Ask any questions you'd like about the contest here.

Any rating/tag restrictions we should follow? :)

4954942
Nope, all ratings and all tags are fine!

4955245 Excellent!

Can one use multiple stories from the above folder in the same story?

4958427
I don't see why not. ^.^
It would be interesting to see which ones could work together.

4961360
Sure, I figure that counts.
As long as I can tell which story it's based on, that's good enough.

4878241

What exactly qualifies as a spinoff? Here a few examples I'm unsure about:
- Prequels
- AU interpretations (alternate endings to the same prompt)
- Interludes (fleshing out an event that was part of the original story, but not really written out)

Also, when are the follower counted? At the time of submission, or the deadline? People who write a good story might attract enough attention with it to breach 100 followers, which might be considered unfair.

Here's a question - My story is currently in 'all' 'the' 'Groups'. Do I win the Group Maniac prize?

4967141

What exactly qualifies as a spinoff? Here a few examples I'm unsure about:
- Prequels
- AU interpretations (alternate endings to the same prompt)
- Interludes (fleshing out an event that was part of the original story, but not really written out)

All those would count, sure.
I guess spin-off is sort of a catch-all term for stories that are based on another, but aren't a sequel or continuation.

Also, when are the follower counted? At the time of submission, or the deadline? People who write a good story might attract enough attention with it to breach 100 followers, which might be considered unfair.

Aw, hell. That's a good point.
For the sake of fairness, I think I'll have to measure that at the time of the deadline, so it's the same for everyone... and also so people don't think it's unfair if the person who wins that prize ends up having 200 followers when it's awarded.

4967537
You're definitely in the running! ^.^

Is the view count for the 'You've probably never heard of it' prize counted before or after the contest ends? If I make a mashup between several of your fics and one of them is the one that's been least viewed, do I win the prize or is it totaled between all of them?

If you write anything between now and March 31st (which I assume you will) can we use those pieces in the contest?

4982449
Easy question first: This one's definitely yes, and I've been adding new stories into the folder as I go.

4979696
It's totaled after the contest ends, for simplicity's sake.
And as for a mashup counting toward that... I think in order to be fair to people that based a single fic solely on an unpopular story, I'd have to base that off the most-viewed story in the mashup.

(Sorry it took so long to reply; I don't get notified unless it's a reply to one of my posts, so it's difficult to notice.)

4878241 You know, I just realized: How exactly do people vote for this? Is there going to be a Google survey or something? Or is this by upvotes and downvotes alone? Am I blind and missed something obvious in the group description? 'Cause that's a strong possibility.

5109783
Yeah, I'll be making a quite complicated Google Forms page.
My intention (if possible) is to have it have one story per form page, with links to the story. It would ask people to read (at least partially read) and rate that story before moving on to the next one, requiring a rating each time before progressing and giving you stories in a random order.

In theory, I think, that should be very unbiased, especially removing the bias that could come in favor of more popular stories or ones that got more readers.

5109853 I'm guessing that forms link won't be available until after March 31st?

5109881
Yep, and I can't really even make it until then, because I don't know if there will be any last-minute entries.

5109942 Makes sense to me.

4878241
When does the voting period end?

5150096
May 31st.
It's a long time, but that's on purpose to make sure voters have enough time to read any and all of the stories they want before voting on them.

5177505
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1omRiD-JBe30cjo1S9aMmPSm_Nn1t8BLpbsJ6fcGLKKg/edit?usp=sharing