Green Room - Week 1 - Day 5

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

People are always asking me questions. A few of those questions have words that I can actually repeat in public. Sometimes those questions are actually questions and *not* telling me where I can go. (I assume those are vacation suggestions. Although I'm not sure how exactly I'm supposed to get to some of those places. It doesn't seem possible!)

Some of the questions from the past couple of days seem appropriate to cover right now! So, I will!

- "Where is the poll?" http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/716621.html

- "I missed the deadline for the poll, can you add me?" No. You can submit something as a "Home Game entry". (just post a link in a Green Room or to the Voting poll, whereever you think people will see it) But once the poll goes up, I can't edit it.

- "My votes keep vanishing, WTF?" People who have been around LJ polls for awhile know about this particular glitch. Those coming back after a while of being away or those completely new, might not. If you are going back to "edit votes" (Voting and then going back to add votes), LJ is going to erase most of, if not all, of your old votes. It's best to keep some sort of sheet handy of who you wanted to vote for, otherwise they will be lost. LJ keeps saying they will address it, but I think for the way *most* people use their polls, it's not a big issue. For us, it's pretty damn annoying. Sorry about that. I've addressed the issue with them, but for now we just have to keep doing the "work around" solution.

- "How many entries can I vote for/I really didn't like an entry, can I vote against it?"
You can vote for as many entries as you want to support. There is no way to vote "against" something. I've tried to keep the polls as "positive" as possible. You are showing support for things you have enjoyed. So the closest thing you could do in the second case, is don't vote for anything you didn't enjoy.
On your average day on the internet, people tend to come across a ton of things they don't enjoy. My hope in Idol is that you will find more that you do!

- "How can I help you?" If you are asking about anything administrative, I've got that covered. :)

If you want other ways to help out, there are a few off the top of my head: (1) Keep things positive and pro-Idol. When faced with the decision to react negatively to something, try not to do so. That's not just here, but in life in general. (I can use my own advice sometimes!) (2) Comment in the Green Rooms, voting threads and above all, in the entries themselves! (3) Share the love with other people! There are a lot of entries out there, let people know what they might have missed out on! (4) Declare your byes and link your entries! A big part of the headache of getting the poll up (other than my own technical issues) is tracking down missing entries! If everyone does their part, that will be less of an issue. (5) Idol is completely free, but if you want to give (knowing that it's not going to help you in any way), there is a link to ways to do that: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/708268.html

edit to add (6) I'm giving this it's own line, because it's pretty important: You can set up your journal in any style you want. It's your journal after all. Just understand that if you have a a CAPTCHA system set up for comments or have your default font set to something where people have squint, or that really cool color combination that you thought would be funny, but makes it difficult for folks to read - people only have so much time. I remember someone a few seasons back who was writing absolutely brilliant stuff. But I had to go to "use my style" in order to read it. (and most people aren't going to be as patient as I am, or look for "work arounds" to get it to work for them.) She was almost eliminated in the first couple rounds, someone mentioned it to her, she changed it, and made the finals that year! It's like writing the "Great American novel" using fingerpaint. Sure, it's a great book, but isn't part of the process being able to get people to actually *want* to sit down and read it?

I'm sure there are more questions, but I'll get to them later! :)

So, #3 on that list - what have you read that needs more love than it is currently getting? (especially from "newbies", who might not have the name recognition yet)

Comments

[kittenboo.livejournal.com]

Seriously am I first? Damn that never happens.

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

You are!

[malruniel11.livejournal.com]

Can I just hang around here instead of going to the mandatory meeting at work?

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Yes. But I *am* in the process of announcing that we are downsizing our group by 4 positions.

[blergeatkitty.livejournal.com]

The benefit of coming back to LJ after years of barely paying attention to it is that I pretty much know nobody, so I read everyone with the same level of attention.

It's like a dystopian sci-fi movie - the protagonist goes into the future to find his/her hometown a desolate wasteland, but it turns out there's still a vibrant, welcoming, and very, very weird community hidden among the wreckage. Which I guess makes LJ Idol the Thunderdome of social media.

[n3m3sis43.livejournal.com]

I vaguely remember you from this other LJ "competition" from wayyyy back in the day. I'm not sure either of us was necessarily competing in it, so much as "had our names thrown in."

