This is the thread to discuss the mechanics of running the competition. Please restrict discussion to the hows, not the more detailed whats. For example, discuss how to make nominations not making specific entries. Once consensus on the mechanics is reached then carrying out the actual process will begin


Should there be a committee to run the contest or do you want moderators to oversee it? IE to make & administer the nomination & the voting threads.
How to pick categories ( there is a separate thread for suggesting actual categories) - poll, committee, or some other method?
How to nominate individual entries (a separate thread for actual nominations will be established later on)
How long should the polls be open?
Should new award art be created or should we stick with the "cups"?
Other, similar discussion topics about mechanics & methods for running the polls - not content of the polls themselves

I like the idea of designing new award Art (didn't even know that was possible)! That could be a little juried contest in itself.

I also suggest that the moderators designate a moderator (or committee of moderators) to oversee this whole project, so that there will be someone to make the inevitable executive decisions necessary to keep this on track.

I had posted this in the other thread but I guess it belongs here. If we can identify a (too) large set of possible categories, there could be a multiple-choice poll to let everyone choose their favorite methods of categorization. It wouldn't need to include every individual category, but perhaps something like this for unit animations:

moved discussion of specific categories to the to the Categories thread.

For clarity of the design & decision process try to keep mechanics of running the polls here & specific category suggestions in the other thread. Knowing where to post may be confusing at first. Ultimately this will help both clarity of discussions & keeping development of the celebration straightforward.

And another poll for static graphics, and so on.

I suppose there should be some mutually exclusive options (partitions) while others (superlatives) would be activated individually if they received plenty of votes.

For nominations: I suggest that anyone can nominate entries for any category, and that each person can nominate, say, up to two or three entries for each category. The only catch is that you can't nominate anything you've created yourself.

For nominations: I suggest that anyone can nominate entries for any category, and that each person can nominate, say, up to two or three entries for each category. The only catch is that you can't nominate anything you've created yourself.

I disagree: I think you should have the opportunity to put forward what you feel is your best work into a category.

Me too. The nominations by others can be about creators who no longer are part of the community/earth.

It might be a good idea to consider a tiered nomination process. We (Plotinus or a moderator's panel) would empanel a jury of, say, 10 respected creators in each category to each make 10 ranked nominations (excluding their own) from all of the posted units. The top 20 units from those lists would be culled, and a PM would be sent to everyone who has posted creations in those categories, and they would vote. The top 10 vote-getters from that vote would then be voted on by the general membership. This process would be repeated for each of the Database categories. Superlative and special categories (now being discussed in the other thread) would be chosen by the first tier from nominations in the consensus thread and voted on by the general membership. To allow enough time for all this, we'd have to get underway by the end of July, I'd say.

A process such as this would minimize a messy nomination debate, I think. Nothing would then prevent a creator from posting (in an "I'd like to see nominated.." thread) which of their own (or other's) creations they'd like to have particularly considered by the first panel.

Me too. The nominations by others can be about creators who no longer are part of the community/earth.

I disagree: I think you should have the opportunity to put forward what you feel is your best work into a category.

That is not fair to the people no longer contributing, they have no choice, so why should we have a choice.

Staff Involvement
I also suggest that the moderators designate a moderator (or committee of moderators) to oversee this whole project, so that there will be someone to make the inevitable executive decisions necessary to keep this on track.We already have a thread in the staff forum set up for general discussion of moderator involvement in this process. Once there is general consensus on the degree of our involvement we'll make the appropriate selections.

In the mean time we'll do our best to keep clear which are official statements / actions as moderators and which are contributions to the discussion as members of the community. anytime that's not clear please ask.


Organizing The Polls
I had posted this in the other thread but I guess it belongs here. If we can identify a (too) large set of possible categories, there could be a multiple-choice poll to let everyone choose their favorite methods of categorization.This is one of the main reasons I asked Balthasar to keep the OP of the categories thread updated with all the suggestions. At the appropriate time we'll have formal decisions making for each aspect of the process - keeping the whole thing based in the community rather than arbitrary decisions by staff.

I suppose there should be some mutually exclusive options (partitions) while others (superlatives) would be activated individually if they received plenty of votes.We'll try to set up the poll(s) on the mechanics to include all options.


