I'm Only the Trombone Player

A Teachable Moment

Teachers love when someone asks them a question, it helps them judge how well they did their job teaching that particular lesson, and it quite often provides something called a "teachable moment".

I current have the privilege of serving on the panel judging Shadow Prowler-Spreading Love 's "Invalid Item" .

My role is to judge Compliance with the Instructions given for the particular round;

For example these were the factor's I considered in Round Three;

Objectives for this round: This round, you will introduce your character from the first round to their new world you created last round. Creativity is a focal point of this round. Please do not just drop them into their new world.

Specific Guidelines for this round: This round your entry must be at least 250 words or more. Pay close attention to detail. You must put your word count in the top right-hand corner of your text, in bold. Your entry must be submitted in Bitem format. You must use a 3.5 or larger font size.

DEADLINE: Friday, MAY 1st by MIDNIGHT WDC time!

Each of the BOLD TEXT are factor's I considered for basic compliance with the rules set forth. This is the template I used to judge the entries; "Round 3 Template" . These are Pass/Fail, Yes/No factors. As such it was either correct, contestants got all the points, or wasn't correct, and no points were awarded.

However, I missed that golden "Teachable Moment" until a contestant was nice enough to ASK THE RIGHT QUESTION!!

The contestants question; You assigned 0 points for Entry Format and stated that the item was not in bitem format; I believe you are mistaken. The item exists as a separate entry in my Monthly Contests folder, completely separate from the Epic Battle of the Pens folder for the previous two entries. Why?

Several contestants lost points for posting their entries in the forum improperly and I was derelict in my duty by not explaining WHY!

Very simply, there are a multitude of ways to post an item in a forum;

If your item is in a book or blog, you need to use {entry:XXXXXXX}, that would look like this "Round 3 Template" 

However, using the entry format was outside the contests guidelines.

The Work Around; Create a "Static Item" copy of your book entry, and use it for the contest. You can delete it after the contest is over.

If your work is a "Static Item", freestanding so to speak, you have several choices, including the two most often used {item:XXXXXXX} or {bitem:XXXXXXX}.

For a contest the Contests Owner will chose which format the want you to post with. It is important to post with the CORRECT format, very often posting incorrectly will result in silent disqualification. (At least I only hit you for five points!)

There is a marked difference for how the two postings look;

{item:xxxxxxx} Is merely a link within the body of your text, "Newbie Contest Challenge!!" , neat if you just want a link.

But, {bitem:XXXXXXXX} is packed with more information and is more like the cover of a book, it tells me quite a bit about your entry. It shows the Title, cover, the author, and an intro blurb.

FORUM

Newbie Contest Challenge!!  (13+) Contest Open To Newbie's Only. #2219272 by Richard ~ Merry, Merry

         Did you take the time to properly Capitalize your Title?
         Did You write an eye catching, informative introduction?
         Did you take the time to find a great Cover Photo?

All first impressions that will help or hurt your efforts, and why so many contest owners ask for {bitem:xxxxxxx} format.

AN IMPORTANT NOTE FOR JUDGES; To PROPERLY view {bitem} entries you forum post view MUST be set to UNTHREADED VIEW. WdC will truncate the post, causing it to appear as a {item} post.

If you haven't visited the "Invalid Item"  I suggest you do so, our six combatants are in a pitched battle for dominance and have one more round to prove themselves Champion Of the Epic Pen!!

You can also cheer on Ugly Christmas Sox , SB Musing , beginnerwrath, MirandaCookies IS IN COLLEGE , Merry_Mikey and
Becca Winchester over at the "Invalid Item" . Buy a star for your favorite contestant or for all Six!