• Member Since 15th Mar, 2012
  • offline last seen Jun 19th, 2017

Obselescence


[center]Bye guys[/center]

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Jun
21st
2015

OC SlamJam - Round 3 · 8:58pm Jun 21st, 2015

Hey guys. I'm kind of tired right now. I don't quite have the energy to recraft all the details of the SlamJam, so you can just check out the Round 2 announcement if you need to remind yourself of anything important.

BUT THAT'S NOT TO SAY THE HYPE TRAIN NEED SLOW DOWN.

Third Round, Bracket One
Third Round, Bracket Two

The ever-venerable OC compendium.

You have until 11:59 PM CST next Sunday (June 28) to get your entry in.

A few things:

-As with last round, I'll be giving the word count max another slight bump, up to 3500 words. Use them wisely. Please don't try to bite off more than you can chew, though. I'd really rather not have to give the deadline another extension.

-One thing that got a little contentious last round is the possibility of people getting friends outside the contest, who may have edited or proofread for them, to vote in their favor. It doesn't seem to have affected any of the results (and I did drop a couple of the most suspicious-looking votes - which, again, no effect on results), but I do want to say that it's part of your duty as an author in this contest to try and keep everything honorable and fair. If someone's edited for you and knows which character is yours, please try to urge them to keep away from voting on your OC.

Good luck, guys!

Report Obselescence · 863 views · #OC Slamjam
Comments ( 48 )
Majin Syeekoh
Moderator

You should cut back on the booze, then.

Massive amounts of alcohol will wear anyone out.:raritywink:

Wanderer D
Moderator

Huh. Other than a couple of characters, I have no clue who will win this round.

In hindsight, I should've gone with the haunted sunken ship premise.

Here's the link to my farewell blog which I wrote a week ago in case I lost my match, meant to be posted here should that occur. Read it if you want to find out where I've been since then and other stuff (like a congratulatory message/advice for Wispy Willow's author).

As for who I am for real, well, ask Burraku_Pansa for that. Smart (or maybe just lucky) dude, he is. :ajsmug:

3168766
Heh, so I was right? Cool. I mean, I'm not going to go saying who you are without your okay, though.

Edit: Insensitive of me not to say: you really did improve on your second shot, and I think you could've been even better with your third. Good luck in the future, man.

Edit edit: And for the record, I figured it out because some of your private remarks sounded like your main account's reasoning for voting for the story—some being reasons few others seemed to have.

Well, I'm out.
Wind Whistler was mine. I may have lost, but I'm happy with the piece I put out. General consensus seems to agree it was a good effort, Redwood's author just did a bit better. Best of luck to Redwood's author in the next round. She was a blast to work with, and I'm looking forward to seeing two of the characters I've really enjoyed go head to head.

Have fun in the next round, those of you that are still in, don't disappoint us.

Wanderer D
Moderator

3168766 Well, for what it's worth I liked your story for more reasons than it reading better than the first one. Good luck in the future.

Round three! Time to kick things up an even further notch!

I didn't even get to vote on most of round 2. Like last time, I put most of it off until the last day... or what I thought was the last day. Timezones messed me up, and I ended up not getting to it in time. I'll still go back and read round 2 in its entirety, I promise. But for now, I have the third round to prepare for.

I have some work ahead of me this time.

Yay! Onward to Round 3! ♥

3168766
Good effort! I'm curious, though. Did you have a story planned out in case you won and went up against me? I was brainstorming one against you—it looked like you were gonna win for a while there!

And then there were sixteen.

I was the one who thought "Rachis Barbule" was an okay name, and an AU poem would be less of a turnout than it turned out to be. :twilightblush:

Show of hands: how many of you guessed who I was?

Obvious Question, man, I'm still waiting to find out who you are. PM me if you don't want to declare yourself publicly. Great job to you, and to Mango Leaf. Good luck with Haystacks! I don't envy you that matchup.

EDIT: My Round 2 entry was supposed to have a shoutout at the end for Obvious Question's author, with links about the weird names for anyone who still wanted to know. Rachis himself was covered pretty well already, but I didn't think his name would be weird enough no one would ask about Makepiece. Here's the reason for his name, if anyone's curious.