Making Nominations
For nominations: I suggest that anyone can nominate entries for any category, and that each person can nominate, say, up to two or three entries for each category. The only catch is that you can't nominate anything you've created yourself.I disagree: I think you should have the opportunity to put forward what you feel is your best work into a category.Me too. The nominations by others can be about creators who no longer are part of the community/earth.My personal preferences - it's okay to:


nominate your own work - once per category
nominate the work of any one else - presently active or not
make multiple nominations within categories for the work of others

Responding to cross-post:
That is not fair to the people no longer contributing, they have no choice, so why should we have a choice.This is a good reason to allow multiple nominations. We have a mutual responsibility to past contributors. At the same time there's no reason to slight anyone's sense of their own best work. Among other things it may bring something to light that has slipped our minds or was not appropriate for past polls.

So many suggestions for various categories suggest the following -

Should we take an initial poll with questions like = "Can the same thing be nominated in more than one category?", "Should there be lifetime / Decade of achievement / hall of fame awards?", etc.

Not suggesting we do this immediately - just think about it as a way to then focus the individual category suggestions.

We (Plotinus or a moderator's panel) would empanel a jury of, say, 10 respected creators in each category ...Deciding on that could be messy. Like the tiered idea on general principles despite that - maybe not the specific mechanism.
To allow enough time for all this, we'd have to get underway by the end of July, I'd say.Agreed.

Deciding on that could be messy. Like the tiered idea on general principles despite that - maybe not the specific mechanism.

Yeah, the numbers are less important than the idea of tiering it. I'm not privy to 'moderator world', but, really? Choosing a jury would be messy? Yikes.

That is not fair to the people no longer contributing, they have no choice, so why should we have a choice.

It was their choice to stop contributing as it was mine (and others') choice to produce stuff year after year for Civ III.

I think that there should be some economy with the categories; the fewer there are the better in my view. Else it can become a photographic contest (the person who will win will be known from before it even begins).

So i am not sure if more than a few categories for units are needed. After all the decade of achievement/ unit/pcx/x of the decade can compensate for the loss of the ultra-specialized categories.

I agree with Blue Monkey's idea about a mixed way of choosing which work gets in; some can be self-nominated (perhaps we can have the rule that the person who nominates something of his own must have won at least 1 contest in the years the contests were active?) some can be nominated by others.

Remember also that each poll has only 25 options (iirc) and even though they can theoretically be split into groups, again i suggest we keep things tidy and economical. 25 choices are already more than we ever had (i do not think any yearly contest had more than 15 up to now).

category suggestions moved to the categories thread. Please do separate posts to help all of us keep the different discussions clear and easy to follow.


I also think that although more than one entries by a person per contest could be allowed, it is perhaps advisable to limit things to only 1 per person, for at least two reasons:

-If someone has more than one entries obviously in the best case for him he will have all votes towards him be granted to the one of the two. In all other cases the vote will be directed to both, and this might not only limit his ability to win but also prevent it utterly.

-At some categories some people dominate. It will be in bad taste though in my view to see hordes of entries by one and then islands of entries for most of the others.

Lastly i would like to say that i am thrilled with this contest idea. Even if i end up not winning anything it will be interesting to see the parade of the best gfx that this community has produced :) I have some to nominate by others as well, the unit contest in particular would be utter hell, unless more tentacle-oriented creatures manage to dominate ;)

Remember also that each poll has only 25 options (iirc) and even though they can theoretically be split into groups, again i suggest we keep things tidy and economical. 25 choices are already more than we ever had (i do not think any yearly contest had more than 15 up to now). AFAIK this is correct. If we do an effective job of designing the polls with multiple categories we shouldn't reach that limit. Multiple categories should also let the more prolific creators be well represented without the need to compete against themselves in a single poll.

I think it has to be decided just what the scope of this contest is.

Will it last for one month? Will it last for many months? (advisable if there are many categories) And if so, when will it start?

I am not, in principle, against multiple categories, but then we need a contest that spans at least three months, possibly August, September and October (where the main event can be). Otherwise we will be filled with polls and this will stagnate the forum.
I think that we even could have some polls even earlier, if the nominations finish.

But either way i vote that we have a logical and smart number of categories, not 10 here and 1 there.

