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Fun Things To Do With the FF&W
Or: Jax Has Terrible Ideas (Again)
So, because I'm immensely lazy right now, you guys get the short of it. I'm thinking of fun things to do with the FF&W. No, I'm not proposing to run any of these; if someone wants to expand on these ideas in a new thread, go for it. b)'')b Monthly Awards What if we brought in some kind of awards thing-a-ma-jig to PC's fic forum? Yes, I know I've said in the shiny past where I was an asshat that awards = drama, but I'm sure if we worked on it, we'll hammer out all the oddities, right? I'm thinking of two possibilities to be specific. First possibility is Fanfic of the Month. Now, I know we've tried it in the past where we put a lot of responsibility on the mods for handling the entire voting process, and that sort of fizzled out. However! I'm thinking why bother the mods? There's two ways to do this: one being that we have an anonymous poll made on the first of every month containing titles of fics that were updated/posted in the month before it. That way, votes are anonymous, obvious, and easily counted. The other is that we send all the ballots to someone (or more than one someone) who's fair, not known for lying/cheating, and isn't necessarily a mod. Either way, we get those votes counted, and they're put on a shiny, shiny list of Fics of the Month that could be stickied or whatever. I'm not sure whether or not we should let fics be voted for that position more than once a month; I really haven't planned that much. Second possibility is just bringing back the SWC full-time, only with more voting and shiny emblems. Personally, I prefer the former because, you know, it'd be open to any fic posted within a month, not just those posted for a certain theme. But we could do both at once, too! If someone was willing to run it, that is. Reviewer Profiles I wrote this in response to someone else on my LJ, and I've suddenly had the itch to try it out. Copypasta time! \o/ Quote:
Downfalls? Drama. Also, the fact that it might just be a little redundant, what with the beta thread and all. But mostly drama. Any thoughts? If not, what if we brought back the reviewing chain? Or should we just stick to the reviewing challenge? Writing Challenges Hey, anyone remember An Exquisite Corpse? Anyone want to do it again? And while we're at it, what do people think about one-sentence fic challenges or ficlets written under obscene timeframes? In short, writing games. Awesome ways to stir activity in Writer's Lounge, y/n? So, yeah, these are just basically quick sketches of ideas that've been bouncing around in my head for a bit. If anyone's got any feedback or ideas to pitch for things that would be fun in the FF&W, feel free to derail and commandeer this thread. Meantime, the poll is only relevant to show how an anonymous poll thing would work. Edit: "An orgy" is not a valid proposal. |
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So anyway, Genre Challenge I was thinking writers need to be flexible right? So what if we had a monthly contest wherein, instead of a random word prompt, we'd challenge ourselves to write in the chosen genre of the month, just for the lulz. And when we run out of archetype genres, we can move on to the more surreal like zombie apocalypse or something like that. The whole point is to diversify our skills. To not restrict ourselves to our fortes and show everyone that we can write a gory comedy with romantic elements if we wanted to. Also, because I can't help myself: Quote:
Also, also: *Volunteers to do emblems if needed* |
I do think monthly awards would do better because they would be so recent that it would be a better motivator to write a fic that gets chosen. Either using polls or some trusted member would work, but I think I prefer the polling system as it would take less time than needing to PM someone. To give newbies a chance, we should make sure that a single fic can’t win a monthly reward twice in a row.
I’m actually really interested in the Reviewer Profile thing. It could be very popular and motivate people to review if they’re asked directly by the author to do so. I can also see it being kind of fun, now that I think about it. And about the writing challenges, personally, the ones you listed aren't interesting to me, though I'd probably parcipate in the Review a Day thing and the Genre Challenge Mizan mentioned. Maybe for the Genre Challenge, we give each month a theme and all the entries will be judged by the end of the month. That gives us a month to write an entry, though we might need to take steps that it doens't overlap with the Monthly Rewards (maybe, I'm not sure). EDIT: If we do monthly genre challenges, we should get that set up soon so we can start it at the beginning of August. If no one wants to take it up, I won't mind heading it, though that also begs the question on how it's going to be judged. Maybe people who aren't going to submit an entry can ask to judge? |
If there's going to be a Fanfic of the Month award, I think I would make it only apply to oneshots. That way we could expect more people to actually read most/a reasonable amount of the fics that are up for voting. And besides, I don't think we get enough one-shots around here precisely because they don't get enough attention. Making them the focus of Fanfic of the Month could potentially keep a given oneshot in the public eye for longer.
