Actually, Sai and I were talking about this before she posted these comments, and I think that's why it needs to be directed to UA (I'm sorry for causing more work, but I'm with her on this).
I actually agree with you on both points, which is precisely why it should be done in UA and not MWS - only I think I made that comment in the UA post instead of here. I know that a good haiku is really hard to write, but if you just wanted to throw something in the 5-7-5 format, it's really not that hard, and so we can't award too many points on the poetry scale, and so on. Even if I trust that nobody will abuse it (and I do), it's kind of a principle thing.
I think what we're asking for (since I'm adding my voice to Sai's) is that, basically, since we recognise that this cannot be acknowledged in MWS, it should be acknowledged in UA, in some form. I accept that my one-sentence fic, no matter how long I spend on it, is not going to be worth that much in MWS, because it's ultimately a participatory thing. In a competitive situation like UA, though, you're running off the quality factor. Anyone can throw in a crappy icon, but it's not likely to place in a UA contest, whereas I would have to give it points in MWS anyway. But if UA is about quality, and in any case - since it's a contest, you have a limited number of submissions. You can't spam entries. One fic is one fic, one set of icons is one set of icons, and that's the maximum - which means the abuse factor that MWS is prone to is significantly reduced.
...I...am not sure if I'm explaining this very well, actually. What I mean is that yes, long fics do take time, but because they get all the one-month fic contests, which are correspondingly heavier-weighted in both participation and placing points, it feels that they get more weight than drabbles, short fic, etc. even in a situation where it should be quality > quantity. I feel like drabbles are weighted fairly in terms of half-month contests, but the very fact that they've been limited to half-month contests so far is kind of why Sai and I feel kind of iffy about it. It's also difficult to justify more than a half-month contest for one drabble, I agree, which is why I'm seconding her suggestion.
I'd like to give an example, if it helps: take the Zodiac icontest. I feel like something like that could've worked for fic as well: after all, we had people justifying their icon choices in writing. Another example of a month-long contest that did do something similar to this was the 5+1 fic contest, which I dearly wanted to take part in but couldn't due to RL business (and which eventually got cut to a sentence each anyway. /cough)
ETA: Also, to continue my point about UA and MWS - this is why I feel there should be... a greater division between MWS and UA in terms of fic points. As it stands fic points tend to follow MWS points exactly. I'm not sure about art, because the last art contest we had was kind of a big question mark as to what people would draw and the medium they'd do it in, and that's hard to estimate a good amount of participation points for. (It's also why the MWS fallback exists, anyway.) Icons, however, tend to get 5 points per in UA contests, compared to 2 points per in MWS. The villanelle got more or less what it would have done in MWS, though, and so did the drabble; there was no bonus there despite the fact that it's also adhering to a theme and format, and so it does feel a bit like when it comes to fic contests, UA is too close to MWS despite the fact that they're rewarding different things.
Long fic's trickier, of course, which is why I'm talking mostly about the set fics, and I know you did note it ^^; I'm just using it to illustrate a point, I guess.
...okay. This got long. I'M SORRY TAKO. I'M WILLING TO CLARIFY ON AIM IF NECESSARY and all that.
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I actually agree with you on both points, which is precisely why it should be done in UA and not MWS - only I think I made that comment in the UA post instead of here. I know that a good haiku is really hard to write, but if you just wanted to throw something in the 5-7-5 format, it's really not that hard, and so we can't award too many points on the poetry scale, and so on. Even if I trust that nobody will abuse it (and I do), it's kind of a principle thing.
I think what we're asking for (since I'm adding my voice to Sai's) is that, basically, since we recognise that this cannot be acknowledged in MWS, it should be acknowledged in UA, in some form. I accept that my one-sentence fic, no matter how long I spend on it, is not going to be worth that much in MWS, because it's ultimately a participatory thing. In a competitive situation like UA, though, you're running off the quality factor. Anyone can throw in a crappy icon, but it's not likely to place in a UA contest, whereas I would have to give it points in MWS anyway. But if UA is about quality, and in any case - since it's a contest, you have a limited number of submissions. You can't spam entries. One fic is one fic, one set of icons is one set of icons, and that's the maximum - which means the abuse factor that MWS is prone to is significantly reduced.
...I...am not sure if I'm explaining this very well, actually. What I mean is that yes, long fics do take time, but because they get all the one-month fic contests, which are correspondingly heavier-weighted in both participation and placing points, it feels that they get more weight than drabbles, short fic, etc. even in a situation where it should be quality > quantity. I feel like drabbles are weighted fairly in terms of half-month contests, but the very fact that they've been limited to half-month contests so far is kind of why Sai and I feel kind of iffy about it. It's also difficult to justify more than a half-month contest for one drabble, I agree, which is why I'm seconding her suggestion.
I'd like to give an example, if it helps: take the Zodiac icontest. I feel like something like that could've worked for fic as well: after all, we had people justifying their icon choices in writing. Another example of a month-long contest that did do something similar to this was the 5+1 fic contest, which I dearly wanted to take part in but couldn't due to RL business (and which eventually got cut to a sentence each anyway. /cough)
ETA: Also, to continue my point about UA and MWS - this is why I feel there should be... a greater division between MWS and UA in terms of fic points. As it stands fic points tend to follow MWS points exactly. I'm not sure about art, because the last art contest we had was kind of a big question mark as to what people would draw and the medium they'd do it in, and that's hard to estimate a good amount of participation points for. (It's also why the MWS fallback exists, anyway.) Icons, however, tend to get 5 points per in UA contests, compared to 2 points per in MWS. The villanelle got more or less what it would have done in MWS, though, and so did the drabble; there was no bonus there despite the fact that it's also adhering to a theme and format, and so it does feel a bit like when it comes to fic contests, UA is too close to MWS despite the fact that they're rewarding different things.
Long fic's trickier, of course, which is why I'm talking mostly about the set fics, and I know you did note it ^^; I'm just using it to illustrate a point, I guess.
...okay. This got long. I'M SORRY TAKO. I'M WILLING TO CLARIFY ON AIM IF NECESSARY and all that.