An lil rant about contest winners . . . .

1. 82

   Gemini Foxposted 12 years ago

   Could someone please, please tell me how it is that this website, specifically for WRITERS, holds a WRITING contest with various "Judging Criteria", one of them being the following:
   
   "Excellent writing (proper use of grammar, capitalization)"
   
   and then chooses a "winning" hub which has numerous misspellings, numerous grammatical errors and is, at times, almost incoherent? And no, English is not this person's second language.
   
   Someone needs to tell management that they are making fools of themselves and that it is very disheartening for those people who are honestly trying to improve their work to see extremely poor writing held up as a "winning" example. Not to mention it downgrades the professionalism and respectability of this site . . . for ALL of us.     
   
   Just to clarify: have not entered said contest, may or may not do so (especially now that I really have no idea what their criteria is as they are obviously not following their own) and don't give two twiddles whether I win - so this is not "sore loser syndrome".
   
   Now that I'm done with my rant, I feel much better and will slink back to the deep, dark recesses of newbie-dom and be quiet.

   replyreport
   1. 0

      klarawieckposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I love a ranting Gemini! LOL You're my new best friend!

      replyreport
      1. 82

         Gemini Foxposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Every once in a while . . . I just can't stop myself.   

         replyreport
2. 94

   rmcrayneposted 12 years ago

   Was it one of the 3 hubs selected for week 1, or 3 selected for week 2, that you found to be of poor quality?  Or are you ranting about one of the 21 daily drawing winners, which is "drawn out of a hat" so to speak?  Or are you talking about the weekly HubNugget selections?

   replyreport
   1. 82

      Gemini Foxposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      One of the daily drawing winners.  And I went back and read the directions a little more carefully and it does say that the daily drawings are 'randomly' selected . . . but what does that mean? Literally out of a hat as you say? In other words I could write a hub in "spammer lingo" or keywords only and win?! $50.00?! There aren't that many hubs submitted per day that HP can't read through them and choose the best for that day.  And anyway, I would think that the "Judging Criteria" would still apply to those chosen (or 'randomly' selected) on a daily basis and any that didn't adhere would be thrown out!

      replyreport
3. 84

   rebekahELLEposted 12 years ago

   Winning hubs, however they're chosen, shouldn't have numerous misspellings, etc.

   replyreport
4. 59

   MPG Narrativesposted 12 years ago

   Well said Geminifox. I thought I was the only 'grammar/spelling geek' on Hubpages.
   
   Oh, welcome to hubpages by the way.

   replyreport
   1. 82

      Gemini Foxposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you MPG!
      
      Nope - I don't know why I get so twisted up about grammar and spelling but I just do.  Everyone makes mistakes but  I think that writing out there, in general, is becoming worse and worse and a website like this, especially like this, should not condone it let alone reward it!  Better stop while I'm ahead or I'll be off on another rant!
      
      Thanks for the welcome to HP, too!

      replyreport
5. 83

   Simone Smithposted 12 years ago

   Heya Gemini Fox! I'm glad you brought this up.
   
   The Daily Drawing Hubs are, indeed, randomly selected. I use a random number generator to select the winners. The only way a Daily Drawing Hub cannot win is if the Hub does not meet our contest entry requirements:
   
   Hub entries must answer a Question on HubPages (the Hub must be created by first visiting the Question, then clicking “answer this question” and then choosing the “make a Hub about it” option. Short-form responses are not entered in the contest.)
   Hub entries must have at least one image, and all images are legally used (see our Learning Center guide on legal image use)
   Entries must be published for the first time on that given contest day
   Hub entries must be a minimum of 500 words
   Question and Hub entries must be entirely original to HubPages
   Hub entries must not be in response to your own Question
   
   ... and believe it or not, I often have to disqualify people. It's a bummer!
   
   The reason why we have random in addition to qualitative prizes is we want anyone to be able to win by participating in our contests- not just the best of the best. HubPages is a site where folks are encouraged to launch their online writing career- nobody starts off as a perfect online writer, and we want to make the HubPages experience fun for people at all levels.
   
   Does that address your concerns? At any rate, I feel your pain on the grammar front. Believe me. Sometimes my eyes twitch so much out of grammar mistake horror that I cry blood*. But hey, we all have to start somewhere, and the more people write, the more likely they are to be corrected and learn about the right conventions to follow!
   
   *Ok, that's not true.

   replyreport
   1. 82

      Gemini Foxposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Simone: thanks for clarifying! I understand now. I thought that the Judging Criteria applied to all winning hubs so couldn't believe my eyeballs when reading one of the daily winners. I'm over my lil rant-trum and all calmed down now! 

      replyreport
      1. 58

         Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         It is a shock at first when you find out quality of writing is not the prime requisite here.  But then, if HP only allowed the best writers to win the contests here, then the same folk would always win.  Besides, you'll soon discover being able to write well is really not a requirement for most anything here. 
         
         
                                              

         replyreport
      2. 81

         2besureposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         LOL!  Much better???

         replyreport
   2. 84

      mary615posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I posted this in another thread, but maybe you can help me.  I "lost" a question that I wanted to write a Hub about.  Now, I can't find the question. I remember what the question was about.  Is there a "search" to help me find it again?  Thanks.

      replyreport
6. 94

   rmcrayneposted 12 years ago

   "An lil rant".  Oopsie.  Ironic.

   replyreport
   1. 82

      Gemini Foxposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      You got me . . . but this is not a hub that won $50.00!
      
      And it's a rant . . . so I'm allowed to make all kinds a mistakes!

      replyreport