I'm lukewarm to the reviewer profile idea for precisely the reasons you've listed. As near as I can tell the beta thread has been a pretty lasting success, and of the ideas I think this is the only one where drama would be a reasonable concern. Exquisite corpse is always fun, and I'm all for fun with crazy writing challenge parameters. So yes please, more challenges, reviewing or writing! EDIT: Quote:
I think Mizan should have to write a rhyming journey fic with no gore allowed. :D |
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For in general, though, should we have a yearly/seasonal/whateverly awards ceremony to cover all fics? Going to second Mizan's idea. Challenging an author to break out of their comfort zone is a great means of practice, too. As MW once said in another thread on another forum (I SWEAR TO GOD, I DON'T HAVE A THING FOR YOU OR ANYTHING), sometimes, an author has no idea that they'd have a lot of fun/would be good at writing a certain genre until they tried. That's a good way to encourage people to experiment. Also, to let us be entertained by the results. And by that, I mean to let us laugh at genre fail. Quote:
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Real quick guys, if going for the genre writing challenge, don't ask me to be the judge. I have been judging way too many times for the SWC and I wan to participate in a writing challenge for once. XD; I'm all for this, though!
As for whether we should have a yearly/seasonal awards, I also say wait and see how the monthly reward went. |
I think many of these sound like great ideas, and I'll comment later when I have more time, but for now . . .
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I think a writing challenge (genre challenge/corpse/etc) is a fine idea although idk about the former needing judges or anything (maybe judging if that happens should be kept to the next challenge that'd be...sometime seeing it was previously discussed we'd try something other to the reviewing challenge a while back).
Also far more for the Fic of the Month thing (with people allowed to vote in a thread here/do it via PM to us mods) than the other awards thingy, and see how that goes I suppose. Personally - not terribly for reviewing chain as I can't say I don't think it'd work too well here (partly because of how previous cases went). The reviewer profile thread seems a better idea to me though. But yeah, this quote from the other thread is something I agree with: Quote:
Good to see some old faces here though, certainly. =) |
I like the idea for FF Awards. It would help writers feel that their work is well like around this section.
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I rather like all of these ideas. I have to say that the Reviewing Profile looks like it could get very messy, un-updated, and forum-clogging--but if it takes off, could be especially fun.
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So, if we are going to have a Monthly Genre Challenge, we should set it up now so it can start in August. I've been under the impression that it'll be some sort of contest, so that's why I said that we're going to need judges for it. Otherwise, if it's not a contest, I can't see many people having the motivation to take it up.
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So I got this idea. Instead of an emblem, why not have prizes in the form of money! reviews? As in, every contestant agrees to do a review for the winner's chosen fic. And it doesn't even have to be the winning fic, maybe a piece the writer felt needed a bit more love. Hell, we could even throw in an emblem, despite what I've just said, just to bring in some newbies. The main prize would still be the reviews, though. I reasoned that, not only does someone get a review, but people who don't normally do reviews can get encouraged to do it, just by having some sort of experience. It doesn't necessarily need to be something huge; just one paragraph will do. The main point is: the winner gets and emblem and some reviews and the FF&W gets some activity. If you're not worried about being a bit elitist we could have reviews offered by a small number of veteran reviewers, just to spice up the prize a bit. Any problems/questions? |
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Besides, activity limited to one fic isn’t really activity. I dunno, the only way to get activity, I guess, is to just suck it up and go review something. Nothing fancy; all of us just need to stop being so lazy. |
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I just wish we could actually learn something from this repeated statement. |
Maybe we should infract people for not doing a review a week, that's a different sort of motivation. ;p
Maybe the winning fic being stickied for a bit would be a reward people would like...? Quote:
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Agreeing with bits here and there, Dagzar. For one, yeah, the best way to get activity in a writing forum is to go out and review without any incentives, but we're mostly here to figure out how to have fun while doing it. I mean, while we could just be all srs bsnss and only write, post, and review, it'd be a shame if we didn't actually do stuff together like talk outside of fics and participate in events that force us to interact with each other beyond just the reviewer-writer relationship (and more as fellow writers).
