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Rubric systems

What's up with the rubrics in contests lately? Why did this sudden fad pop up?

I don't feel these are helpful to my writing at all. They only tell me how poorly I did not what I did right or even really what I did wrong.

I feel like I'm back in school being graded on my work.

The only way I would think to use them is in a contest that has more than one host. That way, all preferences by the hosts are taken into consideration.

But... it's not a new fad, really... it's been here and there on AllPoetry for years now. It's used to point out weak spots, and places where the story can be improved upon... but, most times it's done in private, not on the story.

I do it myself in any contest I host... but it's for my eyes only. It helps me make the best choice for the gold.... I'd never post it to the story itself, instead I put it into critiquing words for a proper comment.

Really? I haven't come across that yet, but then I don't enter many contests.

That sounds odd that they would do that in contest comments.
Personally, I never critique in a comment on an entry in my contests. I just make a brief comment on something I liked about it and thank them for their entry.
In my opinion, anything else is showing favoritism in judging before its over.

I don't even give personal IM comments until after the contest is done. To me the story should stand as entered without re-editing before it is judged.

That's what a contest is about, right? Entering the best you have to offer, ..with no outside help.

That's how I look at it, anyway. Take as you will.

Yeah, I get the private thoughts in your head. By IM'ing, i meant that after the contest I send them to the winners giving them more of my thoughts on their stories because I don't do so during the contest.

Perhaps I mistook the Rubric thing. Though it hasn't happened to me, I've seen judges give a full all-out critique of a story in their contest comment. I think that is wrong. It should be left for after the contest, unless the writer is told right there that they are out of the competition.
I've seen judges give those kind of comments, and then that writer win the contest because they edited it and the judge gave it to them after the edit. That is commonly known as cheating.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of friend-help-friend stuff here. For some of these people it is no more than a social site. *shrugs*

That is why I only enter contests posted by people I know. I know they are good people and fair judges.
Like I said, these are just my opinions, but I have reasons for them.

I don't organise contests because I don't like telling people they haven't won. Besides that, I would feel even more lousy having to tell someone who is a far better writer than I, that I deemed their story not good enough.

The point about some contest holders favouring their friends is something I've touched on before in another discussion. Therefore I only enter contests of people I know will give judgement on the story, irrespective of the author.

A point of view expressed to me was that an anonymous contest would ensure "friends" did not come into the equation and my reply was there was nothing stopping friends from IMing each other to say they'd entered.

Label me a cynic if you must, but I have been studying in the School of Life for far too long, almost seven decades.

Anyway, back to the topic, I don't really understand what is meant by "Rubric systems" I would be grateful if someone could explain.

I've seen the current rubric system contests. Is that being used as a substitute for a useful comment? Lame. I think I have entered one rubric contest in the past, and all I got was a score out of 100 and a couple "yay" sentences.

I've taken to looking up the profile page of the contest holder, rubric or no, to gauge what sort of judging I might expect, if I don't already know them.

I agree with tonialoise above, that I'm often too busy with other projects to do "new-writes-only" contests, alas. I used to have more time, and many of my best stories came from contest prompts. Now, not so much at all.