In this year's CHYOA Story Contest, two users submitted chapters in German. The contest was intended to be in English, so judges might have had a hard time judging the content fairly. At the same time, many readers might not understand the content. That might especially be a problem if those entries reached one of the top spots. If there are enough users interested in participating and organizing a smaller version of a story contest for German stories, we could set up such a contest. (It would be good to have three judges, though two might be acceptable as well.) If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Thank you for your suggestion, gene.sis. I think it's a great idea and can definitely see myself getting involved as a judge for German stories. Provided that this doesn't conflict with participating in the English contest.
I was just thinking of translating the post into German, because it might be of interest to German authors who are not so fluent in English.
Übersetzung: Beim diesjährigen CHYOA-Geschichtenwettbewerb haben zwei Nutzer Kapitel auf Deutsch eingereicht. Der Wettbewerb war für englische Beiträge gedacht, daher könnte es für die Juroren schwierig gewesen sein, die Beiträge fair zu bewerten. Gleichzeitig könnten viele Leser den Inhalt nicht verstehen. Das könnte insbesondere dann ein Problem sein, wenn diese Beiträge einen der vorderen Plätze erreichen. Wenn genügend Nutzer daran interessiert sind, an einem kleineren Story-Wettbewerb für deutsche Geschichten teilzunehmen und diesen zu organisieren, könnten wir einen solchen Wettbewerb auf die Beine stellen. (Es wäre gut, drei Jurymitglieder zu haben, zwei wären aber auch akzeptabel. Wenn ihr Fragen habt, könnt ihr euch gerne melden.
That's fine. Each contest is a separate thing. Sure! You can also reach out to other users who don't know about the forum.
Well, I haven't had a specific occasion in mind. So any time and timespan that might be good for participation would be fine.
That sounds really nice to me. havein a smaller german contest would possibly draw a few more german reader and user on this side. Also, on a personal note, maybe it would motivate me once again to get back to the table and write new stories or chapters. The problem with the forum is the biggest one... I mean we in our little german 'comunity' already discussed about it and a few of us started to mentioned the forum in their chapters or story like advertisements. Some of us also refer to the forum for surveys but well seems like german are a bit *AFRAID* of forums XD
As C_Que wrote, it is rather unlikely that many German authors will read this announcement in the forum—it's very quiet here. @gene.sis, would it perhaps be possible to post a call for participants and judges on the CHYOA homepage in German, with a link to this forum page? Just an idea. There's no rush. It can be done later, when nothing else is going on.
The users don't need to get to the forum for the contest. It would already be enough to know that there will be a few users who likely participate, and two users to organize and judge. (I guess drawing users to the forum is quite difficult in general. I assume that there aren't that many users on the English-speaking forum as well.) I can ask Friedman to post a link to the story at the top of the site as soon as everything is set up. (Like for the English contest.)
Wonderful. As I said, I'm ready to participate as a judge. And I can also help organize. No problem. I'll include an “advertisement” in my German stories to recruit participants.
Also ich würde da gerne mitmachen, schon um die Mühe anzuerkennen, die es kostet, sowas zu organisieren.
@gene.sis Have you already written to the two users concerned directly to ask if they would like to take part in a new, purely German competition?
I thought about it, but at the time, they hadn't been online for a few weeks already. Do we have a second judge?
Unfortunately not yet. There has also been no response to my “advertising banners” so far. Either there really isn't any interest, or people aren't noticing the offer. The latter seems more likely to me, as hardly anyone visits the German forum.
Another indication: I was very surprised when I searched for German stories in CHOYA. In the last two weeks, there have been about 30 updates, meaning active authors who have published at least one chapter. I didn't notice that at all during my visits to the site—I'm more busy writing than reading. If I'm a typical user, that means the message isn't getting through. This naturally leads me to wonder: Is there any way to reach the authors who are currently active? Perhaps a group message pointing to a survey? Question to everyone reading this: What do you think?
Honestly i think a few of the active writer are reading the forum as well. But like mentioned somewhere above it seems most 'german' user don't know or want to use the forum. Also i must say forum get a bit more active a year ago...
Here is a note from another writer who responded to a comment on a story. I don't think a note on the home page is the right way to go. Like most other people, I never go there myself. I've saved a link in my menu bar for: Search -> Stories -> German -> Last Activity --- https://chyoa.com/search?type=story&language=de&sort=last_activity That's probably why I missed the last contest. I'm just guessing here, but I think that's exactly where you need to put a notice with a link to the contest. And once it's up and running, you should also add a link to the stories themselves. Otherwise, it won't work. As for the contest itself, I already commented on it in a comment on one of the chapters. For me, it would be a question of the conditions whether I participate or not. I have no idea what they have in mind or how it will work.
Another idea by the same writer: I would suggest three judges: two permanent judges and one reader rating, perhaps based on likes. Of course, this would only work if the story consists of only one chapter.
