Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related MERRIWEATHER AWARDS

What's the name of Laura's story so we can read it?

Artemis

Say WHAT? Sounds like this was an honest mistake. As Labrat pointed out, these are new awards and sometimes mistakes just happen.

Sorry, Laura, for the confusion. I didn't mean it that way at all. Simply that since this is an "Honorable Mention" award it just doesn't seem like it would hurt anyone if Alyssa was allowed to keep hers as a consolation for the error and another one was awarded to your story. So in this one instance, there would be two "Honorable Mention" awards, both equal in value and worth. As one of the other writers in the contest, I certainly wouldn't begrudge it if Alyssa was allowed to keep that distinction despite that fact that my story had a higher point value, as did Hazel's story.

Sorry, too, I forgot to say Congratulations. Your story is certainly worthy of a Merriweather! Good Job.

Lynn

Really? /me raises an eyebrow. Usually, in these kinds of contests, an Honorable Mention equals fourth place. As you mentioned, Allyce's AKA Hazel's story wasn't in fourth. <shrug> I'm sorry, but I just don't see the problem. I wouldn't mind too much if it turned out that mine was a mistake. Stuff happens.

Laura

No problem, Laura. Clearly it means a lot to you. I just was trying to think of a way to spare Allyse's (aka Hazel's) feelings. No biggie. I'm sure she understands. Like you said, sometimes s**t happens. *shrug*.

Lynn

Actually, I thought since Hazel said earlier that she wasn't sure she'd really earned it that it wouldn't. It's a matter of integrity. If I didn't really earn something like that, then by all means give it to the person who did. <g> It's why if I get incorrect change at a store I take it back. Or if the ATM gave me more money than I asked for, I'd return it. I'd feel awful about keeping something that wasn't mine. Hazel is an honest, decent person, so it never occurred to me that she'd feel differently.

IMHO, if one keeps something that one knows isn't theirs, it's stealing. Just MHO. I know that *I'd* never keep it if it wasn't mine...

Laura

I want to make one thing very clear. The suggestion that Allyse be allowed to keep her wrongly-awarded Honorable Mention as a show of good faith on the part of the M-Comm and as an apology for their error was 100% my idea. Hazel has had no input on this at all. To suggest that she is wanting to keep something that technically isn't hers is completely erroneous.

Lynn

The problem with that analogy is that for you to keep the money means that someone else had to lose it. In this case no one's arguing that Hazel should keep the award and that you shouldn't receive one. Two can exist without diminishing the other.

I can't speak for Hazel, but I'd be rather upset to win something and later have it taken away. (In fact, many of us live in fear of exactly that happening; it's called "Impostor Syndrome" <g>) When that happened in the Olympics back in... 2002?... there was an international uproar. Not to compare a small fanwriting contest to the Olympics , but taking away someone's award just seems to create hurt feelings that could very easily be avoided. They aren't a limited commodity, and no one is "stealing" anything.

Again, Hazel may feel differently and all this may be moot. But there are my 2 cents.

Kaylle

First of all, I have just realized I have been remiss. Congrats to Jenni and Mere and Paul! And congratulations on your award, Laura, as well, although I suggest you delay your excitement until you actually have your scores in hand and see that you've really won. I am less than impressed with M-Comm's batting average.

Lynn and Kaylle, while I appreciate your desire to defend my feelings, I assure you that I'm not hurt or disappointed by this. It sometimes pays to find out if a defense is needed before defending.

I will say, however, that 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.

No, I am not offended at losing something that wasn't mine in the first place. I am, however, close to disgusted at M-Comm's behavior.

The question regarding the score for "Sunrise, Sunset" would not have arisen if I hadn't brought it up myself. Five or six hours before posting the story on both mbs, I e-mailed Katrina, explained that "Allyse" was really Hazel, and mentioned the discrepancy in the scores -- that Allyse's score was lower than my other fic, and that both were lower than Lynn's. (I'd added up wrong, as some of you pointed out, but the point -- that Allyse's score was lower than two others -- was still valid.) I also gave some very courteous suggestions for improvements of the rather jerky Merriweather process for the future.

That was early Thursday morning my time -- late Wednesday night in the States. Since then, Katrina has not bothered to acknowledge my e-mail in any way. I had to visit the boards this morning to discover that I was no longer the winner of the Honorable Mention, and that it had been given to someone else.

"It has come to the attention of the Merriweather Committee"? Why not say, "Hazel has told us"? Because that would require that you acknowledge my existence?

