On the Fanfic Contest

[deelaundry]

Most of you will find this tl;dr. Sorry.

The organizer of the Princeton Convention fanfic contest has pulled out as organizer due to the "undeserved attack" on her on housefic today, according to her friend barmyme.

After barmyme commented on the post the first time, I asked her:

"Hi! I'm one of the people on this post who have been asking questions of clarification. It's good to hear a testimonial from someone who has enjoyed fanfic contests run by Gorblimey before. I had never heard of her contests or fanfics, because she doesn't regularly post to this comm.

Do you have a link to where the winning stories of previous contests were posted? I'm always interested in quality fanfiction.

If you'd like to see some samples of some great House fiction in the longer length requested in this contest, you're welcome to stop by the website House Big Bang. Twelve outstanding stories, gen and of various ships, and then my own modest submission."

Barmyme replied:

"Thank you for what seems to be a legitimate interest in Gorby's hard work. There were several people here today from the Princeton Convention site, not just her and they saw what transpired. She was in court off and on today and came back to see posts made that weren't from her. That really bothered her. The links for all the fanfic contest stories are on the Fox Message Board under Fanfics. Just do a search for the 'fanfic contest'.

I actually won one of the prizes with my story, "The Surgeon's Wife." We had a blast with the contest. All entrants received a little gift from Gorby even if they didn't win. My entry gift is in front of me. It's a great House magnet with a calendar. We "discovered" several new writers during the contest. There are several fanfic contests on the Forum and other sites that Gorby either did single-handedly or with someone else.

I still love my prizes that I got for winning. I have the neatest t-shirt, magnet, calendar and post-its from the contest. I have the same t-shirt that she gave to Hugh and Jesse. It's funny, shows House running with Stephen Colbert for president in 2008. All the judges (most remained anonymous because they wanted to be) received little gifts from Gorby too.

She was going to do another fanfic contest two months ago on another site, but she got involved here in California with the court case to allow gays to get married (she's an attorney.) She spent what would have been her prize money for the contest on supporting the gay-rights movement through NCLR and LGBT in San Diego. Her husband and son were also active in helping fund the lawyers who argued the case for gay marriage in the CA Supreme Court.

But, after today, she's pulling out of this fanfic contest and has told the convention to take over. I understand from my conversation on IM with her, that they don't want to do it without her because she has been very successful running them. She feels it's terribly unfair that she's getting flack about H/W when she was adamant about including Slash when most fanfic contests, including the Anaheim convention specifically ban it. See http://www.housemdconvention.com/contest.html.

My understanding after being on IM with her this afternoon is that she is going to sponsor a much smaller fanfic contest at a different site. She loves finding new talent and encouraging them. She actually helped get me several items from the cast to auction at one of the charities that I work with. They brought in a lot of money.

So, all the complaining today worked. There will be no fanfic contest on the LJ run by Gorby and that's a shame. She really treats all the entrants and judges well.

Sorry, I know you didn't ask for this diatribe. I hope I was able to answer your questions. I just know that those of us who know Gorby have found her to be fair, fun and generous and she didn't deserve the attack today."

OK, so I went to the Fox forum to find the contest winners. It was an O/C contest, and the winners were:

Winner: The Surgeon's Wife by Barmyme (http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dg9gqjcr_4dkt942)

Winner: House & the Dog Walker by Glennie
(http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dg9gqjcr_6d45mqj)

Other entries: Some Enchanted Evening by Hilandmum; The Arrogance of Man by Adayz; Silent Symphony by Louiseang; Unfinished Business by Wicce Moon; Never Miss A Trick by Caustic Chick; Wilson's Niece by IceZigee; and Melancholy Baby by THRgirl19

Some of you may recognize Hilandmum from this year's Remix challenge. She remixed my fic "Green."

Comments

[nowadventuring.livejournal.com]

Not to sound rude or anything, but I was [Unknown site tag]'s remixer and... she won something? How were the other entries?