Also i am not sure what the decade achievement idea is entirely about; i gather we won't be vaguely voting for a person, but for particular creations. If so again i bring back my idea that those who are nominated have to have won at least a number of contests, OR at least one yearly contest. I think the latter is less fair since there will be fewer people, but we should begin discussing these issues sometime soon.

It was their choice to stop contributing as it was mine (and others') choice to produce stuff year after year for Civ III.
But this doesn't affect the quality of their work. It's already been done.
Some of use leave for extended periods (I did, for abotu two years) and not because we just choose to, you know.
A couple guys are even dead, but their work isn't. Come on, Rob!

I think it has to be decided just what the scope of this contest is.

Will it last for one month? Will it last for many months? (advisable if there are many categories) And if so, when will it start?

I am not, in principle, against multiple categories, but then we need a contest that spans at least three months, possibly August, September and October (where the main event can be).How did you decide on 3 months? It would help the rest of us to know your reasoning.



Otherwise we will be filled with polls and this will stagnate the forum.
I think that we even could have some polls even earlier, if the nominations finish.

But either way i vote that we have a logical and smart number of categories, not 10 here and 1 there. Polls can be kept in this subforum with one general announcement thread stickied in the main forum.



If so again i bring back my idea that those who are nominated have to have won at least a number of contests, OR at least one yearly contest. I think the latter is less fair since there will be fewer people, but we should begin discussing these issues sometime soon.How should we handle the many worthy creations that lost out to another entry? Those that for various reasons were never entered? Those within categories that have not had monthly polls?

How did you decide on 3 months? It would help the rest of us to know your reasoning.

"Three" is a usual number to break things in, it is elegant and simple. Also it would help create, in my view, a prolonged festive atmosphere in the forums, and will disable any possibility that there co-exist many polls at the same time which on its part would definitely limit participation or at least discussion in their threads.



Polls can be kept in this subforum with one general announcement thread stickied in the main forum.

They could, on my part i would prefer if they are in the main forum, easier for everyone to follow and all will see them even if they do not visit the forum often.



How should we handle the many worthy creations that lost out to another entry? Those that for various reasons were never entered? Those within categories that have not had monthly polls?

My proposition is not that only entries which have won something would be entered, but that only entries of people who won something would be nominated by themselves (in regards to the general polls) and that, more crucially, in the decade achievement only entries of people who have won either a set amount of times, or a yearly should be entered. Of course we can make exceptions for creations/creators who were around solely or mainly before the last 5 years that (i think) the contests have been running.

My reasoning for this is that the decade achievement awards should be contested by people who by some standard (which can be discussed) deserve them, and not by comets of the community. It is the same logic followed in RL awards given for some lifelong achievement.

Edit: But i think i will probably take a back seat to all this. Already i fear that i might have sounded too elitist/isolationist even though i did not mean that at all. I hope that at least i provided some ideas to think about, and am looking forward to the shaping of the various mechanisms of this festivity :)

It is the same logic followed in RL awards given for some lifelong achievement.People have won the Irving Thalburg Award that never won an Oscar. Such as Samuel Goldwyn. And Alfred Hitchcock. ;)

Since we're having a thread for opinions about a contest based on opinions, here's mine.

I think the fun for the voters is not only choosing a winner, but voicing what they like and why. I'd like to see the nomination process pick up on this. Much of the fun from Tom's last lottery was not only the chance to have a unit made for you, but seeing the crazy things that others will think up.
Once the categories are established, a thread could be opened similar to the Monthly Submissions or Unit Lottery threads. The first post lists the categories and format for posts. Every member gets one post and puts his choices, whether the categories are units, graphics, or special categories like people have been mentioning. E.g.

Best Industrial Era Unit: Choice 1, choice 2, choice 3
Best Leaderhead: Choice 1, choice 2, choice 3
Best Expanded Editor With More Than Four Eras: Choice 1, choice 2, choice 3
Comments: ...

The thread would be open a set amount of time, and people could feel free to edit their post with changes, counter-comments, or what-have-ya during that time. Any knucklehead double posting or otherwise not following the procedure would be mercilessly humiliated by his fellow members. At the end, the top X amount of nominations would be combined into a poll, and then people could vote on the polls for each category. The nomination process could be open 2-4 weeks, and the voting for 2 weeks or so. If someone volunteers to make new awards, more power to them.

