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Fwiw, I am unbothered by the losertar or any of the other less-than-fluffy aspects of TD. Maybe downgrade to a snarky red text if you think it would help?
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Jun 5, 2023 23:10
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I've always been of the opinion that avatars are a good advertisement, but gangtags and av text would work the same way and not change up how anyone is presenting themselves around the forum. What got me into Thunderdome was a week where the winner had an opportunity to get published. My story was bad and I felt bad, but the honest critique was genuinely so helpful. I think it's better with less kayfabe as well. ...it's also better when all judges post their crits in a timely fashion so this is me toxxing to get my outstanding crits done by the end of the week.
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Jun 6, 2023 01:15
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thunderdome winner
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Sitting Here posted:Would you sign up more if the losertar was optional? nah Chernobyl Princess posted:I've always been of the opinion that avatars are a good advertisement, but gangtags and av text would work the same way and not change up how anyone is presenting themselves around the forum. Gangtang would be cool as an alternative if it was still a hyperlink to this thread.
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Jun 6, 2023 04:29
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I'd like to avoid a losertaur and would enjoy a hangtag for successfully submitting.
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Jun 6, 2023 06:47
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Rationally, I love this thread and engaging my creativity, and I lurk the gently caress out all the time. But I have trouble with criticism, despite knowing the only way to get good is to do it again and again. I don't mind the kayfabe, but my brain chemistry has real problems with a constant reminder I was poo poo one week and so I don't sign up. I know I shouldn't care, but I don't want to spend 5 bucks a week figuring out how to get good at writing / plot / dialogue / adjusting my thinking so a losertar wouldn't bother me. So I'll continue to lurk and, like others, maybe enter when I know I have a lot of time to write and hone something. Thanks to all the contributors, I enjoy reading your stuff!
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Jun 6, 2023 14:45
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Thunderdome Week DLXVI: Actually, We Sort of Do Need More Heroes The blood is getting mighty thin around here, to the point where last week might have been mistaken for a brawl. While the thunderdome cabal works on long term strategies, let's go back to basics and try and bring in new blood. So, this week, I want to see some (many) Post-apocalyptic Vignettes. You can use any kind of apocalypse, realistic or fantastic or absurdist or historical, whatever. Wikipedia posted:A vignette (/vɪnˈjɛt/ m, also /viːnˈ-/) is a French loanword expressing a short and descriptive piece of writing that captures a brief period in time. Vignettes are more focused on vivid imagery and meaning rather than plot. 500 words. But there are multiple ways to earn a single 200 word bounty:
Flash rules are available with no wordcount change involved. They will be in the form of songs from our dearly missed Auntie Entity and Acid Queen, AKA Tina Turner. For any new domers, flash rules are sources of additional inspiration. For many people, restrictions breed creativity. With song flash rules the best approach is to grab a few images, phrases, or general vibes from the song and/or video and mix them in to your work. The worst approach is to rewrite the story of the song. In this case, the flash is there to inspire you; judges will not hold it against you if they don't see the connection. As usual, we do not want fanfiction, erotica, or contemporary political screeds. Stories should be posted in the thread (rather than linking to a gdoc or other external site) and should not be edited after posting. We usually put the wordcount and any flash rules just under the title, but if you forget, see above: don't edit the post. Put those in a new one. The deadline to sign in is 11:59 PM Friday. (Pacific Time) The deadline to post stories is 11:59 PM Sunday. (Also Pacific Time) Judges: Thranguy PhantomMuzzles Fumblemouse Heroes: curlingiron RandomPauI rohan (Afterglow) Beezus Djeser Albatrossy_Rodent Dicere MockingQuantum (Nutbush City Limits) Slightly Lions LunchinTard derp (Disco Inferno) Bad Seafood (1984) Lily Catts Chairchucker (Thief of Hearts) sebmojo (GoldenEye) Flyerant SurreptitiousMuffin Yoruichi Idle Amalgam crimea (One of the Living) Cephas Tars Tarkas Mrenda Sham bam bamina! Wahad DigitalRaven Simply Simon (Ball of Confusion) Antivehicular (Something Beautiful Remains) Lord Zedd-Repulse flerp (Back Where You Started) Thranguy fucked around with this message at 08:53 on Jun 10, 2023 |
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Jun 6, 2023 23:08
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In 
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Jun 6, 2023 23:22
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I'm in, there's been a phrase stuck at the back of my mind all week May as well do something with it
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Jun 6, 2023 23:22
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in, flash me
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Jun 6, 2023 23:24
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Ring-a-ding-in, baby.
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Jun 6, 2023 23:25
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Well gosh guess I should in
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Jun 7, 2023 00:44
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In
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Jun 7, 2023 00:54
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You better believe I'm in.
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Jun 7, 2023 01:04
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In, flash plz
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Jun 7, 2023 01:22
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In. Obviously, the losertar is not an impediment to my enjoyment of the thread. I like that it gives some stakes to the contest, though I do find the much more motivating factor to be desire not to lose my shiny gangtag, which is why I don't enter if I don't think I'll have time to write a passable story.
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Jun 7, 2023 01:23
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I'm in.
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Jun 7, 2023 03:07
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rohan posted:in, flash me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoe3Coaq5VM (Afterglow)
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Jun 7, 2023 03:12
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MockingQuantum posted:In, flash plz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg7qrYqJ9ns (Nutbush City Limits)
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Jun 7, 2023 03:28
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In, flash
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Jun 7, 2023 03:52
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I'm in. Flash me Amadeus.
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Jun 7, 2023 05:00
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ah, whatever! I'm in
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Jun 7, 2023 06:53
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Hello may I please have a song.
