Judge's Choice Discussion

[Kryos]

Hey everyone,

Figure I might put this here. If I need to relocate or delete, let me know.

I was just meandering around the forums today, and decided to pop into the Judge's Choice. One thing kinda yelled at me right away. There hasn't been a judge's choice for over a year now, which is kinda sad to me. Wanted to get some thoughts on the matter.

Now, I know that Judge's Choice is not something that should be thrown around lightly. From my reading of a few of them, they are top notch for a reason, and are no doubt a lot of work in the making. But I wondered why there haven't been any of late. Is it that threads just aren't being completed? Is it a lack of motivation to create the best work possible? Could the workshop be slightly to blame, as you get a good score of 65 with multiple feedback, but thereby forego the opportunity to receive JC recommendation? Or am I mistaken that you can get JC recommendation from a workshop? Is it that the judge's have gotten more critical over time, and thus make it innately harder to receive scores that merit JC (not intentional on the judges part, no doubt)? Or is it some other factor that I haven't thought about? No big althanas events going on, like a FQ?

Anyway, let me know your thoughts. I would love to hear from members and judges/mods/admins alike. And this is by no means trying to point fingers or make my fellow writer's feel bad about ability in any way. I just noticed it, and wondered if anyone had any thoughts on the matter. Also, if anyone has a really good JC to recommend reading (besides all of them) let me know! Looking for a fun read.

DFTBA

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

You can actually get a JC off a workshop, if a judge reads it and feels that it's worthy of a nomination.

[Flames of Hyperion]

^ What BaBE said. It hasn't happened yet, although I did suggest at one point that we might employ a mechanism where members could nominate the threads of others for a JC, and if a thread garnered enough votes it would be put forth to the judges for consideration.

From recent threads, I would particularly recommend Burning Out - Karuka and Rayse at their best. Otherwise, if it's fun you're after, just look for anything by Caden Law.

[Mythweaver]

As I understand it, a thread must first receive a score of eighty, no easy feat; and then be considered as a Judges Choice by the moderators. There's more to it than that, I think, but these are the two critera I know of. They were mentioned in a really old thread I found while doing a search.

Given how hard it is to get an eighty, I'm kind of surprised there are as many JCs as there are, but that's just me.

[Gnarl & Root]

A Judges choice can be nominated by the Judge for a score of 65 or higher. It is automatically nominated if it scores 80 or higher.

But either way, it is reviewed and voted for by the staff, and an overall positive vote will finally give it a Judges choice.

It's also worth noting, that this is achievable using: Workshop Judgment, Condensed Rubic Judgment, and Full Rubic Judgment.

[Tobias Stalt]

^75 or higher, is the rule.

[Kryos]

I was hoping for more of a discussion concerning trends of writing lately in regard to the judge's choice category, rather than simply the current "rules for qualification." We have had great judge's choices in the past. I still believe many more are to come. I just, wanna see them now, haha.

[Tobias Stalt]

Well, I contend that if people start writing better, people will start getting JCs. :P

That said, easier said than done.

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

Just to absolutely clarify the rules: 75 gets your thread a nomination for a JC, and 80 scores an automatic JC.

The judge's choice award is the higest honour on Althanas. They aren't given lightly, and that makes them as rare as rocking horse shit. Whilst I wouldn't want the criteria for a judge's choice to change, perhaps it is time for a "people's choice" award that recognises writing that would otherwise fall short of a JC but is nonetheless entertaining. This would combine the ideas of Flames and Kryos above.

If it got enough backing on here, it could be put to the other staff to see what they think.

[Gnarl & Root]

Not to throw a spanner in the works, but the official judgment rules thread states 65+ score to be nominated by a judge for a JC.

If this is not the case, it needs to be updated.