Cherry picking

Not fair from either participant! windrose - it has often been explained that cherries are for excellent work or for perceived improvement in a writer. They are, of course, subjective but we are always open to suggestions in the 'Discuss Writing from ABC' forum. bbf - control. please.

there are many reasons for a cherry. Sometimes a new member might get one simply to encourage him/her to stick around at the site. LOL!! seriously, though...hold on! I'm trying to be serious about a cherry? give over!! ;) When the power of love overcomes the love of power, we'll find peace. - Jimi Hendrix

Hmm. I notice Windrose has removed his contributions. Pity: I would have liked to read them. He was rather unkind in his views of what had been cherrypicked. From what I have seen there has been something 'worth the cherry' about every selection I have read. Furthermore, it has led me to explore the other contributions by cherry-picked authors, there is, after all so much to read. Of course, I may be biased - I have been awarded a few cherries myself: how smug is that! Wish I'd seen BBF's reply before censorship Never underestimate the power of fools in large groups. graffito in bar outside US Air Base in Turkey

Cherrypicks are very fickle. Hell, I've had them taken away from me. Odd, yes; but I'm still here. Don't let cherrypicks dominate your life. Write for the sake of writing, and let the editors have their fun. XD

Oh no, Windrose is right, these cherries are sucha bad thing why can't the writing just sit there and people read it? Who are these editors anyway/? I mean they must mean well, but thats got to be a real bad task.

Cherrypicking is a difficult task - but not unpleasant. I must stress that we are always open to suggestion. If anyone sees a story worth a cherry then they can either email me or flag it up on the Discuss Writing from ABC forum and say that they think it deserves a cherry. I can guarantee that the suggestion will be taken seriously and if a cherry is not awarded then a reason will be given. We try very hard to be as democratic as possible about cherries! windrose - of course it's OK to be on two sites at once. Many many people do the same thing!

As for the Censored note on bbf's comment - that was put there by him - not by the management!

I like the cherries. I like the fact that someone has trawled through mountains of dross and found something worth reading. Sometimes I'm in the mood to read stuff from the recently added section, or even the random story generator, but more often I'm inclined to stick to the recently cherried. If it wasn't for the cherries I wouldn't read nearly as much as I do. And for the record, I think nearly everything cherrypicked I've read has been well-deserving of it.

Should Windrose be given the title of Official Cherrypicker...?? ;-) pe ps oid Blogs! "the art of tea" "that's an odd courgette"

If something has been cherrypicked that you feel is unworthy of said 'accolade', or, conversely, if something has not been cherrypicked that you feel deserves fruity recognition, then you - and, indeed, every abc member - is quite at liberty to flag said piece up on the Discuss Writing forum. There are no restrictions on what work you can praise and what work you can criticise. Cherries merely reflect the subjective opinions of the (unpaid) volunteer editors. They're an opportunity to stimulate interest and discussion around a piece. As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter that they're not always perfectly calibrated to every single site member's taste. It's like how, in Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby says that one of the key elements of a really classic match is a controversial refereeing decision early on - it gets people engaged, incensed, and they focus all their attention on the game. If cherries piss people off, that's great - it means they care, and it stimulates discussion, and that's a Good Thing.

Exactly! It's just a cherry, not the end of the world or the beginning. I liked getting them. Drew x http://homepage.ntlworld.com/drew.gummerson2

"it has often been explained that cherries are for excellent work" "We try very hard to be as democratic as possible about cherries!" Two comments that clang together. Awarding prizes for excellence is not, IMHO, democratic. If you want to be democratic about awarding them, why not award one to each piece of writing?

"Democratic" does not equal "Egalitarian"...! (or something like that) pe ps oid Blogs! "the art of tea" "that's an odd courgette"

Excellence is not an absolute. One man's meat is another man's poison etc etc. It's a subjective business, inevitably. But we are open to suggestion and we are open to debate.

I find that being cherry-picked can be a welcome relief after having posted a whole lot of rubbish, but it is still dishearting to see that the majority of your hard work sucks.

Cherries aren't important..... give me more you bastards!!!! ooooops!!!! I do apologise.

*Gives flash a Cherry* @`

Not getting a cherry doesn't mean your work sucks just that it wasn't outstanding. It meant a lot to me that somebody anonymous though that at least some of my writing was quite good and gave me the confidence to go to a writing group where it might receive more rigorous analysis. Their evaluations and the ABCTales editors sometimes differed but it's only a personal judgement.

Of course it's subjective, and not always fair, like everything else in life. It's no different to getting something published (or not). I don't always agree with the cherry-pickers - I've posted things I really expected to get a cherry(and perhaps might have on a different day) and at least one of my cherries (IMO) was awarded to a very lacklustre story (I'm not saying which one of my stories that was). All in all, I can't say I lose any sleep over it. However, I live for the day that I actually get something flagged in the forum; now that's something to take seriously!

Having a story cherry picked makes you feel like you're not the nutter on the bus

Who cares? I've never had a cherry, but that just confirms to me that I'm a tortured and unrecognised genius.

..a prophet without honour in his own land...

I understand the reasoning behind every piece of my writing not being Cherrypicked, yes even my contributions to the General Discussion forum, (or even the way I address a letter) is that they - THE MANAGEMENT - don't want to be seen to favour certain supremely talented writers like myself.

cherries! You want more Cherries!! My garden's covered in the bloody things!!! Wish I had a good cherry picker... Don't suppose you do house calls TC?

Cherries ... and cherry picking ... hmmm :))))))

It pays free Sarine's, Tea and as much cherries as yha like!! *Waves big ripe cherrie at gouri* Any takers..D:

Thanks ...