The 2017 Survey: "If I take it off, will you scream?"

[brightknightie]

May 5 will be the 25^th anniversary of "Dark Knight," the Forever Knight series premiere. May 18 will be the 21^st anniversary of "Last Knight," the Forever Knight series finale. If you want to play, 2017 will be our 8^th FKFicFest!

Should we play this year? If so, when? And how?

This poll is for community members. (Join us!) This poll will close at 11:59 PM (Pacific Time) on Friday, February 3, 2017. (Final decisions remain with the moderator.)

Please speak up! Share your ideas and insights! Thank you!

Poll #17927 2017 FKFicFest Community Planning Survey

This poll is closed.
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 8

1. Should we play FKFicFest in 2017?

Yes, play in 2017
8 (100.0%)

No, skip a year
0 (0.0%)

2. Would you *write* in FKFicFest 2017?

Definitely yes
5 (62.5%)

Probably yes
2 (25.0%)

No
1 (12.5%)

3. Would you *read* in FKFicFest 2017?

Definitely yes
8 (100.0%)

Probably yes
0 (0.0%)

No
0 (0.0%)

4. Should we play an *exchange* or a *challenge*? (In an exchange, writers and requests get matched 1-to-1. In a challenge, all writers differently interpret one community prompt. If we played a challenge, we'd elect our prompt.)

I'd write only for an exchange
0 (0.0%)

I'd prefer an exchange, but don't mind a challenge
6 (85.7%)

I'd prefer a challenge, but don't mind an exchange
1 (14.3%)

I'd write only for a challenge
0 (0.0%)

5. When should stories be due in 2017? Pick up to 2.

April 22
0 (0.0%)

April 29
1 (14.3%)

May 6
3 (42.9%)

May 13
0 (0.0%)

May 20
1 (14.3%)

May 27
0 (0.0%)

June 3
2 (28.6%)

June 10
4 (57.1%)

6. We're going to focus on DW, and minimize cross-posting to LJ. Is that okay?

I'm okay with it
8 (100.0%)

I'm concerned about it
0 (0.0%)

7. Sadly, we need to discourage recipients from ignoring their authors in exchange games. What should count as the minimum acceptable acknowledgment of an exchange author's work?

A "Kudos" button click
2 (25.0%)

A comment of at least 1 sentence in length
6 (75.0%)

Something else
0 (0.0%)

8. How long should exchange authors have to wait to be acknowledged before a penalty applies to their recipients?

1 week
0 (0.0%)

2 weeks
5 (62.5%)

3 weeks
0 (0.0%)

4 weeks
3 (37.5%)

Longer
0 (0.0%)

9. If a recipient ignores his/her author beyond the period without a really good reason, what penalty should apply?

Ban for 2 games
0 (0.0%)

Ban for 1 game
4 (50.0%)

Ban until s/he comments on the ignored story + 1 more (any) by the ignored author for each month of the ignoring
3 (37.5%)

Ban until s/he comments on all stories the ignored author has written for all years of FKFicFest
0 (0.0%)

Ban until s/he comments on every story in that year's FKFicFest
1 (12.5%)

Something else
0 (0.0%)

10. Will you help spread the word about this year's FKFicFest?

Yes, I'll promote the game where I'm fannishly active!
8 (100.0%)

No
0 (0.0%)

Addendum: Please do feel free to comment, discuss, and suggest with comments here!

Comments

[havocthecat]

I mean, I'm fine with making a recipient comment on their story or sit out the next round, but I don't really think making a recipient comment on extra stories (and a WHOLE LOT OF extra stories) before being allowed in is going to actually encourage anyone to suck it up and take the punishment. I think that kind of visible shaming is going to either encourage perfunctory, copy/paste commentary, or it's going to drive people off. I didn't say that before, because, if it was suggested, I didn't notice it. (Even if I was reading the comments, I somehow missed it.) I hope it's OK to mention my feelings on it here instead of wherever it was initially suggested.

Please share anywhere you like

[brightknightie]

Please do share your opinion and insights here, or anywhere! I hope that everyone clearly shares her or his feelings. I'm not good at guessing what other people may feel.

Yes, I suggested restitution in the comment thread on the previous post. I didn't imagine commenting as "visible shaming!" I thought that no one looks at other people's old stories, or observes the dates on the comments.

There was also a suggestion that the ignorer be required to write a story for the ignoree.

Maybe I should have included a "No penalty" option after all. Hopefully, the "Something else" option will serve.

