I hereby suggest that the Parody Author of the Year current standings thread should be removed.

I don't mind seeing a PAotY list come February next year, statistics can be fun in a weird sort of way, but as a competition (and I'm not even sure it deserves that word) it means as little to me as... as... as... actually I can't even come up with a metaphor for how little it means to me.

My argument is that even at best it adds nothing of value to the parody writing community here, and at worst it makes (or could make) some of the younger writers in the new generation focus on points, cut-throat competition and as a worse case scenario even personal grudges towards people not voting for their entries. Nothing of which was even remotely the point when us in the first two generations (or what to call it) found this place and became obsessed with it for in every way you can imagine more positive reasons.

As a precedent I also refer to what happened early on in SOTM history, when people started to calculate and post the current standings after only two or three votes hade come in, with the intent to update throughout the month's ongoing process. It was (as I recall it) strongly agreed on that this was a bad idea, that the result should only be posted after the competition was finished and that if people still needed to feed their statistical obsession or check on their personal standings in the current round or for any other reason I can't imagine or remember right now they should have to calculate the running standings themselves.

I love you all, you make me laugh with your parodies, but I don't like the way a much more competitive mindset has taken over this community lately, thinking over postings from Rick C and Kristof has made me believe that it really does affect the voting, comments and feedback on the daily postings too and after having read some recent postings on the PAotY thread itself I felt the need to make this suggestion. Don't hate me for it! :-\\

Later // Peter

:-[ Eh-heh. My fault. Sorry. I'll be less of a competitive bastard next year, I promise.

I vote to keep the PAoTY standings-thread up and running.  I've never placed higher than 6 or 7 on it, and that's perfectly OK with me because I couldn't care less where I place on it.  For goodness sake, I'm an adult with adult responsibilities and relationships -- PAoTY standings are nothing more to me than a place where I can see a summary of who's been actively writing and publishing parodies that they personally are proud of -- nothing more.

It's just a page of letters and numbers.  Anything else a person sees in it is a projection of their own personal stuff.

What's wrong with a little innocent, child-like, playful, silly, totally non-serious pseudo-competition, where the only object of the competition is to see which of your friends you'll have the pleasure of congratulating for a playful-silly-job-well-done?

It's only a light-hearted little game among friends!   :)

I agree with the wise Johnny D.  And I promise I won't pop in just to be an a-hole anymore.




Well, I promise to try, anyway.

I have to agree with Johnny D and Claude, though I've already thought of (and noticed) some of what Peter has mentioned, and come up with a few possible solutions:

- I've temporarily locked the thread down so that no one can post to it for a while, and it'll fall off the front page in a month or so. That should take some of the recent focus from the standings.

- Although I've been updating it monthly, come October (at the latest), I will not update it again until December SOTM voting is done, and the Wildcard round too, should we decide (again) those points will go toward PAotY standings. That way if positions are really close, only an anal retentive person who continually calculates all the points past what I do would know the exact standings.

FTR, my interest in keeping the thread up has nothing to do with my current standing. 

Looks to me as a smart compromise. :)

I'm a bit baffled that my suggestion hasn't been seconded by anyone though, maybe this place really has changed so much that I'm no longer in tune with it. ??? Well, that's what happens with the world when you get old(er), I just have to learn to deal with it...

Later // Peter

I agree the standings should not be posted until the end of the competition. I do not agree with abandoning the whole contest, though. Having the parody of the year is a higher honor than the song of the month.

MM

Showing or hiding the thread makes no difference to me, Peter. Abandoning the contest would be a shame though, IMO.

The only suggestion that I had, which I don't know if anyone would agree to, is to continue to have the thread posted...just for informational purposes...so that people who are interested can watch their progress, etc.  However, what if the thread were locked to comments, to avoid bickering and whining??

I realize, however, that a new "PAOTY DISCUSSION THREAD" could be started at any time...so...pretty much...my idea's not so great.

But I'm still fabulous, so it's okay.

However, what if the thread were locked to comments, to avoid bickering and whining??


::)

(look at my above post)

And yeah, you're still fab.  ;)

(look at my above post)



Ooooh.  :-

And yeah, you're still fab.  ;)



:-*

Showing or hiding the thread makes no difference to me, Peter. Abandoning the contest would be a shame though, IMO.


I didn't say I was gonna abandon the SOTM. I'm just a bit later than usual with getting the commenting started this month. One or two per online evening and four or five on days of over the weekend and I'm back on track.

I didn't think you had said anything about ending the contest, Peter. I was responding to what meow78233 said. Sorry, I suppose I should have read all of the posts in the thread, instead of just the earlier ones and the ones on this page.