Should we continue to deprive us of talented story tellers?

Shocker

This is primarily a question for the folks participating and reading the story contest. @DarkArchon1980 and @pinkwarkitten14 have been refraining from participating, due to their roles as organizer and mod respectively.

Personally I think this is a shame as this deprives the contest, as well as this site of some amazing story tellers. So I would like to open this for discussion, how others feel about this. Should people involved with running the contest or this site be excluded from the contest.

This is going to be an entirely unofficial poll, as I have no influence here, other than wanting to have as many stories to read as possible.

So naturally, my answer is NO, I want them to be able to participate.

Please speak up and express your thoughts on this. Be also aware I allowed the poll to show who voted, for the sake of transparency.

Enchantress

I’m interested to hear opinions and see the results - that being said, the reason we decided to exclude admins and moderators from entering story contests (anyone can contribute a story with the current themes) was to avoid any possibility/accusations of currying favor or cheating.

My original thinking on it was that it’s a story contest and not a popularity contest…

Very open to feedback and change though, as you know 😊

Shocker

Enchantress I was assuming that this was the case, it’s also why I have started this thread, to get a feeling for how others feel about this.

As you wrote it’s a story contest, and the entry is judged by it’s own merits. In my own opinion, for me as a participant it is more fun to compete with many excellent stories than just a few. But then again I participate in the contests for the challenge of using the given concepts and restraints, as well as knowing that my stories are being read.

DarkArchon1980

While @Shocker makes a particularly good point, I agree with the decision of @Enchantress (obviously) to bar the admins and mods from participating in the contest. I did see some possible evidence of some of the activities that Enchie is talking about when I was running RC’s story contest voting for some people because of who the author was rather than the work. While the people in question aren’t on BV, as far as I know, it makes it more fair from where I’m sitting.

Shocker

DarkArchon1980 I can respect that decision, but wanted to open at least a discussion about it.

Next time I see you in chat we need to discuss (whisper) what kind of evidence you have seen, as you now intrigue me.

pinkwarkitten14

I mean, that’s still going to happen, regardless. People can still vote in a way that makes it more of a popularity contest than a story contest. People can still vote for a friend or someone just because, without reading the stories.
The danger comes when it’s because of an abuse of power. “If I vote for {admin} or {mod}, they may overlook it the next time I’m in trouble.” Not saying that any current staff would leverage their power for votes, but the possibility is there.
The rule doesn’t bar staff from writing content at all, or even from writing a story with the themes and word-limit of the contest and posting it. It just bars us from entering said story into the contest for consideration.
Better to not invite even the possibility of temptation for power abuse, or even the idea that it might be occurring. Any time a staff member won, there’d be the question of “okay are they a good author, or did people vote for them because they’re staff?”

Shocker

pinkwarkitten14
Again, I do accept those points. Call me naive, but I believe in the integrity of people running the show here.

pinkwarkitten14

Yes but you also know us. Think from the perspective of a new member who hasn’t gotten to know us. They maybe think a particular story is better than the rest, but it doesn’t win. A staff member wins instead. This opens said new member to think there is cheating going on.
Not saying cheating doesn’t still happen, it does. I’m sure we all remember what happened with a particular member that ended up getting banned at RC.
I think the idea is to not invite the possibility of accusations being thrown around, and the drama that
inevitably follows.

Derick

The More competition, the more enjoyable it is to grab that prize. There is always going to be an element of favourtism in a contest like this simply because of the contents of the story. Certain authors are going to most likely include certain kinks, certain ways of writing. Using my own writing for example. If I can include certain mythological creatures into my stories. I will, but doing so could alienate potential readers. Everyone is going to have their favourite authors, and they are going to lean into those, read those first. I also do admit I have a hard time reading certain themes, and often will not finish a story if it is included, and thus I will tend to like those stories less.

It says nothing about the quality of the writing, the plot details, or other details that makes a good story. The nature of a story contest with themes like this one is going to have a lot of predefined opinions going into it.

If a pattern does emerge where Archon has won like 5 story contest in a row, then perhaps it might be necessary to revisit this discussion, But once I see a story contest that give me some form of inspiration, mine will be right up there to complete against the rest.

