Discussion and Tips: Contests:
Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2014 1:24 pm
This is going to be a longer post...with some commentary in it...to help clarify what I'm trying to say. I'll try to break it up a little, but there are good things in here that you will want to read. (I'm bolding things so you can find them easy and ignore my commentary if you wish.)
With the CCC coming soon…there will be some changes. Yes, changes, good changes. So I’m going to give everyone a few tips, tell you what I can, and try and help make everything fun again.
1) Read the category descriptions very clearly and follow them. Then re-read them, and re-read again. And before you submit your entry, please double check them again.
I know it sounds silly, but everyone gets carried away in their idea for a build sometimes and you forget to check. I’ve done it. You really don’t want to build something really great and not win because you didn’t follow them. And more importantly, not ruin your fun because you got upset because you didn’t do as well as you thought you would.
2) Double, triple, quadruple check your photo rules and sizes. Some contests, like the CCC, have restrictions size and number of photos.
Being disqualified or put on the naughty list…is never fun because you missed this one…I speak from experience…when I could compete…I forgot to fix that once. It was really embarrassing.
3) Time frame and judging…we are extremely aware that the time frame for judging is too long and we don’t like it either. We have a plan to change it this year.
Hey guys…here is a little thing no one realized…last year you had not one, but two new admins judging. It takes a little bit of time to figure it all out.
4) There are things within the judging process that does tend to slow us down. The people on the “naughty list” in particular.
We have a naughty list so people can fix their entries…trying to be super nice and let people enter when we could just say “too bad for you!” and disqualify you. We don’t want that. We honor you and your builds and the time you took to do them. Sometimes it takes over a week to two weeks to get all of those entries cleared up so we can start.
I’m hoping this post can help us out a bit with that. It would be nice if you could help each other out with that. If you see a friend on the naughty list, offer to help them. The faster we get the naughty list clear, the faster judging happens.
5) Another thing that slows things down, particularly the announcement of winners is the fact that images have to be edited to remove the backgrounds.
If when you are getting your pictures ready, if you could think about that and the fact that a plain background makes editing easier, that could help too, even if it is just for one image. Not to mention sometimes the more complicated the background, the harder it is to see the details of what you’ve built.
You have certain number of photos you can submit to a contest, but you can take however many you really want, we all do. If you want them all fancy for presentation and the beauty of art, maybe think about if those shouldn’t be included in the judging ones
6)The place you host your photos is another issue that slows us down.
Not to be a Flickr loving person, but overall it seems to be the most stable place for your photos. Brickshelf goes up and down. MOCPages…is SLOW for some of us. If you wait until the last possible minute to put an entry in, and it is on brickshelf, we have to wait for it to be made public.
7) Finally, if you need help, please contact one of the staff.
We are around. It may not be an instant answer but we will get back to you. Private messages, posts on the forum, or just pop into chat (remember you need to be in "safe" mode). We want this to be fun.
With the CCC coming soon…there will be some changes. Yes, changes, good changes. So I’m going to give everyone a few tips, tell you what I can, and try and help make everything fun again.
1) Read the category descriptions very clearly and follow them. Then re-read them, and re-read again. And before you submit your entry, please double check them again.
I know it sounds silly, but everyone gets carried away in their idea for a build sometimes and you forget to check. I’ve done it. You really don’t want to build something really great and not win because you didn’t follow them. And more importantly, not ruin your fun because you got upset because you didn’t do as well as you thought you would.
2) Double, triple, quadruple check your photo rules and sizes. Some contests, like the CCC, have restrictions size and number of photos.
Being disqualified or put on the naughty list…is never fun because you missed this one…I speak from experience…when I could compete…I forgot to fix that once. It was really embarrassing.
3) Time frame and judging…we are extremely aware that the time frame for judging is too long and we don’t like it either. We have a plan to change it this year.
Hey guys…here is a little thing no one realized…last year you had not one, but two new admins judging. It takes a little bit of time to figure it all out.
4) There are things within the judging process that does tend to slow us down. The people on the “naughty list” in particular.
We have a naughty list so people can fix their entries…trying to be super nice and let people enter when we could just say “too bad for you!” and disqualify you. We don’t want that. We honor you and your builds and the time you took to do them. Sometimes it takes over a week to two weeks to get all of those entries cleared up so we can start.
I’m hoping this post can help us out a bit with that. It would be nice if you could help each other out with that. If you see a friend on the naughty list, offer to help them. The faster we get the naughty list clear, the faster judging happens.
5) Another thing that slows things down, particularly the announcement of winners is the fact that images have to be edited to remove the backgrounds.
If when you are getting your pictures ready, if you could think about that and the fact that a plain background makes editing easier, that could help too, even if it is just for one image. Not to mention sometimes the more complicated the background, the harder it is to see the details of what you’ve built.
You have certain number of photos you can submit to a contest, but you can take however many you really want, we all do. If you want them all fancy for presentation and the beauty of art, maybe think about if those shouldn’t be included in the judging ones
6)The place you host your photos is another issue that slows us down.
Not to be a Flickr loving person, but overall it seems to be the most stable place for your photos. Brickshelf goes up and down. MOCPages…is SLOW for some of us. If you wait until the last possible minute to put an entry in, and it is on brickshelf, we have to wait for it to be made public.
7) Finally, if you need help, please contact one of the staff.
We are around. It may not be an instant answer but we will get back to you. Private messages, posts on the forum, or just pop into chat (remember you need to be in "safe" mode). We want this to be fun.