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

Mornin' GR. I am on normal people time today. Woo!

I haven't had a chance to read through everything yet, otherwise I would have a small list of rec's to share with you all. :) I'm trying to get faster as this reading thing in order for that to happen -- I know that even as a vet, I always get a little thrill when I see someone put me on their rec list. <3

I need to get off my butt here in a minute and make some phone calls. I am not looking forward to these.

[n3m3sis43.livejournal.com]

YOU CAN DOOOOOO EEEEET. <3

[bookishgeek.livejournal.com]

Hey GR friends! Someone pointed it out to me on my own LJ, so I wanted to nudge everyone here as well - please be sure that your layout is conducive to comments! This includes Captchas, but also things like having a comment box that's a crazy color. It's hard to leave a comment if I am typing grey on grey!

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reminding me about the other stuff I wanted to say!

*goes back to edit*

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

Why can't my cookies set themselves up and put themselves in the oven?

[n3m3sis43.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but I'll set up my cookies if you will get these data files to read in correctly.

[n3m3sis43.livejournal.com]

Umm... things and stuff. I have too much work to do. A guy is coming to muck with our alarm system, so I have to put on a bra soon. I have read almost half the entries so far, I think? And am starting to wonder if posting something completely unfunny makes me a freak.

Never mind, I think being me is what makes me a freak. XD

[i-will-not-say.livejournal.com]

My story was creepy and violent in a week full of goofy jokes and absurd situations, so I kinda wondered about myself, too. (Though mine is a sorta character alt, so there's that.)

I need coffee. Maybe I feel like a freak because I haven't had enough coffee yet? haha

[unmowngrass.livejournal.com]

Guess my to-do list today is reading entries. This is not mutually exclusive with my other to do list, laundry. I love it when I can procrastinate doing something useful with something else useful, AND vice versa!

[rattsu.livejournal.com]

Well, since we have a lot of new people, I thought it was time for a good old repost! (going to throw it up in the next workroom too, to make sure that as many newbies as possible gets to read it.

---

Playing the Game - An LJI meta entry

I have a confession to make, I'm a wargamer at heart, and a one time games designer. It's impossible for me to enter a competition and trying not to find out what makes it tick. Yes, I joined the LJI to get back into writing, and I'm of the firm opinion that it is your words that gets you far here. That being said, it should be in everybody's interest to have as few barriers between your words and the people who read them. So, while I've been saying that I joined for fun (which I did) there was actually a LOT of thought behind my posts last season, especially early in the game. So, here are my advice and tactics about how to stay ahead in the LJI competition, though I suppose it is true for a lot of online competitions.


I have no votes right now, how can I ever hope to win?

If you look at your vote total now and are wondering how you will ever survive, you really need to read this.

Since I was very curious, I went back and did statistics for last season, which had a similar number of contestants, both recurring and newbies.

Out of last year's TOP 19, a total of 4 people were in top 19 after the first round. Also, this included none of the final four.

If we look closer at the final four of last season, they had the following votes in round one: 84, 50, 51, 74, while the maximum number was 127.

The persons that ended up in first and fourth place were placed in the upper quarter or so, they had plenty of votes, even in round one, though nowhere near as many as the top scorers.

The persons that ended up in second and third place were placed somewhere in the lower middle third or so. They were in no acute danger of elimination, but were both just anonymous faces that didn't get that much attention.

Of course over the season this changed.

Because that is one thing that you can rely on: The longer the competition goes, the greater the chance that people will pick you out of the field. Right now everything is a blur, most people have no time to read everything, votes are based a lot on previous friends lists, and people might think it's just a popularity contest where newcomers have no chance against the other contenders.

Out of the top three, three were newcomers.

Out of the top three we had one fiction specialist, one who tended towards fact based entries, and one classic blogger though all of them wrote different stories during the season.

My advice for all people worrying about votes is:

Don't worry unless you are in acute danger of elimination. The only place that is important now is the last place. Avoid it, and you can go all the way.

Don't worry about not being read yet. Yes, not everybody will read you right now. But, work on it and you might pick up a regular reader or two each turn, and if they like you, they tend to stick around and read more. And they have friends, and recommendations.

