Forum: Bug Report and Feature Requests

I certainly didn't feel that anything this year should be changed.

Just a better description of the categories going forward. So, next year, when someone nominates a story they see a description of just what type of stories should be nominated in each category.

Currently there is nothing but the category title. So sure, it entirely possible that someone can make an honest mistake thinking their nominee belongs in a category.

I'd just like to see "Fantasy" have elves, "Westerns" have cowboys, "Sic-Fi" have aliens, etc. At least provide some written guidelines, there will always be many stories that cross genres, but it could be a little more accurate than it was this year.

entirely possible that someone can make an honest mistake thinking their nominee belongs in a category.

I think that the category selected by the person making the nomination is a judgment call based on the person's opinion of the story. Some stories could be nominated in multiple categories depending on the reader's view of the story.

I normally don't participate in the Clitorides, but this year I nominated a couple of very good stories. In one case, the story fit several categories, so I nominated it in all categories that seemed appropriate. In a second case, I thought the story was outstanding and merited a nomination, but the story didn't seem to fit into any category. I ended up selecting a category that was close to how I viewed the story.

Category selection is really about the reader's view of the story. Most category titles are self-explanatory. I doubt a category definition would have been beneficial to me in selecting the proper categories. Furthermore a description would be one more thing for us to disagree on. For example: you said a Sci-Fi story should have aliens in it. I've read a number of stories where the Author defined the story as Sci-Fi and there were no aliens in the story. Mis-categorizing a story is no big deal in my opinion, so I don't feel we should waste our time writing all-inclusive definitions of what should go in each category.

a note could pop up

Probably too much of Lazeez's time/effort for little gain.

surely Arlene and Jeff

Considering all the things A&J addressed over the years, when RoustWriter finally ends it (supposedly this year) it might end up being nominated in the majority of the categories.

Sci-fi may mean many things to many different people, and a close definition would probably cause more discussion and disagreement than a marginal nomination.

All "Science fiction" requires is a story either based on science, or one taking place in a 'future' society where the science is different than what it is now.

I write 'hard science fiction', which means the stories are based on established principals in science which produce known conundrums when considering real-world issues. One featured telepathy (6 books), one featured an apocalyptic plague (3 books) and one, currently posting, features zombies (in a scientifically plausible scenario, rather than the typical horror motif).

I'd just like to see "Fantasy" have elves, "Westerns" have cowboys, "Sic-Fi" have aliens, etc. At least provide some written guidelines, there will always be many stories that cross genres, but it could be a little more accurate than it was this year.

Out of my 15 published sci-fi stories, only three have any aliens in them. Likewise, Fantasy doesn't necessarily mean "Dungeons and Dragons", just that it contains 'fantasy elements'.

The "Ordinary Sex Life" Universe has no STD's, so that's probably the Fantasy element ;)

And many stories are written by people who picture themselves as authors, that's definitely a grand fantasy! 'D

but help them make that call with a bit of guidance.

I agree a bit of guidance is a very good thing if the guidance is read and understood.

For example: These are the some of the same readers who complain to the Author about a story's content. The Author provided story codes indicating the story contained the type of content that the reader is complaining about. But they ignored or failed to understand the codes. If they didn't know a code, they would have had to go to a separate code description document to look up codes they didn't know.

You can only do so much when it comes to guiding someone in this type of situation. The reader will either fail to read your guidance or fail to comprehend the guidance provided. This is especially true of a reader who ignores descriptions and uses their own personal opinion of what should go into a specific category.

nominated as both Long Erotic Story of the Year and Epic Erotic Story of the Year, and one that got nominated as Medium Erotic Story of the Year and Epic Erotic Story of the Year.

Sounds like the person making the nomination wasn't familiar with the critera and made a best guess.

I've never noticed the link to the descriptions. It doesn't stand out. I'll post a suggestion to that effect to Lazeez.

if you would notice a questionable nomination

The point is that I am not in a position to determine if the reader's reason for nominating a story in a specific category is or isn't questionable. They may have had a valid reason to nominate the story in that category. So for Lazeez to delete their nomination or move the nomination to a different category would be inappropriate.

If the nomination is inappropriate, then the other nominations will overwhelm the single questionable nomination. If the story places in the category, then my judgment of the story being questionable would be incorrect. If the nomination is the only one in the category and wins, so what. Story contests like the Clitorides are nice, but they aren't life or death.

the Fantasy nomination was rejected with the comment: "Science Fiction is not Fantasy".

Fantasy is usually 'Sword and Sorcery' or 'Dungeons and Dragons' type stuff, neither of which apply to Spirit Quest.

Which is correct and what is the rule that makes it correct?

Ah ... a real-life instance illustrating the point I made earlier, namely:

........

The Author writes a story that may have elements of multiple genre. When they post the story, the Author has the option of defining the story's genre, but can select only one genre.

The reader evaluates the story and decides it is an outstanding story that fits multiple genre, and nominates the story in all of the genre the Reader believes are appropriate.

Then a Moderator steps in and decides the story should not have been nominated in the genre that the Reader felt was appropriate and the Moderator makes a unilateral decision to modify the submission parameters of the nomination base on their personal opinion of what is correct.


.......

In the case of your "Spirit Quest" nomination, the nomination was rejected based on the Moderator's view of the story's proper genre with an explanation.

Which is correct and what is the rule that makes it correct?

I am not aware of any published rule or other statement regarding this issue. The website information describes the nomination process, but I am not aware of anything identifying the existence of a nomination review process or how it works.

Although, I do see changing a nomination that clearly fails to comply with a category's defined criteria; such as, nominations in the Story of the Year categories, which have a clearly defined Story Size criteria. That is a Moderator action based on fact. However, when it comes to taking action based on a Reader's Opinion versus a Moderator's opinion, the appropriateness of the Moderator's action becomes questionable.

First let me say that you are one of my favorite authors. I have even purchased a couple of your stories when I could not wait for them to finish posting.

Second: I am a PAYING member of SOL, so i have the RIGHT to bitch or moan if I want.

Third: since YOU have chosen to make this personal I will make this simple; this is my last post on this forum and my last Paying membership to the site.

In response to your points:

1. I'm glad you like the stories, and happy you even bought some. Thank you.

2. The Clitorides Awards are not part of SoL, they're totally independent to SoL and the WLPC sites. That's why you can nominate stories from other sites. The only reason they're accessible via SoL is because Lazeez offered up his time to manage them after they had been in hiatus for a few years. He also offered up the cost of hosting them out of his own pocket, to reduce that cost he hosts them on his existing servers.

3.a. My post was not meant as a personal attack on any one person or post as such. If it was I would have quoted from a post by that person or the specific post to pinpoint the attack. I made a general post to the thread itself.

3.b. My earlier comment 2 was based on the past experience when the originators of the CAs were no longer able to manage them others took over, and then dropped managing them after they got fed up with people bitching about them. I was concerned that would happen again, because that would mean the loss of one of the few things to encourage amateur writers in this field.

3.c. If you perceive my comments as being a personal attack at you and you feel you need to respond against me, that's no reason for why you should attack or penalise SoL. I have no involvement in the management or ownership of the site in any way, other than that of any other reader and author. Thus there is no justification to punish SoL for you perceived issue with me.

I know you'll go and do whatever it is you wish to do, but I ask you should reconsider your planned actions against SoL for something that isn't their fault in order to be fair to them.

typo edit