[nowadventuring.livejournal.com]

hilandmum, I mean. Damn LJ tags.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

According to the post I found, Hilandmum was an entrant but not the ultimate winner. They did say every fic had received at least one vote for best fic, so apparently someone thought hers was the best.

I linked to the stories that won but haven't had a chance to read them yet.

[daisylily.livejournal.com]

Can you send the links my way? I'd be interested in seeing the standard of the non-winners. *cough*

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

Oh.
Well.
That explains ...
a lot.
(cough)
(/diplomat)

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

All I can say is that this has got to be one of the most idiotic fiascoes in (recent) fanfic history.

[alex51324.livejournal.com]

So I assume she'll be spamming every fic community in the fandom to announce that the contest is off?

[alex51324.livejournal.com]

ETA: Apparently there are Het People who have no idea this whole kerfluffle ever occurred, and are excited about the contest--so she, or someone, really should do them the courtesy of letting them know that it's off. It doesn't seem likely, given other events, that she will, but she *should*.

I feel mildly responsible for the Het People's disappointment on account of how I was the only one in that thread not being Excruciatingly Polite. But I was Excruciatingly Polite in the hw_ot thread that she deleted, and that's why I so rarely use politeness--every time I do, it turns out that I've wasted it on some asshole.

[daisylily.livejournal.com]

I wasn't online when the original kerfuffle occurred, so missed it - I only saw the announcement in the other comms (I think it cropped up seven times on my f-list!), and there are bound to be others like me who only know about it via friends. You'd think common courtesy would lead to a 'cancelled' announcement, but hey...

*disappointed at missing the stuff on hw_ot*

[genagirl.livejournal.com]

that's why I so rarely use politeness--every time I do, it turns out that I've wasted it on some asshole. That made me laugh like a fool.

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

Barmyme irritated me terribly with the name-dropping she did. It really read to me as "Look how much cooler Gorby is than all you losers! She's personally MET Hugh and Jesse and you haven't, so there!"

I hope that Gorby really is a wonderful person and will get over the sting of all this and learn from it. I've made a few public blunders myself, after all.

I don't think the contest is any great loss, though. The rules virtually guaranteed that the submissions would be really poor quality.

[hry2007.livejournal.com]

I... wait... what?

/goes back to pre s5 slumber

[hi-falootin.livejournal.com]

I only caught the tail end of this whole thing so I don't really know the nature of the "undeserved attack" but wow, Barmyme sure wrote you a novel there. I don't know whether to be amused or kind of sad that she felt she had to go into that much detail to show that Gorby wasn't a homophobe.

Er, that was what was happening, right? I'd feel kind of doofy if I just misinterpreted the whole situation.

[hugelaurie.livejournal.com]

IDK WHAT'S GOING ON WITH WHATEVER BUT FROM READING YOUR EXCERPTS, IT LOOKS LIKE SOMEONE GOT BUTTHURT AND TOOK THEIR BALL AND RAN HOME CRYING. LOL FANDOM BREAKS ANOTHER SELF-IMPORTANT BRAGGART IN HALF. THE GOSSIPMONGERING, ASSKISSING "FRIEND" IS PROBABLY THEIR SOCK.

SORRY YR FIC GOT PLAGIARIZED, DEE. THAT SUCKS.

[mer-duff.livejournal.com]

So the website where they post the stories is Google.docs? I don't understand why they need a Word or WordPerfect document then, since you can upload a variety of document formats. But I guess I'm overthinking this...

I do feel mildly guilty (though not surprised) at the end result, even though I was doing my best to be Excruciatingly Polite. And I feel a little bad about lumping in Gorby's comments with the anonymous ones, as her responses to me were moderately polite, with a side of condescension. Still, you'd think a lawyer would research the jury, so to speak.

