Not sure if anyone would agree with me about how the points of MWS should work, but the way I see it:
(1) There will never really be a fair way to assign points to fanworks. I mean, some people are deeply uncomfortable with the very fact that fanworks get assigned points at all. It's just a virtue of trying to assign numerical value to something that is very difficult to assign numerical value to.
and
(2) What is most important to me for deciding on the scales of MWS is their ability to be abused. That's why I fought so hard to make the doodle/sketch amount in the fanart scale so low, because it's possible I could make twenty five-minute sketches on a piece of paper and submit them all to MWS, and unless there's a very low bottom, there is a possibility I could get a huge amount of points for very little effort. It's the same way with short fiction and poetry. It's not that it's assumed that it takes only ten minutes to write, but that an abuser who doesn't care a bit about quality COULD possibly write it in ten minutes. That's what I'm afraid of. It's also why icons are so low too, even though I sometimes spend more than two hours on a single icon. It's just really really hard to tell how much time and effort has been put into something.
Like, at the other comm I'm in, they have Fanworks of the Month bonuses, which is basically extra points awarded to fanworks people think are especially high quality (i.e. an attempt to increase points for good work that clearly had much extra time put into it). It's a good idea but it also has its share of problems and causes a lot of extra work. But still, if we can come up with some kind of auxiliary point system that might work nicely? Just some food for thought.
Regarding your suggestion for a month-long short fiction / poetry contest, I think that's a great idea. It'd be a nice change from previous month-long contests.
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(1) There will never really be a fair way to assign points to fanworks. I mean, some people are deeply uncomfortable with the very fact that fanworks get assigned points at all. It's just a virtue of trying to assign numerical value to something that is very difficult to assign numerical value to.
and
(2) What is most important to me for deciding on the scales of MWS is their ability to be abused. That's why I fought so hard to make the doodle/sketch amount in the fanart scale so low, because it's possible I could make twenty five-minute sketches on a piece of paper and submit them all to MWS, and unless there's a very low bottom, there is a possibility I could get a huge amount of points for very little effort. It's the same way with short fiction and poetry. It's not that it's assumed that it takes only ten minutes to write, but that an abuser who doesn't care a bit about quality COULD possibly write it in ten minutes. That's what I'm afraid of. It's also why icons are so low too, even though I sometimes spend more than two hours on a single icon. It's just really really hard to tell how much time and effort has been put into something.
Like, at the other comm I'm in, they have Fanworks of the Month bonuses, which is basically extra points awarded to fanworks people think are especially high quality (i.e. an attempt to increase points for good work that clearly had much extra time put into it). It's a good idea but it also has its share of problems and causes a lot of extra work. But still, if we can come up with some kind of auxiliary point system that might work nicely? Just some food for thought.
Regarding your suggestion for a month-long short fiction / poetry contest, I think that's a great idea. It'd be a nice change from previous month-long contests.