River Twine Holt Forums

WEBSITE QUARTERLY COMMENTING CONTEST!

All members are encouraged to participate in our Quarterly Commenting Contest! Participants enter the contest by leaving meaningful comments on 50% or more of the art and fiction posted on the website during that quarter. Each qualifying participant is automatically entered into the contest, with a single winner drawn by random from that quarter's pool of participants. Winners will receive a gift of fic or art donated by a volunteering artist or writer, featuring the River Twine Holt character of the winner's choice.

Comments may be left on either newly posted art and fic, or on any older piece that you have not yet commented on (editing previous comments does not qualify). You may comment on your own work as well if you want to share some insight regarding it! (Note: by definition, when the Council calls a comment "meaningful", we mean a comment that has more substance to it that "Oh, that's good, I like that!" or "Very pretty!" If you like something, please say why; additionally, positively worded constructive criticism is welcome as well, and often is more helpful to the recipient than delicious praise alone!)

Winners will be selected by “raffle” style drawing from a pool of all comments made by participants who have met the criteria of leaving comments on 50% or more of the submissions posted that quarter; every comment you leave is a raffle entry, so the more you leave, the greater your chances of winning! Additionally, members can win the contest more than once in a row, so long as they leave enough comments to qualify in successive quarters.

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Whitney **send to me at farscout@rivertwine.com**

Maybe we should do this again?
It is sad to see art or stories with only one comment lately... I guess we could all need something that motivates?

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Peg(gy)
owner of Rainpace, Starskimmer and Deeproot (troll)

The contest runs quarterly...

I am *hoping* that the small amount of commenting just means it's been a busy quarter for everyone and that soon, things will even out for people...

It's definitely easier to comment on art than on stories - doesn't take nearly the amount of time. But I know as a writer, it's always a boost to read comments.

Yes, this is definitely still running! We announce the winner of the quarter's contest around the same time we announce the "members of the quarter" folks. In fact, Peggy won it for the Fall 2010 period! (That thread is still in the Announcements area; previous quarter threads are in the General Archives. Although, it was never noted in the thread that your prize will be a piece of art from Linda -- who, as she's posted elsewhere, has run into some RL difficulties, so I imagine she'll be a bit late with it.)

You can also sometimes spot the prize that each winner got -- it's noted in the teaser line of the story, or in the artwork's title, depending on what the person received. (It varies, and depends on who's volunteered to provide prizes.) They do sort of often come out pretty late after the person "won", though -- a story prize that Joan did for Beth was just posted a couple of days ago, and it was the prize for Beth winning the comments contest last summer quarter.)


A reminder isn't a bad idea, though! I too am hoping that folks have just had a busy quarter where they haven't been able to comment on things as much as they have in the past... but I'd like to see us get back more on track with that. Of course, I need to step up and do my part as well. (As Lyn notes, I'm better at commenting on art than stories, as it takes longer for me to consider what to say about stories.)


But yes -- every comment that you leave in a quarter becomes a kind of "raffle ticket" entry. The more comments you leave, the more likely it will be that your name will be "drawn" at the end of the quarter! (Although, we have had examples of people winning when they didn't leave as many comments as some others -- which is fine! It just underscores the fact that there is an element of pure chance to it.)

We will keep doing this every quarter. We haven't yet figured out who the winner is for Winter Quarter, since we have only just started the processing for that.

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Peg(gy)
owner of Rainpace, Starskimmer and Deeproot (troll)

We definitely see cycles in participation rates, both in submissions and in leaving comments.

A really, really good rule of thumb, however -- If you enjoy receiving comments, PLEASE take the time and make an effort to leave some for others!

It doesn't take that long to leave a comment or two, and one of the great features of our website is that when you log in, you can immediately see an art thumbnail and a story title for art and fic you haven't commented on yet. I LOVE love LOVE that feature!

(I myself am pretty sporadic about making time to leave comments -- it's one of those things I always INTEND to do, but often find myself catching up on later. For the last couple of years, one of my New Years Resolutions has always been "Leave 1 comment a day on the RTH website." I haven't been able to do it daily, but I have been keeping a daily log, so that I can go back and make up for the days where other commitments have kept me from it. In that fashion, I've been MUCH more successful in the "1 comment/day" resolution than I have been in the "500 words fic/day" resolution. )

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Whitney **send to me at farscout@rivertwine.com**

I usually comment on every new piece I ssee. But lately I somehow lost contact diue to stess and sickness. I try to get back and catch up on reading stories again. I will get back there eventually.

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Whitney **send to me at farscout@rivertwine.com**

I agree that it's easy to get into the mindset that if folks aren't commenting on stories, they aren't reading them. I think that's a fear that is common to most of us who have stories posted (I certainly feel that way whenever it happens).... even if we know, objectively, that in our own case, it's not that we didn't read, but that we haven't yet made time to comment.

Like Whit, I often want to reread the story before I comment. I think my main problem is that as a member of the SAT, I have often already gone through a round or two of commenting on a story in the SAT review... and it's hard to find more words about it, right when it's posted. But, I also know that isn't fair to the writer, who often isn't getting all of that first-reaction SAT feedback. So I do need to do better about that. (Believe me, I read EVERY story and think about each one a great deal!)

*nudge* wouldn't have you arrested if you copy/pasted first-SAT-reaction text into a review. ;)

Seriously, though, i have to say I agree, too! It's about as easy for me to leave a comment on art or fic, but it takes so much less time to VIEW art, that I find myself clicking on the "Art you haven't commented on" button more than the fic counterpart -- if I have 15 minutes to leave comments, I'd rather leave 10 comments than 2 or 3!

However, I am trying to comment on as much as possible, and while I *haven't* read everything yet, believe me I intend to go for it! ^_^