Secrets of the Hidden Library - 3rd Annual Fiction Competition. (COMPETITION OVER - winners on Page 3!)

dumpeal wrote:

ps. bis: I would find it most interresting to have the ranking of each entry, with their points.

The most I really offer as a window to the judging is to allow each entrant to request a summary of the reviews on their own story.

I kind of feel that putting up the full point spread would kind of have a negative effect on whoever scored "last" and near "last" and also don't think the raw point earnings are as interesting to authors as actual critical review. I also think anonymity allows the judges to be more honest.

I can be convinced otherwise if enough authors are for it or someone has a brilliant counterpoint, but that's my current stance.

Out of curiosity, if I had written a story and asked for just my own ranking in the scheme of things would you have pm'ed me that information?

CurstAlchemist wrote:

Out of curiosity, if I had written a story and asked for just my own ranking in the scheme of things would you have pm'ed me that information?

Absolutely

As noted in the win announcement - I will provide for any and all authors who ask; a synopsis of how their story did in the judging criteria, a rough idea of their placement in the point spread, as well as multiple comments from the judges which were stated during the review process. I did this the last two years. I am a strong believer that it is really helpful for the author to get to see their own feedback if they want to, especially if they want to know where they gained/lost points.

Edit: also, "ranking" may be a bit of a misnomer. Generally the judges score all the stories, then from their own rankings call out a top three, and then we kind of look for overlap and have a bit of debate on strength of read. For instance, Drink... was not the top choice of all the judges, that said, it scored very well with each judge and was the best scoring story that also appeared in every judges' top list.

Make sense?

So, having the top 3 of each judge (anonymously, of course) would not have anything negative for competitors that scored lower.

ps.: I would like to have the review of my story.

Congratulations to Squidmaster, Zizza1400 and Jimsolo, it looked like an extremely tight field at the top this year.

And congratulations to everyone else who entered, they were all great stories and showed a lot of creativity.

dumpeal wrote:

So, having the top 3 of each judge (anonymously, of course) would not have anything negative for competitors that scored lower.

So, basically you're asking me who the third place finisher would have been if we'd done that?
Lacking debate to clarify this but looking at the scores and opinions expressed probably; 'Can't Survive Without' or 'I Never Drink...' would have been in tight contention for such a theory spot.

dumpeal wrote:

ps.: I would like to have the review of my story.

No problem, I'll send it over shortly.

@Thor665 Makes perfect sense.

Congratulations people, nice work!

Congratulations to all the participants. Great stuff.

I kept forgetting to post a final message here with thanks for the guys running the comp, and thanks very much for this awesome prize:



These will see good use, and my thanks for them.

Lol. Looks good! Other folks have yet to be contacted...

Nice!

Another big thanks to our volunteer prize support committee - just another way the mods here go above and beyond for the community

Jimsolo wrote:

Lol. Looks good! Other folks have yet to be contacted...

If so you'd be our only missing prize at this stage as I know Zizza got his - I'll make sure to remind your supporter to see if its on its way.