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Well it looks like you've earned a reprieve, Lurv.

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Aight, I'll get on it.

2718551 We appreciate your noble sacrifice!

Go forth Bean! Bring the shining beacon of truth and justice unto the unwashed masses! Let this piffling author suffer for his temerity!

Oh wait, we're talking about me. Go easy!

Just throwing this out as an idea... since there were only two January entries and one vote deciding the winning entry, maybe two of us should take "A Challenge for Fleur" and two take "Simple Affections," and then we've got a pair of bi-weekly reviews already lined up. Then do February's winner and either "Movements of Fire and Shadow" or "Café Luna" after that.

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Curious, I was just thinking of adding a third reviewer to each review session, which was the original goal of The Bean when this whole thing started.

But y'know what? I'm all for doubling the number of stories, instead. But we can't do Simple Affections, because that would defy the whole reward system linked to reviews (being that non-winners have to wait in line). I know people way back when might not be burdened, since they've probably put their respective contests long behind them, but I still think there's a standard to be maintained for the newer members.

Let's wait to see if anyone wants to apply more input on this subject before enacting anything. In the meantime, I'll probably stagger the reviews; a story starting now, then a story starting next week. The reviewers will still have two weeks to work on their respective stories, but we'll be releasing reviews much faster without any extra burden on the reviewers themselves. So this week I'll do January's winner, and next week I'll do Movements of Fire and Shadow.

I need to get a little input from...someone before I assign reviewers. Hopefully I'll have the next set ready to go by this afternoon.

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The time has come to assign new reviews. Before I begin, though, I've decided to try something a little different. For this month, I'm going to assign a story on a weekly basis. Reviewers will still get two weeks to write the needed reviews. This way we can catch up without our reviewers having to do any extra work. I figured that the duties were being parceled out over so long a period of time that a bit of a jump start wouldn't hurt anything.

For today I'll be assigning TimeLord_Whooves and The Bean to review the January winner, A Challenge for Fleur. I know The Bean worked on the last review session, but I didn't count it as I had to call on him to do it at the last minute. Anyway, your reviews are due on the 22nd!

Next Saturday I'll request another batch of reviews for an older story! Since there's been some clamor for it, it will almost certainly be Movements of Fire and Shadow.

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Question: Why is Challenge marked as "incomplete?"

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Let me get a closer...

Oops. Will go correct that, like, now.

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I'm a day late, but try not to hold it against me. It's time to set the next batch of reviews! Since there seems to be some demand for it, this time we're going to be reviewing a story from the LunaXOctavia contest: Movements of Fire and Shadow by InquisitorM. The reviewers for this period will be myself and Comrade Sparkle.

Aaaaand we have a guest reviewer, too! ILurvTrixie is getting a chance to impress us by reviewing this one. If we all like how he does he'll be added in as a regular reviewer! Alright, everyone, intimidating stare...now.

Oh, and these reviews will be due March 1st!

TimeLord and The Bean, remember that your reviews for A Challenge for Fleur are due the 22nd!

Okay, you can all go back to staring at Lurv.

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Here I was, fretting over the fact that I'm ridiculously late on the reviews for Movements of Fire and Shadow. I'm reading through the story and writing my review, and I'm getting ready to post—

HEY!

What the smack is this?

Comrade, did you ever send me your review? 'Cause I don't have one from you!

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Okay folks, I'm faced with two dilemmas. Mayhap someone out there can help me out.

First off, has anyone heard from Comrade? He's over a week overdue on his review for Movements and I haven't seen hair nor hide of him. I'm starting to wonder.

Second, our black sheep, Death the Kid, has more or less stopped doing anything FIMFiction. He even sent me a PM saying that he needed direct contact if I needed any reviews from him, which makes it clear he's not even bothering to get on to check the forums anymore. Given the... ahem, manner of his reviews and apparent lack of interest, I was thinking about excluding him from here on in. I wanted to get a consensus on this before I cut the cord, though.

In other news, I have seen Lurv's review, and though it might require a little bit of tweaking (I'll speak to you on this later, Lurv), I think it's certainly good enough to qualify. Again, I want a consensus on this, so I'll wait to make the real decision until after the reviews for Movements are posted, but if things go like I expect then we'll have a replacement for the Kid.

In the meantime, we have a winner! So it's time to assign reviews once more. Punzil, you're up to review Second Chances. Bean, technically it's your turn to review, too, but if you're not comfortable reviewing the competition I can always toss the ball to someone else.

One last thing. After much consideration, I have decided to move to a three-reviews-a-month system. This lets everyone get a chance to review each month and doesn't get me stuck with having the exact same two people reviewing together every time. Basically, every week for three weeks I'll assign two people to review, and then on the fourth week of the month we'll skip. Maybe we can use that time to discuss things, I dunno. But until we get more reviewers, I'm thinking this will be an affective system.

I know I keep changing my mind on this kind of thing, but I'll find my rhythm. Eventually.

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Hmmm, that is a little disconcerting. I haven't seen Comrade since you assigned him to review, hope nothing's happened.

As for Death the Kid, I dunno, that's your call. And I'm all for letting Lurv join the review team.

With the three reviews a month system, I personally don't mind reviewing once a month but I just ask, do we have enough stories to keep the system going?

