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

[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.