However, Cindy insinuates that a person can't even bear to read a fic by someone we don't get along with, so how can a person be trusted to judge it fairly?
I don't doubt that some people are petty. That's not to say that everyone is, but some people are whether they like to admit it or not. It's just a fact of life. So let's assume that you have some petty person out there who doesn't read certain stories when they see the author, and let's say for argument's sake that this person became a judge in this contest. If they really are that petty, then they wouldn't have read the story by the person they dislike.
If anything, the argument by Kathy is almost an endorement for getting closeminded people as judges. They'd probably be so closeminded that the amount of fic they have read has been rather limited and they are more likely to not recognize a story when they read it. I would daresay that it would also make them more likely to be impartial and pleasantly surprised. Food for thought.
AnnN.