[alex51324.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I buy that anonymous isn't Gorby--anon was speaking as though he or she were a contest organizer, and you'd think if s/he were an impostor, the real organizers would have said so. I think I even huge to agree with Huge that there's a good change Barmy is also the same person as anon. and Gorby--although if that's the case, Gorby is the sock, since that journal doesn't have any posts in it. Blimey has several--they appear to be House/Mary Sue porn--although she has no LJ friends and no comments on anything except spam.

Which raises the question, Who *are* these people? It's sort of surprising to me that they're supposedly big wheels in the fandom and I don't know anyone who knows anyone who knows anyone who knows them.

[mer-duff.livejournal.com]

There were posts in Gorby's LJ earlier today - and I'm seeing them there now, so perhaps the deletion was accidental or temporary. I ventured onto the Fox forum as well, and her latest Maggie story (and there's apparently more than one Maggie) has a huge number of comments on it, so I guess she is a big wheel in that segment of the fandom. Fox and LJ seem to be two very different worlds, so I can almost understand the level of obliviousness in this contest (and why there's an entire category for O/C, since that's what she writes).

[alex51324.livejournal.com]

**headdesk** Yeah, I was looking at "Gorblimey" as an LJ username--which is an empty journal. Most likely registered to a totally different person.

It sounds to me like what this person or people, whoever they are, anyway, really want/s to organize is a meetup of her/their friends. Which is totally fine, but not the same thing as a con.

[daisylily.livejournal.com]

That whole thing reads as "You're mean and I'm not playing"...

I had a quick look at the two fics you linked. Um. *runs away before says something she might regret*

[spoggly.livejournal.com]

I LOL'ED

I mean, really, I am being rude, but fuck 'em. It's an idiotic idea with hideously thought-out rules and, more importantly, these people have zero respect for the communities they're posting in. Who, as an active or courteous fan (or someone with common sense), posts links to this fic contest in capslock_house or house_wilson?

This whole debacle makes me want to run a fanfiction contest, because at least when I inevitably failed it would be in good spirits.

(ALSO LOL COMMENT DELETION AND LOLOL THAT SECOND LINKED FIC)

[xaipw.livejournal.com]

Some of you may recognize Hilandmum from this year's Remix challenge. She remixed my fic "Green."

Huh.
Did I ever tell you what I thought of her remix?
*shifty eyes*

[diysheep.livejournal.com]

That's hilarious.

"Oh, and a gay rights activist who dishes slash?"

That had to be the best post.

But I do see the problem. House does Cameron. House does Cuddy. House does nobody at all.

This is House! Anyone could do anyone at any time.

Maybe they could have: Slash - boy, girl, boy/girl, Adult and Gen as their categories? That would cover every combination and genre. But they should definitely keep the O/C category, but rename it Mary Sue.

[fffaw.livejournal.com]

That was me.

It just seemed all very Hetty Het Het all up in there.

And what the fuck did Gorby's occupation have to do with anything? As I said in my other post, I find it hard to believe that an attorney would engage in blatant copyright infringement and then advertise it, but what do I know?

The assertion that HHoW was Ham territory was a real hoot though.

Over at HHoW, we had a kerfuffle with these people and the Anaheim folks too. They just joined the site, and did a driveby spamming with their information without asking permission.

When we explained to them that this was rather bad form, one group threw a bit of a hissy and the other was pretty decent. I wish I could remember which was which. IIRC, they were one group earlier on and had a disagreement and split into two conventions.

We decided not to advertise either get together. I have serious doubts they'll happen anyhow (and certainly not with at the level they are promising.

[pinglederry.livejournal.com]

Unaware of the drama, but those stories are *gag*.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

The contest announcement has now been deleted from Housefic and House_Cameron (the only place that seemed to take it seriously). It's still up on hmd_finders however. Any takers on a bet as to whether they forgot how many places they spammed the notice to?

[savemoony.livejournal.com]

HA. HA. HA.

(This is why I stopped working with these people.)

Just wanted to say

[(Anonymous)]

It's amazing

thanks much

[(Anonymous)]

thats it, bro

Re: thanks much

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

OK. You're welcome.