But yeah, I also agree with Mizan's comment. It's kinda hilarious how every single one of us has said reviewing = activity at some point or another. Oh, writing communities. Besides that, yes to Mizan's idea working best as a challenge instead of a contest. We tend to hand emblems out like candy 'round these parts, so it'd be nice to have a good old-fashioned, "we're doing this for bragging rights" kind of event. Otherwise, the novelty of emblems sort of wears off. And issuing prizes in general might cheapen the experience a little because all of a sudden, you're writing just for the prize instead of because you want to push yourself. I was sort of under the impression that the genre challenge would be more of a personal one rather than a competition, so. If it helps at all, maybe instead of doing it monthly, we can do it every season/every so often. That way, we don't end up getting burned out by writing one fic after another to fill each challenge. Also! Fic of the Month: Continued Fic of the Month! Awesome! So, scattering of ideas/questions I've had since then to help develop that one a bit more. 1. Instead of emblems (or maybe in addition to it -- whatever people prefer), we could have a stickied rec list. That way, people can go through the best of the best of the FF&W and find something else to check out and review (provided it doesn't break forum rules). Maybe equipped with summaries written by the authors once they win? 2. Anonypoll vs. PM votes. Which would be better? (Personally, I still like the poll because it's hard to dispute the results if you can see them. Also, it means we don't have to pester mods/third parties to have them keep track of votes and count them up at the end of the month. We'd have results in faster as well. Downside is there's a limit to how many poll options you can have, which means that if we get a whole bunch of fics in one month, we'd probably still have to use PM voting. On the other other hand, that maximum is twenty-five. Would we really get 25+ fics in one month?) 3. Eligibility. Should SWC fics count, considering they're already being written for a competition? Should the election only be for one-shots? Should we include all fics under X chapters? All fics, period? Personally, I like the idea of including chaptered fics because if one of them wins, that can serve as pretty sweet encouragement towards someone who's just started a fic. God knows we have plenty of people who just ditch their fics after a few chapters. Including all fics, period could go either way. On the one hand, it means we can direct attention towards a long fic that just doesn't get that many reviews/attention due to it being a behemoth. (Lookin' at you, Cutlerine.) On the other, it also means we'd have to push people into reading through tons and tons of material. Or, well, encourage them to do it because the whole point of this exercise really isn't to force them to do anything but instead mainly to get them to vote for what floats their boats. 4. If we do this, should we open a poll on the first of this month or on the first next month? Do we have enough entries to pull off a Fic of the Month this time around? Also! Reviewer Profiles Thread So, I kinda have to agree with icomeanon by saying that there's no real way to get around the drama of a ranking system, not to mention it'd probably end up either being a mess in the same thread or an extra sticky we don't need. (We're not Bulbagarden, guys. We don't need five hundred stickies, amirite?) So, just straight-up profiles? I'd imagine that if we make it clear that betas are sort of important, what with being the go-to guys for before a fic gets published and with being the go-to guys in specific fields (whereas reviewers should really be more general, if that even makes sense), we can still hand-wave enough to say that this is totally not another beta thread. Sound better, or was the reviewer profile idea interesting because of the feedback/rating system? Should we keep the feedback-on-feedback system anyway? If so, where should we put it? Same thread or a different one? And last random side note: Quote:
(Also, yes to the cliquey bit.) |
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- would if it was seasonal be an addiitonal thing to th stuff already done with the reviewing comp/etc? - Yes to stickied rec list/list of winners rather than emblems - Maybe a nomination thread followed by a couple of days for voting after the month is over/nearly finished with said nominations, in which case we can decide if it's to be the PM or thread with poll method on the number of nominations? - I'd say everything should be able to be nominated/voted as long as it was posted/updated in that month and maybe last/this month for the first instance, idk. - if everything can be sorten before then, then maybe a quick voting thread for this month... - reviewer thrad akin the beta thrad could work and all imo, and have feedback be able to be posted in the same thread but that won't give any 'rank/rating' or the such beyond 'well this guy said I tots best reviewer!' or the like I suppose. But yeah if people want to say 'I liked this guy btw because _____' or make complaints in the thread I personally wouldn't be against it... |
I love the idea of FF monthly awards thingy.
