LJ Idol Polls - Scapegoat

[aggienaut]

   Yesterday I was standing in the middle of a 75 hive beeyard working, surrounded by bees, when I got a call. The office informed me that someone was posting on the OC Weekly saying we didn't have any bees. It would be funny if it wasn't so stupid.
   Anyway, see this post for more about that headache.

   As you may recall, I posted the other day about the first half of this week's LJ Idol polls. Today I bring you the other half. They wrote about "Scapegoat," and the poll close in only 3.5 hours (4pm my time).

[Poll #1356259]   Additionally I wrote about this topic in my "home game" entry.

   emo_snal recommendations are made entirely on a basis of whether or not the entry would be an interesting read to Joe Average Reader who is just looking for something worth reading. Disqualification for recommendation therefore usually occurs for being too long, with the second biggest cause usually being a lack of having "a point" interesting enough to warrant reading. emo_snal recommends reading the following persons this week from this bracket:

1. boxsofrain's entry: The Possession of Love - Well written, just scandalous enough to keep dying to know where its going, and a very creative take on the topic.


Analysis of This Bracket
   10 persons chose to write about "Scapegoat" (as opposed to 9 for "Achille's Heel." of those that wrote about Scapegoat:
   90% wrote narratives
   60% wrote personal narratives
   1 wrote an essay style entry (Scienter)
   3 wrote fiction
   4 (40%!) were "too long" (I considered assigning a objective word or page count to "too long," but really the length changes depending on how engrossing the writing is)
   2 I have as my primary notation that it just wasn't interesting
   1 I classified as an "epic fail." And no I'm not going to tell you which one it is, that is too mean (even for me ;D ), but it was also too long.
   1 had a disconcerting lack of character introduction that totally bungled an otherwise good story.
   3 wrote about sex
   2 wrote about abuse

Analysis of This Week on a Whole
   78.9% wrote narratives
   63.2% wrote personal narratives
   21.1% wrote fiction
   10.5% wrote essay entries
   5.3% (ie 1) wrote historical fiction. (again, good work Brightflashes ;D )
   10.5% wrote about exes
   15.8% wrote about sex
   10.5% wrote about abuse
   10.5% wrote about parents
   2 I classified as: OMGWTF O_o


Weekly Saturday Morning Drama Deep-Fry
   There was a large discussion in the LJ Idol community the other day where people were claiming (1) "there's too much drama" and (2) Gary (the Administrater) needs to make a post outlining 'ground rules'"
   In re (1): I am extremely curious what this drama everyone is talking about is as I have not seen it. I gather one prominant idolist apparently witnessed someone saying they didn't like her personally and is acting like it's the apocalypse, but is there anything else? Like, seriously, I'm at a total loss as to what people are talking about.
   In re (2): I absolutely disagree that Gary should post some kind of kindergarten set of rules. I know of at least three Idolists who have expressed that they didn't like me PERSONALLY (blueashke, xo_kizzy_xo and spydielives (this last later retracted)), and, as the saying goes, I'll defend to the death their right to express such things. Oh and Dennis called me a cunt in a comment to my last entry, should I go crying to Gary about it?
    We're all adults here and if you can't handle the harsh reality of things, maybe you shouldn't be here. People already make fun of LJ Idol as being too free of criticism, if kindergarten style behaviour rules are established, the community will be a real joke.
    Note 2b: I applaud Gary for his handling of situations heretofore.
    Note 3c: Maybe you disagree with me, and maybe you think I am an ogre for expressing the opinions I just have. I welcome and encourage you to post exactly what you think of me whereever the hell you feel like doing so. I, for one, can handle it.

Comments

[superhappytime.livejournal.com]

Especially since a good portion of "say nothing" is due to the fact that people are remarkably self-indulgent and only find time to put up their own post, read their friends, and ignore everyone else.

I can only recall actually seeing one person leave a negative comment to someone's post...and it caused a bunch of ridiculous "OMG, my life is over and I don't even belong in this competition, I guess" drama.

Wait...actually I got "you have two prepositions at the end of sentences" this week. Maybe I should call that person out in the green room. But they did say that I normally never do that...hmm...should I be pissed?

In any case, I'm not sure if criticism is part of a real "writing competition." That's more of a writer's workshop. Which most of these people would never try because they couldn't take the evisceration.

But it would be nice/funny/something to see all the people who go "I don't like so and so, they are getting by on their friend list" to actually tell that writer what they don't like each week. I've said that a few times and been greeted with "I don't have to say who I think is no good, I prefer to just make vague inferences to them and bitch about how I got eliminated."

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I left a comment to a Certain Idolist once, politely as I could asking about something very specific in their entry I thought was unclear. They proceeded to respond to me with a great deal of condescension and self-righteousness, informing me that I must not be smart enough to get their simple literary tricks. As a consequence of this interchange, I don't like them as a person either.

[superhappytime.livejournal.com]

wait? when did I do that?

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

I say nice things or nothing. I don't honestly believe that most people want to hear how their writing could be improved. The drama that results if you suggest that something could have been done differently to greater effect simply isn't worth it - I'm not interested in dealing with shit when I turn on my computer. There was one time at the beginning of the contest when I loved an entry but thought it ended in the wrong place. I wanted *more* which you'd have thought was a bad thing, but saying this got a comment the following week saying "glad you liked this one since last week left you cold" or words to that effect. I'd *really* liked the previous week's one, I just thought the ending could have been handled differently to greater effect. So if I like an entry and think it could be better and that gets me grief, I really don't want to deal with not liking an entry and explaining why so that the writer could change things if they choose. In some cases, the writing was so bad, nothing could redeem it anyway.

Plus the voting totals suggest that I'm in a minority in my opinion a lot of the time.

I think you do get feed back, it's just more subtle. So lack of comments often equates to lack of votes and although you might not know *why* that entry wasn't liked, you do know that it wasn't appreciated by your target market. I don't know why the entry that got me voted off was the one that was considered to be that bad (but I've heard rumour that that was the week that dramas and game playing started to kick off, so I don't think it was entirely personal). I'm not that bothered either - I don't think Idol is the best way to improve your writing and that's not really what it's about. The recent kerfuffle and drama is ridiculous given what's at stake.

Now if a publishing deal were in the offing, I might understand it.

[spydielives.livejournal.com]

written Nov 13, 2008:

http://worldofmichelle.livejournal.com/4816.html and submitted as a Home Game entry for that week.