Why should I mind losing the honorable mention when it wasn't mine? What I *do* mind is the appalling lack of courtesy here and the absence of all integrity. If Katrina discovered an error of this magnitude, does she and M-Comm really think that a blithe joke about the error being "buried on page 53 between the obits and the auction notices" is sufficient? I'm not troubled by the loss of the award, but another person in this position might be. Why didn't M-Comm apologize to the person that was wronged by their own lack of professionalism?

So far, the M-Comm has announced winners without bothering to update their own website, sent out scorecards without troubling to tell authors that the rules for scoring had changed, failed to keep up a reasonable correspondence with the entrants, and announced a new winner, after the original winner had to tell them of their error, without having the decency to inform the former winner in private beforehand. Or at all, really. As far as M-Comm is concerned, I don't actually know about it, do I?

Ordinarily, I would never air such a grievance in public. But since Katrina and M-Comm apparently don't believe in private correspondence, I don't seem to have much choice. "Adults" tend to act with courtesy. I have failed to see any.

The Merriweather page no longer includes the snide reference to the Kerths, but it does still state this: Perhaps M-Comm should consult a dictionary for future reference.

Hazel

Did I? Hm. And I thought I said that it never occurred to me that you'd be offended, Hazel. Nice. Putting words in my mouth and attributing motives to me that don't exist. Hell yes, I'm cranky and more than a little bitchy today. You would be too if your legs were tightly bandaged, causing you pain, and completely back to the swollen state they were in three months ago when you STARTED treatment.

I'm not part of MComm. (Since Lynn has all but accused me of conspiracy yet AGAIN to win in this matter, I feel it necessary to reiterate this yet again.) But I don't understand why so many have taken offense to their mission statement. It cracked me up when I first saw it because it's almost a direct quote from Superman's first interview with Lois. (I believe that's in Strange Visitor, but my tapes are dying, so I can't be sure if that's right.) Frankly, I'm shocked that y'all don't recognize it. I did, and I haven't watched first season in almost a year. (I prefer late second, third, and fourth seasons.)

I'm beginning to remember why I stopped hanging here. Even y'all's "congratulations" tend to leave a bad taste in my mouth. And yes, I've gotten my scores. My overall score was 250. And yes, I also refuse to post my feedback. I prefer to keep that to myself.

Laura

As to the M-Comm's mission statement, I would imagine many - if not all - of us recognize the reference to the SV interview. And of course, it's not unique to L&C. The phrase "truth, justice, and the American way" was used in the George Reeves series, and probably in the comics before that.

M-Comm may be after truth and justice, and feel that exposing their error is indeed the true and just thing to do. I don't dispute that, but I have issues with the way they did it.

Having read Hazel's post, I was very dismayed at the actions of M-Comm in this matter. It's disturbing to think that they would have released award information without making absolutely sure of their totals, but as has been pointed out, this is a new venture and there are kinks to work out.

But to me, at least, it is inexcusable that M-Comm chose to make a public announcement without notifying Hazel first, especially since they might never have realized the error if she hadn't brought it to their attention. Barring that, they could have sent an email to her immediately afterward, but apparently that did not happen either.

I certainly appreciate that these are all volunteers giving up their time and effort. Perhaps this project turned out to be bigger than they anticipated, or perhaps RL came crashing down unexpectedly. But the fact of the matter remains that unless there have been developments since Hazel posted, she still has not been informed. This may have nothing to do with truth and justice, but certainly has something to do with good manners and respect for others.

Kathy

You're right, Kathy. It was in the comics and the introduction to the cartoons as well. <g> And having caught some of the old Adventures of Superman on TV Land at 3am, it's there, too....

Laura

[Edit: at least I'm *pretty* sure it was in the comics. IIRC, it came into the mythos in the thirties radio program.]

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

Before I do anything, I'd like to know first, just how many people are using this ID if the person who made this post is not her.

There is a rule about sharing IDs here.
Everyone is expected to read the FAQs and follow the rules of this forum. While the above is listed for the Nfic forum but it should be assumed this goes for *all* IDs.

I'm locking the KatrinaLee ID until I get an email stating that the ID will no longer be shared and at that point the password will get changed before the ID is unlocked. If other M-Comm members would like to post, please use your own ID or create a new one for you personally to use.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Whining? *Whining*?! You can't be serious. Sure, she may whined some, but are you really "sick to death" of it? How long has she been whining, exactly?

Does this whole excuse sound ludicrous to anyone else? Let me see if I can get this straight, my apologies if I get it wrong.

You went ahead and announced winners of the contest when you were suspicious that one of the entrants (who was at the time a winner as well) was a plagiarist?!

Seems to me, this is either a little smoke to hide true intentions, or you all are a little more disorganized than it appears.

You say you wasted time trying to deduce the true intent of the submission in question... if such a thing was going on, I wonder why the winners were posted before you resolved the issue.

