Dead Dog

[zvi]

There is a tradition in conventions to have a "Dead Dog" panel at the end of a con, where you let the con moderators know what went right and what went wrong with the convention. I'm going to try that with this challenge, so it can run better next year.

Poll #4990 Remix Duello: Dead Dog

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 23

Who are you?

I participated in the Remix Duello 2010.
21 (91.3%)

I was interested in participating in Remix Duello, but then something about how you ran it meant I didn't.
1 (4.3%)

I just read the stories.
1 (4.3%)

The sign up process

worked for me.
19 (90.5%)

prevented me from signing up.
0 (0.0%)

my thoughts must be textually rendered.
2 (9.5%)

The posting process

Two weeks between when stories were due and when they were revealed was fine
13 (59.1%)

Two weeks between when stories were due and when they were revealed was too long.
8 (36.4%)

Stories being posted with names was great.
12 (54.5%)

Stories should have been posted anonymously.
3 (13.6%)

My thoughts are complex and must be textually rendered.
1 (4.5%)

My thoughts about the Remix Melee

Ticky prefers:

Dead dogs
2 (8.7%)

Hot dogs
7 (30.4%)

Corn Dogs
9 (39.1%)

Cats
12 (52.2%)

Bukkits!
6 (26.1%)

Comments

[seekingferret]

My thoughts on the Melee: I'm not sure the format was conducive to a lot of people participating, but I loved the remix of one of my stories that came from the Melee. The list was hard to browse, I thought, and didn't give enough information to make me want to look at stories to consider remixing.

I suspect that if it were more like a pitch session where people offered their stories, briefly synopsized them, and said, "This is why I would be interested in seeing a remix," it might have become more of a free-for-all.

Everything else in the challenge went very, very smoothly, and I thank you for running it.

[northern]

The sign up process: The way to do it took me a while to understand. I think the phrasing could be made simpler, but it was a while since I signed up, so I don't remember *exactly* what it was that was tricky, just that it was.

[xwingace]

I haven't read much outside my assigned stories, mostly because the majority of them seemed to be of a fandom I knew nothing of (BSG). This is not a reflection on you, but a better mix of fandoms would be a whole lot more fun to read.

XWA

[be_themoon]

I just want to note that I would have loved to participate but didn't have any time.

[melannen]

I thought the Melee sign-ups weren't very clear - I wasn't sure whether I was meant to include a summary of my story, or notes for a prospective remixer, or what, in the final version. Also, I agree with the other comment that something more open to for the Melee (maybe even making it clearer that people who weren't participants in the Duello could join) might have improved matters. The Googledocs chart was useful, but it didn't feel very open or welcoming (of course, I still need to finish the story I started for that.)

[amaresu]

One thing that really struck me on sign-ups was the lack of clarity in regards to Doctor Who. It didn't say anywhere that only telly Who would be allowed, but it also didn't provide an option for people to expressly state that the fic they were submitting relied heavily on book/audio/comic canon. It did effect my sign up as I would've submitted a different fic if there'd been a way to state 'audio knowledge is necessary'. And from the way things were set up I still could've without breaking any of the rules if I was a terrible person. Which is something to consider, either state straight up that only telly who is allowed or use the way AO3 is set up to allow for stating audio/book/comic canon.

As for Melee I can't say much because I haven't participated. I find the googledoc to be really annoying to read, tbh.

[astrogirl]

My textually rendered thoughts:

Two weeks between posting and the story reveal was a little long -- just enough to get a bit impatient -- but acceptable if it did make it possible to get stories for everyone in before going live with them. Also, I think an anonymous period for stuff like this is a nice touch, but not necessary, especially if it's a pain for the mod to set up. And when you have a relatively small number of people writing in a relatively large number of possible fandoms, it can be easy enough to figure out who wrote what that it's kind of pointless anyway. It's hard to say whether that would have been the case with this one though, especially since I didn't already know most of the other participants this time, which always makes it harder.

I also agree with previous posters that the google docs form for the melee wasn't super-great as a format, although I think it was acceptable enough as a quick way of doing it. And it might have been more successful, in terms of generating more stories, if it were promoted a little bit more and people who didn't participate in Remix Duello proper were encouraged to join in. (It wasn't even clear to me whether it was open to others or not, or I maybe would have encouraged people on my flist to take a look at it.)

In any case, I do want to say that I really loved the idea of this challenge, and I enjoyed the experience!

[isis]

Haha, as I emailed before, I was expecting to have until the stated time of reveal to edit my story after the hasty upload of the pre-beta version. Oooops.

I do think the two weeks between posting and reveal was long. I could have done the posting/fixing earlier even if I had less time, I just thought I had until the stated reveal deadline and it worked out that I would have all day to work on it then.