I think it would be great to see more people participate in this. A front page announcement for the contest would be the bomb. I'd like to see guests sign-up and people from other parts of the site stop by to join in. This is a great chance for our creators who have been here for years to showcase their work to a wider audience.

In short, it'd be cool to see a nomination process that's a public spectacle filled with mirth.

I'll second Tony Boscia's suggestion, even over my own. It's simple and elegant, and fun-est.

Hmmm, maybe yes, but I don't like the 'let's humiliate people and make this a public spectacle' feel of the post.

Pick the categories
Open a nominations thread for each category
Create polls based on the nominations


Have I got that right?

Should new award art be created or should we stick with the "cups"?
I think new art would be in order.

Pick the categories
Open a nominations thread for each category
Create polls based on the nominations


Have I got that right?

Yeah, I think that's it in a nutshell. Works for me.

Hmmm, maybe yes, but I don't like the 'let's humiliate people and make this a public spectacle' feel of the post.

The tone didn't survive the transition to print. I wasn't being remotely serious (as I'm often not). In plain text what I meant was:

-It would be nice if the contest in general was aimed at attracting more members to participate, beyond those of us here at C&C on a regular basis.
-I'm not calling for anyone to be harrassed, merely stating that when there is a thread with rules, invariably someone will not follow them, and inevitably someone else will promptly jump down his throat.


Pick the categories
Open a nominations thread for each category
Create polls based on the nominations


Have I got that right?

Yeah, that sums it up. I was just thinking that the nomination threads could be combined to save time, space and confusion. The actual voting threads could then be created individually for each category.

-The nomination threads could be combined to save time, space and confusion. The actual voting threads could then be created individually for each category.

We have (some) time, and plenty of space, and confusion is just endemic. One thing I like about virtual space: it expands. The universe probably began as a C&C thread, somewhere...

We'll strive to keep things as simple as possible, but not simpler.

The nomination process will happen within the C&C community, however the C&Cers decide to carry it out. Not every single category need have its own nomination thread. There will probably be more than one thread - with broad classes of categories combined. Such as one thread for the wonder/tech/interface pcxs - assuming those end up as separate award categories.

The actual polls will be announced on the front page - with all CFC members encouraged to participate.

Any aspects of the anniversary beyond recognizing the contributions of C&Cers will have to be planned outside of C&C.

Can one item earn more than one award?

Can one item earn more than one award?

I suggest against it getting multiple awards. There is no shortage of gfx around, why enter the same in more than one polls?

Then how do we decide which category something is assigned to?

Depends on the categories which will be set. Hopefully they will not allow for ambiguousness beyond a certain livable degree.
For example the Cthulhu unit would belong in Fantasy, or Monsters, or even Sci-Fi (since the cthulhu mythos effectively became sci-fi by the time of At the mountains of Madness)

IMHO an entry should be allowed in more than once, but only in this way:


Once in the "type" categories
Also in the "special" categories - such as "most unusual" which could be unit(s), a scenario, terrain, etc.

Personally i think we are running a bit in circles. The whole concept of the contest is elusive at the moment.

Making a ton of polls where it can democratically be decided what to do seems to be the only road to forming a more stable idea of what this competition will be.

In my view i see no reason why there should exist a category such as "most unusual". Maybe at some point you can name 25 categories and the first 9 (picking a number here semi-randomly) can materialize.

Looks like we'll probably end up with a lot of categories. Following up on AnthonyBoscia's suggestions: stagger the polls over some period leading up to the final celebration. We won't overwhelm people - especially those new to the kind of polls we do. By letting us (legitimately) have more than one announcement on the front page we can keep it on the whole community's radar.

On the awards themselves - rather than ending up with ranked winners how about letting the top 3 equally share " --- Of The Decade" bragging rights? That better recognizes the high quality consistently presented to the community.

Making a ton of polls where it can democratically be decided what to do seems to be the only road to forming a more stable idea of what this competition will be.Yes, there will be formal decisions made at some point via polling.This is a major project & locking things down too abruptly will result in a less effective presentation. Remember that the discussion has been going on for less than a week so far. Brainstorming comes first. In this phase merits can be discussed but the emphasis is on generating as many ideas as possible. The next step is decision-making in broadstrokes - think of it as policy. Last comes decisions about how to carry out the policy.

