[Army of One]

I made the decision that, this month (June 2022), I won't be doing a writing contest (since my brain was elsewhere this past month), and I'll take these two weeks leading up to the prep post for the July contest to ask you guys for suggestions.

When I took on the contest last year, it had been my intention, from the very beginning, to challenge people's writing abilities, either with topics that were not very well-known, or with writing ideas outside of the usual. Recently, though, I have noticed the few that did enter have gotten fewer, so, while taking into consideration the recent rule change has made writing what we want all the more difficult, that has made me think that my ideas are starting to get a bit dry/hard/uninteresting for everyone.

So I want to know from you guys. What kinds of ideas do you want to see in the contests? I have the next two queued up, with a third possibility up for consideration in the future, but what would you like to try?

[LtBroccoli]

A couple ideas I had.

What about a free-for-all where someone else nominates a story for an author?  There's a lot of great writers on this site that for one reason or another don't nominate themselves, even though their work is amazing.  People like HistBuff, Dawnamber, and TGH consistently put out good stories but they're not in the contests for one reason or another.  And that's just a real quick list, too.  There's dozens other writers that deserve recognition.

How about a Prompt of the Month type contest.  From the one board about reality vs. fantasy, there was a prompt in there about how different writers approach a story.  What about that?  Take a classic porn trope and see how different writers attack it.  Like "Two women break down on the side of the road and there's a biker gang nearby", how would we each handle it?

This one probably won't fly because of the site rules, but what about one for the most creative way around the 18 year old rule.  Like, what crazy shit can this creative group of perverts come up with?  Time dilation, taking place on a version of Earth with a shorter year, androids as victims, all holographs, that disease that Gary Coleman had, whatever people come up with.

[Vela Nanashi]

On another forum we have a writing contest each month, we have those who want to post a list of prompts they would like to see in the contest, then we make a poll with the top prompt from everyone's list and vote on it each month, highest 3 prompts become options to the contest, I like that format, the style of it. Unchosen prompts end up at the bottom of everyone's lists, winning prompts are put in a won the prompt poll list for historical reference.

Also I like the idea of nominating even old stories of authors if people feel they deserve more recognition :)

Also maybe we could enter roleplays that are particularly interesting to people as a story too.

Not sure if we must ask people to nominate stories or not, some might not want to be in contests for some reason :)

[Army of One]

Okay, I'll address the ideas we have had so far:

Story nominations: Vela brings up a good point about asking for permission. While this may not be an issue with departed members, active ones may take umbrage with their stories being used as entries, whether we ask or not. That said, we have had a contest idea in the past where we could rewrite an existing story. (Not sure if Millie was the one who did that.) This could be a good in for those who usually do not enter, especially if I allow the possibility to submit a story without editing.

Prompt of the Month: I actually thought I had been doing that. Maybe I haven't. But yes, I'll employ more of them.

"Creative rule breaking": Lois will have my neck if I attempt that. On both sites.

Roleplays: I did a collaborative contest earlier in the year. Sadly, it was the first time I had no entries (even last year's network-wide contest had entries, although most got eaten up by the rule change), so I'm a little apprehensive about doing another that's similar.

Now, courtesy of how my memory works (or doesn't, in this case), I have completely forgotten my second queued contest idea, so these ideas may be employed sooner than intended. So by all means, keep submitting ideas; I'll queue them up if I like them.

[spunkjunk]

Bigest problems for contest in my opinion:

1. almost nobody commend, so they won´t vote, if they notice at all. (solution lays probably in 2.)
2. the several publishing boards. Some were hardly noticed. There should be only one for contest! Move stories after voting, maybe with a note (Monthly contest winner f.e.)
3. Motivation. Maybe visible badges in the account profile gets some lazy folks to writing
4. Give a clear topic of wich every section freak can make a storie
5. be aware that some folks almost can´t read anymore so the size should be regulated. (f.e. 1000-3000words)

P.S. nominating stinks of  flatter s.b., nominating old stuff kills new creativity and the honored author maybe isn´t active anymore

Auction style?