BE SHORT! I cannot stress this enough. There are tons of things to read now, save your longer poignant entries until later, write things that are short, snappy, and yet manages to connect to people. Yeah, that's hard.

Never rely on add-ons! They are nice, but you can never be sure that people will click on the awesome links, watch the cool videos, or even see the amazing pictures. Use add-ons like spice, but make sure that your bread and butter entry works fine as text as well.

And above all, don't stress. Don't angst. Sit back, write, have fun. See each round as a victory and you can go all the way.

[rattsu.livejournal.com]

How to win votes and influence people.

1: Write something you feel passionately about. There is no shortcut here, if you write something meh or something fake that you think other people might like, it won't go very well. This tends to show. Better to write weird shit that you love and go out with a bang than fake it unto blandness.

2: Make sure your friends list knows what's up. By this I don't mean begging for votes, but talk about the competition. Insinuate it into your posting routine. It might be things like:

- Talking about what you might write about, putting up polls later in the game to see what kind of things they like you writing about. Audience participation never hurts once you've got people hooked, especially if you're unsure if people want more fiction, or prefers rambly poetry.

- Putting up rec-lists when it is time for voting, sneakily linking to the poll for more reading. Raving about others fulfills a few purposes. It shows to other contestants that you have read their posts and thought about them. Also, it spreads word about the competition, and next year maybe your friends will join. Two of mine did this year.

- If you are asking people to vote for you, do it in the context of something else. Maybe a rec list, or adding a reminder that the vote is up in another post about other things. The thing is, begging is annoying, but there might also be people on your friends list who might love to vote for you, but would have no idea how to go about doing it otherwise. It is a fine balance. In general, try to picture how you would have felt if one of your friends did what you is about to do. If you would think that was okay, chances are it will be so.

3: Always vote for yourself. If you don't support your own writing, why should anybody else? There's no shame in that, get rid of that little guilt-tripper on your shoulder. If you are in this competition chances are you write awesome, and should get some more confidence in your skills. You won't immediately turn into an ego-bastard because of a little bit of self-promotion.

4: Have a spreadsheet to keep track on who you have read or not. This is helpful for a lot of reasons, not just when it comes to voting. Last season I used my spreadsheet to keep track on who I had commented to. I tried to make sure that I had commented to everybody in the field at least once every four or five rounds or so. It is likely that during that time everybody would have produced at least one piece I liked, and I wanted to make sure I told them so. Why? One, I love comments myself. So I want to give them to other people too. Two, it makes your name recognized, even subconsciously.

5: Stick to one icon for the competition. This gives you visual branding, and makes sure that even when skimming the green room or comment field they will make sure to recognize you faster than it takes writing your name. You can use other icons when replying to comments in your entry, that fools you into believing that there might be a lot of other people answering your comments, thus making your brain feel like your entry is filled with interesting people and not just you answering back. It is visual makeup for the writing soul.

[snarkerdoodle.livejournal.com]

For those that want to check how the poll is doing more easily, but without actually casting your 'real' votes (because of the LJ poll issue with the wiping of votes) -- just vote for a single bye entry and submit that. You will then see the results when you view the entry, and not have to do the extra clicks to get to 'view poll results', and you won't be risking the loss of any 'real' votes.

Then when you're ready to vote your actual votes for a full tribe, you can then go in and edit to put in everyone and submit it.

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

If you just want to see how the poll is doing, you can click on the link with the poll # at the top of that section of the poll, then click the link that says "View poll results". You don't have to cast a bye vote (or any vote) if you just want to see the current vote spread.

[i-will-not-say.livejournal.com]

I have a midterm today, and I don't wanna. :(

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Good luck!!

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

I have my journal set to "Read Everything in My Style." It negates those weird color combinations. My vision isn't bad (with my glasses on) but I still find it easier to read black-on-white than other combinations.

In other news, today is my hubby knightaudit's birthday! After bowling this evening I'm picking up a bucket of extra crispy KFC then going home to make him some dumplings and (Stove Top) stuffing, as those are his favorite side items. Nom!

[labelleizzy.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday, hubby!

[reborn-spirit.livejournal.com]

I'm back to work today after a St. Patty's Day snow storm shut us down yesterday.

