Brickscalibur "The New Annual Winter Castle Contest" & CCC

[jtooker]

Greetings all,

I've just heard about [url=https://brickscalibur.com/]Brickscalibur[/url] "The New Annual Winter Castle Contest". It seems like a traditional LEGO castle MOCing competition and is conspicuously scheduled what is traditionally the CCC's time.

I'd imagine this contest is a product of people's frustrations with the CCC. I know people, myself included, have had frustrations with the tardiness of the CCC and with some technical issues. Last year's judging delay was inexcusable. But the contest was also announced late too.

On [url=http://classic-castle.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 32#p289932]Sept. 16th this year, a future post about helping out with the CCC[/url] was made. It never martialized. I've PMed the admins offering help, but have gotten no response.

So I guess I'm asking now, what is the future of the Colossal Castle Contest? Is there any intent and ability to run the contest smoother and on time? Those questions are mostly to the forum/contest admins, but I'd like honest answers from forum members as well. I've personally always loved the CCC and looked forward to it every year. While I'd love to see it continue, if there is another contest similar in scope and better run, that is good for the community. If both do continue, I'll be happy to submit creations to both - but if I can plan for one because of better announcements and communication, that is the one I'll prioritize.

p.s. while this is not a "MOC" post, all the CCC announcements are made in the MOC sub-forum, so I felt this an appropriate place to post.

[Bluesecrets]

The answers you want, I can't give you. I do my best with what I can do around here, but I am limited with outdated software and a lack of programming knowledge. I'm here multiple times a day, but not posting on a lot.

But what I need is some time to do what I need to do about the CCC. Will it run at the same time as it always has? I don't know that answer. Will it be the same? I don't know. Will it take forever to get things done? I don't know.

I am not a newbie at running contests. I have run them here for...forever. I ran them at another LEGO fan site also. Feel free to go back and look them up. I generally got judging done within a 2 week time frame.

As far as volunteering, I'm not quite to the point where I'm ready for it.

While I figure some stuff out, I can flat out tell you this...I can not fund a prize pool on my own. At this point, that is my biggest concern.

[Bishons]

Thanks for letting use know, by the way there is another castle contest over on lowlug!

[jtooker]

The answers you want, I can't give you.

My biggest concern/complaint is the lack of communication. For the past few years I've seen many post (including my own) on this forum asking for information, results, etc. Having occasional status updates would be great - and certainly better than silence, even if they do not have much information. I appreciate your response much more than wondering in late October if the contest will happen or not.

While I figure some stuff out ... As far as volunteering, I'm not quite to the point where I'm ready for it ... I can not fund a prize pool on my own.

This contest has always been quite opaque to me. And this is fine if it just works (obviously due to a lot of behind the scenes work by admins/mods) - but when it doesn't work it is completely unclear why or how I can help - and when there is only silence from the admin/mods, it is quite discouraging to the community. To me it seems like this contest I love is crumbling with nothing to be done. I assume this is the origin of Brickscalibur.

Personally, prizes have never been the big motivator for me. I'd much rather have expedient judging (or even no judging) than prizes, though presumably others feel differently.

I'm here multiple times a day

I do appreciate all the work you are doing lately and I do appreciate you taking the time to respond! You are the only admin I see regularly present on this forum.

[Bishons]

Thanks Bluesecrets, I know how you feel. I've been on lowlug quite often now. Jtooker, maybe you should join the lowluggers!

[Bluesecrets]

I understand all of the frustration. I truly do and I have been with you in that frustration. I am trying my best. My life changed dramatically with the health of a parent going from healthy to long-term recovery with me as the primary care giver on top of everything else I do. But I do honor my commitments and do show up. I just am not posting as much as I used to.

Right now I am in need of prizes and someone who can code.

This may not be the best CCC. It'll be different for sure. I'll be run how I can run it.

[jtooker]

Right now I am in need of prizes and someone who can code.

