Dear Hazel,
We have read your most recent post and quite frankly, we are sick to death of your whining. Since you have fired the first volley, and in public, we are going to take this opportunity to defend ourselves in public as well.
You did not bring this matter to the attention of the Merriweather Committee. The Committee was suspicious of the source of the story and had been checking to make sure it was posted somewhere and not someone else's work submitted just to test us. We spent three days trying to track down your story on archives, googling, Fanfic.net and other sources then we wouldn't have wasted so much time unnecessarily. If you had been upfront with us when you submitted the story, i.e., had told us that it was your story under a different name, then this error would have been corrected a lot sooner. You even submitted it under a new e-mail address. Several members of the M-Comm wasted three days because you refused to come forward and admit your charade.
You admitted in an e-mail to Katrina that submitted this under a pseudonym:
... but, um, I'm actually Hazel
and I wanted to have both scorecards for comparison before I posted.
Why did you feel the need to have both scorecards before you posted? To test us? So see if we were legit? Why was it so important to you that you prove something about us? Since you pulled this stunt, your wounded, betrayed behavior has no sympathy with us. If you want to discredit us, don't bother entering a story. Just badmouth us on the boards.
Katrina is doing the very best she can. We got a LOT more entries than we anticipated and yes, she got overwhelmed. We now have a second gatekeeper in place and we are looking to add a third. Sometimes our e-mails to her go go unanswered for a day or so. However, I am adult enough to take into consideration that Katrina is a full-time parent to three children, a full-time wife, a full-time student, and is also having to volunteer several hours of time towards her degree. She is doing the best she can.
The issue of "the rules for scoring had changed" is laughable. The website clearly states that they are sample score sheets. They were never intended to be the original, actual scoresheets. It was simply a way for the entrants to get some idea of what the Merriweather Committee was looking for in any particular category.
From now on, we will state what category is next and what the total score of the category will be. Being a new competition, this is one of those areas where we didn't have the foresight to consider this. It was never a deliberate ploy to keep entrants in the dark and misinformed. It was just something that never occurred to us.
One aspect hasn't changed: No entrant will be allowed access to the scoresheet. If you have issues with that, don't enter the competition.
Finally, you harp on us for not being "adult." Does your definition of "adult" give YOU the right to make comments such as:
"If you're really interested in pursuing a writing career, Laura, you might want to avoid ascribing unsavory motives to others. It tends to leave a bad taste in the reader's mouth."
Or
"'Adults'" tend to act with courtesy. I have failed to see any."
Do you consider your post to be those of an adult? As the chairman of the Merriweather Committee, I fail to see it.
Hazel, you were free to send a message to M-Comm any time you wanted. Katrina is merely our mouthpiece. Rather than have dozens of similar e-mails from the Committee, we funnel all comments through her. She obviously sends e-mail to us and receives e-mail from us so it stands to reason that any thinking adult could have sent mail to us via Katrina. So quit whining in public and pursue this argument through e-mails to us like an adult.
To everyone else:
Yes, we are having growing pains. Yes, we are learning, Yes, we are making mistakes. Yes, we know we made a big one. ALL the members of the M-Comm missed this mistake and we are very unhappy that we did. We also should have notified Hazel a/k/a "Allyse" via e-mail. Since she had publicly posted messages about her scores, we presumed that she and all her friends knew she could not have won HM with her score.
HOWEVER-- WE HAVE APOLOGIZED. WE WILL NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES AGAIN.
Yes, we stumbled. Yes, we made a colossal mistake--twice. Yes, we admit that we screwed up. But for the love of Mike, let it go. We have learned from it and it won't happen again.
We have done our best to rise above all the petty and hateful comments that have been hurled our way. We have done our best to ignore a lot of the negative e-mails that Katrina has forwarded to us regarding our integrity (your opinion of our lack of it--when the competition was announced and now this). We've done our best to go forward and create a contest that we think people will enjoy entering. However, this thread has degenerated to the point that we felt we had to speak up in our own defense.
Right now, I'm asking Anne Ciotola to close this thread. If you have a problem with these comments, send to the M-Comm in care of Katrina.
Chairman, Merriweather Committee
