What in the hell is this "LJ Idol" thing?
After spending some of my morning explaining the awesomeness that is LJ Idol to a friend who was curious about the game, I figured now is a good time to do a public blurb about the community that is therealljidol. Feel free to link to this entry if you find you have other friends who are curious about it and might be interested in following the final few weeks of the game and signing up for next season!
LJ Idol, currently in its 7th season, is kind of like a writing competition mixed up with reality TV, so there are various twists in the game. This season started way back around the end of October 2010, with a total of 261 competitors playing somewhere along the way. We're now down to the final 14, so it's a really good time to start following along, reading the amazing quality that is put out every week, and voting for your favourites.
Now, when I say "writing" competition, it's actually a lot broader than that. There aren't really any restrictions on what you can submit as an entry, as long as it fits in an LJ post. You could write nonfiction, fiction, poetry, screenplays, plays, comics, photo journals, videos, pretty much anything you can think of is accepted.
Voting is generally open to the public, though there are also closed votes where contestants or hand-picked judges vote. Those don't happen very often, and if last season is anything to judge it on, there won't be any more votes like that for the rest of this season, but there's no guarantee on that! Some votes are also "community only," which means you have to join the community in order to vote. Everyone - contestants, friends of contestants, fans of the game, followers of the community and so forth - is encouraged to read all of the entries in the poll and vote for their favourites. The voting poll generally stays open for around 3-4 days, so when we're down to as few as 14 competitors, that's plenty of reading and voting time!
One of the things I like most about the community/competition is that it's an excellent place to meet active LJers and make new friends. I've made a ton of friends in the community. Sometimes you meet them through their entries, reading and such, but there's also a social "green room" that tends to get posted in the morning on most weekdays (it used to be every day but with the season winding down and people disappearing, it's unfortunately not quite as active at the moment). If you're interested in making new friends, I'd definitely encourage you to check out the green room, make some comments, introduce yourself, comment on entries you like... there's no reason you should have to wait until next season until you're a competitor yourself.
You can also participate in the "home game," which means anyone who is not a current competitor is invited to write an entry on the current prompt and share it. There used to be specific home game posts for people to share, but the host hasn't been making those of late, so they tend to just get linked in the green room instead. With fewer entries left to read, there are a few of us left who do try and read the home game entries as well, once we've finished reading the ones in competition.
For more information, you can read this season's FAQ here: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/378392.html
If you have any additional questions, feel free to ask me!
LJ Idol, currently in its 7th season, is kind of like a writing competition mixed up with reality TV, so there are various twists in the game. This season started way back around the end of October 2010, with a total of 261 competitors playing somewhere along the way. We're now down to the final 14, so it's a really good time to start following along, reading the amazing quality that is put out every week, and voting for your favourites.
Now, when I say "writing" competition, it's actually a lot broader than that. There aren't really any restrictions on what you can submit as an entry, as long as it fits in an LJ post. You could write nonfiction, fiction, poetry, screenplays, plays, comics, photo journals, videos, pretty much anything you can think of is accepted.
Voting is generally open to the public, though there are also closed votes where contestants or hand-picked judges vote. Those don't happen very often, and if last season is anything to judge it on, there won't be any more votes like that for the rest of this season, but there's no guarantee on that! Some votes are also "community only," which means you have to join the community in order to vote. Everyone - contestants, friends of contestants, fans of the game, followers of the community and so forth - is encouraged to read all of the entries in the poll and vote for their favourites. The voting poll generally stays open for around 3-4 days, so when we're down to as few as 14 competitors, that's plenty of reading and voting time!
One of the things I like most about the community/competition is that it's an excellent place to meet active LJers and make new friends. I've made a ton of friends in the community. Sometimes you meet them through their entries, reading and such, but there's also a social "green room" that tends to get posted in the morning on most weekdays (it used to be every day but with the season winding down and people disappearing, it's unfortunately not quite as active at the moment). If you're interested in making new friends, I'd definitely encourage you to check out the green room, make some comments, introduce yourself, comment on entries you like... there's no reason you should have to wait until next season until you're a competitor yourself.
You can also participate in the "home game," which means anyone who is not a current competitor is invited to write an entry on the current prompt and share it. There used to be specific home game posts for people to share, but the host hasn't been making those of late, so they tend to just get linked in the green room instead. With fewer entries left to read, there are a few of us left who do try and read the home game entries as well, once we've finished reading the ones in competition.
For more information, you can read this season's FAQ here: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/378392.html
If you have any additional questions, feel free to ask me!