Yes, there will be formal decisions made at some point via polling.This is a major project & locking things down too abruptly will result in a less effective presentation. Remember that the discussion has been going on for less than a week so far. Brainstorming comes first. In this phase merits can be discussed but the emphasis is on generating as many ideas as possible. The next step is decision-making in broadstrokes - think of it as policy. Last comes decisions about how to carry out the policy.

I second that; it's quite early in the process to be fretting about it. I agree that definitions have to be nailed down a bit, and we're discussing that now in the Categories thread. Part of it is that we haven't been exactly precise about these things before now - I think, for example, that a Database Moderator might be helpful to get files sorted properly, which would have made this whole task much easier. And I'd have added WW1 and WWII, Aircraft, and Ships categories to the database long ago, myself. But I digress; as Blue said, we're still in the 'Suggestion Box' or 'brainstorming' stage of this project right now, so it would be most useful for everyone to stay cool and think: 'how could this be made easier to do?

... a Database Moderator might be helpful to get files sorted properly, ...The site could definitely use a dedicated Database Manager. Finding someone willing, qualified and with sustainable time / energy is a whole 'nother ball of wax. We'll have to muddle through this without one, unfortunately.

You'll get a lot of willing people, quite a lot of qualified ones, but time and energy are the dealbreakers. maybe you could get a team of database managers instead.

We now return you to the thread already in progress.

:coffee:

I had an idea as to how the contestants of the decade achievement polls could be calculated:

All of the relevant yearly winners are entered (i would prefer it if it is a contest of people, and not a specific graphic, but i am biased since my pitiful german medieval set was the only yearly winner i ever had- if people are chosen then we can have as a representative of them one graphic they select, or is proposed by others) and also the winner(s) of the relevant festivity "lesser" contests.

For example if person X has not won a yearly, but he wins a pcx contest of the festival, he has the right to be entered in the decade achievement award. Lets say X wins in the city contest, X has not won a yearly but now can enter the decade achievement award with any graphic of his (of relevance to the type of the award) he chooses.

In this way the decade award can have up to 5+8=13 contestants (it will probably be a bit fewer in the end due to double winners). This is a good strategy in my view. Also i suggest we have only one decade contest per supra-category in the databate (eg one for ALL pcx gfx, one for ALL units etc) since there is no room for entries of considerable numbers if there are more such polls, and also the decade award should have an air of totality.

I've been following the discussion in all the threads and taking notes when away from the computer for the last few days. Think I've worked out something that will address the legitimate issues everyone has raised while finding something we can accomplish within the timeframe that will be satisfactory for us & present us well to CFC as a whole. It will take some time to write it up in a clear concise way. Planning on accomplishing that & posting it this weekend.

On the specific point of 25+ polls there are various ways to handle it. One way would be to treat them as one poll - take the top numbers regardless of which section they come from.

A multi-option poll(s) then?

A multi-option poll(s) then?Yes - voting for more than one choice would be allowed under that proposal.

Please read my posts on the needed timeline - including how categories affect the mechanics.

On the specific point of 25+ polls there are various ways to handle it. One way would be to treat them as one poll - take the top numbers regardless of which section they come from.

That would allow for the greatest mix of units! A real plus....

My 2 cents:

Take a poll for each "Best Of" per category per year as a "Semi-finals". Each poll should include the 12 monthly winners per year per category, as well as the top 13 "Write-in" entries for that same year. Take the 25 entries from the 250 (25*10) with the most votes per category for the "Finals".

This does give the previous winners a decent chance, even if the artist isn't around anymore, and allows others to write in the non winners they like, even if that artist is themselves.

The large number of past winners may create a problem.
Take a poll for each "Best Of" per category per year as a "Semi-finals". Each poll should include the 12 monthly winners per year per category, as well as the top 13 "Write-in" entries for that same year.IIRC there have been months where there were ties. Hopefully that wouldn't result in more than 25 entries. OTOH with the currently proposed division of categories in many cases there will be more than 13 slots for "write-ins". Should we allow more or just have fewer nominations in that category? Deciding the write-ins for each category will require a poll.