Enchantress

After a lot of thought and careful consideration of the benefits and drawbacks of allowing moderators and administrators to participate in the story contest – the final decision is that the rule will not change.

This type of website requires an element of trust. In order to attract new members, keep them and grow, we have to maintain that level of trust in the management. We need to be above reproach and not open the door to any hint of nepotism. Pictures, personal information, private messages….all manner of things may be exchanged here that members are trusting us with. If you start to think that the people running the show might be acting in bad faith, would you really be comfortable? I know I wouldn’t.

As was brought up previously, we may not be able to avoid the contest becoming a popularity contest, but we can take measures to avoid accusations of favoritism and abuse of power from the management team.

I do admit that not allowing a moderator to participate in the contest may take away some motivation to write a story, but we aren’t preventing anyone from writing anything, let alone any stories at all. They just can’t enter it into a contest. And a reminder – any given month, let alone a story contest cycle – members may be busy with work or a relationship, having a rough month, etc. and just don’t have the time or feel like writing. Sometimes the themes aren’t inspiring to a certain writer. That’s okay. There are going to be ups and downs in the frequency of posted stories, busyness of chat, posted role plays – especially at the end of the year when family and holidays may be occupying a majority of attention.

Thank you to everyone for the good discussion and input. I’m a people pleaser at heart and I hate to say no, but when it comes to protecting the reputation of this site, I’ll make the unpopular decision to keep the status quo

Shocker

@Enchantress it had not been my intention of creating a problem here. I just felt it was necessary to have this discussion and draw in some more opinions from the board. As I’m not a member of the administrative side here, I felt I could at least start this exchange without looking to biased.

I understand and respect decision, particularly the reasoning behind it.

Gigi

I just joined so I don’t know a lot of things that are going on, but I I’m a member of a couple of other writing forums and their contest are submitted anonymously that way you cannot vote for favorites although some people have styles and over time you can recognize a style of a specific writer. I believe that everyone should have an opportunity to submit a story in a contest or competition. Like we stated in the title it is trying to deprive us of talented storytellers and often the people who are running the show are the most talented.

Shocker

Gigi the anonymous submission, sounds like an interesting idea. But i have to admit that I enjoy engaging with my readers a lot.

DarkArchon1980

Gigi That’s actually a great idea. I was asked to include that in the rules but we’ll see what they admins say.

Gigi

I totally agree with the opportunity of engaging your readers, but you can do that after the results have been revealed and answer all their questions. I do love being able to respond to a well-worded observation or complement at the time that it is given, but this would put everyone on the even playing field.

leftwanting

To be honest, I don’t see the point in contests.

You could have a list of suggested themes, if a writer is in need of inspiration

Better if all stories or fantasies are written read and appreciated without ‘winners’

I stopped writing my fantasies on other sites because people only seemed interested in reading and voting in the ‘contest’….. it took over.

Shocker

leftwanting I see the point you are making, Redrighthand started the contest because the story section on RC had pretty much died out, we were in a phase of the games section having more or less the only posts. I think it is known, that I feel addicted to stories, please don’t start an intervention, I love to read those so anything that get more stories posted was always good for me.

Let me point out why I enjoy participating in the challenge.

being forced to work creatively with 3 concepts, and still write a story I want to read.
the word limit forces me to rethink how I want to structure my stories, once I get going i can get rather long winded in my storytelling. So shorter stories challenge me more than long ones.
having the pleasure of seeing what the other utterly brilliant writers here, make with the same constraints and how they feel compared to my own offering.
when it comes to my own stories, I’m an attention whore, it is incredibly pleasing for me to know other people where reading my drivel. Getting one of this rare comments back telling me what they liked or disliked is feeling so good.
do I care for the voting? I don’t know, I like to win, the contest at least makes sure I put an effort into the story, because I know the other authors will be amazing.

There are many aspects that I see as tangential benefits of the contest, but the contest should not be strangling all other storytelling. I had started this topic originally with the idea of getting more stories posted, by not excluding good authors. Talking with Enchantress, Archon and Pinkwarkitten I understand their position, and will stop questioning it. But then again that restriction only exist because we have the voting part to determine a winner.

leftwanting

Damned if we do, damned if we don’t. 😃