Also, the challenges sound appealing to me. I get too distracted to write a fanfic continuously, so a challenge that's a one shot would be perfect. Also, wonderful ideas! |
Fic of the Month: Continued
1.) I do like the idea of a stickied list. That way, the fics get a better recognition than a few days of glory and an emblem that's tucked away on the author's profile. It'll also help keep an organized record, and provide a good history for any newcomers. 2.) I prefer the polling option rather than PMing someone to count votes. Though part of this is because of my inability to count, I also like the quickness of the results and less of a possibility of human error. 3.) I'm going to say any fic that's posted in the course of the month, with the exception of SWC fics. The reason for that is because SWC fics already get additional attention than other fics just because they were entered in a contest. (I point everyone to the small burst of reviews given to those fics.) This way, it's all the fics that are active in that month that might not have received attention for whatever reason. I don't have any thoughts currently on the reviewing profiles idea. Quote:
Actually, I want to do something to encourage discussion among everyone here. Kind of like those absolutely ridiculous bold questions from the FFL, only in a separate thread so they don't get lost and we can kick people for going off-topic. Topics like questions about fic-reading, or writing, or anything related to those. Because, honestly, the most fascinating thing about being in a community of writers is learning how they all work. With this, it would be either a random topic like the ones Dagzar posted, or maybe once a week (or whenever we need a boost of activity) about a topic floating around in someone's mind. If something like this happens, we'll have an active sub-forum instead of two dead ones and one floundering one. Another completely random idea I had is a quick answers thread, where questions that don't need a big discussion to answer can get asked. For example, I have a question about something small related to Pokemon canon that once I get my answer the thread isn't needed anymore. If something like this happens, we'll look like a much more helpful community. Or something. Quote:
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I like both the bold topic and quick questions threads. A good idea to have writing topics to discuss and also there would be a place if there's any questions in which the answers won't be long enough to warrant a separate thread.
I too think the Monthly Genre Challenge we should wait a bit more and such. I also am burnt out from the SWC and I think we should let the SWC entries to shine for a while, so yeah. |
Eliminator Jr.'s post (I see you!) reminded me that yes, I would love to see the Exquisite Corpse make a return. That was a lot of fun to participate in the one time that I did, and it will help bring us more together because we'll be working together on making a zany story.
Anyhow, this is just a small bump to this thread letting members know that I will soon be starting the discussion threads and will finally be reviewing some SWC fics. That should help bring in some activity here, if people are still around. Robot roll call! |
Cambot!
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Besides that, I'm just going to come out with it and ask: Who's wants the Genre Challenge to be a no-prize, free-for-all? Who wants the Genre Challenge to have a participation emblem? Who wants the Genre Challenge to be a prized contest with first, second, and third place emblems, minus the participation emblem <-- Because we're not cheap. >: Personally, I'm good with the first suggestion with the downside being that there's no real incentive for non-F&W-illians to join. Also, it might just die off if we do it too frequently, so it should be bi-monthly or an even longer period in between. Yeah, I've seen what happens when we try to do something monthly. Everyone's enthusiastic the first month, and the next month we just fall off the radar. It's happened more than once, guys. :| |
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We might get more active with it, if members see that we're more friendly towards small questions, so they aren't afraid to post. As for the Genre Challenge, we could toss it into the mix currently consisting of the SWC, the Reviewing Challenge, and I-swear-there-was-something-else-planned. This way, there's always something happening some month, especially if we can come up with some suggestions for other challenges, like the Exquisite Corpse and the FFotM/Y, and they're different so that no one gets burnt out. As for whether or not we have an emblem or not for it... I don't really care. Whichever way we decide to go, I'm fine with it. (I also heard a rumor about a possible nominations post.) |
Yeah, mixing it up every month sounds good to me as well. Don't mind emblems or none myself, less so for multiple emblems and whatnot.
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