(After I decided to make Zecora Joseph, I realized I could make the whole thing rhyme. How do you throw away an idea like that?)

Congratulations to all the winners!

After seeing his second round entry, I feel like having Haystacks write about me would be a reward for advancing to round four.

Wanderer D
Moderator

3168888 I sorta figured it out with your insight into the poem. I'm sorry to see you go bro, that poem was a piece of art. I wish I had your way with words like that!

3168905 Oh, definitely. I just don't know if I would have a chance of beating him. Rachis vs. Haystacks would have quickly become Rarity vs. Applejack. I had a few fun ideas lined up, though, just in case. I was going to have Haystacks run for office in a House of Cards-style political thing, with Rachis as his confidant.

3168906 Yeah, after I started getting responses back to my little speech, I realized I had probably said a bit too much. Oh well. Thanks, anyway. I wish I had everyone else's ability to effectively execute a concept and not make weird, big mistakes.

3168888

Show of hands: how many of you guessed who I was?

Pretty much did. First suspicions when you were the one to bring up the connection to the bible story, further suspicions with that big old defense of the piece, even further when I took in the specific wording of that "you would be the one" comment. You did fine work, man.

3168766 Hey, I liked both of your stories. You're very good at making me feel your tone, whether it's scary or adventurous.
3168918 I like to think I would've noticed the Bible thing anyway. I'm a bit of a scriptorian. And can I be the first to ask you who Mizuko is?

3168813

and I think you could've been even better with your third.

I was determined to climb the Mt. Everest in my mind to improve my skills enough to take down every tough opponent I faced. Thanks for the kind words and encouragement. :twilightsmile:

3168822 Thanks to you too. :twilightsmile:

3168871 And you as well. :twilightsmile:

As I explained in my linked blog down below, I was too stressed over the voting to so much as touch the second compilation for a while. That said, I figured you were going to win and brainstormed an idea all the while, and I even started writing an outline a few days ago. I'd love to see what your idea was, so think we could swap stories at the earliest convenience?

Also, here's some advice: don't let Wispy's obsession with ghosts force you into writing a specific (read: haunted location) story. If you can find a setup that allows both Lilligold and Wispy to be sufficiently characterized, go for it. Had I gone with the haunted sunken ship premise, I believe I would've won this round.

Best of luck! :pinkiehappy:

3168920
Well, since he pretty much said it in the comment right before this one: it was Razalon.

3168938 Missed that one. Thanks :)

Ooh, lots of juicy morsels here! I've documented what I noticed, but may have overlooked something; if anyone notices (or wrote) something I missed (or just wants to update their listed status), poke me and I'll edit accordingly. :pinkiehappy:

Also, congrats to everyone moving on! :twilightsmile:

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

3168819
For what it's worth, while WW made me raise an eyebrow given his position, I think you made him work, at least in that most recent entry. :)

3168918

First suspicions when you were the one to bring up the connection to the bible story

That was, like, the first thing I noticed about the story. I thought it was obvious :/

Wanderer D
Moderator

3168920 Sorry I missed this comment.

Thanks to you too. :twilightsmile:

3168819

Thanks! I had fun working with Whistler as well.

And now I'm off to get curb-stomped by Evergreen. I hope that will also be fun.

3168819 I was actually really impressed with Wind Whistler as an OC. I thought he was one of the most balanced and rounded in the whole compendium. He's definitely the most suited to having a story outside of this contest.

3169237 Another sockpuppet? Have seen yours yet? And don't count yourself out too soon. I expect a neck-and-neck showing from you two.

3169292

Let's be honest with ourselves. I'm not Canadian enough for odds that good. Evergreen will eat my skin and play the xylophone on my ribcage.

And I make it on to Round 3. My at least goal of Final Four is one step closer...

And, y'know, I'm sorry, but am I the only one to find the character profiles incredibly distasteful? Some of us are adhering to the anonymity and not using a workaround, allowing/forcing our stories to stand on their own until we're eliminated. I know they're not against the rules, but it's really frustrating when I can't say anything, but my opponent's potentially could. I don't think it's swung any votes, so maybe it's pointless, but it's the idea of the thing.

3169539
Yeah, they're a bit odd. I haven't seen much in the way of them trying to sway the vote, though, so I'm cool with letting people have their fun for now.

