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fkficfestFor the first time, we're electing our pool of prompts via single-elimination brackets. First, we'll rank ("seed") the prompts. This lets us match the most against the least popular, either giving the most popular a glide path to winning, or setting the stage for interesting upsets. After ranking, we'll have daily elimination rounds until we reach a final 4, which will become our pool. Read the game plan.
How to rank: The biggest total score ranks highest. On the list below, give each prompt a number from 55 (most wanted) to 1 (least wanted). Blanks equal 0. Don't use any number more than once. I'll break ties via ranked-choice-voting precedence. (Individual rankings will not show to the community, only to the mod.)
Important: The entry field for each prompt is UNDER that prompt.
This ranking poll is open until Monday, March 11, at 10pm Pacific Time. Bracket voting (daily match-up polls) then begin on Tuesday morning (Pacific Time). With 55 prompts, it should take us 4 rounds (with 9 byes in the first round) to select our pool of 4!
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 11
A study in shades of crimson
“Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
An unexpected event leads to chaos.
Whatever happened to ___________?
“They're sharing a drink they call loneliness, but it's better than drinking alone.”—Billy Joel, “Piano Man”
swan song
That's a wrap!
“There's always some reason to feel not good enough”—Sarah McLachlan
Bend it! (rules, roles, genders, jobs, species, etc.)
thicker than water
“Never thought I'd say this, but...”
Tears in the rain (apologies to _Bladerunner_)
Loss of control
“Because I could not stop for Death He kindly stopped for me, The Carriage held but just Ourselves — And Immortality.”—Emily Dickinson
Seeing the trap is the beginning
“Thinking will not overcome fear, but action will.”—W. Clement Stone
What does the moon see?
Finding out the truth
“Better days are shining through"—Bruce Springsteen, “Better Days”
Target
Keep silent in a silent house
“I am longing to be with you, and by the sea, where we can talk together freely and build our castles in the air.”—Bram Stoker, _Dracula_
A perfect match
“Man fears the least which he knows the best.”—Sir John Fenwick
Make a wish, then blow out your candles.
Unexpected visitor
“Forever – is composed of Nows”—Emily Dickinson
It's complicated.
“People have an annoying habit of remembering the things they shouldn't.”—Christopher Paolini, _Eregon_
Go the long way
The shape of water
“I'd rather be lucky than good.”—Lefty Gomez (and many others)
habit
LaCroix is amused with a thief.
Be careful what you wish for
“Understanding is a three-edged sword.”—J. Michael Straczynski, _Babylon 5_
Time travel (real, flashback, dreams, etc.)
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”—Søren Kierkegaard
Stop and smell the roses.
What happened to André?
“The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.”—L.P. Hartley, _The Go-Between_
Take a third option
early days
“Time cast a spell on you, but you won’t forget me. I know I could have loved you, but you would not let me.”—Fleetwood Mac, “Silver Springs”
Remembered only later
Play
“the crazy longing that time will never tame"—Jackson Browne, “You Love the Thunder”
Changing landscape
Taste
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”—Albert Einstein
Bureaucracy
clarion call
“the world was his and everywhere he moved he was the center of the universe.”—Laurell K. Hamilton, _Narcissus in Chains: An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel_
Haberdashery
Crimson silk
(no subject)
Date: 3/9/24 01:34 am (UTC)Okay to share here once the match ups are known? As a fun game à la "March Madness."
Folks could fill out their brackets predicting what they think the outcomes will be all the way to the final 4.
For anyone unfamiliar, in the U.S., there's a college basketball tournament the starts in March commonly known as "March Madness." People fill out brackets for fun competing against friends and coworkers to see who can come closest to predicting the tournament outcome. Some people know about basketball and stats and use that to make their predictions, but many people just have random criteria to select their predicted winners ("I like that team's uniform better," "I tossed a coin," "My dad went to college there," and the like). The odds of perfect predictions? 1 in 9.2 quadrillion. It's just a game that adds some extra excitement to the tournament.
I may be just the biggest nerd ever and the only one interested in this lol.
Filling out brackets & voting on them
Date: 3/9/24 03:51 pm (UTC)It sounds like you know a lot more than I do about the world of brackets! (I'm mainly familiar with their use in fencing tournaments.)
Please get me back on track if I'm misunderstanding your idea! What would you think about making a post explaining this and offering the Google Sheet in your own journal, and then I make a post here in the community describing it (at a high level!) and linking to your post for folks to get all the details and ask you all the questions? I'm pretty positive that I wouldn't know any of the answers :-) so I want to make sure to route everyone usefully. I could then repeatedly link to it for the 4 days of voting.
Re: Filling out brackets & voting on them
Date: 3/9/24 04:09 pm (UTC)The filling out of a personal bracket would be done after the first round matches are known. So, basically, on the morning of March 12. The bracket is filled out all the way to the final four as a prediction of the outcome. Then the actual voting is basically the equivalent of the basketball game. In the end, you see how close you got to predicting the winners, and seeing who all in the group came the closest. Just a casual, fun thing. I don't know if I'm explaining it well. I'll try drafting a post and putting in a picture as an example of what I mean.
I think the only unknown for me on filling out a personal bracket are the byes, but I figure that can be populated after the first round of voting? (Unless the lineup for those advancing already to round 2 is known.)
Re: Filling out brackets & voting on them
Date: 3/9/24 04:30 pm (UTC)Re: Filling out brackets & voting on them
Date: 3/9/24 05:15 pm (UTC)The 9 byes will be the 9 prompts with the highest seeding, and will advance automatically to the second round. According to what I read about brackets, just rounding up to the next even number will not yield a smooth bracket progress for the rest of the rounds, but would continue to require byes throughout, which is complicated and I would struggle to figure it out.
Would you like me to export the bracket and email you a file on Monday night or Tuesday morning? PDF or XLS?
I apologize for needing to follow the instructions step-by-step and not being familiar with this! It would be great to have the freedom to figure out the math as it unfolds. If we have to pin down all the math in advance, I will make mistakes and have to retract them. This experiment may have been a bad idea.
Re: Filling out brackets & voting on them
Date: 3/9/24 06:00 pm (UTC)No need to send me anything. People inclined to fill out a personal bracket can fill it out themselves when the prompts are revealed.
Sorry for creating any confusion. I'll put a post on my own journal explaining personally brackets, which is just a silly side game to to voting rounds.