Signature of the Month Contest Generic Discussion Thread

[Urei]

Originally Posted by Marina

I agree with ganbaru that it's important to take into consideration multiple contests, number of participants, and staff involved. An upcoming banner competition will be more than enough to keep graphic artists focused on improving their works, and if not, they should still be able to work independently through their own threads here in the fan creations subforum, or try contributing to sig/avatar request threads.

True that, although without starting such a contest we will not know which one of those activities people would rather take part in. If you have an option to compete in 2 kinds of events you won't think about a third, non-existent one. This changes when the third option becomes available, when you actually have to consider what to concentrate on.

My point is, without the contest, there's no way of telling who is willing to participate since there's no such option to begin with.

[Suomi]

I've noticed there have been some new sigmakers coming to the forum, too. Perhaps they'll join too, to replace some people who have left and to flesh out the numbers, eh?

Perhaps it would be a good idea to have a poll (in FC) about who would be interested in it, and, for returning participants, what, if anything, would they like to see stay the same/change. That would also help garner interest and participation, i think.

[Solace]

Originally Posted by Dist

Why? SOTM isn't about banners, and Solace isn't in charge of those contests so this should be able to run independent of other contests. Makes me really wonder how busy can Solace be that he can't run the contest when it hardly requires any works. Few posts here and there, rally up votes, put them in Excel, oh we're done.

I wasn't in charge of the banner contest (I was pondering it, but decided to let the other mods have some fun), but I did help behind the scenes. As for "it hardly requires any work", you grossly simplify how "easy" it is to run any contest. Some months, it doesn't take much effort, true. Other months, it's a pita. I guess it's like moderating, no one notices when you do your job, unless they don't like how it was handled.

Either way, I'm not understanding the whining here. I suspended the contest because it needed a break. Most of the contestants were doing it simply because it was something to do. I wanted a break from running it nonstop year after year. The format itself had become stale and the themes (mostly because of the old policy of not letting themes be reused) were becoming more difficult for winners to think up.

Obviously there's a few who want it restarted, as expected, but that isn't going to make me suddenly say "oh gee, five people want to do this again, I should hurry up and start things up again!".

I've already stated the contest will return, but I'm not in any rush, and none of you should be either. If you're really itching to show off your skills, enter the next banner contest in a month, or start making some Holiday signatures to hand out as gifts for others on our forums.

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by Solace

If you're really itching to show off your skills, enter the next banner contest in a month, or start making some Holiday signatures to hand out as gifts for others on our forums.

Xmas signatures as a showing off opportunity ? It probably not the best reason but it might not be the worse...
(And for the record, I already started thoses back in september... )

[Suomi]

Solace has a point. The mods do more work (not just on SOTM) than we see, than we often even know. Plus, I'd imagine it would get dull after a while, and a pain, to run/do the same contest over and over. And when SOTM makes its resurgence I have a feeling the break will have done it some good, especially if we can have comments and input from members on the contest itself.
I'm not particularly impatient, but I look forward to its return when it does so.

[Haladflire65]

Yeah, I think it would be great if we can think of ways to improve and revamp SOTM while Solace takes a break. As mentioned, I think the banner contests will serve as perfectly good outlets for any graphic designers (such as myself) for the time being. Hopefully, when SOTM comes back, there will be renewed interest in it so it can restart with a bang!

[ahelo]

We should totally restart the SOTM contest again after the Winter Banner Contest. I think there's been enough time leeway between the last one and now.

[Hiroi Sekai]

Aw, it had gone on hiatus as soon as I began to learn signature making. If it ever comes back, I'll be waiting with my newbie creations.

[Tong]

Signature contests are rigged anyway :L

[Hiroi Sekai]

Using what, pray tell? Hypnotism? Propaganda? They're users voting via personal opinions with no tolerance for coaxing.

[Marcus H.]

It's not rigged per se, but the fact that many users in AnimeSuki use signatures from other users will tend to influence voters' choice of who's best.

[ganbaru]

Not really. It isn't as peoples chooses their vote based on popularity but on their taste. If many like someone's style they might be more likely to have a signature from him or to prefer his entry. But to think than one would vote for a entry because it's from someone than have make many signatures, it's overevaluating the impact, a signature isn't a pub for a photoshop user.

