Quote:
Originally Posted by geki~
I know it was already discussed but I decided to bring that up again. Guess that was wrong. Just ignore me anyway. I'm just a random person.
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I have a few things to note but I'm going to respond to this first.
There's nothing wrong with bringing that topic up, in fact I kind of expected it (perhaps not from you but from someone at least). It's one of the reasons I created the generic thread, actually. We needed a central place to discuss things like this without derailing the other threads.
Now I'll say that yes, I shot down the idea. And I'll outline why:
1. We all know each other pretty well (as forum goers, at least). Pretty much all of the contestants have their own threads and those who don't (or just recently started posting because of the contest) are easy to spot. That right there means at least 90 percent of the entries are going to be easy to figure out who did what.
2. Many of the signatures used in the contest are currently in use by the contestants. It's for that reason that the rule to abide by Animesuki sig rules exists. People have different reasons for showing off their sigs.
3. This is ultimately a pointless contest. There is no real prize (yay theme), but people are still joining in and having fun. They're learning and getting tips and feedback from other sig makers here. That's a good thing, in my opinion.
4. I'll be blunt and admit that there are very good and very bad artists here. I'm somewhere near very bad. Some of the sigs are going to be amazing, and some are going to be terrible. What's important is that people don't get discouraged by this. The sign of a bad artist is someone who doesn't strive to be a perfectionist. A good work of art is never done (no matter how much personal skill and public opinion influence upon it). Seeing revisions and new attempts over weeks of the entry phase, from every level of skill, is great to see. It's my hope that the contest continues to foster this, but that's hard to do if everything is anonymous.
5. Almost 500 posts and 50 contestants in the entry thread shows to me at least that interest in discussing and working on signatures in a public manner is something people want to do. I have given people the option to be private in every aspect of the contest except for voting. The reason I have not made voting private (the name is tied to the signature) is because at that point privacy is pointless. Having sigs private isn't going to ensure a better spread of votes, because people vote for various reasons. They might vote on style, adherence to the theme, quality of the image, what the render is, who made the image, they'll simply vote because everyone else is voting for it too, etc.
It's impossible to control what people are going to vote on. Are we trying to dissect each entry based on certain criteria? There's already people who are "afraid" their sig isn't good enough, or that x person is going to win no matter what, or simply choose not to enter because they don't like the theme. Is adding even more rules something we want to do?
For the March contest I'm sure many have noticed that I have not placed the signatures next to the contestants name in the list. Why? Partly because I'm lazy, partly because I'm going to shuffle the sigs around when the voting goes up, and partly because of me trying to give a little bit into the wishes of people who want things a little more "anonymous". Never mind that all entries sent via PM are not posted until voting unless told otherwise or publicly posted by the contestant.
In any case, I've outlined a small essay of my thoughts on the subject. I'm not going to coddle someone because they feel they just aren't good enough, and I'm not going to start changing rules because a few people prefer things differently.
Show me a good argument and I'll be willing to discuss any matter. Until then, what's here is here, it's subject to change based on actual input and interest, and participation is not mandatory.
Sorry if I'm coming across a bit mean/harsh/bitchy, it's not intended. If there's a little bit of a vent/rant in all that, sorry.
Anyway, moving on.
Three votes seems to be popular, and there's some good ideas on nomination/voting. I'd like to see some more thoughts before posting a condensed version/outline.