Submissions Containing Exactly 300 Words?

[D. W.]

A curious question:

Has anyone seen a submission yet with a word count of exactly 300 words? I've sifted through quite a few items, and have yet to see a one.

Anyone?

[Chris Shaeffer]

Yeah, several. Oddly enough, those items generally seem to have a little more polish than items that come in at slightly under the maximum word count, probably because they have to pay more attention when editing to squeeze as much as they can in. :p

(There are exceptions...)

[Zelkon]

I saw two, almost back to back.

[IconoclasticScream]

I've seen two. Both of them could have been significantly shorter with proper editing.

[Jacob W. Michaels]

I saw one, which was missing a (template) word that would have put it over count.

I saw another one that was also missing some spaces and would have been exactly 300 if it had been formatted properly (but not over that I could tell).

[Orcus Of Undeath]

I've seen two in a pair.

[Drejk]

I saw one or two as well. As far as I can recall they didn't missed anything but it was a few days ago so I might be wrong.

[Orthos]

Just saw one not too long ago

[Jeff Lee]

I've seen a few.

[Kenton Abel]

Saw one just now, so at least one is in the top 75%.

[cwslyclgh]

I've seen a couple.

[Vic Wertz]

Jacob W. Michaels wrote:

I saw one, which was missing a (template) word that would have put it over count.

I saw another one that was also missing some spaces and would have been exactly 300 if it had been formatted properly (but not over that I could tell).

"Doing it wrong" is not a legal method to get more than your allotted word count.* We've looked extra closely at all of the entries that are very close to the upper word limit,** and odds are good we have disqualified those already. If you see something like that still kicking around, please PM me with the item name.

*:

There is no legal method for getting more than your allotted word count!

**:

That's correct—stupid mistakes, like leaving out the word "Description", will slide by at 200 words, but will get you DQd at 300 words. Playing near that maximum word count is a very risky thing, folks!

[Jacob W. Michaels]

I sent Sean the one I saw a while ago, though I don't think it was at any risk of getting into the top 32 (or honestly even the top 320 or even the top 1,320 probably). Afterward I was kind of regretting that I'd denied others the ... pleasure ... of seeing the item (which I'm sad I didn't keep a copy of for my own benefit; it will live on in infamy in my brain at least).

[Herremann the Wise]

I've seen 15 three-hundred word items: 13 in my reject file and 2 in my keep.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

[Jason S]

I've seen a few 300 word submissions (2-4). And lots of 290+.