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Lab Assistant
#76 Old 30th Sep 2007 at 3:10 AM
First I would like to thank all the MTS2 staffers for all the work that you did with the Ancients Challenge. I know that running something like this requires a lot of effort & I appreciate it as I had a wonderful time creating something I never would have otherwise attempted. It was also very interesting for me to watch the mechanics of the challenge, especially since it was the first.

In the spirit of making future MTS2 Challenges even better I thought I would offer the following observations & suggestions.

Polls are great for a number of reasons. Not only do they promote the site & the creators but they allow everyone to participate. I always think of the popularity of the tv show American Idol where you see this played out on a grand scale.

I do, however, believe that you are going to have some issues with the current process since you encourage people to vote & then don't necessarily follow the poll results. No matter how many times you state this up front, voters will be discontent if their opinion is asked for and then not followed.

I would therefore suggest that you "tweak" the rules for future challenges a bit:

** Continue with having the staff pick the short list. This obviously gives you a lot of control over the assets that you would like to reward. You could set a minimum of say 3 (for example) but allow for more if the situation warrants it.

** Give everyone on the short list an Exceptional Award. After all, you did get to select them just as with a Feature and this will provide a nice "additional" reward to contest participants.

** Conduct the poll to select the "Best of the Best", i.e. the Grand Prize Winner from the short list. You don't have to have another prize for this as just the title should be enough of a reward & to spark participation. This means that the voters get the "final say".

This scenario gives you the same benefits, the same control, the same amount of work as the current strategy and has the added advantage that the voter's choice wraps up the process. I believe that the perception of fairness will be much higher.

Speaking of perception, I realize that with any activity like this you are always going to have those that are discontent. It's a fact that one just has to be prepared for. I realize that by tweaking the process a bit you can only hope to minimize the negatives and not eliminate them completely but the more that you can accomplish this the better.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth. Many thanks for listening.

--- Tatiana ---

You can find out more about my creations at the SterlingSims2 Creator's Forum Tatiana's Tea Room.
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Doing all the things, and *mostly* not failing.
retired moderator
#77 Old 30th Sep 2007 at 3:29 AM
ditto what she said ^
Theorist
#78 Old 30th Sep 2007 at 4:30 AM
Tatiana has some good ideas, and they were well presented. I like the suggestion that the staff selects the short list, then the community selects the winner.

Thank you Echo also for your reasoned explanation. While it would be my preference to see a winning entry such as Phaenoh's actually featured, I think that at least some visual indication of each short-listed upload, and of the overall winner, is needed.

As far as transferring my upload over to the Old Hollywood section, having got over my confusion I think I would prefer to stay within the original rules and focus on submitting just one better quality entry.
Lab Assistant
#79 Old 30th Sep 2007 at 5:06 AM Last edited by Sterlingdt : 30th Sep 2007 at 8:11 AM.
I do tons of contests at my site and have learned ways to make them more successful. I think it would be helpful to outline more clearly what criteria the entries would be judged on so people could understand better how to vote and how the winners were chosen. For instance, how authentic was the entry based on the theme? Did the entry contain objects that fit the theme? Was effort made to make the historical layout of the asset valid? Was the custom content made by the entrant or by other creator's?
I also agree with Tatiana's statements above and think that once deadlines/rules are laid out they should be followed. With that said, all the entries were very creative and having contests here is a great idea!

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Instructor
#80 Old 30th Sep 2007 at 5:45 AM
i agree with tatiana's suggestions
I also wanted to suggest that maybe you guys should make one (locked) thread in the Creator Guidelines area specifically for these themes so that we dont have to bounce between threads to see what the guidelines are. Especially since alot of people dont read past the first post, they may not see your additional explanations in later posts after 20 "this is a great idea!!" posts lol

As Sterling suggested, except to have it all in one thread: what you guys are looking for, how authentic you'd like it to be, how many items we can enter, what things do you NOT want us to enter (like more marilyn sims or paintings), what time in history this theme is (like 1920-1960), etc.

I think this would make it less confusing. The old thread says we can only enter once, this thread says we can enter multiple times but only one of our items can be named "exceptional".
I have no idea if i explained this properly, it made more sense in my head lol

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Test Subject
#81 Old 2nd Oct 2007 at 7:28 AM
congrats!!
Field Researcher
#82 Old 5th Oct 2007 at 8:54 AM
can i upload something that i've already uploaded to the exchange for the contest which was never in any other contest before?

Marjorie Dawes: Dust. Anybody? No? High in fat, low in fat? Dust. Anybody? No? Dust.
Anybody? No? Dust. Anybody? No? Dust. Anybody? No? Dust. Anybody? No? Dust. It's actually very low in fat. You can have as much dust as you like.
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Forum Resident
#83 Old 17th Oct 2007 at 3:30 PM
when will the voting begin?

"I will gather my wounds forge the end of tragic comedy"
AM
Blenderized to Pieces
retired moderator
#84 Old 22nd Oct 2007 at 6:05 AM
lol... Of course.... 6 days after the deadline, I get an idea of what to make. lol oh well... my game wasn't up and running anyway.


What's the next contest?
Theorist
#85 Old 22nd Oct 2007 at 1:25 PM
Quote: Originally posted by porkypine
lol... Of course.... 6 days after the deadline, I get an idea of what to make. lol oh well... my game wasn't up and running anyway.
Why not do it anyway?
I have quite a few leftover ideas for the contest that didn't get done and likely will be posting them there sooner or later...
Doing all the things, and *mostly* not failing.
retired moderator
#86 Old 25th Oct 2007 at 6:38 AM
Not sure whats going on here, but on my scorecard page, it says I have entered 3 contests, Ancients and 2 Old Hollywoods. I've only submitted one thing for OH, so this can't be right. Any ideas/fixes available? Its not major, but it bugs me a bit.
Instructor
#87 Old 25th Oct 2007 at 6:17 PM
Sorrybut English is not my first language and so I'm not shure wether I've understood this right:
Quote:
Get your entries in before 15 Oct - sooner is better!


It means you can only participate in this contest until 15 October, doesnt it?

When will there be the next contest??
Theorist
#88 Old 26th Oct 2007 at 1:47 AM
Quote: Originally posted by jon119
Sorrybut English is not my first language and so I'm not shure wether I've understood this right:


It means you can only participate in this contest until 15 October, doesnt it?
Yes.

You can still submit entries anyway, it is just that they will not be eligible for the contest.

Quote: Originally posted by jon119
When will there be the next contest??
I would guess that the next contest would start in mid-November.
Test Subject
#89 Old 26th Oct 2007 at 9:06 PM
Where can I make a suggestion for challeges?
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