Is it just me, or does anyone else think the notification for the upcoming Halloween competition is a little passive aggressive?
Don't forget about our upcoming Halloween writing contest. You should participate.
"You should participate..."
Or I'll give the job to someone else..
Or I'll send the boys round...
Or little Timmy starts to lose fingers...
Or I'll tie you up and force you to listen to Rick Astley. On repeat.
Or Mr Hammer here will have a conversation with your kneecaps...
oddly enough, I was wondering whether there were other ways management could encourage writers to participate. Perhaps double the standard credit towards earned membership as long as the story is available on SOL. Would that be enough to encourage newbies?
And a query - what level of AI contribution is permitted for contest entries?
AJ
And a query - what level of AI contribution is permitted for contest entries?
Well, if the entry wins, wouldn't the prize money need to be split fairly between the human part and the AI part...
On a serious note. Is AI support writing not the equivalent of performance enhancing drugs in sport? Which would suggest that AI use in (writing) competitions would be undesirable.
Learning to write well takes time. Studying creative writing definitely helps, yet in the end, experience is more valuable than is 'book learning', theory vs. repeated practice.
And often, making mistakes often teach more than any successes, as those are the most 'hard won' lessons which few will ever forget. If writing comes too easily, no one treats it seriously, as it was achieved too easily. And I've had a few colossal blunders over the years. ;)
The number 2 rule says, "Story must be written by a human. No AI-Generated text."
Methinks that be pretty clear... and also that was an excellent question and I greatly enjoyed finding the answer for you.
Tee hee.
The number 2 rule says, "Story must be written by a human. No AI-Generated text."
Some authors use AI to 'improve sentence structure and word choices'. They'd probably convince themselves their stories didn't contain any AI-Generated text.
AJ
Some authors use AI to 'improve sentence structure and word choices'. They'd probably convince themselves their stories didn't contain any AI-Generated text.
But that could be no different than using a thesaurus for word choices or using grammar checkers. Or asking Google for a simile for something or another way of saying something, which Google would answer with its AI. In these examples, it's still the author making the choices.
I think the key phrase in that rule is "written by a human."
But that could be no different than using a thesaurus for word choices or using grammar checkers. Or asking Google for a simile for something or another way of saying something, which Google would answer with its AI. In these examples, it's still the author making the choices.
If the AI was operating as a dumb thesaurus or a dumb grammar checker I might agree. But, judging by the AI-assisted stories I've read, AI is prompting inappropriate choices. Perhaps it's because AI doesn't yet fully understand meaning nuances, and it can't read sentences aloud in order to judge whether its prompted sentences read like something a native speaker might actually say.
AJ
Methinks the key phrase was "convince themselves their story didn't contain any AI-Generated test". As people lie to themselves all the time, otherwise how can anyone survive life's terrible events other to claim "Hey, I never intended for that to occur!"
I don't really agree with the 'passive aggressive' stance. I might if it said, "Any decent writer would."
That being said, I considered working on a story for it, I had an idea that would fit, but I didn't want to try and force it to completion on a deadline in less than a month. I didn't want to rush something, just to throw it into the hat.
If the entry window were relaxed; say an 'upcoming contests' button on the main page which links to rules and lets you submit for any the following year (perhaps flagging each file as the contest it's supposed to enter) you might get more entries.
As far a late entries you can still have the cutoff, but have any submitted after that cutoff apply to the next year's contest.
I considered working on a story for it,
This is not directed at you, but a general comment about posts concerning a contest. The contest rules say: "authors are barred from giving any clues to their identities and hints about which story is theirs".
An innocent comment in a post like, "The advance notice for this contest gave me more time to write a story. Cudos to Lazeez," could be a hint that that author has a contest entry. Not which story, but fans of that author would be familiar with their writing and look for it among the entries. Would that be enough to be disqualified? Why chance it.
That's always been my motto in life: "Why chance it," as it's simple enough to put in the necessary required work. Now is that passive-aggressive enough for you?
I will accept most any prompt calling for writers to submit for a competition if it feels my voracious appetite for new stories to read. Er, I might have an addiction.
Well-written is, like beauty, in the eye of the beholder. Personally, I judge a story on whether the author made me care what happens to characters, whether it's an interesting story that kept my attention. Unlike life, I want the dialogue and story to make sense. Most of the stories are like a lot are also high scorers on SOL, but some are not. I've never seen any standards that determine whether a story is well written, nor do I know whether my likes and dislikes are a determining factor.
When I look at new stories about all I see are stories I have no interest in reading. It seems to me like the porno authors started a trend and everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. Probably not true but that is what it seems like to me.
I have a story drive and saved the stories of good authors who wrote what I like. I generally read those stories instead of what is in my library, which has become stale to me.
I definitely agree, as the older stories are much better written than the more recent dreck stories. So I also rarely look at the "new stories" or even the "new updates by most recent SOL authors. They simply don't hold much appeal for me, as the story descriptions themselves hold no appeal and the tags for everything under the sun certainly don't help.