User blog comment:Underscorre/Jeff the Killer Rewrite Contest!/@comment-25052433-20151014033516/@comment-26326346-20151015042039

It is true that the rules should be something that everyone has to follow and Banning certainly wouldn't want special treatment (he's a good person like that). I therefore ask, could we let the judges or the community vote on whether or not to keep the rule? It wouldn't exactly be a last minute change if that were allowed.

I kind of thought that the 10K words rule was in place as a way to keep the judges from having to suffer a potential long and bad story for a very long time, but Banning's pasta is great. Furthermore, even if he were to cut out the parts with the reporter and pre-move, the story would still be 14K words long, there is no way he could shorten it without neutering the story and he would have to deliver a lesser experience than what he has created.

I apologize if I come across as rude or challenging, I would just hate to see such a great story slip through the cracks and be denied a chance because it was over 10K words.