Whining is warranted.
Also, the contest won't die.
For the WWYPers that don't know, we just wrapped up a week that brought myself, Revolutions and Matt together under the same roof. In preperation for this, I finished all of my judging save for one. This past week has been a very unusual one. Very enjoyable, very memorable, but very busy and unusual. I don't have any qualms announcing that Matt is the winner of WWYP4, and my scores will be posted either today or tomorrow, now that I actually have some free time.
Matt, go ahead and start thinking of a prompt.
In regards to "WWYP has become the biggest joke on Smashboards..." You underestimate just what we've accomplished. Any failures are mine and mine alone. The writing community on Smashboards has created the only self-sustaining contest on the entire boards. Since WWYP started, we've seen Debate with your Power, Paint with your Power, Compose with your Power, and Video with your Power. How many of those have you heard of? How many even made it out of the first round?
This isn't meant as a slight against those in charge of the contests. FDV, CK, Omnigamer, Wak, they're all strong and capable leaders. But, so far, the only contest that has a vision strong enough and a community enthusiastic enough is WWYP.
The only joke is me. And believe me, it was a joke while Matt and Rev visited. Worry not, Matt has no intention of letting me judge WWYP5.
We do need to making judging easier. Rev said he's willing to judge WWYP again once he "forgets how horrible judging WWYP4 was." In addition to a completely revamped scoring system, we will also lower the word limit to 4000 or 5000 words. If the contest starts growing again, I can't ask volunteer judges to score a novel's worth of stories. With these changes, I hope judging can become easier, more accurate, and most of all: more fun.
Finally, Uncle Kenny, I didn't insult you once during your critique. My word may not count for much, but you have my word that I will never make fun of a writer in his critique. Being mean is ok. Being meanspirited is not.