In the latest list there are 29 categories including 22 that cover the equivalent monthly contests. Here's how many polls this proposal requires - C being the number of categories:


Establishing "write ins" for the categories where there have been monthly polls: C x 10 . Given the currently proposed list that's 220 polls.
Semifinals for all categories: C x 10 . 290 polls.
Finals: C . In this case 29 polls.

That's 539 polls for us to participate in.

By comparison having one nominations round and one finals round for each categories: C + C . In this case 58.

There is a lot of extra clerical work involved in this kind of proposal as well. Assembling the lists of monthly winners needs to be done. There is the hall of fame to base this on, but does it's completeness need to be checked? Nominations for the write-in polls in categories where there are no monthly polls will require keeping track of which year all the items nominated were first posted. There will need to be a single point of responsibility in order to avoid / resolve disputes. Tracking the results of 539 polls and assembling them into the threads needed along the way is a tremendous amount of work as well.



Just offered as food for thought.

See >here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=10632832#post10632832)< for a simpler proposal. Sorry that all this is getting cross-posted, but the two subjects are intertwined, it seems..

See >here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=10632832#post10632832)< for a simpler proposal. Sorry that all this is getting cross-posted, but the two subjects are intertwined, it seems..Links are better than double posts. The threads inevitably overlap. OTOH, imagine how tangled the discussion would be if there were only one thread.

Okay, my proposal has sat on the table for a week (in the Categories thread) and nobody has commented. Silent assent? If it's to be done, it has to start now, with a Graphics Nominations thread. Meanwhile, we'd have to decide how a jury is to be picked, and start a Decades Award Logo contest. So who makes the executive decision?

I'll volunteer to do what I can, but I have no idea of how to do a poll (never had to before). Anyone else interested?

The original release date of vanilla Civ 3 was October 30, 2001, no? Is it being timed so all contest ends on that day, or should it begin that day instead? If it starts on the anniversary day, it would give us a bit more time to get things ready. But I suppose the decade contest might make more sense ending on the anniversary day with the winners known and cheered during the decade party?

Either way, it's probably best to make this not too complicated of a task. I read through and it sounds pretty good as is. I'll try to go through a bit more detail this weekend... need to get some sleep right now!

The original release date of vanilla Civ 3 was October 30, 2001, no? Is it being timed so all contest ends on that day, or should it begin that day instead? If it starts on the anniversary day, it would give us a bit more time to get things ready. But I suppose the decade contest might make more sense ending on the anniversary day with the winners known and cheered during the decade party?

Either way, it's probably best to make this not too complicated of a task. I read through and it sounds pretty good as is. I'll try to go through a bit more detail this weekend... need to get some sleep right now!

It would be nice to get anything made up to Oct entered, but do we what the contest ending if January or February of next year.

It probably is best to get the preliminary polls started now to get the final polls in Oct or Nov.

It would be nice to get anything made up to Oct entered, but do we what the contest ending if January or February of next year.

It probably is best to get the preliminary polls started now to get the final polls in Oct or Nov.

I agree, & I'd like to put up the first nominations thread by Monday. It'd be nice to get some sort of official go-ahead. Pounder, could you help or advise me with the polls?

I agree, & I'd like to put up the first nominations thread by Monday. It'd be nice to get some sort of official go-ahead. Pounder, could you help or advise me with the polls?

I will help.

Maybe you could compile the lists of entries for each poll and I could use those lists to post the polls.

As long as we have names and links and previews for all nominations, we should be good to go.

Are the polls going to be open for 7 days.

I will help.

Thank you, Pounder. Welcome aboard.

Are the polls going to be open for 7 days.

The Plan & Categories are both posted >here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=10589139&postcount=1)<. Accordingly, each poll will be open 20 days: from the 5th through the 25th of Aug, Sept. and October. I think the first nominations thread (July) should cover:

Best Terrain Set
Best Graphics: LM or Overlay Terrain
Best City Graphic
Best Splash Graphics
Best Map
Interface Graphic Award
Best Leaderhead
Best Tutorial
Best Utility

The nominations thread in August would be for the categories Best Historic Mod/Scenario through Best Unusual Unit, and the September thread would cover the remainder. Any objection? Speak now...

Maybe you could compile the lists of entries for each poll and I could use those lists to post the polls.....As long as we have names and links and previews for all nominations, we should be good to go.

