Registration and Trial Discussion

[Christoph]

Ok, first off I would like to say that I can see where the judges are coming from. It would be an insurmountable task to judge the number of threads present if each and every one were allowed to get as big as it's writers pleased.

However, on the other hand I don't see how you can honestly say that the judges that read beyond the 2,000 word limit were not influenced in any way, shape, or form during their judging by the extra wording; unless of course they took the first two thousand words, C&P'd them into a word document, judged them without reading anything further, and then proceeded to read the rest of the thread. It is simply not humanly possible to read beyond the limit and not have it influence the earlier writing. I am sure that the judges had the best of interest in heart, and I'm not saying that they consciously said that the larger and longer posts were better. All I am saying is that I don't believe it to be humanly possible to completely disregard something in that manner after reading it, no matter how objective you are trying to be.

So, in essence, those of us that simplified our writing to fit the two thousand word limit and were docked points for things such as 'lack of description of surroundings' or 'lack of background detail' or 'not fleshing out character personalities' seem petty when the whole point was to get a lower word count.

Not saying that I entirely disagree with all judging that I have read, just trying to reaffirm a point made by Isis a few posts up and throwing my own two cents into it.

~Kalar

P.S. Also, I would like to thank the entire judging staff for taking the time to do this and for putting up with everything. You all are doing a fine job for the amount of work put before you, its just that there are some things I don't agree with. My apologies if this comes across in any way angry.

I thank you for your kind words and appreciation. The staff understood that the Trial system would be a little odd from the start, especially for our guests from other forums, but it was better than the alternatives. However, there were a number of measures in place to preemptively alleviate most of the concerns expressed here.

First, judges were instructed only to read the first 2,000 words of a trial before doing their judgment. Once the judgment was complete in terms of numbers, they were free to return to the thread and finish reading it, and maybe offer some tips from the rest of the story if they felt so inclined. I understand that a judge could lose track and read beyond the word limit, and that this could potentially affect their view of the sample; this is why each trial isn’t judged by just an individual. It is also reviewed by a panel of judges to ensure the fairness, accuracy, and objectivity of the judgment.

[Petoux]

So ... when our trial runs are done being looked at ... then what exactly?

Quick ... simple question.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

Wait for the brackets for the first round to be revealed, I suppose.

[Petoux]

Ok ... a look in the future.

When round one is over and threads are being judged, what if we feel we have been judged unfairly, or don't agree with what they say?

Will there be like an appeal thread or something of that nature?

Or ... a second opinion kind of thing?

'Cuz ... no offense judges ... no one is perfect. Agreed?

[Shadowed]

Appeals bogged the ToL down into a cesspool of egotistical writers thinking themselves above any possible criticism. It weighed down the tournament, stretched it out far too long, and was one of the primary factors to its ultimate failure. I strongly hope that the ToC does not allow appeals.

[Taskmienster]

I agree with Shadowed, I was part of the ToL and it was bogged down and eventually killed the interest of a lot of people (myself included) due to appeals. I'm pretty sure that since we have multiple judges reviewing judgments that even if they're not agreed with by the people that are judged they'll be completely fair and with as minimal to no bias as possible. That's why we split the judges up into different panels.

Each panel has a couple Althanas judges, since it was inevitable with half the judges being from here, and a couple from other forums that volunteered to help out.

So, personally, I'd rather not see appeals since they'll just distract and detract. If you have a qualm with the way something was judged or more insight you can PM a mod, respectfully, and they'll explain things as they saw it. However, with multiple mods, split between multiple forums, the judgment will more than likely not be changed due to the way we have it set up.

Hopefully that helps!

[Max Dirks]

There will be no appeals except in instances of extreme prejudice and bias.

We're doing our best to ensure that judges are grading across forum lines, but with our limited pool it is inevitable that some of us will grade folks from our own forums. We currently have two panels, so at least 3 people agreed with the judgments that were made on the trials. If anyone has any particular concerns or needs clarification, please contact your judge and start a dialogue with them.

[Christoph]

So ... when our trial runs are done being looked at ... then what exactly?

Quick ... simple question.

The first bracket has been selected and the players have been contacted. We will be announcing the roster once we get confirmations from everyone, and the round for Bracket One will begin on the 7th. The second bracket will be selected in a day or two, and will begin one week after Bracket One.