Summer Contest 2023, and future contests(?)

[*Lady Lucia*]

Here's the link to mastergepetto's summer contest:

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2878

Since the contest and discussion forums don't get as much traffic, this is me suggesting on the main page that we shift this contest and future contests back to the ENF forum.

What are everyone else's thoughts?

--Lady Lucia

[mastergepetto]

Thank you for sharing the contest on the main ENF forum. Since it was already June, and since no one seemed to be doing a Summer contest, I took it upon myself to create one. Hopefully I didn’t step on any toes.

I definitely want to see the contests get more participation. I’m all for moving this contest and future contests back to the main page if that means greater participation.

[Executionus]

I definitely agree with that idea. Seems like everyone else did too

[Hooked6]

I hate be a dissenter but I actually LIKE keeping the contests in the pinned separate thread. Those that are interested can easily find what they are looking for in that thread.

The contest threads in the past when part of the main ENF forum degenerated into a good ol boy network (clique) of the same participants filling the board with more questions about rules, ideas, with very few actual story entries when all is said and done. It gave poor optics and was very off-putting to members by giving the impression that this was an exclusive club - though that was certainly not the intent. And by keeping questions and answers in the same contest thread one had to scan down many posts of queries from the same few people over and over again to find the few actual story entries further enhancing the impression of exclusivity.

I know the contests are a lot of fun and are supposed to encourage participation, but in truth, few people participated even under the best of circumstances. I also know I will be vilified for saying such things. Not many are actually interested in the contests and the minutiae of the day to day activity. I am sure that was one of the reasons the contest thread was created in the first place.

Perhaps a compromise might be to announce new contests in this main ENF forum and advising members to check the pinned contest thread and post their queries and entries to the contest thread. After the contest is closed, the final STORIES (entries) could be moved from the contest forum to the main ENF forum with links to the stories for voting and for others to read and the few that actually vote.

ADDENDUM - Looks like the contest thread was deleted. Oh well.

[Girlspns]

Okay, I feel a bit remiss in not clarifying this sooner, but I always intended to have the contests actually taking place in the main forum and then I'd just move them to the pinned area when the time came to archive them once they're finished.

But then I saw you guys using the pinned area to begin with so I just let it be assuming you preferred it that way.

All this to say, organize the contests however you feel is best, I just made the pinned forum so that the stories are cleaner that way.

[Fun_Writer]

What are your ideas for this contest base meaning age

[mastergepetto]

See update to rules on the official contest announcement thread. Not trying to bog down this thread with questions regarding one particular contest.

Please make any future questions specifically regarding the Summer Story Contest 2023 on the contest announcement page.

[Fun_Writer]

To correct something to put image I click on picture and the first image in my gallery will post right

[mastergepetto]

Upload the image you want to use to imagebam. Copy the link to the image. Then when you want to post, go into the post, click the image icon in the formatting section, and paste the link in between the two img blocks

[img ] Post image link here [ /img]

[Frank89]

I, for one, preferred older contests -- or stories in general -- where there were no pictures.

Having pictures of characters severly limit one's imagination while reading (or even writing) a story. It's like trying to read a book after you have seen a live-action adaptation without imagining the characters looking like their live-action counterparts. Nigh impossible. Especially since all of these pictures include obvious adult characters while many stories/authors frequently use younger characters. At least many of the "fiery sybmol" stories do/did.