That's why I put 10 days between the time the nominations thread closes and the Polls open each month. Since I can tally as the nominations come in, that's actually enough time to do it myself, or (preferably) delegate the task of compiling links (& image) for each to volunteers. Anyone who wants to volunteer for this task can step up now as well, I guess.

Any thoughts on the wording of the Poll Question.


Some examples:

Which is the Best Terrain Set of the Decade

Which is the Best Terrain Set of the Decade 2001-2011

Which is the Best Terrain Set for 2001-2011

Best of the Decade 2001-2011 - Category: Best Terrain Set

Other suggestions

Should I we make a Poll for this?:)

Edit:

My suggestions would be:

Maybe for the Thread Name >>> Best of the Decade 2001-2011 - Category: Best Terrain Set

Maybe for the Poll Question >>> Which is the Best Terrain Set for 2001-2011

Does anyone know the maximum number of characters you can have in the Poll Question?


------------

Any thoughts on the wording of the Poll Question.
My suggestions would be:

Maybe for the Thread Name >>> Best of the Decade 2001-2011 - Category: Best Terrain Set

Maybe for the Poll Question >>> Which is the Best Terrain Set for 2001-2011



That looks good to me.

I'll be out of town July 16th - 31st. After that I expect to be available daily for any needed moderator attention - editing polls, moving threads, etc. PMs are probably the quickest way to get my attention, although reports will get all the assigned moderators.


EDIT: and to make the front page announcements further down the line.

Will you be climbing Mt. Shasta, shooting the rapids on the Snake River, or exploring the Amazon on this trip, Blue? I hope you send post cards.

We should be on remote control until the end of July. The first few posts in the Nominations thread indicate that everyone has picked up the format brilliantly. That's a good sign. After July 30, Pounder & I will have to put together nine polls very quickly to have them up by Aug. 5, but I think that the two of us might do very well at that, actually.

But we have other things to discuss in this forum: the plan calls for an Icon/splash design contest. This comes from someone's idea that the Awards should have their own icon. Good idea; everyone agreed. What we need to know before we start is: what format are those icons in, so that they can be made & added? Can it be animated? Can they be done in 3d?

The other thing we've contemplated is Jury Awards. This seems to be an important element of all this to me, because it balances the populism of the polls with the wisdom of C&C veterans. How to do it is the question of the moment, it seems: I favor discreet invitations sent by PM to our most senior members (based on both output and length of membership) to ascertain their availability for such a jury. Based on those responses, a jury of between 5-10 might be assembled and they would be given their own private thread in which they would decide, between now and Halloween, which awards they would like to bestow. The question then becomes: who picks the invitees? Two ways, I think, to handle that: either 1) have that part handled entirely by a moderator or moderators's committee; or 2) form a 'search committee' to handle the task out of the public eye. I'm way open to alternative ideas..

Will you be climbing Mt. Shasta, shooting the rapids on the Snake River, or exploring the Amazon on this trip, Blue? I hope you send post cards. Just house-sitting for my brother. Nothing but birdsong by day, coyotes by night, sunsets & sunrises, thunderstorms, Joshua trees & wild flowers. nowhere to get post cards - virtual or otherwise. My brother will have the digital camera with him on vacation.







The other thing we've contemplated is Jury Awards. This seems to be an important element of all this to me, because it balances the populism of the polls with the wisdom of C&C veterans. How to do it is the question of the moment, it seems: I favor discreet invitations sent by PM to our most senior members (based on both output and length of membership) to ascertain their availability for such a jury. Based on those responses, a jury of between 5-10 might be assembled and they would be given their own private thread in which they would decide, between now and Halloween, which awards they would like to bestow. The question then becomes: who picks the invitees? Two ways, I think, to handle that: either 1) have that part handled entirely by a moderator or moderators's committee; or 2) form a 'search committee' to handle the task out of the public eye. I'm way open to alternative ideas..Self-nomination volunteer then poll? Poll can be done by pm to neutral party.

Just house-sitting for my brother. Nothing but birdsong by day, coyotes by night, sunsets & sunrises, thunderstorms, Joshua trees & wild flowers. nowhere to get post cards - virtual or otherwise. My brother will have the digital camera with him on vacation.

Peace, quiet, and low humidity. Now that sounds like a vacation. Until the aliens show up...

