14th Annual Truly Horrilble Ahnohnay Poetry Contest

From MYSTlore

The 14th Annual Truly Horrilble Ahnohnay Poetry Contest [sic] was a poetry contest with the subject of Ahnonay. It was started by Nyrphame on February 1, 2008 ^{(Leevosahn 24, 9663)} with instructions to write bad poetry instead of getting upset about the cavern's closing.

Although it is called the "fourteenth annual" contest, it is only the first one.

[edit] Characteristics of the poems

Most of the poems, though not all, are about Ahnonay. Quabs are often mentioned, and many of the poems have a complaining nature, whining about the annoying aspects of Ahnonay. Misspellings, such as "Ahnohnay", were used. Other poems are merely silly. Most of the poems were original poetry, though some have no noticeable poetic qualities, but there were songs and parodies. Near the end of the contest, some poets began writing poetry about the contest itself, often putting down other poets' efforts. The overall quality of the poems degenerated as poets sought to outdo each other in awfulness.

[edit] Judging

Judging was done mostly by Nyrphame, who posted comments about the poets latest efforts. They usually pointed out the flaws of certain poems and emphasized the bad parts, since that was the point of the contest. When the contest was declared over on March 22, 2008 ^{(Leenovoo 6, 9663)}, Nyrphame started a poll for 24 of the poets. Since the forum does not allow that many choices, they were artificially grouped into threes. On April 7, 2008 ^{(Leenovoo 19, 9663)}, the top two groups were put into a new poll with six choices.

[edit] Winners

Hitana came in first place with 8 votes. JWPlatt was second with 6, and Gorobay was third with 3. Hitana, as the winner, got the prize of having a selection of her poetry published in The Archiver. Other prizes are described here. Poems from other contestants were included too.