WotC Seeking Your Setting Proposals (was "Big Wizard announcement")

[Tom Cashel]

Re: Re: Re: aaaarrrrrgggghhhh

Well, the cost of a stamp has just been raised to 37 cents, and where do you find slave labor, free envolopes and paper/printing in the U.S.?

Try reading the thread. We've covered that.

 

[Storm Raven]

Ooooh! Check out the big brain on Storm Raven!

Ohhh! Compliments!

True, true. But if they send out a form letter with only the winners listed, there's no merging to speak of. Paper and envelopes? Yes. Certainly not more than 10K for the whole mass mailing.

Even if they only send out a form letter with the winners listed, they still have to address every envelope. That is where the large scale database merger comes from, and that must be done to send out mail (even if they send out e-mail, someone has to enter the thousands of e-mail addresses into WotC's computer, that will take significant time, you gotta pay someone for that).

 

[Tallow]

Dude, postage goes up in the U.S. on 30 June. $0.37 now!
That's $7,400 to send those rejection letters now. They'd only need 27,028 rejected settings to bring that cost up to $10,000. That doesn't count cost of paper, envelopes, and administrative staff pay to prepare, produce, and send the letters, neither.

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle!

(And I sent in mine on the morning of the 21st, I don't remember word count too well, but it was in the 600 range. Times New Roman, 11 point.)

Edit: Dang you, Storm Raven, and your faster posting finger!

Bulk mail is a thing of beauty. You send them out Bulk, the take about 2 weeks to get where they are going, even IN city, but they only cost about 17 cents per item.

Andy Christian

 

[Rasyr]

Ohhh! Compliments!

[/b]

Even if they only send out a form letter with the winners listed, they still have to address every envelope. That is where the large scale database merger comes from, and that must be done to send out mail (even if they send out e-mail, someone has to enter the thousands of e-mail addresses into WotC's computer, that will take significant time, you gotta pay someone for that). [/B]

three guesses on what Christine is doing now that the dealine has passed.... (once the last of those mailed on Friday come in, that is...)

 

[Tallow]

Re: notifying folks

Add to this the fact that WOTC (via Anthony) has already said that if the person making the submission has an email address, they will be notified that way...

I think you can forget about actual letters going out.

More likely, Christing put all the information into a database (or is doing so now)

Once the winners are selected, it is a simple matter to run a sql query and do a mail merge to email a form rejection letter to all the non-selected people. If a person does not have an email address, then they go with doing a mail merge and printing labels.

Such letters would then no longer be prohibitive, but merely slightly time consuming, and more likely to number in the dozens at most, considering that this search was announced via the web, so it is a good chance that almost every single person has an email address.

I know that on my cover letter I included not only my snail mail address, but my email, home, work, and cell phones (I wanted to be thorough).

Having worked as an admin asst before for a non-profit organization, it was part of my duties to log all the new contributors into our data base. Now I didn't handle this kind of volume over just a week. But I did have about 30,000 entries over the course of a year. At one time my boss wanted me to check and enter about 3,000 entries, along with my other duties. The checking and entering 3,000 entries into our Data Base (which Word Perfect has many templates for by the way, and works very easily and quickly) took me about 8 hours total. I'd say that Christina could easily enter 20,000 or 30,000 in a week, if her only other duties are messing with this contest. Couple that with merging the data base with bulk envelopes for addressing and form letters to fit on paper to fit in bulk envelopes, the longest part of the job is actually stuffing the envelopes. She could also run a script to automatically enter all email addresses from the data base into a form letter email.

Aren't computers great?

Andy Christian

 

[toberane]

This "contest" is 1 in 20,000.

In fact, the odds are so against "winning" that I think they may have just blown some contest laws in a few states (Florida comes to mind). I'm an attorney, and I have a bit of experience in contest laws (though not a lot). I seem to recall that if your odds get into this range, and the "contest" is public (and not just a solicitation sent to individuals that the company has a pre-existing business relationship with), that even if the contest is purported to be based on skill rather than chance, you must register with some State gaming commissions in order for participants to be eligible to "play" in certain states. I wonder if Wizards' corp. counsel has looked into this aspect yet.

Even if you wanted to call it a contest, does this meet the definition of one? What is the difference between this and an open submission for writers and an audition? If Disneyland decided to hold open auditions to see who would play the next set of diasney characters to walk around the park, and 20,000 people showed up to audition, would that be considered a contest under California State Law? If the answer is no, then I think this is an almost identical situation.

Also, since the setting search is being conducted by WotC, in Washington, then they would really only have to worry about Washington State Law. (I haven't checked the Submission Agreement everyone had to sign, but I would bet there is a Venue statement somewhere in there stating that it is to be governed by the laws of the state of Washington.) If Washington doesn't have a problem with it (and I don't know if they do or not), I don't think the laws of any other state would even matter.

 

[Akunin]

three guesses on what Christine is doing now that the dealine has passed

Dunno about her, but my plans would involve two or three "sick days" and a lot of beers.

 

[Duvall]

Odds

The odds of 1 in 20,000 (to use the currently estimated figure) would be relevant if they were deciding the final "winner" today. But they aren't. All you need to accomplish with this cut, is to be one of the Ten. So your odds are really more like 1 in 2000 to stay in the "contest"

 

[reddist]

rejection "letters"

Hell, if WotC operates this like many other job applications I've had, those "not hired" won't get letters, they'll get form post cards, bulk-rate.

Go to your database, pick out the ones that don't get rejection post cards, and off you go.

-Reddist

 

[Mistwell]

Given your stated location...

As a fellow member of the California State Bar I herby wash my hands of you! Who in HELL is going to bring suit or prosecute?

Its guys like you who give guys like me a bad name. Actually its the guy who actually files a lawsuit on something like this that gives guys like me a bad name!!!

River

If you ARE an attorney, then you know it is the attorney generals office of Florida who likes to bring these suits, on their own (or other states). Individuals don't bring a suit (there is no individual cause of action that I know of for failure to register), it's the state itself, for avoiding the registration fees and acting contrary to public policy.