and I'll take a look at it and let you know from there. How's that?

[Flirtybee]

i will try and dust off the old grey cells and scribble summat...

[Ed]

i will try and dust off the old grey cells and scribble summat...

Good man I'll look forward to reading it, Flirty

[Geoff_N]

I've some editing deadlines due next week, and off to Spain the following week. BUT, I'll take the laptop on the plane and knock off a story for your comp, Ed. Let someone else win it for a change - hah!

I've spread the word as you said. Several words.

Geoff

[Monster]

I'm new, as my first post may show but I may have something to present.

[Ed]

I'm new, as my first post may show but I may have something to present.

Welcome to the forum I'll look forward to seeing your story

Geoff - thanks for spreading the word. Wish I was off on holiday next week. I don't expect that story will get written on the plane, though. Do you? If it was me, I'd end up with the aisle seat and spend the whole flight getting my elbow taken out by the stewardess trolley, having people climb over me to get to the toilet, and I'd probably have a four year-old in the seat behind who spends the whole flight kneeing me in the back and tapping me on top of the head with a purple plastic dinosaur that sings repetitive nursery rhymes every time it gets tapped.

Still, it could be worse. 

[Sallyq]

Can I ask, Ed, whether the votes and how many each story has received will be kept secret until all votes are in?

[Flirtybee]

I've put a link on Slingink, and put it in their competition listings...this times exceedingly well (sounds like a blooming Mr Kipling ad!) with their forthcoming Eurofiction comp which kicks off straight after...so i've suggested it as a warm up exercise if nothing else...the more the merrier huh? They have got some good writers there too!

[Ed]

Can I ask, Ed, whether the votes and how many each story has received will be kept secret until all votes are in?

Well, the votes weren't going to be kept secret, no. I had thought about the problem of possible tactical voting, but I don't think it's going to be an issue, because the only people eligible to vote are those people who have entered stories themselves and people who were already members of the forum before 12th October. BUT - if it looks like being an issue, I will assign an undisclosed number of voting areas to various sections of the forum membership that will be invisible to other groups, thus making a fix more difficult to achieve. After all votes are cast, I can change the permissions of each voting thread and reveal them to everybody. I would rather do this than a secret ballot, because I want the process to be transparent.

If all else fails and it's obvious something has gone awry, I will step in and correct it. What do you reckon - does that sound like a good plan?

Flirty - thanks for doing that. You're a star, mate

Is anybody a member of Writer's Dock? If so, could you post a note about the comp on there, please?

[Sallyq]

Sounds good to me, Ed (oh the smilies aren't working, so you'll just have to imagine me sticking my thumb up in agreement)

[joneastwood]

Hi there - new member Jon Eastwood here. Just entered your comp after hearing about it through Slingink. Nice to be here!