Re: Please share anywhere you like

[havocthecat]

I don't mind some kind of a penalty - I voted for the "skip a fest" deliberately instead of just commenting here that there should be no penalty. I just think that an excessive penalty might be felt as too much by the non-commenter and they would rather slink away than continue to play. It's a hard balance to strike and I don't envy you this year's rules change, I'll be honest!

What kind of a story are you thinking? Even a well-done drabble could be acceptable, perhaps?

Re: Please share anywhere you like

[brightknightie]

>"What kind of a story are you thinking? Even a well-done drabble could be acceptable, perhaps?"

That idea (on the previous post) belongs to nicholas_lucien. I should have asked! Carefully crafted drabbles, ficlets, vignettes, poems...?

I didn't make that a poll option because, going from my personal feelings, I imagined that it could feel like an indignity to the author who was ignored (that is, to be polite, she'd have to read and comment on a story by the person who'd not read or commented on the story she wrote).

But my feelings are rarely a good guide to other people's.

It occurs to me now (quite late) that I should have (privately, individually) consulted the authors who've actually been ignored in previous games. Maybe it's not too late.

Re: Please share anywhere you like

[pj1228]

Due dates:
I've picked May 6, but any of the proposed due dates is fine for me.

Comments:
I haven't kept track on the extent of non-commenting. But since the issue is of relevance for the upcoming game, it appears to be extensive. I've tried to think about what might keep people from commenting:
a) ignorance,
b) Is it possible that people feel overwhelmed by some of the more extensive comments, feel pressured to provide something similar and prefer not to comment at all instead?
c) People don't like the story written for them and rather don't comment before writing something that might disappoint the author.
If it's simple ignorance, then a ban of one game may be justified. But if it's b or c, a ban might be too hard and lead to the loss of participants. Therefore, I think trying this year kudos as minimum requirement and see how far we get with that, or one sentence, whereby a simple thanks should suffice.

Re: Please share anywhere you like

[brightknightie]

>"it appears to be extensive"

Oh, no, most FKFicFest players are wonderful! It's not extensive here. Yet it shouldn't happen at all. And when 10 of us play, each incident is 10% of our community.

I personally believe that all FKFicFest incidents have been accidental, in that I believe that those who didn't kudos or comment within a few months of the game either (1) genuinely forgot, or (2) honestly didn't understand that it mattered.

I want to be clear that acknowledging your author matters. And I'd like to make it more difficult to forget. (I don't want to have to apply any penalties!)

In addition to being very concerned to not drive off a player who doesn't comment, I'm also concerned about an ignored author who, after the experience of being ignored, maybe doesn't feel like playing in the fest again...?

(I've seen other ficathons and fests in which incidents of ignoring appeared to be deliberate snubs. I don't believe that's happened with us here, thank goodness! But to an author, it may feel the same, I'm afraid.)

Re: Please share anywhere you like

[havocthecat]

I'm afraid that, no matter what, a whole lot of the work on reminding people might be up to you as the mod. That said, the level of enforcement and punishment is up to you. This first year, we're certainly on a test run, and possibly we can just have a one sentence thank you requirement with no expectation of a demerit or consequence as our test run to see how it goes simply knowing that's a stated part of the good manners of the ficathon this year?

Re: Please share anywhere you like

[brightknightie]

Yep, from now on, if/when they're apparently needed, I'll (unofficially!) be sending many more, much sooner, still very quiet, "do you realize that there isn't yet a comment from you?" reminders.

I worry that not having a plainly, publicly stated universal rule and penalty could lead to favoritism and tyranny. I worry about a lot of stuff :-) probably beyond sense.

Surely, with a statement of expectations and reminders, it won't happen again. I hope!

Thank you for all your help thinking it through and seeing more pieces of it.

Re: Please share anywhere you like

[havocthecat]

I think that having a specifically stated expectation will help! I feel that "favoritism and tyranny" might be a bit of hyperbole? :) But I think to avoid the feeling of favoritism or tyranny, on anyone's part (mod or participant), let's just have a clearly stated expectation. I'm all for that!

Hopefully you can count on a couple of players making posts on their journals about the new feedback rule. (I will attempt to make posts about that during the years that I play.)

I hope that I am helping and not making more work for you! Please do not ever be afraid to tell me if I'm being inadverently unhelpful. That's never my goal and I'd rather you tell me so I can change course and help out instead of making it worse for you without realizing.

[greerwatson]

I didn't check any of the due dates for fkficfest since I'm okay with whatever is decided.

On fest dates

[brightknightie]

Thank you!