Pondering Contest Quacks

I was thinking today (scary, I know) about contests. You have to admit they're fun. Is there a better feeling than getting something for free? But really, it's not always fun for the person running the contest. Sadly, there are some who would ruin it for the rest.

	Contest Whores Contest Whores will enter a contest regardless of what the prize is. There's a prize, that's all that matters. It's pretty shiny and they want... so they enter. All too often Contest Whores also feel the need to brag about all the prizes they've won by entering contests, or to rub in the fact that won."Oh, I already read this book. I won it over at *insert random place here*" or even worse, IMO, are the ones who don't even cop to where they got it. "Oh, I have this book already. And this one. And that one."
	eBay Bitches These are the asshats who enter to win so they can immediately turn around and sell the prizes on eBay. You'll find these ones mostly surrounding contests for ARCs, because there's big money to be made selling ARCs on ebay. Bastards.
	Sad Tales These are the big babies who have a sob story for why they should win. "My husband left me." "My dog just died." "My life is horrible and awful and this would be the only bright spot in my otherwise wretched existence."
	Sybil's Socks These are Syb's favorite! *g* These are the sad, sorry fucks who have no life and make up pretend names/email addresses so they can enter a contest more than once. I've personally never understood the point. But then, I don't really enter contests, so I might not be the person to ask.

TGTBTU does contests because we are a reader site for readers. And we love the idea of helping readers find their next MUST READ author. Especially if they happen to be MUST READ authors for us. Tis fun to share, no? But sometimes I wonder if it's worth it to give away ARCs, to hold contests, to share the wealth. But then it's not really fair if one person ruins it for everyone, is it?

You Give Love a Bad Name

I am on very few yahoo groups. I think there are six: three author lists, two historical reader lists and a trade group. Oh and there is the brotherhood list but it is no mail because there is no way in hell I could keep up with it, but I do go check it out once in a blue moon.

The rest are author only, newsletter or update type lists. LOVE those... really every author should have one. Even if you don't pay for a professional newsletter or have the puter skills to do one, a simple text post is grand. And if you don't have a website, this lil reader thinks this is a must. Linda Howard I am looking at you! LOL not that you see it but it is the thought that counts *g*.

So I am not 'up' on the common rules of these things, at least in romanceland.

But if out of a 25 post digest, there are seven posts from you and your significant other talking about your lust and/or love for one another in addition to another six posts from other members talking about your lust and/or love for one another, you need to shut up about it.

Or is it just me that finds that crap annoying, boring and stupid. If you need an audience to talk to the lurve of your life, I think one or all of three things.

A. you are a sock and playing both the love and the lovee
B. things aren't really all that at home
C. you are both attention whores

GET. A. ROOM. Crazy thing... but people might be looking for book info, excerpts and things to do with the writing. I know I should just unsub and now recall why I generally delete the digest without even opening them.

This is prolly common on old lists where people are friends and have known members forever and ever. But yahoo groups are free! Go create one just for your group or something. Or make the personal chatty posts but don't carry it... and on... and on... where it hits over four digests (that is over 100 posts at 25 a digest).

Am I just being a bitch and not understanding the 'fun'. The group's description does list 'everything under the sun' as allowable posts. But long ass conversations about your lurve seem above and beyond. And the list isn't a fan list or a discussion list but THE AUTHOR list. As this is not the first time I have seen this type of thing on list I am changing my membership to Special Notices - Receive only important email notices from the group moderator. And will just visit via web when I want to look for info. LOL after all that my question is:

Is this is common and acceptable on many author lists?

And for the love of god, cut the text in the posts when you are replying. Really I think that is what pushed me over the edge, not the 15 out of 25 posts in the last four digests but the one to two sentence replies on top of 10 other replies for one post.

In case you don't know this... that makes scrolling through the digest a pain and even with the cool new set up yahoo is using for digest form it makes understanding where posts end and a new one begin difficult. If it causes the digest to be long enough, gmail doesn't display the whole thing. So you have to click a link and wait for it to load to read the full digest. I hate to think how long this takes for people with dial up.

So please try to trim your posts when you reply and leave only what you are replying too! LOL sez I.