FAWC 5: Line, Please!

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I think this one's funny, and then funny-*hot*, and then funny again! Very well done. I would like more. Maybe the author could consider transforming it into a larger erotic-comedy story? Hope so....

Fess up! Youre a brain damaged tard in an aclf and anything amuses you.

 

[sr71plt]

Keep discussing, yesterdays. Those of us who actually took the time and effort to enter stories in the exercise are quite interested in what actual, objective readers of the stories think of them.

 

[sheablue]

Keep discussing, yesterdays. Those of us who actually took the time and effort to enter stories in the exercise are quite interested in what actual, objective readers of the stories think of them.

I agree, yesterdays! It great that you are taking the time to read and comment. Keep it up!

 

[FAWCker]

Votes and comments are, typically, all over the place. Most of the shorter-length stories have comments already, while only a couple of the longer ones do. There aren't enough votes on any story to point to an early lead.

The views range from 112 on one story to just under 1200 on another. The lure of the titles in this case, I think, is to thank for that.

 

[Swilly]

What a crop of stories this contest grew. I'm supposed to be writing!

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Keep discussing, yesterdays. Those of us who actually took the time and effort to enter stories in the exercise are quite interested in what actual, objective readers of the stories think of them.

I was looking at the comments, not exactly inspiring is it? What do you mean, you and your buds played WHACKAMOLE with my story, so now its my turn. And since none of the submissions are ALL THAT AND MORE I guess it doesn't say much for the 6 or so you submitted.

 

[jomar]

What is the FAWK protocol...comment here or on the stories themselves, or both?

 

[drteetho]

I've read three stories so far, and without giving anything away or outing myself, wow are they ever different from what I wrote! They've really taken that opening sentence and ran off with it in some crazy directions!

Intrigued as to what else there is in store.

 

[sr71plt]

What is the FAWK protocol...comment here or on the stories themselves, or both?

Whatever you want, I think. I've never seen a protocol established (or asserted by anyone).

 

[sr71plt]

I was looking at the comments, not exactly inspiring is it? What do you mean, you and your buds played WHACKAMOLE with my story, so now its my turn. And since none of the submissions are ALL THAT AND MORE I guess it doesn't say much for the 6 or so you submitted.

I don't see why anyone here gives you the time of day on your comments. You obviously aren't objective or comprehensive--and it's silly for you to assert that you read 25 stories enough over night to make any sort of intelligent assessment of them. You're just trolling for "look at me who made no effort/took no risk to write anything for this exercise but want you to accept me as a writing guru" attention (as usual).

Given your orientation on this, I think anyone who paid any attention to your views on the story content is needy and gullible beyond help.

Besides, I never did a job on any of your stories. (Cite where I have.) You, however, did a pratfall on dedicating a whole thread to trying to do a job on one my of stories without a request for such an assessment. (http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1036790)

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I don't see why anyone here gives you the time of day on your comments. You obviously aren't objective or comprehensive--and it's silly for you to assert that you read 25 stories enough over night to make any sort of intelligent assessment of them. You're just trolling for "look at me who made no effort/took no risk to write anything for this exercise but want you to accept me as a writing guru" attention (as usual).

Given your orientation on this, I think anyone who paid any attention to your views on the story content is needy beyond help.

Besides, I never did a job on any of your stories. (Cite where I have.) You, however, did a pratfall on dedicating a whole thread to trying to do a job on one my of stories without a request for such an assessment. (http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1036790)

I put it out there. The stories this round are shit. You and Willie and others get your polling numbers from the guy who worked for Cantor. Take it to the bank your wares are shit not gospel. If you wanna blow it off that's okay cuz there's nuthin in it for me if you luv me.

I did more. I submitted a satire about Habu. Laurel rejected it for snuff and excess violence, and none of that was in there. A man dies, goes to hell, and has to read the collected works of Habu to redeem his soul. Maybe she meant the penalty was excessive. I didn't write it of course. A friend wrote it.

Look for more of it to come.

 

[sr71plt]

Well, there you go. That's JAMESBJOHNSON.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Well, there you go. That's JAMESBJOHNSON.

And I put my name on it. I don't hide in rat holes.

 

[jomar]

Whatever you want, I think. I've never seen a protocol established (or asserted by anyone).

Cool, thanks.

 

[slyc_willie]

Commenting and critiquing the stories can be done at any time, either on the thread or in the comments section of the stories themselves. However much any particular author wants to "out" themselves is up to them. Traditionally, most of us have stayed quiet while the stories are posted, and then discuss after the "winner" is revealed. But this is a pretty loose ship; nothing is stopping anyone from leaving comments or posting about the stories.

* * * *

A question: One of the authors noticed that a good part of their story is in italics because of a formatting mistake. They've asked to submit an edit, to which I originally said no. The reason I gave was based on the fiasco that occurred during FAWC 2. Basically, everyone had the same deadline, and what was submitted was what was posted. So the question is, should I allow them to submit an edit? I'd like to know what everyone thinks.

 

[AMoveableBeast]

Commenting and critiquing the stories can be done at any time, either on the thread or in the comments section of the stories themselves. However much any particular author wants to "out" themselves is up to them. Traditionally, most of us have stayed quiet while the stories are posted, and then discuss after the "winner" is revealed. But this is a pretty loose ship; nothing is stopping anyone from leaving comments or posting about the stories.

* * * *

A question: One of the authors noticed that a good part of their story is in italics because of a formatting mistake. They've asked to submit an edit, to which I originally said no. The reason I gave was based on the fiasco that occurred during FAWC 2. Basically, everyone had the same deadline, and what was submitted was what was posted. So the question is, should I allow them to submit an edit? I'd like to know what everyone thinks.