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Jun 7, 2023 07:04
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In and flash
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Jun 7, 2023 09:48
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derp posted:In, flash https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJa7Z-Tfpyk (Disco Inferno)
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Jun 7, 2023 10:49
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Bad Seafood posted:I'm in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOycYEA57y0 (1984)
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Jun 7, 2023 10:51
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Chairchucker posted:Hello may I please have a song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH4gruvDwXg (Thief of Hearts)
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Jun 7, 2023 10:58
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sebmojo posted:In and flash https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGPBFvDz_HM (GoldenEye)
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Jun 7, 2023 11:00
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I'll have like a day to write this, but I'm IN!
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Jun 7, 2023 19:00
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Yeah gently caress it in
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Jun 7, 2023 23:31
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Omg if everyone else is doing it then I am in too
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Jun 7, 2023 23:34
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In
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Jun 8, 2023 00:46
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We need two more judges too!!!
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Jun 8, 2023 01:58
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Hey guys! At the beginning of the year, we said we were going to create a companion thread for Thunderdome to create a space for more chat and support. Then we didn't do that. Why? Because it was a fiddly thing that was easy to backburner. The thread exists now. Everyone is welcome, whether you are a lurker, a newb, a seasoned vet, or someone just sort of interested in talking about things tangentially related to the Thunderdome flash fiction contest. Here is the thread. To get discussion going over there, I would really like to raise the following question: What would be a fun interforum inter-forum activity or contest? With the goal being to bring more people to Thunderdome, or CC on a whole.
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Jun 8, 2023 06:28
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In, flash.
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Jun 8, 2023 11:28
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crimea posted:In, flash. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP39e1YJB9U (One of the Living)
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Jun 8, 2023 17:52
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CRITS FROM WEEK 560 A Lovely Light by Admiralty Flag The one where a single dad has a weekend with his kids. One of the things I like about this is that it’s sweet without denying the sour. Those stupid bursts of anger that inspire you to be an rear end in a top hat to your kid. The absolute exhaustion. The desire to get any time to yourself, which quickly gets eaten by all the other demands of life. But all of that doesn’t matter when your kid has a nightmare and just needs you. This did a good job of showing both having to parent and getting to parent. There are points whether the choppy detachment works against it, and points where it underscores the exhaustion of the main character. I also think it would be better if only one of the two child emergencies were a nightmare, not that that’s not realistic, but because in sub 800 word stories it feels, to me, like a waste to repeat a device. talking in the back by flerp The one where a little girl talks to her uncle about her dead grandfather and he has Feelings. I liked this one, it was sweet. It featured a kid, but the kid was a device for the main character to explore his feelings (or lack thereof) about the death of his father. I think it may not ring entirely true, kids do tend to ask remarkably penetrating questions, especially about life and death. They also tend to want to tell you about Pokemon at exhausting length, and will switch back and forth between the two rapidly. I think this would have been improved by showing a memory of the main character and his father, maybe at a different funeral, when the mc was the same age as the niece in the story. Maybe something to showcase why he’s feeling complicated. Pegasus by Violet_Sky The one where a pegasus takes kids to an all-kids afterlife and it’s kinda hosed up! I’ll be honest, this went fully over my head the first time I read it. Still, there’s a seed of something extremely cool and sinister and candy-coated here that I wish I could really dig into. You did a great job on emphasizing the Vibe of this piece, it drifts neatly into its unsettling, discordant ending. But I think you bury the lede of the Pegasus being not just inhuman but being potentially malevolent. At least how humans would interpret malevolence. I also think it ends on the wrong line, “But that was just a fairy tale” has enough menace and dissonance to it in context without the ending question. I want more of that dissonance. If you ever revisit this concept I’d love to read it. The Blur by archduke.iago The one where a kid’s family decides he should grow up as fast as he can. There is an enormous pressure we put on kids to Grow Up. It’s painful. Especially if we see them struggling, we want to fast forward them through the struggle. We want them to be the people we wanted to be, and some parents will absolutely push their kid through extremes of discomfort to get them “past” all the developmentally necessary struggles of childhood. This has rough patches, but like Pegasus it captured the Vibe of a specific discomfort so neatly that it wound up my favorite of the week. Ollie, Ollie by Thranguy The one where a girl learns the secret to being the Best Hider in local games of hide n seek The world of this was built very well and very cleanly. The voice was unmistakably that of a child without the work being childish. But I can’t shake the sense that it didn’t earn its ending. Other than his ability to go to the moon, which is presented just as a Fact, there’s nothing to indicate that Xavier is some sort of fairy creature that would need to be killed with a sprig of holly. It makes the ending jarring, and not in a “oh goodness I am worried for this child” way, but in a “wait this wasn’t the story I thought I was reading, did I miss something” way. It’s a cool ending and a cool beginning, they just don’t meld together as seamlessly as I’d like. Someone I Respect by Chili The one where a girl remembers meeting her best friend. This was cute. A little snapshot of the drama of late elementary/early middle school. A look into the work it takes to actually become friends with and close with someone. The meat of the story, when her dad questions why she isn’t trying for more, comes a little late. I think seeding some more bits of that social imperative, that searching for the absolute best social opportunity possible, would drive the ending home even more powerfully. Her choice of Helena and decision to push back on her parents is meaningful because it had been so ingrained. But you get like a thousand bonus points for writing the only non-downer story of the week.
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Jun 8, 2023 18:25
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Sure, I'm in.
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Jun 9, 2023 03:01
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in
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Jun 9, 2023 11:15
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Apocalypse In
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Jun 9, 2023 14:35
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In for the first time in a while.
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Jun 9, 2023 15:03
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