Poetry in the Awards

[AceTrainer14]

Attention Fairground!

For a while us moderators have discussed on and off whether or not to make a separate poetry competition to recognise the poets in our community. After the issue was raised today in the General Chat, we discussed it briefly again and decided the best solution was to make a poll. Our options are:

- Give poetry its own annual or biannual competition. It would only be for one prize. This would require extra organisation and add one or two extra competitions a year, but would ensure we have enough judges to properly focus on it.
- Give poetry its own category in the current awards. This would require less organisation and be simpler, but there is the issue already of there not being enough judges for the current categories.
(In both the above circumstances, poetry would be judged differently to how the prose is).
- Keep it as it is (in Best Alternate and/or Non-Pokemon). Not the most desirable option, but if you have a solid reason why you voted this than say why.

So please vote on the above poll what you think. This is open to everyone, not just poets or judges, and we want to see as many people as possible take part - but we definitely want our poets to have their say.

You have a week to vote

 

[Beth Pavell]

I think it makes most sense to give poetry its own category, at the moment.

The awards judging criteria were designed for prose, and more specifically than that, for stories. It shows, frankly, when it comes to the poems. Poetry can have plot and can involve characterisation in the manner of a story, but it often doesn't. Moreover, there's no specific provision for judging the particular aspects of poetry that set it apart from prose. I argue that poetry is different art style to prose, sufficiently different that it's just not sensible to judge it against prose.

I'm not averse to the idea of poetry Awards if that would mean less work in one go

 

[AceTrainer14]

To clarify, in case it wasn't clear, the poetry awards would just be one category as well, just judged separately from the other Awards.

 

[Th!nkPi]

I would love to see poetry have its own awards despite my newness to this community. As the founder and former Room Owner of the Writing room at Pokemon Showdown!, I would be happy to extend an invitation to the many poets I've met through the community there to come here and enter poetry competitions as well. So far I've met three poets here, two of whom I've formally spoken to, and I know several Pokemon-specific poets through the PS!/Smogon community who could participate. I would be glad to help get as many entrants as possible to justify poetry getting its own awards and judges, but I'm happy with it getting a category at the very least. Thanks for posting the poll! o/

 

[Vivillon]

I heartily vouch for poetry to get its own category in the Awards. As Pavell said, poetry is in a completely different (but no higher or lower) league than standard prose, and I would love to see it get its own fair share of attention. I am against having a separate poetry awards system, however.

 

[CynthiaLover]

I'm with the majority here and feel that poetry should get it's own category in the awards. Trying to compare poetry to stories is like comparing a cookie to a wedding cake, so it's only fair to those who write poetry to have their own slot in the awards, otherwise their works are at a disadvantage when it comes to judging. So I think they should have their own slot for judging in the already-present awards.

 

[AceTrainer14]

Some extra clarification based on the discussion here: In both circumstances of giving poetry its own category or judging that category in a separate bout of judging, the poetry would likely receive a different method of being judged. The way we currently judge fiction/prose doesn't work with poetry, with in the past poetry threads having to receive 0 in up to three categories, so there would be a different method for which it can be graded.

Also, if poetry stayed in the main awards, we would then also have to have a discussion as to whether or not it be eligible for Best Story.

 

[Th!nkPi]

Unless someone's writing an epic, I think it's doubtful that a poem would be eligible for Best Story. Poetry is an art and utilizes a different skillset than storywriting, but I think writing a story takes much more time. It's easier for someone to write a collection of poetry than it is to write a collection of stories, so I don't think it's fair to fiction writers to allow poems to be eligible for that kind of award.

If it's going to get its own category, I doubt it's fair to include it for Best Story. Is it possible to add Best Poem if there are enough entries?

 

[Persephone]

I would be fine just leaving Best Poetry Anthology as its own award implied to be between the Best Category awards and Best Story in prestige. So it would effectively be its own set of awards, but just done at the same time for the sake of minimizing the number of times in the year we need judges to be doing something.

 

[Kelleo]

I voted to keep it how it is. Too few people here write poetry. I think the only ones I see are Vivillon and one other person. If more people start writing it, of course, then it's only fair that they get their own category in the awards.

 

[Life]

Giving poets their own awards would be cool, but I don't think it's really needed, not at this point at least. I can't honestly think of many different awards there would even be, anyways, and I don't think it would really be worth all the work it would require. But that's just me.

I am all for having there be a separate category in the current awards, though. Perhaps even two (Best Poem & Best Anthology) awards? But one is definitely a great start. I don't really think that the amount of writers is necessarily a concern as in this past awards there were some categories with only two entries, and I know we have at least three poets who would be willing to enter their material, so I think there is definitely reasonable action to do so.

Only concern I have at the moment is how the poetry would get graded. I know you, Ace, mentioned that they would be graded differently than stories, but how so? I know that's something to be discussed, though I think all of us here are a lot more suited to judging prose over verse as we're more familiar with it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, anyone, but I don't think there are any of us here who have the knowledge of how poetry should be judged for the setting that it's in? I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm just worried the judging for it would be based off of personal preference, which is obviously not a good thing.

 

[AceTrainer14]

Giving poets their own awards would be cool, but I don't think it's really needed, not at this point at least. I can't honestly think of many different awards there would even be, anyways, and I don't think it would really be worth all the work it would require. But that's just me.

I am all for having there be a separate category in the current awards, though. Perhaps even two (Best Poem & Best Anthology) awards? But one is definitely a great start. I don't really think that the amount of writers is necessarily a concern as in this past awards there were some categories with only two entries, and I know we have at least three poets who would be willing to enter their material, so I think there is definitely reasonable action to do so.

Only concern I have at the moment is how the poetry would get graded. I know you, Ace, mentioned that they would be graded differently than stories, but how so? I know that's something to be discussed, though I think all of us here are a lot more suited to judging prose over verse as we're more familiar with it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, anyone, but I don't think there are any of us here who have the knowledge of how poetry should be judged for the setting that it's in? I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm just worried the judging for it would be based off of personal preference, which is obviously not a good thing.

We will discuss it in depth once we decide what to do, but currently prose is judged by five different categories with a mark out of ten and judges then use those grades to give it a score out of 100 which takes into account their personal feelings as well. The same thing would happen with poetry but with different categories.

And to repeat myself, the separate poetry awards will just be one award with the option to add more later if we get a bigger influx of poetry. The reason behind doing it separately is to have judges available to actually judge without having the other categories to tend with as well.

 

[Life]

I wasn't reading clearly enough, it looks like! I was confused on the difference between the two options, but personally, I do not see that much of a problem with getting judges. I know there was kind of a scarce amount for the last season, but poems are, of course, a lot shorter and can probably be judged a lot quicker, so I think it should be fine.

Also, I feel that if just one award would be given away for the separate poetry awards, that's more work than it needs to be, in my opinion, so I would stick with the second option. Thank you for clarifying!

 

[AceTrainer14]

There are just over 24 hours left on the poll, so if you want your say then please make sure you vote.

 

[Th!nkPi]

I've seen at least 5 poets here so far I think. As to how active they are is a different story. But I can invite several poets who write Pokemon poetry to this community should you guys need an increase in entries to justify judges and an award.

 

[Vivillon]

Just another quick idea: instead of having a "Best Poem" award or something, we could adapt it to the user voted categories as "Best Poet." Just a thought.

 

[AceTrainer14]

Thank you everyone who voted. There is a clear majority here, and the moderators and I will take everything said here into consideration. Look out for more news about the Awards later on in May!