Story Contest History {NEW}

[vovan]

OK, several answers, and some questions at the same time.

First, yes, I am using stealth mode, so that some buggy people wouldn't know whether I am here or not. Then again, the people I don't mind knowing, can easily know if I am here or not by the time of my posts.

Secondly, thanks for more of the links that I missed. It seems that the search function is broken and does not search further back than a couple of months. So, I had to just arrange all of the threads from the very beginning in alphabetical order, and look trhrough them. Of course, I looked only on letter S, as in "Story contest." So, I missed the few that start with a different letter. You must have gone through all threads by hand, I suppose, or had the links somewhere. Either way, good job, and thanks.

Thirdly, would you like me to put the history you compiled in the post just below the list of top stories? (After all, that's why I made that post in the first place - thinking that there might be something we might want to add. ) I think it would be a good idea, since we wouldn't have to start a new thread for your compilation (good job on that, too, BTW ), and it is not bured in the middle of this one. I would do that if you want, but it's your call, of course.

[DarkCloud]

Feel free to annotate the history.
Part II will be up soon. It will focus on clearing up this part of Part I

Later, in 2002, civman2000 ressurected the Stories Contest, running it monthly.
In this time, unfinished stories could be nominated. Jack_www was the first to complain about this.

Metaliturtle drew up some rules for a writers guild and had them adopted by civman2000 for the stories contest as a welcome to the forum.

and how civman came into control of the stories contest; it passing from steelehc to him...


then it will discuss the implications of johnmcleod's running of the Best of the Best contests- the long tenure of civman... the importance of metaliturtle and his guild, as well as Crazed Greek Wanderings, the substitutions of cbraund and DarkCloud, then civman's disappearance to the Demogames forums...

Part III will focus on johnmcleod's and DC's first abortive attempts to restart the contest... then finally on DC's successful restarting and current history, such as the new rules, and vovansim taking over johnmcleod and metaliturtel's former positions.

[DarkCloud]

Story Contest History
-Compiled by DarkCloud

Part I

The story contest was originally Anatolia's idea... Anatolia emailed MarkG about her idea; but did not respond to his reply quick enough and he posted in the Civ III stories forum asking if anyone was interested in running a contest.
Anatolia protested that the idea was hers and ended up in charge of the contest.
Eventually, a panel of 3 including Anatiolia, Steve Clark and Quinalla who chose the 5 stories which all would vote upon... this system was a compromise orchestrated by vovansim:

"The judges choose 5 stories they think are the best. Then they make a poll and the users choose the best story. This takes care of these problems: "

It was necessary, however, to be nominated, for the nominees to send Anatolia an email asking for nomination.
The first successful contest was held November 4, 2001 and featured HawaiiFive-O's "Chronicles of Imhotep" as the winner with 54 of the 77 votes taken in one week; setting a record that has yet to be broken for the Stories contest.

Thread: http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showt...threadid=35746 was the first thread in which Anatolia posted the weekly winners.

The winners for each of the four weeks that the contest was won were
HawaiiFive-O, Grundel (twice), and Velociryx.

Around this time, MarkG made the offer to give a discount from the APolyton Store to the winners.

After December 2001, the weekly stories contest ran down;
but not before 13-12-01 when Grundel was the first to ask if people could nominate others stories for the contest- since beginning a tradition that has continued until this day.
and december 17th's election for the week of the 10-16th! The last weekly contest run by Anatolia, which saw "A short story in pictures" by dannyevilcat win the contest with seven votes while ike0481 won second with six votes emsiedeman and Grundel tied for third with two votes a piece.
and on February 7, 2002 MarkG asked for someone new to take over the contest. since Anatolia had been last seen January 17, 2001; and according to Grundel-

anatolia was in a car accident, if i remember correctly from reading his post...so i know he may be out of circulation for a bit.

In that time, Barfus volunteered to run the contest, but that went nowhere.
Then on March 7, 2002- steelehc volunteered to run the contest...and carried through. This is the first story thread that we see civman posting extensively in.
Civman, throuought the month of March, assisted with the threads, helping steelehc post the finals, semifinals, nominations, etc and with the list keeping.

The first nominees in the new Contest system follow (Some people who have proved exceedingly important to the stories contests' history are highlighted):
1-Generations, by WTE_OzWolf
2-Grecian, by Toasty
3-Death of the Russians/Crazy Lincoln/World War 3, Ch1, by curlyboy24
4-Ich Bin Ein Berliner, by cbraund
5-The Means and the End, by Reichelieu
6-The Hunting Season, by cbraund
7-The German/British Conflict, by President Mike
8-If Only, by bassman
9-World at War, by easthaven
10-World War One, Act One, by Steele
11-Rodina: The Motherland, by bassman
12-The Persian Invasion of 1542, by President Mike
13-Canton National Historical Battlefield, by Coinich
14-The Republic of Athens, by Civman2000
15-Roma Victor, by Knight
16-Bicentenary of German Communist Republic, by sgrig
17-What Will You Trade For Iron, by Rotten999
18-Great Big Death Story or MRkorth, by Jeremy
19-Dominion of Canada, by Petey
20-Campaigns of Babylon, by Jimmy_Shark
21-California Dreamin, by curlyboy24
22-War Without Reconaissance is for Naught, by Big Ben
23-Bored... With Twenty Nukes in the Arsenal, by Kinniken
24-Odessey of a Hero, by WTE_OzWolf