I'm cool with it. We're not playing for blood. I'm no computer wizard myself. I'd hate to think it was me with a less than optimized story up because of something as silly as some rich text.

 

[slyc_willie]

I'm cool with it. We're not playing for blood. I'm no computer wizard myself. I'd hate to think it was me with a less than optimized story up because of something as silly as some rich text.

I can see that, but I can also see where, in the future, someone would want to submit an edit that includes a different version of the story and claim something like, "you let X person submit an edit in FAWC 5. Not fair." There was a deadline for a reason, and if I have to be firm on anything, it's the deadline. Yet, I can see the argument in favor of someone wanting to make their story more readable.

I'm on the fence. I don't want to establish a precedent that can be exploited later, but I also don't want anyone's story compromised by an honest error they made.

 

[stlgoddessfreya]

There's another full of HTML tags that don't do anything, and it distracts from the story. I'd be in favor of letting people reformat only, and only within, say, 24 hours of it going live for two reasons: 1) if you don't normally submit in doc format, you're used to getting a preview to make sure your formatting is correct and 2) slyc already does us all a giant solid in putting these together in the first place and shouldn't have to spend all of FAWC editing.

 

[PennLady]

I can see that, but I can also see where, in the future, someone would want to submit an edit that includes a different version of the story and claim something like, "you let X person submit an edit in FAWC 5. Not fair." There was a deadline for a reason, and if I have to be firm on anything, it's the deadline. Yet, I can see the argument in favor of someone wanting to make their story more readable.

I'm on the fence. I don't want to establish a precedent that can be exploited later, but I also don't want anyone's story compromised by an honest error they made.

For this story, since it's just italics, I have no problem with that being fixed.

My feeling in general is that if it's just technical, like fixing italics or punctuation or a word spelling, I have no problem. But the content of the story shouldn't be changed once it's submitted.

Tough call, though, and I understand not wanting to set a precedent.

 

[AMoveableBeast]

I can see that, but I can also see where, in the future, someone would want to submit an edit that includes a different version of the story and claim something like, "you let X person submit an edit in FAWC 5. Not fair." There was a deadline for a reason, and if I have to be firm on anything, it's the deadline. Yet, I can see the argument in favor of someone wanting to make their story more readable.

I'm on the fence. I don't want to establish a precedent that can be exploited later, but I also don't want anyone's story compromised by an honest error they made.

Absolutely. Thankfully, I don't have the burden here that you do. By that same token, I think it is relatively easy to tell an honest text error from a rewrite, which is what we would be trying to avoid, right? But I completely understand if you go stonewall on it.

 

[PennLady]

There's another full of HTML tags that don't do anything, and it distracts from the story. I'd be in favor of letting people reformat only, and only within, say, 24 hours of it going live for two reasons: 1) if you don't normally submit in doc format, you're used to getting a preview to make sure your formatting is correct and 2) slyc already does us all a giant solid in putting these together in the first place and shouldn't have to spend all of FAWC editing.

Yep, that too. I think the time limit is a good idea.

Another thing that just occurred to me while thinking about this is that any one of us could go so far as to preview a story, provided you do the cut-and-paste on the submission page, and then simply not submit the story.

 

[sr71plt]

For this story, since it's just italics, I have no problem with that being fixed.

My feeling in general is that if it's just technical, like fixing italics or punctuation or a word spelling, I have no problem. But the content of the story shouldn't be changed once it's submitted.

This possibly latches on to the slippery slope Slyc referred to. Punctuation and word spelling ARE content in a writing contest, and I discount in rating when mistakes are intrusive and pad rating when I think the presentation was done particularly well. It's a writers' site, not just a storytelling site. Presentation does matter. Fouling up italics coding isn't on this level though, in my mind.

However, I think it could be taken care of for the author to put an anonymous comment on it noting that the italics formatting was messed up, so sorry.

 

[slyc_willie]

The author sent me another version of their story with the fixed tags. I compared them and found they have the exact same word count. Had the word count been different, that would have raised a flag.

The reason I originally adopted for submitting a .doc file was so that no one would have to use any HTML tags. If you want italics, you italicize the text. If you want bold, you bold the text. No tags needed.

I'm going to allow the edit. I think I'll also, in the future, follow Freya's suggestion and give a 24-hour window for format-only edits.

PL, that's a good suggestion for previewing the story.

 

[AMoveableBeast]

Peanut gallery aside, there are some really solid stories here. Fascinating to see the different directions we all took things. Fucking oneself with a knife hilt seems to be popular, however...

 

[PennLady]

This possibly latches on to the slippery slope Slyc referred to. Punctuation and word spelling ARE content in a writing contest, and I discount in rating when mistakes are intrusive and pad rating when I think the presentation was done particularly well. It's a writers' site, not just a storytelling site. Presentation does matter. Fouling up italics coding isn't on this level though, in my mind.

However, I think it could be taken care of for the author to put an anonymous comment on it noting that the italics formatting was messed up, so sorry.

I don't disagree, but since this is informal and unofficial, I simply can't get too concerned about it. However, I'm not the one running it, and if slyc said from now on, no changes after the stories are posted, I'd have no problem with that, and I'd just go with any mistakes I might have made.

The reason I originally adopted for submitting a .doc file was so that no one would have to use any HTML tags. If you want italics, you italicize the text. If you want bold, you bold the text. No tags needed.

I think I missed that suggestion in the rules. Sorry. I'm so used to putting in the tags as I go along because it's easier to remove them after I've finished than to go back and put them in.

I'm going to allow the edit. I think I'll also, in the future, follow Freya's suggestion and give a 24-hour window for format-only edits.

PL, that's a good suggestion for previewing the story.

Sounds good to me. Thanks again, slyc.