[Marcus H.]

^ I dunno, the main reason why I stopped submitting signatures for SOTM is that it's always the usual people who wins. And those "usual people" are the most active ones in making signatures.

i.e. The contest is too niche.

We need at least 30 participants so that things are more interesting. SOTM is boring if you end up competing against the same faces and there's no one else willing to join. Might as well leave this contest in indefinite hiatus while leaving the signature making to the rest of the forum.

[ahelo]

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

^ I dunno, the main reason why I stopped submitting signatures for SOTM is that it's always the usual people who wins. And those "usual people" are the most active ones in making signatures.

i.e. The contest is too niche.

We need at least 30 participants so that things are more interesting. SOTM is boring if you end up competing against the same faces and there's no one else willing to join. Might as well leave this contest in indefinite hiatus while leaving the signature making to the rest of the forum.

Well with the very long hiatus, I think there's enough new people wanting to join (like me ). Plus, some Sigmakers have gone better, some went on hiatus. If someone can just do the moderating, I do hope there will be a spark for SOTM signatures.

[Bila]

Well all the contests in any forum that i participate have a "Rigged" aspect, just only forum that dont have but that a only design forum so ..., i remember that one of the ways that we found to get rid of that was simply getting the sigs by PM, then sorting them on Random.org and post then in the voting thead without the username, sometimes works, sometimes not.
But nways i always participate from a contest, being it rigged or not
God i dont know if i get the rigged term right, sorry if didnt

[Rennir]

Originally Posted by Bila

Well all the contests in any forum that i participate have a "Rigged" aspect, just only forum that dont have but that a only design forum so ..., i remember that one of the ways that we found to get rid of that was simply getting the sigs by PM, then sorting them on Random.org and post then in the voting thead without the username, sometimes works, sometimes not.
But nways i always participate from a contest, being it rigged or not
God i dont know if i get the rigged term right, sorry if didnt

Here we go again This has actually been discussed before if you look back in this thread. I think the consensus is that it would be too much trouble to do that since for each SOTM, artists usually post their work in the discussion/collaboration thread for C&C before submitting, much like how the banner contest is run. So if it's anonymous, we lose out on that opportunity, or Solace would have to post it in the discussion thread, and even then, you lose the direct interaction between someone giving C&C and the creator.

And even if you don't post names, you can tell by style, unless people go out of their way to make the entries different from their typical work.

[Tong]

Yes, the correct way is to ask for external and unbiased feedback.
AS would count too of course and as a safety measure, if a certain signature is seen more biased than the rest anywhere else, we should ban these AS users so they may not bias anymore.

...


I'm joking.

But yeah, maybe Graphic Designers should have the final saying or object to something not right. Sure, like pros.

[felix]

How to not be biased: everyone gets the same stock, everyone posts though pm; no text allowed. May the person who makes the best of it win. Honestly SotM has always been more biased towards people using just almost "pre-made" stuff then anything else. Look at my little signature pics, each one is made with the same exact method, saved under the exact same size, some just look better then others.

[ahelo]

What about having two winners. One by popularity (the voters and how SOTM is usually voted) and another by a panel of judges (like how the previous banner contest is voted). That way no one can say it was rigged and at the same time there's still a choice for you to vote.

[Dist]

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

^ I dunno, the main reason why I stopped submitting signatures for SOTM is that it's always the usual people who wins. And those "usual people" are the most active ones in making signatures.

i.e. The contest is too niche.

We need at least 30 participants so that things are more interesting. SOTM is boring if you end up competing against the same faces and there's no one else willing to join. Might as well leave this contest in indefinite hiatus while leaving the signature making to the rest of the forum.

Maybe you should just accept the fact that the '' usual '' people are also best at making signatures. Indeed, why bother making signatures so actively if they weren't any good? Their works are nice to look at ; Obviously they get votes. Make a good entry and you'll get votes. I did not vote for patchy each SOTM because I like Patchy's works in general, but because I liked the banners she made.

I really don't see what is '' rigged '' here. It just seems the people who don't get any votes are complaining because their signatures which aren't as good aren't doing well D:

Sorry if it sounds harsh but it's the truth ..