Banned from BC

[SharonBell]

Yes, I'm happy to share this one. Donna gave me great feedback as I developed it. I used it to judge a horror contest at a now defunct website, and it worked well.

The best thing about any a priori evaluative tool is that you have in mind what's good, rather than the "I'll know it when I see it" mindset, which is very difficult to defend. After 10 years of university teaching, I know that rubrics are incredibly helpful for students to know what the expectations are for an assignment.  The same is true for other types of writing.

Hope this helps. 

[GrinReaper]

the whole thing just makes me want to get involved and make sure CD's crit group is successful.

[Ed]

The more the merrier, Grin   Ideally, we could do with 18 or 20 people to keep the momentum going (and an expert helmsman), but we'll have to make do with what we've got and hope it grows in the right direction

[doolols]

... but we'll have to make do with what we've got and hope it grows in the right direction

Sounds like a very mottley bunch!

Hurrah - the library's open, so I can get my fix of th'internet whilst I'm away

[Ed]

They are, but they're a very nice and talented motley crew

[The Diplomat]

Ed you were never "banned from BC".

BC went fully charging and we were gradually shutting up shop to old BC Free members. At the same time as you were no longer able to access the main forums more than a dozen other defunct memberships were turned off. We have never actually kicked anyone out as far as I can remember. One member, an American lady was causing a load of grief and saying we were anti-American. She left and I wouldn't let her back in, but that's the only "ban" I know of.

Basically, BC Free was very hard to adminster and a few BC Pro people wondered why BC Free Members got so much for nothing. So Free had to go. But since then Boot Camp has grown and the resuts are if anything stronger than ever.

The statement "You have the grid, why not form a group" was aimed at BC Free members who were leaving. An ounce of thought would have told you that. BC Free members were charged £30 for "free personal use of the grid IN A GROUP" (because it's a tool for interaction and comparison, not a magic wand). It stands to reason that a grid which has been sold for  £30 a throw is not suddenly going to be given away. You also know it takes ages to get to grips with the grid, and that's with help from very experienced gridders. Let loose with a load of inexperienced people it would be  a disaster

As for "Who is going to lead the group?" that's not a trivial question. When Boot Camp first started charging, BC Free was set up (no charges of any kind, not even for the grid) but they were working totally without AK. The output fell and fell and fell, the crits got sloppier and sloppier and the hit rate per person dropped to 1/40th of BC Pro. BC Free became an embarrassment and that was why it was dragged back into BC and worked alongside Pro.

Gridding, whatever grid is used, means nothing if there's not a serious experienced writer at the helm, someone who has a solid publishing record and actually knows the ropes.

With all due respect, Blunt, you don't have that, so how are you supposed to lead a bunch of writers in a way similar to Boot Camp, or Alice's Restaurant. I wouldn't expect Alexandra Fox (20 First prizes with yesterday's) to run a group on her own (and she feels the same). There is nothing elitist or pompous in that. it's just a fact of life.

Sure, any grouping is better than no grouping, but IMO a group of beginners or a group of intermediates just repeats the same mistakes. You can see that at EotW when crappy stories get 9s and 10s. If you look at the sheer number of 10s and then check how many have actually been published...

As for sanitising threads, I just don't get that. Doolols said  here, that I edited a post of Vanessa's. Not so. I clicked edit/edit to top it, that was all. I have just asked in BC if anybody has ever thought I'd done that. i did it once at the request of Lexie when she was personally hurting over something, and a few times I've archived a "degenerating" thread because it was helping nobody, but the archives in BC are not hidden. Your "hot" one was utterly pointless, going round in circles, so I cut my losses and archived it. You were "off" so I was just wasting time and people were getting pissed off. There was a time when I couldn't drop a stupid row, but now I think life is too short.

There's a way to judge you new "Freedom" Ed. First, why did you stay in Boot Camp so long if you hated it so much, and only leave when you finally could not have it for free? But now you're out, and according to your posts at EotW writing "far more and freer/better" then you should very shortly be getting loads of excellent placements, right?

But I know of at least nine stories you wrote while in BC (sent via Lexie) so it wsn't exactly a "barren" period, was it? Looking at the titles, I think I only critted one or two, but that's because i rarerly critted BC Free stories (nor did I know they were yours until yesterday).