3169598

Should communicate that clearly in some way. Let them know that their existence is okay as long as they don't do a lot of defending their work or trying to convince people. We have seen some people trying to explain their decisions it's true.

Other than that, the character profiles are fun.

3169052
Thanks. I was a lot happier with my entry this round than last one.

3169237
Don't sell yourself short, I fully expect a very tough decision next round.
Canadians aren't Caneighdian enough for Evergreen. And now that I've made the pun I can't make this round, I'm happy.

3169292
Thanks, it means a lot to hear that :twilightsmile:

3169628
I think it'd be fine if they hung out on the group, RPd there and talked there. But even if they don't sway votes, they could still sway attitudes. Personally, I'd prefer they stay away from the Slamjam stories themselves.

3169628 ...One of them's yours, isn't it?

3169653
Given that RPing's banned and all, I'd say that's not a good idea.

3169724
I guess I didn't mean that super literally, heh, 'cause you got a point. More just like, bantering in character I guess, with their comments? More how I was thinking.

3169653

If you think it best, I will try to minimise my presence from here on. I only comment because I like to think that my critics have a lot to teach me. For example, Belligerent Sock and I exchanged a number of PMs, and he gave me a lot of insight about military operations and interservice communication. I guess I just didn't want to wait until I was eliminated before I started engaging with my critics when I could be applying that knowledge right away.

3169837
Yeah, but how fair is that to any of your opponent's who don't do that? I suppose you could argue that everyone has that option, but what's more expected? That we wait until we're eliminated and outed, or that we make an entirely different account so that we can argue our cases or ask for help from those we have to stay anonymous with in the competition? The latter just feels a little exploitative and not really in spirit with the competition.

And it could just be me. I just find it to be in poor taste. I mean, once it's all said and done, I will be messaging people or responding to comments, answering questions or offering explanations (hell, it's pretty damn hard not to sockpuppet myself and do it now), or asking for clarifications on critiques and whatnot. And if anyone messages me, I will gladly answer their questions and the like (such as yours, I haven't forgotten). But I think that's best for post-game, not in-game. The game is a test of your skills now and for how you use the tips and critiques you're being given during the voting, because that's where everyone stands, equally.

3169863

As you say, everyone has the option, and for that reason, I can't say I agree. Seems like a fairly odd distinction to me. The anonymity is in place to prevent bias in favour of big name authors, not to prevent author-reader interaction. If you choose not to use all the tools available to you, I won't condemn you for that, but I shan't apologise for my practices. I seek to improve myself, not to sabotage others, and I feel that seeking self-improvement is well within the spirit of the competition. I merely go further in my search than some others, because I like to be conscious of my own weaknesses.

If an uneven playing field is what you're worried about, then I'd encourage you to go ahead and make yourself a sockpuppet as soon as you have an opponent with one of their own, which I'd wager good odds that you already do.

3169921

Again, I didn't like how some authors tried to explain or justify decisions that voters didn't like. But I think for the most part we can ask them to do less of that and go with an honor system/benefit of the doubt system.

3170011

Agreed. I did see some of that in the comments as I read through round two, and that did strike me as poor taste, for its immaturity if nothing else.

Wanderer D
Moderator

3170011 3170066 I'd say that it would be fair for OC accounts to exist if they don't go and argue choices other people make. I mean, we're a fairly opinionated lot, but having the OC defend the story would be a bit excessive. Asking for extra feedback that way shouldn't be a problem, but I think that should be the limit of the OC interactions with others during the voting period.

Also, if any OC account starts antagonizing others via PM it should be reported to the moderators.

3170135 That's why I didn't make one. It would have raised a lot of eyebrows if Rachis showed up saying "Come on, guys! My name's not that stupid! Don't fear the poetry!"

3169921
We'll agree to disagree on that point, then.

3170135

Definitely.

3170568

It seems we shall have to.

Good luck to you this round.

3170258

Come on, guys! My name's not that stupid!

You totally should have done that, though. It would have been pretty funny. :rainbowwild:

3189919 lol yeah, it would have been. Wouldn't have won me any votes, though.

3190059
That's not the point! You had the opportunity to be a silly butthead, and you dropped the ball! For shame :rainbowwild:

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