Competition Mechanics

[Blue Monkey]

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.

 

[Balthasar]

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..

 

[Blue Monkey]

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.

 

[Balthasar]

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....

 

[Blue Monkey]

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

Funny story about that.

Spoiler :

My brother can see "where he works" from the patio.

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:


Doing his day job

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....

 

[White Elk]

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!

 

[White Elk]

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.

 

[Balthasar]

We hear you, White Elk. Look >here< for reply.

 

[White Elk]

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

 

[Balthasar]

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.

 

[Blue Monkey]

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.

 

[White Elk]

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.

 

[Blue Monkey]

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