Self-nomination volunteer then poll? Poll can be done by pm to neutral party.

Hey, I just had an idea: how about we let our Award Winners pick our Jury? Nominations from the AW could be done by PM, or in a private thread, and then the top picks from those would be "invited" to serve, with the top 6 nominees contacted first, and so on until our Jury is filled. It would be a nice way for our previous award winners to have a role in all this frivolity....

Peace, quiet, and low humidity. Now that sounds like a vacation. Until the aliens show up...
Funny story about that. My brother can see "where he works" from the patio.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/RidgecrestCA.JPG/220px-RidgecrestCA.JPG
The photo's from the flats, he lives in the foothills. The "office" is the pale bit on the left. But the parking lot & job site are often far far away. As in sometimes another county, some times another state. At one point he was "officially authorized" to tell me that he was in charge of quality assurance for all the foo produced at that facility. apparently it comes in three colors - red, green and blue. Which can be used as food, fuel, or something else. "Depending". Foo was back-engineered based on conversations with some illegal immigrants:
http://ts4.mm.bing.net/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=964101998731&id=6e979519178eec80d2428a3a41efc3e8&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.entertainmentearth.com%2fimag es%2fAUTOIMAGES%2fFU8513lg.jpg

Doing his day job (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1xqrdtJs8w)
http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/3976/tinfoilhatsmile.gif


Hey, I just had an idea: how about we let our Award Winners pick our Jury? Nominations from the AW could be done by PM, or in a private thread, and then the top picks from those would be "invited" to serve, with the top 6 nominees contacted first, and so on until our Jury is filled. It would be a nice way for our previous award winners to have a role in all this frivolity....:goodjob:

Just learned about this today. Missed the chance to add Rhyes Terrain and an overlay I am fond of. Missing out got me to thinking....

This is the creation contest of the decade! Thus far there are few nominations. Seems to me that the biggest part of this contest should be about acknowledging peoples efforts over the years. Not just about who wins "best of". Every nomination is an acknowledgement of thanks and appreciation (from modders and civers alike).

With so few nominations in the first category, this makes for limited acknowledgement. The value of the contest is lessened. So how about extending the nomination period? Give more people the chance to participate in this historic event. More nominations might mean more poll work. But hey, this IS the creation contest of the decade!

Now that I see the first category polls; I wish to make a heartfelt plea: Please Rethink This!! It's not too late to change this!This is the contest of the decade!! Far too many great works have been made over the years, to highlight so few. The contest loses relevance with so few entries. I think this is a big deal. The contest feels hollow being so light. The community needs time to participate. Ten years worth of content is reflected in this contest. A couple short weeks of nominations is not near enough time. Need to advertise this thing across the forums. Doesn't do the community, the modders, or the contest justice to go about this in such a minor way.

We hear you, White Elk. Look >here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=10759276#post10759276)< for reply.

Your link just goes to a category discussion. Is there no hope that this contest may be paused to improve/expand the nominations?

As frustrating as it is White Elk, the competition is underway. It has to be: the drop dead date for completion is October 30, and there are eight polls per month already planned. As I noted in the discussions thread, I argued for more categories while this was being planned, so I don't expect to be an impediment to your basic concerns. Please join the conversation in the Categories thread, so that I can address your ideas - let's work together to improve it, not stop it in its tracks, flawed as it is. It's a human endeavor; it will have its flaws. Let's improve what we can and move forward.

Been thinking about the culminating announcement. Certainly ought to be a list on the front page. How about an announcement of the winners (including the award graphics) along with a category by category list of every entry? Many of us get a great deal of pleasure just from the honor of being nominated.

It could be done in the same manner as the recurrent downloads announcement. There ought to be room to do image previews by category rather than as one compressed image. & the announcement could include links to all the relevant threads.

I put this thing completely behind me. It has no value to me as it was done. Competition of the decade??? Bah. Nothin but a rushed flavor of the month feel good.

I don't get why I was repeatedly told to take my concerns to an off-topic link when this mechanics thread was absolutely the place to voice those particular concerns. So I dropped it. Forgot about this joke. Until I get an email notice of a reply... so I respond. Apologies but thats my thought.

Noted. Sorry you're so disappointed. Sounds like there's nothing more to be said on that front.