Winter Writing Contest 2013: Poll #1

Welcome, the first poll has arrived. The 16 submissions will be broken down into two polls of 8. The top three of each poll will go on to the third and final poll. The top two of the final poll will receive the benefit of winning the Reader's Choice and Runner-up awards. These groups were randomized on random.org.

The other judges and I will meet and suggest our top picks and analyze them very carefully amongst each other. We should have a winner for the Judge's Choice and Runner-up award about the time when the final poll ends, or shortly thereafter. We will also prepare a backup in case the public elect our choice. However, if the Reader's runner-up is our selection, they will still be the winner of the Judge's Choice award and the Reader's runner-up will move onto the next closest. If there is a tie...Well, there will be a tie. I'll see what I can do if that happens.

When you read each submission, if you have not already, please take a moment to stop when you finish and write the author a little note how and if you liked it or some constructive criticism they could benefit from. I know that if you are an author, you may want the same done for you. As a judge, I will withhold my comments until after the contest is over to those who request it. Happy reading, everyone.

Entries in this poll:

HumbugsAssociate submitted Grampa Roberts Funeral

y00han submitted Anamnesis

FGRaptor submitted Regret

mibuchiha submitted An Exposition of the Mind

Dawn_of_Dark submitted Star-crossed

d(^_^)(^_^)d submitted Potato Chips and Machine Guns

Nejik submitted Those who Linger

Kuro vi Lolitannia submitted Almighty Watcher

Good luck guys.

Will vote when I'm not lazy.

Looks Like i'm not in this one...
If i have time I'll vote after a quick read/review of the works listed...

You literally have a couple days Zaz, take your time.

Come to think of it, you have yet to read my entry. I have to induct you into the leonard267 side of eternal bitterness and unreasonable frustration and anger, you must read it.

Haha, Leonard I haven't read yours since you tend to be more entertaining which is always a bonus. I'll read it when I'm done with the other stories that way I can mostly enjoy a good wrap-up.

Good luck everyone! Still a few entries I haven't read yet, will read, respond my wannabe feedback and get to voting. =)

This should be stickied.

It'll only need to be stickied for the days it's active, and if it gets stickied, then it loses the picture, like the contest thread did. I can always include it in the post (just like I did with the contest), but I think the people who care about it know how to find it. The contest already is, anyway.

Can't say the poll relevantly reflects the Reader's Choice award, given the extremely poor statistics we have now...

Here's me thinking that we'd get ~100 total votes, it turns out we barely reach 10.

You can get me to bump it. I have writing quite a lot the past few days and it needs to go somewhere. I will try to keep it poll related or writing contest entry related though.

Actually, the polls have usually never reached that high. The record was around 200 four years ago because we had front page advertising, plus some enthusiastic advertisers across the forums and recruiters in IB. Some who never step foot into W&F were illegitimately voting only for those they knew.

The average number of votes these have received when they're small and unadvertised is around 20-30, but they're mostly W&F locals, so they have likely read all if not most pieces. I have no way to prove this, of course, but I think it's more likely to be legitimate this way. A lot of people won't vote until the end, they've made a decision, or when they think their vote matters. I remember people asking for poll results because they hadn't voted yet and wanted to know how it was progressing, which is slightly dirty if you ask me. Your vote should be for who you enjoyed the most regardless of their position. I digress, there's still a day and some to go.



With 1 day and 9 hours left as of this post, I don't think it'll be leaving front page. Plus, it's the only thread with a photo, so it's easy to spot.

Yay! I got a vote! Also, bump. Keep this thing at the top!

Bump for justice because I was the one kicking it down.

This poll has ended. As we can see with the results, FGRaptor is our winner of the first preliminary poll. However, the top three will go on to the finals poll, so both HumbugsAssociate and mibuchiha will join him. Congratulations!