Thank you, it's appreciated. I welcome in particular critique and engagement with the texts or stories written. I am still somewhat confused by the merits used, but I guess I'll figure that out.
Looking forward to the entries for the next round. Though, I must admit "Happy" is not something which triggers me a lot yet. LOL
Thanks for your work.
The merit system was created by Calumam. I developed the grading system after reviewing a number of university rubrics on the structure Calumam built.
The intent is for myself and @nonsowrites to review each article against it. We review 5 entries at a time between us as a measure of human performance management. The intent is not to get fatigued during the review of articles. Grading is extended now beyond the end of the contest to give ourselves extra time.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. I feel it's our best approach to objectively grading articles submitted to the contest. We've been receiving 30-40 articles per week over the last six to seven months now. We welcome any input into the system we're using.
Have you thought about leaving it up to the community to choose the winners?
From the times when I participated in the @Bananafish competitions, the participation of the authors was excellent, very high and they commented a lot on each other's entries. In my view, there was no injustice in the awarding of prizes and decisions. Personally, I often participated or, if I didn't submit a story myself, I looked at others. The overall engagement was very high, both from the contest operators and from the reading community.
I have watched or even participated in some of the writing contest groups that exist here, but never had as much fun as with the community mentioned above. People there spoke to each other with a lightness, love of freedom and informality that I have not experienced since.
I am afraid that the commitment as a group founder also has to be very high to keep the group alive and most of those who once founded such a group had to give up due to lack of time. Handing over the sceptre to someone else was either not considered or discarded because the spirit of the person who started it was missing.
Perhaps this is a good indication that the sceptre rotates better from the beginning, no particular spirit prevails too strongly, but always different minds make the assessment; so ultimately all who feel called to be the core group.
Or else one accepts that one had a good time together, for as long as it lasted, and that some beautiful projects simply come to an end.
Some beautiful projects must end, as life often teaches us. However, there is a goal in this contest that you have revealed. It's a goal I have not spoken or written about, but I always take the long view and keep things close to the chest.
We took this contest to a general level of transparency because, at its heart, the WOTW contest was about the community. Everyone got to see how they performed, and they could adjust their methodologies as they saw fit. And I feel it's working. As people became familiar with it, they professionally challenged it, and I changed things accordingly.
Self-grading and community declaration of a winner are on my plate. To prepare the community, I envisioned grading the articles as usual, and if there's a tie in the top four slots, then I would present those to the community so they could decide for themselves:
It's a small step forward with this endeavor. If it works, then we'll keep doing it. If it continues to work, then we'll evaluate the expansion of the process.
The problem with expansion, however, is time. It's just me and @nonsowrites curating right now. I had someone express interest in grading, but I haven't gotten a response back yet after presenting the merit bases to them for review.
Yeah, this contest takes up a lot of time, but people like it. We're very fortunate to have nonsowrites with us because there's no way I'd be able to do this independently. On average, I think we get 30-40 entries a week over the last six months. However, I have changed the contest to give more time off to the curators and the community. The seasons are only five weeks long now, and after each season, we will be taking a 1-2 week break before continuing.
For season 4, however, we'll probably break for the rest of the year and start again in January. I want to finish this season in December, so there may be an extra week or two of contests. I'll have to talk to nonsowrites about his availability. I'll be graduating in December, so I'll need time to defend my thesis.
I also have a project plan I need to finish to resolve my medical issues.
Anyway, apologies for the winded response, but I hope I have adequately addressed it. Thank you for bringing it up.
Thank you for the answer. I am always satisfied when I receive a comprehensive response and am actually not bothered in most cases, but rather pleased about it. (I find it a little irritating when people apologise for "expecting" someone else to read a bit more - maybe that's old-fashioned, then I like being old-fashioned :).
I'm curious to see how it will develop and will probably enter the competition once in a while and comment on other authors.
Good luck and success with your work for your diploma.
You're very welcome. I'm better for this engagement. I don't always have an opportunity to communicate my thoughts.
Actually, that brings me to another point. @interpretation, have you ever measured engagement in the Word of the Week contest? Could you?