I can code. I don't have a bunch of time right now, but I'm happy to help as I can. I don't have any sets for donation (nor have time to get a MOC for donation) at this time, but could help out a bit financially if needed.

[anotherParrot]

Right now I am in need of prizes and someone who can code.

Can you detail what the needs would be? (in terms of code)
Although I'm not a professional I have some skills (graphics, programming...), and if needed I have a web server. It all depends on the amount of work and the time it takes (and the deadlines to do it).

I'm guessing it's a form for registering identification/contact informations, title/description texts, and sending some pictures.
Then a way to list the entries for the judging step.

The only thing I'm hesitant to embark to this project is if it requires a complete user account management (mail account verification, security, or integration to this forum system...)
Whether to expect +/- 50 submissions, or if it's > 1000, whether to deal with spam or hack attempts.

[Bruce N H]

Hey all,

Looking at the Brickscalibur announcement, that very definitely feels aimed at CCC, and to that extent is probably a fair hit. See the public apology I just posted in announcements. For over a decade I would say it was fair to argue that CCC was the best open-to-all annual LEGO contest in the AFOL community. Very early on, before many here were born, there was a great town-themed annual contest that was IIRC an inspiration for the CCC, the MOCOlympics was really good for a while, there was a Tolkien-themed contest on MOCpages for a few years, and there have been tons of great one-off contests, or events hosted by local groups. The Iron Builder and its subsequent incarnations are awesome, but that's not open-to-all. In recent years the Summer Joust has been a real high point. Anyway, sorry to digress, for many years as I said it was fair to say the CCC was the best thing going, but there is always room for more.

The key thing always was and is to encourage great building and great builders, especially in the Castle theme. For example, I for one love the existence of the Guilds of Historica over on Eurobricks. Even if lots of castle builders got attracted to the stuff going on over there rather than getting involved here, my view is that these are all tributaries feeding into the great sea. The great sea is not Classic-Castle, instead Classic-Castle is just another tributary feeding into the great sea that is LEGO Castle (or LEGO building in general I suppose).

That said, I do hope that if people build for another forum, or for another contests, they also come and share those MOCs here in this forum, or where appropriate also enter them into contests here (if the rules allow), as that increases communication. Or if CC forum members see something awesome in another spot, never hesitate to post about it in our forum.

To JTooker's comment above about trying to get feedback, I plead guilty to that. See my apology over in announcements.

To anotherParrot, at the high water mark the CCC attracted around 100 builders who made around 400 MOCs. Last year we had around 40 or so people build 94 MOCs.

Bruce

[anotherParrot]

To anotherParrot, at the high water mark the CCC attracted around 100 builders who made around 400 MOCs. Last year we had around 40 or so people build 94 MOCs.

Thank you for this clarification. In this order, it seems reasonable to me.
I'll be happy to contribute my hosting if necessary. I don't use it much, but it has no particular restrictions.

[the Inventor]

That said, I do hope that if people build for another forum, or for another contests, they also come and share those MOCs here in this forum, or where appropriate also enter them into contests here (if the rules allow), as that increases communication. Or if CC forum members see something awesome in another spot, never hesitate to post about it in our forum.

I was mostly a long time lurker around these parts without an account before 2009, when I joined. Always wanting to build something castle related but never really did (space and brick related). Classic castle and the CCC was always exiting to see, when I joined, the forum was more active around 2009, I see that my only post of a moc here was made in 2011, around that time 2012/2013, I somewhat stopped visiting here, and stopped taking pictures of things, why I don't really know.

I never really stopped collecting sets, or building stuff, except for taking pictures of it and posting it here or on Eurobricks/flickr/brickshelf.

Currently having more space to build and a larger collection since 2011, I'm starting to build more, even joining the Summer Joust this year and a LowLUG castle contest of April this year.

And especially if it is castle related I will try to post it here, currently I'm working on a castle for a new LowLUG contest.

I think I will also try to enter this new contest and maybe even enter for the first time in the new CCC.