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1A1

Sighing deeply, Sam switched the TV off and started piling a week’s worth of pizza boxes and pop cans onto his lap. He maneuvered towards the kitchen with practiced skill and dumped the whole mess in a big garbage pile. Yawning and scratching his belly he reached for the light switch when there was a knock - at the window.

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25 COMMENTS ABOUT THIS STORY RSS

Just Chatting
surreal78 ""I suspect a lot of people use 4 as a base standard. I use 3. I go by the adjectives associated with the number, not the number itself."

That's the idea -- those labels are supposed to be guidelines. I think adding half-marks, and not allowing people to rate their own stories (maybe...) would make for more consistent ratings. Might do that in the interim. Or I'll just tear it all out. We'll see.

Got a lot of other stuff on the go before I get around to a ratings revamp.
"
Just Chatting
jait "I suspect a lot of people use 4 as a base standard. I use 3. I go by the adjectives associated with the number, not the number itself. If I think it's decent, it's a 3. This shouldn't be an insult. There's a lot of stuff that I think is decent, but just not my kinda thing...

Me, I get more excited by the commentary than the ratings...

Oh, okay. I'm upset I'm not in the top-10. Gee, maybe if I actually wrote more often.
"
Just Chatting
ganga "WB, relax dude! You write very well. Remember, these 1-5 ratings are subjective. What is "spectacular" to one person may be "decent" to another.

Like Jillian said, you can't expect everyone to pass a comment when they give you a rating. There is a reason feedback is usually collected anonymously. Most of us are not completely honest even to their best friends when it comes to criticism.

Also, remember, this is a "3-sentence-adventure", and one may not exactly be blown away in 3 sentences to say "spectacular". I don't know why some have got 4 while you have a 3.25, though. What is definitely wrong is deliberately giving someone a low rating, and I understand your frustration on that.

This 5-star rating system is good if we're all honest with each other and truly rate the content (and not the person). But, to err is human and to fix the system is Nick :)

So, keep up your good work with writing and try not to worry too much about this! :)
"
Just Chatting
Jillian "Wow, I think you just did freak out. Okay, let's take a breather.

I know it's frustrating but remember that people are perfectly within their rights to rate whatever they want without leaving a comment. I completely agree with you that if someone really doesn't like the post or has a problem with it, then they should explain why. But, they're not obligated so you should try not to expect them to.
You never know, maybe the person is just really uncomfortable leaving a comment or whatever. Could be any reason.

Anyway, the rating system is changing soon so hopefully we can avoid most of this frustration in the future.

Breathe in, breathe out....
"
Just Chatting
Writers_Block "Okay seriously, who is rating this post, becasue I see tons of 4's and mine is like 3.25...if you're going to rate it badly PUT A REASON WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SERIOUSLY! I don't go around rating everyone else's !$*! and not leaving comments! I'M GOING TO FREAK OUT SERIOUSLY!"
Just Chatting
juniper "AGH - I knew I'm just too verbose for a 3-sentence limit!!!"
Just Chatting
Writers_Block "The difficulty makes it all the more interest, as well the 3 different routes give you the small chance to change the pace of the story. Its to prove that even 3 sentences have an ENORMOUS impact on where a story goes."
Just Chatting
Writers_Block "There I fixed it!!"
Just Chatting
Writers_Block "Haha oh shut up Rachel! :P"
Just Chatting
surreal78 "I can change the title if you'd like. Just drop me a note if 140 character adventure works better. :)"
Just Chatting
Writers_Block "I was waiting for your comment! Its like an expected force of happening!"
Just Chatting
Rac7hel "lol... let's make the "140 Character Adventure""
Just Chatting
Writers_Block "I'm just looking over this and its actually even better than the one word thing because it gives people more of an ability to express themselves creatively without being forced to write an entire chapter!"
Just Chatting
Writers_Block "You can get frustrated all you want, I'm sure you have more than enough to deal with, without me constantly cropping up loopholes haha! I appreciate you keeping the story here and changing it so that its more friendly to you and the site! Its still going to be tons of fun."
Just Chatting
surreal78 "Okay. We now have a 140-character limit to all posts. Yes, it's now in the posting guidelines, too. :p

Revised the story to still be fun. Sorry for being grumpy about it but I think everyone realizes this will probably get ugly if we don't head it off at the pass.
"
Just Chatting
surreal78 "Okay, not your fault. I should have thought of this a while ago. Sorry for getting frustrated there.

I'm going to tweak this post a bit, the concept sounds fun, but we'll make it a little less spammy. Hopefully no one will get too mad at me for intervening.
"
Just Chatting
Writers_Block "Yeah I'm definitely the stupidest member!"
Just Chatting
surreal78 "Okay guys.. let's try not to game the system too badly here. You know this kind of post is going to cause problems.

Do I need to require a certain number of characters per post, now?

Troublemaker of the week is definitely right...
"
Just Chatting
surreal78 "Hrm, this is gonna be another post could booster, isn't it. I may have to somehow exclude this from stats otherwise a lot of people are probably going to be pretty choked. :p"
Just Chatting
ganga "No prizes for guessing who will win the trouble-maker of the week award! Never a dull moment with WB!

For someone with the name "Writer's block", you do write a lot! Wonder what will happen if the Writer's block was unblocked! :D
"
Just Chatting
Writers_Block "Shoot....I didn't think of that...Nick is gonna be really ticked :("
Just Chatting
Jillian "Haha this story is going to end up with 8 million branches!

And, whoever contributes will be able to boost their post numbers pretty quickly!
"
Just Chatting
Writers_Block "There I put a new branch just so people would get the idea! I hope people participate!"

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