A minor request

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

Obviously we all have lives here; we can't spend all our time on the board, and those of us who take our turns at marking matches can't be expected to wait until ungodly hours of the night for the writers to turn matches in.

 

The last thing that we should be trying to do is introduce any motions to extend deadlines, and cause shows go up later than they already do. It is also unreasonable for us as writers to take it for granted that just because we can't get a match in on time, that the marker has all night to wait, nor should we take it for granted that the markers will grant us an extension, just because we ask for one. Markers are under no obligation to grant extensions, and they shouldn't be asked to put their real lives on hold, or forfeit sleep, or whatever else, to read our matches just because we as writers don't know how to budget our time...

 

But I do have one minor request:

 

If a marker is not going to be willing to grant an extension, I think that he should say so whenever he finds out he's marking. Just a simple, "I've got to have the match by 10pm on Wednesday night, no exceptions" would be greatly appreciated. At the very least, if a writer PMs the marker in advance of the deadline and asks for an extension, and the marker's not willing to grant it, I think that the marker should get back to them in a timely manner. And I don't know if I'm out of bounds here, but I think that, for the purpose of this discussion, a timely manner would be within two hours of the deadline. So, if a writer knows that he's going to run late and PMs at around 4pm to ask for an extension, the marker shouldn't wait until there's only a half-hour before the deadline to say, "no."

 

Is that a reasonable request?

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

The other suggestion that I have would be to simply institute a hard deadline for everything: all matches in to markers by 2200, all marked matches and promos in to Tom by 2330, show goes up at 2400, next card goes up by 0100. No exceptions.

 

Is that idea more or less dumb than the OP? Opinions, please.

[King Cucaracha 0]

Obviously, time difference has to be taken into account on getting back to people quickly. But, yes, all agreed.

[Ace309 0]

For the record, I'd been thinking about the second post's concept of marker deadlines, since I remember it being something that had been mentioned before.

 

I'm having a hard time conceptualizing a way of enforcing marker deadlines, since the only stick I have against markers is to refuse to let them mark anymore, and it would be counterproductive to do so. I mean, I can barely manage to read and book everything as it is.

 

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be happy to listen - I'm always open to a different way of doing things.

[Toxxic 0]

My timezone means that extensions mean jack to me, as I'm always in bed asleep by the time they roll around. I think a hard-and-fast deadline would be ideal, but it's pretty much unenforceable without a much larger marking staff.

[Justice 0]

IF this is about me, I've never really turned down a deadline. I don't think I've ever PMed someone back about it, I've just allowed it. If the match gets in time within reason for me, I'm okay with it (Of course, I also deduct points and it'll come into play if it's close).

 

So I'm sorry if I didn't PM you back, I've just always tacitly allowed it and judged it on when it came in. I apologize if this caused some sort of confusion, and from now on I will do it because, well, someone asked me to. But I just wanted to say that I've never done it before because normally people started sending me matches anyways, and I figured it was more of a warning rather than a request.

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

IF this is about me, I've never really turned down a deadline. I don't think I've ever PMed someone back about it, I've just allowed it. If the match gets in time within reason for me, I'm okay with it (Of course, I also deduct points and it'll come into play if it's close)...

Judge, we obviously shouldn't be trying to take advantage of your kindness by abusing the privilege, but would you consider it a reasonable request to clarify to your writers what "within reason" is for you? For example, if you choose to grant an extension, do you think maybe you could think about saying "I'll give you until midnight, turn in whatever you've got by then," or something to that effect?

 

In our situation, I work second shift, so I don't typically get off work until between midnight and 0130. I know that Johnny had asked for an extension to finish his half, but I didn't learn until after I got off work that he hadn't sent it in. So, when I heard that you'd sent a match to Tom before you even got ours... yeah, I guess I was a little deflated.

 

I hope I didn't come across wrong; I mean no disrespect.

[Justice 0]

No, I understand. Sometimes clarification is needed.

 

For me, reasonable is around 10:00 PM EST. After that, you are drifting into borrowed time because I don't like holding up shows (Even though I inevitably do ). I got Johnny's PM around 7:30 and he said he'd need a little more time to finish it. I assumed (Apparently wrong) that he'd have it done in a few hours, and since I was busy with my own stuff, I figured he'd just send it in when he was done. I don't normally send replies about extensions, because most of the people who ask for them send them in in an hour or two or don't send one at all. Trust me, I was surprised when I woke up to find you getting me the match.

 

I apologize for interpreting the situation wrong. Next time, I'll clarify what time you need it in by. I simply didn't expect things to turn out like they did.

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

Fair enough; thanks for the clarification, Judge... C'est la vie, I suppose.

[Ace309 0]

By the way, no one's brought it up in this thread, but it's been discussed by different people at different times in different situations a lot recently. Just to make this clear:

 

As long as I run things around here, I am not going to overturn a marker's decision. Ever.

 

Consider that a policy statement.

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

No question: I, personally would not presume to impugn the integrity of the system, or the integrity of the marker. I certainly wouldn't want to try and go over the head of a marker and lobby to get his decision overturned, and I apologize if I ever gave that impression.

 

And it's nobody's fault but ours, when you get down to it. It's just that...

 

:: sighs ::

 

It is what it is, I suppose...

[Ace309 0]

I'm sorry. The proximity of my statement to Wildchild's made it sound like he was the one who had brought it up. He was not. I don't plan on saying who any of the people who've asked me about it recently are.

[Toxxic 0]

Besides, Tom usually IS the marker for most matches...