Well, all things considered, can you blame her if that was her intent? I don't.

Furthermore, *you* all are anonymous. Why can't Hazel be if she wishes? I haven't read the rules, so I'm not sure if Hazel was breaking any, but that seems like a double standard.

I also had another question... I thought the judging was supposed to be done anonymously. So why were you trying to find out whose story it was?

Something doesn't add up, and I'm sure it's not just the number of "Katrina's" there are.

Sara

Wow. Just got back from a week AFK to find out I'd won 3rd place, see all this contravercy, and realize that I hadn't won 3rd place, after all.

I'm not going to touch on this latest batch of posts, but I do think it worth mentioning that if Laura's score was, indeed, 250, then she has not won "Honorable Mention." As I'll shortly be posting in the Merriweather scores thread, my story, "The Envelope," recieved a total score of 245, beating Hazel's score by a single point. Laura's 250 clearly beats that for a 3rd place win. So, congrats to Laura, and of course to Jenni and Mere!

Thanks to the Merriweather Committee for an interesting experience, and especially to the judges for their time, effort, and comments.

Paul

Yeah, this is the bit that really gets to me. The judges are anonymous and we're supposed to trust them without question. You yourself, the Chairman, are anonymous. But submitting a story under a pseudonym is a "charade" that wastes Mcomm's time? You can't have it both ways-- either we're all anonymous, or we're not.

As for pursuing problems in private, it sounded like Hazel had attempted to contact you that way and never received a reply. You can't be upset with her for trying a different avenue of communication.

I appreciate that you're all volunteers. I know way too well how much work it is trying to go to school and deal with family issues. I know you're still feeling this out and you're going to make mistakes. But the holier-than-thou attitude doesn't lend itself well to sympathy. And it's hard to empathize with a person/people who hide behind a "mouthpiece."

Kaylle

Deep breaths, people, deep breaths.

Congratulations to everyone who won awards. I entered a story into the contest as well (which received a score of 245), and after a few days of waffling, sent away for the scores and comments. Some things that stood out to me:
- Each of the judges appears to have their own voice and opinion. If you read the comments posted in the scores thread, it's evident that what is good to one judge may be flawed to another. My own score sheet reflects this as well. I tend to think that this is a good thing - it reflects a lack of bias in what is trying to be achieved with these stories. That's just the way I see it. Sue me.
- Every person who submitted a story could receive a score sheet if requested. Obviously people have been comparing their scores and talking to each other. If the Merriweather Committee had some sort of agenda, why would they make everything public and allow the comparisons that are going on here?
- It's regretable that some mistakes have been made. It's also regretable that some people seem to have gone into this contest bent on wreaking havok. I find it sad that some out there have nothing better to do that try and destroy these awards. Before the first round of judging, many out there were critical of the awards, but some of those critics still submitted stories and, hey, they ended up on the winner board. Again, if the Merriweather Committee had an agenda, would that happen? The attitude that somehow the Merriweather Committee needs to be put in its place smacks of pettiness. If you're confident in your writing, submit a story and let it speak for itself, then proudly show off your scoresheet after it's returned.

If I were the Merriweather Committee, I'd only allow previously posted stories to be submitted. Looks like they're more flexible than I would be.

I'd imagine that stripping names from stories (for judging) would lead to the possibility of having some difficulties putting the two together again. The first run of anything is difficult. Maybe that's what happened? Paul's post makes me wonder if maybe everything needs to be looked at again. Of course, we'll never know what the results are now that our benevolent board moderator has banned the Merriweather Committee spokesperson.

Anne - do you have any evidence that Katarina is sharing her password or is someone else in disguise? Or is she just in trouble for forwarding something without comment? If you DO have evidence of sinister motives, it might be best for everyone if you end the suspense and put the cards on the table.

AnnN.

I'm going to delete my comments at this time, but I may revisit them later.

I've spent some days, and much of last night, mulling over the actions of M-Comm in yanking the award for "Sunrise, Sunset" with no word of explanation as soon as it became clear that "Allyse Smith" was in fact Hazel. The idea that the Honourable Mention was intended all along simply as a fourth-place award, and that a difference of over thirty points in score was somehow overlooked is, frankly, incredible.

I can only conclude that M-Comm is acting in bad faith. Consequently, I've decided that I would prefer my name not to be associated with the awards, and have emailed the committee via the gatekeeper to hand back my award.

Getting up this morning to discover the latest official post from M-Comm is something of a relief, as it has removed any lingering doubt or regret I might have had over my decision.

I have some faint hope that these awards may yet, with time and a serious attitude adjustment on the part of the committee, become something the fandom can be proud of; but they have a very, very long way to go.

Meredith