Quote by Milik_the_Red
The administration and other story moderators can and do see which mod gives an RR. This information is also available to the writer in their timeline. I assure everyone that these are monitored and, rarely, Nicola herself has reminded the moderating staff to carefully consider how and when these are awarded. Rest assured that we don't hand these out in a vacuum.
To me; that is how it should be. I do not see any reason a third party should be made aware of what mod awarded an RR to a story that was not theirs. Why it would be so critical for a person other than the writer or other mods to have that information is beyond me, but I assure you that the drama it would cause would quickly put an end to anyone like me awarding one. We have enough scrutiny and necessity to explain ourselves in threads like this to invite that kind of personal second guessing.
Yes. I have given an RR which was removed by administration. It was a poem. I understood it, and it took a lot of effort to read, but I thought it was as good a poem as any written in the USA in the 21st century. I have been especially stingy with my RRs since, especially when it is poetry, which is very subjective. I know that it hurt the poet, but it hurt me as well, I wouldn't want to impose that on any writer. I should have had the poem reviewed and criticized by others before awarding the RR, I suppose, but I generally award RRs based on what I like. My taste in poetry leans toward the beat poetry of the mid 20th century, and French symbolism. I learned from this incident that I shouldn't try to impose my taste on others.
RRs are not awarded at random. They are not awarded as a gesture of friendship. They are one moderator's attempt to show the readership a story or poem that they think is worthy of the reader's time. I don't have time to read every story or poem on Lush, so my RRs are generally awarded to stories that I have verified myself, but any moderator can award an RR to any story or poem at any time. Any story or poem can be nominated for an EP. There really is no favoritism. Some outstanding writers and poets just draw a lot of readership from the moderation staff. Their chances of an RR are better because more mods read them.
Become outstanding. Become familiar to the moderators by writing good stories and poems. Read the Lush requirements. Proofread. A story which needs lots of proofreading is very likely to be sent back. I have never seen a story which had a huge amount of punctuation and grammatical errors which was of RR quality. Usually there are other issues.
Learn to write. Don't just send your masturbation scribbling in expecting it to be posted. Just because it gets you off doesn't mean it's publishable. Learn the craft. Even the best writers make some mistakes, of course, but they are usually the ones most happy to have them corrected.
These are my last thoughts on this subject.
Thanks in advance.
UCLA it is.