Threads of Interest-

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=45845 (MORE ON STEELEHC'S CONTEST-SKILORD's First appearance)
http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=44639 (STEELEHC's CONTEST)
http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showt...threadid=39328 (CAR ACCIDENT POST)
http://www.apolyton.net/forums/show...&threadid=38594 (THE LAST OF THE WEEKLY CONTESTS)
http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showt...threadid=35746 "WEEKLY WINNERS"
http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showt...threadid=40067 "REBIRTH" (Anatolia's Last post)
http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showt...threadid=37673 (EARLY SUBMISSION RULES)
http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=35079 "FIRST STORY CONTEST"
http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showt...threadid=34858 (GUIDELINES FOR CONTEST/VOTING PANEL)
http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showt...threadid=33598 (MARKG's REQUEST FOR A STORIES CONTEST)
http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showt...threadid=33793 (ORIGINAL RULES)

[DarkCloud]

...You are on stalth mode, arenty you vovansim
IT doesnt say that you are online

-
oops. missed this one: http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showt...threadid=38594

[DarkCloud]

Also, this thread- the last of the weekly contests (dec 3-9)

http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37785

[vovan]

OK, I've added that link to the directory, DC. Also, thanks for bumping the very first contest, which I missed originally. It is now also included. And you are right, the number of voters has got to be the record.

[DarkCloud]

http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35079

Here's the first contest ever- First Story Contest Poll Nov. 12-18

The chronicles of imhotep received 54 VOTES!!!!!!!! over 72 people voted!!! The stories forum was much mroe frequented in those days... unless of course, this was before the fora split ... although I doubt that!

[DarkCloud]

Though note that the dates I have are not when the polls expired, but when the contest finals threads were posted. I guess I could just add a week to each date, but I am not sure such level of precision matters that much.

Nah, you needn't worry about it It's good enough as it is!

-

Oh, I also forgot something else I am also considering including a short table of statistics at the end of the contest history. It would have information like, the author that got the most wins, the author, whose stories got into the finals most often, and such information, plus just some curious stats like how many ties in the finals there were (well, two ), what was the largest percentage of votes a single story ever got, what was the largest number of votes a single story ever got, etc.

We had a chart like this before... but I can't find it- I was thinking of doing this- but since you want to...

I'll just try to research the historical accuracies

Lots of good work done here... I applaud you
-
1 more thing- could you please post a link to the section in the Apolyton Directory for the stories at the top perhaps? (or at the end if you prefer) With a little explanation:

"In the Apolyton Directory, all the winning stories are added by the current stories' files manager. Please visit the Apolyton Directory Stories section here: http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?cat=113&t=sub_pages

Thanks!

[vovan]

Updated. Now, the contest names link to the threads, and there is a date for each contest. Plus, I have added the results of the first two contests held by Anatolia for historical accuracy's sake. (That also doulbes the number of wins for Grundel increasing it from two to four. )

[vovan]

DC, it is funny you would mention it, because I was just browsing the old posts, collecting the links to the old contest threads, and the dates of the contests.

So, I have all the links and dates for the contests currently in the history, plus I am planning on adding the contests held by Anatolia before civman. (There were two actually.) Though note that the dates I have are not when the polls expired, but when the contest finals threads were posted. I guess I could just add a week to each date, but I am not sure such level of precision matters that much.

Any ways, I will post what I have some time soon, likely tomorrow if I don't get overrun by homework and / or friday night parties (), and then you can tell me if you think something is missing, or if you would like to add something.

EDIT: Oh, I also forgot something else I am also considering including a short table of statistics at the end of the contest history. It would have information like, the author that got the most wins, the author, whose stories got into the finals most often, and such information, plus just some curious stats like how many ties in the finals there were (well, two ), what was the largest percentage of votes a single story ever got, what was the largest number of votes a single story ever got, etc.

[DarkCloud]

Yes. It looks much better!

Maybe if you added the dates to when the contests ended- it might be neat... or if you want; put a direct link to the contests... only if you want to, of course... I can look up the dates they ended if you like.

And I'll try to get a true "History of the Contest" about who ran it when fixed up at some point in the future...

good work

[vovan]

Thanks for PM'ing Mark, DC.

As for the warning - done. I hope it looks better now.

[DarkCloud]

Thanks for the good work Vovansim

I PMed Mark to top this

(Just one gripe- could you please make the warning in the 1st contest smaller... it sort of messes up the formatting )

Nice work with the profile links, BTW.

[Jeremy 2.0]

If you're really bored you can change the Jeremy in the second contest to Jeremy 2.0. I was Jeremy back then but lost my password.

Not that it's at all a big deal. And thanks for your efforts on this list.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Great work vovansim as ever