[isle-of-apples.livejournal.com]

Whew. Finally made a super-short rec list (http://isle-of-apples.livejournal.com/100795.html). Picking just two per tribe was hard but I'm a fan of the quick and dirty list for people with short attention spans.

[joyfulfeather.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I really didn't want to use my first bye in the first week. I'd even started having an idea of what to write! But it turns out that moving takes a Lot of energy and time. Oh, and I have no functioning internet at home. Even on my phone, since I get nearly NO signal from Sprint in the townhouse of surrounding area. Not okay. I'm going to try to fix it tonight. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

*crosses fingers*

[yeti-have-blog.livejournal.com]

YETI EYESIGHT DIFFERENT FROM HUMAN EYESIGHT. YETI PREFER READ POSTS IN WHITE ON VERY LIGHT GREY DUE TO CORNEAL FORMATION FAVORABLE TO ARCTIC CLIMES.

YETI READ ALL POSTS IN "VIEW IN OWN STYLE" MODE TO COMPENSATE FOR ILLEGIBLE BLACK-ON-WHITE TYPOGRAPHY.

[shay-writes.livejournal.com]

OMG! Yetis are awesome! The writing group I belong to is called The Pimp Yeti Hos (or Yetis for short) Our mascot is a pimp Yeti. :)

[beeker121.livejournal.com]

When I was first discussing the topic with my husband this was the joke he came back with:

Julius Caesar walks into a bar, and orders a martinus.
The bartender says "Don't you mean a martini?"
Caesar says "I am the great Caesar, captain of legions, leader of Rome. If I wanted a double, I'd ask for one."

ba dum ching!

[snarkerdoodle.livejournal.com]

That is... *horribly* bad, and yet I am still laughing. :D

[sra33.livejournal.com]

I... SHOULD be working on my face rig for my final project in class. I'm being lazy and just not doing it.

Actually... I'm gonna start doing it. Teach came by to tell me specifically that he fixed the UVs so that I can start playing with blend shapes, so I think he'd be a tad miffed if he sees I'm just dicking around when he spent his break doing that... >.>

OFF I FLY! Maybe if we strike up a conversation I can just reply in emails so it'll look more legit. ^^

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

There is no way to vote "against" something.

Well, technically there is.

If you vote for all but one person in the poll, you've effectively voted against that person.

I'm not advocating it. Just saying.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

That's still voting FOR everyone else.

Unlike, say Survivor or Big Brother, where you are literally voting *for* someone to leave.

[kickthehobbit.livejournal.com]

Diving in long enough to say, "I made a recc post (http://kickthehobbit.livejournal.com/618445.html)!" before I get dressed and walk to work. :)

I hope you-all are having a good morning.

[abigailendersby.livejournal.com]

I have... two? three? meetings today, which pretty much means a lot of sitting around doing diddly-squat while wishing I could get some work done. And on top of that, traffic was murder this morning so I was late for work. All in all, today does not a happy Abbi make.

However, I'm hoping to spend my lunch hour building a rec list because damn, I have read some amazing entries so far. :D

[rswndrlst.livejournal.com]

A tray of muffins is put into the oven
one muffin turns to another one and says
"Help, Help I'm burning!"
That muffin turns to another and says
"Help Help a talking muffin!"


That has always been my favourite joke for some reason and I wasn't able to work it into my entry so I had to share it here.

[crimsonplum.livejournal.com]

Ha! I'm a fan of the silly ones.

Spreadsheet

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

I updated the google spreadsheet so it should now have all of our names.

Here it is! (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao5PT8UfSHwMdHd0ajYtbmI1R3hnOW8tUUhvY3VSN2c&usp=sharing)

You can copy the names and paste them into an excel spreadsheet or another google doc. If I missed someone or messed anything up, please let me know.

Re: Spreadsheet

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

Yay-- that is very helpful!

[lordrexfear.livejournal.com]

I still have no clue how I used to actually do green room. Or the internet...

or anything?

Anyone who knows me remember how I did this?

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that people are finally catching on to the fact that most bullying problems in schools start with My Little Pony.

http://z1073.com/boy-banned-my-little-pony-backpack/

[tonithegreat.livejournal.com]

I call clickbait! Somebody figured out that MLP and bullying are a great combo to get hits there.