[Maryann Corbett]

Annie wrote:

Since I am submitting it via email, I can't do that clever thing of putting wotsits in the post to protect it from Beelzebots. Can I?

This would be a good time to re-explore the question of the code that is, or was, supposed to protect individual event poems. In theory, the "noindex" code, placed at the very top of each contest poem's thread, was supposed to protect the poem from the bots. The tricky part was that the contest host--not always a person deeply adept at the techy parts of this board--HAD TO REMEMBER to put that code in at the start. Inserting it later sometimes meant the bots got there first.

Alex, is any of this still correct?

Editing back: Here's a link to an older, relevant thread with info about the code:
http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/showthread.php?t=14442

[Alex Pepple]

Marcia - blanket Eratosphere exemption -- notwithstanding rssing scraping, etc. etc. -- is a part of the rules this year, given that I know for a fact that Eratosphere is not a publication venue but a workshop, and especially because I can't control what appears elsewhere, but at the Sphere, I can take further action, before the postings start, of removing finalists from the workshops if they've not already been pruned.

Maryann - I specifically instruct the DG to add the code before posting. Indeed, I usually check when the posting starts to verify that it's properly in place.

Cheers,
...Alex

[Alex Pepple]

A week later and thus far, only eight submission received! That's quite a lackluster response!

I hope this poor statistics is only a temporary hiccup, and there's still an abiding interest from Eratosphereans in our time-tested bake-off tradition!?

Submit submit submit submit!!!

Cheers,
...Alex

[Julie Steiner]

Shhh! What are you doing, Alex? Don't mess up my first real chance in YEARS to make it into the top ten or twelve....

[L.M. Price]

Nearly all my sonnets have been workshopped at Sonnet Central, which means they will show up on a search engine, which means they are auto-disqualified. Therefore, I have nothing to submit. Else, I would.

[ross hamilton hill]

What is the definition of a sonnet for the purpose of this comp?
There are many defintions of what is and is not a sonnet.

[Alex Pepple]

Hi, L.M. -- Since I do recognize Sonnet Central as a workshop, you may submit anything you've workshopped there. However, if your entry makes the final, you'll be required to have it removed from the website before posting here begins, or else, it will be disqualified. (And for anyone else looking for a similar exception for some other workshop, let me which one it is, and I'll decide on a case by case basis.)

Ross -- Since that's such an open-ended question, I'll just say submit whatever you think is a sonnet. The merit of your submission as a worthy sonnet/poem will then depend on what those in the know think of it, especially, the DG who'll be deciding on the submissions.

Cheers,
...Alex

[L.M. Price]

Thanks, Alex.
I'll go shuffle through my stuff.

[Scott Miller]

Alex, I'm wondering what if any content restrictions (or preferences) there are. Some of my stuff is a bit--shall we say, raw?--and I feel like the Sphere isn't always the best place for them. I'm not just spewing foul language or anything, but what about frank references to sexual behavior or drug use, for example?

[ross hamilton hill]

What is the definition of a sonnet for the purpose of this comp?

Alex I don't see how this is an open-ended question, it is a specific question, your judges should have a definition of a sonnet that they use, it is not a question of what I think, it is a question of what they think, since it is their decision. Surely if you have a sonnet competition you also have a definite idea of what a sonnet is?