Carrying over some thoughts from LJ Idol...

[alexpgp]

I just posted a few thoughts on working hard and reusing material as a comment to a post on therealljidol:

How hard one works to put together an LJ Idol post is always going to be a subjective call, which would make it a weak criterion for judging the worth of a post even if we knew what effort was involved. Speaking of my own experience and confining myself to what I write for Idol, there have been weeks when I've expended what I think is a lot of effort to create a post. Then, too, there have been weeks when my post sort of "wrote itself." Both posts have equal weight, no?

As far as reusing one's own material, I don't particularly see that as a violation of the spirit of the competition, because if you've taken the trouble to create something on your own, outside the scope of Idol, that later turns out to be "good enough" (in one's own opinion) to use in response to an Idol prompt, then I really don't see the problem. In the final analysis, the writer did the work; the fact that it was done earlier, with no expectation that text would be used competitively, is immaterial in my opinion.

That said, I agree with Gary that using old material verbatim is cheating yourself out of the experience. In any event, I feel that in the end, any Idoler who routinely reuses old material without at least reworking it in some fundamental way runs a serious risk of invoking the ire of voters.

Cheers...

Comments

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

I reused an LJ entry I originally wrote in 2010 for Week 13 because I thought it was a really well-written piece that deserved a larger audience. Don't really see why that should be an issue at all -- I mean if Gary doesn't want people to recycle past stuff, then he should make a rule to that effect. This Well you can do it, but it violates the spirit of the competition banter strikes me as... disingenuous. With all respect.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Hope you're not irked at me, 'cause I agree with you about reuse not running counter to the spirit of Idol.

:^)

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Not irked with you. I think you're great. :-)

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

I had a momentary gulp of conscience when I read Gary's post. I fell somewhere into a half-way-guilty position on the "reusing of old stuff" stance with my last post.

Knowing I was entering a phase of my life where my time was about to fall into short supply, I had written my selfie post before idol had even started.* It was written specifically for idol, but before game time. Fast forward to Gary posting the prompt "Open Topic." Kris, who was about to leave for Conakry, Guinea for a month said to me in dismay, "Oh no, "Open Topic." He not only will not have a lot of time to write or post, but is actually off the grid for most of that time.

I had already resigned myself that one of these weeks I would have to bail on the competition. But then, as they say, the singing of angels resonated in my soul, and I remembered the earlier, stashed entry. Perfect!

Previously posted, but not previously entered; reworked slightly, and then submitted.

No guilt.

Ironically, the open topic ended up being perfect for both of us.

*(The piece was originally written Mar. 5, 2014.)

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

> No guilt.

And that's as it should be, IMO.

I suppose what may raise my eyebrows a bit is when previously written stuff that's already been used in Idol is used in Idol again, but that's because I think, from a practical perspective, there is a very real risk of alienating readers (even though such reuse may be "legal" as far as the rules go). That said, time pressure is time pressure.

I mean, it's not as if we're talking about conspiring to manipulate votes in such a way as to get someone voted off, or anything like that. :^)

Cheers...

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

"conspiring to manipulate votes to get someone voted off.."

Like THAT'S ever happened... (Insert wry, sad face here.)

[kandigurl.livejournal.com]

I saw this in the GR but I didn't comment because I was on my iPad and lazy.

But I agree with the points you made here, I think all of them are valid! I actually used something I had started to write prior to LJI for last week's post and felt a little guilty about it, but then it took me all week to actually finish the thing, so I stopped feeling guilty.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Using (expanding) something one has merely "started to write" ought not even raise the shadow of a radar echo!

:^)