What amazes me and saddens me about all the BS about Boot Camp is that I make absolutely no secret about the fact we are tough on texts. it is, after all, called Boot Camp. I have been doing it this way for  YEARS and we have had 92 First Prizes and thousands of hits. I'm not a teddy bear, but everybody knows that up front, nobody is forced to join. So why do they join and then complain? Beats me.


I work the way I work because I believe in what I am doing and because I produce results. I have made loads of friends through my teaching. I don't sit on the fence, so I will always make enemies, too. That's life. I will be slagged off. That's life too. I just get pissed off when people lie about me.

But just set the record right. You were not banned from Boot Camp and I have never ducked an argument.

As for ruthless crits. You were bollocked by me on more than one occassion for "nasty" crits, for stepping over the line. We may be tough but ultimately we all repspect one another. All that was wrong with you was you were too opinionated (without justification) and never listened. If you listened more you would improve and start placing your work. Lexie has twenty first prizes now, yet she was in tears on a face-to-face course I ran in Wales last week. It wasn't nice and i felt awful. But two days later she rewote the piece and made it twice as good. That's why she keeps winning prizes.


Alex

[Dan]

Wow - is this the infamous AK?
Who knew that the writing world was filled with such drama?

[Geoff_N]

Dan, you call that drama?   Piff!!

There is much more related to these events including the incredible nefarious activities of one former lawyer / writer who, Alex might like to know, is looking for more toilet paper in the Shawnee County Jail to write another novel.

Geoff

[Alex Keegan]

Are you serious Geoff?

I heard that whisper but also heard it was a rumour spread by MB himself to discredit someone (not me for a change).

I had an email from his SISTER asking me to ring her!!

No reply when I tried. I'm probably racking up a bill ofr hard porn or worse somewhere now.

I pray it's true. Is he still advertised at BW?


Alex

[canadian]

Nice to see AK come out from underneath The Diplomat! 

I have also heard this 'rumour' but now understand it to be more than that. Geoff & people he knows have more info.

And a humble question, AK: how come stories were deleted from the Comp thread here?

[Geoff_N]

'Tis true, Alex. He was put away not for doing dastardly deeds to writers, but three counts of DUI.

Les Floyd has details. Email him if you want the Jail address if you want to send him a Get Well card. Les has already sent him a copy of my Escaping Reality, a story about a prison escape! But as it has been described as a fugitive's manual, I doubt the prison authorities will let him have it.

Geoff

[Alex Keegan]

Geoff, if he escapes, I am coming looking for you.



 

[Alex Keegan]

Canadian, i often sub under a pseudonym.

In the case of Cafe Doom, CD was officially a non-sub place because the first two comps were
too small. Ed was in BC when the latest one came out, so I suggested to all the BCers they should
enter and at least one ex-BCer also entered at least twice, that they should all enter. If that got the
numbers up to 20 or more then a hit there would count.

After all many magazines take 1 in 3, or 1 in 4, or 1 in 5, or 1 in 10. This would be 1/20 or 1/25
and thus self-validating. I supported the gang by subbing an old flash of mine I wrote at Scrawl
but I most certainly didn't want to sub under my own name and invite the inevitable pot-shots.

BTW a Boot Camper won it and an ex-BCer was "lucky-dip" second and I think we had a few in the shortlist.

As for "stories being deleted" I know nothing about stories plural.

I zapped my own because I wanted to sub it elsewhere.

But I see it's been unzapped.


Alex

[canadian]

It would have been polite of you to discuss your need to remove the comp entry with the site admin, wouldn't it? That's the way I've dealt with this kind of issue in the past, elsewhere. Just common courtesy IMO.

[Alex Keegan]

Courtesy?

Why, do you detect "common courtesy" between Ed and myself in this thread before I joined it?

Gimmee a break!!! Ed don't like me, fine. He's doing a good job of slating me here
and at EotW, to name just two places. And to say he was the most difficult person
Boot Camp has ever entertained, would be being kind.

I did my job, got some BCers to enter a comp, and kept my name out of it,
then quietly deleted my story without "getting involved" or raising issues...

Just as I didn't get involved in the vote or discussing stories or raising personalities or author names.



Alex