produce
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Amazing how short Spoof stories are with the 350 word limit lifted
I hope somebody learned a lesson about imposing that 350 word limit. Helium? Or was it Mark that did that. Either way in 2008 a Spoof story can now be a paragraph or less. Evelyn Wood folks can read it in a blink.
Out of the corner of their eyes. While watching Springer. At work. Good job Mark lifting that word limit. 350 was overkill. 25 words however .. you're approaching that word count on your last one Jman. I've got faith in the Spoof writers though. I bet one of you could do an actual story that's shorter than the headline itself. I'd pay to see that.
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6/27/2008, 8:39 am
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Helium gas
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Re: Amazing how short Spoof stories are with the 350 word limit lifted
The 350 word minimum was Jack's idea. Many people who write for the Spoof would have trouble coming up with that many words if they were writing a complete history of the world.
I'm fairly certain that "size" is one aspect of content that the Google engine examines in determining rank. Google ranking certainly has something to do with the number of hits any story gets.
As for my own preference... in general, when I surf around the internet on my slow dial-up connection, and come to any page that has less than a very few sentences of content, I begin to suspect that the web site owner is trying to earn a few mills per hit. My personal peeve is a normal size news story that is broken up into four pages---just for the benefit of advertising revenue. But relax---I'm fairly certain that the Lowton brothers are not filling up their closets with gold bullion from their Spoof revenue stream.
I think a good writer can develop a fairly neat spoof of a news story by using far fewer than 350 words. For sure, I've written many thousand word stories that would have put a wide-eyed speed freak into deep coma before the end of the third sentence.
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6/29/2008, 7:13 pm
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produce
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Re: Amazing how short Spoof stories are with the 350 word limit lifted
quote:
Helium gas wrote:
The 350 word minimum was Jack's idea. Many people who write for the Spoof would have trouble coming up with that many words if they were writing a complete history of the world.
I'm fairly certain that "size" is one aspect of content that the Google engine examines in determining rank. Google ranking certainly has something to do with the number of hits any story gets.
As for my own preference... in general, when I surf around the internet on my slow dial-up connection, and come to any page that has less than a very few sentences of content, I begin to suspect that the web site owner is trying to earn a few mills per hit. My personal peeve is a normal size news story that is broken up into four pages---just for the benefit of advertising revenue. But relax---I'm fairly certain that the Lowton brothers are not filling up their closets with gold bullion from their Spoof revenue stream.
I think a good writer can develop a fairly neat spoof of a news story by using far fewer than 350 words. For sure, I've written many thousand word stories that would have put a wide-eyed speed freak into deep coma before the end of the third sentence.
Thx for the revelation.
Darn that wacky Jack'O you gotta love him whatever bridge he might be living under these days. Like many other writers I'd usually finish a story after around 230 words then try and figure out how the heck to pad it with 120 MORE words. Not good for a story that.
Conversely .. here's a recent one by the Spoof's own
TJL!
(FIVE STAR RATED "though there's only 1 rating!")
I didn't count the words in it but I'm sure it's well over 25. The story however kind of gets over-shadowed by all that white space between the paragraphs ..
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6/30/2008, 12:11 pm
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BuckwheatsButt
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Re: Amazing how short Spoof stories are with the 350 word limit lifted
Actually, I thought theSpoof had a 100 word minimum. Don't know and don't care. I always try to keep it fast paced and as much on target as possible. Too many words and it can be a bit stale by the end.
BUCK
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6/30/2008, 3:00 pm
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produce
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Re: Amazing how short Spoof stories are with the 350 word limit lifted
quote:
BuckwheatsButt wrote:
Actually, I thought theSpoof had a 100 word minimum. Don't know and don't care. I always try to keep it fast paced and as much on target as possible. Too many words and it can be a bit stale by the end.
BUCK
Hey Buck. We're talking about the Spoof LONG ago before most of you folks even arrived, before Mark&Paul when Helium ran the place. Helium's boss (the owner) MADE every writer write 350 words per story.
You speak the truth. Write until you yourself love the story then post the story. You've got great stories as do some of the others. Imagine however being forced to either come up with 350 words per story (EVERY story) or .. your story doesn't post.
That's the way it was a long time ago in a Spoof galaxy far far away thx to the previous owner .. Jack. O.
Thank YOU too for the revelation. Apparently the Spoof now has a 100 word limit. Which is less than the word count of the latest
"Well I was shopping for a new car which one's me"
commercial.
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6/30/2008, 5:24 pm
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Jalapenoman
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Re: Amazing how short Spoof stories are with the 350 word limit lifted
My longest goes well over 7000. My shortest is about 175.
I used to hate having a really good story all finished, and then clicking "submit" only to find out that it wasn't long enough. I'd have to come up with a filler paragraph or try to add a couple of more adjectives into sentences.
With the current 100 word minimum, snippets are not much shorter, but you can also manage to get in your main punchlines or thoughts in a more succinct manner.
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6/30/2008, 6:20 pm
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produce
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Re: Amazing how short Spoof stories are with the 350 word limit lifted
quote:
Jalapenoman wrote:
My longest goes well over 7000. My shortest is about 175.
I used to hate having a really good story all finished, and then clicking "submit" only to find out that it wasn't long enough. I'd have to come up with a filler paragraph or try to add a couple of more adjectives into sentences.
With the current 100 word minimum, snippets are not much shorter, but you can also manage to get in your main punchlines or thoughts in a more succinct manner.
Your stuff's always great even at 175 words but yep I also remember trying to SAVE a story and the Spoof software coming back with ..
"insufficent word-count .. try again  "
Last edited by produce, 6/30/2008, 6:38 pm
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6/30/2008, 6:37 pm
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Helium gas
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Re: Amazing how short Spoof stories are with the 350 word limit lifted
Guess who just got banned from TheSpoof?
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10/22/2008, 1:46 pm
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