3042421 Oooooh nooooo.

Well, it's only a little tweaking, right? It's not like getting a full review, right? It-It's going to be fine... right? Right?

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Yeah, I feel the same way. I keep wondering, but I'm hoping he just got tied up. Y'know, work or something.

As far as having enough stories, no. Eventually we would run out, but that's a long ways down the line. Even if you assume we only get one contest entry per month (and let's hope not!), it would take at least 7 months to catch up...which is the real goal, anyway. So for now I'm not too concerned.

In the meantime, The Bean has declined to review Second Chances. Would you care to step in?

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Nah, it's not much. Fret not!

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Sure, I could get it done by the end of tomorrow.

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I was supposed to have reviewed Second Chances by now, wasn't I? I should get going on that...

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Actually, that review's not due until the 22nd. I now realize I completely forgot to mention that...

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Yes, I had realized that Second Chances was the newest winner after I had written the review and sent it. When I agreed to review it, I was thinking about the story that Comrade was late on. Still no word from him?

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No, come to think of it. It might be time to call for a pitch-hitter, but I'll shoot him another query first.

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Two quick questiona for everyone:

With group notifications down, should we wait until they're back up to post reviews?

Should new reviews be put on hold for the same reason?

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Well, as we are still notified when someone replies to a comment, we could still write new reviews and just wait for group notifications to come back to post them all. I don't think notifications are going to be down too much longer. Knighty will probably bring them back with the bookshelves update which I think is going to be at the end of the month.

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Well, I'm a member of more than a few groups myself, and they all seem to be in stasis right now. So, sure.

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Everyone is busy with finals/spring break/CHAOS so let's contribute! Full speed ahead, let's keep going.

...(I should really start writing something for the current challenge.)

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TimeLord's right, we could hold on to the reviews until notifications are up again. But then, I feel that maybe a short break from the usual routine might do us some good, let us try other things in the meantime to get the creative juices flowing (if you will). So yeah, I vote we hold back for now.

...but I wonder what we're gonna do with the contest if the month ends and notifications are still down?

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If notifications are still down by then, we could extend the contest another month. Either that or lock the submissions folder when the contest is over and post the voting thread, though I don't think people will actively go looking for it. I think we should extend it if notifications are still down by then.

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A la Lurv:

"A possibly sneaky and possibly annoying workaround. Story postings to groups still seem to show up on the feed. Although I'm not sure how many votes we've gotten, or how annoyed everyone would get with a story titled 'Go Vote for the Stories!'"

FIRST, it would have to be an actual story or it would never get past the mods. While I can certainly see that being done (and being fun), I for one lack the time to do that (I'm still struggling to catch up on my Twilight-themed contest entry). If someone else has time, then perhaps.

But honestly? I have a habit of ignoring story updates in my feed box; there are far too many stories being uploaded at any given time for me to pay attention to all of them. I'm betting that doesn't apply only to me. Just because we post a story with that title, it doesn't mean anybody will really notice.

Last but not least, this is a contest-only group centered on romance. We'd be breaking our own rules by doing something like that, and setting a bad precedent for the future. For the sake of not undermining the group's core rules, I don't think I could support the idea.

But others might disagree with me on some or all of these points, hence the reason I'm including others in the conversation.

3227223 Given the mounting evidence, a large amount of people may have simply ceased to exist. Vanished into the aether!

I suppose those are all valid points. It was more a thought out of desperation than a real plan. Oh yes, and here we are, May. Now what?

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I have no idea. It's starting to look like we're on lockdown until things get fixed. What is that Knighty character doing, playing golf and sashaying with pegasisters?

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Obs told me to "have faith", whatever that means.

But it's still on the way I guess.

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"Have faith" means "Shut up and don't question your superiors! Any doubters, naysayers, nitpickers, nosy individuals, members of the press, promoters of change and free thinkers will be treated like Kaidan."

But seriously, I'm not too worried. They'll come around eventually.

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Apparently, it also means that there aren't going to be any ponified parodies popping up any time soon based on "The Book of Mormon" musical.

3248847 Since we're almost halfway through May.. shouldn't we... ya know.. close the contest? How many votes have we gotten numerics wise?

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Not many, I'm sorry to say. Enough to declare a winner, true, but if we declare a winner and nobody sees the post, it's kinda unfortunate for the winner, y'know?

The Bean and I have basically decided to put the group in cryostasis until Knighty gets off his ass and opens up group notifications again. Much of what we do here is more or less dependent upon group notifications.

3274650 I can only imagine how many other groups are similarly impacted. I suppose we could just all follow you and Bean and wait for blog posts.. but that's another of those 'not everyone reads those updates' things.

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Actually, that's not a bad idea. I think – but couldn't say with any confidence – that people are far more likely to pay attention to a blog than a list of story additions, especially if the blog specifically states that it is in reference to the group. The trick would be getting all the members of Random Romance – and that's a lot of members – convinced to follow us just for the sake of keeping up with the group, and I'm not sure that's gonna happen.

Still, it's a thought.

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It's a shame that things have suffered so in this group with the absence of notifications.

Maybe we can start building things back up now that the site works again?

Something nice and Hearth warming for Nov/Dec?

Depending on the roll of the dice, I could put Beauty and Fiddles' summer fling aside for a bit...