Argh! A Comment War

With Vox contests, the devil is in the details. A cunning opponent like Jodi will game the system by taking every advantage of vague or poorly crafted rules, so they must be clear at the outset.

While there were many excellent suggestions for this year's challenge, Hotrod's recommendation of Comment War seems to have had the greatest resonance. Both Jodi and I also liked Michael's recommendation of thematic posts, but there is nothing in the Comment War model that would prevent us from drafting such posts. 

The advantages of Comment War are numerous. First: absent an absolute tie, Comment War will most assuredly produce a winner and a loser. Second, Comment War rewards quality over quantity, without creating annoying artificial deadlines. I think we'll all be happy to see the end of random YouTube clips and 100-word meditations on belly button lint. Finally, Comment War leaves little room for interpretation and argument (though, I suspect we'll find a way).

So here they are, the official rules of Jodi and Dabysan's 2010 Comment War...

1. The winner of Comment War will be the contestant who receives the most comments on his or her blog in 2010. Comments will be tallied at the end of each month.

2. The Comment War officially begins after both Jodi and Dabysan agree to this (or another rule-set) and applies only to comments submitted to posts that are published after the final rules post.

3. Comments posted by Jodi and Dabysan will not be included in either contestant's tally (this will help to prevent cynical comment boycotting).

4. Neither Jodi, nor Dabysan will link to -- or solicit comments for -- their Vox blogs on Web sites, blogs or social networking services outside of Vox. Linking/cross-promoting within Vox is permitted. Violators will be charged a 50-comment penalty per violation.

5. Spam comments will not be counted. 

6. The contest ends December 31, 2010 at midnight Eastern time. Comments posted afterward will not be tallied.

7. Once the final comment is tallied, the losing contestant will provide the winning contestant with either a pie or a pan of brownies of the winner's choice. Fast-food and prepackaged pies and brownies are not acceptable. The loser will also craft a post extolling the winner's many virtues. This post will include some form of multimedia element (sound or video) recorded by the loser.

I think that's it. Consider the gauntlet cast...

Gauntlet

 

Comments

[crankypants]

good luck.

[Jodi]

I think we need to extract a vow from your Mrs and BFF about not artificially inflating your comment count, otherwise no deal. 

[Dabysan]

Isn't your whole family on Vox? And your rag-tag band of Minnesota miscreants? CarrieNation and Hotrod are imminently trustworthy. 

[mariser]

I propose that  comments containing only

[this is good]

in any of the languages offered are not counted.

[M-----l]

Who the heck is this "Michael" character?

[Jodi]

We all know that if it weren't for CarrieNation, I'd have won the 2009 contest. I just want some sort of contingency for any sort of comment hanky panky.

[Dabysan]

He looks a little like you. 

[Dabysan]

CarrieNation reminded me of my blogging responsibilities on more than one occasion, but that was against neither the letter, nor the spirit of the competition. What are you some kind of challenge wimp?

[Jodi]

Not a wimp at all, but why take part in a challenge with three people vs. one? I have no shot at winning if CarrieNation and Hotrod play a large role in commenting on your posts.

[Dabysan]

And I have no shot at winning if you bully my normal commenters away from my blog. I think you fear a challenge. 

[Jodi]

I think you fear a fair fight.

[Dabysan]

Look no offense, but there are some commenters over in your neighborhood who are always good for a random LOL or a [this is good] who never set foot in this part of the voxosphere. You can't threaten my commenters away, while maintaining your own greek chorus. Let's do this thing. 

[Jodi]

Okay. . . but I propose we do it by only answering QOTD. I think that levels the playing field a bit more.

[Dabysan]

It's supposed to be a challenge, not a yearlong torture session. Besides all the best vox posts are not QOTD answers. 

[Curlysalamander]

Maybe instead of the question of the day, you guys could end each post with a question.  You could then proceed to answer your either own (previous) question or the question that your opponent posed.  Because, let's face it, QOTD questions are generally lame.  

[hotrod]

[this

[hotrod]

is

[hotrod]

good]

[hotrod]

I

[hotrod]

eagerly

[hotrod]

anticipate

[hotrod]

watching

[hotrod]

this

[hotrod]

challenge

[hotrod]

play