Dear Eratosphereans - this happens to be our maiden double-blind sonnet bake-off. So, I'd have been surprised if this first dry run which happens to be also a live run proved to be a home run. So, what can we do but apply a tweak again, on the run. I believe, though, that the earlier tweak is the least possible one that can be made under circumstances. And I believe it's a fair one since I did not announce it after the submission deadline, but with still plenty of time for anyone who might be already affected to send in a replacement submission, and for those who haven't yet submitted to send in something in line with it.
With that said, and continuing in the spirit of 'tweakery' to appease some who are yet to be appeased due to the earlier tweak, how about we define a little better what 'googleable' means in the context of this bake-off and thus make things a little more deterministic--
A sonnet will be deemed googleable and thus
disqualified as a finalist (while still giving the author the opportunity to submit a replacement sonnet -- although the replacement might fail to achieve finalist status) if:
1) The sonnet appears on the first or second page only of Google search results with "TITLE" as the search string (where "TITLE" is the full string for the sonnet's title, enclosed in quotes),
AND/OR
2) The sonnet appears on the first or second page only of Google search results with "FIRST LINE" as the search string (where "FIRST LINE" is the full string for the sonnet's first line, enclosed in quotes).
Note that the above excludes the inclusion of the author's name in any of the above search strings or separately (since we're making the assumption that specific author names will be unknown to the DG, and to the bake-off participants).
I hope this makes matters a bit simpler/easier and more deterministic for those who might be having problems with the recent 'non-googleable' tweak.
Cheers,
...Alex
Threaded Mode
